Five (EP)

Untitled

Five is the second mini-album by Japanese recording artist Ayumi Hamasaki. It was released on 31 August 2011, in three editions: CD+DVD, CD-Only and a limited CD-Only edition. A Blu-ray version of the mini-album was released on 9 November 2011. This was the world's first album to be released in Blu-ray. Five is her 18th album to top the Oricon charts, her first album to top the Oricon charts for two consecutive weeks since (Miss)Understood in 2006, and her first album to top the Oricon Monthly Chart since Next Level in 2009. The album has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan. But this is Hamasaki's first album to fail to be certified platinum since her career began.

Information

Five is Hamasaki's first mini-album since Memorial address, which was released in 2003. This is Hamasaki first album not to have any singles. Its five songs had commercial endorsements prior to the release of the album: "Progress" was used as theme song of the PlayStation 3 videogame Tales of Xillia; "Another Song" was used as theme song of the TV show SweetTV of channel BeeTV; "Why..." was used in TV commercials of Taiwan campaigns of travel agency H.I.S., as well as in commercials for RecoChoku; "Beloved" was used as the theme song of August of NTV show Sukkiri!!; and "Brillante" was used in TV commercials of Music.jp.

The limited edition of the CD includes an access card to download a character costume for the PlayStation 3 game Tales of Xillia. Also, first pressings of the CD+DVD edition included a serial number to access a special website broadcasting making-of material of Ayumi Hamasaki Countdown Live 2010-2011 A: Do It Again.

Many netizens have wondered why this mini-album was named Five, if it was just because the album has only 5 tracks. On the Sweet interview, Hamasaki hinted that there is a hidden word in the title of the mini-album,, 'H♡PE', which was figured out by her fans. They predicted that Five was released not only because it has 5 songs, it was also 5 months after the disastrous earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March. For the first time, Hamasaki undertook the artwork of the font design herself.

Tracklisting

All lyrics are written by Ayumi Hamasaki

CD

No.	Title	Music	Arranger(s)	Length
1.	"Progress"	Yuta Nakano	Yuta Nakano	5:06
2.	"Another Song" (featuring Naoya Urata)	Yuta Nakano	Yuta Nakano	5:21
3.	"Why..." (featuring Juno)	Kazuhiro Hara	Yuta Nakano	3:57
4.	"Beloved"	Yasuhiko Hoshino	Yuta Nakano	5:19
5.	"Brillante" (CD+DVD ver. includes hidden song "Why..." feat. Naoya Urata)	Timothy Wellard	Yuta Nakano	5:58/ 10:05 (CD+DVD)

CD Only Bonus Track

No.	Title	Music	Arranger(s)	Length
6.	"Beloved (Orchestra version)"	Yasuhiko Hoshino	Yuta Nakano	6:10

DVD

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Progress" (Video Clip)
2.	"Another Song" (featuring Naoya Urata) (Video Clip)
3.	"Why..." (featuring Juno) (Video Clip)
4.	"Beloved" (Video Clip)
5.	"Brillante" (Video Clip)
6.	"Progress" (Making Clip)
7.	"Another Song" (Making Clip)
8.	"Why..." (Making Clip)
9.	"Beloved" (Making Clip)
10.	"Brillante" (Making Clip)

Charts

Oricon Sales Chart (Japan)

Release	Chart	Peak position	First Week Sales	Sales total	Chart run
August 31, 2011	Oricon Daily Albums Chart	1	56,258
	Oricon Weekly Albums Chart	1	127,024	213,495	20 weeks
	Oricon Monthly Albums Chart	1	189,551
	Oricon Yearly Albums Chart	30	210,652

G-Music DVD Chart (Taiwan)

Release	Chart	Peak Position	Percentage Sales	Chart Run
September 2, 2011	Combo Chart	7	1.58%	2 Weeks
	Japanese Chart	2	17.73%	6 Weeks

Certifications

Country	Provider	Certification
Japan	RIAJ	Gold

External links

• Oricon Profile CD+DVD | CD-Only | CD-Only Limited Press