Dis Cover: Koda Kumi - Live in Metaverse ~The Best~

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A screenshot of Photoshop, displaying multiple windows. One of which features the album art for the 3CD + Blu-Ray edition cover art for Koda Kumi’s Live in Metaverse ~The Best~. And another which features the 2CD + DVD edition cover art.

Koda Kumi is releasing a Best album titled Live in Metaverse, and the album covers are kinda what you’d expect from a Kumi album with this title.

One of the cool things about Japanese releases — and especially those from the queen of multiple SKUs that is Kumi — we get different album covers for different editions. And Live in Metaverse has three of ‘em.

The 3CD + Blu-Ray edition cover art for Koda Kumi’s Live in Metaverse ~The Best~. Featuring a close-up shot of Kumi’s face, which features blue and pink cybernetics.
Koda Kumi - Live in Metaverse [3CD + Blu-Ray] | Avex Music Creative Inc.

The 2CD + DVD edition cover art for Koda Kumi’s Live in Metaverse ~The Best~. Featuring a shot of Kumi posing in a crouch, wearing a black black fur hoodie and a bodysuit, with silver adornments in her hair.
Koda Kumi - Live in Metaverse [2CD + DVD] | Avex Music Creative Inc.

The 2CD + Blu-Ray edition cover art for Koda Kumi’s Live in Metaverse ~The Best~. Featuring a shot of Kumi wearing a white latex dress and a metallic headpiece consisting of spikes, as she holds a vintage microphone.
Koda Kumi - Live in Metaverse [2CD + Blu-Ray] | Avex Music Creative Inc.

These album covers are year 2000 as hell. There were so many single and album covers in the very early 2000s with this type of aesthetic — it was a go-to for anything futuristic at the turn of the millennium. And this was a theme in pretty much every music market, with Japan being no exception. Them green screens were working overtime for those music videos.

But overall, I don’t like these album covers, because they feel lazy and outdated. This whole vibe still being used in 2025 to depict the digital future!? It’s tired. And it would be different if the intent was for this to look outdated, but I don’t think it was, given the taste level of Kumi and her team. I genuinely believe they thought this shit was fire.

There are so many other directions that Kumi and her creative team could have gone in. They could’ve recreated Kumi’s classic Best ~Second Session~ album cover again, but had the kitchen be all white and high tech, with Kumi holding the OG Sony Aibo. Or have the kitchen look like it’s glitching or partially wireframed. This would’ve not only been on brand for her and had a visual connection to Kumi’s previous Best albums, but the ‘We are doing a 2000s aesthetic’ would have felt far more like an intentional creative choice than seems to be the case with these covers.

💿 Kumi album reviews: Affection | Secret | Grow Into One | Feel My Mind | Black Cherry | Trick | Kingdom | Universe | Eternity ~Love & Songs~ | Dejavu | Japonesque | Color the Cover | Bon Voyage | Walk Of My Life | W Face | AND | DNA | re(CORD) | angeL + monsteR [My Name Is...] | Heart