(Miss)understood

(Miss)understood (stylized in all lowercase) is the seventh studio album by Japanese singer-songwriter Ayumi Hamasaki. It was released on New Year's Day 2006, by Avex Trax. Hamasaki acted as the album's sole lyricist, as she had on all of her preceding albums. (Miss)understood marked new musical directions for Hamasaki: she explored new influences such as funk and used gospel choruses in some of the songs, foreign to her previous works. This was the result of her having heard compositions by Geo from the German-based pop music project Sweetbox and asking him for his works. Subsequently, Hamasaki rewrote the lyrics entirely to fit (Miss)understood.

Lyrically, the album was a departure from her previous work, My Story, which had been primarily autobiographical. Where My Story had contained "musings about her past", Hamasaki wanted the lyricism on (Miss)understood to send a strong message to all women—to be a kind of "girls' talk" to give "moral support", while at the same time reminding women that there were times when they would feel weak and low. These themes, along with the album's funk influences, are epitomized on songs such as "Bold & Delicious" and "Ladies Night."

Upon its release, (Miss)understood received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who directed most of the acclaim towards its sonic quality and named it one of the best albums in Hamasaki's career. (Miss)understood was a commercial success, opening at number one in Japan (her seventh consecutive studio album to do so) with first-week sales of over 653,000 copies. It went on to receive a Million certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) and became the eighth best-selling album of 2006 in Japan. It is, to date, her last Million-certified album. According to Avex, it is also her first album to fail to hit over a million sales in Japan.

To promote the album, Hamasaki released four singles. "Step You" and "Is This Love?" were packaged together as a double A-side single and as the album's lead single on April 20, 2005; it was a commercial success, peaking at number one on the Oricon Singles Chart and was certified platinum by the RIAJ. The album's second single, "Fairyland," was a commercial success; also peaking at number one on the Oricon Singles Chart and being certified platinum. The third single, "Heaven", experienced similar success: it reached number one, and was certified platinum. "Bold & Delicious" and "Pride" were packaged together as the album's second and last double A-side single and was not as successful. Despite reaching number one, it became her poorest-selling single at the time since 1998's "Depend on You." Hamasaki promoted (Miss)understood by embarking on the Ayumi Hamasaki Arena Tour 2006 A arena tour.