the stage for this live is wow.

Wait... did she exhibit the Satanic signs for a while when she signs TO BE.??????

I check japanese tweets and people, not even ayufans, seems be pleased with aeternal and Ayu tonight, it's rare! :D

thank you for the links! indeed, she looks and sounds so beautiful :luv2

I really enjoyed the performances aeternal especially (the verse first <3). Getting Summer Diary vibes from that song.

Her vocals in ASFXX from 2004 were great!

To Be was a bit shouty but I love that song so glad she performed it.

Thanks for the streaming links !!! :)

Overall, great job Ayu! I think it would be interesting to see TO BE get a new arrangement. Listening to her vocal performance, in addition to just struggling with songs that are higher pitched, I think towards the end she really wants to make it a rock song. So instead of being this nostalgic, sad song - I think she should go for a more aggressive arrangement, like A Song for XX from A Ballads. I think that could really make it interesting for her!

She looked fantastic, and I thought she carried herself really well during the talk parts, which have been hit or miss in recent years. Very happy with this!

Very very pleasant to see Ayu perform these three songs and she was an absolute delight to watch during the interview section. I have to agree with someone stating she's gotten a bit used to lives lately, meaning she didn't adapt to the TV like looking into cameras and such. But other than that she did really great. :yes:luv2

æternal was awesome <3
only thing that bothers me are her shoes, they are so out of place, I love barefoot Ayu <3

^ I loved her shoes! But also barefoot Ayu ♥

She was explaining the meaning behind æ of æternal, right? What did she say about it?

Yeah, it was a bit strange at times. Especially in TO BE, she was basically singing the chorus to her background singers, not the camera, lmao.
But else this was her best TV live in years!

I read few comments in Ayutube : https://www.facebook.com/ayutube0408/
Ayu sings aeternal because of Nagase-san. Is this true???

Holy shit, I loved this so much! Actually makes me want to listen to aeternal

Some people around here believe so

sis sounded so good! omg. TO BE was shouty but I enjoyed it anyway. also the talk seemed kinda fun.

This was way better than I was expecting. I enjoyed her singing a lot, especially in tracks like Voyage and TO BE (I was afraid for the chorus, but it was good). She was really glowing during Voyage. I also liked the setting and the lights, not over the top. Aeternal also sounded nice, the arrangement seemed more lively.

I can't believe how good voyage was... I'm amazed. It was perfect. Aeternal was also well performed and to be too, but voyage was simply amazing.

This was very good, I really enjoyed it! TO BE was pretty good and she did great on Voyage. As I suspected I like æternal much more live. Does anyone know what she says when they ask her about æternal?

During the introduction to æternal she explained why is called æternal insted of eternal. If I understood correctly she said: "Normally æternal in english would be written "eternal", but I chose to write it with the latin letter "æ" that looks like two "e" joint together back to back so it'is "æternal starting with æ". The reason is in the song."

I had the feeling se was putting the focus on "eternal starting with æ".

Two letters put back to back in a mirrored position... the tracklist mirrored for Jacket A and B... the "Double Trouble" theme... playing around the "W" letter... I don't know how to explain it. I see a pattern here but I feel I can't really grasp its real meaning yet.

^Thanks for explaining! Wow, I didn't even realize it looked like two e's, only the first one is upside down.

Thanks! That's really interesting, it also never occurred to me that when writing a like that, it's like an upside-down e. There's definitely a 'double' theme with this album, I just wish it was more developed.

Great TV appearance but during some songs it seemed like she was looking at the chorus WAY too much, lol. Looking at the camera doesn't seem to be a thing she does on MUSIC FAIR judging from other performances but she kinda turned her back to the camera more than she should have.

thank you so much for explaining this much-needed context!

So true, as somebody else pointed this too, this is the first thing that I realized during To Be, lol, eh Ayu you are giving much attention to the backup singers haha or like she keeps looking at them as if she does so she can do better in reaching her notes. Wish she would loot at the camera more

Other than that, so happy for the interview part because shes acting all normal and it is rare nowadays to see that happened on a tv appreance lol

wonderful performances, her vocals have been so stable and on point. Good Job ayu!!

there's such a noticeable difference in her confidence when she's singing aeternal vs. TO BE.

TO BE is a song that is in desperate need of a rearrangement if she's going to continue singing it. for fuck's sake, she pretty much sang it with the original studio arrangement, of course she's going to be self-conscious about her changed vocal tone.

That is the AHS conspiracy theory. It is a secret. shhhhhh..

Thanks for the info! That's really interesting. Sounds like she really put a lot of thought into this song.

I liked the performances except for when she was looking at her background singers but I just assumed she was nervous and since they're like her family it helped her get through it. Vocally she wasn't too bad, she screamed here and there but that's to be expected now. The æternal performance was my favorite, beautifully performed. Also beautiful camera work throughout all of the performances. She looked so angelic.

æternal sounded great. Now I like this song even more.

æternal was absolutely beautiful. Ayu has to pull a Namie and let go of her older hits for a moment. Her vocal abilities and the person she is now are oh so different from before. Such beauty.

The music fair performances were wonderful. She looked absolutely radiant and sounded great.:heart
TO BE was the weakest performance of the bunch but it was still an improvement and was actually all around decent. I do agree that a new arrangement that is more complimenting to Ayu's current vocals would make a big difference. Voyage was my favorite out of all of them. I think Ayu felt good about her Voyage performance too. She seemed happy when she finished. aeternal sounded much better live. This live has helped me get a little more appreciation for this song. The recorded version sounds cheap and lifeless to me production wise. Ayu brought the song to life here and it feels a lot better.
I also enjoyed seeing the old performances in clear quality. Is this the highest quality they have been shown in? Or we already had HD versions of these broadcasts?

We got the HD version for M and Evolution but not for ASFXX, they didnt record it in HD

I really enjoyed her TV performance! She looks absolutely angelic and she sounds good! I am happy that she found the time to focus on her vocals, or finding the correct tone despite her condition. It doesn't bother me that she looks a lot to her backup singers; when they help, they help. She really delivered. I skipped the interview because I didn't understand that. If anyone finds time to translate it, then you are an angel! She came over as very polite and I guess her answers were more well thought? That sounds weird coming from someone who doesn't know Japanese, but in most interviews Ayu came over to me as if she was really trying hard for giving the right answers. Lots of uuuuhhhhs or starings at the ceiling...

But overall WOW she did it. I showed the performance to my boyfriend. I haven't shown a performance to anyone in years, because of her vocals. So, for me, this was amazing, great and such a great special for her 20th anniversairy!

Wonder why Yo-chan didn't attend

The latin character is actually a set of joined 'a' and 'e' characters. But I won't let that spoil her story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86

I was expecting another vocal disaster but she blew me away. She almost sounds perfect in voyage, and I don't mind a few miss spot in TO BE as well. She sounds to be harsh in aeternal though, which I think is the only thing worth to be mentioned, but other than than it is well done.

I really enjoyed æternal, she sounded similar to the studio version.

He was there with blonde hair?

What a nice appearance. :)

Nope, the blond guy playing the guitar wasn't Yo-chan :(

Oh, wait. Checking back to the interview I got confused by the different pronunciation of vowels in japanese/italian and english. In japanese they use the english pronunciation only when they pronunciate the vowel alone (so for exemple "A" in japanese is pronunciated like in Ayumi, and not like the english "air", but they us the english pronunciation to say "A", outside of a word), because of that I got confused. I'm really sorry to misleading everyone. I will be more careful next time.

Checking better she said that usually eternal in english starts with the letter E but the latin character looks like two "A" back to back. That makes more sense. If the title means the eternal life of two "A" back to back, maybe æternal is about Ayu-chan (the diva) and Ayumi Hamasaki (the person). Maybe the person she is longing in the songs is not a lover but her past self, her trueself, the person behind the diva.

That would explain the two different tracklist orders as well:
JACKET A - Fierce Ayu on the cover introduces the listener to the tracklist starting with We are the QUEENS to end with The way I am. Ayu introducing herself like the fierce queen, during the æternal and W there is this strong theme of double Ayu, to end with "the way she is".
JACKET B - Easygoing and happy Ayu on the cover introduces Ayu to the listener directly starting from the way she is. The album continues playing around the double theme again to introduce Queen Ayu in the end.

Ayu the diva and Ayu the person are both two important parts of Ayu. Both are the beginning and the ending of her full identity.

If all of this is true, I'm still not sure why she chose Trouble as album title.

It was just random dudes miming to pre-recorded music like usual. He probably felt he had better things to do that day.

*edit*
Correction - it was the same collection of stand-ins she uses at the TV performances to mime to the music. I'm guessing Yo-chan now has his replacement for these as well.

I thought she did excellent on all the songs, including To Be. Hope she can keep this up!

About the æternal thing:

I don't know what she said in MUSIC FAIR, but the "æ" is "a" and "e" together, but at the same time are two "e"s glued, one of them flipped upside down, inverted, just like the different track list orders.

I think the double reading through different track lists shows how she deals with the same problem (her deafness, her trouble) in different perspectives.

She said something along the lines of “a” (Ayu) is turning it’s back to “eternal”

And that the trick/answer is in the lyrics.

So, she doesn’t need someone for eternity. “Someone” being the subject of the song’s lyrics. (Or what many are saying is Nagase.)

“Need” might be the wrong word. But that’s the gist I got from it.

But basically, it was great, but it’s now a memory.

Here is a link to a twitter thread, this guy is doing an amazing job translating more interesting parts of the interview (and many other things).
https://twitter.com/ayutranslations/...53699161817088

^ I'm so glad they translated those parts, I always like reading about her interviews. Now I'm imagining rice farmer Ayu XD

Thanks for the link!
I see that he posted something about Koda Kumi talking about Ayu on a TV show (he doesn't know which one though), sounds interesting.

Wow, thanks for letting us know - this is a great Twitter account! Definitely going to start following it.

That sounds great.

"When it's just her and the camera, she can get anxious."

That explains a lot about the performance, tbh.

^ Yes, I find this part very explanatory as well. It goes well with Ayu as the artist that is born for stage with real audience, people empower her.

I agree! I wasn't expecting too much but it was a pleasant surprise to listen to her voice, she has improved so much! Oh, and I love your hitomi avatar. :love

didnt really read the other comments but i wanna jump in here saying she sounded amazing.
amazing!!!!! voyage was so perfect and finally so... "effortless" like in the old days.
I am very impressed and so so happy I actually shed a tear of two.
Hope she can keep this up. I knew she still got it in her!

edit: also the way she smiles at the end when finishing the song is so honest and sweet.
It gives me the feeling as if she's thinking she did it good after a long time struggling.
Maybe it's just me tho.

Which is odd because she didn't seem to have a problem with it at all when she was younger.

They mistranslated that pretty badly, actually. lol. She didn't say anything about rice farming. She said she wanted to become Tamori-san, as in the host of Music Station. She kind of didn't understand the question completely and gave an unrelated answer, lol

It’s been years since she’s been on tv. She’ll need time to get used to it.

In later tweets it was corrected.

She's been on TV several times this year, last year etc. Of course not as much as she used to in her heyday though. It's obvious that she is less confident about being able to give a good performance on live TV these days as compared to then. I think that's the difference, not the number of times she is on TV cause you would think after what are probably hundreds of tv lives, you'd be used to it. :)

Yeah I think she is pretty aware that her voice is damaged/she struggles to sing very well live. And she understands the criticism she gets for it.

So it seems like she gets genuinely happy sometimes when she can pull it off. And so it's also not too surprising hearing that she gets anxious without the fans there. It seems to relate to her looking at the background singers as well.

I just watched the show and she looked incredibly pretty! :heart didn't understand much of the interview, but the way she communicates and behaves is so elegant. <3 She sang pretty well overall, I thought there was a bit too much shouting in TO BE but definitely better than her last performance on Music Station.