Yes, her hearing has affected her live performances, but I think there's one other thing that could play a part in the less good lives.
Many artists today have trained their voices for many years and years. Ayu didn't.
She trained for about three months, and that is not enough to get full control over your voice and to really get to know it.
I don't think she ever got to learn how to get the full control over her own voice so the hearing problem could have hit her harder than it really should if she actually had the full controll over her voice.
But she is indeed a very good singer despite her very short training.
And I think everyone should remember that she isn't a professionally trained singer, and that she has a very serious hearing problem. But she is not giving up! How many singers and performers would have kept going? I don't think they would dare to risk their reputation, and Ayu is really putting all of herself into this know. It's all or nothing, and luckily she is still going strong!
And to her image, I think that she was experimenting a lot at the beginning of her career. And I think she has found who she really is, and I'm not seeing anything bad about it.
And she is famous for changing her image so it's maybe just a loong phase that she is going through and I wouldn't be surprised if she changed her image after the summer
