[Raleigh]

I finally got down to watch the tour. It's a bit different from her past tours... The costumes are a bit tacky/over the top. But I was aware of that when I saw the photos. I'm guessing Ayu was put on a tight budget and they recycled a lot of her stuff.

Also is it just me, but they tried to fill in with dancers and it didn't exactly make sense. At least for once her band was acting like actually her band and being in the background. Like in Hope or Pain... and Days the whole overacting thing. And Ayu pretending to cry in all her ballads were like watching an episode of the Bold and the Beautiful. Seemed way over the top. I think it would've been just fine with her simply performing. Also the Shuya/Ayu moments... were cringe worthy as usual. The only impressive thing was the whole ribbon thing... which is admittedly really good.

What really really impressed me is the chemistry between her and Maro (I think?). He's quite good compared to Shuya and he looks way hotter. It's a shame they coupled him with another dancer rather than Ayu. I also liked how she looked like she was having fun performing rather than mechanically singing to get over with it. You can see her jump and pounce around like a kid, which was actually fun. She seems to be reviving some classics, like Signal which are excellent concert songs. Most of the songs sounded relatively good, though nothing spectacular.

I think that with more time for Ayu to prepare her concert, (especially to practice her choreography) it would've been much much better. Echoing many users, I'd say Ayu needs a real choreographer like the TRF girls.

Overall, it was an okay tour though definitely a downgrade from her previous stuff but certain things have improved from her past concerts. Her dancers seemed all over the place to fill in the gaps but at least her backing singers weren't. Also her outfits were sometimes too tacky to ignore but Ayu still managed to look gorgeous as always. At least she looked like she was having fun and despite all the flaws, Ayu can hold an audience hooked with her charisma. Also the screens and the stage were as fantastic as ever.