I just finished watching the main concert. Visually, it was something different, and, while it seemed a little more low-key than last year, was still nice.
Last Angel, Duty, is this LOVE? With the exception of the verses of Duty, the vocals weren't that great in this section. I had heard that she had difficulty with "Last Angel" on the 7 Days Final performances, so that wasn't surprising; the fact that the verses of "Duty" sounded better than the chorus is hardly surprising either - that's a hard song to sing because it jumps around so much. However, "is this LOVE?" was disappointing; I think those might have been some of the worst vocals she's had for that song. She was pretty consistently flat until the end.
Marionette, Free & Easy, Endless Sorrow Okay, I like Ayu doing the puppet-moves and all, but, this time, they seemed to be interfering with her vocals; she seemed to be jerking around too much. Otherwise, Marionette was nice. I really liked her dress.
I LOVED Free & Easy!!!
Not only were they my favorite vocals of the night (the softness of her voice on the last line was breathtaking!), but the visuals were wonderful! I loved that she was trapped to the pole (I like how they transitioned into that from Marionette) and Shuya freeing her at the end was actually very sweet. It was a nice happy ending to have instead of what happened in the PV. The whole performance was lovely.
In Endless Sorrow, she was a bit flat sometimes, but I liked her singing overall (ironically, I think she sang the best when she was spinning the most). More than that, though, she looked BEAUTIFUL! Visually, this was my favorite.
Ballad medley Also very beautiful, both vocally and visually. Someone else mentioned that they thought this section was a goodbye to Nagase, and I'd wondered that too when I first saw she was performing these songs. Whether that's true or not, this was a great set.
Humming, Bold and Delicious, Mirrorcle World Parts of Bold and Delicious were REALLY flat, especially when she went on vocal runs or had to hold a note for a really long time. Other parts of the song were good and the whole set was fun. I liked her costume/hair much much better in motion than in the photos.
SEVEN DAYS WAR, evolution, Boys and Girls, Dream on Fun, but probably my least favorite part of the concert. Not that it was bad, but I've seen evolution and Boys and Girls soooo many other times, and nothing new was done here (though Ayu in the air during B&G was cool). Plus, I was just getting tired by this time. Dream on was a nice surprise (or it would have been, had I not read the setlist already lol). Naoya has a nice singing voice.
Overall, I really enjoyed this CDL. It was nice to see some of my favorites performed (I kind of wish I hadn't looked at the setlist beforehand hearing the intros to songs like Free & Easy and Endless Sorrow would have been magnificent surprises) and I liked the different stage. I can't really compare this year's and last year's yet, because I only saw the DVD version of Future Classics and I know that the experience of a DVD version is quite different from the TV version. All I know for sure is this year's CDL was another solid one for me.