Thoughts on a-nation '09

[SunshineSlayer]

I must say that I quite enjoyed this A-Nation.(maybe because I had low expectations this time?) Much better than last year I think where the only performance that really stood out to me was A Song For Xx.

One of the most positive things was that the whole thing was definitely live, nothing that I could even question really. However, it seems that Avex did heavily enhance the vocals of everyone. Everybody sounded about a million times better than in any clip that we heard. Despite that, Ayumi's vocals still often were not in the great category (at least not A-Nation 05 type of great), but they weren't bad either. There were many times when she fell into her habit of talking/singing instead of just singing, but overall she was better than she has sounded in her tv performances this year, so that is good.

In particular I was really impressed by the To Be performance. Yes she really had to shout those notes out, but she got through it very well. I also loved the Sunrise performance just for the energy factor alone.

I have two small criticisms though. One is that I wish A Song For Xx was not so similar to how she performed it last year. I've already said that I don't really like it when rock songs like A Song For Xx are actually choreographed. And the other is the "oh I think I'm going to cry" moments in To Be and Sunset. I would much rather see real emotion than over dramatized "Oh no Shuya is leaving me again!" emotion.