Thoughts on a-nation '09

[truehappiness]

It was fantastic! The Rule performance imo was probably the best of the night, but the Sunrise one was pretty fun.

My feelings towards the live:


I love how the camera just stayed on her, hahahahaha.

[Tasked]

Sunrise was suprisingly popular.. Everyone was twirling their towels in the air. Seeing as A-Nation last almost 2 hours, and Ayu appears after 1 hour and about 6 minutes; she practically owns A-Nation.. And all of her performances are far more outstanding than any of the other acts. She's still the absolute empress, isn't she?

[CeReSu]

I'm very surprising. This a-nation was really good for Ayu.
Vocal was awesome. Ayu had a good (a very very good) energy, perfect!

[noidea]

I didn't really like the artists on stage before Ayu, so I fastforwarded to her.
Rule: Great, but the beginning was a bit weak(compared to that lightfest in AT09), but overall great performance, she should only have choosen a better outfit, this one definitly belongs to her worst and that hair...let me quote Andrenekoi: "Peco cosplay"
A Song for XX: weaker than the 2008 performances, but still very nice
BLUE BIRD: Love it!
Sunset - LOVE is ALL -: I surprisingly liked the song!
TO BE: I have a new song I liiiike. But Shuya was just as annoying as always
Boys & Girls: It was fun, like usual, the new car is better, but that ugly cap ayu wore...
Sunrise: I don't like the song, but it was pretty good live, because you were able to see how much fun that was for Ayu, the dancers, the band and the audience
July 1st: Never quite liked that song, but it was okay

[zyoeru]

I think most of the artists before Ayu weren't my style, I enjoyed AAA, and Ai Otsuka, also I kind of enjoyed GIRL NEXT DOOR, I thought that Tohoshinki were as annoying as ever, but Survivor was okay.
Kumi was okay too, I don't like ecstasy though. I would have preferred 走れ！.

Now, Ayu was amazing.

Rule was dramatic as ever, and her vocals sounded damn good imo. I loved the smoke near the end.
ASFXX was pretty powerful, but not as good as last year's perf of it.
BLUE BIRD was surprisingly well sung!
Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~ definitely didn't disappoint!
TO BE had very good vocals, but shu-ya was unnecessary.
Boys & Girls was excellent, she didn't shout it and that was nice! Pumped me right up after the ballads!
Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~ was FANTASTIC! Got me wanting to sing and dance along to it, her vocals were better than any of the TV performances.
Lastly July 1st was also nice, but made me kinda sad cuz it was the ending song!

[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.

[noidea]

^ I got the same expression playbackwise, I'm haoppy she sang live all the time in this a-nation, a thing IMO she hasn't done for years!

[Lanz16]

This is my first time to watch her LIVE performance on A-NATION and I would say its awesome. (even there's a choppy streaming on some performances)


And also this is my first time to hear TO BE.
The last 3 tracks are my fave performances.
TO BE is really great but when Shu-ya appears,

[miroro]

i loved all the perfomances!!
Rule: awesome! so agressive and she sung great!!
ASFXX: i liked it, but it was just like last year perfomance
Blue Bird: The dance was so pretty! everybody was smiling and i really liked it!
sunset: I love this song, and the perfomance was great
TO BE: No words, i almost cried! I truly love this song!
B&G: Everybody was screaming and jumping! so energetic
Sunrise: the tohoshinki towel kill me! OHmygawd, ayu was so cute!!
July 1st: Beautiful, no more words!!

i lol so hard when ayu did this

[Lanz16]

^ yup!
I love that part too

[Yoake]

Ayu was so perfect. Sunset make me thrill. And God, I love how she take Tohoshinki towel to sing sunrise. The float was so exceptionnal too. I think it's the best a-nation since 2005

[aloopy]

surprisingly, i really enjoyed it.

rule, asfxx & blue bird were just alright.
but i really liked sunset & to be!
and i really enjoyed sunrise even though i hate the song. rest of encore was cute too!
vocals were good as well

too bad most of her outfits sucked (except for the encore one), and shu-ya needs to gtfo! omg. i hate it when she's "reaching out" to him

but other than that i can't complain

[Andrenekoi]

The outfirst are a lot better on video

[kotora]

guys, I lol'd so hard those gifs you made.

I think I don't need to download the video and already know what I should watch in the video.

[Polyrhythm]

Rule awesome. A Song for XX...awesome as usual but nothing beats AT08 in the rain!

[Raiu-Ayu]

ohh i loved a-nation this year the whole thing was awesome

Rule
OMG!!! THIS IS ******ING AMAZING!!!! I hope the the tour sounds as amazing as this And the red outfit looks a lot better than it did in the stills. And that big 'yeh yeh' at the end!!!!! WAH!!!!

A Song for XX
As awesome as ever Still love this song ^_^ I dont think I'll ever get tired of it

BLUE BIRD
I wasn't so happy when I saw this in the set list but it was a good way to bridge the gap between the big songs like Rule and A Song for XX into Sunrise and TO BE

Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~
A little dull but still really nice

TO BE
YAY!! LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Boys & Girls
Yeah it is getting a little bit repetitive but it still gets me excited every time lol and i always sing along But damn she dragged out the middle but this time ¬_¬

Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~
It sounds really awesome live with the band ^_^ Makes it more powerful And I loved it when ayu pulled out the Tohoshinki towel lol

July 1st
This song gets on my nerves. I dont like it. No.

[maxikot]

Wow ^^ I think that describes this year's a-nation the best. I have watched just Ayu part so far. And really vocally she does great job. She sings way better then year or 2 years ago. And ah...her energy is simply stunning. So many positive aspects of her performances and during Sunrise i was extremely jealous of all those people in the audience to be there with them.... She was so so positive and it's her best a-nation since 2005 I think. Good for her.

[love in music]

first of all, i must say that the crowd was amazing, they seemed so much more into ayu's performances this year than last year. but i can't blame them, her performances were all great.

Rule - OMFG i loved it. the intro was awesome and my heart skipped a few beats and i was just staring at it like how ayu looked at that one actor on HEYHEYHEY LOL. i loved her voice and just everything about it was awesome

ASFXX - i loved this too, and i actually think her vocals were better than last years, but the performance wasn't as visually pleasing as last years. still, a really good performance

BLUE BIRD - i hate that dress, and it looked like there were over 30 dancers (ok not really, but a LOT) on stage for some reason.. way too many. but i thought she sang it well

Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ - she sounded like she was going to cry but it was a really good performance

TO BE - i LOVE this song. you can tell it's hard for her to hit the high notes but i still really liked the way she sang it. also, she looked gorgeous in that dress. and yeah, shuya needs to gtfo. i'm just glad he wasn't dancing throughout the whole thing like he did with HANABI last year. it was just ayu most of the time, and i loved that. i think there was a shuya dance solo at the end but i skipped over that lol.

Boys&Girls - so much energy omg, the crowd was really into this, as usual. ayu was adorable, i loved the boat thing too.

Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~ - LOL she was so cute with the tohoshinki towel. this is totally a crowd song! everyone was having soo much fun omg. i wish i was there. lol @ all the fans going crazy when she walks out near them

July 1st - i love her ending the show with this song. it's classic. she was adorable. i lol'd so hard at gomi shaking his butt by yo-chan

yet again ayu owned a-nation this year. her hairstyles and that BLUE BIRD outfit were pretty bad, but she still worked it. i also think her vocals have improved quite a bit, and i was entertained throughout her whole section. when i watched a few performances by other artists i couldn't wait for them to end. A+ for you, ayu.

[Crystal_Ageha]

Like I said in the other thread, I think everything was very good! Great vocals, good choice of songs, awesome outfits... Well, as far as Ayu goes, that is. I still need to see the other performances! :O

And lol at the your GIF, truehappiness.

[tasking]

Rule - THAT was awesome. But then ayu, Peco and Princess did their whole intro to ASFXX and were totally off key, same for the outro when Yo-chan has his solo while ayu's getting changed. Her outfit fit Rule, but not ASFXX, and her hair was all messy like the Rule/Sparkle cover. Worst of all, it wasn't raining this year.

More when I finish.