So, seems all next 51 lives of tour will be in halls or zepps without arenas.

Interesting. So part 2 is not the only one with halls? Strange.

I honestly don't get how any artist who is serious about their music would ever perform without a live band. What is the point of a LIVE concert if there is no live music? This is really disapointing. =(

This. Instead she should rid herself of those obnoxious dancers. Who seem to be the focal point of everything these days.

I agree. The band is more important than dancers. I'm not a big fan of dancers, acrobats and clowns.:rolleyes

I have to agree on that.

It is confirmed she's not using a live band for this chapter or just an speculation? I also wonder if after the third chapter there will be any kind of a big anniversary concert(s) in a dome or something. It'd be interesting.

Only recently did I think if Yocchan will ever leave and how that will be - and now it really happened? NOOOO! ToT And what's shocking is that it wasn't even announced beforehand.

The Just the beginning/"Is it an ending, is it a beginning" theme seemed a little frightening, but is this what she will be doing going forward? No band? No arenas? While I don't really care about the size of the avenues, no band at all would be shocking. I thought no band was only for the second chapter of the tour. Wasn't her first tour like that, Vol.1 without band and Vol.2 with?

Destroying what was to build something new - it's truely a very ayu thing to do. But isn't this a little overdoing it?
Well, I guess we have to wait and see what the future will bring.

It's confirmed for chapter 2 at least.

You're not there to watch and hear an orchestra and only the instrumentals. You're attending a singer concert, so the only thing that it needs to be live is the vocals. I understand that a live band gives a different feeling to the songs, but so it does recording the band prior to the concert and using it, instead of the original instrumentals of her songs.

I personally don't care about the band, as long as the stage is good enough and fresh enough, I will like it.

seriously...? honestly all these things happening didnt really build the hype for me for the 20th anniversary, it feels so different for sure from the 10th anniversary. Surely one of the reasons, Ayu isnt as active as her previous years.

Now with everything being reduced, I wonder if shes hinting us something? No budget? Dont know.

Waiting patiently for the next release and to see her direction afterwards...

I think she tries to save the budget for the third chapter. Don't worry, she can make a change of Yocchan who is just a part of her live. Ayu is still the soul of the live, isn't she?

Maybe she didn't know until now that Yochan is leaving? So she doesn't want to change him really fast, she wants the perfect one.

Honestly though, we also don't know how well (or not) the tickets are selling. This is a very different kind of tour for her, and if she's not selling out the halls, they may have had to really shake things up for chapter 2 to still be profitable. =\

If I'm going to a concert, I'm going to hear the music of the artist live, not just live vocals. The more live instruments, the better. There definitely is a difference regarding the sound with a live band and pre recorded tracks, it's not just the feeling. A concert without a live band simply is of less quality than one with. It's a shame Ayu seems to prefer being just a performer and is sacrificing (no pun intended) being an artist for it.

Now I know what "the sacrifice" means.

It's sad that Yocchan is leaving, but it's also natural... Her musicians and dancers are artists of their own and working for Ayu means spending lots of time on the artistic vision of other person.

About the band, I will wait until we see the actual concert before having an opinion about it...

That is really odd considering it looks like there will be a number of rock songs in the set. Size of the venue would have nothing to do with their being a band or not (I've seen lots of hall shows that had bands). Or maybe it could be to give her ears a little more of a break? Honestly, not having the live band, as much as I love them, might help her vocals. Her vocals these days are always best when the music is soft and she's not feeling like she needs to shout over the band. Getting rid of the band could be an effort to save both her ears and voice maybe.

I would much rather see her perform without dancers than without live band.

I wonder if the concert tickets aren't selling well. I don't know about Japan, but in my country if any well-known artist isn't filling the venues they discreetly give away a ton of tickets. Even I have received tickets to a ton of concerts I had no interest in, through my company.

Could it be that yochan left "because" ayu excluded the band from the tour. It does make sense if that's what happened.

^actually I thought the same

From her facebook post:
ちなみに第2章用の音源も、a-nation終わりで一座バンドメンバー集合してレコーディングしてくれたんだよ❤️楽しみにしててね！泣 けるぜっ！！
Translation: By the way, the music for chapter 2 was recorded by group of band members at a-nation end. It's gonna make you cry.

So this means instead of a live band present, fans are going to being hear a recording of the live band performance for Chapter 2 which will be emotional? (new arrangements possibly?)