Hah, absolutely - but something in my memory just can't associate that commercial with Trauma!

I've watched:

- CDL 00-01
- CDL 04-05
- CDL 05-06
- CDL 07-08
- PCDL 08-09
- AT 2009 ~NEXT LEVEL~
- CDL 09-10 ~Future Classics~
- Rock'n'Roll Circus Tour FINAL
- CDL 10-11 ~do it again~
- PREMIUM SHOWCASE ~Feel the Love~
- AT 2015 Cirque de Minuit
(And also an illegal upload of TA Live Tour 2015 :P)

All I can say is... god, Ayu is such an amazing performer: so charismatic, intense, energetic. I mean, I've known that before, but I haven't had such a good reminder in a long while. I hope these uploads have given many others a similar reminder.

Miscellaneous thoughts: I really love Ayu's talks and interaction with her band in the older concerts (even though I don't understand a large part of it); makes me extra sad that the band hasn't been present in some of the more recent tours. Does she still do the thing where, at the end, she hushes the audience and shouts a final thank you without a microphone? I love that too. Also, I've fallen in love with MY ALL; the melody is so sweet, and having watched many performances, the song's sentiment seems really strong and sincere.

My favourites from this bunch: PCDL 08-09, CDL 09-10 ~Future Classics~, PREMIUM SHOWCASE ~Feel the Love~ (and TA Live Tour 2015!). Rock'n'Roll Circus and Cirque de Minuit are also good, certainly, but the length is a bit much for me.

I agree with you, I watched them all and she is an incredible artist like she really is !! She has such a singularity in the way she interacts with her environment. She is neither the best singer nor the best dancer but she has this incomparable ease on stage which makes the difference with others. Her body language and charisma really struck me.
From a personal point of view, she can really be proud of herself because the quality of her concerts has not diminished at all as many people tend to say.

Another thing I wonder is what inspired her as an performer? Until 2002/2003, she was "just" herself on stage with her charisma and mannerisms but from AT 2005 (AT 2004 was like the prototype) and so on she really became the performer that we know today with all this theatrical aspect, the way she moves on stage, how she expresses her emotions etc ... etc.

I have to really salute her for doing the rope/silk stuff. Having the dancers doing it while she stood in a gown doing a ballad was becoming a bit of an eye roll but she really stepped it for the GAME performance from AT15 and Kanariya from CDL17-18.

These guys are such a tbt — I hope they redo some older videos as the quality is so low in the uploads from 11 years ago

Those Ayu album cover edits are hilarious, much appreciate them being shared here!

For anyone in lockdown passing the time listening to ayu songs I would recommend skipping Heartplace. "We are free to go anywhere we want" hits different now :laugh:laugh:laugh

I know she gets inspired by shows and musicals when she visits Las Vegas and New York City

I've been watching all the tours on YouTube at the same time it's streaming and is hilarious to watch with comments. Everybody is in such a good and funny mood. Making fun of some parts of the concerts but in a way that onlya real fan could do, you know what I mean? lol Also I found out that japanese fans give nicknames (actually abbreviations) to the songs. It's a really common thing in Japan tho, they like abbreviating anything. Like they call Mirrorcle World "Mirawa", MY STORY is "Maisuto". lol They also call Ayu "oHama" (o is a respectful/cute prefix that people use before nouns and Hama is Hamasaki, of course). Love.

Ah yes, boys & girls is boiga, evolution is ebo, loveppears is rabupi, miss understood is misuan, etc etc. lol

It's pretty common for anything in Japan which if you're not used to it, it's like what is this? Lots of long or semilong titles get shortened heavily (Oreimo for example was 'Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai' but even shorter things like Ayu's titles get it. I feel like it's just easier to type in BBSes or chats, lol.

Thanks for this lovely reply :)

this will forever be the strangest quote for me. it just doesn't make any sense (everybody has dreams, come in now) and if somebody says "I AM a dream" that just makes you seem so full of yourself, no?

I guess it just comes down to translation, or what was meant by the question. I think the real question is: what are your dreams (as in "ambitions")
and the answer: "I don't have any further ambitions, I am living the dream" meaning I will continue my work as I did until now.
(I have already reached the top, the only thing I have to do now is maintain my status.)

just rambling my thoughts. this was one of the very first interviews I read from ayu and was like ...huh?

She really separated "Ayumi Hamasaki" and "Ayu" for those early years of her career so I kind of see that answer as being about "Ayumi Hamasaki" and how that product was sort of dream-like.

Ayumi Hamasaki is the dream, in the sense that she had a very dream-like presence and aesthetic (until Love again maybe). She was/is a dream in the sense that the popstar Ayumi Hamasaki is unreal, a projection of what the public needed or wanted from her. Ayu, the person, for sure has dreams. But Ayu, the popstar, a collective dream. And a neverending one, as here body of work will outlive her (the crossroad PV).

^
^I can agree with that.

it's really hard imagining that she saw (or maybe still sees?) ayumi hamasaki as a product. And also talking about herself in that way. Like she is an inanimate object/product that just has to function.

makes sense when you consider her working herself to the bone with the workload she managed to get done back in the day (on hardly any sleep she said in an interview).

There really is no business like showbusiness.

Just watching CDL 09/10 and I Am is hitting me all over again! What.A.Song! I love how it's mixed in with the acoustic orchestra remix too. Wish there was an official version of this.

Watching all these concerts makes me miss her band even more.

I wonder what the shortened version for doushite kimi wo suki ni natte shimattandarou is

Do you have spring playlists?

Here is mine
1 Endless sorrow "Original Mix"
2 Replace
3 RAINBOW
4 Hana
5 YOU (10th Anniversary Version)
6 NEXT LEVEL
7 Moments
8 SAKURA
9 Trust
10 HONEY
11 Beautiful Day
12 Depend on you (10th Anniversary version)
13 immature
14 vogue
15 Will
16 winding road

I'm feeling kinda lost now, has CDL 15-16 had an official release?