I vaguely remember this drama about her staff pointing out to her that her fandom was annoyed about her being "fat" during 2017 or 2018, when that unflattering pictures of Jtb were floating around.

There was also this drama during a-nation 2011 or 2012 about they axing Juno from her performance when they were aproving her setlist.

^ I remember she kinda apologized (or had to explain herself) for looking bloated in LINE LIVE. But how is it connected with yes men?

^If her staff is warning her she is being seen as fat or whatever her fandom is complaining about and if the label is axing her projects, she is not surrounded by yes men. Those would hold the information and make their best so it didn't reach her and do whatever she wished. Avex most likely aproved every single released people around here complains about, considering they didn't let her release several other things.

I'm also pretty sure she is well aware about the quality of her singing.

So I've watched the show and I was overall pretty happy. There were some new ideas and it showed Ayu is still capable of putting on a proper show. Ayu also looked like she was really enjoying herself and loved being there which made me enjoy watching it more.

Vocally, obviously it wasn't great. But it sounded more like she had worn her voice out than her just not being able to sing well.

I've gotten used to not being wowed by tours over the last few years with the odd tour surprise like cirque de minuit but I did enjoy this one. Bit annoyed Pride was cut though!

Watched the full show last night, I think the show is great, proved arena is where Ayu belongs, not hall...kind of explained why I don't like watching her hall tour, cause Grand is more her style. I like the new scene like the new BRILLANTE, dance medley. The costumes is also good this time, although I wish she kept the VERSACE for duty+Microphone.

So sad to hear her voice is damaged like that, otherwise, it's a perfect show. On the other hand, I think the chorus should give more support like singing the high pitch of Sparkle chorus and let her sing the low pitch part. She just doesn't need to sing every word, dance medley should be a good time for her vocal to take some rest, I don't mind if she uses auto-tune for that, its normal for dance / electric music.

Anyway, if AVEX release it with edited vocal, I will definitely buy it! Thank you Ayu for still trying hard to put on a great show!!

What did she originally wear for EnergizE and STEP you?

^Schoolgirl outfit I believe

Cheerleader/school girl outfit w/ Pom poms.

where can i see those pictures? describing ayu as fat is absolutely ridiculous, especially on tour. but hey, japan....

https://i.imgur.com/UPlu4VG.jpg

Gomi (Ayu's former dancer) posted this last week, a picture of him, Midoring and Peco. Ayu's iconic members <3 I miss Gomi & Peco on the team.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BwDzqC9g8sq/

^lovely!

I really miss the old troupe. =(

I think it's already a norm she starts the show about an hour late if there will be a live boardcast (except for countdown live). We should be grateful that she didn't cancelled the show after audiences entered the venue.

I won't say I'm really missing Peco's voice haha, but she was fun yeah.
Miss Gomi !

Obviously Ayu has never been fat but I do remember it used to be quite normal for her to look a bit bigger at the beginning of the tour (in comparison to how tiny she usually was, she is still small but in a much healthier way I think she's said herself) and over the tour the weight would drop off. I assumed she'd deliberately put a bit of weight on because the tour schedule meant she'd lose weight and this way she wouldn't end up even tinier.

I just noticed I posted it in the wrong thread lol It was supposed to be in the Anything Goes. Sorry lol

I will never really miss any of the back vocals she had including the current setup, as I always thought the back track was more appropriate for her. I am still convinced that Peco is partially to blame for what ayu sounds like now ��

This makes like no sense at all xD

Actually. It was during the promotion of STEP you/is this LOVE? that ayu started screaming and yelling like a man and her voice got deeper. It is around that time that Peco became more prominent. You can check the is this LOVE? TV lives. On some level I always thought ayu was trying to match Peco's voice instead of the other way around.:D Might be pure coincidence though xD

Her voice most likely became deeper because she started having a more "adult" image at that time (it's also when her look got more "divaish". Considering she was totally deaf from one ear in 2018, she probably had her hearing issues in a pretty advanced state during the STEP you promo. I believe it's the other way round: Ayu chose Peco as a backing vocal because her voice fitted the aesthetic Ayu desired at the time.