Omgsomanypeopleandrainiwantedtocry!

I didn't even look at the CD area! Boooo but I dare not venture back.

Did manage to get oden and takoyaki though. That was fun to do carrying umbrella and bag and goods with rain down my neck and face. Not.

Miles better than last year! Together when is main performance. It was beautiful!!

I'm happy to see Together When... in the setlist. :heart

Outfits! xD

I love all of these outfits.
And I'm so happy we're back to long hair
This CDL just looks outstanding
Was the setlist tongith the same as last night?

Music Station - what a cheap move. Honestly, how resentful can you be? Stupid.

The outfits are ok. Ayu is a cutie!

the outfits are blaaah, as usually hopefully they'll look better in some normal photos....

Finally, her hair is not making her look bad, it's been so long, I can even accept the ribbons on sides, although it's my least fave but betting it's from Beautiful Fighters I know I'll skip it anyway. Her encore look is amazing in it's simplicity, if this was her Rock 'n' Roll Circus encore look, it would be the best concert ever. Now, I can only worry about vocals :p

A 34 years old, divorced woman, wearing a pink dress with dots, acting like 14?...

LOL my thought exactly,,

No ivy or audience!
Humming before evolution

WTH

Uh, I think they ll come back tomorrow

omg i laughed too hard at this

She. Looks. So. Good! She could keep this hair forever and I'd be ok with it lol.

Gah I wish I would've seen these before I went home! I would have popped into a hardware store and picked up some studs to customize my shirt like her's!

The outfits looks so good and she looks beautiful!!! Can't wait for the blu-ray/dvd now lol.

same sentiments. when will the cutesy ayu end. oh god.

anyway, i like the outfits! but the setlist didnt really make me go excited.. probably because majority of the songs are new songs.. I was only surprised by Rule! :D

looking forward to a good CDL!

I love the "until that day....." Outfit !!!<3

Humming 7/4 was not a part of the official setlist of yesterday and Ivy is in the encore so it should be performed later. XD

This! Seriously, it was quite fun and maybe cute when she was younger but not anymore, she is getting older, I am getting older as well, even though I'm just 5 years younger than she is, I can't relate to this anymore, it's far to be cute now, to me it's just getting cruelly ridiculous, maybe japaneses fans love this after all and I know that us as overseas we don't really mean something in the end, but I really can't relate to such outfit anymore.

For the rest, well she is very pretty, outfits are not that unseen but who care for a CDL, the thing that makes me worry is her voice, I hope she will handle it and not scream!

And I wait for Yesasia to put the goods on sales!

well even though her age is already 34 years old, she still looks cute and young.
so many of my relatives and friends, when they came to my house..i switched on my computer, i randomly asked them, can u guess how old is the woman on my desktop's wallie?, they mostly answer, "hmmm 20s.." see? when i told them, this woman is already 34 years old! they can't believe how young she looks even in her 30s. and it's not liked she's acting cute all the time.

oh well,..

so no more IVY?? omg whyyyyyyyyyyy~~~~~~~~
i really hope tomorrow Ivy is back on the setlist, oh pleaseeeee...

today was soooo much better!!! Humming was awesome!!! Actually I didn't like it before, but it was so energetic today!!! I jumped like crazy :) also Until that day was great!! I enjoyed it sooo much today (cause unlike yesterday I was prepared).

I cried during Who finally.) I was all shaking.

And danced like crazy during all the upbeat songs. Also, I even enjoyed snowy kiss and missing, because it looked better from arena seat. and then Togethet when performance was soooo beautiful, breathtaking!! people were surprised again ^^

awww today was much better...

She looks really HAPPY in these photos. Of course the quality is bad, but I can see her smiling in almost all of them ^^

She's cute, what I can't stand is her cute voice xD
I preffer her to wear that outfit than Timmy, what I can totally see lol

I also like cutesy Ayu because she can afford to act this way, she still looks 10 years younger. I have no complains!

By the way for the people who did go....I have a question, how much are the dancers involved? Is there a section where Ayu is pretty much alone on stage? And Timmy? Still there?

I wish she would get rid of those parts of her concerts, it's starting to look ridiculous. Except for SLT/STEP you on RnRC, that was really decent outfit.

and I am soooo done with those cornrows, she needs to go back to this:
http://imageshack.us/a/img585/3189/hairrm.jpg

This is going to be the first CDL that I'm going to watch since Future Classics, she finally looks like herself again and the setlist is good!

Sorry but this setlist its boring, why ayu (or avex) deprive us of good performance, like Return road on this 2012 tour, that I expected it to be presented on this shows
I hope that more good songs on the final show at 31.
Come on Ayu:cool:cool, that can be arranged;);)

Still loving that setlist! Together When is probably one of my favorite songs that she has and Who is just amazing!

no Ivy> < ??????
Hope Ivy will be performed last day............I want Sweet scar as well

Western fans can't understand because it's not usual for us lol but look at Seiko Matsuda ... In these pictures she is already 45 years old or more ! And she is far to be the only exemple ...



Personally I have no problem with that ! Japanese like cute things that's all !

hmm in Beautiful fighters there are 4 girls + ayu and 4 boys I think (or 5). so it's basically like 8-10 dancers and plus some back-dancers, I don't know their names.

dancers:

Kayanochi
Midori
2-3 girls
Zin
Kazuma
Subaru
Shu-ya
and 2 more boys I guess

something like this.

the band is always on the stage. btw Timmy is dancing in the encore part too lol:)

by the way, during encore ayu wore red shorts today (yesterday was black), she also had a red scrunchie. soo cute ^^ give me a tip how to wear this t-shirt :love

do we know the reason behind the snub? i mean, IS there even a reason for it? :shrug i don't keep up with this stuff...

Nice outfits, thanks God they're not tacky as the biggest part from HOTEL Love songs :P That gold dress with a black corset is my favorite

This :yes

The costumes look really nice. Loving the first one the most.

good example~~
thanks for sharing.

the outfits aren't anything interesting,actually
and no,I don't think I like her now acting childlish
I'd prefer powerful, sad, romantic or classy over that

her outfits haven't been nice since quite long ago, tbh

and that top+shorts outfit has been in too too much, duh

Thanks for the info! :)

@Bad Wolf
We're all thinking it might be, because she was scheduled to appear on MS but didn't make it because she couldn't get a flight from New York. Which was her managements fault really. But anyway, MS still holding a grudge is so immature, like Kindergarten.

Glad to see positive reviews!!! I think she looks absolutely great in the pictures haha..yea like really HAPPY :D I love the tracklist...hope ivy makes it back tomorrow.

And with SunshineSlayer talking abt Melody's PV having potential, I'm interested now :)

I think she looks great on the pink outfit, you can't judge her from the picture...
if you see it with your own eyes, or from dvd...she always looks great

I don't mind when she's acting cute, actually I cannot imagine her performing cutesy songs with a long classy dress lol. Nor just wearing a t-shirt and jeans. But this year all the outfits looks pretty cheap and nothing special to me :/

Nothing can beat that cat-maid outfit though :laugh omg she was so cute!

The cute thing is like cosplay and just fanservice. And it's only for like 2 songs..gosh~! She doesn't even do it that often nowadays.

^
:yes


I think these outfits look pretty good
Though the first & the last is something Amuro puts every years !

you're right :yes

I never liked that much those cute parts in past Arena tours, but the concert without a cute part is not the concert :D anyways, I was skreaming "kawaii" all the way when she appeared in that pink dress. it's really kawaii :P Japanese love it.))

is WOWOW going to air the show or something?

it must be amazing to watch a concert like this, with food and numbered seats...

OMG i love love love the tracklist!! Best countdown live setlist imo ^^ and i'm glad the center stage is back! can't w

Yes, on January 2nd ^^

Thanks for the info!

the final is coming!! YAY!
cant wait to see this!

God, I want to attend tomorrow too!! AHS, if someone got a spare ticket, can you please sell it to me :thud

^ can you not find any?
just a few days ago people where saying there were tons of them!

Maybe the actual 31st is a different matter? By the way does anyone know at what time Kohaku will start tomorrow?

^
19:15

^Thank you. I can't wait. Still kind of early here, so I have to be careful not to miss Ayu. I'm curious about her medley.

Sayooooonaraaaaa

Are people aware that the Japanese fans -really- like those cute sections and that's why they're there? I mean, they are the ones going to the shows for the most part....

cute is very in in japan.
I mean it goes for ALL ages... jsut watch some anime or drama with old people in it...
they even do the cute thing.

it doesn't bother me but at the same time it does, lol...

Apart from the cornrows I'm in love with her looks for this CDL! :love

She looks incredibly happy from these photos too, its great to see :)

Wanna see the Together When... outfit so bad :/

STEP you/Shake It!<3 costume got the biggest applause & ovation @HLS. People loved it.

<3 Yes I absolutly loved this outfit *_*

kawaii culture is a massive part of japanese pop culture. i'm surprised people on this forum don't know that this applies to people, too.

So sad that there's no Ustream this year :( is it true that the Ameba Pigg stream only works if you're in Japan?

so adorable! :D it looks like the pink dress in the CDL photos from last night's show is kinda similar to it.

I've been wondering that too. that really bums me out that the New Year's show nor the final night of HLS were broadcasted for international fans, nor even considered. not right if you ask me :no

This!

I don't care if japanese culture loves it or not. It isn't only ridiculous when a grown up woman acts and looks like a 14 year old girl, actually I think it's degrading, and why a strong and independent woman like Ayu does it, I don't get it. Ayu doesn't have to put up with this.

^ its not something you have to put up with or her. this is something she likes doing because it brings her and others joy.

its like demanding a meat eater to not eat meat because you dont agree with it. It's ridiculous.

^^
Maybe because she like that !! It’s their culture ! Japanese have probably a lot of things they find ridiculous in western countries. It's like that lol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawaii "A study by Kanebo, a cosmetic company, found that Japanese women in their 20s and 30s favored the "cute look" with a "childish round face""

If it's fun for Ayu or not to act like a child and make herself appeare immature and naive (and somewhat dumb) doesn't change anything on my opinion: I think it's degrading and Ayu should stop it.

Well, as much as some people may not like it, the Japanese fans LOVE it, so she is not going to stop any time soon. They are her main audience after all, so she might as well perform in a manner that they love seeing and saying "Wow, she's so cute!!!!!!!" at.

I'm proud to see how the cultural differences are respected here.

^
yes :/

but in the japanese culture it doesn't make them immature and naive.
You are taking your western ideas and placing them in the japanese culture and its not making any sense.
Its COOL to do that.

You need to put it in more of a perspective of something that you do in your culture that is cool and other people think is stupid or uncool.

You need to respect others opinions, and we will respect yours.

In my opinion; I don't think its degrading at all. Why should people be forced to act all grown up if they don't want to? Ayu still has a childish and girly side to her - good for her! I think Ayu is a strong and empowered woman; and she can do whatever she wants. I never wanna see the day Beautiful Fighters is performed in a "normal" outfit.

Also, consider the biggest female solo-artists in Japan, they all have their thing.
Koda is sex-sex, Namie is dance-sexy, Utada is all "seriousish", AI is innocent style. Not sure about YUI, but Ayu is definitely the cutsy-cute one.

Actually this isn't a question of cultural differences. It's common to present women in advertising, pop culture etc. as childish as possible, Japan is just the country which carries this to the extreme.
Not long ago the scientific community found women to be only second-class humans because supposedly women weren't able to surpass the mental stadium of a child and therefore women had no rights.
Presenting women even today as childish as possible just shows that societies still like their women as dumb and dependent like 100 years before.

Edit: I'm not saying that adult women should always be serious and act grown up. But the way Ayu does it often and Matsuda Seiko and so on is such an extreme way of saying "I'm immature and just a little girl" that it has nothing to do with just having fun and not being serious.

Sometimes I wish the world would have endend on the 21st. q

Wow! You know, I think I was saying the same thing to you...

How ironic.

Anyways, yeah, sad to say that being cute is the ultimate selling point in Japanese culture. There's a reason why Ayaka, who is one of the best vocalists right now, can't outsell AKB48.

^ no you weren't.
and please dont bring something into a current conversion that was weeks ago.

actually it is and you are just ignoring it.

Excuse me, but this is the whole point of it, also in Japan: to make women appear immature and naive.

I love the stage.

you are completely ignoring everything that everyone else and myself have said.
IT'S NOT CONSIDER THAT.
they do it because its cute. it has nothing to do with making a woman stupid, which is what you are saying. Women act cute because they are stupid and this is not the case.
they act like that because its deemed cute.
Japan is just all about the cuteness.
Look at the men... if you asked the average american man (one that doesn't know anything about the culture) about japanese men looking cute,, they would say he was gay and that is not the case.

Also, look up the police mascot for japan
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_7qESQ7beFB...ice+Mascot.gif

that is cute.
thats just one example of the cuteness in the culture. Look up the video of the male politician doing the dance from the AKB song.. this is a culture that loves being cute.
its the same with men/women/boys/girls/older people.
there is no hidden agenda to bring women down, its in the culture.

LOL honestly... whether we like it or not ayu will be wearing pink frilly dresses and pink frilly wigs until her boobs sag down past her knees. i don't like it either but i've accepted it, whether it's cultural or not.
at least she's not being madonna and flashing her vajayjay everywhere (no hate i'm just saying)

You have way too much reading problems, damn!

Chibi-chan is not saying japanese women act cute because they are stupid or immature, she never said it. Chibi-chan is saying japanese women act cute to look stupid and immature. And they do that because men find it sexy. And japanese men find it sexy because it puts girls on a submissive position.

And this is far from being something exclusive to japanese culture or to the East... Britney Spears' peak was 100% based on the fetish of being a submissive school girl, and a lot of famous celebrities and sex-symbols like Marylin Monroe, 90s Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus (and all the other Disney princesses) Carly Rae Japsen, etc, etc, etc use a innocente/childish/cute image to appeal to the public as submissive girls.

But I don't really think Ayu is strong enough to fight this all by heself, and I believe she perverts this idea a lot, so, I like it when she uses it most of the times.

once again something new, and the fighting begins again :P

I slightly agree. If ayu is the only thing you like from Japan then you wont understand the culture. It prude to judge how a nation of people act in society from the eyes of another, yet alone just because its seen as different in a western view

^ ikr! LOL
what matter is, Japanese fans LOVE the cuteness and she'll keep doing it.

I think everybody needs to go read the lyrics to my name's WOMEN. :yes

Ayu specifically states that she still enjoys 'pretty things'. But, she feels the need to defend this as men believe that this image is a reflection of a personality. When it isn't.

Basically, she's saying that women should own this. This is OUR thing. We shouldn't have to abandon it to gain respect. If we want to look pretty or cute, we can. It shouldn't have that submissive or innocent label attached to it because it is simply not true.

This is where Chibi-Chan is also correct. Ayu basically addresses this issue in the song; women ARE shown as being light-headed, immature, and childish, and this in turn, is how men see them (in her opinion; of course not everyone is like this). And it is wrong. Ayu just thinks that we shouldn't have to give up the image that has created this illusion...

I also don't get why people don't get this as a bit of fun. Its not like she sport pink frilly dresses all the time and act like a teen. Its a concert, its suppose to be fun. and 34 isn't too old. If she was Madonnas age wearing that, that would be a bit creapy, but shes just having fun and I think it looks cute.

ironically enough, currently westerners are much more drawn to the Japanese culture because of the cuteness and their unique style and technology wise. And Japan's style is so unique and different, people find it fascinating.

I personally like Ayu's cuteness. For one thing, she's a positive influence and sends good and empowering messages and not a sleazy bad girl influence (like a lot if artists and actresses here in America). Plus I like her personal fashion style, I dress like that.

Loving the discussion...

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llms9x4lvo1qz9npg.gif

Basically anyone who is concerned about Ayu wearing a pink frilly dress on stage should Google the word 'costume'

in the arena, when ayu first appreared wearing her pink dress, the screams were probably the loudest after the curtain went up for the first time. the japanese love the cutesy-ness, and walking through different prefectures in japan, you can see that it will always be something that they will love. whether you agree with it or not, you can't deny or change it. :shrug

I LOVE AYU BEING CUTE
and blow kiss always works~

yay!! good setlist, aaand UNTIL THAT DAY wooooh!!

You guys, why do you even bother?

It's like you're talking to a wall... Save your energy typing out long responses to that one...
And it's seriously making everyone into a bad mood... let's have fun talking about the Countdown Live!
Just block him like I have.

I'm gonna to be there tonight with my friends~ I'm exciting about it!
First Countdown Live since I returned home... can't wait.

Im really surprised she chose Rule... I can't wait to hear it live finally!

I think being cute is a part of who Ayu is and it's part of her culture, makes her who she is. Sometimes it's a little annoying, but most of the time I think it's really sweet. Loved the outfits, love the long hair, she looks great.

Btw, I was told Fuji TV will air the CDL live tomorrow. Is that true? Also, if it's not, do you guys have any link that will air it live? Thanks! :D

I think we need to make a party all together. It would be pretty interesting. I would love to see that.

Anyway, I can totally see all the CDLs being done in the circular arena, I think it's more attractive and intimate, it fits very well with the proposal of it.
I think they can handle many good ideas using this format.

wowow is airing it on the 2nd...
thats the only one that has been announced I do believe.

I wonder if tonights performancr be a noticeably different from the first and second night? Wish it was being Ustreamed.

Spending the very last moments of this year with ayu!!!!!!! So bloody excited!!!!!