Does it play Marionette??
It's a bit pricey, but I want one if it'll play a music-box version of marionette ^_^

^ according to its CM, it plays a short version of Marionette in a special musicbox mix

It's so great the FINALLY sell it ! But that's too expensive for me T_T

Is that the same advert involving the spooky mist? ;) :roflmao

Yes, it is, lol. With all the smoke and so.... XD It felt TOO overacted :shakehead .

I would buy it... But is so expensive to my empty pocket ^^U.

it does play marionette, i have it. it's too cute for words~
yup. (^_^). but minus the spooky mist...so it's not really creepy, i find it cute.

lol..its not creepy at all..its cute...if not mistaken,it will play marrionette music for 30 seconds only.i remembered i posted the youtube link here before ...need to find the link back

edit : found it
http://ahsforum.com/forum/showpost.p...45&postcount=1

^ :O That is sooo cute!!! I was wondering what it sounded like....
Ahhh if only it wasn't so expensive!!!

for everyone who missed the CM ;)

^I really love it.. but it's sooo expensive... -____- someday I'll get it... because I love Marionette sooooo much!!! And this instrumental is amazing *-*!!

well... seems like tomorrow and day after, this tour will end at least... I hope after this we'll get some information about an extend leg of the tour, or about the DVD... Maybe we are going too fast saying that there will be overseas concerts in march... and if thats true I don't think it will be for NEXT LEVEL... who knows...

OMFG CUTE!!
xD

I'm gonna make an mp3 rip of it and stuff XD



EDIT: done!! ^^ it's called "Marionette ～ayupan version～" if you guys wanna tag it in for last.fm LOL play it after the actual song marionette *0* is like an outro

THE SHOW IS TONIGHT!

Omg I'm so excited! I had a hard time falling asleep last night XD

I'll try to take as many picture as I can, though I highly doubt anything has changed much since the last time.

yaya,Neffiline.take as many as possible...i love to read your blog :D

Have a great time! :)

lacus,i think he sold out all already if not mistaken because he did put it on ebay to sell also

lol..i don't know its HE or SHE ..i assume that its a HE based on the nickname..correct me if i'm wrong
this thread : http://ahsforum.com/forum/showthread...ght=marionette

Gah, I envy you. I wish I could go so badly I could cry. :cry Meh. Have fun for the rest of us! ^.^'

lolz....Gotta get me one of these

The concert should be happening right now :)

^ greatt xDD

i cant wait to get some new pictures and feedback from of the fans :D

Yep today and tomorrow are the final dates!

I think that today's show starts now (or did it already start?) ^^

Final dates ? Hopefully we'll get the DVD soon ! I do NOT want those "special concerts" to be part of the NEXT LEVEL tour, or we'll have to wait monthes to get the DVD...

I think that the live of today has ended.

Also now Team ayu is also a mobile and internet fan club :yes

So I'm checking mixi...

- It started around 18:45 and ended at about 21:20, so today's concert was a little over 2 1/2 hours long.
- Ayu brought out Pino and Papico!!!
- Apparently she introduced the dancers during the beginning of Humming 7/4? (Not sure about this one, but I think that's what one person said.)

Not too many people have commented about tonight's concert (though, as usual, they said it was great and many said they're going tomorrow as well). The setlist is still the same as the last concerts.

Oh man...just got back from the concert. I have to say, I think overall last year's tour was better, but then again NEXT LEVEL is my least favorite album, so that's not a big surprise.

At the beginning of the show, I was mildly disappointed...she was clearly lipsynching Energize and a few other songs, I think I've kind of reached my limit with the oh-no-I'm-tormented-over-Shuya thing, the fake emotion was too over the top to handle sometimes, and then she was acting kind of...crazy (especially during rollin')...and I thought "What the hell? She's completely jumped the shark. She's lost her freaking mind." Looking back on it I know it was just her having a lot of fun, but not gonna lie-- there was a period of time where I was standing there dumbfounded, wondering what was going through her head.

That said, of course there were good parts too. :) Her voice got progressively better over the course of the concert, and Curtain call blew me away. I started crying, actually, and then she sang Sunset right afterwards and for some reason, I was inconsolable for full ten minutes. The live arrangement of Load of the SHUGYO was MINDBLOWING, and the arrangement of GREEN was gorgeous too. They made it much more ballad-y (especially the first verse) for this performance. Also, the outro to Days was fantastic. The audience really liked Days, and people started cheering really loudly when the band started playing the song. Ayu was acting more natural, more like herself for the beginning of the song, but once Shuya came out the fake emotion was back. x_X (Someone shoot me.)

The encore was adorable; AYU BROUGHT OUT HER TWO NEW PUPPIES. So precious. And Ayu and the male dancers competed in a jumprope competition; when Subaru was emceeing he would have the dancers jump in (while two of the guys were swinging the rope) one at a time and they would have to play janken-pon (rock, paper, scissors) and beat Suba-sama before the next dancer could come in, and then the process would repeat itself until all the male dancers were in, and then Ayu came at the end-- once she jumped in, they all had to survive three swings of the rope, and then they were supposed to strike a funny pose. It took 3 or 4 tries to get all the way through, and for her pose Ayu leapt onto Shuya's back. It was pretty funny.

All in all, another amazing evening. I decided not to go the show tomorrow night, but I'm okay with that. I can't believe this is the fourth time I've seen her in a year and a half! Next up, hopefully AT2010 in April...

To be quite honest, I don't understand why anyone wouldn't like this show.

Yes, it was my first time seeing Ayu live, but she puts on a show!!!! I thought it was amazing!! So much fun!!! Yes, she went crazy, but it was funny! She was having fun with it, who cares if she looks crazy?

I cried during Days and I didn't think it looked all that fake. Towards the end to me, it looked and felt like she was really crying and not just acting. Curtain Call and Sunset were amazing, I cried, again. Lol

I always liked Shu-ya, but I gotta say, OMG MARO WAS SO HOT!!

The MC was SUPER fun, they played this funny game... eerr I don't know what it's called in english (only have the french words in my brain) where you have to jump over the rope going in circle... And then they had to do rock-paper-scissors against Subaru. It was funny! I loved it!

Anyway... I took lots of pictures, so I'll write a longer, better report tomorrow. Right now, I'm too tired. =____=;;

Neffi - Maro IS super hot!!!! Especially in this tour ;) I'm super glad to hear that you enjoyed your first Ayu concert! :)

chocopockymaster - lol "Energetic". It's "EnergizE". :P "rollin'" is a pretty crazy song, and her acting the way she does during the song (which I assume is around the same as when she performed it in June) is on purpose. And glad to hear Ayu's still the pro at her amazing crazy emotions, haha.

And JackieRos - No, she brings out her dogs quite a bit. She brought out Marron during the June 21 show this year =)

chocopockymaster, thanks a lot for disappoint me about this tour XDDD

:weep I dislike AT08!

Ugh. My bad. I'm wicked freaking tired. I know it's on purpose, but that doesn't make me like it any more. Don't care for the song much either. In addition to that, I hated the part of the show where she had that red cheerleader outfit on. Parts of this tour just seemed so cheesy to me.

I will agree that part of the crying in Days toward the end was genuine, but leading up to that it was more of the "OH NO I LOOK CONSTIPATED" face. I'm so over it, tbh.

I think if you like the NEXT LEVEL album, you will like this tour.

The stage looks SO AWESOME! There are colors EVERYWHERE!! I love rainbow and bright lights so I really loved this. For me, it's hard to beat AT2006, but this show was really awesome. Probably cause I've seen it for real, but yeah. Lol

@polkie: I KNOOOOOW!! I never really noticed him until tonight XD Hahaha. I bought some "unofficial" pictures of him .____.;; Hahahaha. Elin and I were the only girls yelling for him in our section, I didn't notice if anyone else was elsewhere in the stadium.

Yes yes! I loved it! Omg I'd go SO often if I lived in Japan, like, literally every month!!

gosh...do you think wowow or other japanese channel will broadcast this concert?
it seems like some think this concert is not on par but some enjoyed...i love this album so much and i've planned to buy this dvd when it released...but after hearing choco feedback,it seems like not really exciting show...argh...i want the dvd to release as soon as possible

I forgot to mention.

My favorite part was evolution+SIGNAL.

I didn't think I was going to like SIGNAL, but it was a lot of fun~

For chrissake, people. It's just my opinion. The majority of my post was positive, so stop harping on my "negativity". Don't let me deter you from watching the tour if you were really excited about it. Like Neffline said, if you loved the album, you'll probably love the tour. I did *not* love the album. Take from it what you will.

so,did she mention anything about the special tour outside JAPAN next year?

^ Nope. Nothing.

Probably not, otherwise we'd have gotten an MC / mention from 2ch or mixi...

I expect her to mention it at tomorrow's show if she's going to say anything. I wonder what they'll do and if people will see cameras flying around for the DVD...

My japanese is very basic, but I didn't catch anything related to that no. The conversations were very light and friendly, nothing serious about touring or anything like that.

She didn't talk that much either. Subaru and Zin came out, they joked around and she made them re-start cause they messed up. And then Subaru was talking, she looked surprised and then she ran to the side of the stage to get Pino and Papino. And then they played the game, and after that she re-started singing.


edits @Truehappiness: the cameras were everywhere tonight. There was one going almost directly up top of me the entire time, I saw the black spot going back and forth. There were cameras up front and all over the sides too. I know some of them were for the people at the back to see on the screens, but there A LOT, I'm pretty sure some of them weren't just for the screens...

^ Aah, it definitely seems like they're filming these final two concerts. When I went in June, there were only about 5-7 cameras floating around, but last year when I went (when they were filming the TV version) there were LOTS of cameras floating around everywhere.

@chocopockymaster and Neffiline - you guys must be staying super close to the Yoyogi Gimnasium. I just got half an hour back to the place where I live in Tokyo and you had already revealed what happened at the concert.

Considering that it it my first Ayu concert, I am even now under the influence of the show. The singing was OK, i didn't suspect lipsynching at Energize or in fat at any other song. I really liked how she squeezed her voice for the part of rollin' where the voice should be "electronic".

And speaking of electronic, the whole show had an electro influence, starting with the lasers and continuing with the background movies that looked like a Media Player visualizations. Also very interesting was the disco-munication video where Ayu was just like in Mario haha.

i confirm, there was nothing said about an overseas concert. I got a bit scared at the beginning of the MC when Jin or Subaru asked Ayu if she knows about someone new in her family. I got shocked for a second thinking multiple possibilities like ayu getting married, or ayu having already a child (I know, it sounds stupid now but in that fraction of a second I really thought it could be possible). To be honest, I was kind of disappointed when it came out that the member(s) are two dogs, the ones named above my post.

Any of you guys got one of the balls that Ayu signed and threw in the audience? I was like 40 cm away from the last one, it was kind of frustrating at the moment but now I got over it.

What was good:
-quality of singing,
-interlude movies (they are waaaaaaaay better than the PVs),
-the debut of the show when Rule was sung (just like in the video of the concert that leaked months ago)
-ayu's acting, even if she over-reacted as we all know she does

What was bad:
- the public's reaction (they looked very dull and tired in certain moments ...perhaps it's because it's only wednesday),
-yep, there are indeed too many dancers. I didn't count them nor do I know all of them but sometime at the end of the show they were occupying the whole stage, from left to right
-In the corner, it totally didn't fit into the show
-why so few balls (only four) signed&thrown by ayu ? :((

WHOO! COOL!
there might be a tv version for this tour!

hope for a TV ver! i need to watch this show now :no
all the reviews i read are so good!! i think i'll like this tour better than 07 & 08 ones

This concert is sounding to be really good... I can't wait for its DVD!

I'm dying to watch it already as well with each passing review :(

At least they'll show some extracts, just like they do at each end of tour !

If I remember correctly, this photo was used during a photo slideshow at today's concert. They move pretty fast.

They also showed pictures of Ayu when she was a small baby and to my surprise she looked A LOT like today's Ayu.

I can't wait for the TV version, I'm glad you report that EnergizE wasn't playback, why even say something is playback anyway? It's kinda pointless imo. XD
So I'm glad that you said it didn't seem that way. ^^

I kinda doubt that they'll show it on TV... but we'll probably have to wait for confirmation from Ayu for that sort of thing.

Arena Tours normally don´t have TV-Broadcasts, AT08 was a eception because it was 10th anniversary, and it was no complete broadcast either.

I'm agree with you! Now we have to wait for the DVD!

Ah, right, I've only been a fan since the start of 2008, so I didn't know the norm when it comes to Arena Tours. XD
It's a shame there probably won't be a TV broadcast. :(

So, she had her eyes done VERY young!
:O
xD

Don't forget her nose! Maybe we should sue Mariko Hamasaki on child abuse? :shakehead

Well that's because she never did any eyes surgery :)
Don't listen to what people's rumors (or starting from haters herseys) say :laugh

^ Uh ohz, I smell a plastic surgery debate coming on if we're not careful, lol. :O

What are these Ayu balls you concert-goers speak of?? Like a bouncy ball??? I want one!! :cry

^ I think they're plastic baseballs. She signs them during the MC and throws them into the crowds, like during independent at PCDL.

yeah! we should! she was just a baby!
;-;

^ sue her for hurting such a cute child! which will grow into such a cute granny!

Meh. Not nearly as fun. :grumpy

If it helps you feel any better, they probably bounce. :)

plastic surgery on babies is never nice Noidea!
U r sick!
u_u

The report of a lot of cameras present sounds like good news, hopefully that'll mean an early 2010 DVD release!

We can only hope! :D

hmm,i think many people enjoyed the show last night?
i'm hoping that the DVD will release next year january or february...XDXDXD
wondering will it be 3DVD like AT05,06 and AT08???i can't wait to see her singing energize and the mario thingy

I really want the DVD asap...

i'm just started to collect her concert dvd...
how long does it take for avex to release her DVD ?
i remembered AT08 was release january 2009 right.3 months is enough for them to do the editing?

I'm staying at an hotel in Roppongi/Akasaka. It's like... 4 or 5 metro stations away from Harajuku. Lol Plus I didn't wait in line after the show, I ran accross the street (not supposed to) to get some unofficial goods and the subway station was right next to there.

I agreed with "In The Corner" totally didn't fit into the whole show.

Where were you sitting exactly?

Because where I was, EVERYONE around was jumping and screaming. They were all into the show very much.

Lets yell for him tonight too!!! :D :D :D I had a dream this night about me and him at the concert. Lol. XD

Yes the show yesterday was really great! I loved also how they had put feather wings on the chair this time too. Looked really pretty. Her voice was stunning!! Really good. The colours was truly wonmderful to watch.

This is now the third Ayu concert for me and tonight it will be my 4th. Lol. The only thing I miss with this tour is something really smashing and great like the end in AT08 like MW and the boat. But I have to say, NL was a really pretty ending. So so pretty! Then again, the whoile concert itself was smashing from end to beginning so... And yes btw, ther ballads jacket and dress are still horrible.... Lol.

Ah I hope tonight is gonna be really great too! Can`t wait!!! See ya soon again Neffi!
(I would love to give a full scale review but my internet still doesnt work and you have tons of reviews already so... ;) )

More reviews could never hurt.

One of the finale would be grrrreat. This is probably the most AHS-filled tour yet, haha.

ia. the more reviews the better. plus, it's nice to read how positive most of these reviews are, it makes me so much more excited.

So the tour... has finally ended, right? Well, I'm waiting for the DVD release ^^. No news nor comments about the last show? O.o

I just got home from the last show.

It was great... again. ^^ outside the stadium the announcement for the new single was going on. that was fun to see since i didnt see the news here before!
I must sａｙ, I LOOOOOVE the interludes videos!!! The one before the bａｌｌａｄｓ are so so soooooo pretty and her dress is much better in the video then the ones she have IRL. :P

Todays show was a bit longer then yesterday. They played for a pretty long time during the encore and ended with a wave-in-the-audience again. The game for today was charades with Ayu and Shuya in one team, Zin and Maro in the seccond and Enrique and Yo-chan in the last one. it was really fun and entertaining to watch!

Ayus voice was great today and she was in a great spirit. She was filled with emotions today. She cried sometimes. I had a pretty good seating today too. Right under the "special seats" with the round stage right to my right. When she throwed out one of the signed balls it was only 30cm from me but it was a real war to get it so I didnt even try. everyone just threw thenself on the cameraman. right, my seat was next to the floor camera so they filmed me alot of times. but i would be really supriced if i got stuck for the dvd or something cuz they never showa gaijins at the dvds. lol.

anyhow, i dont have much time to write since im on a borrowed computer since my internet still doesnt work!!! but i hope i could bring you some fun updates. ^^

thanks a lot!! she is soo cute!! xD

Thanks for the link!!

Pic #10 is from NEXT LEVEL, and I don't remember that feather boa being on top of the chair, so I think that's a new addition to the past few shows.

Aww, seeing these pics and seeing that this is the final show makes me happy and a bit giddy. She had a great tour, and I know (after seeing the show twice in June, and hearing the recent reports) that this is definitely one of her best tours.

:yes
Maybe not her best tour of all times, but surely a pretty solid one :D I really want the DVD xDD

ho yeah I want to see the dvd >.<

Thanks Genie, the photos are pretty HQ! She's so cute in EnergizE haha

Thanks for the pics from today's show!

Some outfits looks greater in those photos.

http://www.barks.jp/feature/?id=1000054402&p=8

LOL at shuya's face. XDDD

thank you ^^
I uploaded all of them in their real size ;D

http://i37.tinypic.com/2wqcpch_th.jpg http://i35.tinypic.com/2a5hilx_th.jpg http://i33.tinypic.com/1ysdhk_th.jpg http://i35.tinypic.com/2q33xfl_th.jpg
http://i34.tinypic.com/zk4qow_th.jpg http://i36.tinypic.com/2ir5czr_th.jpg http://i33.tinypic.com/9kv5uw_th.jpg http://i34.tinypic.com/2ni19nl_th.jpg
http://i38.tinypic.com/2qxz5nt_th.jpg http://i34.tinypic.com/2vvvq80_th.jpg http://i36.tinypic.com/25q9cpf_th.jpg

I always love official pictures :thud
DVD DVD DVD DVD DVD.... pleaseeee!

yay..time to make a set

I feel like doing something from the EngergizE pic... and OMG SHU-YA LOOKS FUNKY in the Sparkle one... whoa ho

Ok, I got back too from the concert and I must say that the 2nd time is way better than the 1st. One may deem that I've become experimented :)

Even though this time my ticket was not as good as the first time (for the 21st October performance I got an arena A section ticket, for the 22nd October one an arena C section ticket) the atmosphere was more interesting. Indeed, ayu looked tiny this time and I could only see the details of her face only when she came to the peninsula stage (I don't know what it is called). Of course, we all had the possibility to watch the big screens on the back of the stage but to be sincere, if I wanted to see ayu on a LCD I could have stayed at home.

The crowd around me was more energetic than yesterday, as they screamed, yelled, danced and hummed all show long. I was flanked by a huge number of "screaming" fans, 99% of them being girls... the most popular screams were "Aaaaayuuuu saaaamaaaa" , "Suteki" (lovely, great) and "Dai suki" (love very much). Also Maro got a lot of attention from the girls next to me, one of them nearly bursting her lungs while shouting "Kawaii" in my ears as Maro was on the stage.:thud

Most definitely the best part of today's performance was during rollin' when she forgot the lyrics, right at the beginning, when she does the electro voice. It was very funny as she kept talking at that moment saying something like "I don't know what comes here...". If the last performance in Yoyogi is the one that is on the DVD, I wonder how will they edit it out.

With respect to the setlist, I maintain my opinion that In the corner has nothing to do with the NEXT LEVEL Arena Tour. Other songs that in my opinion were out of the scenery are Sunset (yeah) and Hope or Pain (she could have chosen another sentimental song, like Powder Snow or Moments or etc etc, she has tons of them). Another thing I kind of disliked was the slow-semi-acoustic version of GREEN. I totally love the instrumentals and the rhythm of the original of this song but they decided to make it as an half-ballad half-something else as it was included in the section with HOPE or PAIN and Days. Also I realized why Days has so many lives and GREEN not even one - the Japanese people love very very very much Days.

The public's response was great at evolution (the "wooh -yeaah" part), rollin', UNITE! (the left hand - right hand part), Sparkle (the now classical "no, no, no" part), Boys&Girls (karaokeeeee) and Sunrise (towels in the air time).

The MC was different this time, as they played charades in teams, as MissEllin mentioned. At one moment, the word that had to be guessed by Shu Ya was "Tokyo Tower" and Ayu started to put her hands over her head and tried to look something like a tower. In reality she looked more like a pyramid. In the end Shu Ya didn't guess, and they opted to "pass" this definition. Later on, during the finals while competing against the Enrique&Yo Chan team, every time when Ayu was trying to act out the word, Shu Ya immediately said "Tokyo Tower", as an irony to what happened before.

There was nothing said about the new single during the MC.

Oh yeah, this time Ayu threw more balls (8) and the closest I got to one of them was like 12 meters as Ayu threw them mostly in the A and B sections of the arena.

For the ones who were at the concert today, please confirm that MY ALL was not sung as the ending song and replaced with something else, i don't recall too good.

One important detail that I didn't observe last night and I did now was the fact that at the exit there were many bouquets of flowers, huge ones, in baskets, of all kind of flowers: roses, daisies, tulips (?) etc etc (I don't recognize too many types of flowers....:headache). On the baskets with flowers were ribbons with dedications to Ayu from various persons/institutions : Hitomi, Misono, Fuji TV, Space Shower TV... The total number of baskets of flowers was somewhere near 20-25. As normal, no photo was allowed as I would have liked to take one.

Those being said my Ayu-determined-trip has almost ended and I am preparing now to go back home. I have two more days in Tokyo and for Saturday I don't know what to choose: Tokyo Disneyland (for the child within me) or Tokyo Motor Show, in Chiba (for the dreamy grown up). Either place I will go, I am still hoping on a random meeting with Ayu :D

jajajaj LOOOL at Shuya's face in the NEXT LEVEL one xDDDDDD

love this pics ^^ ayu looks GREAT and so some of the outfits I disliked before... BUt I still don't like the big white dress -_______-

hitomi?! Yay!!
I love electronic music, thats why I loved Next Level so much. I have no doubt that this tour is gonna be amazing to watch on DVD.

did ayu say something about the "overseas concerts" during the MC?

misono sent ayu flowers for the end of the tour (probably she went to see it?)? That's so cute. ^^
Thank you for the review!

There's always flowers set out by various artists, TV shows, companies, etc at Ayu's concert (at least, at the Tokyo ones).

MY ALL was NOT sung as the final song?? The Who... instrumental is always played after she walks off the stage, is that what you're referring to?

Misono's old DAT profile page said she's a fan of ayu...plus she's from avex too so that's why she sent flowers?

Nono sha sang MY ALL as the last song of course. :)

Then I was thinking that maybe they would bring the 21/10 show to the DVD cuz I remember that it was a roof camera for that show but they had put it down for the show on 22/10... But then Stacey noticed that there where more floor cameras on the last one. So maybe they will cut the two days together in some way... I dunno acutally. :P

No Ayu didnt say anything about new concerts. Before MY ALL started they only had simple yellow/white lights on the stage and Ayu had a little speach where she talked about how fun the time had been with this tour and this was the last show and she really want to thank everyone. It was really pretty. She was crying some in that part too.

Thank you for your review. I remember you really liking her tour last year so its nice to see when someone can actually recognize the flaws of something instead of just totally gushing. Hopefully this means that the people who believe she lip synchs won't be so attacked in the future when it has been made so clear in many reports of this tour.

I was planning on seeing the same concert date as you, but unfortunately I had to push my travel date back a week. (now I'll be seeing Morning Musume's tour instead again)

so,she sang MY ALL as a closing song???
did ZIN teach the dancing moves for MY ALL?

thank you for the review Dan.C

No, they did not teach the dance. They didn't for either shows this week.

But every one danced it anyway! Haha!

I really liked rollin' honestly, I think it's rare to see her dancing and acting weird or crazy on stage, it feels like she's always sticky tightly to the routine, etc.