thank you for this Aderianu! the high notes were a struggle but she nails it otherwise! and holy fuck she looks amazing

thank you so much for this ayuinh.k?! :luv2

Thank you for the link!
It was apparent from the very first song that high notes were out of reach for Ayu that day. As usual, I enjoyed mostly the verses where she tends to sing calmly and there aren't many difficult notes. Whenever it comes to the chorus she starts screaming and sounding so forced and strained. IMO she really sounds the best in verses with lower notes, probably it's her natural range and comfortable zone.
I liked the music of the interlude after Microphone. It could've been better without backup singers talking and harassing the dancer though. The second dance interlude was cool too.
The ending of Walking Proud looked as she was like "ok, I really can't hit those notes, let's pretend I got emotional so that I can catch a break". Loved the choir, the drums, the strings. Too bad Ayu's vocal form kinda ruined all the efforts.

Ayu’s execution of themes has been pretty wonky for a few years. It’s a grab bag of different things.

I’m guessing it was a mix of east meets west. But, it wasn’t obvious to know if that was the theme, or if it was just coincidence lol.

Also, my friend mentioned that the poll they did with TA was most likely used for the little movie used reflecting on her career. (As they used clips from varying concerts.) I’m guessing this is true, but I wish they made it a bit more explicit lol.

I watched up to Na Na Na... I don't like Ayu's voice at all. She sounds terrible tired. She doesn't even sing parts of some songs. She just need to take a rest. PLEASE!!!

On the other side, Am I the only one who find the outfits and stage very Namie Amuroish????? Specially the Versace's one.

I know this is just the TV version and that the DVD will be better, but... I don't know... It's the first time that I haven't finished watching the whole show...

I undestand how you feel, even though we've seen worse vocals from her over the years. I agree, she skipped singing certain parts or gave them to the audience.

I haven't watched it yet, but I've read a lot of the comments...it seems very weird to me that she would have live Taiko and live Strings but not the band. It's very confusing and kind of upsetting and hard to wrap my mind around that one. POM 20 at least had the strings with the band...kind of essential imho, maybe cut back on some of the dancers. Cutting out the live band is a major disappointment for me, for any artist not just Ayu.

Again, I haven't seen the show yet or even the full setlist, but it looks like most people who were there enjoyed (seems day 1 was better than day 2, but her voice has been pretty ragged and exhausted on filming days for years now). Despite this, it seems like most people enjoyed it, so I can't really judge until I see it for myself.

The vocals are specially bad this time around. The visuals are nice. I was going to bet, would say the concept was losely reproducing classic performances with a current pop aesthetic. Kinda like ABL, but better executed.

^ That's really a shame, especially because she was doing better vocally in 2018.

I've been to her other concerts in Saitama and for some reason she doesn't perform as well there. I wonder if the acoustics there are not friendly to her - even with the headphones.

When I see her outside of Saitama she does really well!

this is how I feel too. somehow this sounds to me better than the Jtb CDL. I wonder, did she also sound hoarse on the first day of A^3?

also, do you guys think her throat just needs proper rest or is it simply that she cannot reach those high notes anymore? :(

She just need a FULL REST!! For Gods sake! This woman will damage her vocal chords if she doesn't stop now.

I noticed she was adjusting her left and right earphones alot during Duty

Interesting theory. Acoustics certainly CAN play a role, but they really shouldn't. It's what in-ear monitors are for, to block out the loud instruments and acoustics so you can only hear the instrumental and room mix that was dialled in during the soundcheck. I saw her in Okinawa convention center and Fukuoka Marine Messe and she sounded ok for most of the shows. It may be her ears acting up again though. And don't forget that she will sound worse directly from the mixing board (which goes to the broadcast) than she will in the venue specifically because venue acoustics will help cover some of the flaws, but that only works when you're there in person.

Truthfully, it could be one or the other with her, but most likely it's a combination of both. Rest certainly will help, and the voice can be rehabilitated to hit the high notes again, as far as I'm aware, but that will take work, healing and changing her singing technique to be less reliant on shouting to hit the notes and move toward a method that won't strain her vocal chords as much. It's definitely possible, it's just very very hard to change habits, and her ear problems don't make it any easier.

You can download videos from the first show and hear that she didn't sound as hoarse. I personally think that many of the notes she's trying to hit are out of her range in the first place, but the biggest problems are lack of proper singing technique and that she's constatly screaming, both when she tries to sing and to thank the audience, and it affects her vocal chords.

Since 2015, she's had alot of concerts where her voice sounded hoarse and tired (ex. CDL15-16, TA16, CDL16-17, JTB 1-3). After watching POA3, she sounded like she needed drink some warm honey water and throat lozenges

Interesting that I didn't pay much attention to the band missing...until there was no Yo-chan solo in evolution and no band introduction in Boys & Girls! Such a strange feeling!

The chorus in Walking Proud was lovely.

for those who wanna dl from bilibili:
>> https://www.parsevideo.com/bilibili/

just enter the link (https://www.bilibili.com/video/av48647584), click on arrow icon, the dl link will appear, then click the dl icon.

i dl-ed this show in 1920x1080, size just around 3 GB+...

It's also up on JPS :)

Thanks for the links, I loved it :yes

I’m disappointed with the costume change in the beginning. I suspect it was a wardrobe malfunction with the schoolgirl outfit. I really dislike that she reused the blue and black feathery outfit (which again, I’m not keen on the outfit period because she recycled it yet again from a previous tour just with blue instead of white) when she had it in the finale before the encore. She should’ve just whipped out her ‘Microphone’ ballgown and short dress from AT2010 instead if that was the case. That would been amazing to see her perform Duty in. If she’s going to do the recycled costumes, I highly encourage her to do number on stage wear she has a few of her female dancers wearing her most iconic costumes and looks standing on stage together on different areas of the stage and Ayu walking by each of them in her current look as if she’s walking in a museum and honoring her past. She could also put her costumes on display for a temporary (museum) exhibition during one of her shows/tours or as a pop up for a weekend exhibit at an art gallery or something.
Although the show was amazing, I was really saddened by her vocals. She was hoarse for sure. She can still hit some high notes (which she did in some songs in the show) but I feel she’s just performing too much period and wearing out her voice. She needs to rest period. It’s constantly back to back tours lately. She’ll collapse if they keep working her like this.i also noticed that she kept adjusting her ear piece. I think there was also a technical problem going on and could be another reason for the start delay. I’ve noticed that she sounded louder when she was stand at the end of the runway. But yeah her vocal volume seemed pretty quiet along with her backup singer.
Btw, has anyone noticed that Princess Yoko is missing. Did she retire or was this only for A^3?