[Eyecandy?] Arena Tour 2009 Wraps Up
Arena Tour 2009 ~NEXT LEVEL~ came to an end last week at Yoyogi, and as a tribute to that I thought I’d have a go at the MQ photos taken from the event. All I can say after having seen week after week of new photos from the tour is that it had better rock AT 2008 out of the water, because that was perhaps the most unsatisfying Ayumi concert I’ve ever watched. The costumes don’t bode well, but that’s sometimes a promising thing where actual performance merit is concerned.
Let’s get started.
Hi, The 80's. Come right in and make yourself at home.
I've seen the bootleg fan videos showing bits of her entrance and the grand laser-beam extravaganza that is 'Rule'. I'm not a huge fan of 'Rule', though it seems that everyone else is and this makes me a BAD FAN. I think this costume looks ridiculous on her, because Ayumi has no curves and wasn't meant to dance around in something that only serves as a PVC highlighter of this fact.
'EnergizE'. I think that's all. 'UNITE!' is probably the 'Rule' costume and 'Sunrise ~LOVE is ALL~' would be terrible with this costume. I haven't waded through 400 pages of forum posts to know for sure. *shrug* I know that me liking 'EnergizE' as much as I do also makes me a BAD FAN. I'm just a terrible fan of Ayumi all around. I love all the wrong things. D: SORRY. I don't know that I like Ayumi this scantily-clad. As I mentioned before, she has no curves. She has always been more "pretty" than "sexy" to me, and all her sex appeal comes from her attitude. IDEK. This costumes seems, somehow, mentally bereft.
Now this = WANT DO. This is Ayumi is Sexy Mode, and it's all because of how she's acting. Forget about her campy, over-the-top dancers (I love them, especially Go-mi and Zin - but no love for Shu-ya), she is bringing all the hawt to the table here, and is doing it mostly clothed. Hell yeah. Also, free-flowing hair, hell yeah. Groping herself? HELL YEAH. According to the setlist, I'm seeing this being 'LOVE'n'HATE' and 'identity', both of which fit perfectly with this costume. AUGH I want to see these numbers most of all.
Directly from PCDL 2008-2009 comes MY FAVORITE AYUMI COSTUME OF THE LAST YEAR, which plays my love of Girls in Suits like a fiddle and then some. This costume is truly, truly outrageous, and you can't see it in the photo but those pants are slit all the way up on the sides, showing off knee-high black boots. OMG HAT. OMG TIES. OMG THIGHS. This is for 'In the Corner' - WHEEEEEEE 'In the Corner' gets Arena Tour treatment. *jumps up and down* Also of note, and I've discussed this elsewhere in conversations with myself, but Ayumi looks positively luscious in recent pics despite still being skinny, skinny, skinny. She just looks...mmm..a little bit fleshy! I love it.
AAUUUGHH WHY. This looked so beautiful in PCDL in the white, but this just killed the dress and makes Ayumi look terrible. I'm talking "Risako in 2008" unflattering, here. Ayumi is undoubtedly one of the tiniest girls in J-Pop, so when I say "she looks fat" (which I normally try NOT to say about women, so let's get that clear), IT IS A DISASTER. D: D: D: This is the costume for 'HOPE or PAIN', 'GREEN', and 'Days', which only prompts me to comment: "Really!?! This costume for THREE SONGS??" Also, so help me if Shu-ya is there flailing around the stage arrythmically like he always is, I'mma stab a bitch.
You know, when I first saw this costume my initial reaction was that I couldn't get over how terrible that wig looked. Then I really thought about the songs - 'Rollin' and 'Sparkle', both my favorite tracks from NEXT LEVEL, and figured what the Hell, it really fits the theme. It's like an 80'd blender drink spiked with extra WTF. I mean, the costumers spared no effort, obvious from looking at Shu-ya in the background, there, at making this a mosaic of vomitous 80's fashion trends. WITH SEQUINS. SEQUINS EVERYWHERE. I mean LOL HAMMER PANTS AND GEORDI LA FORGE GLASSES WTflyingF.
'NEXT LEVEL'. This I can deal with. She looks grown-up, she looks typically Ayumi-like, festooned in glitter and awesome, but she looks her age. I love that. And the costume really fits the song, IMO, though I was holding out on her actually wearing a casual, flowing dress to sing it. WHY IS SHU-YA IN THE BACKGROUND IN ALL OF THESE PICS KILL IT WITH FIRE.
My favorite part of this is the dude's hand at the bottom. "I CAN TOUCH FOREVER!!!"
Encore - what is it with idols and being unable to wear overalls correctly??? I love the assymetric look on the legs, but these are pretty hideous even by 80's standards. Also, boxy Ayumi is boxy. ILU BB.
Wow, you’re right, she’s curveless O_O never noticed that.
I love the hawt pic… is hawt :D
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My favorite costume is the third one, hands down. Everything else seems uber-representative of her own past (I think the fact that she rips herself off time and time again speaks less to her lack of ideas and more about her unwillingness to step out of the box anymore). I don’t really watch Ayumi’s concerts as diligently as I used to, often finding myself fast-forwarding through some of the less interesting songs/interpretations, but I’ll have to check this one out.
mmm to me, nothing will surpass that Mars-like silver dress with red wig she wore on the 2006 Tour D:
So, this time she had an actually decent selection.
Some of her costumes recently are really *face palm*
Her pink outfit has the wrong texture and wrong shape, making it look like some cheap dress you can get on the streets of Hong Kong. It’s almost portrays a similar feel of her Pride costume back in the (miss)understood tour and that dress was totally weird.
And yeap, the third outfit is definitely the best! At least it has some fashion sense thrown into it and I can see a character from that outfit. The rest of the costumes are a bit lost for me.
I’m really looking forward to looking at the concert~ There are so many songs that I want to see how is it even possible to perform LIVE. Hopefully it will amaze me.