Since I spent my New Year’s Day working and then waching the two television broadcasts I’d been waiting FOREVER to see, it seems fitting that I put both the review together, here. I was just going to put them up here without any pics, but sucks to that, and your ass-mar (tits or gtfo, amirite?). I’ll just put whatever pics I can find. It’s cool! I can do zat!

Anyway, if you haven’t seen Doctor Who’s Christmas Special for 09-10, ‘The End of Time’, in its entirety, don’t read this. It will really confuse and/or spoil you (both would be hilarious). If you haven’t seen Ayumi’s Countdown Live My Titles Continue to Get Longer and Longer 09-10 ~FUTURE CLASSICS~ who gives a shit, no one cares about being spoiled on that. In fact, I think the Ayumi fan community eats spoilers for breakfast. They eat HATING ON AYUMI for lunch. I am part of the Ayumi fan community. I do not hate her. But I will give honest criticism.

Also, I’m sick as fuck and feeling very cheeky, so be prepared.

I wrote these this morning, who am I kidding. I’m only going through and adding pictures and other observations, durpity durp durp.

Countdown Live is an annual concert she holds ever New Year’s Eve-Eve and New Year’s Eve at Yoyogi Stadium. It’s essentially a concert for the fans, using older, classic songs most of the time, and recycling past stagings/choreographies to make your brain fry with nostalgia.

Well, to begin with, the logo for the concert is pretty damned metal:

And some thoughts about the concert:

‘I am…’ and ‘Moments’ sounded great, but just reinforced the common knowledge that Ayu is losing. her. voice. We can’t just blame it on her being deaf in one ear anymore, it’s really just that her range and power is GONE. Also, what the FUCK with the levels for the television broadcast? Someone could have raised the mic on Ayu just a TEENSY bit, I could hardly hear her. Of course, I still love to watch the live TBS.ch version, because it gives me a better idea of how she REALLY SOUNDS FOR REALS, and doesn’t have a chance to be whitewashed and perfected by avex’s sound department by the time DVD release rolls around. She sounded great in these first two songs, even if the music completely drowned her out, a trend that would continue.

I am one of the few who absolutely loved ‘STEP You’ and ‘EnergizE’. When I saw the boys show up in CLOWN COSTUMES, my first thought was “OH WTF DOCTOR ROCKSO NOOOOO”, but the staging and choreography were actually nice. Heads and shoulders above the “WTF”fest that was ‘ANGEL’S SONG’ last year. D: And ‘EnergizE’, with the cute Ayupan Joker card, was awesome. Comparison’s to Koda Kumi’s ‘Trick’ can DIAF.

Also, major props to her Alice-in-Wonderland pink poofy maid costume. It was so fucking cute without seeming juvenile, imo. I’m totally making that costume, once I perfect my craft with RUFFLLLEEEESSSS (I hate sewing RUUUFFFLLLLEEESSSS D: D: D: D:).

‘About you’ sucked and I did NOT like her costume.

Even though I don’t much care for ‘You were…’ as a song, I think the ballad section was her strongest in the whole show. ‘momentum’ blew me away, and she looked so classy. I also loved that Kayanocchi (it was Kayanocchi, right??) and Maro got to be the lead ballad dancers instead of motherfucking Shu-ya. ‘You were…’ gave me a ‘Carols’ vibe, but sir I know ‘Carols’ and you are no ‘Carols’. Still, ‘momentum’ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The music in ‘Pride’ once again killed her. And she started to lose her key right about now. The critical note she struck at the end of the bridge was so off it hurt, compounded by the fact that she had to hold it for about seven seconds. Didn’t care for the naked man dance, either. Much preferred AT06.

‘INSPIRE’ was cute. I do NOT like those side-split pants. Also, the costume just looks thrown together from pieces of lesser costumes. Bleh. Then I thought everything would be saved by ‘Because of you’ and ‘1LOVE’, two of the best Ayumi rock songs ever, but WTF did she do to ‘Because of you’, I don’t even. She lost her key COMPLETELY, cracked SMILES (during one of the most intense and “fuck you” pieces of music she’s ever written) and generally took me completely out of the performance. The weird “this is my mic, no this is my Excalibur and DEFINITELY NOT A MIC STAND BECAUSE THERE’S NO STAND” mic stand boggled my mind. She truncated the last, very important, note of the song and allowed playback to fill in the gap. WTF ARE YOU DOING TO MY ‘BECAUSE OF YOU’. GET BACK HERE.

The camera direction for ‘1LOVE’ was then so schizophrenic that I could barely watch. I fast-forwarded through most of it. I was THAT pissed about ‘Because of you’ sucking, especially since the first half of the concert had been so good.

I don’t even know how ‘until that Day…’ was, it seems like I JUST WATCHED IT since it’s the staging from AT07, but at least during AT07 she used playback and so it sounded good HURR HURRRRR. I ffwded that one too.

Since ‘Humming 7/4′ is my favorite Ayumi song, I expected great things. It was mediocre. It’s always mediocre, they never give it the credit it deserves, Ayu never rocks out enough on that song. Fuck it. I give up.

Fast-forwarded through ‘evolution’, who gives a shit anymore.

Also fast-forwarded through most of ‘Startin’. Also don’t give a fuck.

DAMNIT SECOND HALF OF THE CONCERT:

SO ANYWAY. The encore brought it back and kept it real.

‘teddy bear’ was amazing. I mean, the lyrics to the song alone are stab-you-in-the-heart sad, but this is coupled with the fact that Ayumi NAILED the song and even managed to do it through some decidedly non-crocodile tears, which always makes my heart go all a-flutter.

‘SUNRISE’ was a mess (even though I love that song) and nowhere near what it should be, as was ‘Boys & Girls’. Ayu seemed SO TIRED by this point. But then, at the end of ‘Boys & Girls’ as the band was winding down she suddenly became possessed by the spirit of rock and pumped the crowd for so much applause that she ended up on her hands and knees banging on the stage floor, which led to my exclamation: “BOYS & GIRLS SENDS AYUMI INTO APOPLECTIC FITS!!!!”

It was truly a rock moment for Ayumi, I can’t wait for gifs.

‘RED LINE ~for TA~’ saved the night. She was also fighting tears during that one. I’M SORRY AYUMI. THANKS TO YOUR STORIES AND YOUR SONGS, I PROMISE I WILL NEVER THINK THAT CHEAPLY ABOUT LIFE AND DEATH AGAIN. ;______;

~*~*~THEN THEY RELEASED THE BALLOONS~*~*~

I’m not kidding, there were like a thousand balloons dropped from the ceiling of Yoyogi, it was awesome.

And then I was like “eh” and concentrated on my Doctor Who download.

THUS BEGINS THE SECTION OF THIS ARTICLE RESERVED FOR DOCTOR WHO.

YE OLDE SPOILERS AHEAD.
ALSO YE OLDE WTF AHEAD.
ALSO RUSSELL T. DAVIES IS SOOO SO SO SO SOOOO RIDICULOUS.

BEHOLD, DOCTOR WHO: THE END OF TIME, PART TWO

Just some very random and unfocused thoughts, not even in any linear fashion:

- John Simm absolutely stole this show. Especially (and everyone is going to say this) the spinning-head neck-snap moment which was pretty much the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen him do. RRAAAWWWWWRRR.See, I know this was supposed to be a showcase for David Tennant and everything, but I honestly got over his departure ABOUT A YEAR AGO. We had a LOT of time to gear up for it. And honestly, David Tennant didn’t do much of anything new in this. Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE David Tennant with a burning passion, but Ten was sort of like a Jack Russell Terrier of a Time Lord – all the time, I’d be either thinking “aww you’re so cute” or “SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP MY GOD YOU’RE DRIVING ME CRAZY.” OK, let me extend that metaphor, because Jack Russell Terrirs don’t tend to have Savior Complexes. Well, anyway. I think John Simm really outshone David Tennant here. Not in Part One. In Part One he was just…what the fuck was that. What the fuck are the Secret Books of Saxon? Were they his LiveJournal in which he just happened to write down some secret Time Lord alchemy recipes to bring people back from the dead RUSSELL T. DAVIES I DON’T CARE IF YOU GAVE US SOME GOOD EPISODES I BELIEVE YOU ARE RETARDED.

Anyway:

- I am NOT pleased with the way Donna ended up. Sure she’s brilliant and had all the power of a Time Lord and forgot all about the Doctor and the fact that she saved the fucking universe – not the world but THE UNIVERSE, it’s all good now because she GOT A MAN AND WON THE LOTTERY. Oh, white trash dreams. FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. OK, so she’s happy. But it’s DONNA. She was a symbol of heroics unknown. I don’t know…I don’t think they could have done anything with Donna that would have pleased me. Therefore, my criticism is invalid, there. But here’s the part where my criticism IS valid: WHAT THE FUCK, we were led to believe all this time that if she ever remembered her time with the Doctor that she would reach Critical Mass and her head asplode? NO NOT REALLY, Ten explains it away with one line after she just takes out a few MasterClones and passes out. D: D: D: That is not okay.

- Now, Mickey and Martha I NEVER SAW coming. But it made me squeee like a little baby. I love Martha, she is all-around my favorite RTD-era companion. And I love Mickey (he NEVER deserved to be treated like such a buttmonkey, amirite?). I think the two of them worked out perfectly together, and looked badass doing it. Yaaaaaayyyy!!!

- OH JACK AND ALPHONSO. *facepalm* Because we KNOW Jack is going to treat him right and love him, don’t we? 9_________________________9 Oh, please, give me a break. I was sort of hoping that Jack would just run up to the Doctor and passionately kiss him, FINALLY, which would have been COMPLETELY in character and would have erupted the fan world, but nooooooOOOOOooo I’m RTD, Jack will do anything that moves

- Wilf. WILF. WIIIILLLFFF. ;___________________________________; That is right up there with the saddest Doctor Who moments EVER. The conversation he has with the Doctor after he knocks on the glass is by far some of the best writing RTD has done, so props for that. Epic props for that.

- I still have no fucking clue where RTD got his science with the whole “blah blah The Signal blah blah The Diamond Point Star blah blah GALLIFREY IS BACK” logic leap, but ooooookay. MAGIC TIME TRAVEL SPACE DIAMOND. JAMES BOND IS FUCKING RASSILON. THE TIME LORDS MADE THE MASTER INSANE ON PURPOSE, IS THAT WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? MAGIC TIME TRAVEL SPACE DIAMOND. Good song title. And before any of this happens, James Bond has a fucking Power Glove. It’s so bad. RUSSELL T. DAVIES I STILL BELIEVE YOU ARE RETARDED.

- But I guess that Time Travel Space Diamond is okay, because it led to that absolutely heart-smashing Doctor vs. Master vs. James Bond moment, The Doctor USING A GUN WTF (even if it was on a machine), and MASTER SACRIFICING HIMSELF HEROICALLY BAAAAWWWWWW BAAAAWWWWWW. Their love is so pure. Also, to harken back to earlier: “You could be so beautiful”. There are not enough ;_______;’s

- WAIT, LET’S SAY THAT AGAIN, THE MASTER SACRIFICED HIMSELF HEROICALLY. :O :O :O :O :O :O He totally had me going with his morally rainbow-colored self during the whole episode, but baaaawww at his exit. John Simm, love of my life, I will miss your sexass blonde self, but damn you went out with style. And it wasn’t in that “I’m going to do a face heel turn and redeem myself for no reason” way, because really, who wants to save the Doctor’s preachy ass? (I’m speaking from The Master’s possible pov, here) NO, THE MASTER WANTS TO KILL THE FUCK OUT OF THE TIME LORDS BECAUSE THEY MADE HIM CRAZY AND HE’S DYING ANYWAY, OKAY? If he hadn’t been made crazy maybe he and his childhood best friend would have traveled the galaxy together and The Doctor never would have fallen for that inept blonde. Baaaawww.

- To quote Warren Ellis: “I hope the next Doctor doesn’t have his doctorate in FUCKING CRYING”

- Although I’ll admit I choked up at Ten’s last line, delivered with absolutely heart-smashing realization and sincerity: “I don’t wanna go.” BAAAWWWWWW YOU SANCTIMONIOUS BASTARD BAAAAAWWWW.

- I swear to God, Matt Smith, I am holding a Sword of Damocles over your head, you’d better not fuck this up.