If the singer sounds 100% -exactly- like the CD, and the voice seems less... disjointed from the rest of the track, I think it's pretty clear Sakura wasn't live. Just listen to Riho in that same performance, her voice doesn't blend with the track like Sakura's does.
Sakura's so tiny, lol. But gotta say that last high note by Riho in "Help me" did not bode well for her being one of the singing aces. She really struggled there.
I agree I enjoyed Love Machine a lot more than I've enjoyed it in years. And someone might be forgiven for thinking that the long-girled hair, er, long-haired girl in the corner was a slender reincarnation of Kaori.
It would be difficult to beat Kaori in the looks department, but Haruna's so cute and so sweet that I wouldn't want to compare her unfavorably to anybody -- so I'll just say that about as close to being a perfect Kaori Jr. as I could imagine.
If madness made us strong, we would all be invincible.
I consider calling her Kaori a major compliment, because Kaori was always a knock out. So when people say Haruna looks a lot like Kaori I get all happy