The love live franchise is going strong with no showing of slowing down. We are getting new song releases from all 3 groups regularly along with a new anime season far quicker than before.
If you don’t know, Love Live is an idol anime that is extremely popular, the famous meme song Snow Halation came from the original group. Currently Love Live has 3 active Idol groups, but today we are talking about group number 3, Nijigasaki school idol club because they just had an anime release.
I reviewed season 1, and if you want to read that, go over to here: https://slippyfoptv.co.uk/2020/12/26/love-live-nijigasaki-high-school-idol-club-review/
Before I begin, I would like to say that my thoughts are in no way related to the actual people that play these characters. I am talking about the anime and not that seiyuu behind the voice. I love some of Niji’s songs, I am here to talk about the anime for Niji, not the actual real group.
So, let’s jump into it. (SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2)
We start with our story following on from the end of season 1 and we see what will be a constant theme within this anime, great animation. Niji season 1 had amazing animation and season 2 will follow suit and do better. Season 2 still has the weirdly bad details for far-away characters but makes up for it where it counts. The song performances are fantastic. The character designs are great, if you want to watch this show for the animation alone, I’d say do it. It’s no demon slayer, but as far as idol anime goes, this is the best-animated idol anime I’ve seen. But if you did watch it because of animation, you’ll probably give up because of the terrible story.
After about 2 minutes of refreshing our minds with the original cast, we jump to some new characters, not just 1 new character but 3! 3 new characters! Two foreign students and 1 student who was there all along.
These people are Mia Taylor, an American girl who comes from some rich great musical family. Lanzhu Zhong, a Chinese girl who loves idols and Shioriko Mifune, a girl who is part of the student council. These three characters are a great way to bring in something dynamic, they could easily mix things up and get in the way with their various personalities, and that’s what they do (In the video game).
Yup! That’s right, the story of the video game and the anime are different!
In the video game, the three new people cause great conflict, they cause insane turmoil to the point where real-life people actually hated and disliked Lanzhu due to how much of a villain she was. Of course, that’s the writing of a great villain but that doesn’t exist in the anime. Instead, the anime takes a very simple approach, one similar to episode 1.
We have our story start, our issue arises, they fix the issue, and we end with a song.
The song part isn’t always true this time around, but the issues are.
This is where my problems with the show begin.
Let’s talk about the story.
I criticised season 1 for having ‘no story’ but it had more of a story than this season.
As I said above, each episode is the same, with an issue that starts at the beginning of the episode and ends by the end of it. No conflict is ever developed beyond that, no issue is ever large enough to cause actual meaning to the story and if it does it is blown off within seconds.
Lanzhu was made to be this villain filled with a lot of arrogance. It’s shown that the group greatly cares about her opinion and that she is a ‘force to be reckoned with’ but the anime treats her as a joke, the main group has no reason to feel threatened by her when what we see of her is laughable. She says in episode 2 that she “Want’s the reach the top with her own two feet.” but the anime just makes her seem so bitter about everyone else. I get if they want to portray her as though she feels as if she can’t compete and is a failure, but it never really shows that. It only shows it through brief 10-second clips of her saying “I can’t replicate that.” or “I could never do that.” We never see her actually struggle with the thoughts of not being good enough. It’s a struggle so many people relate to but it just comes across as rushed.
Each Love Live group has had sub-units, these are mini-groups within the main group that sing their own songs. This time, we were given a nice treat and these sub-units were put into the anime. I like that idea, I really do. It’s just a shame it suffers the same as every other episode. These sub-unit episodes are cool but nothing happens after them. They create the sub-units and aren’t ever mentioned again. In fact, the show even puts Lanzhu’s character to the side because of these sub-units, I’d rather have a great villain and emotional drama than a messy story because they wanted to include the sub-units.
It’s filler.
Every episode in this anime is filler.
Nijigasaki has no unique features, even the parts where they were all solo idols became old quickly. The second Live Love group, Aquours, followed on from the first group with an almost identical formula, but that was where they perfected it. They did the same thing again but better, and it was more enjoyable. The character interactions felt more realistic and didn’t feel almost shoved in there because they didn’t have a cast of 11 people to worry about. Even Superstar having 5 people was so much fun, there was more time for actual developments and character interactions that felt real.
I believe that Idol anime has to also be a slice-of-life anime, or at least some other genre backing it up. At the end of the day, you need something to support this idol aspect. Niji season 2 even fails at being a slice-of-life with boring moments between the cast and uninteresting drama that no one wants to invest in. I’ve heard people online say it is a character drama but a character drama would have some sort of consequences for its story.
Next, is the character of Mia Taylor. She is Lanzhu’s friend from America. No more needs to be said about her, the plot wouldn’t matter with or without her. She has her character episode but that’s about it. If she wasn’t there some other character would take her lines.
And finally, the last character is Shioriko Mifune. She is fine. Just like Mia, she doesn’t do much. Apparently, in the game, her backstory is completely different and she is much more fierce but I’ve never played it. (I also reviewed that game when it came out).
I actually laughed out loud at one point, I laughed at how much I hated the story. I laughed because of how stupid and idiotic it was. I was laughing at myself for watching this, I was wasting my time. The only nice thing was the last episode, all the little performances were decent and nice to see the character actually have some time alone. This last episode was rushed, they are suddenly performing at their own live show, probably because the writers realised Niji has nowhere else to go and this was the only way to end it. It is a good ending, it does wrap things up nicely (if you forget everything that came before it). Although, I will say it feels more like an end for Niji as a whole (including the real-life Niji idols) more than it does an end to the anime.
Alright, next to the nitpicks. It wouldn’t be one of my reviews without nitpicking.
Mia and Lanzhu suddenly speaking their native languages seem so out of place, it doesn’t naturally flow with their dialogue. Even the stuff Mia says doesn’t feel like something a natural English person would say. She says at one point in episode 1 “I gotta use this” but it felt so unnatural. Personally something like “Let me use this” would have rolled better, but maybe it was just how the line was delivered?
Mia also throws in random English words when talking to herself, like she just randomly switches between the two languages mid sentence when no one is around. (I only speak one language so maybe this is common)
Some random people in episode 2 ask if Mia is from the “Taylor family.” As if Taylor is not some extremely unique surname in the Love Live world.
Episode 8 has a tiny boat flowing down a constant (very fast) stream of water but somehow gets stuck. Just looking at it you can tell it wouldn’t get stuck in any way. It only got stuck due to the terrible forced writing of trying to make Lanzhu perform.
The OST is good, like all Love Live seasons it has a good soundtrack but is still too afraid to be silent (a lot of anime suffer from this)
The opening is ok, nothing special. The ending is good, better than the opening.
My problem with Niji group songs is they all sound the same. Love U my Friend, L!L!L!, Tokimeki Runners and Just Believe are all generic openings that you’d expect at the start of Love Live’s career. Love Live Superstar had a great opening and an amazing credits theme, they just aren’t special anymore, after my third listen I was bored of them all.
So that’s it, let’s wrap it up.
Niji season 2 is safe, and safer than season 1 by a long shot. It introduced great characters to create conflict but ended up staying inside its comfort zone making zero progress in every direction. I’ve already spoken about the lack of consequences or change created by the episodes, nothing follows on from the last and if it does it resolves too quickly.
The animation is only the saving grace. If it had ordinary animation it would be a 4 or a 5 out of 10. If it was a written story it would be a 1.
I’m sorry, this show sucks. I don’t get why it has a higher rating than season 1 on My Anime List (probably due to the number of people voting)
If I was rating it on animation I’d give it a 9. The show has interesting characters, if they weren’t idols and had these characters be in some ordinary romance slice of life it would be good.
Love Live Nijigasaki School Idol Club Season 2 is only good due to its animation and music and is greatly ruined by what little story it claims to have. It aims for cheap character developments but gives little back to the watcher.
I give it a 5 out of 10, and that is a low 5, like a 5.2.
If there is a season 3 I will watch it with the hope of it doing something different and if I don’t see it, well, I may just give up on Niji.
Regardless, this means nothing about the group as a whole. I’m talking about the anime, not the actual people that perform these characters. They are amazing idols but are failed by production. I’ll keep listening to their new albums as I do enjoy their music. I added 3 new songs from this season to my playlists and I’m always excited for new Love Live songs.
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