Love Live Superstar has just had its final episode. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to review this because I never reviewed season 1, but since I reviewed both Niji seasons, I guess I’ll review this.
Slight spoiler warning, I’ll try my best to ignore all spoilers if I can.
So, where do we begin?
The story follows as our cast of 5 is now in their second year. They are still dancing, singing and practising and dealing with the new first years in hopes of getting some new recruits. And they do just that. They get 4 new first-year recruits. So, this is the story of the new group of 9 trying to win Love Live! But, it’s not that easy. The first years aren’t as good as the second years and the second years believe that may make them lose, but after some slight change of heart, that gets thrown out the window.
That’s the biggest this season goes with conflict, until the end.
However, the times the story decides to slow down with more “slice-of-life filler” is actually when it’s at its best. It’s not trying to be something it’s not and it’s just fun to see the characters mess around.
The thing I forgot to mention was that another character exists. Her name is Wien Margarete. Wien is a solo idol who believes she is better than the rest (sound familiar?). But her motivations are what make her different from Lanzhu in Niji season 2.
Wien is one of the most unimportant characters in the show. She is a mysterious person until the final 2 episodes when all is revealed about her. In fact, her presence in episodes before the final 2 is uninteresting and hardly important. She’s a very flat character with little to go off, and the anime knows this in the final episode by having the main story be about 2 other characters instead, with Wien only being an assistant in it.
So Wien is one new character, let’s talk about the new members.
As mentioned, there are 4 new first years. They all seem to be kinda unique in one way or another.
You have Shiki who is almost emotionless (similar to another Niji character) but without a good character arc… I don’t think she really had any story arc because her arc was about her friend, Mei.
Mei is cool. She loves school idols and is a bit of a tsundere.
Natsumi is next and she is the most interesting character. She was originally very money greedy, taking a lot of jobs for money whilst trying to become famous on the Love Live version of YouTube. She initially joined the group as a producer just to get money from them secretly through her YouTube channel. It was a great character arc and a great villain. It was actually something close to being villainous. But just like every subplot in love live it lasted 2 episodes max with it being forgotten about at the end.
The final new person is Kinako. She’s the generic one, who has very little going for her apart from the fact that she is from the countryside.
These new characters are shoved to the back. The original 5 still take centre stage in almost all stories. I don’t think there was one story that didn’t involve at least 1 member from the original 5. It’s a shame but I can understand why. Every Love Live season struggles with this, but this is by far the worst.
So, that’s the characters, let’s talk animation.
It’s great! Is it better than Niji season 2? I don’t know. It’s 2 different art styles and I love them both. The animation has massively improved since the original Love Live all those years ago.
The songs are good as well.
However, I have one big complaint. Everything seems to be perfect. Any issue the group faces is solved too easily with zero repercussions. The group never changes because of what they go through and it’s almost all forgotten about. I had the same complaint with Niji in that it feels as if nothing ever happens. It all feels like we’ll never be surprised.
I highly recommend season 2, even if it is slightly weaker than season 1. There isn’t much else to it other than a fun time killer type thing. Season 3 has already been announced so we will see what that has in store for us.
But, I will say this, if season 3 doesn’t magically change the formula, I will be rating it lower, as I do not desire to watch 3 seasons of the same stuff (even though I’ve watched every Love Live season). The new season has to do something different, as now that Liella has 9 members, it has faded into the background with all the others. What made them special has been removed and they now need something different.
As a Love Live anime, it’s strong, but as a second season for an anime, it’s weak.
I give the season a 7/10.
But, since this is a Slippyfop review, let’s end with the little things.
I’ve already spoken about Wien being more useless than Lanzhu, but do you remember Sunny Passion from season 1? Well, they are there, but not much. It’s a shame that Love Live villains have never reached the peak Saint Snow did back in Sunshine. Sunshine is still my favourite Love Live anime and it still holds up better than most current seasons.
There are bits in the anime where Kanon magically teleports around Japan in what seems to be an hour. Obviously, this is so she can solve magically problems that are happening over there when they could just have someone else solve whatever problem it is.
Kanon does everything. She does everything. She almost solves every problem as if it were her own. The issues some of the new cast faces are similar to the others, but instead of having a unique person solve it each time, it’s just always Kanon.
Don’t even get me started on all the “Gaming Ren” episode.
Anyway, that’s all for me. Be sure to share, comment and follow. Thanks for reading and as always my links are below.
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