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Unfunny, unoriginal, not worth your time
Let me set the stage for you a little bit. You discover this basically unheard-of anime, barely any favorites, Akikan (or Empty Can). Pretty old, manga adaptation. You read the synopsis: Soda cans that transform into human women. It’s a captivating premise – Very weird and offbeat, certifiably 'Japanese' in the way people stereotype bizarre aspects of this culture. You can imagine how equating women to soda cans– Empty soda cans, literal trash, is critical of what many many manga, anime, light novels already do, but in a way that’s more obvious. What could it choose to do with this setup? What kind of story does it want to tell with this unique idea? A piece on how love is fleeting and expires quickly? Something feminist? A meta-commentary? You hear what some of the EDs sound like – Melancholic, almost in a way that explores a postmodern vision of love and relationships. They’re explorative of different genres, evoking the different kinds of people one may meet in life, how being exposed to them just teaches you about these different aspects of the world, and how personalities reflect that. You watch the show and it has absolutely none of that.
Akikan is a harem rom-com which stars a perverted high schooler who likes telling jokes, his tsundere servant girlfriend, his childhood friend who is in love with him for any reason other than his personality, and a homophobic stereotype main villain. That’s not a very attractive introduction, but fret not – It gets worse!
We begin Akikan meeting Kakeru, the aforementioned perverted protagonist. He’s hated by his classmates for… being sex-pesty and generally unlikeable. Okay, that’s not very appealing as a character, and his jokes aren’t very funny to the audience either. Ideally, a character like this should be charming, or at least a little funny, but Kakeru is unfortunately neither. You think to yourself, surely the crux of the show is how he grows as a person, but that simply isn’t the case. He remains completely static. It doesn’t help that every character in this show is attached to him for any reason except liking him on a fundamental level. His soda-turned girlfriend inexplicably feels indebted to him, his childhood friend wants to pay him back for what’s essentially a favor, the homophobic villain likes him because it’s a joke the show plays… but I’m getting ahead of myself. A protagonist you can’t get behind is obviously a bad start.
The show gets its main love interest when Kakeru buys a can of melon soda from a vending machine on the way home from school – Lo-and-behold, the can transforms into an attractive anime woman! She’s embarrassed at first because putting lips on a can to drink from it is equivalent to kissing on the lips, and some slapstick shenanigans ensue. Ah, but wait – Kakeru actually collects soda cans as a hobby. A twist! He values limited-edition cans enough to keep some in a display case in his room. How unique! What does the show decide to do with this…?
Basically nothing. You’d expect maybe that one of his other cans would turn into a girl, too? But no. It’s barely mentioned after episode 1, even. Here’s a character development shortcut if you want to make them seem more interesting: Have a character ‘collect’ something. This is hardly a character trait, but you never have to act on it or bring it up ever again. It’s a shortcut.
Anyway, this is how we meet our first love interest: Melon – Named as such because she’s transformed from a Melon-flavored Soda can. Fair enough, I guess. She’s very typical tsundere-slapstick anime girl, the kind of trope that goes back decades. She’s got a fairly nice design, yellow hair, green dress, some spherical hair clip things that fizz. Soda can girls – Or as they’re called in the show, Akikan (Hey, that’s the show name!), have some properties that separate them from normal humans. Firstly, they’re spiritually bonded to their owner. Whoever drank out of them first is their owner, and they all stay attached to them. Secondly, they don’t need normal sustenance to survive, and only need to cannibalize the same type of beverage they typify – If they run out of their original liquid, they’ll die. In other words, they just need to be refilled. Third, they have special attacks. Melon can shoot carbonated beams and form magical, melon-shaped barriers. Finally, they can all transform back into their can form and telepathically communicate with whoever their owner is.
After their meeting we’re introduced to the main antagonist, Hidehiko Otoya. He’s one of my biggest problems with the show. He’s some kind of bureaucrat who’s overextending his reach to research these Akikan girls, always accompanied by his secretary, Airin Kizaki. Also, he is an outdated and offensive homophobic stereotype. And the show just keeps. over. handing. It. It plays all the tropes you could imagine: Creeping on the mc guy, creeping on his other male friends, generally being out of pocket, lacy underwear, a bit of gender nonconformity, all of it. Yes, it was a different time, but retrospect can’t change the enjoyment you have with something now. Because, frankly – It is pretty disgusting to watch! The show obviously wants you to see it that way, but that doesn’t make it any less unpleasant. And, well, it’s just an awful stereotype. Offensive and harmful in every sense, it’s not even funny. Seriously just one of my main issues with the series is this guy, it makes me feel awful seeing it on screen.
Anyway, we learn about an ‘Akikan elect,’ which involves other Akikans meeting and fighting to see who’s stronger. From here, there’s a bit of focus on Kakeru’s friend, Najimi. She’s a soft-spoken girl with a wealthy upbringing, and she’s still got a little crush going on. She buys an energy drink from a vending machine one day and boom – It’s yet another Akikan. From a Yell! sports drink can brings Yell, a loyal, old-fashioned kind of girl who fights with a summoned energy sword.
That’s another facet of Akikans that is important, the kind of drink they spawn from influences their personality. The energy drink made for refreshing athletes, personified as Yell, is more honorable, sort of like Saber from Fate/stay night. Another Akikan we meet later on spawns from grape juice, and since she’s a drink made for kids, she’s a kid herself, who likes to get into shenanigans. She turns into kind of a minor antagonist for the show, but mainly in a, ‘characters want to stay clear of this annoying kid’ kind of way.
From there, the show kind of mellows out – There’s typical romcom shenanigans, beach episode, misunderstandings, fights that break out over earning Kakeru’s heart. I was a little tapped out in the middle of the show with how cliche it was, just going through the romcom motions. I remember near the beginning of the series when they decide Melon should start attending school to blend in as a normal human, there’s a little scuffle over how Melon can’t eat normal food, but she has to hide that fact to conceal that she lives by consuming melon soda. It’s notable because, well, that’s maybe the least interesting conflict you could possibly have with these characters.
And that’s kind of the nail in the coffin for this show – It’s not original. From my little summary, try to tell me the difference between an Akikan and, say, an alien from outer space that’s superpowered and can only eat cookies. There… kind of isn’t one. Their status as soda cans is the concept behind the show, yet it feels like the show never plays to this strength. You could stand-in Akikans for just about any other kind of secret identity type of super-powered girl, be it aliens, or saiyans, or whatever. They don’t feel like they’re soda cans, is my point. The death knell is Kakeru’s soda can collection. It’s never brought up past the first episode, so what’s the point? You see a collection like that and your mind starts to think of all the possibilities – Maybe he already owns several Akikans? He’d want to keep Melon in her can form? But, nope. You can say it shows he values cans more than the average person, but I hope he would – This one turns into a girl!! Anyone would be stupid if their empty soda can turned into a girl and they still threw it away! It’s a given she’d be more important, it’s not a matter of collecting them or not!
You could do just about anything else with the concept of soda cans that turn into girls, and the show just feels so stagnant. Harem of girls interested in one guy is a very uninteresting concept, especially with character tropes that were prevalent even far before the anime aired. If I had seen more of the classics I’d be able to pinpoint their inspirations, but even I can tell how cliched some of these are. Japan famously has the funniest soda mascot in the world with Pepsiman, a kind of aluminum alien who fixes every issue with Pepsi, and the best Akikan can do is girls with a soda lazer. Take a little inspiration! Like… from the concept alone I would assume this show involves collecting a bunch of different-flavored girls like they’re pokemon. Maybe it’s less progressive than how the show already is, but… Well, it’s not very good at juggling its already small cast as-is. A show with a regressive concept doesn’t necessarily have to endorse whatever it puts on display (Granted, Akikan as it is can hardly be considered progressive, anyway), but that’s far more nuanced than Akikan can really accomplish. Even the vending machine angle has been done better – Japan has some of the most complex vending machine mechanics on the planet, ranging from emergency services, unique product lineups. Reborn as a Vending Machine does something more original with this prompt, even if it largely devolves into vending machine trivia.
On the production side, there are some slightly interesting things of note, I guess. Akikan was animated by Brain’s Base in 2009. They haven’t been relevant lately outside of some later Golden Kamuy seasons, but they used to put out some notable things back in the day. In ye olden days, they did a few mecha shows. Akikan in particular was coming off the heels of Baccano the year before, and led right into Mawaru Penguindrum the year after – Two shows that are much better than Akikan! Our main character Kakeru was voiced by Jun Fukuyama, the same voice actor as Lelouch. This is pretty funny to me for a couple of reasons; He’s hardly known for any voice acting roles outside of Lelouch so the few he does do are even funnier. Plus, both roles actually sound quite different. If I wasn’t aware of it, I would never have made the connection. Something also pretty interesting is that this was actually one of Aoi Yuki’s first voice acting roles, as the grape juice Akikan. She was pretty on-point, but I was a little surprised to see it. Then again, this was only two years before Madoka, nothing too crazy. It’s also a little interesting to see Aki Hata was on for songwriting. She’s all over the place, but I know her mainly for her work on Love Live.
I enjoyed very little of my time with Akikan, but it’s interesting to see it as a bit of a stepping stone for some different parties. The music is very nice though, as I mentioned earlier – On a technical level, Akikan is fine, maybe even above average. The opening has some nice animation, fights are about okay. EDs are all very nice, 12 different songs in all, my favorite aspect of the show was looking forward to the kind of song I’ll be hearing at the end of an episode. Character designs are decent, something I also mentioned earlier, each Akikan in particular stands out as well representative of their respective beverage. It’s simply the contents of each episode that I loathe – I’ve been holding off saying it because of the obvious pun, but Akikan is garbage. It’s trashy romance shlock, not worth your time. I guess you could say it has little nutritional value, for the soda joke. Recommend a hard skip for this show.
Oh, but the OVA is alright. Anime girls in an onsen doing yuribait stuff? That’s the kind of shlock that I can get behind.
More than the sum of its parts
If you’re clicking on this Anilist page randomly (or coming here from my profile), you’re probably seeing this weird, cheap-looking anime named ‘Devidol’ that you’ve never heard of before, regardless of context there’s probably one thing on your mind: What the hell is Devidol?
Well I’ll tell you right now: It’s an ad. Specifically, it's for ‘Island’, a pachinko parlor in Akihabara. Yes – It’s an ad for gambling! The three main girls, Aira, Hana, and Shima are the mascots of the parlor. You can see in the ‘relations’ tab under this anime, a TV short named ‘KochinPa!’ Those are commercials. Literal commercials. A set of 15 second ads, a few of them are on Vimeo, I think? There are some weird things listed on Anilist sometimes.
Don’t be put off by that, though! I actually want to try convincing people to give Devidol a shot with this review here. Yes, seriously! Even though it has crappy animation, a low average score and is obscure enough to not even get a Wikipedia entry, I think Devidol is honestly worth a shot.
For starters, I want to talk about the staff. Some seasoned anime fans may have recognized a few of the voice actors in this show, specifically for the idols (I’d be surprised if you recognized Ryou Fukawa, but that’s not impossible, I guess). This cast is pretty stacked, but before them, the director.
One thing you might notice about Devidol is that it looks like it was animated in MMD. There’s a good reason for this: It was. Coming off his work on gdgd Fairies and SeHa Girls, this is a director familiar with the technology he’s working with, and has a unique vision. He’s also multitalented, having done music stuff in the past. A renaissance man! There are some more semi-notable names, like SunaP on composing and MasatakaP as producer. Both of them are in familiar territory, I think they do Vtuber stuff now.
Now onto the voice actors, whom I really want to talk about. Our main girl/Island mascot, Aira, is voiced by Suzuko Mimori. Taking over the role previously done by Pile in KochinPa (Guess she had better stuff to do? Lol), Mimorin is the premier character singer of the 2010s, save for maybe Yoko Hikasa. You could make a good argument for Yui Horie, but I associate her more with the 2000s.
And Mimorin of course does a great job here, too. I hardly think she needs an introduction, but just in case you don’t know the name, you’ve likely heard her in Love Live as Umi, Hikari in RevStar, Cure Earth in Healin’ Good Precure, Nanami in Kamisama Kiss, Kanae in Teekyuu, or one of her other few hundred roles. She does a lot, so it’s interesting to see her in a low-key project like this.
Our other two idols have some big names attached to them too, Kana Hanazawa as Hana and Yuka Iguchi as Shima. Both are pretty well-known for their roles in the Monogatari series, and being in that show, you’re gonna be prompted to do some character singing eventually. They’ve got some other pretty big roles, too.
Finally there’s the enigmatic Rocket-sensei, done by comedian Ryou Fukawa, or ‘Rocketman’. This touches on an aspect of the show I’d like to get into: Devidol doesn’t really adhere to the structure of a typical anime. Each episode is split into three sections: There’s a skit with the three girls, slice of life stuff. Then they have a lecture from Rocket-sensei, about some aspect of idols. Sometimes it feels like Rocket-sensei isn’t an amazing teacher, but his heart is definitely in the right place.
This transitions into the final part, which is closer to a variety show than it is a scripted anime. Seriously, I’m pretty sure that a good amount of this show is improv done with the VAs and then animated over with some basic model movements/lip flaps. It sounds weird, but it’s real, and really great to watch. It’s the main reason I’d like to know more about how/why this show was made, this is such a bizarre and unique concept, and it’s where the show really shines.
A bit of honesty here for a sec – I don’t go out of my way to watch many comedy anime. Anilist might SAY I watch a lot of comedy anime but it’s lying, it puts that tag on anything. Some of those shows are NOT comedies. Anyway, I feel like a lot of comedy anime just aren’t very funny. When I think back on them, there are one or two jokes I pinpoint as ‘good’ jokes that I laughed at. Not the case with Devidol! Not a moment of rest in this show, it’s always throwing something new at you. It’s an aspect the shitty animation kind of helps with, the bit wouldn’t work as well if this was a normal-looking show with stilted frames of generic character faces holding for minutes at a time.
Yes, this show is very unique-looking, to say the least. The 3d is choppy and the environments are just weird. Clashing, neon colors with the only cohesion being that they don’t match each other at all. Even the MCs aren’t safe, if you look at their hair from an angle, it looks irritating, too. Yes, I try not to give too much shade to bad animation, but make exceptions in that regard when it legit hurts to look at. It helps watching this show on low brightness.
(Weirdly, I think the first episode in particular is worse than the others? I went back and looked for this review, and the hair colors of the girls are a bit washed out after episode 2. They might have heard the criticism and altered the show mid-way through, with such a low-cost show it would definitely be possible, too.)
This all transitions into, well, I guess my thesis. Devidol is weird, even for anime. Like I said, it’s a very unique show, it stands out amongst its peers- other idol shows, music shows, web shows, CG shows, it’s unforgivably bizarre, cheap-looking, and unique. Its identity is so strong, it seriously is one-of-a-kind. And I think a lot more people need to experience something this unique. I think it’s a pretty popular opinion now that anime is a tired medium; manga adaptations, isekai, animators getting worked to death. Devidol, while I wouldn’t consider it brave or anything, is its own thing, unabashedly. People need more variety in the things they consume, even anime! It's easy to have your first impressions when you see what Devidol looks like, but personally, I’ve seen a lot of shows that have great animation and still suck. That’s why I implore you to watch Devidol. It’s weird, yeah, but it has its charm. Funny characters, a catchy opening. I can guarantee you at least one thing: You’ve never seen anything like it.
If you noticed this review, and clicked on it, please feel free to give this review a like, or thumbs up or whatever it’s called. I seriously doubt anyone is gonna pay any attention to this show, so just knowing people visited this would be great. If you gave Devidol a shot because of me, let me know! Especially if you had a good time with it. i seriously had that good of a time, one of my favorite from the year it's from. It’s weird to call Devidol a hidden gem, but that’s kinda how I feel about it – Semi-spoilers here, but in the final episode, there’s a shot parodying other popular shows from the same season. Golden Wind, Goblin Slayer, ZLS, Gridman. It just makes me think of these shows I look back on, Devidol was there this whole time, this hidden gem, waiting to be discovered. Our main girl Aira actually has a twitter account, but it’s inactive. Do not despair, though! You can still follow her antics on the official Akiba Island account! https://x.com/akiba_island
A (very long) overview of my thoughts of the Love Live Sunshine project.
INTRODUCTION
Love Live Sunshine is ok.
Hot take of the century, I know.
In case you don’t know what Love Live Sunshine is, it’s part of a multimedia project known as Love Live! and is sort of a sequel to Love Live! School Idol Project. The media in question includes anime, movies, mobile games, manga, songs, live performances of said songs, and a shit ton of merchandise. Love Live! Sunshine!! in particular focuses on Chika Takami, an upbeat schoolgirl from Numazu who doesn’t take no for an answer becoming a school idol to escape the fate of just being a normal girl. She forms the group known as Aqours, alongside her friends, tomboy high-diver You Watanabe and disaster-lesbian pianist Riko Sakurachi, and they meet more friends along the way. Those would be shy idol-lover Ruby Kurosawa, big-eater country-girl Hanamaru, self-aware chuuni Yoshiko Tsushima, strict student prez/Ruby’s onee-chan Dia Kurosawa, mature-yet-easygoing Kanan Matsuura, and rich-girl funnyman Mari Ohara. Also, they become rivals with school idol group Saint Snow, consisting of Sarah Kazuno and Leah Kazuno, her tsundere sister. They end up trying to save their school from being shut down, and entering Love Live to do so. (Yes, Love Live is an actual thing within the series Love Live. In universe, it’s a contest between school idols to see who’s the best.)
This is gonna be a complete overview not only of the Love Live Sunshine Movie, but Love Live Sunshine in general. (Although it will be mostly about the anime and music, I don’t play the gacha and I haven’t read much of the manga, lol).
It should also be said that the Sunshine project technically isn’t over. As of writing this, there are albums that have yet to release, PVs that have yet to drop, and lives that have yet to happen. µ’s, the stars of Love Live!! School Idol Project, lasted around 6 years until disbanding, not counting their single that released just last year, so I estimate that Aqours has about 2 years left until the fun’s over. I don’t really want to wait that long, so just keep that in mind.
I’ve got a couple of things to say about Sunshine, so I figure the best place to start is the beginning.
ANIME
If you don’t want to hear me rant about a gay idol TV show for two million paragraphs (or you don’t want spoilers), then I’ll give an overview right here.
Love Live Sunshine is a subpar anime, and how much you enjoy it is strictly defined by how much you enjoy the characters. The plot is nothing new. The dance sequences, while much better than that of its proceeding season - are still not the best, and even the animation besides that is standard stuff. The pacing is pretty garbage, and usually serves to prioritize having moments of ‘cute girls doing cute things,’ or as I like to call it: filler. If you’re fine with all that and just want to see a good cast of cute girls dancing to jpop while trying to save their school, as well as the slice-of-life hijinks that accompany it, then Love Live Sunshine is for you. And no, you don’t have to watch School Idol Project first.
Alright, now time for my actual review of the whole anime. Spoilers inbound, if you care.
To Sunshine’s credit, the first episode is pretty damn solid. The opening scene where a mysterious, elegant girl walks in, crimson hair whisking in the wind, all to the tune of a soothing piano… good stuff. And not just that! I really like how it introduces Chika, You, and Dia, as well as Yoshiko. Having Chika be the ‘normal girl’ straight from the offset is pretty basic storytelling, but hey, it’s good. Dia’s introduction is also pretty standard, and I wish they played on the ‘gatekeeper’ aspect of her character a little more, but whatever. Yoshiko’s weird spheal becomes pretty par for the course over the series, but I really like this line from the dub.
And You teasing Chika about becoming a school idol because she knows it fires her up is honestly some of the best characterization in the entire series. It’s a great example of showing how deep their relationship is, how they play off each other, and why they’re even friends in the first place, without them explicitly saying “wow we’re such good friends,” to each other, unlike a certain other group of childhood friends this show has. Ahem.
A couple of the other character introductions are a bit sub-par, for my tastes. Mari says one line, then dips for the rest of the episode. Although that’s excusable, because her introduction is moreso later in the series, unlike Kanan, who barely has an introduction, she just shows up. But I suppose if they had to put every character in this episode, it could have been worse. Kanan not having enough content is gonna be kind of a running theme throughout the series, by the way, which leads into another point I’ll make later.
Also, Kimeta Yo Hand in Hand is a bop, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there.
I’ll try not to be this in-depth for every episode. That would take way too long.
A weirdly specific thing I noticed about Sunshine - at least season 1 - was that they seemed to have the explicit goal of “not being the School Idol Project again.” To be fair, they did fulfill this goal. That’s why instead of their first performance being in front of an empty house, the power goes out. That’s why when Chika hears the school is shutting down, she initially celebrates. That’s why instead of saving the school, they lose it. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I’d rather have this than a show that hits the same beats as School Idol Project. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Back to the power going out in episode 3. I knew they weren’t gonna pull an empty house again, because the impact wouldn’t be as great. So the replacement, being the power outage, while a solid scene in and of itself, really just isn’t as good as its School Idol Project counterpart. This may seem like an oddly specific point to make, and it kind of is, but it leads to one of my main points on Sunshine. In some, keyword some, areas, School Idol Project is better.
The rest of the season is kind of weird to talk about because holy shit, there’s a lot of filler. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Love Live Sunshine feels as if they wrote a basic outline, animated all of the important scenes and dance sequences, and then went "oh shit we still have 2 hours of screen time left to fill." The emotional scenes are pretty good! The dance scenes are pretty good! The character development… varies, but it’s there! Unfortunately, a good half of this series is taken up by a bunch of filler. In season one alone, the girls hand out fliers, go to Tokyo, film a video, run a snack shop, go to Tokyo (again), and do a whole bunch of other slice of life stuff not worth mentioning. Love Live has never had good pacing, and it probably never will, but man, that snack shop shit was boring as fuck.
The pacing ties into another problem I mentioned previously. Remember Kanan? She doesn’t join Aqours until episode 9, alongside Mari and Dia. The difference here is that Mari and Dia played active roles in the story up until this point, as Director and Student Council Prez respectively. Kanan doesn’t even go to school until episode 9, so she’s basically just vibing off screen for 3/4ths of this season. And like I said, she doesn’t have a strong introduction either, so the sudden emotional moment between her and Mari in episode 9 doesn’t hit as hard as it could have, if Kanan was more established up to this point. But nope! The first eight episodes are half filler. Kanan’s emotional beats throughout the story are pretty damn good, but man, this could have been executed way better.
Anyways, the other emotional beats are enjoyable, when they want to be. The third year drama, while not at its climax just yet, is entertaining, and sometimes a little sad. I’m not the biggest fan of Hanamaru or Yoshiko, but their episodes are both fairly decent. They both set up some important character traits, and I suppose that at the very least, that’s what they’re supposed to do. On the other hand, You’s solo episode is a different beast entirely. You is sad, frustrated, and she dislikes herself (hate is a strong word) because she can’t bring herself to be honest with her friend. These are all pretty realistic feelings, and it’s something that really anyone would feel in that situation. Not to mention how You’s heart-to-heart with Mari is really one of the better scenes in the whole series. I feel the episode’s resolution could have been executed better (I mean seriously, they build it up as if You is gonna confess to Chika or something and then they just talk to each other, what gives? Their relationship doesn’t even change for the rest of the series after the fact), but overall, I really like that episode. Also, GLASSES YOU GLASSES YOU GLASSES YOU GLASSES YOU
One last thing. The Saint Snow character introduction is quite possibly the peak of Love Live.
Chika hearing a beautiful melody, only for the two girls singing it to turn around, one congratulating her and the other doing a fucking backflip over the first years… In a word, it’s kino.
Overall, Season 1 could have been better, but it did the job, and it did it pretty well, at times.
There was something very weird I noticed with season 2. If you listen to the ost, there’s a leitmotif throughout a lot of the songs. If you don’t know what a leitmotif is, it’s a recurring musical theme throughout a piece of media. If you want a more comprehensive explanation, here’s an article describing the history of leitmotif, alongside its use in The Empire Strikes Back. https://soundtrackfest.com/en/articles/the-music-of-star-wars-the-leitmotif-and-its-use-in-the-empire-strikes-back/
Love Live Sunshine’s specific leitmotif is most prominent in Okosou kiseki o! (Miracle Rising!), about sixty five seconds in. Timestamped for convenience.
Here are a couple other examples of the leitmotif I could find, all timestamped.
Yume o tobu kami hikouki (A Flying Paper Plane in a Dream) Fifty six seconds in
Hello New Season! Sixteen seconds in
Todokanai omoi (Unreachable Feelings) Sixteen seconds in
Gekisou! Mikan torokko (Faster! Mikan Truck) Six seconds in
Dia-chan to youbaretai (I wanted to be called Dia-chan) Just starts with it, no need for timestamp
This probably isn’t all of them, but you get the idea.
Love Live Sunshine being a music anime, you’d figure that the last song they perform would include that very leitmotif in it, to deliver a big, musical send off to the entire season, but… nope! We get Water Blue New World, followed up by WONDERFUL STORIES. Not to dig on those songs or anything, but man, that’s one hell of a missed opportunity.
Moving on. Before I talk about anything else, I want to mention the continued use of a paper airplane. It’s used in the first and last episode, as well as the movie. It’s even in this season’s op. I’m not completely sure on what it represents, but my best guess is probably Chika herself. No, I don’t know how that makes sense. Despite this being a pretty simple use of symbolism, it is a use of symbolism, and any slightly above average storytelling technique is worth mentioning in a review of Love Live.
Anyways, this season has a lot of filler as well. Big surprise, I know.
It’s almost hard to write this review because christ, there’s a lot of filler. At least half this season can aptly be described with, “they fuck around and do some cute stuff.” As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure literally nothing happens in episode 12. I’ll ignore all that, and try to cover the important stuff, starting from episode 1.
This is not a good first episode. The girls go to school, Mari finds out the school is set to close unless they get 100 applicants, they get a studio to practice in, and Chika runs to a field. And for 20 minutes, that’s it. The only somewhat effective emotional moment is Kanan confronting Mari over what she heard from her Dad. And that scene is short. Every other scene overstays its welcome by at least a minute. At the end of the episode, Chika wakes up early, runs to a random field and does the anime scream thing. You know, where they scream loudly and the camera pans out.
Now, here’s where one of my main problems with S2 comes in. With most of the emotional moments between two characters, they decide to randomly throw more characters into the scene, and kill a lot of the tension. This may seem like a nitpick, but it happens in almost every episode. When Chika runs to this field and screams her heart out, You is there, for no reason. Now, they could’ve taken this opportunity to have a scene of Chika venting to her best friend. But, You nods to the left, revealing that everyone in Aqours is in this random field, at six in the morning, waiting for Chika. Why would you do that? God knows that You doesn’t have a whole lot of screentime in this season, we could’ve used that one on one.
Not a whole lot happens in episode 2 and 3, but there’s this weird continuity moment that I want to mention? The main plot of ep 3 is how they basically have to perform in two places at once: the Love Live qualifiers, and the school open house, because of an unfortunately timed delay. They decide that four of them will go to the qualifiers, and five to the open house. However, Chika finds a solution before the event, and they end up performing at both. But here’s the thing. At the first performance, the four of them are shocked when the other five show up, even though they found a solution beforehand?
I don’t know, it’s a small thing, and doesn’t matter, but it goes to show that they could have really planned this out better.
Episode 4 is filler, but I actually kind of like it. It focuses on Dia wanting to be addressed with ‘-chan’ by her juniors. It’s mostly fluffy stuff and humor derived from Dia being awkward, but I found it worth mentioning purely because of how they decided to translate this episode over in the dub.
Episode 5 is the YohaRiko episode, and I swear, this is the one time in season 2 where two characters are allowed to have good one-on-one personal relations without being interrupted. It focuses on the both of them taking care of a dog, but they end up having a blooming relationship after Riko opens up about her troubles.
Now I’ll admit, I’m not a YohaRiko man. I’m not even a Yoha man, but I like this episode. Yoshiko’s cute when she isn't in chuuni mode, and Riko is good in basically every scene, so this just kinda works. This is low-key one of the best eps in the season, not gonna lie.
Episode six is a Chika focused episode, which isn’t really worth mentioning outside of the fact that it is probably the most egregious example of the “and everyone was there,” thing this season has going on.
In episode seven, the school applicant deadline is quickly approaching, and with little to no time left, all the girls can do is watch the school applicant number as the clock clicks down.
But they don’t make it. They fall just short, at 98 applicants.
I like this moment. A lot. Chika being hit with reality, and being hurt, and screaming, and hating herself, before getting cheered up when her friends push her on, it’s a good character moment. Possibly one of my favorites, as far as Chika is concerned.
I actually really like episode eight and nine, so I’ll talk about them really quick. First, though, you should know that I really like Saint Snow. Second, you should know that these two episodes heavily involve Saint Snow.
Leah ends up making a mistake in the Love Live qualifiers, and they don't make it to the finals. Leah ends up blaming herself for this, and cries in her room. By some weird coincidence, Aqours eats at the restaurant that the Saint Snow duo runs, and Ruby sees Leah crying. Seeing that they are both younger siblings in a similar position, Ruby proposes that they make a song together, and Ruby ends up staying there for a while to finish the song. Alongside Hanamaru and Yoshiko, because like I said, this show likes to do that. This climaxes in Dia and Sarah watching their sister perform a beautiful song, and Leah deciding that she’ll start her own idol group.
RubyLeah is good, you guys. Like, real good. The dynamic between a shy girl and a tsundere both coming out of their shell for each other could probably fit the definition for peak relationship. This is some of the most grounded, down-to-earth action in all of Love Live. I wish there was more to it, but two episodes definitely isn’t bad.
Aqours then win the Love Live, yada yada. The song they perform is Water Blue New World, which is alright. Not really my thing, I guess, and not the song I would choose for the near end of the season. As I stated earlier, Episode 12 is basically a whole lot of nothing. The girls go one-by-one stating why they want to win the Love Live for most of it, which is a weird directing choice, especially because it’s a really boring moment that goes on for way too long.
Episode thirteen is a bit better. The first shot of Chika overlooking the beach alongside their Love Live flag is a memorable shot. The episode then turns into a reflection of the first episode, with a lot of the character introductions redone in a way to show the growth they’ve all undergone throughout the series. They decide to draw a big rainbow with the soul colors of all the girls as the lines across the front of the school. This probably qualifies as damage of public property, but whatever. The dialogue of the girls overlooking the school for the last time is pretty solid, for what it is. I especially like Hanamaru wanting Yoshiko to shut the door on the library with her, a really well done scene. Not to mention, You telling Riko how much she looooooooooooooooves her is one of my favorite scenes in this show. (I like YouRiko ok? There isn’t a whole lot to go off of for that ship, let me have this.)
For some reason, the season 1 op plays in the middle of this episode, in what I can only assume is an attempt to replicate the encore scene from the original Love Live, but here, it’s not led into at all, and doesn’t make any sense. Oh well, at least the song goes hard. The girls cry a little - a lot - say their goodbyes, and close the gate to the school, one last time.
And then Chika throws a paper airplane and it lands on the school’s rooftop, for some arbitrary reason. They go through background shots and play lines from the previous season, hoping to invoke some cheap emotion. I’ll be honest, it sort of works, but this feels cheap as hell. When Chika goes to the auditorium she sees that - say it with me - the rest of Aqours is there for no reason. They decide to perform one last song, to end the season on.
And it’s really good, actually. WONDERFUL STORIES goes fairly hard, and there are definitely worse ways to end a season. This scene in particular decides to cut between the locations and outfits of all the previous performances, and it’s well done. The last shot ends on them posing in front of the school, with the rainbow from earlier shining down over them. The curtain drops down over them, and season two is brought to a close.
Love Live Sunshine The School Idol Movie Over the Rainbow
For what it’s worth, this movie has a fucking perfect opening. The camera pans down on the school, and we see what follows the last performance of season 2. The girls get together and sing one more song. The song Bokura no Hashittekita Michi wa… comes in, and we hear once more about how a zero turned into a one. The first and second years do their thing for a minute, we see a few establishing shots of the town, then the kino starts. A flurry of twirling skirts fly past the camera, and we get to see the third years in action. As we hear their segment of the song, all the background characters dance along to the - as well, which looks really damn good by Love Live standards. A couple more shots of the girls dancing from various locations throughout the show. Then, a solo shot with Chika, and the song slows down. The rest of the girls rush straight past her in a scene that probably symbolizes how Chika isn’t alone, and then we’re reminded again that it’s no longer a zero. The curtain on this story opens once more, and the camera pans to the sky, following the paper airplane, which then turns into an actual airplane, and bam! Right on cue with the music, title card.
This scene is just really fuckin’ good, okay? There isn’t really a better way to start your Love Live sunshine movie with a celebration, and what a celebration this is. All the townspeople, background dancers and even the dog dancing along with a song adds to the scene in a great way. It’s like the welcoming party for the return of animated Aqours and everyone’s invited. I really just can’t get my thoughts on this scene across in words. It’s like watching an actual live, you get caught up in the moment, and you just want to jump and dance to the beat. It’s perfect for what it’s trying to be, and a perfect fucking opening.
Rest of the movie is pretty ok.
If I had one word to describe it, it’s enjoyable. Notice how I didn’t say ‘good’.
Outside of the first performance, nothing really happens for the first third - yes, really, the entire first third - of the movie. We get introduced to Tsuki Watanabe, You’s cousin, who, despite having more screen time than You in this movie, doesn’t really do anything outside of holding a camera and speaking some Italian. Although, I will say her introduction scene where Riko and Chika break down over thinking You is straight is a good bit.
The main conflict of this movie is how the attendees of Uranohoshi are being transferred to a pile of shit school. Tsuki explains that this is a “branch school,” because the big men up top don’t want the main school to be overpopulated with sub-par clubs. So, Aqours wants to prepare a big, show-stopping performance that’ll blow their heads off, and hopefully change their mind about them being sent to the branch school.
The next day, the rest of Aqours, meaning Chika, Riko, You, Ruby, Hanamaru, and Yoshiko, ask Sarah and Leah from Saint Snow to judge their dancing. Sarah tells them that they’re absolute poo poo garbage without the third years, and Chika is unsure of what to do now that they’ve graduated (Despite the fact that they were perfectly fine performing as a team of six back in season one, may I add). Leah breaks down and cries because her sister is also graduating, and she feels it worthless to continue on as a school idol without her.
The first and second years, as well as Tsuki, then meet Mari’s mother in an over-the-top exposition scene, revealing that the third years have gone missing. In exchange for a letter and a bunch of chocolate coins, the rest of Aqours - and Tsuki, for whatever reason - agree to travel to Italy and find Mari, Kanan and Dia.
The Italy segment is low-key the best part of the movie. By which I mean, the most enjoyable part. Italy feels lively, the backgrounds are all extremely nice, everyone in Aqours has hella drip, and the background characters are surprisingly detailed. That may sound like a weird compliment, but in a show where all the characters including the main ones are basically copy/pasted design-wise, any sort of male-passing figure really catches you off guard.
Anyway, when Aqours - and Tsuki - reach the third years, it’s revealed that the third years aren’t actually missing, Mari just wants to get out of an arranged marriage, so she took to Italy, and brought both of her girlfriends along with her. The fact that there are missing posters for the third years all around the city seems to contradict this, but this leads into the performance of Tousou Meisou Mobius Loop, so I really can’t complain.
Speaking of which, Tousou Meisou Mobius Loop is among the best performances in this movie, and it has some stiff competition. Tousou Meisou is very musical-like in its presentation. They visit a lot of different locations, there’s cool visual effects, and they play with the camera a lot. The dances are also really great, and not to mention that the song’s a banger, too. Mari as center never disappoints. Tousou Meisou is definitely my third favorite in this movie, and that’s a very good thing, trust me.
Moving along, Mari’s mother wants to know the point of school idols, so Aqours decides to perform Hop? Stop? Nonstop! on the Spanish Steps in Rome. Hop Stop is pretty great, and made for a really good teaser when it dropped on the Love Live Youtube channel on the movie’s day of premiere. It’s bright, it’s big, it’s colorful, and it’s a really good showcase of the Italy setting. It’s the perfect song to play at this time. Side note, but back at anime expo 2019, they played this performance on a big screen, in the middle of the hall, right in front of a Dr. Stone exhibit that had these two really cool looking stone statues. There was a video of this up on Youtube, but I can’t seem to find it. Another side note, I bought a Love Live shirt in that same hall, because I was there to see the live, right? That specific live being Aqours World LoveLive! In LA ~BRAND NEW WAVE~ on July 6th, the day after the earthquake happened. So I bought the shirt, and I got a free postcard with the purchase. The guy laid out the postcards in front of me, and said, “pick one.” So I took the one in the middle, and it was the one with fucking Hanamaru. I am still coping to this day.
Tangent over. Mari’s mother accepts her daughter’s position as a school idol, and that’s that, I guess. Aqours - all of them, this time, and also Tsuki - go back to Japan and prepare for their big performance. Meanwhile, Kanan hears about Leah wanting to join Aqours, instead of running Saint Snow without her sister. Ruby believes this isn’t really what Leah wants, and convinces them to perform together, one last time.
Ok, you know how I said Tousou Meisou had stiff competition earlier? Believe Again is what I was referring to. A high energy, blood-pumping lights show, set to the greatest metal song ever sung by two prepubescent Tokyo girls. The animators probably had a lot of fun with this. At least, I hope they did. I did watching it. The purple lights, the crazy camera angles, the fucking amazing outfits they’re wearing, it all blinds you with a wave of ultra-kino. I’ll be honest, I watched this movie mostly because I wanted to see this performance. And, in that regard, I’m not disappointed. Saint Snow goat.
It’s immediately followed up with Brightest Melody, which is pretty ok I guess. My main problem is the clashing of the white/blue outfits against the green grass they’re all standing on. It just… doesn’t fit. I know color theory isn’t really something you talk about in a review like this, but man, it’s just… euuugh. And I don’t really like the song that much.
And then, soon enough, it’s time. For the big performance. The girls get together, join their hands one last time, and head out on the stage, on to that sunshine.
And it sucks ass! Next SPARKLING!! is just a boring ass song, I am sorry. I sort of like the guitar in the beginning, but it doesn’t evolve from there, it’s a constant, slow, monotonous beat with no energy behind it. Then the credits roll. What a shitty song to end your movie on, christ.
The funny thing is, there’s a more appropriate song they could have performed. Not only is it in the movie, but it plays right before Next Sparkling. You want to know what it is?
Remember how I mentioned there’s a leitmotif throughout the soundtrack of Season 2? And how it was weird there’s no big musical sendoff with that as the melody?
Well, there’s a song that uses the leitmotif as the melody. And it plays as fucking background music??????? To the girls building a set??????????????
Kiseki Hikaru takes the melody of Miracle Rising! from the OST of season 2 and turns it into a fully performed song. And it works! It’s good shit! It’s heart-pumping! It gets you excited! It raises your spirits! Maybe it’s not exactly jpop music, who cares? This is the musical send-off Love Live Sunshine deserved. You want a way to pump all the feelings of the past 2 seasons of content into one big performance? That is how you could have done it, not with Next Sparkling.
Overall, like I said, this movie is enjoyable, but definitely not good. Did it seem like I jumped around with where the plot was going? Well, I sort of did, because the movie did that in and of itself. The sub-plot with Mari’s mother is just sort of… resolved, very quickly. Did it seem like I didn’t mention the main conflict until the very end? That’s sort of how it goes in the movie, too. Did I seem to cover a seemingly small amount of character drama? I covered most, if not all of it.
I’ll be honest, this movie could use a second draft. I had to look up a summary because they really just jump around a lot in this movie. They ultimately didn’t really need to go to Italy, but like I said, I did enjoy it. And that’s my main thing with this movie. I enjoy it, but it’s not good. Basically, it’s fanservice, and I am a fan who is being serviced. This movie was supposed to be the big, grand send-off to Aqours, and… man, it could have been so much more. I suppose that’s a bit of a disappointing note to end this overview on… kind of like the end of the Love Live Sunshine movie.
MUSIC
Alright, out of the over one hundred Aqours/Saint Snow songs, I haven’t listened to every single one, but I’ve listened to a good bit of it. So, how do I feel about their discography?
It’s pretty good, yeah.
There’s a lot of stuff that’s a bit too generic for my tastes. Aqours consists mostly of pop songs, which makes sense, but I feel µ’s had a more varied library of songs. I could be wrong though, it’s been a minute. Of course, Aqours has its fair share of bangers. I’ll share a few of my favorites, of those that aren’t featured in the anime/movie.
How I’ll format this:
Song title (Romanji; Eng translated)
[Song youtube link]
[Some thoughts on the song]
Keep in mind some titles are already in English, in which case the capitalization will be that of how its title is spelled. The other translations I got from the wiki. Thanks, Love Live Wiki!
ハミングフレンド (Humming Friend)
Super catchy, this one. Gets my foot pumping every time.
届かない星だとしても(Todokanai Hoshi da to Shitemo; Even if it’s not a star within reach)
What can I say? It hits different. Weirdly enough, it gives me a nostalgic vibe. I’m not sure why.
Landing Action Yeah!!
Possibly my favorite Aqours song. It’s just so upbeat, and it never fails to get me grooving. One dude on discord told me that he tried to sync up this song with actual plane takeoffs when he was flying somewhere. I tried it once too, but the plane took a good minute to actually start getting off the ground, and I missed the mark.
JIMO-AI Dash!
Was not expecting a eurobeat song out of Love Live, of all places. But man, when this dropped, I had it on repeat.
Daydream Warrior
In Aqours’ 2nd live, when they sing this song, Saito Shuka - You’s VA - sticks her arms up a lot, and you can see her abs. It can be hard to tell, because the camera’s sort of zoomed out, but if you look, you can see ‘em. Good shit, I tell you.
Oh, yeah, and the song’s pretty good, too.
In case you’re not familiar, Aqours has 3 subunits, divided into 3 members. CYaRon! Is comprised of Chika Takami, You Watanabe, and Ruby Kurosawa. AZALEA consists of Kanan Matsuura, Dia Kurosawa, and Hanamaru Kunikida. Guilty Kiss contains Riko Sakurachi, Yoshiko Tsushima, and Mari Ohara. These subunits are a completely non-anime thing, and have their own songs.
From what I can tell, CYaRon! tends to-be-love-it-or-hate-it for people. I am the former. CYaRon! is my favorite subunit and it’s not even close. I’d put their entire discography here if I didn’t have any more self control. I know their high-energy, fast-paced, upbeat songs aren’t really for everyone, but I am still going to listen to Kinmirai Happy End and you cannot fucking stop me
夜空はなんでも知ってるの? (Yozora wa nandemo shitteru no?; Does the Night Sky Know Everything?)
One of Cyaron’s two slow songs, and definitely one of their best overall. Very emotional piece. Don’t tell anyone, but I listen to this a lot when I’m feeling down.
コドク・テレポート (Kodoku・Teleport; Lonely Teleport)
It’s very pleasant, like it’d play in a park or something. CYaRon!’s pursuit to do more melancholic songs despite it containing the most hyperactive members of Aqours seems like it’s working out quite well.
近未来ハッピーエンド (Kinmirai Happy End; Happy End in the near future)
If you played this at my funeral, I would wake up and start doing man makers
Azalea is sorta the more chill subunit. It doesn’t have any ‘fast’ songs, and it goes for that more electro vibe-y feel. Not really my thing, but they have a couple jammers.
リコリコPLEASE!! (Torikoriko PLEASE!!; Please let me capture your heart!!)
Very calming song. It doesn’t go hard, but it goes chill, if that makes any sense.
空中恋愛論 (Kuuchuu Ren’ai Ron; Ariel Love Theory)
Has that techno feel I really like. Yeah that’s kind of it, I don’t listen to AZALEA that much I’ll be honest
BiBi two: electric boogaloo. Nothing wrong with that, though. As far as I can tell, this is the most widely like subunit, which I can definitely understand. It has more mass appeal than the others, alongside a good trio of characters.
Shadow gate to love
Sort of an odd track to come out of this trio, but I dig it. The funky electro beats speak to me, and boy, I am listening.
Guilty?! Farewell Party
Perfectly captures that feeling of living in the moment and dancing your cares away, capped with Mari being the amazing center that she always is. Certified banger.
Guilty Night, Guilty Kiss!
I’ll be honest, I like this techno vibey track more than anything from AZALEA. It really does just hit different.
You know, I was gonna put three Saint Snow songs here and say why I like them a whole lot, but SS has all of seven songs, and they’re all real good, so I’ll just link a Spotify playlist and tell you to loop that shit. Deal? Deal.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4HONM1r0pV73kA29LDFt7H
MANGA
There is a pretty large amount of Love Live Sunshine manga. It’s not all translated, and I won’t pretend that I’m even close to finishing all of it. But, I’ll go over a few of them.
Yes, the Love Live Sunshine manga combines the title of School Idol Project and Sunshine. Not confusing at all. Essentially, this is a manga adaptation of the anime, with a couple story differences. This one has the first few chapters translated, as well as an official release. From what I’ve read, it’s enjoyable, and the artwork is quite nice. For a manga, it’s decent, although there is definitely something lost when there’s no music in a story about idols. Also, this contains what I believe is the only official source of YouMaru fluff? 
Interesting ship, and I’m not opposed.
A series of slice of life 4-koma, with Hanamaru as the main character. It’s short, but it’s cute. It’s a lot of fluffy stuff, and I’m sort of a sucker for that. I actually find Hanamaru really likeable in this, probably because she has more personality than eating food. It’s worth mentioning there’s a lot of Maru-focused ship bait as well, such as this RikoMaru.
They just ship Hanamaru with anyone these days.
This one isn’t fully translated, but I wish it was. The title is pretty self-explanatory, it’s an anthology that focuses on CYaRon. There are a few more comic anthologies, including some for the other subunits as well as for the first, second and third years, none of which are translated either. As for the CYaRon one, it’s allegedly pretty gay. I may pay someone to translate this in the future.
PVs
For some Love Live singles, a PV - promotional video - is released alongside it, and included in a Blu-Ray disc. Starting with their 1st single, Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru, Aqours began to release some of its full PVs on youtube.
Other than that, the PVs for Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM, HAPPY PARTY TRAIN, and Mitaiken HORIZON are on the official Lantis and Love Live channels, but smile smile ship Start! only has a preview up on Youtube. The PVs usually look nice and tell a story of some sort throughout the run time.
~Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru kai~
Aqours’ first PV is alright. Watching now, after five years of Aqours, you can definitely see its age. The animation is close to School Idol Project in quality. This is not a compliment. For the uninformed, this was made before the Sunshine anime aired, which is why the original designs are used, and it essentially tells a beta version of the season one story. This song, as well as the outfits they’re wearing and the set they perform it on, is used in the third episode of season 2. Also, the ChikaRiko at the end is cute, I’ll admit.
I’ll be honest, this is my favorite of the bunch. The colors are really pretty, and it focuses on You. I like You, did you know that? I don’t think you did. The fish in the background of the dancing look wonderful, and elevate this to probably one of the prettiest things in animated Love Live. The song is pretty banging as well.
It’s decent. There’s a lot of imagery of the kid version of the Aqours girls, which I’m not a big fan of, but it’s done fairly well, and I get that this PV is meant to be a bit more fantastical than the others. The shot of the night sky is beautiful as well. I’m glad that Kanan fans get at least a little food.
Mitaiken has a nice visual style. They play with the camera angles a lot in this one, which is a good choice on their part. This PV references the previous ones quite a bit, which I thought was kinda weird. Also, it’s only in 720p on the Youtube upload, which is annoying.
Yes, it’s capitalized like that. smile smile ship Start! is the only Love Live PV so far to be fully cg, and I think it actually looks pretty nice. The models and shading are really good, but there are a few shots where the 3d models come a bit too close to the camera, which does not do this video any favors.
VIDEO GAMES
Self explanatory. Keep in mind that every Love Live game has microtransactions.
I’m not a big fan of gacha games, but School Idol Festival, from what I’ve played, was actually pretty fun. Its circle-tapping gameplay is simple, but it can be quite addicting. Keep in mind that I never played the story mode or paid for anything.
I, however, never played All Stars. Apparently, it’s the same gameplay, but with more of a focus on teambuilding, and isn’t as free to play. The cards certainly look nice, though.
I played this game once in Japan, specifically the ‘Next Stage’ update. It’s the same bubble tapping gameplay as its mobile predecessor, but on a much larger screen, and instead of tapping the screen, there are physical buttons you can press. I wasn’t used to the controls, and kind of really sucked at it. Also, the arcade was pretty loud, and I couldn’t hear the music well.
It’s worth mentioning that this arcade game has recently been ported to PS4 under the name Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School ACTIVITY - WaiWai! Home Meeting!!, which is a name that really rolls off the tongue. I don’t have a PS4, though, so I haven’t played it. It comes with a few songs, outfits, and arenas, but you have to pay for the rest. If you add all of them up, it’s in the hundreds. Kind of a shitty move if you ask me, but hey, it’s not like I’ll be purchasing them anytime soon.
I was not able to play this one before its service was terminated. Rest well, sweet prince.
In all seriousness, it looks like a pretty simple match 3. You can probably get a similar form of gameplay from that one Disney Tsum-Tsum game that’s on mobile.
Live Shows
As I mentioned earlier, Aqours, along with other school idol groups within Love Live, perform live concerts with their voice actors as the performers. I’ve only been to one, however, which is something that will probably not change very soon, due to covid. But, if you’re in a situation similar to my own, it’s always possible to watch the recordings! Some of them are on Youtube officially, some are on Youtube unofficially, and most, if not all, are up somewhere on the internet, if you look hard enough. But I won’t be giving you any pointers, matey. Arrrrr.
I’m very biased, but I think the live performances are really great. They’re exciting, high energy, and have great music, although I guess that’s how concerts kind of are.
The lives are pretty long in time, usually around the two hour mark, so keep that in mind. I don’t have any specific recommendations, because most of them are great, but I like this live performance of Kimeta Yo Hand in Hand in particular.
Sometimes they pull some crazy shit, like launching Shuka onto the stage for Beginner’s Sailing.
As for the one I actually went to, it was a really fun time! Again, it was BRAND NEW WAVE, at Anime Expo 2019, the day after the earthquake. The girls are all really charismatic, even if they were speaking in a different language. Unfortunately, Ariasa Komiya, Dia’s va, was ill, and couldn’t make it there, which created quite the emotional moment at the countdown in No. 10. Overall, really good time, even if there was a dude who shouted “OPPAI!” right next to where I was standing. As quoted by my dad, whom I dragged along, “I saw Metallica in 1986 and the crowd was not as intense as it was for these 8 Japanese ladies. And it wasn’t as loud either.”
If you were at Anime Expo 2019, 3rd day (July 6th) and saw a 5’9 dude in a Hyoudou Issei summer uniform cosplay, complete with a foam Boosted Gear, that was me. Hi.
Side note, on the day of the earthquake, it happened during the first Aqours performance. From what I heard, Aqours continued to perform during the earthquake, and after finishing the song, they recuperated behind the stage, and made sure everyone was safe. The venue was a bit far from the source, and no one was hurt. I remember from that day, there was a news segment from directly after the quake where they interviewed a man in a Love Live jacket. I think I saw it on twitter, but I can’t find it. If anyone does find it, let me know, because it was really funny.
Merchandise
Quote Yogurt from SpaceBalls, “Where the real money from the movie is made.” There is far too much merchandise to mention all individually, so I’ll just mention individual ones that I find funny.
(Not actually official)
RANDOM SHIT THAT DOESN’T DESERVE ITS OWN CATEGORY
For every girl’s birthday, starting with Chika’s in July 2020, a MV has been dropping on Youtube featuring them.
As of writing, Yoshiko and Mari have yet to receive theirs, but of the ones uploaded, I like them all quite a bit. My favorite is definitely Totsuzen GIRL, You’s MV, mostly because I’m a hardcore You fan.
Although I have to bring up how Ruby’s MV, Cotton Candy Ei-Ei-Oh! absolutely blew up in view count, and is one of the most viewed videos on the official Love Live channel.
Wild shit.
As part of a 7-Eleven (Which is fucking massive in Japan, for whatever reason) ad campaign, Riko provides narration and a large amount of puns in this sandwhich ad.
For April Fool’s Day 2018, a giant inflatable Chika Takami nesobari was deployed in Numazu, her hometown.
https://twitter.com/schoolidolu/status/980279252678475776
Here’s her ass.
Image courtesy of sgcafe.com.
https://sgcafe.com/2018/04/gigantic-inflatable-chika-takanami-takes-love-live-sunshines-hometown-april-fools/
Another April Fool’s day prank, this time 2019. The joke here was that the exam was essentially impossible. One of the multiple-choice questions had 90 possible answers. Sometimes, the options disappeared and reappeared in a completely different order right before you click on them. Some of the questions were extremely vague, such as “What does this boy want to be when he grows up?” Which provided a blank space to write down your answer. At the end, you were shown some variation of this image.
Unfortunately, the quiz is no longer accessible, but it was a hot time, let me tell you.
The Love Live Series has quite a history with April Fools. If you’d like to hear more, I’d recommend checking out this video.
CHARACTERS
Out of all the Love Lives, I feel Sunshine has the most well-rounded cast. What I mean by that is there’s only one awful girl. Everyone else has a pretty good amount of appeal, and there’s something here for everyone.
With that being said, here is the only way I know how to end this review: a criticism/opinion piece on all the Sunshine girls, including Saint Snow, presented in a top 11 ranking format.
This is the awful girl I was talking about. After S1E4, Hanamaru doesn’t have any development left, and is basically treated as the funny “haha food,” character. Her relationships outside of those with Yoshiko and Ruby don’t go anywhere, and she doesn’t do anything else. Remember how I said School Idol Project does some things better than Sunshine? One of the things I really liked about SIP was how they allowed girls to interact with characters outside of their age group, namely NicoMaki. Sunshine has some of that, but it’s basically restricted to YohaRiko and the Kurosawa sisters. I feel like Hanamaru would be a much better character if she was allowed to talk to anyone else. Especially if it was Dia. Think about it. They’re completely different characters, but they’re both closely tied to Ruby. Something fun could probably be done with that. But oh well. At least Hanamaru’s singing voice is nice.
She's cool, and Saint Snow's songs are, as i mentioned, peak, but Sarah doesn't really have a whole lot going for her as a character. She is cool, though.
Ruby’s like bacon. On its own, pretty mid, a little greasy, and you sorta feel guilty for eating it. But when you put that shit on a burger? The taste melts in with the cheese, barbeque sauce, and onions perfectly, creating a top-tier burger. Put some bacon bits into salad? It makes a completely new type of food, and now you’ve got some seriously good cuisine. Eggs and bacon, bacon sandwich, you get the idea. Likewise, Ruby on her own has an annoying voice, she’s kinda aimless, and overall, I don’t enjoy as a character. But put her together with Leah, or her sister Dia, and you’ve got gold. Her dynamics with these two are extremely enjoyable, and I wish they were both more a serious theme throughout the show. At least, her relationship with Leah. They have a really fucking good dynamic. And yeah I put barbeque sauce on my burger instead of ketchup, cry about it
Girl, what did they do to you. You had a terrible introduction, not enough screen time to fully wring out your character, and little to no development. Oh well. Kanan’s cool, and consistently fun, once you get past the filler slog of the first season… and the second. Kanan gets bonus points for having abs.
I don't know what it is, but the third time around, I liked Yoshiko a little bit more. When Yoshiko is being a normal person, or being self aware about her chuuni-ness, she’s at her best. The problem lies with the fact that she is so often in forma de chuuni that it kind of really starts to get on my nerves. Frankly, I wish they went all-out and integrated the YouHane teased in the ED into the anime. The two characters basically never interact, and they could both have a solid foundation, what with them both being cucks and all. Also, her mom is hot.
Step on me. Uh, I mean, Dia’s pretty cool. Her struggle as an-around-the-clock workaholic big sister closet idol nerd is pretty down the earth, although that may be me projecting positive traits onto this series to justify the time I’ve sunk into it. Her protectiveness of Ruby is fun - and sometimes touching - to see. I wish they played up her dynamic with Sarah to mirror RubyLeah, but oh well. She has good enough ships with the rest of the third years for me to be mad about it.
I'm not a huge Chika fan or anything, but she's far and away the best Love Live protagonist. Her trait of taking failure as an inspiration to do better is just, really, really cool. Wanting to live out and be remembered is a really relatable trait, and makes a solid foundation not only for Chika, but for the theme of Love Live Sunshine as a whole.
Certified funnyman. Mari used to be my favorite Aqours girl, and even now she’s still a strong contender. Hell, I even have a figure of her. But my tastes have changed since then. Mari, however, hasn't. She's still the funny, energetic, somewhat chaotic member of Aquors, and she leads to a good percentage of the total enjoyment I get out of this show. Her part in the third year drama is amazing. Her bond with Dia and Kanan is very deep, and it’s bittersweet to see them live out the rest of their school lives together. I wish Mari didn't commit sexual assault, but whatever. Also holy shit, her singing voice is amazing. Aina seriously has the pipes to be an opera singer, no cap listen to this shit
I like a lot of things about Riko. I like how she's a sort of catalyst for the whole series. I like her blooming relationship with Chika. I like how she's canonically super fucking gay. I like how you can ship her with pretty much anyone and it still works. I like how she's basically a normal-ass person surrounded by a wacky, trope-filled cast of characters, and constantly has to deal with all their weird anime bullshit.
Leah is one of the most developed Love Live characters. Not quite Nico tier, but she gets pretty close. Am I saying that just because I’m extremely biased towards any and all forms of angst? Of course I’m saying that because I’m extremely biased towards any and all forms of angst, but believe me when I tell you, this is some good ass angst. Self hate? Mmm yeah. Crying in bed? That’s the good stuff. Lashing out? Chef’s kiss.
I’ve already talked about how RubyLeah is kino, so I won’t go over it in any more detail. But I gotta say, I’m a sucker for tragic backstories. This is a damn good one. And that’s all there is.
You probably saw this coming. At one point, I considered writing “tomboy supremacy” here and nothing more, and leaving you disappointed, wanting a more in-depth swan song from me before I get murdered for insulting your waifu. And fuck you! I’m gonna do exactly that
AFTERWORD
So that’s Love Live Sunshine. Most of it, at least. Overall, it’s pretty decent. Yeah, I know it’s weird to talk about something for ten thousands words and finish it all off with, “it’s ok,” but I literally started with that, so I don’t know what you expected. I’ll be a bit generous and give it a 70.
Fuck, this was long. I spent all day working on most of this, and now I’m here, blasting Bury the Light through my headphones, and I’m really hungry. I don’t know why I decided to make my first mega review about Love Live Sunshine, of all things. I haven’t even reviewed School Idol Project. And before you ask, no, I’m not going to review School Idol Project in a similar fashion to this. If I do review anything in this way again, it’ll probably be Madoka Magica, although I might wait for the 4th movie to come out before doing so. God knows I shouldn’t do that, though. I’m gonna go eat something now. I hope you liked this, Ham.
Just watch Revstar instead
If you watched Love Live and thought to yourself, "Man, I wish this was better," Then you should probably watch Shoujo Kageki: Revue Starlight.
But yeah, D4DJ is pretty good.
Not to rely too heavily on the Love Live comparisons, but D4DJ is basically Love Live but with DJs. A group of music-loving girls with a genki protagonist form a band, sing, dance, meet rival groups, and preform in a big competition at the end of the series. Along the way, they have fun, do cute things, make songs, and meet side characters that don't matter. Typical idol/SOL shmuck.
So, what makes D4DJ better than Love Live?
Well, the first thing I'd like to talk about is probably the thing you first notice upon watching the show: the animation. D4DJ has some of the best cg I've seen in an anime, no joke. The characters all look nice, none of the 3D looks off or stiff in any way. It's very bright and colorful, which fits right in with the general tone and feel this anime goes for. It makes the performance scenes pop a lot more than most, along with the VJ-ing that accompanies them. On top of all this, of the characters are very, for lack of a better word, animated. A lot of movements or expressions are exaggerated and bouncy, and a lot of effects are utilized in tandem with this. The general result is a lot of gif-able moments. You'd think that this wouldn't be something important enough to warrant mentioning, but when you've watched a lot of mediocre SOL anime like I have, _any _deviation from the norm is worth mentioning. The only downside about the good cg is that the 2D sticks out a lot. For the most part, it doesn't really matter. Some of the side characters are exclusively 2D, but it's not like the 2D is awful. Although, there is one scene where a 3D head is plastered on a 2D body, and man, that shot is terrible.
Second is the characters. One advantage D4DJ has over Love Live is that it only has 4 main characters, instead of 9. This makes it easier to juggle between them, but more importantly, that means it's able to dedicate more time to one individual character and flesh them out without taking time away from another. As a result, there aren't really any awful characters, which is more than I can say than any season of Love Live. There's Rinku, who as I mentioned before, was your very typical happy, carefree, genki protagonist. The only thing that makes her differ from someone like Honoka is that she lived in Africa. Also, she works out a couple of times. Maho Akashi, the first DJ that Rinku meets and quickly befriends, is a tomboy and also my favorite character from this series. Her calm, level-headedness sort of clashes with Rinku, creating a pretty fun dynamic between them. Muni is a pretty typical tsundere for the most part, but the evolution of her childhood friendship with Rinku is fun to watch evolve, and it leads to one of my favorite moments in the series. Rei is sort of the generic, shy music girl, but at that, she could be worse. At the very least, these characters all bounce off of each other well, and their differing personalities leads to a fairly decent team dynamic.
Unfortunately, though, none of these characters are super complex or interesting. Across the entire anime, it seems like none of the girls are allowed to feel too sad. I'm not asking this to become Fate:Zero or something like that, but it would be nice if Rinku displayed any emotion besides incessant happiness, Muni wasn't a generic tsundere all the time, etc etc. The main source of conflict in the show is rival teams, who are fine. Peaky P-Key and Photon Maiden both have cool outfits, and Yuka having abs is, quite possibly, the best aspect about this show.
However, there isn't too much conflict within the main 4 themselves, which I feel is to the detriment of this show. In truth, the characters don't really have any believable chemistry. Rinku befriends them without a second thought, and that's that. Despite being completely different characters, they agree on basically anything without a second thought, and everything goes without a hitch. There's a single interpersonal conflict throughout the entire show, which adds heavily to my main complaint:
There aren't a whole lot of gay moments in this show.
This may seem like a very minor qualm, and maybe an unusual one if you're not typically into idol anime. But let's face it, gay bitches are a staple of the all-girls music sub-genre. Or hell, just any anime that only has female main characters. D4DJ doesn't have many intimate or slow moments, no yuri-focused fanservice, no hints, or really any of that. I'm sure there are plenty of fan works for the more relationship-focused individual, but come on man. There are a lot of good ship moments you could come up with just from the cast's main traits alone, and God knows this show could use more one-on-one interactions.
TL;DR: For what it is, D4DJ is pretty good, but holds back in some areas, to its detriment. Just watch Revstar.
I understand the Urobuchi haters now
There's a very eye-opening moment in this show. Near the beginning, in the third episode (I think) Ryuunosuke, a serial child murderer, accidentally summons a servant named Bluebeard whilst Ryuunosuke was in the middle of killing a child. Bluebeard stops Ryuunosuke, and lets the child walk out the front door. The child, scared but relieved, walks towards the hallway, and opens the door. Right as he begins to open it, and see the light of the outside world, a giant monster thing comes from behind the kid and eats him whole. Bluebeard turns to Ryuunosuke and tells him how you can only see the greatest of despair right when you steal hope away. If you think that sounds like some stupid, overly-edgy, misery-pandering bullcrap, don't watch Fate/Zero. Because that philosophy is employed throughout the entire anime.
In a sentence, Fate/Zero is a fucking garbage show where none of the characters are capable of making intelligent decisions and death is constant for no good reason. I've never seen a show that actively infuriated me to this degree, even shows that are technically 'worse'. It's like this show wants you to hate it. It's not sad, it's not tragic, it's just stupid. I don't need Kiritsugu to be asked if he would sacrifice 200 people to save 300 when I basically saw him blow up a plane to stop 9/11. This isn't 'nuance' or whatever.
It's kinda funny how death is the only consistent thing in this show and yet there's only a single good death. Natalia getting offed is without a doubt the single best scene in this anime, as well as the only good part of Kiritsugu's backstory. Also, there are way too many characters, and the focus on them shifts way too much. Kiritsugu is technically the mc, but there are only three points where the story really focuses in on him. Waver and Kotomine are much more enjoyable as characters and have a similar amount of screentime. Waver starts out as some annoying femboy bussy bitch, but in the end, he grows into a legitimately likeable man who overcame his flaws. On the flipside, I'm sort of biased towards Kotomine because I think he's really funny, but him and his relationship with Gilgamesh is very enjoyable to see play out. I like their talks on philosophy and desires, and it's strangely believable that this mongrel-hating king would take interest in a very normal catholic priest that definitely doesn't have anything wrong with him. His weird six-sword Wolverine-grip thing is also very raw. Kiritsugu is just boring ass doomer dad, it sucks.
This might sound nitpicky, there are some parts that felt like kinobait. For example, Gil and Berserker's weird spaceship plane fight thing. Sure, it's cool, but am I the only one that felt it doesn't belong? Same thing with Kiritsugu's time accel. I really like time powers, but Kiritsugu just kinda has time accel for no real reason, and he only uses it four times. For one of the coolest abilities in this show, (which, I'll admit, is saying a lot) it sure goes underused.
The fact that some people consider this to be a good starting point for Fate baffles me. There is a whole episode dedicated to Rin, and Kariya's motives literally revolve around Sakura. Sakura and Rin are fan favorites FROM Fate/Stay Night, and you would not care about them without that context. Also, Shinji's dad appears for all of two seconds, and that would be a very confusing two seconds if i didn't know who Shinji was.
In conclusion, Fate/Zero is self-indulgent cry porn that doesn't make you cry and it doesn't hold up to critical analysis. Also Gil and Kotomine should've fucked