Otonokizaka High School stands on the border of three cities: Akihabara—a pop culture mecca
that's evolving by the minute; Kanda—a conservative, cultured city where history and tradition
reign supreme; and Jinbo—a quiet area reserved for a more mature, sophisticated population.
Amidst this culture clash, the school now faces closure due to the enrollment of fewer and fewer
students.
With the school planning to close within three years, nine female students come together with one
thing in mind—form a pop idol group to revive the school's popularity and keep it from shutting
down. "In order to protect our beloved school, there's only one thing we can do... become pop
stars!"
Their goal is simple: Become an overnight sensation and use their nationwide media exposure to promote
their school and bring in a wave of new students to the ailing area. A simple but solid plan, they
figure. Naturally, they're nervous and wonder if this plan can really succeed, but for better or worse
their new journey has begun...
"All we can ask for is just a tiny bit of support from you. We truly believe that with your help, we
can change the world around us. We will make our dreams come true!"
(Source: NIS America)
Love Live! School Idol Project is probably one of my favorite anime so far. Hands down. # What I like The story is incredibly touching. It's one of the first anime to actually make me feel for the main character. The show doesn't just show you their journey, it pulls you along with them. As the show progresses, you make the same revelations as each of the characters do, you feel as if you're alongside them. For example, at the beginning of the show, Honoka starts μ's to save the school from shutting down. But after gathering so many members and doing a few shows, both she and us start to realize she's not exactly doing it to save the school anymore, she's doing it because she loves it, and she loves her friends. There's another example I'd like to give but it's kind of a spoiler for the last 2 episodes. ~!In their performance at the school's open house, Honoka falls down because she overworked herself, and got a fever due to working in the cold rain. While she was away recovering, the rest of the group decides to pull their name from the Love Live rankings, and go on hiatus. Not only that, but Kotori was planning on talking to Honoka about her leaving the country after that performance. This ends up spiraling into Honoka leaving μ's out of guilt. She didn't feel like she was worthy enough to be an idol, since she felt completely responsible for their name being taken out of Love Live. I took forever to get to my point, but we feel with Honoka. We know exactly how she's feeling. And when Umi slaps Honoka, we feel that too. We go on the same emotional journey along with Honoka, but also everyone else. We understand how everything is just piling on top of Honoka, and she feels too overwhelmed to continue anymore. What's worse is that she feels like everything on her back is entirely her fault, and we actually see where she's getting that from. It's fantastic, and I no-joke almost cried. Almost. ;)!~ Another thing I like about this is the music of course. I don't know if I just have bad things to compare it to, but the only other musical anime I've watched is K-On! [and we all know how I felt about K-On!](https://anilist.co/review/3167). I thought K-On!'s music was kinda dumb, and a little repetitive. But Love Live just felt a lot more fun. The songs in Love Live helped tell the story, as opposed to being in spite of the story. Not to mention they're actually good songs otherwise. I felt like each of their performances was not just a way to squeeze in the thought "Wait, wait! We still have songs!", and was actually a tangible achievement each of the characters made, as idols and as people. I don't want to compare Love Live to other anime the whole time though, so here's another thing I especially liked. I absolutely love every single character. The show has 9 main characters, which can be challenging to keep track of but this show handles it exceptionally well. I never felt like any of the character's personalities just didn't fit, nor did I feel any of them were boring. Every single character had a distinct, lovable personality, which I think is partially the reason "Nico Nico Nii" has become such a phenomenon. It's funny even if you haven't seen the show, yet ten times better once you have seen it, because you realize Nico is actually the complete opposite of that. Not only is every character unique, but they all work together in some magical way. Not to mention this show is hilarious. It nails both visual and spoken comedy. # What I don't like Of course, no show is perfect. I felt like Nozomi's character was sort of a... Mary Sue? I didn't like how she basically made everything come together for the first half of the season. However, the show did dial it down for the second half quite a bit. But again, for the first half it was kind of annoying that she told us everything was by fate. That's just boring. If Nozomi just didn't have that part of her character, if she didn't read her magical cards, the plot would not change at all and I would honestly like her character a lot more. # Conclusion Much better than K-On!
Love live was my first taste in the idol genre, it was a great first step.I initially wasn't into idols for various reasons, but watching this anime changed my whole take on the genre. Love live is a staple in the genre and well received because of its success. What I really enjoyed about this series was how the characters tackled their problems and progressed. Usually I dislike the power of friendship, but it suits the setting for love live. The girls started off as just classmates with only a few being friends which then evolved into a whole dynamic. I love how each of the trios pair well with each other, they compliment each others' weaknesses in a natural way. Seeing the girls' backstories and seeing how it shapes their current personalities warmed my heart. When I saw rin's and nico's backstories, my love for the characters grew tremendously. I know some people dislike nico because of she acts, but if you consider her backstory, it all adds up.The same applies to rin, she comes off shy and indecisive but it's not like she was raised to be confident and decisive due to her parents. Each of the girls can resonate with people whether you see a little bit of yourself in them or they simply remind you of someone you know. What really made love live worth the binge for me had to come down to how each episode flowed. It can start off with one character causing trouble for the group or they have to work together to get closer to their goal of the love live. The episodes give you a good taste of what the girls are like at home, at school and together practicing. The group dynamics and antics never bored me, each and every turn, I waited to see what they would do next. I can't recall a episode that annoyed me or I would remove from the show. Each episode builds off each other and the overall goal of being school idols. I love the music in the show, the openings and osts are still stuck in my head. Even though, I watched the anime over 2 months ago. I'm not a fan of cgi but I got used to it. I was glad the actual performances were the way episodes ended instead of beginning with them. At the end of the day, the focus is the nine girls and what they need to do to improve themselves and strengthen their flaws
img(https://orig00.deviantart.net/bd0f/f/2018/322/3/c/love_live__school_idol_project_score_banner_by_overpowered99-dcsaab1.png) They're an icon. The symbol of friendship, hope, love, passion, and music admired by those who have seen them. They will show you that enthusiasm and dedication do pay off. They're µ's ("Muse"), an ensemble of nine harmonious members. And they're the idol stars of School Idol Project! I'll preface by saying that I first dived into the Love Live! franchise just looking to enjoy some catchy songs and CGDCT. Which I did get. All of those are right here in this show. But there's also something else—a special quality that draws a motivational and inspirational angle on what seems to only be a cute entertainment at first glance. It draws me in because it's not easy to find, but once it's realized, we will shoot for the stars. It is called passion. For the energetic Honoka, her passion is sparked when her beloved school is in risk of closing down upon a decreasing number of yearly enrollments. To form a school idol group; that is her answer. It's ambitious. It's difficult. It's almost like a fantasy. But she and eight other members will soon find that µ's is their passion. And they will head off on a journey to make people smile, to have fun, and to enjoy being together with those who share the same love as you. Embellished by a rich optimism in a world of musical superstars, this is what School Idol Project is all about.
__1.Plot I finished the first season of love live, and I thought I'd write a review. Well that's the main idea in love live the first season__ ----- __ 2.Animation The animation was good, I liked how good it was at times, but there were some phases with the 3D phases when they sang, the one that makes me give a lower grade, at least it was the 3D phases only when they sang and it was far away. I felt that they were using 3D, that they were also using 2D when they sang what was making a change from 2D to 3D so that it seemed interesting in 2D the way they did I liked it. Like I said most of the anime is 2D so don't worry. The songs and edinges have some very good animations, so to speak. __ ---- __ 3.Sounds The sounds were wonderful from funny phases, to songs to openings and endings that I already put on my phone. What to do when you come to like it. example:__ youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyKJ359c5Ds) youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOR3GvjFuzM&t) ---- __ 4.Caracters As for the characters / characters, I could say that they are well characterized, you might like it or not, it depends on you.I liked a lot of characters from there, there are many choices between characters you get to understand them after their stress when they sing, it's cute ex Niko (who reminds me of a colleague) or Umi who is very cute an extremely good archer, they are many and funny phases with them. It is very well characterized, each has an extremely good and cute design that you like each one but as I said I liked Umi and Niko the most __ ------ __5.Enjoyment The fact that I finished it quickly is also a good thing. That means it was good.Lately I seem to be happy to see anime or maybe I see good anime lately, I'm going to go to the second phase.I'm honestly glad I liked it had a lot of fun phases that are good.Lots of great characters, and like I said it made me say how cute it was to watch the anime.well the last 3 episodes were darker because it was basically the incident and the ending but I liked it.I expected not to like it because in general I don't like to watch an anime only about music but that was good and I really recommend it that's why I do a review + because I haven't done a review for a long time __ ------ __6.Overall It's a very good anime that is worth a try.But give it a try and I'll tell you it won't disappoint, unless you're an elitist who thinks most anime is stupid.__ __Plus the series love live is known by the phrase "Nico Nico Nii" a nice and funny phrase that you hear many times in the first season.__ __I could also say a conclusion why you should watch this anime, it's because it's a mainstream that deserves to try it even if it's not the first time you try something anime with music genre or tag.__
When I entered the anime community, I never thought that one day, I'd come to enjoy Idol Anime - something I had long associated with the more... dedicated part of the fandom. Yet when a friend recommended this anime to me, my socks were blown so far away I reconsidered the entire Idol anime category. Love Live brings a fun story, mixed with coming-of-age plot development and an overall fantastic atmosphere and world Story While I literally just said the story of love live is excellent, I can't exactly say it for this season specifically. The world building is amazing, and the plot moves along really well, however, I always felt that it was always a bit too cheesy and dramatic. I'm sure other watchers feel similar about this situation. Even so, the story still manages to be captivating, it positions itself so that you'd know what is going to happen, but they pull enough wool over your eyes so that when the giant plot twist comes, you'd spit out whatever soda you're drinking and go "WHAAAAAT?" I know because I did that a few times. Characters You can't have an idol anime without an idol group. And while the character development in this season felt a bit underwhelming, it all made sense when season 2 dropped. So bear with me when I say it's lacking yet complete at the same time. The 9 members of the Idol Group μ's, or Muse, each bring their own unique personality into the mix, which the anime made sure to highlight. Honoka is your classic bubbly chipper anime girl. Rushing all the way to the end without giving a damn about consequences or anything in the way. While the anime did a good job of bringing up that side of her personality, when the season's big plot twist dropped and her personality completely did a 180, I, like many other members of muse, were confused at the sudden turn of mood in the group's center singer. This is because the anime never even hinted at her having that side. Sure, we've seen her distraught, but never like what she became at the lowest point of the season. Kotori is next. Her personality, especially through the season's plot twist remains consistent and logical, she's shy, rather quiet, and always speaks to others with a soft tone. Like a guardian angel of sorts. Of course, harboring the responsibility of holding the group together means that she often leaves many of her own feelings bottled up, and the anime did a great job exploiting and using that trait. Umi didn't quite receive as much development compared to the other 2nd years, but her slowly overcoming her skepticism and stage fright made for a very rounded, albeit short character arc. Of the first years in the group, I'd say Hanayo and Maki received the most development, both of them leaving their wallflower lifestyles and learning to overcome their internal nervousness to become essential members within Muse. Rin, unfortunately, was left out of development. She remained painstakingly flat as just a cheery 1st year who likes to put a nya~ at the end of every sentence. The 3rd years also recieved substantial development, with the spotlight focused on Eli. With her overseeing the development of Muse, and eventually letting go of her strict Student Council President demeanor and becoming much more loose and affectionate with the rest of the group. Nozomi, while not receiving much development, still felt very rounded and realistic because of all the behind-the-scenes meddling she did to help Muse bloom. From giving the group their name to eventually joining the group herself, she felt like a parent who cares for her kids. This leaves Niko. She mainly serves as a guidance figure, but all of us fans know she's there for comic relief with her signature Nico Nico Nii. Other than that, though... I'm afraid she remains rather flat for the reminder of the season. Art and Sound Here's the big daddy of this anime. Throughout the season we see Muse go from a new group with little experience to a firm frontrunner in the school idol industry with their own unique style. First off, we can immediately establish that Muse is unique, especially in their music style. For example, compared to rival group A-RISE's more electro theme, Muse's music is far more bubbly and cheery, while incorporating enough pop elements to be a firm head-bopper. But what's far more impressive is that with the release of each track we see steady development in Muse as a group. The easiest way to see that is to compare the two iterations of START:DASH!!! When the group just started out, you can see that the choreography, hand movements, and even the animation itself to be simple, basic, and something that a new group would totally do. However, at the end of the season, when Muse once again performed START:DASH!!! This time with a full roster and more knowledge, the choreography and dances become much more sophisticated, and while they kept the original motive, each member of the group was consistently making complicated moves and fancy patterns. You can also see the clear difference in skill by comparing the first iteration of START:DASH!!! to the OP. It's a subtle detail, but one that makes the anime feel that much more real when picked up on. However, if you didn't pick up on that detail, the songs themselves are such absolute bangers that many of them made their way onto my weeb playlist and firmly established themselves in a corner of my playlist. Overall, I loved Love Live. It felt like a realistic anime, complete with absolute bangers of songs and characters that grab onto your heart and never let go.
~~~__Introduction__~~~ ~~~img920(https://i.imgur.com/L09O5yO.png)~~~ By far Love Live is the greatest experiment I've ever seen, truly unique. This anime comes with a pretty ironic premise : "it's an idol anime, watch it"; and then you watch it, you pretty enjoy it and you come to two different points : Either you loved it or you are indifferent. Love Live is not an anime at all, it's wholesome story of a dream of some girls, or even better it's the story of 9 girls chasing that dream unattainable yet reachable. The passion of the girls is something you love it because you've experienced it or you don't notice at all : the laughs, the tears, the effort and the joy of all toghether were able to create a real bond between the girls and the viewer not because of waifus or good songs, only because they link YOU with THEM. img920(https://i.imgur.com/McHvVk2.png) What's the point of doing the impossible if it's impossible? It might be the challenge or the passion to it but Love Live tries to show to you some hidden parts of your soul until the point you ask to yourself : "What's my dream? How much am I willing to obtain it?" but everything comes at a price and this anime is cruel in showing the consequences. You have to work hard and it's not obviuous as you might think img600(https://pm1.narvii.com/5872/2b3558c261ba9a645f25e69776458228095f3820_hq.jpg) img650(https://i.imgur.com/nDfIbrl.png) And then why would you try to do better of you cannot achieve anything of your dream? Then give everything you've got to your dream. µ's and Aqours became legends not for nothing, they gave everything they got to achieve their dream and they succeeded in it. They worked hard, they went against anything and they became ,from no one, someone __The songs tell you their story__ >"From 0 to 1, to 1 to 10 and from 10 to 100" img420(https://i.imgur.com/Xb1NQlC.png)
___ ~~~__PREMISE__~~~ Here I speak exclusively of Love Live! _School Idol Project_, I'm not talking about the other projects like Sunshine!!, Nijigasaki and Superstar!! ___ ~~~__Introduction__~~~ Love Live is undoubtedly my favorite anime, focused on the friendship between the characters and the "making your dreams come true", but it's not just that, absolutely...many always start with the assumption that "it's the common anime about idols" and then they don't look at it...instead NO! Love Live is simply the story of 9 girls who try to make their dream come true by overcoming the difficulties that afflict them together. Watching the first and second seasons you will experience countless emotions such as joy, sadness, anger, love ... yes, love for this anime! (or at least, this is what I tried, then someone could be indifferent or even disgusted, they are tastes). Love Live is a slice of life, but one that's done really well! It is not like many anime where thinking of being able to do something then you can do it "because yes", this anime teaches you to go ahead and do what you like despite the obstacles that will appear in front of you. He will show you how 9 legends will make their and __your__ dreams come true. ~~~img720(https://wallup.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/08/540910-love-live-school-idol-project-anime-series-group-girls-friend.jpg)~~~ ___ ~~~__Story__~~~ As mentioned before, the story talks about how 9 girls make their dreams...the plot says "9 girls who become idol to save their school from closure", and it's actually true. The plot starts with this assumption, but evolves in an incredible way to such a point of making you cry! ~~~img720(https://www.animeclick.it/images/Anime_big/LoveLive(TV)/LoveLive(TV)9.jpg)~~~ ___ Let's move on to a fundamental side of this anime:~~~__The Songs__~~~ The vast majority of the songs sung from the beginning of the anime (and from the beginning of the project) to the end of the movie "Love Live! The School Idol Movie!" have lots of meanings. Many watch the anime without trying to understand the meanings of the songs...BIG MISTAKE! Try to understand what the songs mean, because it really deserves it. ~~~img720(http://www.ricedigital.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/3210.png)~~~ ___ ~~~__Staff__~~~ The direction is very valid! The director of the anime, [Takahiko Kyougoku](https://anilist.co/staff/114840/Takahiko-Kyougoku), is to be commended! He excellently directed what the character designs and backgrounds are, especially in the movie! The animations of the first season are slightly sinful, but that's normal as a start. All the 9 seiyuus of the group deserve the maximum esteem of all to carry out a project that lasted 6 years! ~~~img720(https://realsound.jp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/us_full_3194_lovelive.jpg)~~~ ___ P.s. my favourite character is Honoka Kousaka! ~~~img720(https://i.idol.st/u/card/art/2x/145Kousaka-Honoka-Your-Luggage-is-Onboard-SR-8xJz3R.png)~~~ _There would be so many other things to say, but I leave you the decision to look at it or not, hoping to have intrigued you, goodbye!_ ___
If you haven’t been living under a rock you’ve probably heard of Love Live!. It’s one of the most popular anime in Japan and for good reason: it has idols and yuri, a great art style, and a story that perfectly caters to the otaku fandom. It’s not quite as popular among a younger female audience as it is among an older male audience, but Sunrise already has Aikatsu for young girls so Love Live! is essentially the late night version of that. This anime has a lot of mixed opinions which is reasonable since anyone outside of the targeted audience isn’t going to see the appeal, but there are enough people in the targeted audience that it’s a perfect anime for a lot of people. The very fact that it is so popular can also be a draw for some people since it has a lot of good memes, fan art, and other media that is all translated for the most part. I will talk about the story first. This is a show about girls who become idols to save their school. It’s really quite similar to Girls und Panzer in that regard, but with the opposite reaction from the teachers. Honoka is confident that becoming idols would save their school while everyone else is skeptical, and rightfully so. After all, not only is not reasonable to expect to become popular simply from trying something you see other people getting popular from, as anyone who has tried created any kind of entertainment would know, but even if they did become popular that doesn’t exactly guarantee that their school would be along for the ride as well. Despite how improbable that would be, these are our protagonists and Sunrise isn’t going to show us some random idol group who failed to do what they sought to do. That would be boring. Naturally this is a success story and considering the way it’s set up this isn’t even really a spoiler. What is a spoiler is the opening theme song animation since it shows all nine of them dancing together which is the entire plot of the first season. It’s a cast building so it starts with an incomplete cast and collects them as they go along so it’s a spoiler which girls end up in the group. My next topic will be the art. The art looks very shiny and sort of 3D like which makes it perfect to make accurate anime figures of but it isn’t so 3D that it would give the cringy 3D CGI effect. There was certainly a lot of CGI used in this anime, especially in the dance scenes, but while the dance scenes themselves don’t look the best the rest of it looks very pretty. It’s too detailed to be drawn by hand but they clearly didn’t just leave everything up to the computers. When you ignore the hair and eye colours as well as the hair styles their faces are all very similar, but they do have some things to make them distinct. One important part of the character arcs of two characters who I won’t name for sake of avoiding spoilers is gaining weight and then having to lose that weight, which wouldn’t have been as nice to watch if the character designs weren’t so good. The problem with their weight was the fact that they wouldn’t be as mobile on stage so the fact that they still looked attractive in their overweight forms wasn’t a problem in my eyes. Not completely art related, but they have a lot of great moments they designed like Nico Nico Nii which this whole review is designed to look like, if you hadn’t noticed. The clothing designs were really well done. The skirts were very much on the short side and Sunrise didn’t have the “idol school” excuse like they did with Aikatsu, but this isn’t exactly unrealistic since most Japanese girls do tend to roll their skirts up. The outfits they use for their performances always fit the song and dance well and are always always very pretty. The music videos that serve to be part of the franchise are also very well drawn and designed, especially the later ones. The next section is the sound, which was definitely one of the anime’s strong points. They hired Pile to play Maki for a reason, as she is a professional singer and has barely done any other voice acting. The songs are catchy and the singing is beautiful. In addition to the theme songs and insert songs being good the background music is also great. The voices are all good. They all fully embody their characters from Rin’s nekomimi tomboy persona to Nico’s eccentric fake cutey personality. The dub’s voice actors are not as good to say the least, but if you actually care about watching this anime to get out of it what you should be coming for then I’ll assume you’re not watching the dub. While the voice acting is obviously not masterpiece quality and the music is fairly standard for the idol genre, it is all above average for slice of life anime. I will be talking about the characters next. As an idol anime it naturally has a large cast and since it introduces them one at a time it does give them all appropriate development despite not being super long. This does a lot better of a job characterizing all of its characters than The iDOLM@STER does despite being the same length and having around as big of a cast. All of the characters have distinct and interesting personalities and it doesn’t feel like they’re just exposition dumping their personalities on the viewers. They’re shown in natural situations and are given the time to develop properly. Despite the fact that the anime wasn’t that long, by the end of it you do get to really feel for the characters, provided you have the correct taste to enjoy it. Obviously as idols they aren’t allowed to have hetero love, but we still do see some of the other kind which is beautiful. A lot of the characters have good chemistry together. Even less important characters like Honoka’s younger sister and her friend are good characters despite not getting enough screen time to be as interesting as the main characters. The characters each cater to their own fans which both part of the reason why it’s so popular and also part of the reason why people argue so much about who the best one is. Best girl is subjective in any series, but in this anime they are all equally well developed characters but are made for different people so it’s even more subjective than usual. I’m sure you’ll find at least one character who you really like from the main characters, which is one of the benefits of there being nine of them and them all being very different. As much as everything sort of contributes to enjoyment, it can come from sources other than the previous four so it gets its own category. I got a lot of enjoyment from everything the show had to offer. I watched it on Crunchyroll without a membership so having watch through two minutes of commercials every episode slightly hindered my enjoyment of it in that way, but that isn’t the anime’s fault. Thankfully I saw this anime earlier on and didn’t have the well poisoned for me. A lot of people say bad things about this anime, which is allowed under free speech, but it still is something that can ruin anime for people since you might go in looking for things to hate. I thoroughly enjoyed this anime when I watched it and nothing about it bored me in any way. A lot of my enjoyment of the franchise doesn’t come from the anime itself and instead from the manga, the songs, and the fanart, but those I all enjoyed a lot more because I saw the anime. Fanbases can affect how much I like an anime and although some of the fans of this do go a bit too far overall they’re good people and it feels nice to be part of something bigger. I’m glad at least one anime about cute girls doing cute things has this devoted of a fanbase. In conclusion I thought this was a really good anime. It certainly deserves its popularity and even if the biggest mark of success for the creators was making it making it very accessible for the otaku community to latch onto I’d consider that to be good enough. Objectively or subjectively it’s obviously doing its job well and for that I congratulate it. I wouldn’t consider it to be the best anime I’ve seen or close to it, but it was certainly one of the most enjoyable. Whether if you like music anime, if you’re already into the idol genre, or just like to argue with other people about who the best girl in an anime is this is a great choice.
