Love Live! Superstar!!

LiyuuSix

img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/796735043543498813/1005133249816842250/unknown.png) To me, Love Live!, has a really special place in my heart. The franchise was able to help me through really difficult times and it made me experience things I would’ve never thought of. This whole franchise is more of just an anime, it’s a true inspiration at least for me of never giving up and to fight always for your dreams; it may sound childish but it’s the reality, if you don’t fight for them then you are not living your life. I laughed, I cheered, I cried, I was hyped, I was sad, I was thankful and most of all I am happy. Whoever knows me know that I’ve reviewed every Love Live and the Sunshine review is my most successful yet and that doesn’t mean that I will go soft on Superstar!! Not at all. I wasn’t sure of what to expect from Superstar, there is a completely new formula and I was really interested to discover all the new things they had for us fans.

---

#__For the very first time I want to say it : this is the best possible, the characters and the story are absolutely perfect__ This time we have totally everything different and howdy, this start was brilliant. How can I express the first 3 episodes? I think I can just say “realistically fantastic” and I’m not afraid to say this was the best start of any Love Live yet because for the first time we had what Love Live almost kinda lacked in the first episodes : seriousness. Wait wait don’t get me wrong, I will never say a thing against Honoka and Chika because they are both one of the best written characters I’ve ever seen, but what I mean is the reason of how the school idol group was born. µ’s were a little bit lucky with the rankings in the early start while Aqours were a little bit like a fun group not aiming for something great yet. Instead here in Superstar there’s the X factor I always wanted to see : the determination of overcoming your biggest weakness; Keke is a character I must spend some words with because she is the Y factor for the anime; yeah she is kinda random because she came to Japan just because she fell in love with the school idols, but I still cannot blame her because if you admire something you want to become like that or at least to catch it. But that’s not her main point. Her shine comes from how she was cheering Kanon through everything and when she was struggling Keke was there to cheer her up. She is a real hard worker for what she dreams of : the first 3 episodes shown us how she really worked out hard to become better and better, surpassing her biggest weaknesses, and even she is a human, as she was struggling on the main stage before Tiny Stars, but knowing she is not alone could help her. img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/796735043543498813/1005131880959582328/unknown.png) If I can say it, I personally consider episode 3 as one of the best episode of the whole franchise. It rarely happens but here I felt the passion of the girls, how they wanted to pursue this impossible dream, because winning the Music Festival was impossible for a new born group, but their burning fire of determination was incredible; arguably the best part was Keke shaking of fear, it shows you that, even if she seemed the most sure of herself one about being an idol, the anime makes you understand that she is human anyway. This episode was really special because you could see how much they cared about winning the Fest to start their new dream. Of course, it’s not easy because you are starting from a point of literal nothing, you have no experience and most of all no one knows you. But let the song begin, it will speak for itself. img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/796735043543498813/1005133803574018058/unknown.png) I must call Sumire a pure surprise. She is the complete opposite of what I was thinking of her. I used to snob her as the new Nico but more social media like or public, instead I had a feeling of something that I know really well. When you are not in your spot, your real spot which you deserve and instead you start falling down and down in an endless circle of failures and giving up on anything because at some point you will say “it doesn’t matter how hard I try, this will always be what I get” and personally I wouldn’t be satisfied at all with something that doesn’t suit me. And I must say again, I love Kanon, she is so well written. “Then take away the center from me. Compete against all of us”, this single line made my blood boil and my soul burn from determination because this is what it truly means to be a leader. GO scout who wants to be scouted, make the others enjoy what they are doing, make them love it and give everything they have. GALAXY. img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/796735043543498813/1005132089974341732/unknown.png) Chisato was my biggest question mark. I wasn’t able to discover much about her properly before the airing of the anime, and I thought she was going to be a dead side character. Glad I was wrong. Right from the start Chisato has been a focus point for the plot and how the story went, being a friend, if not the best friend, of Kanon was the best choice of all here. Saying what I think about Chisato, or even more how she is, is hard to me because she showed us many important and special sides of her; the confidence, her deep love for dancing, how much she cares about Kanon and how she trains hard the girls even if she is not a member of the group yet. I was completely blown away by her in the end : I will never forget her tears in episode 3, I will never forget her double episodes and I don’t want to forget how funny she is. She got introduced as Kanon’s childhood friend and, for how odd it is, it goes well for the development of everything. Her double episodes were flawless and I’m not saying it because I love this anime, not at all, but I’m saying because I really think it; I could feel and I know how she felt, mostly because I’ve experienced this, but the best part was that she actually always wanted to join Liella. She had been fighting her inner demons of winning the dance competition, and for how sad it is the dance course is on the way of joining Liella, and making such decisions are not that easy; it’s never easy to give up on something you’ve been loving for so much. But Liella were something special for her and so it was time for her, it was her time. img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/796735043543498813/1005132726380269598/unknown.png) Dear dear Ren, I used to bet so much on her even before Superstar. I kinda have a weird love for the Presidents girls with long hairs that hate school idols at the beginning, especially because she has long and black hairs. I wasn’t expecting such a strong character. Ren is like a racing car : she will aim straight forward without stopping if it’s not something really important or game changing; and that’s her and her dream, or by any means her way to see things. This girl got deeply and badly shattered in the past by many unfortunate events which led her to ending in almost complete poverty and, completely, alone. img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/796735043543498813/1005132822626963477/unknown.png) Indeed one of the biggest news in this Love Live is a certain topic which has never got touched : death. Due to circumstances Ren is alone now and her memory of her mother are the only thing she has left. This girl’s only example is the mother, who now is gone, and her desire to make the school the best in music is her only dream; which was also his mother’s dream. This was absolutely a difficult task because changing the idea of someone who got moved so much by such a tragic event is not easy, at all; it wasn’t easy, but discovering the truth made a miracle happen. And so they became 5, and so Liella! was born. Isn’t it frustrating to never feel at the right spot always and not being able to express the best version of yourself? It is and a lot, I have to say. Episode 10, to my eyes, is just one of those episodes I will never forget for the rest of my life and it doesn’t matter who is my favourite character, who I dislike and who I feel neutral to; we are all simple humans when we are in front of what is the apex of dedication, desire, love and determination. I’ve never been a Sumire fan, at all, and I’ve always felt indifferent to her, except for when she was funny, but that’s the nice part of Love Live : discovering sides of a character you’ve never seen and, eventually, understanding their frustration towards the world. Sumire is a complex character : she acts as she were the peak of the human realisation, she always wants the top spot and she thinks of being able to do anything; and I mean it’s true and she doesn’t realise this, but what I’m trying to say is that she always felt that way because she never had the right tools and opportunities to show how great she really is. As a kid she was forced to play the side character and she was being told “It’s an important role anyway”; the same thing is a little bit with the anime : her original episode didn’t show us how great she could be and only let out her funny and meme part, and some small sides of her personality but I didn’t mind much because that was more an episode about her finding the link with the other girls. Yeah the other girls. With Kanon she was always in that mood of challenging her to reach the peak, right from the start she wanted the centre position and Kanon, understanding how she truly is, just said “Then come and take it away from me”. Never asked for a better answer from Kanon. With Chisato I’ve never seen any really important moments unfortunately and almost the same with Ren; but the game changer is with Keke. With Keke I hard a hard time understanding them because they quickly changed between best friends to enemies, depending on the moments, but what I could always see was that atmosphere of not necessarily “war” but of challenge between them two. Keke often challenged her and Sumire answered back. On some sides Keke is better and on other Sumire is better. But it all comes down to the point when you realise you are on the verge of losing someone for ever, someone that even if you always make fun of you really care about, and to be honest I don’t think most of the people want that; sometimes it’s time to put away your pride and do what’s right to do. But what happens when you are mentally blocked because of past events that give you a feeling of being inferior? That’s a really bad spot which is hard to escape from. It’s a nonfiction that you are likely going to need someone that will make you understand, and that person was Keke, her biggest enemy but at the same time her biggest friend. Make that person feel special and how she is really at the right spot, not stealing anyone’s spot or being bad at it; make her feel unique. Yeah this is easily the biggest strong point of Superstar, the way every character behaves with each other. It’s not something that we have never seen in Love Live but not in such a beautiful form : in School Idol Project I’ve always felt not the greatest of all because it was often unlinked how the girls bonded, the second year with the second year and the third with the third and first with first, I don’t know if you get my point of view but just think about Rin and Hanayo or Eli and Nozomi; in Sunshine the thing changes because we see interactions between different years, you just need to think about the RikoYou episode where Mari had a big talk with You or even the YohaRiko episode with Riko and Yoshiko. But what about here that everyone is on the same year? What about the fact they are just 5 and not 9 like we were used to? What about the fact we are still at the first season? Those are all legit question and all of them have an answer : starting from the point of start, the 5 first year girls were the biggest news and they way it worked was just fantastic because you didn’t have any tier to respect, not those many formalities and right from the start, more precisely from episode 10, I’ve started to feel that feeling of “wow, they are like a family now”. Liella’s special thing is really this one, bonding really well in such a short time and it doesn’t feel forced at all, it’s really natural and human. Yeah “human”, another strong spot of this anime. The most human character here is, nah it’s everyone. Kanon had to face her biggest weakness and fear, Sumire had to face her fake vision of the world, Ren had to face a fake dream she thought was real, Chisato had to face the risk of failing because of her desires on what she loves and Keke had to risk everything. I decided to keep the best for the ending of this section : Kanon. Kanon left me speechless many times, starting from her voice to her behaviour with the others; I kinda struggle finding the words because she is one of the most unique characters in the whole franchise but let’s go with order : She is a really shy girl insecure of herself and with a trauma of her past about singing. She is not able to sing in front of the public, because as a kid she failed to do that, but regardless this she LOVES singing a lot, really a lot, and take it as a joke of destiny she became a school idol. Kanon loves Liella and she feels safe with them, she completely forgets about her fears, and the best example of it is when she was about to start singing Tiny Stars with Keke; she was completely struggling and she was stuck, thinking if she could ever do it, thinking if she could ever overcome her fear, but seeing Keke scared as well made her understand how important that moment is. And so let the song begin. This is the first time I see the iconic orange haired girl being the leader not because of her attitude to never giving up, but just because I really feel like she has to be the leader : she cares a lot about the other girls, she loves singing, she loves being an idol, she fights for being an idol and now she is fighting with everyone for the Love Live and here comes the best part of all for her : Episode 11. This episode was really important for the anime itself because it set Kanon as the pure leader and let her overcome her childhood fears; I say many times that is really hard to overcome something alone, not like someone can be too weak to do it by itself or because I don’t believe it’s actually possible, and it’s because most of the times we need to see and understand how really is the reality of the world : Kanon thought her not being able to sing in front of the public was because of her past and just failing that day; but we grow up and we improve, most of the times, and that was her opportunity but she couldn’t see it by herself. And here come Chisato proving why she is such a fantastic and perfect childhood friend for her, she is always caring about Kanon and she really always wanted to be important and “useful” to at least her; in the past she felt to being useless and just too much for her but she has always been wrong about that. Chisato created the best ever plan possible for Kanon and finally she could understand and most of all she was able to sing in front of everyone. What I’ve been trying to say is that for the first time we have a Love Live where all the main girls are singing and dancing for pure passion. I’m not discrediting SIP or Sunshine, I’m still a huge fan of them, but I’ve always felt some girls there weren’t born to sing. Let me explain : starting from the basis, Kanon always loved music as she was in the school choir as a kid. Chisato wanted to have something unique for her that she could love and be obsessed with it a way to tell Kanon she wanted to become like her, to have something she could be the number one. Keke is purely in love with school idols and she literally has everything to lose for this passion, I’m not even going to complain because I relate to this feeling and I support it. In my basketball days I used to do anything for the sport. Sumire sees Liella! as a way redeem herself against the show business, since it snobbed her badly, but she found a group of friends she find are fantastic, Ren, on the other hand, is living her dream of being an idol to follow the steps of someone; on one hand to hope for a miracle and on the other for the pure love of this. You can see they are all passionate girls living their dream, fighting to win and become who they want to become to keep high the name of their School and, who knows, maybe to reach the peak like some others were able to do it, right? I will give a section to SunnyPa because they deserve it, those two girls despite they seem some villain like, they were crucial in the early stages of Liella!. Yeah I think it’s mainly also thanks to them if they were able to become the next Love Live generation because they pushed them in the middle section of the story, and yes they aced Chisato to make her join them. Sadly they didn’t have that much screen time and I’m not really a fan of their unique song, the only one we’ve seen, but I have high hopes for the second season to become famous like Saint Snow in Sunshine and not thrown in the trash like A-RISE in SIP. Love Live has taught us that not always everything can go as we would like, and there is no road to success without failure, but we need to move on and rise up again; nothing is over until it’s not really over. img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/796735043543498813/1005134463832948827/unknown.png)

---

#__The music is on a whole new level, again__ Starting right off I will tell you : I’m a person who likes Rock, Hard Rock, Doom Eternal OSTs and anything which is energetic or aggressive or simply funny to listen to. Talking about the Love Live franchise my best examples are Guilty Kiss, DiverDiva, Aina and Liyuu for the music; I just love the way they sound. The preview of Liella! before the airing of the anime made me doubtful because the very first songs weren’t what I truly like according to my music taste and so I was a little bit anxious for the anime. Glad I was wrong. YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGkoec4genw) The Opening was one of those songs I didn’t like at the very start, but started to like it as the episode were airing and how I was being forced to listen to it on a discord server (ALB people always know what to do with me). YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05q2X8dGrLA) The Ending instead is one of my favourite among every songs I’ve listened; it’s so energetic, lovable and funny to listen to. Sayuri (Kanon)’s vocals are out of this planet and same for Nagisa (Ren), their voices are so incredibly big that they scare me. The instrumental is also fantastic. Talking about the inserts : youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHzYNQ-irmU&list=PLYpy4kJmEo75b1bB7wGy9DP6YAl8J2OLJ&index=63) “Mirai Yohō Halleluja!” Is the song that made me say “OH MY GOD KANON WHAT A VOICE” as she performed it flawlessly. YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmpCJnMfMR4) “Tiny Stars” is instead my second favourite song from the anime as it is so incredibly nice to listen to and completely caught my heart within the first seconds. Apart from the meaning of the song, everything about it I love it. YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR3h_agJgXQ) “Tokonatsu Sunshine” I used to call it “The song of the 2021 summer” because it reminded me, somehow, of the golden times of 2016 with all the Spanish singers blasting inside your house at night. Jokes aside this one is one of the funniest to listen to because of its music pace ad rhythm, the start of the song might be boring but right after the start it becomes incredibly nice. YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL2l7nH8Uus&list=PLYpy4kJmEo75b1bB7wGy9DP6YAl8J2OLJ&index=86) “Wish Song” is a song which I don’t really like the instrumental, too soft and slow for me, but the lyrics are really an incredible big brainer. YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU_R5m-lf1E) “Dreaming Energy”, unfortunately, didn’t really have its real space in the anime if not as a simple OST covered by the dialogues of the girls. The song itself is really nice and funny, something I would listen to while working out for sure. YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oZ3EcOO5xU) “Nonfiction!!” Is just a masterpiece of the music industry, I completely love everything about it starting from the visuals to the song itself. It’s so catchy and incredibly different from the normal Love Live thing; it is supposed to be rap even if, unfortunately, I truly cannot see that much of it if not some lines but MY GOD IT SLAPS SO HARD THAT MY FACE HURTS. youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OABZKb_og14) "Watashi no Symphony" is a crazy song because Kanon literally goes on God mode and wow, her vocals are crazy youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2khZDh1eFI) "Starlight Prologue" is just wow, I have no words. Talking about the real singers: Wow, in this season we a cast full of pure talents with some of the most crazy and best, powerful, full of energy and unique voices I’ve ever listened to. Sayuri Date (Kanon) is without many doubts a pure freak of nature, her voice is incredibly powerful and full of personality that I completely love listening to it; I’m completely amazed by her high notes and her shout parts are just mind-blowing. Mirai wa Kaze no You ni is a piece of art. Naomi Payton (Sumire) has fantastic soft voice in most songs and, even if I struggled at the beginning to recognise her in the songs, I really love it. Nagisa Aoyama (Ren) doesn’t make any sense at as I refuse to listen to a voice like hers, it’s literally too big to call it a “voice”. Let’s call it a masterpiece ok? Jokes aside the way she sings is not human and I see her as a more deep Sayuri : strong voice, fantastic high and low key notes and a lot of shape in her voice. Nako Misaki (Chisato) is just too cute with her voice, I’m completely in love for how it sounds cute and calm; **then I listen to Nonfiction and I go crazy**. Liyuu (Keke), we have to talk here. I know Liyuu since before the start of the airing of Superstar and she is one of my favourite signers out here : warm voice, really cute, you love to listen to it and yeah I’m a big fan of her; but I kinda feel like she is being scammed in Superstar because of the Keke voice, she cannot unleash her full potential and I swear in songs like Carpe Diem or Magic Words she is OH MY GOD FANTASTIC. But on another note the Keke voice suits the songs really well, take as an example Tiny Stars : she sounds gorgeous. Plus she is based with her Chinese and that’s a +100 points.

---

#__The technical part is outstanding__ I will be honest, I rarely praise Sunrise’s arts in a first season of Love Live because, yeah, in SIP I wasn’t a fan of the arts and the first season of Sunshine was just decent, especially in the first half, when it comes to animations. But my God, Superstar was really mind-blowing. I mean we are not at the perfection tier but the first season is already impressive in many spots : The expressions of the face are fantastic, they are well designed and just fantastic; The general ambient is always top of the notch as it is very diverse and full of details. Big props to Sunrise for knowing how the fanbase is for the memes and they delivered many. Talking about the CGI : finally I can proudly say it’s fantastic and at its best. In the past we had the average tier SIP 3D animation which was kinda meh, but considering the year it came out I won’t complain too much. We had Sunshine which was a great step up, but to my eyes not really that satisfying but I could easily live with it. Nijigasaki was a really huge level up as it was really beautiful and nice to see. Here in Superstar everything changes because now the CGI is incredibly good; I can easily take Tiny Stars and Nonfiction as the best examples because they are incredibly well done and I love this new kind of digital animation, I never expect perfection in this particular section because reaching the level of a studio like Ufotable is almost impossible but when it’s done right I’m happy.

---

#__Conclusions__ Sunrise really delivered and I’m completely amazed by the execution of this Love Live, as I said at the beginning I didn’t know what to expect because I thought I saw everything from this franchise but wow, I can only say wow. They’ve taken everything to the next level and the execution of the first season I would say it’s the best so far since there aren’t that many problems and it’s really fun, full of content and entertaining.
I’m really happy, really, and I cannot wait for the rest of Superstar, with a song that can link the hearts of everyone. And that’s it, that’s my review of Superstar that I wrote with all of my heart, analysing everything I could and I absolutely loved it. I think my score is perfectly justified and I would ask you to read everything I wrote in case you’ve skipped here just to see the score. I thank you all for your time. Story : 10/10 Characters : 10/10 Music : 10/10 Arts and animations : 10/10 Personal enjoyment : 10/10

TryhardTran

__~~~Love Live Sunshin- I mean Superstar. The next generation of Love Live~~~__ img1366(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/553281704849309707/890307120237543465/di0BRKd.png) ~~~__The Intro__~~~ Love Live Sunshine, oh shoot sorry. I mean Love Live Superstar is a new entry to the Love Live Series featuring five members instead of the usual nine or more members from the previous shows. This also can be watched without prior knowledge of the Love Live series. Watching this show felt really refreshing to my plate, and made my stay in idol hell a bit much longer. ~~Not like I was leaving anytime soon.~~ Idol hell is a cult, please save our souls. img1366(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/553281704849309707/890308422220804136/CFbPYuv.png?width=1191&height=670) ~~~__The Characters__~~~ I think having five members instead of the nine or more feels refreshing to the series because I feel like they will get more time in the spotlight, and more character development throughout the show or possibly in future seasons. (lol they're probably getting a second season like all the other Love Live shows.) Generally, I think all the characters are pretty fun and enjoyable, such as often the main center Kanon. She has a lot of personality to her character which I find really pleasant, and I feel like she has the strongest voice of the group. Keke? More Kekw, she is full so joy, explosive and is pretty meme. Sumire is the classic... galaxy brain and the gremlin type character of the group, but is pretty cool. Ren is the Student Council President and a tsundere; you will know what will happen when you watch too much of the Love Live series. Chisato is a rapper, part of the yakuza and an owl lover. As well the childhood friend to Kanon. Lots of wholesome and funny chemistry between characters, it feelsgoodman. img1366(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/553281704849309707/890307119268655114/0Wmhmov.png) ~~~__Story__~~~ The story is pretty simple and easy to follow. It has the similar formula to the previous Love Live series but more condensed and refined. Pretty cheesy stuff. But I love cheese. There may be some stuff that would make you go "Huh? This doesn't seem right." or "could have been approached better." I didn't really mind it and I still had an enjoyable time regardless. img1366(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/384028328677605399/896989462033203200/cGJRzvb.png) img1366(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/553281704849309707/890315831773392917/EqZLG11.png) ~~~__Setting__~~~ The setting mostly takes place at their school Yuigaoka Girls' High School, somewhere based in Love Live's version of Tokyo. There is also plenty of references or Easter eggs to prior Love Live shows placed around the environment. So there's some fun discoveries to be found. img1366(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/553281704849309707/898608650740973648/love-live-superstar-08-large-30.jpg) __~~~Visuals~~~__ I think they are top notch. The new art-style feels really refreshing to see, the CGI is really nice and I feel like it has been doing such an improvement from time to time. Lots of memes, frames and funny reactions to come out from this anime. Thank you Gundam Studio (Sunrise) and the staff, I really love ~~Gundams and~~ Idols. img1366(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/896944106276794408/896946736919109632/unknown.png) img1366(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/384028328677605399/879185741970804746/unknown.png) ~~~__Music__~~~ TOP NOTCH IDOL MUSIC. That's all I can say and why you are here for. Maybe I'm bias. Feels very different from the other Love Live groups which is really revitalizing to the soul and still a bit cheesy sometimes. The ending song has been looping in my ear for so long. It is just so good. The other inserts have also been looping in my head, that I feel like I won't be escaping idol hell anytime. I won't note the other songs, because I feel like you have to experience it yourselves. Quite bangers. img1366(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/553281704849309707/892827203228827728/ZM8IoXm.png) ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfjpsHnU9DM) youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6ytTXw6838) ~~~ ~~~__Conclusion__~~~ I have awaken a love for Love Live Superstar, to the point where I watch the episodes airing on Sundays twice or for the third time. I just do not know why. Maybe I am truly idol trash, and idol hell has gotten me to the point of no escape. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this revie-GALAXYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. img1336(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/384028328677605399/899429142041337896/SPOILER_bMTJRBy.jpg) Galaxy/Galaxy would recommend the show. img1336(https://c.tenor.com/uEAKR6EJF-sAAAAC/love-live-kanon-shibuya.gif) __Credits:__ /u/GAPORIGO for the meme subs

Kunimaru

So it's been a while since my last review. This show is very dear to me, for one I obviously like the Love Live! franchise a lot but it also has shown me one thing: True dreams cannot be stopped. Story: At first sight, yeah this doesn't seem too special. To me personally it's a lot more than that though. Everything starts off with our protagonist Kanon, who attends the newly opened Yuigaoka High School. She makes a faithful encounter on her way to school with a girl known as Keke. Keke witnessed Kanon singing in the streets and fell in love with her voice, which leads to her proposal: She wants to be school idol with Kanon. Kanon, who wasn't able to sing on stage ever since she was in primary school, doesn't like that idea and tries to dodge Keke. Eventually Keke manages to catch Kanon and they meet the next important person, Student Council Ren Hazuki. She opposed the idea of school idols and wants to stop Keke. Kanon, who doesn't want to be an school idol herself but didn't like how Ren treats Keke, confronts Ren until she is being asked one question: "And what about you? Do you want to be a school idol?". Kanon is not being able to respond, so Ren leaves and Kanon and Keke go to Kanon's place, where Kanon tells Keke why she doesn't want to be a school idol. She promises to help Keke to recruit members though. Unfortunately they are having no success with it and so Keke tries to ask Kanon a last time to be a school idol with her. Kanon refuses but Keke doesn't leave it like that and tells her she would be supporting her with everything she has. Kanon is about to leave but eventually turns back and wants to give it a shot. And so everything is starting. They recruit new members such as Sumire and Chisato and even make Ren join the group. I could talk about every episode here but I don't think this is necessary and I don't really have the words to describe the experience. img(https://i.imgur.com/SCc6qX5.png) Characters: Kanon: What I love about Kanon is how normal and special she is at the same time. She is a lot less energetic than Honoka and Chika but is charismatic in her own way. Her major strength is her singing, which is described as amazing. The choice of the voice actress here is perfect, as, wow, what a voice Sayuri Date has. Kanon manages to be engaging in her own special way and that is incredible. Keke: Keke is your run-of-the-mill idol fan, is what you would think but it's more than that. She manages to have an shining presence with her passion for idols. She also manages to find the right words in the right situation. Her interaction with Sumire is hilarious to watch too Chisato: Who could be a better friend than Chisato. She wants to help Kanon no matter what and that is really admirable. She even goes to the point where she refuses to be a school idol because that would only show her weakness. That is a pretty human issue. If you always have to rely on one person, then well, you would probably feel frustrated too. She eventually manages to realize that she has her own strength and supports Kanon even more as a school idol. Sumire: Oh Sumire, where should I begin. I will try to keep short here. On the outside, she might be your standard girl that longs for popularity, but ohoho that's not true at all. Being in touch with the world of show business early on, Sumire only has one dream: To shine, to be in the center. Unfortunately she never manages to achieve this and gets relegated to be a background character. She still keeps going to long for her dream and that's where school idols come in place. The world of school idols give Sumire the stage she has longed for to achieve her goals and dreams, alongside friends and comrades. Sumire is having issues at the start but eventually manages to find her very own radiance. Ren: Finally, we get to Ren. Ren is a very hardworking and determined girl. She only wants the best for the school and its students and clashes with the school idols more than often. But plottwist, Ren actually wanted to be a school idol herself to save the school from closing because of missing funds. She held off that idea after she notices that the one thing her deceased mother didn't leave, was literally everything about her time as a school idol, so Ren figures she regretted being one, as they didn't manage to save their school. Kanon shows Ren that school idols were her most treasured memories and so Ren has no reason to not join the party. img(https://i.imgur.com/8VPDNfU.png) Visuals: There is not a lot to say about the visuals. Everything is stellar and bright. The 3d models that are being used for performances are better than ever and the sceneries are beautiful. But one thing I really liked were the expressions. This show really managed to make the characters lively by giving them unique face expressions and I loved it. img(https://i.imgur.com/7TQdjAs.png) Music: Just like in other installments of this franchise, the music is on point. Opening, Ending and Inserts are beautiful and accompany the show in a great way. We are having a lot of variety within the insert songs here too. For example "Wish Song" is a ballad that uses very soft instrumentals but is being followed by "Nonfiction!!, which goes very hard. I like that as it makes every song very special. img(https://i.imgur.com/PpIXfE8.png) Conclusion: This show had a lot of things going for me. While it might not be for everyone, since idols are pretty niche, I would still recommend to check this out as it really is a great show. img(https://i.imgur.com/iQcqyNp.png)

Pandapopulation

Superstar is the 4th installment of the beloved and long-running Love Live series. It is easy to follow and does not reference previous parts, allowing both old and new fans to enjoy it. This installment goes back to its roots, arguably simpler than the base of its roots were. Kanon gets picked up by Keke to start a school idol club, but complications arise when the student council president tries to stop them; the standard Love Live stuff. The special part about it this time is how Kanon acts in opposition to the other main characters of previous installments of Love Live. Kanon has stage fright. This stage fright helps drive her character throughout the story as an obstacle for her to get over. It is a good character element that can add some growth and depth to her character, but I felt it was rushed. There were not many episodes where it was the main focus and even when it was, I felt it was not explored enough. This pacing issue crosses through Sumire as well. Ever since she was a kid, Sumire has always wanted to be in the spotlight but had never been there. This would also provide for an interesting plot, but once again, underdeveloped. As rushed as I may be describing the pacing, this was only felt during the last third of the show, which is when a lot of the important parts of the characters' arcs happened. Contrary to this was Chisato’s character arc. Chisato was introduced in episode one and slowly developed throughout the show. This is due to her arc directly tying into her relationship with Kanon, and how they affect each other. It climaxed beautifully and became my favourite part of Superstar. And once again, in opposition to Chisato’s arc is Ren’s arc. Ren’s character arc did not make too much sense and was not developed a lot, kind of just happened. Finally, Keke. So far, Keke’s arc has only been hinted at and not a lot has been revealed about her, even if she was the first member to join the group. Frankly, this is not a bad thing, as a later season is likely to go further into her character. So far, I have only spoken about their development, but how are they individually? Honestly, I think I only like Chisato and Kanon individually. Even if I only like two of them individually, the writing is something of note. The characters play off of each other very well. Every character has a different way of speaking to each other, whether friendly (Kanon and Chisato) or a more aggressive tone (Sumire and Keke), creating a very immersive environment and overall makes character interactions an enjoyable experience. The writing also excels at telling jokes. The jokes are very fast-paced and usually succeed to at least put a smile on my face. It combines both visual humour and wordplay, effectively churning out jokes quickly. It is more visual than wordplay but is still a great combination of both. Now onto the more technical aspects, the visuals of each new season of Love Live are always astronomically better; this applies to this season. Hair bounces with each step and the animated dance choreography always looks clean. Full of bright colours blending well together to create appealing visuals that are hard to get bored of. As it usually is with Love Live, the performances where they sing and dance are mostly CGI. Love Live has quite the mixed history with CGI, as sometimes it looks very off, and other times it looks pretty decent. In this case, the CGI looks good. Used solely for the dance segments, studio Sunrise can create higher production choreography and CGI. It does a smooth job transitioning between the CG and the animated parts during the dance segments to help emphasize movement. These stage performances also sound great. Love Live is often associated with cute girls and high-pitched voices, but it is cute girls and “normal” pitch voices this time. This change can make the anime enjoyed by many more people, as many people were turned away by Love Live due to their high pitch. In addition to looking and sounding good, they also flow well. Every time song is broken into, it feels like you know exactly when it is going to happen and instead of being boringly predictable, it is satisfying to see. Alongside the dazzling stage performances, the background music is also good. Nice and relaxing most of the time, but it can also get you a little hype for the more dramatic moments. Despite its characterization and pacing flaws, Love Live Superstar provides a fun time for both new and old fans of the series. It has arguably the best looking and sounding in the series and is overall a worthwhile experience. I will be looking forward to more of it! Final note, I’d like to thank @hnf01 and another without an Anilist for reading over and helping me edit this review.

2cflame

This is my first time writing a review, never thought I’d make one but I already talk about Superstar a lot so I figured it was worth trying for once. I may reference some general ideas and story structures that came up in previous iterations of love live but won’t dig too far into actual events for those who haven’t seen them. There will be some spoilers for Superstar but I’ll try to keep it surface level. I’m using my personal rating system on this review because these are things I value the most, though for the most part it’s pretty standard. **Story and Characters** Of all the love live generations to come out, Superstar is the first to give you a reason to really care about all its main group’s members within the first season. It accomplished this by bringing the usual 9 member group down to 5 which does wonders for sharing screen time fairly and giving each girl time to shine. A new element to the group dynamic is that they’re all first years. Due to this the characters personalities felt fresh, being able to see each member for who they are rather than having third years that the rest of the group look up to or first years that are more goofy or shy. They’ve all been put on equal ground where each character shines in their own way and doesn’t feel like they exist to fit the previous formula. Not to say the old formula was bad but the 5 member first year group has made Superstar feel incredibly fresh and less overwhelming, especially since Love Live Nijigasaki was only quite recent and came with a whole 10 characters. img(https://c.tenor.com/IPQYUUqxfwEAAAAC/love-live-superstar-liella.gif) The story is fairly standard as far as love live goes, taking the back seat to the fun and music up front. It starts with the formation of the group and follows up with preparation for the Love Live competition, which is usually the safe way for a Love Live first season to play out. Though it’s simple, it leaves a lot of room open to learn about the characters and time for the amazing music Liella sings throughout the show. Perhaps one of Superstars best moves so far is that it didn’t have a drama arc based on misunderstandings or any inconvenience. In place of that we got real issues the members had to overcome in some way or form, with some going across episodes such as Kanon’s stage fright issues and Keke’s resent towards Sumire’s initial treatment of school idols. On top of that, Superstar casts aside the overly negative opposition to the group idea that came up in previous iterations with the student council and rival group roles. In both cases of the past, the characters in these roles would eventually become friendlier but it’d feel really jarring or sudden at times. The rival group of Superstar, Sunny Passion, is much nicer to Liella from the beginning while maintaining their competitive spirit which seems much more natural for school idol characters (I definitely see season 2 of Superstar exploring more of Sunny Passion). An argument could be made for Ren initially but throughout the early half of the show, she shows glimpses of caring about the school idol club even after her opposition to it. The student council president role has always been a tough role to have but Superstar does a good job at keeping you interested in Ren until her time to join. **Animation and Art** Img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/664186198872555520/864909477257019432/unknown.png) The art in Superstar is absolutely beautiful. The backgrounds are eye candy with the vibrant and contrasting colors used all the time. To top it off, the members of Liella have their own vibrant and colorful designs and it makes everything visually really pleasing to watch. Kanon’s got these purple eyes making a strong contrast with her orange hair and Keke’s got these practically glowing purple highlights through her hair for example. Img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/664186198872555520/899844573428342784/unknown.png) The animation is good when it needs to be and used in hilarious ways for comedy bits like Chisato’s random dances or the chaotic live stream where all the characters were goofing off and moving all around. It’s far from the crazy animation you might see in an action show or something of the sort but it does its job really well by making the characters as expressive as they can be and it doesn’t feel like it’s cutting any corners. There’s admittedly maybe a few oddly drawn frames that I did notice though they were few and far in between. The animation did not let up one bit when it was needed for the musical performances though. And speaking of the musical performances, the CGI was very good this time. It’s still ultimately CGI that’s noticeable when it changes but it was meshed in well with the animated scenes during performances and sometimes it was hard to even notice. Even when it did appear it never looked bad either, they could really get away with doing full CGI performances if they wanted to because it looks very nice. **Consistency/World Building** This is probably a somewhat odd category for something like love live or a slice of life show in general but it’s something I value and I think even shows with the most normal settings can do well in this category if the world simply feels lived in. With that out of the way this is the odd weak aspect of the show for me. Since the school idol project and sunshine days, there were always 3 random school girl characters in particular that represented a generalization of the average school idol supporter in the school. The random 3 school girls came back again in Superstar. Img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/664186198872555520/899740596179177612/unknown.png) They’ve always been super reliable and nameless characters that somehow always manage to help the groups. At one point Kanon gets inspired from a conversation with them (which I would have been fine with if she overheard this from established characters like her sister for example) and later on when they help build a stage for the final song, although it was less serious in this case cause it wasn’t as crucial due to how the final episode plays out. I get that the point of the show is to focus mostly on the main group because it’s about them and their singing, but it really can’t hurt to shake up the side cast just to make the world feel lived in a bit more, even just a bit. I’m not saying you even have to name them, but the fact that it’s always 3 repeating random girls in particular has gotten really old now and I just want to see the best for Love Live. It seems nitpicky but the thing is, Nijigasaki actually did this one single element better. Kanata’s sister Haruka has her own idol group as well as another group led by Himeno who met the Nijigasaki club to invite them to an event and it gives you the feeling that there are actual school idols in the world and not just names on a top 5 list. Sunny Passion has done a good job for what they are but at the end of the day, they still fill the competitive rival group shoe that the mainline love live formula follows. I did overblow this point a bit because really its insignificant in the grand scheme for love live and practically doesn’t hurt the show’s main objective but It’s something I wanted to acknowledge and I think could be done better because I’ve seen it done right once before now. On another more positive topic, I do love the very subtle call backs to school idol project and sunshine. Superstar never outright mentions the previous groups, which given how sunshine handled it, this was probably for the better. It let Superstar create its own identity as well as make it an easy entry point for newcomers to Love Live without ignoring the fans that have been there for it all. **Pacing and Overall Flow** Something I really value in a show is the ability to keep me engaged and entertained every episode. I can stick it out for a show if I know it’s going to really deliver in the long run but anime is primarily entertainment for me so of course I’d want to enjoy it all. Love Live Superstar absolutely does this, with a balance of fun and comedic moments in early parts of the episodes with the more important character moments towards the end. Img(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/664186198872555520/893361565611458610/unknown.png) The song inserts were intertwined well, usually representing the episode’s theme or directly relating to the characters feelings during the episode. Superstar on a week-to-week watch always left you feeling satisfied with what you got per episode and didn’t pull any cheap cliff-hangers to make you wait for the next week feeling unsatisfied. As a matter of fact, some episodes really could have passed for their own finales with how beautiful those episodes closed out on. The ending of Superstar was left on a surprisingly much more open note indicating the second season will pick up where season 1 leaves it off with newfound motivation. This is a very admirable way to close the season. Superstar didn’t want to close anything up before leaving but instead, it’s making sure you know it’s just the beginning for Liella and I’m all for it. **Enjoyment** This is my favorite category to rate because I can just put a big 100/100 on here because it’s all feeling. It feels right anyway because I enjoyed every single episode of the show. Love Live means a lot to me because it’s how I got into anime to begin with. I’ve always had fun and enjoyed all the seasons and movies that have come out and I’ve been listening to the music for a long time now. I’ve especially been replaying Liella’s music a lot since they first started releasing songs. If you only know about the insert songs and enjoy those I highly recommend checking out the rest of their stuff. It’s not a lot since they only started this year but a lot of new great songs have been released alongside the anime airing. It makes me incredibly happy that we have an iteration of love live now that has surpassed nearly everything behind it and the quality is really reaching new heights. The craziest part is that generally, the second season for any love live has always been better than the first cause they can spend time on things outside recruitment. I can only imagine how great season 2 of Love Live Superstar is going to be when the first season was already amazing with back to back quality episodes and such fulfilling treatment of its characters. Can I just mention how amazing this ending theme is? I can just play it on loop and not get bored of it because of its already nostalgic feeling energy. As of this review it’s still my favorite Liella song. youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfjpsHnU9DM) Also Non Fiction is the best performance in the show If you’ve already seen the show and you’re interested in my thoughts and reactions on specific episodes you can see them [here]( https://anilist.co/activity/297128439). TL;DR 80/100 - Beautiful visuals, colors and character designs, good animation and art for the most part 85/100 - Very good pacing and flow, balanced and entertaining with a good mix of comedy and character moments 65/100 - Embeds a lot of themes and references to the past while creating its own identity, could use a better side cast though 70/100 - Really well treated development for characters that never left anything untouched, plot is pretty standard though the changes to group structure of previous iterations brought many benefits 100/100 - Peak enjoyment for me and the best of love live easily

Juliko25

So...yeah. It's official, I'm in the Love Live fandom now. Kinda. After being blown away by how good _Love Live Nijigasaki_ turned out, and for the fact that it seems like the creators have gotten rid of the whole boob groping shtick that plagued other seasons (Which everyone knows is a huge turn-off for me personally), I figured maybe it'd be good to give _Love Live Superstar_ a try. Being a completely new series that doesn't require knowledge of the other seasons, I figured this would be a good jumping point into the fandom as a whole, since the Nijigasaki anime is based on a cellphone game and is considered more of a spin-off than anything, and to tide me over before season 2 of that comes out. Though as you can tell by the rating, I do happen to like the Nijigasaki anime a little more for a variety of reasons, but I don't want to start this review off on a negative note. Ever since she was a little girl, Kanon Shibuya has always loved singing...but she gets terrible stage fright and can't bring herself to sing in front of anyone without fainting. She tried to get into Yuigaoka High School's music curriculum, but due to said stage fright messing up her audition process, she was forced into the general curriculum. Disheartened and disillusioned, she thinks her dreams are over before they even start. One day, a classmate named Keke Tang overhears her singing and begs her to start a school idol club with her. Although initially cowed by Keke's intensity and lack of respect for personal space, she does warm up to the idea, helping her start a school idol club and being part of it so she can change herself for the better. Along the way, they gain three more members: Chisato Arashi, Kanon's best friend, Sumire Heanna, a boastful girl who's mainly in it for instant fame, and Ren Hazuki, the student council president who was initially opposed to the idea of having a school idol club in Yuigaoka at all. The five of them do all they can to promote their school and become the best school idols they can be. Since I saw the Nijigasaki anime first, I'm more familiar with that show's animation style, though I have seen clips of the first _Love Live_ anime by way of someone's internet review of it and did some research on SIP and Sunshine, so I have some idea about the basic formula. Basically, animation-wise, Superstar is a mix of the old art style and the Nijigasaki one, bringing back the shading and bright colors of the original art style, along with details like added sparkle to the characters' eyes, while keeping things like the slightly less detailed facial structures and the improved CGI. I will say though, Superstar's animation really rocks. The backgrounds are all impeccably detailed and full of eye-popping colors, and while the actual animation doesn't always land at times, it really stands out when it does. Plus, the CGI continues its streak of improvements from previous series, looking much sleeker and less jarring and stiff, to the point where the transitions from 2D to 3D and back don't feel as obvious. Of course, you can't have a _Love Live_ series without good music to back it up, and that's definitely one thing Superstar has going for it. Many of the songs in this series are not only well sung—which is even more mind-blowing when you find out the seiyuus for Liella are complete unknowns, with this being their first gig—but they also have a lot more variety in their lyrics and instrumentation compared to the first two Love Live anime. I also really liked the little "Liella no Uta" ending segments exclusive to the NHK broadcast, with much slower, low-tempo songs and animation in the style of watercolor storybook illustrations. Those are the songs that really sold me on Liella's music. That being said, I do think the actual background music can come across as being a little too cheesy and melodramatic at times, mainly with the swelling orchestras that play during the really dramatic scenes, which makes it feel like it's trying way too hard to sell a scene as dramatic that it borders on obnoxious. I mean, it's not bad or anything, and most of the BGMs fit the feel of the show, but like they say, less is more. One of the things Superstar tried to do differently from other LL series is to cut back on the amount of characters it centers on. The first two series had centered on nine main girls, with Nijigasaki doing ten before expanding to thirteen later on (Same with the cellphone game), Superstar instead cuts it down to five. This is good because, from what I've read, most _Love Live_ anime often struggle with giving some characters focus while not giving enough to others, which is common with short anime that happen to have a large ensemble cast. Because Superstar cut down on the amount of characters it has, it has ample time to give each character equal amounts of development, and I think Superstar succeeded on that front, even if the main cast do adhere to typical anime archetypes, like the ditzy genki girl, the bratty egotist, the prim and proper rich girl, and so on. I found their development to be just fine, even if it's on the cliche side, though I did feel one character's arc seemed a little too sappy and rushed for my liking. If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be Kanon, mainly because she's a far cry from most idol anime protagonists in that she's smart, disillusioned and cynical due to feeling like her dreams are over, and actually has character flaws that need to be overcome...though the way the show tries to make her overcome it near the end of the series is not exactly the most...ethical. As much as I hate to do this, I wouldn't be a fair critic if I didn't point out Superstar's flaws and setbacks, and...it has quite a few. Love Live has had a history of relying a lot on unsubtle melodrama in an attempt to really tug at your heartstrings, and Superstar is, unfortunately, no different, especially near the end. I mean, it's not to the levels of _Elsie Dinsmore_, thank God, but some scenes make it pretty obvious that they're screaming at you to "BE SAD! BE HAPPY! CLAP YOUR HANDS AT THIS EMOTIONAL SCEEEEENE!!" to the point that it borders on self-congratulatory at times. Again, the saying "less is more" exists for a reason, and some of them could have had more logical solutions and presentation than what they did here. Secondly, and this is more a personal pet peeve of mine than anything: Keke's voice is annoying as hell. I mean, not only does it sound really grating and shrill, it often sounds like her voice actress is trying way too hard to make her voice high pitched and cutesy, but instead makes her sound really screechy or obnoxious or like she's phoning it in. She sounds like a screechier Judy Holliday. I mean, it wasn't so ear-bleedingly bad that it made me not want to watch the show (Looking at you, Hikaru from _Star Twinkle Pretty Cure_), but seriously, her voice actress really needs to dial back the artificial squeakiness. Like, A LOT. Which is weird to say, because when she sings, she sounds perfectly fine! Third, apparently Superstar decided to reuse one noteable plotline from previous LL series. Since I haven't seen SIP and Sunshine, I wasn't really bothered by it, but upon hearing that this is the third time Love Live has decided to use this particular subplot...yeah, I can totally see why fans would take issue with the series continuing to rehash the same tropes and storylines over and over again...and ultimately, that plotline was quickly resolved at the very end through a very cheap, out of nowhere Deus Ex Machina that just made me wonder why they bothered to reuse that same subplot if they were going to tie it all up at the end anyway. That being said, while I do admit to liking the _Love Live Nijigasaki_ anime better, I can't really bring myself to be too mad at _Love Live Superstar_. There are way worse idol anime, and way worse anime in general, than it, and I do think it's positives do shine through, so I wouldn't necessarily give it the side eye. Plus, I'm just happy the _Love Live_ anime canon decided to finally ditch the whole breast groping shtick. Thank you for finally taking the hint, producers! So yeah, if you want to get into the franchise to some extent but don't know where to start, maybe give _Love Live Superstar_ a try. It's sugary sweet and has a lot of heart, and in these hard times, a bit of positivity and optimism is very much needed. Also, the song "Nonfiction" is an absolute banger.

dopopo

Antes de começar a review, eu queria esclarecer que eu não consumi nenhum conteúdo da franquia Love Live sem ser o superstar, então durante a review eu vou estar considerando o anime como um standalone. __A review será dividida entre seções:__ - __Introdução;__ - __Animação;__ - __Personagens;__ - __Conclusão e Desabafo sobre o último episódio.__ ~~~__INTRODUÇÃO __~~~~~~img2200(https://i.imgur.com/xs3Wsnv.jpg)~~~ Em meados da temporada de verão de 2021, lá estava eu, querendo começar a assistir mais animes da temporada, e quando eu fui ver quais eram os que estavam lançando, um dos primeiros que apareceram foi Love Live! Superstar!!, o novo anime da franquia gigantesca que é Love Live. O anime segue nosso grupo composto por Kanon Shibuya - a protagonista -, Keke Tang, Sumire Heanna, Ren Hazuki e Chisato Arashi. No decorrer do anime, elas todas se juntam para formar um grupo de idols escolares, cujo futuro nome é Liella. ~~~ __ANIMAÇÃO__~~~ ~~~img2200(https://i.imgur.com/9nlbtnU.jpg)~~~ Sobre os pontos positivos do anime, a parte mais fácil de elogiar é com certeza a parte técnica, com uma animação 2D extremamente fluída, e um uso de CGI impecável! Todas as cenas de apresentações com coreografia usaram 3D, mas nenhuma foi ruim ou desconfortante de assistir, admito que superou minhas expectativas, já que a maioria dos animes de música, quando chega na hora das apresentações com alguma coreografia necessária, a qualidade da animação cai e muito. ~~~__PERSONAGENS__~~~ ~~~img2200(https://i.imgur.com/4JHRLMj.jpg)~~~ Mas infelizmente, a animação é uma das únicas coisas a ser virtuosamente elogiada. Mesmo tendo um elenco principal interessante, o anime falha em apresentar de maneira bem dirigida e escrita a história de algumas das garotas. Chisato foi a única a ter seu arco de personagem bem explorado, tendo mais de 1 episódio de duração, e mostrando a relação dela com Kanon desde a infância. Mas Hazuki, Sumire e até mesmo a protagonista Kanon sofreram com a falta de episódios para seus arcos (e da Keke nem se fala, a coitada mal teve 5 minutos de backstory). Kanon teve medo de palco desde a infância, e enfrenta esse problema no decorrer dos episódios, mas tem poucos que mostram situações da infância dela tentando lutar contra esse problema ou sofrendo com ele naquela época. Sumire tem medo de ser o foco, já que na vida dela ela sempre esteve em segundo lugar em tudo, mas tem menos de um episódio para falar disso e o problema parece ser resolvido de uma maneira fácil até de mais. E a Hazuki, coitada, o arco dela mal fez algum sentido, sendo explorado por no máximo 10 minutos, e todos seus problemas com a escola e problemas familiares foram bastante resumidos, assim também dificultando quem está assistindo a gostar da personagem. Além de esse problema com as personagens, esse Love Live acabou sofrendo com o adiamento de vários episódios, dificultando alguém que assistiu enquanto o anime lançava, que foi a minha situação. ~~~__CONCLUSÃO E COMENTÁRIO SOBRE O ÚLTIMO EPISÓDIO__~~~ ~~~img2200(https://i.imgur.com/2ao1WcS.jpg)~~~ Mas agora como última crítica, vou falar do último episódio, onde mesmo que as decisões tomadas fossem para evitar um final clichê, acabou fazendo pouco sentido e fez parecer que foi escrito as pressas. Mesmo depois de treinar tanto, o grupo Liella ficou em segundo lugar na competição de idols chamada Love Live, mas esse não é o problema, o que deixa o último episódio ruim é quem ganhou essa tal competição, que foi um grupo que mal apareceu durante o anime, e teria sido um ótimo final se as personagens principais tivessem vencido e superado o grupo vencedor, o que mostraria o resultado do esforço do elenco. __Nota final do anime 60/100__ (aceito qualquer tipo de crítica construtiva sobre a review, e assim sempre procurando melhorar)

roselayed

Special thank you to my friends over at the everlasting cabbage head; this would not have been possible without you. <3

---

__Introduction__ I wonder slightly why I’m even here, writing this. I suppose that an opening sentence like that gives off a rather half-hearted feeling. Nevertheless, if writing this review finally puts an end to all the stray thoughts of what-could-have-been and everything else then I’ll give it everything I’ve got. I think, somehow, as a Love Live! (LL) fan, that’s the least I could do. So, join me, as I attempt to structure my thoughts about this show, so it can finally stop living in my head rent free. Perhaps some background information is necessary for you all to understand this perspective. I think I’d consider myself a fan of LL, even if the time I spent actually engaging with this franchise is rather miniscule compared to others. I got dragged down this hell thanks to Sunshine and went onto becoming a fan of Nijigasaki around the time of the global release of one of the mobile games, Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS. You could say that before the release of the Superstar anime I generally had a positive opinion on Liella!, but as you read this review, you can hopefully figure out how this anime affected my overall opinion of them.

---

__The Good__ Let’s start off with the things I did genuinely enjoy about this entry in the LL anime series. Right off the bat, I’d like to mention the visual elements. I won’t mince my words or try to put it eloquently; it’s gorgeous. Superstar is easily the best-looking LL has ever been. From the backdrops to the character designs to the animation; it’s all visually stunning. Speaking of the animation, that too is amazing; relatively speaking. If you were to compare performance CGI from School Idol Project (SIP) and Superstar, then it’s like comparing night with day. I won’t pretend like I was a fan since the SIP days but seeing this glow-up almost makes me feel like what I imagine a proud parent feels like seeing their child achieve something. Next, I’d like to address the music of this show. While overall I would say that I’m mostly neutral on most of the songs that appear in this anime, I won’t deny the fact that the ending theme for this anime is a certified hood classic. Superstar continues the trend of me being a very big fan of the various ending themes across the series. While I can’t say I have a deep connection with µ’s, [_Kitto Seishun ga Kikoeru_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00HR0H8kwI4) and [_Donna Toki mo Zutto_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l0KZ8qUCYM) still evokes some kind of sentimental emotion within me. The same can be said about my favorite of the µ’s ending themes, [_Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcYtUeu4EqQ); it does what the previous two do, but to an even greater effect. My love for the LL ending themes of course extends to Sunshine and Nijigasaki too (though, [_NEO SKY, NEO MAP!_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1ilXQbtizc) Is probably the weakest to me if I were to judge them based solely on how they make me feel). Superstar’s ending theme, [_Mirai wa Kaze no You ni_](https://youtu.be/ZfjpsHnU9DM), did not miss the baton passed to them from the previous series, and I’m glad that the quality of the ending themes stayed consistent with the series as a whole. __The Bad__ Right, everyone that knows me knew that this was coming. No show is perfect, and if there was such a thing, then it sure as hell wouldn’t be an _idol anime_; let’s stay realistic here. Did I go into this show with the expectation that it would be good? I think I did, actually. Conceptually, this show had a lot going for it. There was almost no connection to the previous series besides some plot concepts, and the group only had five members; meaning that every character _surely_ would get a time to shine and be…likable. Also, this is the third entry in the main series, and you know what they say: third time’s the charm! You’d think that LL’s writers finally cracked the code with Superstar; the idol anime to end all idol anime. Truly, if you had a miniscule amount of hope, you’d think that. Regrettably, that isn’t what we got. I suppose that, even with the right ingredients, one can still make something completely inedible. Let’s start off by addressing the elephant in the room, or maybe to adopt the thinking of LL’s writing team, let’s start off by adding the failing school the girls attend. “But Rose,” I hear you interject, “you love Sunshine and they did the same thing there!” Yes, I won’t try to deny that. The difference here is that I am a rather biased flower; Sunshine changed my life. Superstar didn’t even come close to resonating with me (then again, I am the one writing the review on Superstar here). However, that doesn’t mean that Sunshine is absolved from any and all criticism on pulling the same stunts its predecessor did. You can most definitely criticize Sunshine for reusing that element, even if the story it tries to tell about radiance lies far beyond that. But where does that leave Superstar? The third main entry in a series of idol anime featuring failing schools, but without the _beyond_, perhaps. The fun of Superstar is that it actually comes up twice in the story! How does a school start closing twice? Better yet, why’d they double down on this plot element? Did the common critique that Sunshine received about another school closing fall on deaf ears? Whatever the reason is, it definitely doesn’t do Superstar any favors. __The Girls__ Intrinsically tied to the school closing double whammy (SCDW) is one of the main characters; Ren Hazuki. Ren is the latest entry in the student-council-president-turned-school-idol archetype, joining Eli from SIP, Dia from Sunshine, and Setsuna and Shioriko from Nijigasaki. However, unlike them, she has absolutely no charm and is presented in such an unlikable light I scratch my head thinking how they were even planning to sell merchandise of her. In the first half of the story, her general role is that of the closest thing possible to an ‘antagonist’–although not a charismatic one. The second half doesn’t do her any favors either as the SCDW is so tied to her backstory that it ultimately casts a shadow over her as a character. The only positive things I can say about Ren is that her singing voice is unique and her character design is alright if you manage to ignore the fact that her hairstyle is literally just a combination of Eli’s and Dia’s hairstyles. A little on the nose there, LL. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike all of the characters. My favorite out of them all is Sumire, but I’ll talk about her later. Instead, I’d like to talk first about Kanon, my second favorite. Kanon is the newest of the orange haired leader archetype, joining Honoka from SIP and Chika from Sunshine. What sets her apart from them is that she’s not a _genki_ character, often attributed to Honoka and Chika. For those unaware, _genki_ is often the term used to describe very energetic happy-go-lucky characters. This, personally, makes her a rather refreshing leader-type to me. Her backstory and growth are primarily about how she can’t sing in front of a crowd, which she gets over after realizing that she isn’t alone while performing for the first time as a school idol; textbook stuff. However, later on, there’s an arc focused on making her sing even without the others. The inclusion of an arc like this was something I found very pleasant. I was fully expecting them to never bring the problem up again and let the previous solution remain as the answer to her problems. Instead they do seriously address the fact that at some point they would not be performing together anymore; leaving Kanon without the support she needed. So the other Liella! members make Kanon face this problem head on by making her perform solo for an event, which she of course, in typical LL fashion, handles without issue. Overall, the arc felt more mature than the typical LL story beats without being so mature that it felt jarring, cementing Kanon as my second favorite. I’ll create a pattern here by talking about Keke next. Keke is an entry in the token foreigner school idol archetype. Other entries include Eli from SIP, Mari from Sunshine and Emma, Mia and Lanzhu from Niji. Before watching Superstar, Keke was my favorite member based almost entirely on character design, the few Liella! livestreams I watched, and her seiyuu (shoutouts to Liyuu). Superstar took that and tarnished it. The main problem is that Keke doesn’t really grow at all. Considering that I’m talking about a LL anime, everyone not having some form of growth isn’t too surprising; nor is it anything to fault a character for. Perhaps that’s setting the bar a little too low, but even with that low of a bar, Keke fails to reach it. You see, there’s this particular moment that I vividly remember where she criticizes Sumire for eavesdropping on her even though earlier on in the show Keke herself eavesdrops on Ren with the others when invading Ren’s house. What’s the difference there, I wonder? The circumstances, perhaps. Maybe it was an accident with Ren, and therefore, ‘okay’. But how do you know for certain that it wasn’t an accident for Sumire either? As a member of the same group you’re in, and perhaps as a friend, shouldn’t you give Sumire the benefit of the doubt here? It’s hypocritical, or maybe shoddy writing. That moment together with the fact that her personality doesn’t have any facets beyond being an idol geek in a similar vein to SIP’s Nico and Hanayo, Sunshine’s Ruby and Dia and Niji’s Setsuna, ultimately leads to Keke being nothing more than an archetype within an archetype that is tainted with hypocrisy. What a character. Maybe, just maybe, you could see her wanting Sumire as the center for that one round in the competition as growth. But that begs the question: is the bar so low that starting to become supportive of your fellow idol-in-arms is considered ‘growth’? Speaking of Sumire, let’s talk about her. Sumire is the latest entry in the eccentric with a silly catchphrase archetype. Others include Yohane from Sunshine and maybe Nico from SIP. I think that should make it painfully obvious why I like Sumire the most out of all of the Liella! girls. Similar to Kanon, she’s very unique when considering the franchise as a whole. I’m not really sure whether liking characters solely because they’re a bit unique within the franchise reflects worse on me or LL. Either way, my praises for Sumire do not end simply with the fact that there’s little connection between her and the ones that came before her. Sumire as a character is quite fascinating, too. She has a crippling inferiority complex for one, and spends way too much time simply walking around the streets to try and get scouted for some gig in showbiz. Talk about a grindset. The episode where she joins the group has Kanon scout her like an actual producer or agent out on the streets after failing to make her join with normal means. Honestly, I just like that moment. There’s nothing really too deep about it; it just carefully considers what had been already established about Sumire and uses that for what could be the best ‘recruitment’ scene in the entire franchise. It only missed a little jingle or fanfare to truly make it the greatest of all time. Sadly, Sumire primarily only gets used as the silly one and as the butt of (isopod) jokes. The only big exception is where they take her seriously again in the episode where she gets chosen as center. It’s a bit off how she declared that she would claim the center position for herself when joining the group, only to not accept the position when the others want her to become the center thanks to her rapping ability. But fine, I’ll concede that and imagine that Sumire’s inferiority complex runs so deep that she can’t see herself as being superior to anyone. How ironic is it then, that she’s the bona fide best girl in this show? Last, but definitely not the least, is Chisato. She is the childhood friend of the leader archetype like Umi and Kotori from SIP, You and Kanan from Sunshine and Ayumu from Niji before her. I’ll be honest, I don’t really have anything substantial to say about Chisato. Mostly because I have slightly forgotten what she was up to before joining the group, but I’ll imagine it wasn’t anything too offensive. I probably would have remembered if it was something bad. Though, you could probably make the argument that if it is forgettable, then that isn’t good either…meh, I’ll let it slide. I don’t necessarily dislike her or anything, but I don’t have any reason to really like her either. She is definitely a necessary existence within Liella!, as she was the one that initiated the arc where they give Kanon the courage to sing on her own. Because of that, I guess my neutrality on her leans slightly towards the positive, but again, I don’t really have anything besides that. Uhm, her character design is pretty striking when compared to her predecessors. Not many share her hair color. She likes round things. That’s quirky. Speaking of round things, I have yet to mention the absolute best character in this show. That’s right, shoutouts to my man Manmaru. It’s such a shame we didn’t see him take to the stage.

---

__Outro__ I don’t think there’s anything left for me to say. I was going to mention how their loss to the rival group of Precure characters was also a repetition of previous plot elements seen in SIP and Sunshine, but I think it wouldn’t really add anything to this review. It does make me think, though, do the writers think that LL anime should all follow some sort of formula? I guess if it isn’t broken, we don’t try to fix it. It would explain a lot. Like how they only had five characters to focus on, and yet still managed to make some of them feel like echoes of preceding characters. Or how plot elements constantly and shamelessly get used again and again like the SCDW. Is becoming fully predictable their endgame? Does LL hate innovation so much that they’d produce the same anime again and again as a cheap cash grab as if it were an isekai anime? Are they telling us to just keep consuming? I’m just imagining things. Hopefully, at least. I hope my opinion of Superstar has become clear to you, dear reader. If you’ve made it here through the proper means, then I thank you for your time and hope that I managed to amuse you a little with my ramblings on a silly little idol anime. I think I’ve truly run out of words to put down here, so I don’t think I can give anything thought provoking as a takeaway from this review. Still, I would love it if I could at least say something meaningful with my last words. Oh, wait, I know. Cope, mald, and seethe.

Mehcky

~~~ I don’t think I’m joking when I say Love Live Superstar is the best idol anime of 2021. I haven’t seen many idol anime. (This is my second one). I am going to share my thoughts on Love Live Superstar was an incredible ride from start to finish. --- > TL;DR for people who want to skim and just want to know if I recommend it! --- I don’t think I have to introduce what Love Live Superstar is. It’s a very simple show, perhaps leaning into the shōnen zone, as it is the type of show where someone has a goal and aims for the top. Now, as predictable as it may seem, it’s not about the destination, but rather the journey. And Love Live Superstar had a rather remarkable journey. Let us dive into the story that is Love Live Superstar. img(https://files.catbox.moe/9kppfy.png) Love Live is different as its main focus are “School Idols”. To be honest, as an Idolmaster fan, I’m unsure how school idols work. Idols usually have a manager and certain resources, but this one tends to have no manager. It’s a new concept to me, who has never heard of school idols, but given that Love Live Superstar focuses on school idols opens a different door to the path of idols. I mean, I’m still scratching my head on the idol campaign because there are like, teenagers in Idolmaster, where the idols are raised by a manager. My point is, this opens a different door. Idols raised by themselves rather than by a manager. It’s a very different yet simple concept to me. --- # __Story__ Love Live Superstar is what I would call a semi-slice of life. Something like Violet Evergarden, where moments that *feel* like filler, are important for characterization. But, key word: moment. Love Live Superstar does not have filler episodes. You can expect a story where they will always expand on the characters. You shouldn’t watch Love Live Superstar for the sake of idols, but rather for sake of character growth. They even have their own story arcs. Love Live Superstar is much more serious for what it is. It’s not only about school idols, it’s about personal problems, too. And for the first half of Love Live Superstar, there was a gigantic obstacle in wanting to be the best. The best part about Love Live Superstar are the stakes. It was bothering me a bit that they could always have another try, but no, the idol girls are always trying to move forward at every opportunity. It made the idol performances hit harder due to all the hardships faced to reach that moment. It makes Superstar feel more rewarding to watch. img(https://files.catbox.moe/8dyf5d.png) --- #__Art__ I have seen 1 idol anime before this to know that the performances are going to be in CGI and look weird. But Superstar is a nice surprise. The CGI was not bad, perhaps even nice to look at. I am a bit embarrass to admit this, but I followed the opening’s choreography, trying to dance with them. Hehehehehe. **Seriously, the animation is gorgeous. Look:** webm(https://files.catbox.moe/46ifus.mp4) Love Live Superstar’s character design is a treat. They look so natural, rather than a woman with exaggerated body features. I really appreciate the lack of fanservice. The artstyle, too. For some reason one of the characters were drawn in the original Love Live’s style, so it was a bit strange seeing her with the other characters. --- #__Sound__ As much as I love idols, I have a bit of a problem with the performances. There were only 2 that really stood out, one being rap and one being a solo. As much as I love Love Live Superstar, the performances weren’t exactly the ones I would have stuck in my head. I think the best part of Love Live Superstar’s sound is the dialogue. The dialogue flows well with each other, even with Keke. Keke sounds weird sometimes with her talking, but it’s okay. You gotta have high tolerance, though. I can sense people getting annoyed at Keke, even though personally I love Keke. The openings (which is full of spoilers) were fun to dance to, and the ending was alright. You can hear them here if you want to hear the song: youtube(https://youtu.be/HGkoec4genw) youtube(https://youtu.be/ef36TtyZl9I) --- # __Characters__ I have been itching to talk about the characters. The cast consists of Konan, Keke, Sumire, Chie, and Ren. Ren, was a character we **wanted** to understand. Her entire motive on being an obstacle for Konan and the others was one of the best arcs. I don’t even know why a seemingly slice of life show had such an emotionally tense arc. img(https://files.catbox.moe/vwvy61.png) Of course, Ren isn’t the only great character around here. I have yet to talk about Konan and Chie’s dynamic. Konan and Chie have been there for each other since kids, but they know what must be done in order for them to both grow. It’s not just simple friendships, it’s their drive to be motivated. Not to mention, Chie and Konan are essentially opposites, Konan being able to be confident but has extreme anxiety, whereas Chie grew up shy but never showed any fear on stage. Their friendship and dynamics are so fun to watch, but the only problem is that their relationship felt a bit hollow until Chie’s arc came. img(https://files.catbox.moe/gpwcd2.png) We also have Keke and Sumire. Unfortunately, Keke shined the least out of the five, even though she had equal potential of exploring her character. We only get tiny bits of her situation and the reason for her motivation for becoming a school idol, but we don’t have an entire story arc dedicated to her. At least, they coupled her with Sumire, who got not one, but **two** story arcs. I do not know why, but Sumire was a developed character. She’s even Chuunibyo. “Galaxy!”, am I right? Her character dynamic is not fully complete if not without Keke. Keke and Sumire need to exist with each other to be able to bring out the full potential of each other. Very nice. img(https://files.catbox.moe/gc1x9q.png) But I kept Konan for last. Konan isn’t realistic, when most “school” anime are. Konan very well understands her own flaws and limits, but she pushes herself and others. What’s the word for this? A fun and strong main character. (That wasn’t a word). Konan isn’t the “perfect” character either. It adds light that she has stuff even she avoids doing. Like being in the center of attention. But that makes her cool, you know? It’s good to have a character who can stand on her own rather than be someone the fandom wants to “protect”. img(https://files.catbox.moe/iouekk.png) --- #__Enjoyment__ In the end, I enjoyed Love Live Superstar a bit too much? This show felt a bit of a nuisance when I watched the first episode, only to enjoy the heck out of it for the next 11. I would say my favourite character is Konan, because she doesn’t really feel like a normal slice of life character. Many slice of life anime give you the message of protecting cute things; I think Konan is inspiring as she stands on her own. No protecting involved. img(https://files.catbox.moe/fk5o9w.png) --- #__TL;DR__ I recommend it, even for idol anime haters (but not if you hate Cute Girls Doing Cute Things or hate singing). Approaching the school idol topic was a very nice concept that is refreshing to me. I am very hyped for the season 2 that was announced at the time I am writing this. img(https://files.catbox.moe/6ysasj.png) > If there was any flaw with this review, do tell. ~~~

Anim3Life

So i just finished rewatching for the second time the first season of Love Live! Superstar!! and I decided to openly tell you my opinions. Before we begin, I want to warn you that this review contains __SPOILERS__ about the First Season of Love Live Superstar. Before starting, I would like to make a clarification: I'm not a big fan of __LIELLA!__, _____ So let's start as alway by the PLOT 7.6/10 img400(https://i.postimg.cc/fLmdgqJp/R.jpg) Tokyo’s brand-new Yuigaoka Girls’ High School has no history, no upperclassmen, and no reputation—its first students are starting from scratch! A team of five girls led by Kanon Shibuya discover school idols, and their hopes to do something with singing begin to grow. They begin the “School Idol Project” with a blank slate and infinite potential. It’s time for their Love Live to take flight! The beginning of the plot let's say that it is really if not almost the same as the previous seasons between School Idol Project and Sunshine!. Even for most of the events that happen are almost a trite and retracted of previous seasons, at the first vision honestly I could not fully enjoy it because it resumes the events for the 3 time in a row. At the second vision honestly I could not fully enjoy it, even if it marked tight on the same pattern as the previous seasons: Initial trio formation --> student council president who hates school idols --> group formation --> friendship with rivals --> Love Live tournament. But if I have to say where the plot of Superstar is concentrated! I think it focuses a lot on the characterization of girls especially on the various traumas or inferiority complexes that they possess. I think it focuses a lot on the characterization of girls especially on the various traumas or inferiority complexes that they possess. In the rest a simple and linear plot. Even in the last episode where twist: they lose the love live, conenctrarsi on the revenge that we will see in the Second Season. ______ CHARACTERS 8/10 img400(https://i.postimg.cc/Njj1fxz2/1251188.png) Shibuya Kanon: The leader of the group, very nice her childhood trauma that does not allow her to fully be a school idol, and as it is resolved in her episode, I must say that she surprised me positively. Keke Tang: As in any self-respecting Love Live there must be the lover of school idols, and I must say that I love keke, not only his character but also his seiyuu (LIYUU) who did a great job, very interesting also his family situation. Sumire Heanna: The goat of the group, in some ways reminiscent of Nico Yazawa for some of his movements. Then you'll see in season two his episode which I think is one of the peaks of Superstar. Ren Hazuki: The classic student council president who does everything to stop the school idols, but who will then join the group, fortunately with personal motivations that were not similar to Eli and Dia, although she emphasizes a lot to the two of them. Chisato Arashi: Balls! Joking aside, his inferiority complex towards Kanon is very nice, even on his passage of characterization that we will see in the S2 ______ Let's talk about ALL Insert, Op and Ed included: img400(https://i.postimg.cc/bvKbgfN1/OIP.jpg) "START!! True dreams" by Liella! 7.5/10 "Mirai wa Kaze no You ni" by Liella! 8/10 "Future Forecast Hallelujah! (Mirai Yohou Hallelujah! 未来予報ハレルヤ!)" by Liella (ep 1) 7.5/10 "Nonfiction!!" by Liella (ep 10) 10/10 "Starlight Prologue" by Liella (ep 12) 8/10 "Tiny Stars" by Sayuri Date and Liyuu (ep 3) 9/10 "HOT PASSION" by Nako Misaki and Naomi Payton 9.5/10 "Wish Song" by Liella (ep 8) 7/10 ______ PERSONAL OPINIONS: img400(https://i.postimg.cc/MTxY8fg9/bx114979-H9anm-AB2-Z7uo.jpg) Speaking honestly, Love live superstar, yes I liked it but not too much to re-evaluate the LIELLA! in general, I must say that even if the story had already been seen and revised it was not bad, especially in view of the second season and then of the 3rd season but that we talk about it well in the review of the S2. STAY TUNED!