The second season of Love Live! Superstar!!
Considering the _Love Live_ series' pattern of having two 12-13 episode seasons for each iteration, it was inevitable that _Love Live Superstar_ would do the same thing. And wouldn't you know it, not long after the first season ended, the second season was announced. It even aired right after season 2 of _Love Live Nijigasaki_ ended. I need to finish my review for that particular season. I admittedly liked Superstar, though a little less than Nijigasaki, but I definitely enjoyed what Superstar tried to do, even if parts of it didn't always make the landing. But when it was announced that several new characters would join Liella, many LL fans were both excited and nervous, excited to see what these new characters would bring but worried that their inclusion might mess up the dynamic that the original members of Liella established. Plus, adding these new characters seemed to lean back into an established formula even though Superstar originally intended on just having five main characters. This was especially worrisome because most Love Live series often have the issue of trying to juggle too many characters at once, having some characters receive focus episodes while others wind up getting shunted to the background. Even as someone who's only seen this and Nijigasaki, I tried to temper my expectations and keep all this in mind as I watched the show. Needless to say...the previous LL fans and I wound up being right, to an extent. So season 2 takes place immediately after season 1. While Liella admittedly didn't make it into Love Live, a new semester has started and they're looking forward to what the new year will bring. They even manage to recruit some new members: Kinako Sakurakoji, a spacy country girl; Shiki Wakana, a quiet, soft-spoken science fanatic; her best friend Mei Yoneme, a passionate idol fan who tends to hide under a tough, menacing facade, and aspiring YouTube star Natsumi Onitsuka, a greedy, money-grubbing gremlin who really, really wants to make bank. Things start to get a little heated when a mysterious singer named Wien Margarete comes into the picture and seemingly wipes the floor with all the other idols, including Liella and Sunny Passion. It doesn't help that she seems to have some kind of grudge against Kanon for reasons nobody, not even Kanon, seems to know. But Liella isn't one for giving up, and with new members under their belt, they're determined to get farther in Love Live than they did before. I have a lot I want to say about Superstar season 2, and some of it...you're probably not going to be happy about. As far as the new characters go, I think Kinako, Shiki, and Mei are fine. Not necessarily as fleshed out or developed as the main five, but I found them to be okay characters. I do appreciate that Ren got fleshed out a bit more in the focus episode she got in this season, and I was pleasantly surprised by the direction they decided to take her in. Speaking of the main five, I do like that season 2 does put in some effort to develop them a bit more and have them try things here that they didn't do before. Remember in season 1, when people nominated Kanon to be the student council president? In season 2, Kanon decides to willingly join the student council as vice president as a way to take the burden off Ren, which is really significant because she takes on more responsibility, and is shown to be pretty good at it. That being said, I really didn't like Natsumi. I found her extremely annoying and her motivation to become an idol just felt really shallow and forced. But more than that, I also didn't like the new rival character, Wien Margarete. She just felt like nothing but a plot device whose only purpose was to boot Sunny Passion to the side and be a source of conflict that Superstar really didn't need. Poor Sunny Passion doesn't even get to do anything in this season! Her whole motivation just felt really stupid and melodramatic, and the show's attempts to make me care about this emo brat really didn't work for me because they didn't give her enough of a presence beyond her concert appearances to make me care about her. That being said, she does have the best songs in the show, so I'll give her that. Speaking of melodrama, I know _Love Live_ has a bit of a reputation for not always being good at tackling big dramatic storylines. I haven't seen the first Love Live series, but I know that had a particular subplot involving Kotori near the end of the first part that really didn't go over well with the fans. And unfortunately, _Love Live Superstar_ also has this problem with a subplot involving Keke. I won't spoil anything, but this subplot was briefly mentioned in season 1, and it gets followed up on in season 2, but the way the anime resolves it just felt really stupid and hollow. It doesn't help that the anime has the characters scream their feelings out in a really forced, artificial way and go into cry fests that just scream "We're trying really hard to make you feel for these characters! Now feel sad, dammit!" and it really didn't work. It's similar to a subplot that Ren had back in season 1, with it somehow getting resolved with a handwave near the very end, even though the series previously made a huge deal out of it before. But whereas that subplot suffered from just having a convenient solution just handed to the characters without feeling earned, the subplot here with Keke tried too hard to force drama that could have been resolved in a less...theatrical and melodramatic manner. And as much as I hate to say it, the songs got a bit of a downgrade this season. They're not bad or anything, and like I said before, I loved all of Wien's songs. But several of them just weren't as good as the ones in season 1. I admittedly really didn't like the song that played when Natsumi joined the group, but I did like the one Liella sang to welcome Kinako into the group. The songs range from good to uninspired. The actual soundtrack is fine, and the opening and ending songs are nice to listen to as well. But season 1's songs were just better by way of having more versatility and a willingness to explore new genres. I mean, why do you think people consider Nonfiction to be the best song in the entire _Love Live Superstar_ canon? Because it kicks ass, has a fun beat, and is a pretty good take on rap and hip-hop, two genres I admit to hating with a passion. But I don't want you to think that I consider _Love Live Superstar_ season two to be outright bad. Like I said before, the series does make the effort to flesh out both its old and new characters, even if it didn't do so for others, I liked several of the new Liella members, Wien's songs are all great even though I hate her as a character, and the animation work is about the same as the previous season, so it's still nice to look at on a technical level. Plus, and this is a rather petty, personal thing for me: Superstar has no boob grabbing. Thank God. And funnily enough, a lot of what I just described could very well be addressed later on because Superstar was just announced to have a third season in the works, making it the very first LL series to ever get a third season! I still enjoyed the season as a whole, flaws and all, and you can bet your ass I'm watching the third season for sure!
