Love Live! School Idol Project 2nd Season - Reviews

If you watched and enjoyed the first season of Love Live! School Idol Project I think you should definitely give the second season a watch. I wouldn't say that this is a flawless anime, but I enjoyed it even more than the first season personally.

*Possible mild spoilers ahead for seasons 1 and 2 of Love Live! Read at your own risk*

There are a few things that are different between this season and the last, mainly just the overall tone and feel of the show I felt shifted a little bit. In the first season there is a constant dilemma, Otonokizaka is going to be shut down so Honoka forms a school idol group in attempt to save it. Every episode pretty much focuses on this, there are challenges, setbacks, small victories, etc, etc, until the school is saved and the idol group is successfully formed.

In this season the first few eipsodes the tone felt very different to me, almost cartoonishly dramatic at times, and at others it felt overly optimistic and inspirational. In fact, after I had finished about the first half of the second season I almost dropped it, I really wasn't feeling super driven by the story. There was the overarching plot of winning Love Live, but it didn't have the same feel as the first season, there wasn't enough at stake, it seemed to me like, of course they are going to win Love Live, how else would it end?

HOWEVER, the second half of the second season was really compelling story-wise. I think I probably cried during the last four or five episodes of the show, it really gave me the bittersweet feeling that I think was intended and I very much felt connected to the characters.

Other than the story, the animation is consistently crisp and pleasing to look at. It's pretty simplistic compared to other anime but it fits the feel of the show. The sound is always good, all the songs that the idols perform are super catchy.

As far as characters go I felt that in the first season Nozomi and Rin were probably the characters that were given the least backstory and development, so I was glad that they both got their moments of development this season. And although I realize that with nine main characters it's difficult to balance the screentime and attention that they are all given, I felt that in this season Umi, Kotori, and Maki were kind of snubbed in that realm. That being said I think I liked all of the girls more than last season, and maybe that's just because there was more time to get attached to them, but I feel like they all developed and became better even as this season progressed.

All of that said, if you liked the first season and never watched or finished this one I would highly recommend it, I found myself enjoying it decently well at the beginning and A LOT at the end. And let it be known that this is about high school girls being school idols, so if that sounds like something you wouldn't like, maybe don't have too high of expectations.

This has been copied from my blog 'Shower Of Sunshine'

I remember watching the first season to this anime a couple of years ago and I loved the story line and the really fun atmosphere. Recently, I decided to watch the second season as , to be honest, I didn’t realize there was one.

Here is my review

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Story Line

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‘With Otonokizaka Academy saved by Honoka Kōsaka and members of µ’s from being shut down, students are now back to their normal campus lives — for a brief period. Members of µ’s are now brought back to the stage and compete with other idol groups for regional tournaments.’

</blockquote>

 The series was dragged into the main story line from the first episode, which meant that the story was quick to grasp, which made it a nice continuation from the first season. Siding off from the main storyline, in the anime, there were some smaller storylines that followed out through each episode but they still somehow connected with the main concept which I like as it meant they contributed to the running theme and didn’t annoy watchers. In my opinion, I thought some of the ending was quite predictiable but there was one aspect that caught me off guard.

Animation

There isn’t anything too spectacular about the animation, but I do love the ‘3D’ feel the show has when all the contestants are performing as it is something new I haven’t seen before. It’s also another aspect which got me into this show.

Characters

(http://i.imgur.com/jAmHynj.gif)

Mostly, the anime focused on the nine girls apart of u’s and most of the characters weren’t too complicated as there are a lot too remember. I noticed that each character had a specific label put on to them, for example: Honoka being the loud, obnoxious one and Rin bearing the tomboyish personality.

Overall

I would give this anime

Improvement over the first season,worth watching if you're into music.

This sucks.. i’m still waiting for the deathmetal!

(jk i like this anime)

The first season of Love Live! School Idol Project was a predictable plot where the driven to succeed Honoka overdoes her enthusiasm and causes µ's to be a no-show at the colossal idol-mania event of the year, Love Live!  Bummer!  But the girls survive, learn what true teamwork can achieve and ... lo and behold!  The popularity of the Love Live! event causes a second contest.  A second chance, and so, a second season.

There is a lesson to be learned in producing a second season.  Do you have the right chemistry to advance the personal growth and maturity of nine diverse girls (a strength of the first season)?  Or do you play fast and loose with the premise?  Love Live! gave us nine girls who learn to accept each on her own terms.  Can this camaraderie continue, or do you tweak it … somehow?

In viewing the second season of Love Live!, there is a feel of 'gone Hollywood.'  A sense that something got ruined because it got famous.  The team of µ's has a new chance to win the whole Love Live! thing before the third years graduate and ... hasta la vista µ's.  But the way the Love Live! spectacular was restructured to allow for approximately 200 school idol groups to compete at the regional level to reduce the pack to 50 finalists.  Rather clumsy.  These would be approximately 200 unnamed idol groups, other than A-Rise, Muse's nemesis.  Rather clunky.  The showdown between Muse and A-Rise happens in the regionals, not the finals.  Rather premature.

Face it, BanG Dream!, Chidori RSC, and Saki were far better in the development of tension as the competition continued to the next level.  Love Live! 2 had but two levels, and this done in an anti-climatical way.  Once A-Rise is beaten (and the New Year’s Day meeting of the two teams at the shrine was a predictable waste of delaying the naming of the regional winners), the results of the finals is assured.  Is there another team out there that can handle µ's?  Name them!  You can’t?  Boring!

But the best thing in Love Live! is the development of the personality.  All the girls seem to have a story of the trials of girls in high school.  Rin learns to be more girly than tomboy because she is cute after all.  Shy Hanayo learns she is the logical choice to be the next idol president, though not of µ's (reason for this in a minute).  Nico is admired by her siblings, and she learns to spread the fame about (it’s nice to share the spotlight).  We learn that Nozomi is a closet loner who leaves said closet by the forming of µ's.

The season turns on the decision to disband µ's.  When Love Live! is over, the third years move on.  Finito … dass ist Alles.   No more µ's.  I found this decision to be a little vain.  The idols are becoming divas.  Ali and Hanako’s sisters had expressed a desire to join µ's after the third years go.  In fact, the crew consisted of three from each class.  Three girls from the entering class, logical way of continuing the idol group.  Extra-curriculars work like this.  But to claim that only those nine girls could be µ's … that was a bit much.  But this would add the element of anticipation of the final separation of the nine girls.  The thick sentimentality (and the music which spawns it) was overdone.  Episode after episode of the expected last farewell of the girls with Eli, Nozomi and Nico's graduation.  Hey, I know slop.  I’ve watched the last episode of Smile Precure.  Around six minutes of crying over the consequences of beating the Bad End Kingdom, friends separated forever (as if that happened!).  Evoking emotion is a polished art, but to play on them … dastardly!

And yet, Muse is the idol group that refuses to die.  The last episode, where we are moments of tootle-loo µ's  becomes the lead-in for the Love Live! movie (review coming).  One more big show and then … THE END!  This is the necessary evil in shojo of creating a team of girls, watching them mature and succeed, then dumping them for a new team (what's an Aqour? ... I might have to find out ... or not).  It seems to be the approach of anime in the realm of shojo, new girls, new teams, new challenges.

Again, anime which attempts choreographed scenes better be on their A-game.  This was a strength of Love Live! School Idol Project.  The character designs were pleasant, though the music seemed contrived after a while.  A so-so plot needs more than a sparkling dance routine.  Will all the other idol theme anime be one style fits all?