miela583

I have to admit that, after dropping it for several months, I came back to Love Live!: School Idol Project not because I was in love with the show, but because I'm mildly addicted to the cell phone game. Upon my first viewing, I thought that Love Live! was a pleasant show with nice character designs for fairly unmemorable girls, as well as some very cheerful and fun pop music floating around in the background. It was the music that drew me to the game the minute I got a cell phone good enough to play it, and the game that dragged me back into the anime.

Now that I've watched all of Love Live's first season, I do like it better than I thought I would. The characters are very likable, there are some plot developments that I genuinely didn't expect, and nothing about the show really seems to be forced. It's believable that these girls would be friends, the way their idol singing quest plays out makes sense (even though I would like to know the background of this world where school based idol singing groups have become so important to popular culture), and when one of the girls ends up being unexpectedly important to the plot, it makes sense. It's a little slow paced, but since this isn't a show I was watching for the action, that wasn't a bother.

There were a couple of things about this show that I found to be very bizarre. One, which is rather specific, is the episode where everyone finds out that one of the girls has a part time job and, despite the fact that this is a bit of an unusual job everywhere except for in anime, none of her friends so much as flinch. Their relationships seem fairly realistic both before and after this point, so I was surprised that none of the girls so much as ask her what this occupation is like, or how the customers treat her in the face of this revelation. It's not a big problem, but it's conspicuously odd in context. 

The other issue I have with this anime is the god-awful horrible CG dancing animation. I know, it saves on the animation budget, and other idol anime do it, too, but it still looks weird and bad. The funky CG heads and noodle limbs are quite distracting, as is the fact that their outfits and hair actually seem to be better animated in the normal scenes than the dance scenes. I don't begrudge anyone else liking this style, but it's certainly not my thing.

Love Live!: School Idol Project isn't my favorite anime by any stretch, but it's so pleasant that it's difficult for me not to recommend it to people looking for a low drama anime with some exemplary fluffy pop music. Though I don't know that I'll rush to watch it, I look forward to seeing season two.