Love Live! Sunshine!!

Basically just a slightly worse carbon copy of school idol project. Honestly not worth watching if you've seen school idol project, but as a stand-alone it isn't bad. It definitely made me realize I don't really want to watch any more shows in this universe, even though I liked school idol project a lot. The characters are extremely similar to School Idol project, and some of them even have the same one-note personality traits. If this one had a different premise or number of girls or personality of those said girls, I would have given this a higher score. In the end, however, its nothing ... more than a worse version of the original.

Update: I initially wrote my review after having watched the first 6 episodes. In the time since then, I went and finished the anime. While I do think I was perhaps a bit too harsh at the time, I stand by the issues I complained about. The first 6 episodes of this are rough due to being a blatant copy of many story beats and character traits from the original series. There is significant improvement after the first 6 episodes, and that quality is maintained for the rest of the series, but the first half of this season does hurt it significantly.

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This review includes spoilers ... up to episode 6, as well as various parts of the original Love Live series.

After watching and thoroughly enjoying both seasons and the movie of the original Love Live series, I was excited to start Sunshine and experience a new setting, characters, and story. Unfortunately, after 6 episodes, it has become very clear that there is nothing new to be experienced here.

First of all, the characters. They have different names and faces, but make no mistake - they are clones of the girls from the first series. Chika is Honoka, You is Kotori, Riko is Umi, Ruby is Hanayo, Hanamaru is Rin, Yoshiko is Nico, Dia is Eli, and Mari is Nozomi. The only one I can't comment on would be whether Kanan is a Maki clone. She hasn't been shown in much detail up to this point, so it's hard to say. I would be very surprised if she ended up NOT being a clone, though. I could go into detail about how each of these characters end up being a clone of another, but I think if you watch even one episode it will become very clear that this is the case.

Next, the plot. Guess what, it's just copied and pasted from the original series yet again, only done worse. The series starts out with no actual motivation for the girls to become school idols - they just want to. That's weak and uninteresting, but in episode 6 it's revealed that the school is set to be closed due to lack of interest from students. Hey, at least they addressed the lack of motivation for the girls, but they did so by literally reusing the same plot as before!

Another thing that really rubbed me the wrong way in the plot was the girls' first concert. If you remember μ's first concert, the curtain opened to reveal that no one showed up. It was a powerful scene that served the purpose of telling the girls that their goal wouldn't be easy to achieve, and they wouldn't be instantly successful. In fact, this scene is probably my favorite scene in the entire Love Live anime. Sunshine attempts to copy this scene, but it messes it up to an incredible extent. Instead of leaving it at no one showing up and using that to show the girls that it will be hard, it turns out everyone is just late to the concert! It sets a precedent that the girls cannot and will never fail, unlike μ's who actually DID fail on multiple occasions and grew from it. If you're going to copy a scene, at least do it right instead of completely undermining the entire purpose of the scene.

I know some people might be upset because I only watched 6 episodes, but it became very clear to me in those 6 episodes that I was in store for nothing more than a clone of the original series with much worse execution.

Great historical sequel , great music and a worthy continuation to love live highschool is what i would have loved to have been saying but cant. Am i too absorbed by the older generation maybe but it doesnt hide the fact that this anime was good in its own way but lacking in some.

That they created a new story in the same world as love live was great it was something i looked forward to watch and that the anime did well. They also brought forward what was great about the school idols through the different characters. So in that was enjoyable ... enoug

So i wrote that what did i feel was lacking and why did i not give it the review many thinks it deserves. Well to be honest the consept might be what to be expected of the anime but it still doesnt hide that they did almost the exact same thing as what came before it. The character might have been original in their own ways but thats about that. The pace of the story felt rushed and jumbled and at times it felt that there wouldnt be any progress with it. I did like the music to a certain regard but i didnt enjoy as i have had with other idol animes excluding the previous love live series. The songs felt ordinary and i just couldnt say that this was great. The only song i found myself liking was the one that their rivals created while the main characters songs sounded like normal idol songs with nothing special about them.

What i advice the ones that read this is that they watch this with an open mind and also without thinking much about what came before since maybe that would help you like it alot more but even as an individual anime i wouldnt give it any better than what i gave it. Its easy on the eye its fun at times to watch but it feels too much as if i had seen it all before. It has its moments of good but it also has it downs which i wont gloss over and say that was nothing.

Compared to the original series, Love Live Sunshine felt very rushed and unfocused. The original had a conflict established in the very first episode and gave us much more time to get to know the characters, but while I was watching Sunshine I never really cared about the cast or felt like I knew them.

During the original Love Live I was entertained throughout, but Love Live Sunshine just didn't appeal to me as much. A lot of the characters in Sunshine feel very gimmicky compared to the original series, especially Yohane. To be fair, there were a few characters in the original series that I ... didn't grow to like until the second season, but even in the first season there were a lot of fun scenes that let me get to know and like the cast. Nico alone was entertaining enough to make the whole series worth it. There aren't really any characters that appeal to me as much in Sunshine.

I mean, Mari can be pretty entertaining, but she barely even shows up for half the show and most of the time she's just filling the role of this show's Nozomi equivalent. Her fun moments are very sparse and short. Wooby and Zuramaru are qt, but not enough to keep me invested in the show. Sunshine was just tiring to sit through, because I didn't get enough time to get to know the characters before they became idols, there weren't enough fun character moments to keep me entertained, and there wasn't enough interesting conflict to keep me interested in their rise as idols.

Aqours' rise in popularity overall feels too sudden. It just doesn't feel as significant as in the original series. By the time Aqours has entered the preliminaries, we've only seen them actually perform in the "real world" of the show twice, and in their first performance they were able to fill a whole gym, unlike μ's, who barely got anyone to come at all. Even though within the show we're told that things have gotten much more competitive since μ's competed, the fact that we don't really see the struggle as much makes Aqours' rise in popularity seem much easier and less significant as an audience member.

One thing I will say is very good about Sunshine is the art. Everything in this show is very pretty looking, with the exception of a few of the 3D dance shots, which were a bit jarring in the original as well. However, good visuals can't make up for lack of interest in the characters and conflict of a show, so I can't say that I enjoyed Sunshine overall.

I'm not sure if my tastes have changed or if this was actually better than the original. Love Live Sunshine wasn't anything great, but it was still enjoyable.

The only downfall of this show would have to be the story. The story felt a bit too similar to the original. It was the same as the original but with different people. Also, muse was mentioned waaaay too much in this. It felt like Sunshine was just a cheap spin off of the original instead of being its own show. It would have been much more enjoyable if they had a different motivation to become school ... idols and they never mentioned muse. The lack of an original story really takes away from the overall enjoyment of the show.

Although most people will be watching this for cute girls and nice music, which this show nails. The main cast are all cute and have their own quirks, making it hard to choose a favourite. The songs are also great and choreography is animated well.

Overall, if your just looking for a show with nice songs and cute girls i would highly recommend it. The story is very cut and paste from the original though and takes away from the enjoyment in my opinion. If you weren't a fan of the first one you should probably just pass on this. Its enjoyable but not anything special.

Love Live! is a pretty household name in Japan and pretty well known internationally due to brilliant marketing and overall rather great songs. Sunrise knew how to market the girls of Muse through anime, and it shows. Muse is now one of the popular idol groups in Japan, at the same level of even AKB48.

So now, why was Love Live! Sunshine!! so badly marketed? It seems as if Sunrise didn't know how to sell Aquors. The anime doesn't help either. It is almost a REQUIREMENT to watch the first 2 seasons of Love Live! to understand several references and jokes that the girls make in ... the show. Girls are like carbon copies of Muse, with the exception of You. Sunrise didn't have a direction for this show, and it tried to pander to fans and ignore the masses. They have a great concept, and I wish they can do better if a 2nd season is green lit.

Sunshine!! isn't really an anime to begin in the franchise. For fans, its an ok show with ok humor and rather great songs. It's disappointing, but the first season of Muse was like this, so I have high hopes that the girls of Aquors are something that can become likable.

Love Live! Sunshine!! struggled with its first season, at least mostly for the first half. The first half of this season is all over the place. It starts off promising enough but gets really confused with what it wants to be. It obviously wants to be a good successor to the original Love Live! So much so that they mention how great µ's is so many times you'll get sick of it after Episode 6. It's as if the writers thought that if they didn't keep bringing up µ's, it would alienate original fans and get them mad, but it really takes a toll on ... the early episodes. Personally, I think all the µ's praise could've been left in the first episode or two and slightly mentioned later. There are sometimes it actually helps the story to mention µ's like the hilarious intercom scene with Dia, but it mostly hampers the show. Great character moments are not only limited by all the "µ's is so great" speeches but by the plot which felt like it was sometimes just forced sometimes just to add tension where there wasn't any needed. I'm talking about a specific plot they add a bit towards the mid of the 1st half (you'll know when you see it). It's lazily done and the show would've been improved with less plot, which was the least fun part of the previous Love Live! too. The first half of the season isn't unwatchable thanks to the fun characters but it will turn a lot of people off and almost turned me off of the show if it weren't for the previously mentioned characters and music.

What is fun about Love Live! is the characters and the music. And where Love Live! Sunshine!! completely fails at story (at least at first), it succeeds in making lovable characters you care for and really great and catchy musical numbers. The characters and the music really carried me through the first half. As for the second half, this is where things get better and the reason why I didn't give story a 1. It seems halfway through the show the writers remembered how to do pacing and after the really good Episode 7 and 8, Love Live! Sunshine!! slows down for once to give us more character-focused episodes and fun moments that let the members really shine and it's because of these moments that I was still able to enjoy the show a lot (Yohane is best girl).

Anyway, in conclusion, Love Live! Sunshine!! starts out rough but if you stick through it, you'll find a really enjoyable show that gets better as it continues. Season 2 isn't finished yet but it has already surpassed my expectations and is turning out to be as good, if not better, than the original Love Live! Season 2 so I'll leave it to you but I'd still recommend it to people who like slice of life, character-centric shows, with good music.