Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season

*DISCLAIMER: A very unorganized and SOMEWHAT SPOILERY "review" of Sunshine s2 which might ruin your viewing experience, so I'll just say "you're welcome" in advance for saving your time.

The Love Live franchise has a knack for being the defier of expectations. Those who go into the series expecting nothing but cancer usually end up taking something positive from the experience. Those who go in expecting happy rainbows and sunshine only get slapped in the face with the cold reality that is School Idol Hell. Love Live Sunshine s2 is no exception to this rule, for what was set up to be potentially the greatest installment ... in the Love Live anime series ended up being one of the greatest disappointments I've yet to come across.

If Love Live Sunshine had one major step up from its predecessor, it would be how it utilizes subtlety. Very rarely does the show tell you how the characters have developed, and if it does, it gives a great presentation to back it up. Love Live Sunshine actually uses the performances of the girls as ways to show you how much the characters have improved: how the choreography slowly improves from performance to performance, how the amount of band aids Chika has increases from scene to scene. There was no need to state the obvious, or to show Chika getting injured: all of that was inferred through some great shots of Chika just trying her best.

Did I just give Love Live subtlety points? SORRY GOTTA TAKE THOSE RIGHT BACK because at the same time, Love Live falls back into its old habit of friendship speeches, slow motion eureka jumping moments, repeating the same cheesy lines over and over again, and other tactics to not so subtly remind you that this is a show about friendship!

Love live teaches you that you can't solve your problems by shouting into the distance or giving your computer screen your patented GLARE OF DETERMINATION! Instead, shit goes south. Chika goes through a massive identity crisis, hinted through her subtle mannerisms and facial expressions. How is it fixed?

By having the entire school yell at her! Through sentimental speeches thrown from floor to rooftop!

Do you see the problem? Love Live always sets up these plot points with so much potential: the subtle build up, psychological conflict, and with minimal exposition and drag. Only for it all to be resolved with the usual cheesy sentimental monologues or speeches that make you cringe. There are so many opportunities for these resolutions to occur through the same methods as the build up, but noooooo let's have people yelling their solutions while jumping in slow motion, or have the entire fucking school somehow spit out the entire solution to the problem! These cheap resolutions are buzzkills and lazy lazy lazy ways of resolving drama.

Oh course, I won't pretend that Love Live Sunshine s2 is the only installment in this series that has this problem: season 1 had plenty of it, and the OG series too. However, what the OG series did was leave room for potential and improvement, and it actually took the opportunity to improve on a lot of the flaws that it had. This was why season 2 of the original was a drastic improvement, and I can even full heartedly call it good. Love Live Sunshine set up the same opportunity for its sequel to do the same, if not even more. With the way it builds up, it seemed promising at first, but it just devolves back into the same exact thing that made people so critical of the series in the first place.

Changes in directorial styles are nice, but there needs to be some consistency. Love Live Sunshine was commonly criticized for being too similar to its predecessor, and while I agree to some extent, my greatest praise for Sunshine was always how Sunshine felt like a sequel to School Idol Project as much as School Idol Project felt like a prequel to Sunshine. To me, there is no one over the other, there is no battle between Aqours and Muse. They exist together under the Love Live banner, as they should. This was due to how the recycled plot points are used as ways to develop Aqours differently than Muse, and how even though both anime series tackle the same themes, each series usually prioritizes one over the other, or they tackle the theme a different way. For example, Sunshine has more emphasis on the girls actually trying to improve as idols, and this is actually expressed fairly well through the slow improvement of choreography presented in the concert scenes. This contrasts School Idol Project's emphasis on the girls bracing for when they have to disband, something that Sunshine still touches on but not as heavily as School Idol Project. While School Idol Project dedicated more episodes to the fate of Muse, Sunshine spent less time on that theme but featured more dynamic and hardcore methods of exploring that theme, featuring a FUCKING FLYING VAN, lots of cheesy group cheering and crying. Whilst School Idol Project took the more subtle approach on the passage of time by showing the girls doing slice of life shenanigans through timed events, Sunshine brought out the big guns immediately by making the girls taste failure and fly vehicles into the moon. Unfortunately, Sunshine s2 did this pretty poorly as flying vans and having the entire school chant Aqours over and over again isn't a very effective way to convey this message. When the hard hitting, tear inducing, heart pounding, and hope brimmed scenes actually make you laugh your ass off, you know that something is wrong.

The characters of Love Live are the defining factor and also hold the most potential for growth and change. And yet, some things never change. Yoshiko's comedic antics now are about as funny as they were back then (in other words, not at all.) Yoshiko also still had pitiful development. As you can probably tell, one of my biggest hopes for this season was for Yoshiko to finally get some satisfying development. Needless to say, I ain't satisfied. But some things do change, and they are pretty nice. Dia's arc about wanting to be called "Dia-chan" was light hearted and fun, no unneeded sappiness, just satisfying fluff. Hanamaru turned her sass level all the way up, she ain't holding back anymore. Ruby had an entire arc dedicated to her growing independence in a way that also contributed to the whole "Aqours probs gonna disband" plot point. Did this save her from being worst girl? Nah, but it was still a nice touch. Meanwhile, Kanan actually had some screen time this time around. Riko too gained a decent amount of screen time and her personality was more fleshed out. Chika changed from a happy go lucky "I can do anything" character to one with genuine psychological conflicts, similar to the change granted to Honoka.

But in order to grant these characters some quality of life buffs, some other characters gotta be gutted into the ground. Take Watanabe You for example. Formerly an irreplaceable asset and fan favorite of the Love Live Sunshine story line, she was demoted into legitimately the most useless character ever conceived. Even Umi, the sociopathic queen of underdevelopment can't hold a finger to just how absolutely useless You was during this season. If you took her out of the show, nothing would change. This just proves that Sunrise just has no respect for the best girl. An instant flunk! Love Live Sunshine s2, you get a 1/10 for FAILURE!

Is what I would say if they didn't give Sakurauchi Riko, the next best thing, a lot of fluff. The dog episode featuring our homie Sakurauchi Riko is not only the best episode of the season, but one of the best episodes of the entire franchise, rivaling the legendary episode 5 of Love Live School Idol Project s2. But one good episode isn't going to sway my consensus that is Love Live Sunshine s2 may be the worst season of love live to date, if not at least comparable to the mess that is season 1 of the original.

So how does Love Live's sound quality fair for this new installment? Mirai no Bokura wa Shitteru yo is, in my opinion of course, the best OP that Love Live has to offer, not only on a song quality basis but on a directorial basis as well. It perfectly encapsulates the energetic yet melancholic strive to shine that defines Love Live Sunshine. The sparkling light in the beginning that shines down on the members of Aqours also fits the shooting star motif that's commonly brought up throughout the show. Similarly, the ED is definitely a top tier ED, but that is to be expected from Love Live EDs. The seiyuus are splendid as always: I'm a pretty big fan of the Love Live seiyuu scene, especially the Aqours members. I probably like them more than the series itself. When it comes to OST and insert songs, it's a pretty hit or miss experience. There is one piece in the soundtrack (you know the one) that is constantly played during the melodramatic scenes. While the piece by itself is pretty nice I guess, combined with the already over the top scenes in slow motion and tears that probably took half of the animation budget, it's safe to say that the OST played a big role as to why Sunshine is way too sappy. The insert songs hold a similar problem. Whether or not you like them is down to preference, but as I stated before: I liked how Sunshine used the concert scenes to show the improvement of Aqours when it came to choreography. What I didn't mention is how weirdly weaved in one particular piece of choreography was, that being the Chika cart wheel flip move. A whole episode of build up was dedicated to that one move, yet it was transitioned in so badly during the concert scene, it felt more anticlimactic than anything else, oddly placed with no satisfying transition into and out of the concert scene. Another prime example of decent build up with pitiful pay off. Yes, Chika is finally able to do the move, but her ability to do it was triggered by more friendship speeches and an unsatisfying transition. What does this have to do with the insert song? There was no good timing to insert the transition, and the song they used is somewhat at fault for that too.

You may be saying: Yuni, why are you subjecting this random idol anime to unnecessarily high standards and potential that you probably just made up on your own? No one told you to expect a masterpiece, and you shouldn't anally shreck an anime for not being what you expected!

I'm just sad that what could have been done right HAS been done right before in the past, so why not now when the possibilities are greater than ever?

Love Live is all about change and growth. Love Live Sunshine s2 achieves this change and growth but through the worst ways possible. There's literally an entire episode of build up where the 9 girls inner monologue how they have changed throughout the series. There's no implications, no subtlety, just the girls directly stating "oh becoming an idol did this to me." Similarly, the interactions between the girls evolved only very slightly, not at all, or only evolved heavily after major events and get reset somehow. The slight changes in character interactions where a measure to the development of the characters during the original series, and it's missing or played badly in Sunshine, which is a darn shame. Only a select few characters had a little bit of spice added to their interactions, like Zuramaru and Riko. Sure, this season may have delivered the growth that everyone wanted, but it was done in the least satisfying way possible, a sure cause for disappointment to me, the only one around who actually had such high hopes for a lowly idol anime called Love Live! Sunshine!!

Ah yes, and my updated order of Aqours members is:

*sigh* It's Pronounced "Yoh" > Rick > Hannah Mahroo > I wanna Dia > Yohane Sebastian Bach > Kanan you not? > Mary > Kan Kan Mikan’t > Gangstarooby

I need to write this.

I feel compelled to write this.

A single 'tags' box can't possibly contain all of my thoughts and feelings for this season.

So, before we get right to it, heavy spoilers, if there's anything worth spoiling anyway.

Ready? Okay.

... Love Live Sunshine S2 is shit.

After S1 set the bar for what was, most likely, to be the best season of Love Live ever, maybe even surpassing the masterful S2, ended up being the corniest, most obnoxious, most mind-numbingly boring, most underwhelming experience I've ever had with a piece of entertainment. Yup, this thing is down there with Terminator Salvation and Bioshock 2. But, to be fair, it's not exactly Final Fantasy X-2. How do I say this? It's a piece of shit but not entirely.

Unlike the older seasons, it looks prettier. The soundtrack is nice. And the 3D animation is nice to look at, not like the awkward CG models they used in the original. The 2D animation is a lot slicker and more animated, allowing for a range of expressions in body language (which they didn't do at all). As for the girls themselves, DO YOU SEE THAT DETAIL? The amount of work they put into making the girls a lot prettier and flashier is impressive. As a training animator myself, I can just imagine the sweat and tears put into the lineart per frame.

Hm, what else... Yup, that's it for the positives, I think. Now let's tear this thing apart.

One of the key things that made Love Live so good was how they utilized drama. Whenever there was a situation the characters couldn't handle, it was always given due care, embracing an amount of subtlety or loudness that always fit the situation. Yes, even the massive outbreak scene in the original S1. The way they build up scenes with music, voice acting, blocking and camera angles manage to convey the emotions the characters are feeling. The other key thing was silence. The characters would only talk when they needed to, and convey what they needed to. This is true for the original and Sunshine S1. The scene where Chika expressed her disappointment and sadness over getting zero votes was masterful. It is a very good example of saying what you need to say: "I'm disappointed, I'm disappointed". Just from these lines alone, you could feel all the emotions pouring out from her, and the strength she lacks trying to cope with the situation. This is a scene I remember to this day, and I've only seen the whole season once, last year. It's masterful, and embraces what Love Live stands for - following your dreams and growing to become better.

See all those great thing I said about Love Live? THIS SEASON HAS NONE OF THAT.

The way drama is handled here is exactly what I expected of Love Live before I watched the original; corny, loud and meaningless. The school is shutting down, they failed to save the school but they have to get up and do Love Live anyway! How do they convey these set of events? In the laziest way possible. Chika is on the brink of losing hope, the group of schoolgirls can't convince her out of it. What saves the day? AN EVEN BIGGER GROUP OF SCHOOLGIRLS. Even at the ending, when they're closing up the school. This is the perfect moment for silence, letting the feeling sink in that 'this is the end and we need to move forward'. But NOPE! Gotta keep telling each other and letting the audience know that "we'll be together foreeeveerrr *heart* *heart*". The way they resolve every instance of drama is just plain lazy. I don't know, but they always feels set up, like it's just there just so something can happen or they say things just to consume empty space when there's no need to. The biggest thing I want to address is the Saint Snow arc. This could've been an amazing arc, rivaling the original S2's Rin and Nozomi episode. But nope, it was a rushed and inconsequential set of episodes about characters that had 0 to no buildup. Ruby is such a disappointing character. She was at least fun and felt involved around S1, but the way they utilized her for this arc, getting involved with Leah because she also had a sister and she was seemingly concerned, doesn't work for me AT ALL. As for Leah, her problem just felt plain shallow to me. Not that it wasn't. Losing the whole competition is something very demoralizing for the two of them. ... So why didn't they show that it was? This is another problem with the show: not putting in good buildup or drama when there was a dire need for it. This arc was in DIRE need for some good scenes, showing the tension between the two sisters, building up Ruby and Leah's friendship while developing the two in some way that it shows us who they are. The series tries, but it falls flat on its face because the scenes really just don't work for me and just feel empty without the proper backing. Ruby building up the confidence to make her own decisions? Great! Where's the part where you established that?? It really just doesn't work for me.

And while we're at the topic, let's talk about the characters. S1 built up these characters to have possibly amazing arcs because of how well established they were, and how their unity felt organic and something that could potentially create amazing and fun mini arcs for the group. But here we are with S2, where the main dilemma is the group's refusal to put -chan at the end of Dia's name. What happened to all the dynamic characterization in S1? You can't possibly tell me that all the things that made each character interesting somehow disappeared after S1? Where did You's confidence issues go? Dia's love for idols? Kanan's love for the sea? When did Aquors' determination to follow their dreams, be free to be themselves and shine yet keep asking themselves what it means to shine?? And turned the girls into uninteresting one-note characters that say the same things over and over ("Buu Buu desu wa" is the most ear grating thing I've ever heard in my life)?
Well, not entirely.
I missed one positive thing about this season - the dog episode. The way they gave Yoshiko and Riko this fun and unlikely friendship over a dog and make them realize things about themselves and each other.To make things better, both subtlety and silence were present. How Yoshiko expressed how she didn't really believe in the occult but did it anyway because she felt something special from it and Riko receiving those words from her reminded me why I loved Love Live so much. And it gave me hope that maybe the series would go back to being good again, but nope it became boring the following episode. I honestly don't even remember what happened. What happened again? And what sucks is that they tossed away this relationship almost entirely after, turning Yoshiko back into a dry joke instead of bringing out her internal dilemma.

I feel a need to address the songs, because really, none of them were memorable for me. They sounded like the filler songs you'd play in SIF. None of them stuck with me at all. They felt cheesy, boring to listen to and I'd occasionally pause in the middle of them to get a drink.

It's relatively easy to get away with the phrase "It's just an idol anime. What did you expect?". It's hard to explain to people that the Love Live is a great series and could be a very meaningful experience. What this season is is precisely what people who haven't seen the show think the show is - just another cute girl anime. Just another corny, boring slice of life show with some music.

This show is an utter disappointment. And I seriously hope future installations strive to do better. But, to Sunrise, this season is probably a smash hit so I'll hope instead that a more competent director or writer comes around. Love Live set the bar high, and I seriously hope someone steps in and meets the quota next time around.

I had my score as a 6 for this show for a long time. It only took some reflection a few months later to realize how biased i am towards the LL franchise just because I adore the music. This show, especially this season, is bad. Just bad. It tries to be something it's not just because it feels as if it must live up to the original LLSIP. The original truly acts like a shackle to this new installment. In many ways, Sunshine trying to go out of its way to feel different from the original comes off as a reskinned idea, or simply ... uninspired. But enough about the first series, this show is bad on its own. It hits some fine emotional points in the first half, but my god that second half. I am truly convinced, the writers came up with the plot as they went on. It had no direction. Nothing served as thematic presence on its own, nor did it work to build up anything by itself. Most of the time, it felt like it was being emotional, just for the sake of being emotional. Love live sunshine season 2, is just kinda shit and I'll probably watch it again someday OMEGALUL