Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow

It's a heck of a lot better than the second season, but that ain't saying too much.

As someone who still holds the original Love Live in somewhat high regard, Sunshine was quite frustrating to watch. The first season was decent, OK, but left a lot to be concerned about regarding its future. And sure enough, every single concern I had was present in the second season, with a few extra frustrations tossed in for maximum joy. The drama was overblown, so cloying, so far up its own arse that it thought minivans flying into the moon is apparently what idol fans were clamoring for. The ... characters remained one-dimensional caricatures with minimal growth, save for perhaps Ruby's and Ria's involvement with one another, which was probably the season's one saving grace. So, yeah, a bit disappointed I was, perhaps one might say.

And so comes the movie, Over the Rainbow, bringing the series back somewhat to its roots, serving as a reminder of what Sunshine should have been in the first place.

Though there is plenty of drama here as per Sunshine routine, this time around it serves more as a companion to the quieter, sillier moments and the characters' interactions with one another. Because they no longer have to spend every waking second freaking out about their school potentially shutting down, the girls of Aquors are free to finally do their own thing and focus on their own future rather than that of the school's. What will happen to Aquors now that the third years are graduating and leaving the group? Is it worth continuing Aquors without the full nine present? Can Rea move forward on her own now that her partner and role model has graduated from Saint Snow? These questions are far more compelling, far more human than something as artificial as "well, the school might be shutting down, so I guess we have to be as popular as we can or whatever and scream about shining every ten seconds or so."

The result is that the drama hits, because it actually matters this time around. Though Over the Rainbow is still a bit too heavy for its own good (this is an anime about high school pop idols, after all...), the conclusions the characters come to feel like the natural destination for their story, and the bittersweet ending— the final concert in particular— carries a tinge of emotional weight similar to that of the original Love Live's ending. If you are easily moved, perhaps you might be on the verge of a tear or two, but in my case it was just too late to feel all that much.

The musical performances (and I do mean 'musical' musical, a la Grease or La La Land) are undoubtedly the high point of the movie; notably, the opening sequence near the train station, the girls gradually introducing themselves and speaking to the audience through lyric, was very cleverly choreographed and a catchy little song in itself. The animation is more of a mixed bag, as even with movie treatment the dances are mostly comprised of artificial-looking CG, not all too different from any typical episode of the TV series. The way the camera quickly zooms in and pans around is a lot more enthralling, however, and some of the stills and background shots (especially of the Italian cityscape) are stunning and on par with some of the best the industry has seen. But I guess Love Live has always been pretty palatable to the senses, hey?

So, if, like me, you were critical of Sunshine but enjoyed the original series, Over The Rainbow ain't too bad. It feels closer to the original, better balancing the drama with the comedy and focusing more on what the viewers want— music and girls— rather than trying to wax philosophical and change your life through the sheer force of melodrama.

If ever there is a third Love Live anime series, I'd like to see them do something slightly different. We've done this story twice now, identical format and all, so I can't really imagine a third time around would get people all that excited. Why not have all the girls start as first years together, so the story can run for longer instead of being reset every time a couple of the seniors inevitably graduate. Things could even continue beyond high school as they would all still be together. Heck, while we're at it, you could also lower the cast from nine down to five or six so that they all have more screen time and can get more fleshed-out. Just my ten cents.

But if the upcoming All Stars mobile game is any indication, the next iteration of Love Live characters look to be more of the same.

Not that it matters, I suppose, because I will play it, and I will enjoy it solely because there is Nico.

After a long wait, the movie has finally arrived for us to watch!

Love Live! Sunshine!! Over the Rainbow (or in short LLS:OTR) was quite a phenomenal movie. Though it didn't really do much new when it comes to Love Live's nature.

The story makes zero sense. I won't spoil, but we get MORE drama throughout the movie that feels so out of place, and many flaws you can point out that make no sense. But if you're already used to Love Live!, you'll understand the basic concept does not make sense at all (Ex: Where the heck does the music come from?), and still a few ... other contradictions.

If we put the story aspect aside, we get a masterpiece of a movie. The songs and dances in the movie were amazing, especially with the constant switching between CGI and 2D, which I found to be done really well (especially if you compare it to the very first season of LL).

The songs were really good overall, a few bangers, a few mediocre ones, it balances it out.

The setting in general was really nice (Italy!), though it's quite a shame that like in µ's movie they didn't have way too much time abroad and went back to Japan to solve the rest of the series.

The movie gave the finale we needed for the series, and I still have hope to see spinoffs or similar anime adaptations in the Love Live! universe.

Oh, and by the way, if you're a 3rd years fan, this movie just hits the sweet spot that gives them quite some screen time.


In general, if you're already a fan of the series, you're going to love the movie, but if you aren't really, you'll meet the same old flaws and problem yet again.

And since I'm a huge fan, I rated it 10/10.

u went to America for their movie, Aquors went to...ITALY!??!...what was Giorno their guide?

Where the u's movie merely did a cursor glance at any resolutions and pretty much retread of it's anime series finale just with America added in...Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over the Rainbow gives us the resolutions that the anime series left us and did it BRILLIANTLY.

Well the premise of this movie to even get Aquors to Italy is that Mari, Kanan and Dia have gone missing and Mari's mother tells the remaining to find Mari and Mari's mother will give them a huge sum of money if they ... succeed, thus Italy but it's not as easy as it seems, but this plotline is only the base premise as Chika and the remaining Aquors have a bit of a problem both performance-wise and friendship-wise what with Mari, Kanan and Dia having graduated and it's affecting them harshly. Later on, Saint Snow comes in and much like Aquors' breaking up, Saint Snow but more precisely Leah can't take it that Sarah is also graduating and is ALSO having problems forming an school idol group on her own.

For characters themselves, Mari has taken focus for the first half of the movie what with Italy and all, but she gets some much needed development aside from being the wacky Engrish girl and sure....her development is to do with her mother thus family issues and as much as it's cliche, Mari's development was still decent and a nice foundation and push for the plot to move forward. Yoshiko's chunni gets her own due, yes for laughs but nonetheless. Hanamaru and Yoshiko seemed to be the comedic relief of the movie Yoshiko...being Yoshiko but Hanamaru gets the running gag of eating EVERYTHING in Italy. Kanan and Dia become essentially satellite characters to Mari for the first half of the movie but what with both of them having development from the anime series it kinda makes sense for Mari to take the spotlight as she needed it. Ruby much like Leah gets the same development with their older sisters but Ruby is at the end of it as she KNOWS and has moved forward whereas Leah is at the middle of it and finally given the resolution she got in this movie. Chika, Riko and You gets oddly enough the least amount of development with once again You getting the least out of the three. Chika being the de facto leader of the 6 remaining Aquors members and really she does most of the decision making for the movie, while Riko and You are the cheerleaders, You does have one other addition that of You's cousin, Tsuki who is a student of the main school that Uranohoshi's student have transferred to and much like You helps Aquors, oddly enough Tsuki got the development that You needed as Tsuki tags along with Aquors and later on finds how great being School Idols are and in turn making the main school to show that Uranohoshi is worth being in their school (instead of the branch school they got dumped into). Riko though is similar to You, screentime wise and "yuri shipping goggles-wise" got way more than You, as Riko interacts more with both Chika and Yoshiko. Once again You gets shafted.

The animation done once again by Sunrise, well the background work was AMAZING especially during Aqours' stay in Italy. The character designs and expressive facial animation was done to great and sometimes wacky results. Character designs-wise, though it's still consistent as the anime series, the movie gave Aquors are VARIETY of costumes for any time they change locations or a new time of day (seriously, their sets of costumes could fill up a rich mansion's closet!). The Live's CGI got better as well from the second season's anime series, though it's still obvious when they use CGI, they blended quite well to the point it's not distracting, just noticeable. All in all, Sunrise went ALL OUT for this movie's animation and for such a "farewell" movie, it was to be expected.

Voice cast was back and great as always, with some standouts being Aina Suzuki as Mari because come on, while Yoshiko and Hanamaru's voice actress Aika Kobayashi and Kanako Takatsuki gets to go full ham or comedic and their one liners were great. Tsuki's voice actress who was uncredited (?) was pretty much the same cadence as Shuka Saitou voiced by You pretty much showing that Tsuki IS very much You's cousin. But all in all, since they not only voice the characters but the singing was great and with that. Aquors' voice cast is back and better than ever in this movie so all in all. Great voice cast..as always.

Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over the Rainbow did what u's couldn't with their movie and that is RESOLUTIONS and Over the Rainbow actually made it a tearful but satisfying resolution and farewell with Aquors and tied up loose ends from it's anime series and to that end makes it a much better constructed movie, yes it's similar to the u's movie at the start (main cast goes somewhere outside of Japan) and the 3rd Years have graduated and having to deal with it and to Over the Rainbow's end with characters have a mixed development to their resolutions, some little to nothing *cough* You the ever satellite character *cough* but Over the Rainbow nonetheless ENDS tying up ANY loose plotlines with it's characters the anime series left hanging, whereas u's movie gave us an open ended farewell and left it at that.

u's anime series and movie was too happy go lucky, almost coincidental in how things ended up as to be status quo and got the series in a static limbo with its movie's finale, but to state, LA doesn't think u's movie is horrible as a result, that movie did what it did, yes with some flaws but it was a farewell just not a decent one, whereas Aquors from it's anime series dealt with being an idol group and with it's 3rd Years gradating soon in a much more logical way and with this movie gave us a proper farewell and resolutions that were established in the anime series.

If you haven't noticed, LA was very satisfied with this movie as LA can see Aquors moving forward in earnest. Over the Rainbow...well went over the rainbow and once again, gave us a pretty satisfying, yet tearful farewell, what else would you want more for an idol movie than that showing that an idol group can happily move forward with no regrets.

For the huge Love Live! series, and the last sequel for the Love Live! Sunshine! Series, this movie was a massive show. Eventhough i never watch the prequel before, because i just need this movie just for a refreshener, i can't say a bad word for these amazing music story. I may be too over reacted, but my point here was clear and exact to the main course, i love this movie!

Following to the disclosure of the mqin school, they try to give a brand new school idol to the branch school on an abandoned building as a main school base. Like its written in ... the synopsis based on MAL, the mission was simple. But, they failed first. Then had a great movement in the next scenery and so on. How heart-warming for me! Despite random activity happen for the next half of the movie, like goes to the Italy, prevent arranged marriage of Mari, even helping their solo rival Leah arise again, these movie can not lose its shine!

Straight to the last performed, until their final music show, all of them match together in harmony. Aquors, now bring more fun to the new school citizen, and gladly received a welcome appreciation! I can't say other words rather than an incredible amount of sweet music, an amazing art and animation, a beautiful sounds performance by all of the VA, a wonderful story and well building to the characterization, just that words can flowing from my mind. I might be naives, giving too much score, straight to 10, to a non-watcher series before. However, after watching the first franchises of Love Live! School project in the first, my points shall be crystall and solid. Yes, i shall watch the anothers. But, for this solo movie, my 10 can granted all of my wish together as one.

Thats all i can say for thiw short summary of review, as usual. Not much, i think. Even the last review can not be the same as this. But still, 10 per 10 for all of the sections was my final deduction.

***SPOILER-FREE REVIEW***

Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow was an anticipated movie for many Love Live Sunshine fans. Using the same trope of "Traveling Abroad" just like the original Love Live series, they look to produce the same amount of closure in the franchise as well as the original did. However, this really wasn't the case sadly.

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STORY: LLS Movie is an extended epilogue of Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season. With the 3rd years graduating and the others merging in with another school, we look to see how they close the show. It started off nicely with the 1st and 2nd years struggling ... to find their way without 3 members missing. However, the switch to the "3rd years missing in Italy" arc was out of nowhere and the result of the arc was worthless other than to showcase the "trip abroad" trope that the original did. Nothing really was given to the characters rather than the "Friends got our back in everything" concept.

Then switching back to include Saint Snow's dilemma was rapid as well and didn't really help the main group of Aqours resolve their own problems until later on in the movie.

The ending did feature a touching way to end off the series, but everything preceding this was clumsily directed and filled with filler. But I'll get to that in the "Enjoyment" section of this review.

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ART: This movie showcased a vast improvement in it's art and animation compared to the 2nd season. The CG models of the girls performing are much better. Backdrops looked quite nice as well.


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SOUND: Just take the same OST you got from previous Love Live anime but add in a few new original songs and you get this movie's soundtrack. I personally liked all of the songs although listening to Aqours' singles, they sound quite similar and not so different from each other. Saint Snow's newest song was my standout pick for the soundtrack of the movie in my opinion.

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CHARACTER: As an extension of my thoughts on the story, the way the movie was paced and directed felt sloppy and really didn't do much for any of the individual characters at all. Even as a group which left a mixed feeling for me when finishing the movie. The characters did showcase the tropes that made us love them from the first 2 seasons cause they did have standout moments of comedy and great character chemistry. But seeing as this movie **should** be a defining conclusion to the LL: Sunshine franchise. This felt like filler and that's disappointing.


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ENJOYMENT: As per mentioned in the previous sections, my enjoyment of the movie was flawed due to the sloppy pacing of the story and underwhelming character growth mixed with the "laugh out loud" moments produced by the lovable girls of Love Live Sunshine. Seeing how they marketed this movie to be a "crazy trip abroad" type of movie and seeing the end result was disappointing in my opinion as the whole trip was pretty wasted potential.


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FINAL THOUGHTS: Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow was a overall fine movie. As an extended epilogue to the 2nd season of Sunshine, this was a pretty underwhelming experience. However, for hardcore Love Live fans, this will definitely satisfy you for the comedic moments and good songs that the movie offers. If you have seen the trailer for this movie, don't expect much from the abroad trip or even the movie as a whole. You'll be disappointed, like I was.

5/10

This should have been the second season. I'm baffled that this whole thing was shoved into a movie instead of being the plot of the entire second season, which it could have easily accommodated (and the second season instead being a bland repetitive plot with no originality). The art and music are, of course, stellar and the characters are at their most extreme - which is good, because that's when Aquors feels most original, rather than their usual day to day not-quite-knock-offs of the Muse cast. Yoshiko and Mari get a lot of spotlight here and that's fair, because they're some of the most interesting ... and original of the crew, unlike Hono- I mean Chika. The side characters are meaningless and I don't really understand their introduction but they're in the movie so little that I don't care. In all honesty, though, this movie is the thing to watch if you want the best of the Aquors experience without wasting your time on the bad pacing of their two seasons, the repetitive nature of plotlines, and at least it isn't a direct copy of the Muse movie, unlike the rest of the Aquors series. My hopes for the next group of girls being in any way new or original now that another anime has been confirmed isn't very high.

I've held the Love Live series in high regard for years at this point and have went into each series cautiously and optimistically in mind to how the series got its start with School Idol Project. Of the many spin-offs and followups after SIF, Sunshine definitely had a rocky start as Aqours' biggest issue throughout Sunshine seemed to be establishing their own identity apart from the likes of Muse and in some way this movie gives them another chance in doing what season 1 was trying to do, but it still has it's own issues.

Over the Rainbow follows up on the plot point with ... the school that season 2 left off with and the 3rd years are naturally preparing for life after high school away from Aqours and the remaining 6 members struggle to function as a group knowing the 3rd years won't be with them going forward. This is the biggest plot point of the movie along with a continuation of school drama Aqours seeks to resolve following the closure of Uranohoshi Girl's High School in season 2, but it's not the only one as the film picks up a good few other narratives and attempts to provide some clarity on. If you're a fan of Sunshine then perhaps you'll be content with how it looks at all issues with heavy dramatization and solving those issues through configuring their emotions and everything else works alongside their own evolutions. You could say the overly dramatic approach to storytelling is a part of what makes this series what it is at this point and I'd be inclined to agree, but I didn't feel like it juggled the handful of plot points too well here. The trip that they take to seek out the 3rd years gets rendered pointless by it not being relevant other than mostly serving for a temporary setting. And like it the other plot points are either rushed towards a conclusion too soon or resolved a bit too easy in favor of the movie reaching a satisfying ending for everyone.

Aqours themselves are all back and carrying the same cute quirks and traits as they've always had and along with them Saint Snow as well. Over the Rainbow somehow felt like it didn't do anyone in Aqours too much justice for anyone individually. Even for the few who get highlighted we're not given too much time to absorb ourselves in the drama because it gets solved quicker than it feel like it should've been. The few who'll get some seperate camera time get at least a little something in, but the rest seemingly get relegated to roles they already had from the TV series.
(Like You being snubbed of screentime more than Chika & Rika, Hanamaru & Yoshiko acting as comic relief to varying degrees, and Ruby at least being able to synchronize & develop in a similar sense with Leah from Saint Snow over their sisters and idol performances with them)

While it staggers with the story it does of course do great with everything else. The songs and performances are of course good as expected, may be so bold as to say I might have a new favorite Aqours song or two now from the movie. While I don't quite have an eye for details regarding things like CGI, there is nothing I have to say against it here because it's something Love Live does very well all around it's multiple series. The models always look good and the choreography for the dances seems impeccable, some of the best choreography in anime tends to come from this series. Also liked how the movie felt more like a musical too with how well they'll move from a scene then immediately transition into a performance.

Over the Rainbow treads into the same familiar territory that it the Sunshine TV series does but for better and worse in various respects from both seasons, but if you liked Sunshine then you'll likely like the movie as well. The movie didn't quite feel like the farewell for Aqours that I hoped it would've been like with μ's but it felt like it did them just enough justice for me to walk away and feel like the series has concluded. But I did like that it ends on the same note that season 1 starts on, and rather than that goodbye like μ's had this felt simple and pleasant. While Aqours' overall tale was a bit rough having retread familiar territory and stumbling a bit on it's own spins it was still nice being with Aqours for the ride.

In some ways, I actually like this movie more than School Idol Project's movie, which you won't hear many people say. However, there are other ways in which it falls flat.
Over the Rainbow is a movie with a good plot but with poor writing.

Spoilers:

So one of my biggest problems with the movie is just how absurd it all seems. The conflict and the early plot are actually pretty good, I like the dynamic with Mari and her mom fighting about her potential marriage and the fact that the third years ran away. However, the story wasn't executed the best. The characters range from ... pleasant like Yoshiko to annoying like Hanamaru, who essentially does nothing but eat and whine. Then you get other characters like You that get no screentime because they decided it would be a good idea to include some annoying 1-dimensional copy of her who takes away some of her screentime. Kanan and Dia also don't get nearly enough screentime, I think it would have been kind of cool to see them talk more about their relationship with Mari. The music is phenomenal, as to be expected, especially Saint Snow. The art is pretty good although some of the design choices like the lips bug me a little (that may not bother you, it's more of a personal preference for me). The pacing isn't the best but it is better than the other LL movie, so I guess that's something. I don't really see what was essential about the girls going to Italy. They could have literally done the same story but just have the 3rd years go run away to Tokyo or something. Why Italy? Is it because Mari has family there? You can add that to the list of things that this movie never explains. I do like the conflict towards the end with Leah and Sarah, it's kind of a nice touch but I wish it had been built up to throughout the movie better, it's just kind of shoveled in there.

Despite my critiques, this movie does do a lot of things right. It kept me invested, it had good music, the art was good, and it is, I suppose, a satisfying conclusion to Aqours' legacy. Not the best movie of all times, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

I waited a few months after finishing the second season of sunshine to watch this, and to be honest I didn't really like show part of sunshine. I watched it right after school idol project, and it just felt like an exact carbon copy with slightly different characters and circumstances, and I got a little tired of the forced overdramatic scenes.

Coming back and watching this movie, I realize that's what made this series good in the first place. The drama is overdramatized and the "touching" moments are so cliche and stupid you could laugh, but honestly I still love it. It's not well written, but ... despite that it still manages to be fun. This series still has some actually amazing music though, and the animation is surprisingly good too.

Overall, this is basically just a trashy high school drama, but I still love it.