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

Following the closure of Uranohoshi Girls' High School, the third-year students—Dia Kurosawa, Kanan Matsuura, and Mari Ohara—have just graduated, leaving Aqours with solely the first and second-years. While searching for a new place the remaining members can use to practice, they decide to visit the new school they will soon enroll in. However, to their surprise, the building seems to be abandoned! It turns out that due to the school board's worries regarding how the freshly transferred Uranohoshi students may burden the clubs, they were instead sent to a branch school. This sets Aqours on a new goal—to prove that Uranohoshi students are serious in their clubs as well. Meanwhile, another problem arises: the third-years have unexpectedly gone missing during their graduation trip!

Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow revolves around the remaining Aqours members as they venture out to search for their missing seniors and, at the same time, try to figure out a way to change the new school's mind.

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Prequel:	Love Live! Sunshine!! 2nd Season
Other:	Love Live! Sunshine!! Photo Session

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Tsushima, Yoshiko

Main

Kobayashi, Aika
Japanese

Watanabe, You

Main

Saitou, Shuka
Japanese

Kunikida, Hanamaru

Main

Takatsuki, Kanako
Japanese

Sakurauchi, Riko

Main

Aida, Rikako
Japanese

Ohara, Mari

Main

Suzuki, Aina
Japanese

Kurosawa, Ruby

Main

Furihata, Ai
Japanese

Kurosawa, Dia

Main

Komiya, Arisa
Japanese

Takami, Chika

Main

Inami, Anju
Japanese

Matsuura, Kanan

Main

Suwa, Nanaka
Japanese

Kazuno, Leah

Main

Satou, Hinata
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Herek, Samantha

Assistant Producer

Sakai, Kazuo

Director, Storyboard

Nagasaki, Yukio

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"Bokura no Hashittekita Michi wa... (僕らの走ってきた道は…)" by Aqours

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Ending Theme

"Next SPARKLING!!" by Aqours

Reviews

Jul 25, 2019

dadnaya

Recommended

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 ...

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Jul 28, 2019

Veronin

Mixed Feelings

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.

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May 5, 2019

Garma

Not Recommended

Spoiler

*This review contains spoilers.*

Love Live is part of a bigger multimedia franchise. This is important to consider because the Anime serves more or less as an advertisment for the games and to create a basic level of attachment to its characters. I don't think it's justified to call the Anime adaptations a cashgrab, but all of them so far have been pretty mediocre and anyone who has seen Love Live Sunshine (LLS) knows what the expect from the movie.

If you happened to like LLS, that's great. You will probably like "Over the Rainbow" (OTR) too, as it does essentially nothing different from the TV series. ... If you didn't like the TV series, well that's too bad. You probably won't like OTR either. The movie managed to leave behind the forced drama about Aquors' beloved school closing but at the same time it introduced new unnecessary drama.

Like the TV series, the movie lives off mostly of the cute interactions between the members of Aquors. Everyone has retained their quirks and they are used for comedy throughout the movie. We get to see a lot of new musical performances which makes you feel like you're watching disney movie because the characters happen to sing and dance in the most unlikely of situations. Sometime during the movie it became clear to me that the story of the movie is just an excuse to show the characters' new performances. This is also where the movie differs a bit from the TV series: There is no longer any driving force behind Aquors trying to perform as school idols. Heck, there is no longer any driving force behind the story at all. The TV series concluded it perfectly with Uranohoshi closing and merging with another school. And here we are in OTR, with Aquors thinking about how to continue their lives, now that Dia, Kanan and Mari have graduated.

The trip to Italy could have been a great adventure if it hadn't been botchered by the reason of why Dia, Kanan and Mari disappeared. As it turns out, Mari's mother tries to force her into an arranged marriage to restrict her freedom. An interesting turn of events, but the way it's resolved is in typical LLS fashion: Mari convinces her mother to cancel the marriage if Mari can show her that she can make people happy while performing as a school idol. Of course, her mother agrees and Mari manages to persuade her later on. I know that drama has never been a strength of Love Live, but come on ... that whole arc was really laughable.

Dragging through the movie is generic ganbatte talk. The characters are motivating each other a lot, but that's really only on a superficial level. It has been like that in the TV series as well and it's continuing in the movie. Combine this with the fact that there is no competition anymore and you may start wondering what kind of goal our characters have in mind. At the beginning of the movie, it is clear that due to Dia, Kanan and Mari having graduated, the remaining members of Aquors have trouble performing at their full potential due to lacking 3 members. Fast forward to the end of the movie, they suddenly are able to perform with only 6 members, despite having learned exactly nothing.

Aside from Mari's arranged marriage, other subplots have been introduced during the movie as well. One example would be Leah from Saint Snow having trouble to assemble a new school idol unit, now that she can't perform with Sarah anymore. This subplot, like all others, was left severely underdeveloped and it's resolve was basically pulled out of thin air. A new character was introduced as well, You's cousin Tsuki, but she didn't really serve any purpose besides just exisiting.

Music should be one of the greater strengths of Love Live, yet I find most of the songs to be pretty generic J-pop. I have no deeper attachment to any of Aquors' members (neither to the Anime characters nor the real singers) and with the exception of "Mirai Ticket" I have not found myself to really enjoy any other of their songs. Maybe I'm not the target audience of Love Live, but I don't see what makes the music any different from other idol groups.

My rating of 4 may seem harsh, but you should put it into your own perspective. It's the same rating I gave the TV series because I think the movie is just "as good" or "as bad", depending on your perspective. As I said in the beginning, if you liked LLS you will probably like the movie too. But looking at LLS as a standalone Anime, I think it's just bad. It's bland characters, bad story, forced melodrama, repetitive comedy and average music all makes it a bad Anime for me. Sadly, the movie offers no real development and makes the same mistakes. That's why I think only fans of LLS will love it. It's certainly not made for a general audience.

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Poll: Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) vicexxv - Jan 4, 2019	50 replies	by TheColonel76 »» Aug 7, 2023 4:21 PM
[Spoilers] Storyline and performance dont match? TobyFreedom - Mar 9, 2019	2 replies	by Ranka-Nyan »» Jul 29, 2021 10:35 AM
[Spoilers] Can someone explain to me the ending of the movie? dadnaya - Jul 25, 2019	3 replies	by Ranka-Nyan »» Jul 29, 2021 9:19 AM
When will I be able to watch? ZipperNYAN - Dec 17, 2018	22 replies	by MrBluebear »» Jul 2, 2019 10:34 AM
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Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow

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Tsushima, Yoshiko

Watanabe, You

Kunikida, Hanamaru

Sakurauchi, Riko

Ohara, Mari

Kurosawa, Ruby

Kurosawa, Dia

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

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Synopsis

Background

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Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

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