Genjitsu no Yohane: Sunshine in the Mirror

As a spirited young girl, Yohane ventured into the big city with ambitious dreams of becoming a star. Two years later, she has yet to pass a single audition. Since Yohane cannot support herself alone, her mother invites her back home to discover something new that only she can do. With limited options and an empty wallet, Yohane reluctantly returns to Numazu, her hometown.

In the seaside town, Yohane reunites with her canine companion, Lailaps, and slowly settles in, opening a fortune-telling shop. She reconnects with old friends she had forgotten and meets new ones, all of whom help in her search for a unique purpose and meaningful path in life.

Unfortunately, all is not well for Yohane and the people of Numazu: a mysterious power is affecting the town and disrupting nature and wildlife. While forging stronger bonds with her newfound allies, Yohane devotes her summer to finding the magic that may help save Numazu.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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

Lailaps Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Iwata, Yoshihiro Producer

Ootsuka, Hiroshi Producer

Nakatani, Asami Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Animation Director, Key Animation

Morita, Yuuichi Sound Director

Reviews

Sep 30, 2023

Naneo

Recommended

This anime is a long awaited spin off of Aqours. Aqours is my favorite group out of all the Love Live franchise, and its a real pleasure to see them got animated again after all this time. This anime is what I expected it to be if Love Live become a fantasy magical girl anime. Focusing on the same genre as the main series. Such as friendship, trust, relationship, hardwork. And how can we forget the most important one, songs. They slip the idol genre a little in here. Not as heavy as the main series but I'm glad they keep it.

Story is very great, ... neatly packed. If the story is some kind of painting, it would be very beautiful to look at. Heartwarming feeling every episode makes the viewer comfy watching it. Don't expect a lot of fighting animation. They do have some action scene, but its not really the focus. The story is slow paced so they give us the time to immerse inside the world they build. It feels like you are there yourself inside the small village of Numazu. I always like countryside without all the busyness of a city. People help each other, people know each other, and that's what this anime portray perfectly. Small fantasy village with a wholesome vibe around it.

Every villager personality is very nice. There are no villain, or maybe there is. The villain in this anime isn't clear. They can't see what the villain is, but they can feel it existence. For me tho, I just call it a problem. Because in the end they manage to solve the problem in a very Love Live way. A lot of Love Live reference is here of course. But that doesn't mean this anime is only for Love Live fans. You can enjoy watching as long as you like this kind of thing. I said that because I personally feel this anime is not for everyone. Magical girl thingy, fight with love, not fist.

Animation is unbelievably great. Definitely looks disctinctly different from the original Love Live series. Everyone get a slightly different color pallete design and I love it. I always welcome subtle changes like this. Isn't really obvious but I can feel something is different. The bright lighting also a match with the themes this show bring. Sadly there are no serafuku which I dearly love from LLS. There's barely any action scene. When there is one, they did not let it flop, eyes just glued to the screen because how awesome it is. I swear the studio is just flexing their Gundam animation skills.

All the main characters VA is a top tier of course. Sometimes I even think about how they all can consistently make their anime counterpart voice after all this time. I have already listen to Aqours music and they can't stop to produce catchy songs. I love the OP, the ED, and insert song inside this anime, never skip them. BGM also enhance the mood of the scenes. Not much on I can comment about because I'm speechless its all perfect.

So should you watch this? Well like I said above its not for everyone. Its too girly, yeah I can safely say that. But again, anime like this always reach outside of their target audience. Especially since it have such a big name plus fantasy genre. Little fun fact this anime is originally an April Fools back in 2021. Love Live always give it their all on every April Fools. And this anime is one of them. Everyone wishing it was real and here we are. There's also 2 games plan to be released in the same universe as this anime. Again, these 2 games is a very different genre compared to the usual rhythm games. I think its a good thing that Love Live franchise will grow out of the box with experiment like this. Thank you for reading my review.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 20, 2023

B3MyGuest

Mixed Feelings

Directionless: The anime starts off strong with introductions to Yohane and friends, beautiful artstyle for the animation, and great music. Then comes the middle of the show where each episode just felt like time filler for the next song that will be performed and the main antagonistic force at play is completely forgotten about so much so that the show felt like it was dragging. Fantasy setting? Very underutilized. World building? Not much of it. What danger is there? Just a few deer in 2 eps... While the final episodes finally turned the gears for something to happen in the show, the emotional parts fall ... flat due to the dragging of those middle episodes but at least the ending is a bit middle of the road. The anime could've been better if it didn't introduce an antagonistic force and focused on being a pure slice of life but they chose to try to do both and somehow sacrificed the plot and made a muddy sol. In conclusion, if you're an Aqours fan you can find some moments that can make you excited Aqours is back animated if you ignore everything else...while for others new to this franchise looking for something not idoly I'd say it's safe to skip.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 23, 2023

Rhysais

Not Recommended

Preliminary (7/13 eps)

Animation and songs are nice.

Characters redesigns are fun, but you won't know their personalities unless you watched Love Live Sunshine!!.

Story beats are a remix of Sunshine!! in worse : girl in small town doesn't think she's special but turns out she's the most special one of them all for... reasons. She met girls who became instantly her friends for... reasons. She struggles because she feels she has to do it alone but turns out she doesn't have to. The end.

Genuinely speaking, it doesn't have the heart you'd find in SIP or Love Live Sunshine!!. The character of Yoshiko / Yohane who could be ... entertaining in Sunshine!! became a watered down version of Chika from Love Live Sunshine (the main character of Sunshine who's basically invisible here) and all the story beats are rehashed and worse versions of things you've have already seen in other Love Live anime.

This anime feels mostly aimed at Yoshiko's fans and if you are one of them, the note is probably bumped to a 7, but for anyone else, even if you loved Love Live Sunshine!! and want to see again characters you loved but who aren't Yoshiko, just rewatch the original show because you'll get basically nothing.

You'll have people defending this show saying that "It's Yohane's show so of course other characters wouldn't appear as much" and it's fair enough, but then the problem become that Yohane isn't really that great or interesting as a protagonist and the Yohane you met in episode 1 is more or less exactly the same as the Yohane in episode 13.

Her struggles are kind of shallow since every two episodes it's seems she has to learn the same lesson and her personality that can be endearing the first three episodes just becomes extremely frustrating to watch.

End of day, Love Live Sunshine!! made me cry my heart out for a district school closing down, in Genjitsu no Yohane Numazu was threatened with destruction and I felt nothing. I ended up the show wondering why Dia wasn't the main character when she's the one being actually active in the story and fighting for Numazu.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Genjitsu no Yohane: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13 Discussion AkeZZZ - Sep 17, 2023	45 replies	by BzTitan »» Apr 4, 6:29 PM
	No one knows Yohane? MysticMusician - Mar 20	3 replies	by YuriShip »» Mar 20, 12:12 PM
	Poll: Genjitsu no Yohane: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 3 Discussion AkeZZZ - Jul 9, 2023	43 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Mar 14, 11:54 PM
	Poll: Genjitsu no Yohane: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 2 Discussion AkeZZZ - Jul 2, 2023	45 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Mar 14, 8:18 PM
	Poll: Genjitsu no Yohane: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) AkeZZZ - Jun 25, 2023	117 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Mar 14, 7:44 PM