Genjitsu no Yohane: Sunshine in the Mirror

Very rarely does a meme turn into something as good as the Yohane spin-off. Originally created as an April Fool’s Day joke, Sunrise saw the reception and decided to make it a real anime. I’m glad they did. Yohane has been my favourite Aquors member and 2nd favourite Love Live girl for a long time and the story in this one really did her justice.Allowing her to shine in a way she just couldn’t get in the main anime due to sharing the spotlight with the other girls. The show manages to keep the feeling of the original Sunshine series, while mixing in a modern ... fantasy element. The fantasy aspect is a little underwhelming. It does feel like the story is very self-contained to the small town in which it takes place, however, as with all Love Live titles, the show really shines with the character interactions.

Yohane and her faithful companion Lailaps have a very nice, almost sibling relationship. Over the course of the show we see the two of them bond and come to understand each other. Despite being an original creation for this anime, I quickly got attached and fell in love with Lailaps. The struggles that she and Yohane go through over the course of the show, how she comforts Yohane in her times of need.. Just really resonated with me. It’s a simple yet poignant relationship. While the other girls do feature in the show heavily, it’s very much a Lailaps and Yohane story at its core. Yohane growing into her own person is a very sweet story and I loved every moment of it.

As I said, the rest of the Aquors cast are in the show as side characters. Some more than others. They basically act as a plot device for Yohane to become more independent and leave her childhood behind. There’s some cute moments with the cast as they try to help Yohane through some emotional trauma she’s had, but this is very much her story. So don’t expect too much in terms of substance and development from the other girls.

The fantasy elements like I said are kind of weak. The whole overarching plot of the calamity ended up being somewhat underwhelming, but the characters are the main selling point in this one. I think if you are at all interested in Yohane from the Sunshine anime this is a must watch as it really shows who she is at her core. A lot of times she was used as comic relief during the main anime, and while she is definitely funny, there is a lot more to her than memes. So this was a welcome development.

Of course, you can’t talk about Love Live without the musical performances. As expected based on the series’ recent form, the songs in GNY are all great. There’s a couple group performances and some solos and they’re all bangers. I swear the songwriters are just getting better and better with these. They’re going from more anime-y songs to legit bops.The CGI continues to improve to a point where it’s almost indistinguishable from 2D animation in these performances. The future is certainly bright for idol shows.

I thoroughly enjoyed Genjitsu no Yohane and thought it was one of the most underrated shows of the season. It went from an April Fool’s meme to a genuinely heartwarming and moving experience for one of my favourite characters that had me in tears for a couple episodes. If you’re a Love Live fan it goes without saying this is a much watch, but it’s also an enjoyable slice of life fantasy watch for casual fans. It’s cute, simple, but effective.
Genjitsu no Yohane gets 9, out of 10.

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.

After finishing this show, I only have one thing to say... I need a second season bro.

Genjitsu no Yohane started out as an April's Joke from the sunrise staff surprisingly became an actual anime with deep messages and gripping character development. They could've made this anime as a joke, but they didn't. The staff went above and beyond with this anime, and I praise them for that. This is a spin-off with a lot of heart put into it.

The story - I'm gonna keep this review spoiler-free so do not worry. The story of this anime is more of a character-driven story focused on Yohane, ... rather than LL Sunshine where the focus is on everybody. Every episode focuses entirely on Yohane, tackling each and every one of her flaws., and by the end of this season, she grew so much to the point that I could honestly say that she's a better written and developed character compared to her LL Sunshine counterpart.

The characters - as you can expect from a spin-off, the characters here are the same characters that we know and love from LL Sunshine. Not entirely the same because it's a spin-off, and they need to at least alter one or two traits of the characters in order to fit in to a new setting. They are all well-written and competent characters that amplifies the enjoyment I watch from the show. Yohane, of course, is the best written character here as expected of the main character, but the other characters also gets better and get development. I won't say who they are to keep this spoiler-free. I'd say though, my favorite character in this show is Chika, because she heightens up Yohane's character, she felt like a mentor-figure, like once a main character before, so she teaches the knowledge that she has to Yohane, which in turn makes Yohane develop.

The animation - even as a spin-off, the main selling point of Love Live is still the songs and the dance that comes with them. And let me tell you, the dance animation here is on another level. Sunrise really is the Best in the industry when it comes to human CGI. I've praised them a lot before, but I really feel like they reached another Peak here. The action scenes are also amazing as well. It's not ufotable level of course, but it's not lacking for an anime made in 2023.
The art of course is beautiful. The art of Love Live has always been top-notch since Sunshine, and I'm happy to say that they've continued to be Peak here as well.

The music - It's originally a music anime. So do you really expect me to give this category any less than 10?

Overall, I'm really happy with my conclusion with this review. It's unbiased and really tells you the actual quality of the show.

Imma be honest I feel like the hate this shows getting is just because people expected it to be some “action fantasy isekai adventure” and are hating it for what it isn’t rather then what it is. Granted the advertising may have played a part in it but still I feel like some people just set such high expectations (it is love live after all) that they just ignore the good things about the anime. I can understand people wanting more of the Calamity but the whole plot isn’t about it. it’s about Yohane and her arc of growing up and finding a place in ... the world like that’s literally been her goal since the beginning people saying it never moves the plot along isn’t accurate it is moving the plot just not the plot people want, and in terms of that arc I think it succeeds in it. I also don't mind the more slice of life it goes for, as it gives plenty of opportunities for character focused episodes and more interesting character dynamics something that imo the original Sunshine really struggled with. It's actually nice seeing characters like You, Kanan and Maru get an actual episode instead of being kinda neglected through out the show, and its great seeing characters actually interact with characters outside of just general year groups hell id say they feel more like a group of friends then they do in Sunshine. I do have some issues with it however, I think they couldve done more with the magic as most of the fantasy elements (calamity, yohanes staff, ruby's whole fairy thing) just kinda have no explanations for how they work and it feels kinda jarring. I also think in terms of songs compared to other Love Live shows is pretty weak which is a shame because I think if the show didnt have to insert singing and the usual love live tropes they couldve done more with the fantasy setting and done more with the magic elements. However, despite that I still really enjoyed it, if you judge the show on it's own and not just what you want it to be I think its a really good anime it is not better then sip or niji, but Yohane's character arc, the cast, and the honestly great animation has really kept me enjoying this show the whole way through looking forward to see how it ends.

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.

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.

To get directly to the point: This show is like a big bowl with great ingrediences and no cook. It feels like 9 or 10 girls put their craziest ideas, mixed them up and took, whatever came out of this mixing process. This show is a mash-up of great fantastic ideas glued together by a story-telling without a störy.

But no for more details:

1.) Sunshine in the mirror as Love Live show
This show was first announced as april of the "Love Live" franchise. Therefore, it is part of this franchise. But this show doesn't feel like a Love Live show at all. The mirror-counterparts of ... the Aqours members share some traits of the originals and the mirror Numazu reminds partly of the original Numazu as shown in "Love Live Sunshine", but that are nearly all similarities.
There is no school to save, no song contest, the characters are some kind of adult and there is nearly no singing. You will not like the show, just you like "Love Live". You can possibly like "Sunshine in the mirror", but for another reasons than its franchise.

2.) The crazy setting
The most impressive part of this show is the setting. This is a kaleidoscope of ideas. Sunshine in the mirror excels most fantasy shows by cool and crazy elements. We have magic elements, steampunk elements, modern and postmodern elements.
For example: While Dia rides a bike with some trandformation elements ans Ruby (as a fairy) speaking out of screen of this bike, we see You as a postgirl shot out of a cannon and then gliding to her target. We can see Lailaps again, but this time as a speaking wolf-like sister-like partner of Yohane.

3.)The story
There is a Numazu-wide threat of randomly popping up aberrations with dark purple fog, strange lightnings and strange behaving animals (mostly deers) with glowing red eyes, but this doesn't prevent this show to focus on completely unrelated things like organising a girls night out or organizing a community festival with the once group singing (at least until episode 11). To be fair, we the other story-driving element of Yohane searching something like a purpose (Something, that only she can do), but this doesn't change the impression, that this show doesn't look like as it knows, what it wants. Even if there is a story in the backgound, the episodes doesn't mostly feel connected by this story.
The episodes itself can be fun. But you should have no problem to enjoy purely CGDCT stuf in some episodes and some dark mysterious stuff in some other episodes. If you want a great story, which holds all together, you should probably ignore this show.

Genjitsu no Yohane is a visually appealing spin-off, that boasts some of the best songs in the franchise, but at the same time fails to tell an interesting story and does a huge disservice to the original cast.
Being a Love Live fan, the announcement of this spin-off came as a pleasant surprise. An alternative setting with our favorite LL girls, which could be filled with fantasy and adventure. Each girl had her own shtick, with Kanan being an engineer or Mari being a demon queen, and these things had a lot of potential to tell an interesting story.

But unfortunately, none of these came to be. ... The story revolves around a certain mystery that happens in Numazu which makes animals go berserk once in a while, and is therefore limited pretty much only to that place. The idea in itself isn't so bad, but it was never executed properly. Half of the episodes in the anime are purely SoL episodes with no relevance to the story, which later on, when the story actually progresses, it fails to actually be interesting.

The characters themselves also lose most of their personality and are reduced to a one-off shtick (as mentioned above), while all previous relationships established in Sunshine! are entirely gone. Kanan/Mari for example, or Chika/You/Riko feel like practically strangers in this show. Everyone focuses just on one single character - Yohane. Every sentence they utter is about her and regarding her. Yohane makes the world there go round.

Unfortunately, Yohane's character was another disappointment, as she never convinced me why she deserves to be a main character. For most of the anime's time, Yohane is spent moping, crying, being depressed or making drama. She can't do that, she doesn't deserve to do that, etc. are regular motifs in here. Every time, without fail, she'll be pushed up and supported by Lailaps, or the other girls from Aqours.

Not long after, Yohane becomes a celebrity in town and everyone focuses on her and supporting her, despite the fact that she has never shown us she's done anything exceptional. From an outsider's perspective, she's basically just a random teenager who does random errands for people and likes to sing. She cannot fight, and she cannot support anyone else. Because of that, it's bizarre seeing how everyone revolves around her.

Meanwhile, Yohane's development is a very mixed bag. At the end of the day, she did develop quite a lot, but the process was extremely tiring with one step forward one step back for a long time. Yohane tries to do something, fails or succeeds, then for whatever reason she goes back to moping in her bed. Lailaps comes to cheer her up, they argue a little, and then another chance comes to repeat this process.

Luckily for the anime, I think that the songs are definitely the stronger ones in the franchise (coming second after the series of bangers NijiGaku has released), and with the songs themselves and CGI lives being so great, it elevates the show by a lot. The quick succession of songs in the first half of the anime lulls the viewers into a false sense of security, forgetting completely that there's a story to be told (that is being skipped).

The anime also looks great. The new character designs feel really "soft" and nice, and the anime is very colorful and vibrant.


Ultimately, Genjitsu no Yohane is an eye candy and a treat with its songs for Love Live fans, but as a standalone anime, it's a huge disappointment, failing to have a proper story, and butchering the personalities of the characters we love.

Let me preface this by stating I have not watched Love Live! Sunshine!!, but I am at least familiar with the original Love Live series and the concept of idol shows as a whole. At least from its advertising, Genjitsu no Yohane didn’t seem to require any prior knowledge of said series, so I will be predominantly reviewing it as such.

☆ Story: 4/10

Genjitsu no Yohane is- definitely interesting. While it had a good premise at the beginning, the show does fall short on fully explaining its lore and narrative as a whole. For the most part, the storyline was either disjointed or rushed, the whole ... “calamity” aspect feeling clunky at best and downright confusing at worst.

I am providing a little leeway here, given that this is clearly the work of those who have never had to write high fantasy (or likely anything with supernatural twists) before, but it is still important to note that this series isn’t exactly competent in the way it handles its fantastical elements.

The Lailaps subplot was essentially the only aspect which felt properly constructed in my opinion, with the twist in episode 12 being the sole reason this ‘story’ section of my review was bumped from a 2/10 to a more tolerable 4/10.

☆ Characters: 4/10

The problem with having a show like this and being expected to include nine main characters (plus Lailaps, to make ten) is that there simply isn’t enough to time really flesh any of them out in a single cour (~11-13 eps) anime. Yohane is pretty much the only one to see anything even resembling character development, with the others pretty much just shoved in for the sake of retaining the original LLS cast.

In short, I believe it boils down to the fact that a school-based idol anime has a greater advantage in terms of having its protagonists interact with each other in a believable manner - After all, they’re all around the same age, and likely in many of the same classes, so getting them to naturally form an idol group together isn’t a huge stretch. Compare this to the fantasy world of GnY, wherein the nine main girls + Lailaps all have separate jobs, subsequently having little (if any) reason to interact with each other aside from “because the plot demands it” or “ because we’re all friends with Yohane”.

☆ Music: 8/10

This is by far the show’s strongest aspect, with each of the songs and their accompanying music videos being beautifully written, performed, and overall just fun to listen to.

☆ Animation: 8/10

For the most part, this show’s animation is pretty average, although I am bumping the overall score up due to how fluid and dynamic the music videos were. Additionally, I have to give praise for their decision to do this mostly in 2D, with the LL franchise otherwise seeming to love their (somewhat uncanny, in my opinion) 3D animations even for non-music video scenes.

☆ Enjoyment: 6/10

Not much to say here, really. I’m sure I would have liked this more had I already been a LLS fan, but as things stand now, I found myself either bored or confused for the majority of my watching.

☆ Overall: 6/10

Again, I am being generous here in assuming some jokes or references went over my head as a new viewer, but I cannot fully ignore the fact that, at least in a vacuum, Genjitsu no Yohane simply didn’t have enough time to accomplish what it originates set out to do.

Perhaps if it had been double or even triple the length, this show could have proved an engaging and unique standalone fantasy+idol series, but as is, I believe the only people who will enjoy this are those who have already seen the original Love Live! Sunshine!! saga.

I don't want to be harsh on this, cause I'm very happy to have a Love Live Sunshine spinoff at all, but I feel like Sunshine in the Mirror could've been a lot better than it was. Specifically it seems pretty halfhearted in a lot of what people want from something like this. It doesn't get rid of singing and performances, but there's less singing than one would expect from Love Live. It's set in a fantasy world, but with plenty of modern amenities (and some tokusatsu elements?) and it never leaves the single town of Numazu. It has everyone from Aqours, but other than ... the eponymous Yohane, Lailaps gets more focus than all of them combined. And as far as I remember from Love Live Sunshine, Lailaps is a completely new character for this, and one I don't find all that likeable. As for the Aqours members themselves, their personalities only vaguely resemble how we know them, if at all. Mari's case is especially egregious, with the loveable, bubbly troublemaker becoming a secluded, depressed demon lord.
All that said, while the lack of adventure and relation to Love Live proper I expected is disappointing, I still think Sunshine in the Mirror is a good anime and a good addition to the Love Live series. Visually, it's beautiful, with intricate lighting, beautiful colors, and great attention to detail. All the Aqours girls, despite their differences, are still loveable, especially Yohane. What songs the girls do sing are very good. I would very much appreciate more content like this from studio Sunrise.

I can't tell after watching 6 episodes of this anime that what the hell is it trying to explain with the story.
It have potential to be one the good anime this season but its getting bad with each episode seriously.

•Storyline:- so the storyline goes like this there is a girl wants to be a singer and gets rejected again again and again her mom calls her back to home and give limitum to decide what to do this is the basic overview and how the story goes.But main problem with the story comes now,
Literally many people can think of a story that how will it ... go like how she will find her dream and all the anime till now revolves around playing friend friend and some kind of mystery that affects only kids and animals and there comes a plot twist there are different people playing superhero like wow worst scripting.
You have good base of the story, you have good characters so instead of utilising the potential they are wasting it.

•Animation:- In this department i have no complaint whatsoever as the animation team have done a great job with the details, colour selection character attributes etc

•Music:- 6 out of 10 as it is okay okay but the ED deserves a 9 it was a nice ending song.

•Character Design :- I didn't wanted to go with this but seriously. They are job doing or searching teenagers or in there world early adulthood stage but you have given the elementary school kids type or personality like should we leave elementary kids to do the jobs.

=> CONCLUSION:- its the part where mostly i get strike but still in my opinion its wholly upto you if you want you can watch and if the production wants to fix they can still fix the show and get it on the track it was one of the awaited anime of this season for me and feels bad that it turned out like this.

Love Live Nonsense.

When Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror was announced, I think everyone thought it was a joke considering its first announcement trailer dropped on April Fools Day. A weird spin-off of Love Live Sunshine, which is considered to be the best Love Live by the fandom, which is wrong because the best Love Live is Love Live Superstar. The story takes the girls of Love Live Sunshine and plops them in a fantasy setting… sort of.

I say “sort of” because I don’t know if it is set in a fantasy setting, considering we’re introduced to the main protagonist Yohane, the alter-ego ... of the chunibyou Yoshino from the main Sunshine, as she’s performing for an audition in not fantasy-looking Tokyo. After getting grilled by her mum for being a total failure she's forced to return to her port town home via the fantastical Japanese Bullet Train. There she is greeted by a giant telepathic dog and mocked for being a silly boo-boo head. Here is when actual fantasy things start to happen. It’s pretty jarring and hard to explain anything about this show. If you have no prior knowledge of Love Live Sunshine and its cast of moe blobs, you will probably be confused most of the time.

Of course, as a Sunrise production, the art and animation are pretty fantastic. With wonderfully expressive characters and beautiful backdrops, I can see the appeal that would attract Love Live Sunshine fans. My main issue lies in its general premise or lack of commitment to it.
From the four episodes I’ve watched Sunshine in the Mirror feels like it’s trying to be a moe blob idol anime combined with a lacklustre fantasy setting with magic and stuff but it doesn’t excel at either. It can't choose which side of those genres it wants to lean into and the result is an inoffensively mediocre story which feels safe yet is hard to follow unless you're a Live Love Funshine connoisseur.

Then again those Wuv Wive Wunshine girls are very fun. Yohane is very charming in her silly way and the rest of the crew all have their perks. I don’t know. I have never been so confused about my feelings towards a Long Dive before. Would a say it’s bad? No. Would I say it’s good? That is a tricky question. Your average Dove Five Bumshine fan will enjoy it and has been considering its MAL score, which is great, but for the rest of us, it’s inoffensive. Would I recommend it to someone? Probably not. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire premise turned out to be in Yoshino’s imagination or in a video game or something considering Yohane is her chunibyou alter-ego.

5/10 Mediocre