After a whole season of poorly-developed characters, badly written plot and a terrible ending, it seemed all too easy to conclude that Love Live lacks heart and soul, lacks the passion or just the competence necessary to craft a worthwhile work. But now, one season further into my study of idol degeneracy, I have experienced something I never would have thought possible: Love Live’s troupe of walking tropes (mostly) turned into actually developed characters, the plot was actually solid from start to finish, the finale was actually moving. This soulless product turned into a worthwhile series. More than that, even: It felt genuine.
Fair warning: This review contains spoilers!
After the spectacular failure of both a finale of a series and Muse’s shot at the eponymous Love Live competition, the troupe of Muse is in a bind: they have no goal to work towards! To the luck of the girls (and the dismay of my inner cynic), Love Live starts again, but this time with an entirely different system: A direct competition in the form of a preliminary tournament serves as a substitute for the meaningless and boring ranking system that had been in place before. This more direct system sets a direct goal while at the same time presenting the great obstacle, Muse’s main rival this time around, A-RISE, that they will have to overcome.
The system is not the only improvement in the overall structure in the show however; the plot is very clearly, purposefully and systematically structured. At first, a new obstacle is introduced, then we spend some time actually developing the show’s blanket characters and then, after finally picking up the shambles that season one left, we reach an impactful, genuinely emotional and moving melancholic finale celebrating that fantastic feat.
It is easy to see that many, very necessary improvements were made to the show’s plot this time around, however that doesn’t mean that this second season doesn’t suffer from many of the same problems as the first season before it. The show still suffers from overdramatizing every bit of the way; it still suffers from jarring CG and bland music; it still suffers from a cast that is too big for the show to properly to support in its comparatively short runtime.
The character-focused episodes of this second season are definitely one of the main reasons why this sequel season is so much better than its predecessor. Throughout the whole first half, we get to know the girls better; we get to discover quirks, uncover truths, see bonds deepening; we get to see characters growing and reflecting (yes, even Honoka).
We get to experience Rin, a character formerly characterized as making a cat mouth and adding ‘nya’ to the end of every sentence, growing out of her shell and taking center stage (or rather being forced into it by the other girls). Her shying away from being the center of attention is unexpectedly connected to previous bad experiences in life which, while not completely convincing, serve as a much needed reason, a much needed background into the troubles of her character.
We get to know Nico’s family and discover the needless web of lies the notorious best girl Nico spun around her family (which, by the way, is best family). Few things in this show are as fun as seeing Nico’s snotnosed little brother play with a Muse-themed whack-a-mole while the other girls corner Nico and get her to start being honest with her siblings; few things are as heartwarming as her siblings innocently embracing their sister in spite of the fact.
We get to see Honoka grow responsible, both as a school student council president and as the leader of Muse. After initially succumbing to irresponsibility and laziness, she, through the help of her caring but responsible friend Umi and the rest of the group, not only gets back into shape after eating one(-hundred) too many dumplings, but learns to take responsibility for her her actions and to continue moving forward in the face of adversity.
Love Live still isn’t a strong show visually, and while the backgrounds are as detailed and pleasant to look at as those present in the first season, the slight improvements to the character animation, while definitely noticeable, still aren’t enough to create a strong visual package. The costumes this time around are still very pretty and fun, they do however range from fairly beautiful to frankly boring.
The performances this time around are as unoffensively acceptable as ever. While the constant changing between 2D and 3D animation is still pretty jarring (mostly because the CG models look like they’re out of a PS2 video game), all of the performances were energetically animated. The songs are still as bland as ever, but both Snow Halation and A-RISE’s performance worked very well as actual highpoints of the show and were a blast to watch and listen to.
Love Live’s second season is an improvement worth celebrating. Numerous nitpicks and plenty of the problems present in the first season are fixed. The plot is well-structured, the characters aren’t blanket sheets anymore and the finale of the show was magically moving. However, the show still suffers from many of the more infuriating issues of its predecessor, mainly stark overdramatization and a character cast too big for the show to handle. Overall worth the watch, but locked behind a lackluster first season.
