Love Live! School Idol Project - Season Review
Well here we are at the season review for the first season of Love Live! Was a good show, was it a good idol show? Who are best girls? The following below will answer these questions!
Disclaimer #1: Since Love Live! is and advertised as an idol show, then I shall compare it off an idol show I’ve already seen: The iDOLM@STER.
Disclaimer #2: Ironically Love Live! will be the first I do a series review divided into six separate categories (that matter to me) for easy reading.
Disclaimer #3: There are SPOILERS ahead.
Plot
For an idol show I’m not really expecting much of plot but on the same token I expect atleast something (be it major or minor) to hook me in initially. Love Live! had nothing of the sort: typical high school setting with a generic goal of saving the high school from shutting down, coupled with the entire idol group of course being a school club. Whilst idol shows consist of young teenage and young adult girls/women, the common anime trope of a high school setting is not necessary, as iM@S has shown, and comes off as an unoriginal setting for the show itself.
Pacing
Love Live! progressed at an enjoyable rate with the exception of the last episode being rushed in tying all the plot threads together within its short time frame. This rushed nature only added to the nature of the ending which its drama felt contrived and forced. Aside from that, however, the pacing was standard.
Characters
Most characters of Love Live! encompassed a character archetype of some sort yet never really expanded off it. Most characters underwent their own character development arcs but a few fell short when compared to other characters in the idol group.
However, special shoutout to Honoka Kousaka. This particular character fulfilled the role of the main character being the leader of the idol group dedicated to overall goal of saving her school… except completely making a 180 direction of character during the last few episodes in that taking a selfish persona based off competing against other idol groups which ultimately resulted in ignoring her surrounding and friend(s) in need, a persona that was not only jarring but had no relevance to the original goal of the show in which this character once encompassed. Haruka Amami from iM@S fulfilled this same role and her drama/character building arc was done better, twice, and said arc never had Haruka forsake her friends in such a way like Honoka did.
Music
Music plays a heavy role in an idol show and as such Love Live! is not an exception. Fortunately a majority of songs in this show were enjoyable with the best ironically coming off of the competing idol group of A-Rise (whose song was only shown once). To compare with iM@S, however, such songs (with the exception of two or three (including A-Rise’s song)) are simply not on the same level. Recalling iM@S’s Chihaya Kasaragi’s ‘Yakusoku’ filled with heavy emotion and orchestral background, Love Live! has no such similar songs.
Animation/Artstyle
Animation in an idol show is a big deal as you’re capturing said characters on screen in their idol activities such as singing and dancing. The show’s regular 2D animation was decent and is done well when applied to its comedic scenes, however, the show decided to also mix in CG models and animation in its actual dances/songs shown, a big aspect of any idol show and here ultimately making it look mediocre. Not only during these segments do constant switches of 2D/CG happen, most of the choreography of each song is done in CG. If anything the usage of CG models served a poor advertisement for the Love Live! game (which I don’t know whether the game or anime came first).
Artstyle is pretty average. While it is pretty Love Live! fails in character design to distinguish a character’s uniqueness with eyes and facial structures looking very similar across multiple idols, having only a select few being the exception (ironically Honoka, leader of the idol group, not being part of said exception). In addition the school uniform was bland also.
Ending
As stated previously the pacing for this show was standard until the ending where it was rushed. The episode before the last exposed a problem that was building up over the previous two episode, then the last episode consisted of the idol group disbanding, an idol member quitting long-term, idols having their faults take over, idols realizing their faults, a time of distance between idols, the idol group reforming, said idol member quitting long-term deciding to not quit, and a concert. This rushed nature added to the contrivance of the drama in the first place stemming from idol leader Honoka which was explained previously. Overall a poor rushed end to the show.
BEST GIRL!??!?!?
An idol show must have best girl! This is terrorist’s law (props to anyone getting this reference)! So who is best girl in my opinion? Well unfortunately I wasn’t invested enough into Love Live! to put a single girl above all the rest. However my top three (in no particular order) are, Eri/Eli Ayase, Umi Sonoda, and Maki Nishikino. These characters sharing a similar characterization of being sane, though said characterization is not limited to being the sole one of declaring best girls of the show.
Overall Rating
Compared to iM@S, Love Live! simply doesn’t. Will I watch its currently airing second season? Most likely after a break from it for a while. Love Live! is a decent idol show with enjoyable music, however doesn’t have the strength to stand equal (or even near-equal) to iM@S which is a shame because with a smaller cast you would think said idol characters would be more fleshed out.