I'm still stunned that it happened like that. It made me freak out when I heard Risa Taneda was taking a break because of a medical issue, but I guess she said it wasn't life threatening and is OK now.
Yeah, it's strange thinking about the people behind these characters - it's certainly something I didn't really think about until the last couple of years when I just started following anime news. Tomoko Kawakami's death is still the one that's on my mind, partly because everyone keeps telling me to finish Utena, but because of Aria and the OVAs that were basically made to work around her absence.
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Love Live Sunshine
I really wasn't sure what to expect from Sunshine, or even what I wanted. There's a part of me that did want Muse cameos, and their constant teasing of Muse (particularly in episode 12) was pretty much meant to troll people like me with a crossover that will probably never happen.
In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by what they delivered. It's a much more assured production, similar to the jump from
K-On! to
K-On!!, where the staff had a clearer idea of what they wanted to make and hit the ground running using their experience from the previous series.
So while there were a lot of gimmicky plot devices, like having Chika being the one to form the group or the school being threatened with closure, the show feels much more complete as a coherent story - particularly when the characters change their goal from the improbable "we're going to save the school with music" to the more realistic "let's just get one person interested in us". Compare that with the first season of
Love Live, where the school is just miraculously saved for no reason other than because the season ended.
The one major difference is that Aqours isn't quite as caricatured (or flanderized) as Muse. Perhaps the closest character to that would be Yohane/Yoshika, but even she feels relatively toned down compared to the Muse cast. What that means is that there aren't as many obviously funny or memorable character moments between the girls, but the flip side is that they also seem a bit more grounded, so that when they do have their funny moments they stand out more - such as when Riko freaks out over Chika's dog.
Thinking about the final moment of the climatic concert, the result of which is left open as a cliffhanger, you get a shot of Chika reaching out to the light:
In the episode, she's reaching out to the members of the school that have come to support her, but we remember that the entire season has both been about Chika making connections between all the members of Aqours and also Chika trying to reach out and catch Muse/Honoka. Yes, it's similar to the ideas raised in the first season, where Muse comes together as a group after addressing their own individual insecurities, but it's handled just as well here and there isn't any needless false drama to try to create conflict (Kotori leaving the school, Honoka getting sick).
Stepping out of Muse's shadow was better handled as well, or at least it seemed to be more developed than Muse trying to move past A-Rise in the original show. Even ignoring all the blatant attempts to reference the first series, Muse does feel like a giant albatross hanging around Chika's neck, and the way she resolves to free herself of those expectations is a nice arc that feels complete as well.
Although I would have liked a proper passing of the torch, the letter Chika writes to Honoka at the end of episode 12 culiminating with this moment is a nice touch:
Which of course is referencing this:
Love Live Sunshine is a show that's really hard to review as a fan, because you can't help but compare it to the original. In some way, it's like asking me to try to review
Deep Space Nine without considering
The Next Generation. It doesn't help that it's so recent and still fresh in my mind because of the movie and the game. Will I ever feel as attached to Aqours as I do to Muse? Probably not. But is Sunshine a better show than the original? It probably is.
I'm looking forward to whenever the show is coming back, and here's hoping they can sustain it for as long as they kept Muse going.
