LOVE LIVE! SUPERSTAR!! 2ND SEASON

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME MusicLove Live! Superstar!!
TV SHORT MusicLiella no Uta 2
ANIME MusicLove Live! Superstar!! 3rd Season
MANGA ComedyLove Live! Superstar!! Liella! Kila2 Life Comic

REVIEWS

• 

  Juliko25

  71/100
  Solid new addition to Liella's legacy, but held back by mismanaged characters, a cliche villain, and lots of melodrama.

  Considering the Love Live series' pattern of having two 12-13 episode seasons for each iteration, it was inevitable that Love Live Superstar would do the same thing. And wouldn't you know it, not long after the first season ended, the second season was announced. It even aired right after season 2 of Love Live Nijigasaki ended. I need to finish my review for that particular season. I admittedly liked Superstar, though a little less than Nijigasaki, but I definitely enjoyed what Superstar tried to do, even if parts of it didn't always make the landing. But when it was announced that several new characters would join Liella, many LL fans were both excited and nervous, excited to see what these new characters would bring but worried that their inclusion might mess up the dynamic that the original members of Liella established. Plus, adding these new characters seemed to lean back into an established formula even though Superstar originally intended on just having five main characters. This was especially worrisome because most Love Live series often have the issue of trying to juggle too many characters at once, having some characters receive focus episodes while others wind up getting shunted to the background. Even as someone who's only seen this and Nijigasaki, I tried to temper my expectations and keep all this in mind as I watched the show.

  Needless to say...the previous LL fans and I wound up being right, to an extent. So season 2 takes place immediately after season 1. While Liella admittedly didn't make it into Love Live, a new semester has started and they're looking forward to what the new year will bring. They even manage to recruit some new members: Kinako Sakurakoji, a spacy country girl; Shiki Wakana, a quiet, soft-spoken science fanatic; her best friend Mei Yoneme, a passionate idol fan who tends to hide under a tough, menacing facade, and aspiring YouTube star Natsumi Onitsuka, a greedy, money-grubbing gremlin who really, really wants to make bank. Things start to get a little heated when a mysterious singer named Wien Margarete comes into the picture and seemingly wipes the floor with all the other idols, including Liella and Sunny Passion. It doesn't help that she seems to have some kind of grudge against Kanon for reasons nobody, not even Kanon, seems to know. But Liella isn't one for giving up, and with new members under their belt, they're determined to get farther in Love Live than they did before.

  I have a lot I want to say about Superstar season 2, and some of it...you're probably not going to be happy about. As far as the new characters go, I think Kinako, Shiki, and Mei are fine. Not necessarily as fleshed out or developed as the main five, but I found them to be okay characters. I do appreciate that Ren got fleshed out a bit more in the focus episode she got in this season, and I was pleasantly surprised by the direction they decided to take her in. Speaking of the main five, I do like that season 2 does put in some effort to develop them a bit more and have them try things here that they didn't do before. Remember in season 1, when people nominated Kanon to be the student council president? In season 2, Kanon decides to willingly join the student council as vice president as a way to take the burden off Ren, which is really significant because she takes on more responsibility, and is shown to be pretty good at it. That being said, I really didn't like Natsumi. I found her extremely annoying and her motivation to become an idol just felt really shallow and forced. But more than that, I also didn't like the new rival character, Wien Margarete. She just felt like nothing but a plot device whose only purpose was to boot Sunny Passion to the side and be a source of conflict that Superstar really didn't need. Poor Sunny Passion doesn't even get to do anything in this season! Her whole motivation just felt really stupid and melodramatic, and the show's attempts to make me care about this emo brat really didn't work for me because they didn't give her enough of a presence beyond her concert appearances to make me care about her. That being said, she does have the best songs in the show, so I'll give her that.

  Speaking of melodrama, I know Love Live has a bit of a reputation for not always being good at tackling big dramatic storylines. I haven't seen the first Love Live series, but I know that had a particular subplot involving Kotori near the end of the first part that really didn't go over well with the fans. And unfortunately, Love Live Superstar also has this problem with a subplot involving Keke. I won't spoil anything, but this subplot was briefly mentioned in season 1, and it gets followed up on in season 2, but the way the anime resolves it just felt really stupid and hollow. It doesn't help that the anime has the characters scream their feelings out in a really forced, artificial way and go into cry fests that just scream "We're trying really hard to make you feel for these characters! Now feel sad, dammit!" and it really didn't work. It's similar to a subplot that Ren had back in season 1, with it somehow getting resolved with a handwave near the very end, even though the series previously made a huge deal out of it before. But whereas that subplot suffered from just having a convenient solution just handed to the characters without feeling earned, the subplot here with Keke tried too hard to force drama that could have been resolved in a less...theatrical and melodramatic manner.

  And as much as I hate to say it, the songs got a bit of a downgrade this season. They're not bad or anything, and like I said before, I loved all of Wien's songs. But several of them just weren't as good as the ones in season 1. I admittedly really didn't like the song that played when Natsumi joined the group, but I did like the one Liella sang to welcome Kinako into the group. The songs range from good to uninspired. The actual soundtrack is fine, and the opening and ending songs are nice to listen to as well. But season 1's songs were just better by way of having more versatility and a willingness to explore new genres. I mean, why do you think people consider Nonfiction to be the best song in the entire Love Live Superstar canon? Because it kicks ass, has a fun beat, and is a pretty good take on rap and hip-hop, two genres I admit to hating with a passion.

  But I don't want you to think that I consider Love Live Superstar season two to be outright bad. Like I said before, the series does make the effort to flesh out both its old and new characters, even if it didn't do so for others, I liked several of the new Liella members, Wien's songs are all great even though I hate her as a character, and the animation work is about the same as the previous season, so it's still nice to look at on a technical level. Plus, and this is a rather petty, personal thing for me: Superstar has no boob grabbing. Thank God. And funnily enough, a lot of what I just described could very well be addressed later on because Superstar was just announced to have a third season in the works, making it the very first LL series to ever get a third season! I still enjoyed the season as a whole, flaws and all, and you can bet your ass I'm watching the third season for sure!

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• 

  Anim3Life

  85/100
  Song For me, Song for You, Song for ALL!

  So i just finished rewatching for the second time the second season of Love Live! Superstar!! and I decided to openly tell you my opinions. Before we begin, I want to warn you that this review contains __SPOILERS__ about the First Season of Love Live Superstar. _____ So let's start as alway by the PLOT 8/10 The second season of Love Live! Superstar!! As you can see written is the second season of Love Live! Superstar. Let's pick up where we left off, Liella lost the Tokyo finals to participate in the finals of love live! And the anime opens with this incipit. We can divide this season into 3 mini strings: Liella Formation, Love Live Arc, and Post Love Live Arc. Let's talk about the formation of liellas; I really appreciated that this season focused much more on the novellines of the Liella group. We will talk later about the various characters, but with 6 episodes of introduction to the new members, also going to understand their problems, we have the complete Liella that are finally 9. Love Liev arc: Do you remember that Keke would have returned to Shanghai if she hadn't won the live love? well after we will talk about the best episode of the series, but having said that in the Liella a big problem aprte of the newbies has arisen: the skill gap, or the level of the liella in dancing, dancing and singing was a huge gap for the newbies, but fortunately Kanon manages to overcome this problem. And here we come to discover the new rival of Liella: Margharete-chan. That surprisingly manages to beat the SunnyPassion and will have to clash for the selection finals in Tokyo with the Liella. After declaring war on him, Margharete loses and wins the second post, thus leaving the winning liella who will finally be able to get on stage at the finals of Love Live. We then learn about the backstories of margharete that we will talk about later. Here we are at the finals: the liella give everything for everything, managing to win, thus completing their dream. Post Love Live arc: We learn that kanon would like to go to Vienna to enroll in the prestigious music school, but the trip is suddenly canceled and margharete shows up at the door of the Yuigaoka.... What does the future hold? well now let's talk about two argomeni: The first is the fact that this season has deepened the novellines, analyzing them carefully and not neglecting anything for the initial 6 episodes, which I loved but let's talk about the peak of Love live superstar 2 or episode 9: For Victory. It was the episode in which Keke and sumire finally talk without filters about the future of keke, about how much one cares about the other in a beautiful way. The atmosphere, the words used, the music, the colors as this scene was rendered was a truly fantastic choice of direction, not to mention Keke who finally admits to love Sumire making her burst into tears, truly a wonderful episode. ________ CHARACTERS 9/10 I'm going to talk about both the first and second seasons. Shibuya Kanon: In this season compared to the previous one she has matured a lot not only as a Leader, but also as a person, finally managing to make her voice and her songs heard by everyone, as she wanted. Keke Tang: She has never given up, she has always relied on Kanon, not to mention Sumire that once the relationships are reconciled you see that their bond has become stronger. Sumire Heanna: In this season in the few episodes she managed to shine, to tear the scene for a moment, but she has also matured, because she no longer uses the excuse of showbusinnes in liella. Ren Hazuki: In this season he found a new passion: video games, even if he was half addicted I enjoyed that episode, in this season it was a bit like a guide to the liella compared to the last one. Chisato Arashi: Here we finally see her Glow-up, finally she manages to look into the kanon eyes telling him what he wants for her, not to mention the hair at the finals of the love live, here you really notice the change in chii-chan's will, finally she too has matured. Kinako Sakurakouji: Starting as Kanon, or who did not know what the school idols were, she was fascinated and tried to join the liella, despite knowing the difference in levels, Kinako never gave up. Mei Yoneme: She has always followed Liella as a fan, but she has never had the courage to join them, with her doing a bit of tom-boy is her strong point, which thanks to Shiki's push, and realizing that not only is she pretty but has the qualities to be an idol school also mei joins the group. Shiki Wakana: Mei's counterpart, since middle school have always been together, a bit mild but by joining the Liella she managed to push Mei to join, even shiki managed to understand that she too can shine as a school idol and is also cute. Natsumi Onitsuka: Entered the liella with the excuse a bit like Sumire: or money. Realizing that she has never had a dream to pursue, they invite her to be an idol school to pursue the dream of love live, to achieve something concrete. Wien Marugarete: Wien is a cold-blooded, passionate and stoic girl, and doesn't seem to express much emotion, but can act recklessly or overdramatically when fussy. She's strongly confident in her abilities and talents, always delivering powerful performances, and never wanting to be compared to other idols, especially Kanon. She takes her aspirations very seriously, and isn't afraid to affront others she deems lower than her level. After discovering that having been beaten by the liellas, she no longer has the chance to realize her dream, she is a bit stunned and I imagine that she will join the liella in season 3 ______ Let's talk about ALL Insert, Op and Ed included: "WE WILL!!" by Liella! 9/10 "Oikakeru Yume no Saki de" by Liella 8/10 "Butterfly Wing" by Yuina (ep 3) 8/10 "Chance Day, Chance Way!" by Liella! (ep 8) 8.5/10 "Edelstein" (エーデルシュタイン) by Yuina (ep 10) 8/10 "Go!! Restart" (Go!! りスタート) by Sayuri Date, Nako Misaki, Nagisa Aoyama, Liyuu, Naomi Payton, Nozomi Suzuhara (ep 3) 8/10 "Mirai no Oto ga Kikoeru" (未来の音が聴こえる) by Sayuri Date, Liyuu, Nako Misaki, Naomi Payton, Nagisa Aoyama, Nozomi Suzuhara, Akane Yabushima, Wakana Ōkuma, Aya Emori (ep 12) 7.5/10 "Sing! Shine! Smile!" by Liella! (ep 10) 8.5/10 "Vitamin SUMMER" (ビタミンSUMMER) by Sayuri Date, Liyuu, Nako Misaki, Naomi Payton, Nagisa Aoyama, Nozomi Suzuhara, Akane Yabushima, Wakana Ōkuma, Aya Emori (ep 6) 10/10 "Welcome to Bokura no Sekai" (Welcome to 僕らのセカイ) by Liella! (ep 1) 7.5/10 _______ PERSONAL OPINIONS: What do I expect from Season 3? I honestly don't know why it was much more likely a final film, but I expect that they will solve the issue of marugarete, and the question of keke once and for all, for the rest I would not really know what will happen. Honestly with this season I re-evaluated the Liella! I enjoyed every single episode, loving each of them.
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