DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME MusicLove Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai
MUSICTOKIMEKI Runners
OVA MusicLove Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai: NEXT SKY

REVIEWS

• 

  LiyuuSix

  82/100
  Nijigasaki learned and delivered

  NO SPOILERS I am not your biggest Nijigasaki fan, literally I am not. You see I’ve always seen Nijigasaki differently from the other Love Live titles for many reasons that go from the single anime to other things but this is not the main subject of the day. Not many know but my very very first review about Nijigasaki was quite negative because I couldn’t feel what I felt with the other titles of the same franchise; I felt completely empty and I had a tough time even accepting it as an entry to the franchise because I felt it was completely wrong. Of course then I did a rewatch of Nijigasaki and something changed and I stopped hating it but it never became anything close to what I feel about the other Love Live anime, I simply cannot love it but I can only limit myself to liking it a decent amount for what it is. I’ve always felt like the first season focused way too much on the insane amount of characters rather than giving a good progression to the story and I won’t lie, I hated some episodes because they were insanely slow and without a real sense; I also hated the lack of imagination for the ambients because I’ve always felt it was poor on that aspect and the story **often** felt disconnected between each girl’s episode. But there was something that made me enjoy that anime, that something that I still can’t properly explain but I know it was within the characters because despite the heavily forced and sometimes rushed development there was something big that could come out of that. Did Sunrise learn from the past season and brought something better? Hell yeah, and not only.

  ---

  #Gamble of the rookies

  The first new update that Nijigasaki got are 3 new girls, unsurprisingly to those who follow the irl group and begged to have them so badly in the anime. They delivered.
  I honestly had no concerns about how Nijigasaki was going to develop with 3 new characters and I knew that something good was going to come out, but not something that good.
  The big piece is absolutely Lanzhu for now and she left me with my mouth opened after the first episode : she is incredibly arrogant, she feels perfect, she is hot headed and most of all she wants to be the best. Is there anyone that can keep up with her? Yes and that person is even herself that limited again herself with the idea of being a solo artist unlinked to the Nijijgaski School Idol Club, which is counter productive but at the same time is something that I loved because it was a declaration of war to the original group. This girl needed a reality check because you can’t live in an eternal Eutopia, and she got one. A big and aggressive one, just like how it should be expected from anyone. I really loved Lanzhu for the many controversial decisions she took in the anime and how she went absolutely extreme with the choices.

  Then we have a splendid character, Mia. Mia has a very particular of producer and singer with Lanzhu and she has the role of the producer; she arrived in the school to continue her studies to become a great musician just like anyone from her family but can she deliver under pressure?
  Mia’s role in the anime was one of my favourites of all because she never cared about the school idol club, rightfully, yet she always helped Yuu with the music and lyrics for each song and she kept doing all over a certain realisation arrived and she decided something, something completely out of her style and never thought of : making a song for someone else that you will sing. Isn’t this just beautiful? Music connects people, the music can bring happiness and she could finally follow what everyone follows : the Stars we chase.

  And finally we come to Shioriko, the biggest question mark for many many reasons that I won’t explain because you need to play the mobile game and this is not the mobile game. I felt like Shioriko was more of a side character because I rarely saw her really in the action, proper action, unlike Mia and Lanzhu, one actively helping Yuu and the other actively going against the School Idol Club, but instead she was more like sitting in the corner and saying “Yeah ok don’t worry I will give you a little hand”, and there is a reason to this. We will meet Shioriko’s big sister, who is the key to everything for her little sister : events of the past are holding Shioriko from making the jump she needs and also wants to make, passion cannot be stopped, but something was holding herself back like the fear of doing something that should never happen again, is it the fear of making someone feel disappointed? Or is it the fear of failing? Who knows. At the end of everything Shioriko was a great one. She was able to let our her Emotions and show everyone what she truly feels about everything and everyone, how she wants to make everyone and especially her big sister proud of her. This is a great revolution for a person right?

  I really liked the execution of the three new girls, it wasn’t really rushed but done slowly at a good pace while mixing it with the other arcs that were more complicated to execute. Lanzhu, Shioriko and Mia are all three different girls with three different ambitions yet they all are bonded more than anyone else and cannot be separated, even if this goes your own ideals.

  But there are no reasons to make 13 episodes of only them right?

  ---

  The subunits are finally here

  It took a lot to show up and we actually got a taste of them in the previous season but not a real proper one, this season finally made everyone happy and brought some story to the creation of each sub unit, which was fun to say the least.

  We got to meet QU4RTZ (Kasumi, Kanata, Rina and Emma), a sub unit solely made out of friendship between the girls and they got even 2 episodes dedicated.
  We got to meet DiverDiva (Karin and Ai), a sub unit formed by the healthy and good rivalry of Ai and Karin born as a result of Ai’s private problems.
  We got to meet AZUNA (Ayumu, Shizuku and Setsuna), born out of circumstances that my brain refuses to process after the insane amount of doujinshi created after those two episodes but I do not complain.

  The beauty of a sub unit is the entities that form it and the diversities because each sub unit has a different meaning that goes from the purest of the friendship to the sane competition, from singing hand in hand to make someone happy with the music to fighting on the stage with the lyrics and showing off the voice; but the circumstances that brought a sub unit to its creation are the most important because it can be after a simple idea, after a bet or after an activity and how the starting point develops into something bigger, better and that can represent its essence.
  On top of all of these things the music was also good, and it had to be good.

  ---

  Finally a good pacing

  I mentioned that I quite hated the pacing of the previous title because I felt it was really weak in terms of storyline but with the three new girls and the sub units I finally saw something more natural, smooth, that made the watch kind of great, of course there were ANYWAY moments when I felt bored but they weren’t too bad.
  Nijigasaki massively improved on the good and not forced comedy, especially thanks to the new BEAUTIFUL and polished animations that finally became clearer.
  I especially loved the Mia episode and the AZUNA one because they weren’t boring, they were fun and engaging, interesting and quite thrilling; clearly this anime had to keep on with traditions and every 2-3 episodes we were going to have a song and I liked most of them, maybe except one or two but it’s not a problem, and for once I didn’t hate having a random MV popping up randomly, unlike last season, but instead quite decently built up and lived to my expectations. I also want to compliment with the choice of including costumes of the girls that are directly from the mobile game, that was a sweet decision.

  On a separate note we had some episodes that felt like fillers but weren’t really fillers : it was obvious that the development focused of the 3 new girls with the dedicated episodes AND THEN giving 4 episodes to the sub units was going to take already half of the series, and so what about the remaining plot? What about the premises of the School Idol Club about making their activities something bigger and more popular in order to attract new students to the school and also bring someone in the music world? Somehow it quite worked out. I mean the conclusion was reached but at times I quite felt that the execution was a little bit maybe too slow, or perhaps boring at parts; I’m talking like your average Love Live fan who is not a lot interested in the activities of the Nijigasaki side and so I’m talking rather like a normal user who approaches Love Live as a standard anime and not the result of an already defined product. If we talk by this point of view the execution of Nijigasaki at moments felt a little boring, honestly, and it wasn’t only me abut I got the same point of view from some friends. It is absolutely sweet and nice to make references to the real group, real activities and some famous events of the group but this is going to be understood only by those who actively follow this side of the franchise, and I mean it’s easily the majority but those who don’t really know won’t really get these things. It’s sweet to give to your audience what they love but it could end up as a halved experience for those who still don’t know. At least I got most of them because I follow a little bit the real group.

  Putting aside everything I said Nijigasaki really learned from the previous season, because it wasn’t really the best and maybe even flat at times, and made everything better, bigger, funnier and more passionate without forgetting the formula of Love Live : a lot love, a lot of music and excitement.

  And the ending, honestly it was absolutely beautiful and I value the ending of an anime a lot more than anything else.

  ---

  Do you want to feel the passion?

  I am finally satisfied with Nijigasaki after a first season that never convinced me, and quite hated at the first run, but finally I was able to get happy with the final result : I was able to feel the love, the passion, music that I finally liked, better animations, a story that finally had a meaning and even more than anything else I finally felt that the characters didn’t feel forced with development, instead a gradual development across the episodes with the highs and lows that everything has.
  This second season is the result of a process of learning and understanding of the past that eventually led to a much better final result.

  The experience of the second season for me was quite mixed with highs and lows, felt bored and madly excited, but at the end of everything it was a good and fun experience that I might would like to repeat but only time will tell me this.

  I was a Nijigasaki hater but now I feel like I can finally accept this anime and like it like every other fan in the franchise, good job.

  

  Personal scores :
  Story : 7.5/10
  Characters : 8/10
  Music : 9/10
  Animations : 8/10
  Personal Enjoyment : 8.2/10

  Continue on AniList
• 

  Pandapopulation

  45/100
  An anticlimactic, let-down of a sequel

  Spoiler Warning

  Here we are with the anticipated second season of Love Live Nijigasaki. The first season received mixed reviews from fans of the series, but I thought it was the best Love Live installment at the time. This second season, however, does not properly execute based on the foundation laid by its predecessor.

  This season of Nijigasaki introduces three new characters, Lanzhu, Shioriko, and Mia, but the story is centralized around Lanzhu and her interactions with Shioriko, Mia, and the girls of the School Idol Club. Her philosophy is to captivate others and put on an amazing performance, with that being the extent of it. She also disagrees with the beliefs of the School Idol Club, she believes that people should pursue their dreams without needing the help of others. This creates conflict within the characters, where both sides believe in different things. Additionally, this creates an antagonist within the show, which is a first for Love Live, as well as one of the most interesting things that Love Live has done since its start in 2014.

  Where I find this anime to struggle is keeping its attention on this theme. At the start, it focuses on this quite solidly, featuring several developments between Lanzhu and the girls to further the plot. One of the main things that occurred during this development was the creation of subunits. Initially, the first subunit was made to “challenge” Lanzhu’s ideology. I feel that this progressed the plot well, carrying the themes of dreams nicely in a short, few-episode mini-arc. After this, two more subunits were formed. Why? I have no clue. The creation of these subunits made absolutely no sense. One of the more important things during the previous season of Nijigasaki was that everyone was a solo idol. Why do they suddenly want to join up when they were against it before? It’s incomprehensible.

  The pacing of this season was very inconsistent. Every arc in the show is dedicated to one or two episodes. Everything that was dedicated to a single episode was rushed, yet all assigned two episodes were properly developed. One exception to this rule was Mia, where I felt she got proper development due to how differently she was written from the rest of the cast. She got a single episode to share with Lanzhu, plus little bits of other episodes. Overall, this helped make her development feel more natural and did not require her to have an entire episode dedicated to herself. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Shioriko or Lanzhu. Shioriko followed the single episode rule, while Lanzhu only felt like she got the episode with Mia and bits of other episodes. While yes, Mia got the same treatment and it worked, why is Lanzhu different? Well, she is the main “antagonist,” while Mia was more of a side character. This inherently means there should be more put behind her than the other characters and this is where her character faltered.

  Another problem I had with the characters was the relationship between Ayumu and Yu. It could have been handled much more strongly. There was a deficiency of interactions within this season and it makes me question why they decided to establish their relationship in the former season. It wasn’t completely terrible though, as the show dedicated episode 12 to the two of them, which was one of the better episodes within the show.

  Despite everything I said so far, not everything about the characters and story is bad. The new characters bounce off the old ones when they interact and interactions between the cast as a whole are sharper than in the previous season. I had a solid amount of fun watching these events play out. The story is starting to reach its end as well. From where they are currently, they’ve started to worry about the graduation of the third-years. Although this could be seen as generic sports anime worries, or standard Love Live “we gotta win before the third-years graduate” kind of thing, I quite enjoy it. It is not an unreasonable thing to think about, while also providing a sense of time.

  The animation for this season was varied in quality, but overall solid. My biggest issue is the background art. Sometimes it looked perfectly fine, nothing too amazing, but was solid; at other times it looked like garbage. The backdrops looked like blurry jpegs without even attempting to be hidden. Characters would also be poorly composited within the scene. Outside of these moments, the show looked fine. The character models looked consistent most of the time and the performances looked solid. The animated segments of the performance all looked great, on par with the images from the game they’re based on. The CGI parts were decent. They weren’t as groundbreaking as something like Houseki no Kuni, nor as well-hidden as those in Love Live Superstar, but they looked fine.

  Speaking of performances, how did everything sound? It sounded really solid. The BGM was nice to listen to throughout the episodes, and the performances sounded pleasant. Granted, some performances were stronger than others, all were at least something that I would see myself listening to. The lyrics to these songs were all nice and occasionally meaningful, linking to their character arcs within the show, or, in the case of Lanzhu during the first episode, telling you about their character.

  This season of Nijigasaki has some highs, as well as some lows. From a technical standpoint, this show is pretty solid, providing captivating performances, while from a writing standpoint, this show can be lacking at times. Overall, this season has been somewhat of a downgrade from its promising first season, which has been very unfortunate to witness.

  Thank you for reading.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  NorthernMeepo

  40/100
  Music can save people, but nothing can save this show

  I’m not what you’d call a “Love Live fan”: I’ve never played the mobile game and I watched the Muse series many years ago, and I didn’t even like it back then. When Nijigasaki season 1 came out, I decided to give it a try, and surprise surprise, I enjoyed it. Nothing incredible or outstanding, but characters were cute, songs were bangers and always on point, visuals were good as well. The last part about Yuu and Ayumu felt quite terrible I must say, but overall it was an enjoyable series, which felt mostly an introduction to something… “better”? “Deeper”? Not sure, but I was hyped. After Nijigasaki I also watched Sunshine season 1 and Superstar, and guess what, they were even better, a lot better I'd say! So everything was going smoothly, and finally, Nijigasaki season 2 aired: characters were still cute, graphics and artistic-wise was still good… but it wasn’t a good show, at all. Where do I even start?

  New characters and new units

  This was something I was really thrilled about: brand new characters joined Nijigasaki! Right off the bat, in episode 1, one of them, Lanzhu, made her debut with an outstanding performance and a 10/10 song (we’ll talk about that later). It’s also pretty obvious her role in this series: she basically introduced herself as antagonist, since she wants to perform by herself and doesn’t want to join the Niji club. Aaand… that’s it. She has some screentime in episode 2, and then she’s just there, being somehow irrelevant. No monologue, no confrontation, every time she meets one of the main cast nothing really happens.
  Things about her start (and finish, I guess) to happen only several episodes later when Mia writes a song to her and then they both joins the Niji club, until then she just doesn’t matter anymore. And really, that’s it, that’s Lanzhu: cool, great voice and nothing else, absolutely worthless.
  The rest of the show is mostly filled with the original Niji girls creating new units in the worst possible way: something random happens, some of the girls are there and a unit is born, I’m not exaggerating here, it’s just random.
  Luckily, Mia and Shioriko do had their own episode, but either time it felt incredibly underwhelming. Somehow they tried to “tie” this new three character together and it actually feel like that Mia, Shioriko and Lanzhu were close, but not in a good way. “What do you mean?” you may ask, and that leads us to the next issue.

  Screentime management

  Our new girls needed more screentime, or at least a more impactful presentation to Shioriko and Mia, not just one episode each. Really, this show never gives the right amount of screentime to things that really matter while it always has room for improvised drama that last one episode and then suddenly ends. Are we actually in season 2? Well, give us more in depth bonding within the cast please, not only about Yuu and Ayumu and not some random events that accidentally lead to create a unit. You literally had 13 characters, are you really telling me that every single of them isn’t worth to do something better than this? I’m not against episodic structure, but Nijigasaki s2 is every single time about an event that seems more melodramatic than it actually is and stop, a unit is formed and the episode ends. Guess what? The best part of this series is without a doubt episode 10, which is a comedy and more lighthearted moment about Kasumin.
  So the whole storyline about Setsuna finally revealing herself wasn’t important enough to have a whole dedicated episode? They absolutely needed to put in the same episode ANOTHER dramatic plot twist which endangers the festival but everything gets solved in 10 minutes, didn’t they?
  So Rina finally performing without her gear covering her face isn’t relevant enough to has his own space, they could just give it like a bunch of seconds during the last episodes
  And guess what, the unit about the damn new characters has absolutely no room in the whole series, it just suddenly appears for like 20 seconds in the last episode because, of course, it’s not relevant, isn’t it?

  Music and performances

  Finally, Nijigasaki season 2’s best part. I know, I sounded very angry just a moment ago, but when we talk about Nijigasaki’s music and performances that’s absolutely nothing I can say about it: everything is simply flawless. Lights, colours, stages, choreography, songs, voices… Nothing is out of place. “Enjoy it” is currently one of my favourite songs (ever, not just about Love Live or anime shows), but “Star we chase” and “EMOTION” are bangers as well. “Eutopia” is probably my favourite performance, Lanzhu shows perfectly how she’s talented when on the stage (if only they gave her actually some space would’ve been nice too…). Opening and ending are included, they’re both catchy and perfectly fitting the whole series’ mood. I’d say that we didn’t even need this anime, these MVs uploaded on YouTube would’ve done way better than the actual series did.

  Verdict

  It’s pretty common to watch a series and don’t liking it. When it happens to me, I always understand why a specific show that I dislike might be enjoyed from others, you know, "live and let live", "let people enjoy things". Nijigasaki season 2 is the first show I can’t believe is being enjoyed, I can't believe it actually has its own fans: almost everything is trash and worthless, even though songs are 10/10 we’re talking about like 4 minutes per episode (including op and ed), and I’m pretty sure that Niji fans aren’t watching 20 minutes of nothing just to have some short performances. Everything felt rushed, every single character felt inconsistent, it’s a sparkling show about nothing.
  Did you like Nijigasaki season 1? Well done, stop right there, maybe you’ll better off playing the mobile game and watching MVs on YouTube, but really, ignore this season as whole. Let’s just forget about it, it’s not worth your time.

  Continue on AniList

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