LOVE LIVE! SUNSHINE!!
STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
13
RELEASE
September 24, 2016
LENGTH
24 min
DESCRIPTION
Uranohoshi Girls’ High School, a private school in the seaside neighborhood of Uchiura at Numazu city, Shizuoka prefecture. A small high school in a corner of Suruga Bay, it is home to nine teens, led by second-year student Chika Takami, driven by one seriously big dream: To become the next generation of bright, sparkling “school idols”! As long as we don’t give up, any dream can come true... All we have to do now is keep pushing hard for fame and glory! Now their “School Idol Project” begins to make their dreams come true!
(Source: Official Website)
CAST
Yoshiko Tsushima
Aika Kobayashi
You Watanabe
Shuka Saitou
Riko Sakurauchi
Rikako Aida
Dia Kurosawa
Arisa Komiya
Hanamaru Kunikida
Kanako Takatsuki
Mari Ohara
Aina Suzuki
Chika Takami
Anju Inami
Ruby Kurosawa
Ai Furihata
Kanan Matsuura
Nanaka Suwa
Leah Kazuno
Hinata Satou
Sarah Kazuno
Asami Tano
Chika no Haha
Rie Kugimiya
Shiitake
Anna Mugiho
Shima Takami
Kana Asumi
Riko no Haha
Nana Mizuki
Mito Takami
Kanae Itou
Itsuki
Hisako Kanemoto
Yoshimi
Risae Matsuda
Mutsu
Yuu Serizawa
Yoshiko no Haha
Kurosawa no Haha
Hanamaru no Sobo
EPISODES
Dubbed
RELATED TO LOVE LIVE! SUNSHINE!!
MANGA ComedyMaru no Yonkoma
MUSIC PsychologicalCotton Candy Ei-Ei-Oh!
MUSIC FantasyKU-RU-KU-RU Cruller!
REVIEWS
beanwolf
As with anything LL, idol fans only; you already know if you like this. Not as good as μ's, but Aquors is "serviceable"Continue on AniListAfter slogging through this show, I just had one question on my mind the entire time: where are the fucking Gundams? I started getting worried after like 8 episodes in how Sunrise was going to work giant robots into the series, but as it turns out, they animate one other thing that isn't Gundam these days.
All jokes aside, this is the first time I've watched any idol anime, so I'm new to this whole idea of moe blobness musical funfests. I'm aware that Love Live is ridiculously popular, and honestly after watching this I can see why. It's colorful, the girls are cute and have a pretty well defined moe-autismo "personalities" for people to latch on to, and the music is all kinds of J-pop infectious good (if you're into that kind of music). Sunshine is a spin-off of the main Love Live franchise, focusing on the creation of the "Aquors", a real-life Japanese idol group. The shtick with these idol shows is that all the actual idols of the real group voice act for the in-show group, effectively granting them anime avatars. This is a big part of the draw of these show, and although I'm not into it in the slightest, I get why it causes these idol shows to skyrocket in popularity.
Aesthetically, the show is pretty alright. The art style is incredibly... washed out? I don't know how to describe it, but the colors are overly bright to the point where they obscure detail. Character designs are overly cutesy, like, instant diabetes level, but considering that Love Live is first and foremost a product and not art, this is to be expected. Sunrise knows what they're doing to create boatloads of money with this franchise, and who am I to complain if they keep using the funding to keep making kick-ass Gundam OVAs?
One thing I do have to praise this show for is its use of CG. Love Live is a perfect example of how you can use CG in even the most important scenes and still have absolutely no one give a single fuck: perfect execution. Sunrise is straight up with you that parts of the dances WILL be CG, but the models are incredibly detailed and are constantly shot at angles that make you question whether or not they are CG. The backgrounds are also styled to make the models "pop" less off of them, and the blending is done very well. If you like J-pop, you'll love the music. If you don't, you're going to want to kill yourself. This alone will probably be the deciding factor in you watching this show.
Storywise, Sunshine is criminally formulaic. The first half of the show is about recruiting all the 9 different members of the group, with sprinklings of "drama" placed about, and then ending in dreamlike song and dance sequence. There's a strong recurring theme of facing your fears and putting yourself out there even if you might fail, trying your best despite that. The moe "comedy" is alright at best, with 99% of it being tired spins on the same gags you've seen in every SoL show. The term generic is something I keep coming back to when trying to describe the plot and character elements of this show, and I think it describes that aspect of Sunshine pretty well.
Despite all this bullshit, I still found myself guiltily enjoying this show, and for the life of me I really couldn't figure out why. But then, a shocking realization came to me...
Love Live is literally the anime equivalent of Glee.
As someone with a history in performance, this song and dance spectacle shit is always entertaining to me. Glee and Love Live follow the same sort of formula and almost cater to the same type of demographic, except that you replace Glee's celebrity spotlight shit with Love Live's moe otaku pandering. The shows are even structured the same. Every episode is set up -> contrived school drama -> resolution -> song and dance, Glee just went out of its way to try to edgy sometimes with its drama while Love Live tries to be as diabetes level cute as it can while also being anime.
As much as I ended up guiltily enjoying it, I still can't bring myself to recommend it. It's still painfully average and generic even as just a slice of life, cute-girl-cute-shit show, just with a little more musical flair. Also there really aren't any Gundams in the show, which for a Sunrise production was really a massive letdown.
CryingLad
Love Live Sunshine, can't say I hate it but also can't say I like it.Continue on AniList[
I am very sorry for all of this. ]()
Side Note: I am in no way an Idol fan, this review will be from a "newcomer" to the genre. I watched this last year when I was starting to get into Anime and remembered a few memes of Love Live Sunshine.[STORY:]()
Well, there is no real Story more of a Goal instead.
The goal is so make an Idol group as good as the μ'. Apparently there was a few prequels to this showing us the formation of that group as well and from what I'm hearing this version is basically a carbon copy of that one but with a different cast so you know, take that as you will.Here's a little summary of the event that happen in the show:
- Chika gets the bright idea of making an Idol group
- Tries to get people on board
- Not a lot of people join at first
- She is DETERMINED to make people join
- People join
- They sing
- Happy times ahead
[CHARACTERS:]()
Love Live Sunshine has 9 MAIN CHARACTERS that is a lot.
Luckily I can sum up most of them together, I will be mentioning the few odd ones tho.The characters are so god damn happy it hurts, though a lot of them at the start refused to join and were timid. Which got smoothed out later on. There was drama but nothing to significant. There are 2 characters which pop into my memory better than the rest.
Yoshiko Tsushima - She believes she is a demon of some sorts, reason I remember her is cause she breaks the mold and is actually quite unique. She must have watched GabDrop and liked Satania a lot.
Dia Kurosawa - She stands out as well because she was so god damn hesitant to join from her past trauma. Again something to break the mold.
[ART/ANIMATION:]()
The animation is...well as I said with many other SOL shows, is quite generic. Its smooth when it needs to be but overall isn't anything groundbreaking. The Art style is...very bright. I understand why though, this is supposed to be "Super Fun and Happy Show", I mean even No Game No Life had incredibly bright art style so I guess I can't dig much into this,sadly xdThey do use CG for their perfomances. The CG is, well CG. Not as horrible as Arifureta Dragon Level, this one is actually watchable. Though I do with they would draw it out and make more details since this is the main part of the show.
[MUSIC:]()
The music is not bad actually, I enjoy quite a few pieces. The OP is quite catchy. Of course its not something I would listen to without headphones or even on a daily like I do with MYTH & ROID for example but you get the jist, right?
[OVERALL OPINION:]()
Love Live Sunshine, I can't compare it to the previous ones but I can give my opinion on it as a "New Comer" to this genre.
I understand why people would like this genre and spend their life on it, afterall I also enjoy me some CGDCT/SOL.The issue I have (apart from not being interested in stories and characters like these) is that when you watch one season you watched all of them, I think this is the main reason why I don't get more into this genre.
After all of the things I heard about S1 of Love Live and even the other Idol Shows I just think to myself "B-But I already watched this." even when I was watching the idol "parody" Zombieland Saga I was like "Damn, the new Love Live season looks sick kek". There is also the fact that I can't really relate to any of the character, most of them are so god damn happy, even in K-On I can relate to the character cause they are all lazy like me xd
FestivalsOfComf
Shackled or inspired by their predecessors, Love Live Sunshine takes a derivative approach to the idol book.Continue on AniListReviews of anime are SUBJECTIVE.
If you cannot come to the table on why people have differing opinions of anime, please reset expectations when reading this review and please be more open-minded. There tends to be people who immediately dislike anime unfairly based on first impression due to the contents or its fanbase and associate them together. Don’t knock something until you try it. No matter the opinion, you should try to form your own.
This is particularly true of Idols. There seems to be an unfair vehement disgust towards it and I think that’s really unfortunate because they’re creating unfair impressions on something they haven’t experienced. Kind of ironic because anime is unfairly discriminated against by people not familiar with the hobby/medium and some anime experience the same treatment.
Again, don’t knock something until you try it, seriously.
Setting expectations:
This review is being written under a subjective lens and mainly enjoyment. If you come to expect opinions from a very critical sense, wrong place. A lot of people online come to expect reviews as such, this review ain’t gonna be like that. I just like to talk about anime I enjoy. And so this review is about such things. Sorry if this ain't what you're looking for.
I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum!
Also, sorry for the amount of notices beforehand, it’s just to cover my bases because a lot of people like ‘objective’ reviews online and considering idols is so popular plus gets a really bad rep, I want people to properly read my review with an open mind.
My background when going into Love Live Sunshine:
I’ve already seen: Love Live School Idol Project (LL SIP) Season 1 (Rating = 7), Season 2 (Rating = 8), and the Movie (Rating = 9). I’m a fan of this series and of the Muse School Idol group but I’ve had some issues with its production, story, and presentation at points. They’ve clearly improved as they went along so you see it trending upwards.
There will be people who go into this review and haven’t watched the previous Love Lives. Let me tell you that is a mistake.
You’re skipping out on important background episodes that help flesh out the world more in Sunshine. It’s like skipping JoJo Part 1 & 2 and then going into JoJo Part 3 asking why certain characters are so significant and brought up so much. The characters from the original Love Live series and how they impacted the world is essential before going into Love Live Sunshine.
I’ve seen multiple people skip into Sunshine and I think it doesn’t allow you gain the intended enjoyment from the creators. It’s very clear that they assume you’ve seen it and if you haven’t, you won’t get why certain characters behave like they do. Hell, you’ll probably never understand why the Muse School Idol Group is such a main point in the show at all.
Now for my overall series rating: 8.5/10
If you disagree, we’ll have to agree to disagree, fam. People hold certain points as negative and I hold them as positive.
Why did I like it?
- I related A LOT:
I think in my case, I’ve related to a lot of the scenarios placed among the characters and the group throughout the show. Anime is subjective after all. I personally felt, understood, and related to the characters throughout the show. Almost every single one. This influences my rating majorly, if you cannot get invested or relate, I think this show won’t work for you.
- Some missteps & the last 2 episodes:
It was set to a 9 - 9.5/10 actually from Episode 1 - 11. I genuinely felt like they were a very very strong representation of the topics and themes displayed. It felt close to the home in terms of the way they presented it.
What made it drop was Episode 12 and 13. The way they presented the messages and themes was actually confusing. I wasn’t sure if the translations were able to convey it correctly from the FFF fansub group, but assuming it was, there was clear confusion in what they were trying to say. This confusion can make or break you, to be honest.
The way this show treads upon the past and Muse from SIP can be a benefit or negative. It’s quite thin ice on how they do things and that might be the reason why the ending of this season is not looked fondly on by certain individuals. Regardless, for me, I was able to finally understand what they were trying to say and do by the end but it ruined some enjoyment despite the huge highs it had.
And the ending - it was good. I liked how it ended and felt it was appropriate for how it went. SIP TV’s ending execution didn’t make me happy so seeing how Sunshine Season 1 ended, I was satisfied with how it went. The final performance and song was genuinely great and entertaining.
- Chasing Muse:
This was handled really well. I was very impressed from Episode 1 - 11 in terms of how they retread the same steps as Muse in SIP and refined their messaging while also showcasing subtle differences. They’ve paid a lot of close attention to detail to the world, characters, and the effects of the world on the respective societies. My attention was more focused on the world mainly.
From Episode 1, you’ll see they’ve re-implemented the formula from SIP. In Sunshine, you see the formula on full-display but they learned from their past mistakes and refined it much better this time. You see how much they take and put in elements from before into Sunshine, plus added in their own fresh spin to it.
Aqours is like the spiritual successor to Muse and you can feel that every step of the way. And this is honestly a storytelling offense for a lot of people.
Why talk about their legacy when it’s not necessary? Because it’s like real life. People follow their heroes and follow in their footsteps. People mimic their heroes/the top dogs and what worked, it’s more common than you think. To Aquors, Muse are heroes to them and it’s natural they want to be like them.
If Aqours was set in a similar environment like Muse, I don’t think this show would’ve been as strong. The subtle differences in rural vs. urban society sold it for me personally.
- Naive teenagers and characters:
Ever since episode 1, I’ve sort of felt that underlying tension of seeing these teenagers out in the sticks wanting to win Love Live. While it was played up as jokes, it was still seen as Chika’s character motivation. This naivety in behaviour, I understood and sort of forgave when they made mistakes that most people would question. They’re teenagers and I sort of saw them as unreliable narrators sometimes. When their educational standards are lower than the average and heavy nepotism because of being in the rural area, it would make sense why certain things happened.
The rural vs. urban difference is a huge issue in society. I think the show displays a realistic portrayal of its differences in the idol context quite well. Though the issue could clearly be explored more succinctly, but… they’re teenagers trying to save a school.
The adult supervision is very minimal and in comparison to SIP, the missing pieces are apparent. In SIP, A-RISE and Kotori’s mom are the voices of adult reasoning. For Sunshine, they just have themselves and so that’s why I’ve given it a pass.
- Music was really great and the performances were excellent
The transition between 3D to 2D was seamless at times. It didn’t feel jarring to me like it did in SIP which was a plus. Also, the music was great and I really liked the camera work. They’ve really upped the performance scalability and how it looks in general.
- The voice actors were great
I was convinced by a lot of their performances and were sold by what they delivered. Nothing felt out of the ordinary to me excusing Episode 12 & 13.
- Animation was consistent and landed a good final finish
My main gripe with SIP Season 2 was where the quality of animation started to dip really fast by the end. With Sunshine, I was completely satisfied with how it looked from Episode 1 to the end. Sunrise did a great job of animating this production.
And that concludes my review of it, thanks for reading!
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SCORE
- (3.6/5)
TRAILER
MORE INFO
Ended inSeptember 24, 2016
Main Studio Sunrise
Favorited by 1,402 Users
Hashtag #LOVELIVE