Franchise/Love Live! School Idol Project

Stopping the rain by shouting didn't work for the Rin-focused episode. Why should it when the writers are invoking shallow drama?

What? No one commenting on this episode yet?

Well, leave it to Sunrise to tackle some fandom questions, mainly what happens to Muse after the competition and the third years graduate.

The answer? It ceases to exist. There's a whole lot of heart vs. head going on here, but I think the salient point the episode wanted to get across was that Muse was defined by all nine members of the current group. And while Arisa and Yukiho (well Arisa anyway) are enthusiastic about the whole idol thing, it's not quite the same.

This doesn't mean that the Idol Reasearch Club doesn't stick around though. But that's it for Muse, at least in the anime continuity.

edited 16th Jun '14 9:37:18 PM by MyssaRei

I'm an episode behind. Not that I care if I'm spoiled, but spoiler tags, please...

In any case, I'm surprised they didn't go with one of the other options to keep the nine members. Like, say, the options to go pro they they brought up in episode 1.

edited 16th Jun '14 8:36:18 PM by burnpsy

Nico was, not surprisingly, against the idea. She wants to leave a continuing legacy, after all.

(That said, LOL this Nico-Maki ship, going so strong)

edited 16th Jun '14 9:52:29 PM by MyssaRei

I think the studio just loves playing with the fandom in these cases

Welp. Movie's coming.

That was such a well-handled finale until that.

As a side-note, we actually saw male characters' faces in the audience in episode 12.

edited 30th Jun '14 6:45:50 PM by burnpsy

Also Nico's mom voiced by Misato/Sailor Moon/Murrue Ramius etc. XD A pleasant surprise.

That surprised me as well. Seems like a waste, but whatever.

Really, though, it wouldn't surprise me if the movie was a last-minute move after they broke anime sales records with the first disc for season 2.

Except that, given how well season 1 did and how popular the franchise is as a whole, this was probably decided on ages ago.

edited 30th Jun '14 7:41:40 PM by burnpsy

It's like they totally forgot about the option of going pro. What else would a large-scale amateur idol competition be for then, other than selecting talented amateurs? It's like it's there just for the hell of it.

But anyway, fairly decent ending overall I guess. Not spectacular, but not horrible either.

edited 30th Jun '14 8:26:13 PM by HanabiraKage

To be honest, that's my bet on what the movie will be about.

Well, judging from Hanayo's reaction that's probably the case.

Though it then begs the question of why a recording label/talent agency would contact a totally random member (Hanayo) rather than the leader of the group.

What, the twitter for the V As actually mentioned a graduation trip instead.

Interesting too, as it coincides with the real-life Idolmaster x Love Live tie ins in Japan right now.

Probably just shot the message to the club's e-mail or whatever. Then it makes sense.

This, however, begs the aforementioned question.

So apparently the first Volume's pretty much broken sales records so far — the last time I looked, it was at 97k and rising (for comparison, Evangelion had 100k), though the special concert tickets included probably had something to do with it. Will have to see if there's a massive drop-off for the second volume, but if it still manages more than 10k+, then its still a hit.

Oh, and to round off things... Nico's mom is Sailor Moon, but we're forgetting that Maki's mom is Belldandy (explains the supernatural abilities!), and Kotori's mom is Noriko Takaya. 80s Anime alumna, right there. I wonder, had we gotten Hanayo's mom (who was apparently an ex-idol), would we get Megumi Hayashibara?

edited 5th Jul '14 8:39:49 PM by MyssaRei

The first volume already beat Evangelion for top opening week (82K VS 80K). Yes, it was the event ticket (they only have 4 concerts per year, so it's a big deal)... and the code for the mobile game... and that the price was lower than usual.

Season 1 consistently opened with 10K and built up to ~30K over time. We can expect the same or better here.

I'll just pick up NISA's sets, of course.

edited 5th Jul '14 8:44:09 PM by burnpsy

Finished season 1.

It was going so, wo, so well...

And then came utterly pointless Kotori drama arc, which pretty much killed the last part of the season for me.

That said, it was pretty damn good. Will check out season 2 as well.

So a poster of the new LoveLiveSunshine appeared.◊

More info will apparantly be released April 30th.

So the character designs are pretty different now, they seem to be taking more of a page from Aikatsu especially in the hair.

Any predictions on who will be a clone of who?

edited 27th Mar '15 3:36:17 AM by Memers

I hope it doesn't become an Aikatsu! clone.

I watched a little bit of this and of Aikatsu, and even though the general premise is similar, the impression of what each show is trying to do is quite different. Aikatsu seems to be a close-up portrayal of the everyday lives of the singers' activities, mixed with an overload of singing just for the sake of it. It milks these elements to the maximum, but doesn't feel like a story. This show actually feels like it has a story about the activities rather than inherently being the activities.

edited 11th Apr '15 7:27:40 PM by Trivialis

I wonder if this is going to be what Cinderella Girls is to The Idolmaster?

Guess what's getting an English dub.

Yeah.

And their doing so after selling it sub-only pisses me off. Hate it when companies do that.

The movie's also running in theatres internationally. No Canada, though.

edited 24th Apr '15 2:48:30 PM by burnpsy

http://zakitakubu.com/2015/04/27/love-live-sunshine-cast-revealed/

Got the names and cast list announced, unfortunately I can't find something to match the names with the faces just yet.

• Takami Chika (CV: Inami Anju)
• Sakurauchi Riko (CV: Aida Rikako)
• Matsuura Kanan (CV: Suwa Nanaka)
• Kurosawa Daiya (CV: Komiya Arisa)
• Watanabe You (CV: Saitou Shuka)
• Tsushima Yoshiko (CV: Kobayashi Aika)
• Kunikida Hanamaru (CV: Takatsuki Kanako)
• Ohara Mari (CV: Suzuki Aina)
• Kurosawa Ruby (CV: Furihata Ai)

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-04-30/love-live-sunshine-character-profiles-story-images-unveiled/.87634

Guess it'll be another month (or more) before more info is revealed.

So the Love Live movie opened this weekend, and more or less blew all other records out of the water, grossing 400,235,800 yen with 252k attendees at theaters nationwide.

For comparison, this made more than the Madoka Magica: Rebellion and the K-On!! movies during an equal timeframe. Rebellion only grossed 400,003,600 yen, while the K-On movie only grossed 316,310,450 yen. Yikes.

So yeah, Bushiroad and Sunrise are rolling in money right now.

That reminds me:

Idol genre is really big in Japan, but certainly not so in North America, it seems.