YMMV / Love Live! Sunshine!!

• Actor Shipping: Continuing from the previous series, the voice actresses are once again often shipped with each other. Some of them even take the teasing up to eleven by getting near each others' faces, or in some cases: a kiss on a cheek in a live show (Aina Suzuki to Anju Inami), which makes you wonder if any of them are straight at all. What makes it even better as some of them didn't actually bother to hide it.
• Adorkable:
  • Dia, which is hilarious considering that she's introduced as a serious and dignified Student Council President in the same vein as Eli. Her encyclopedic knowledge about μ's and her botched attempts at appearing more friendly are particularly endearing.
  • Riko's seeming outward perfection just makes her many dorky moments all the more endearing.
  • Yoshiko, which pretty much goes hand-in-hand with being a chuunibyou.
• Adaptation Displacement: Once again, half/many of the fans didn't know that the manga adaptation exists before the Anime.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Mrs. Takami just a short person, or is she actually an Absurdly Youthful Mother who married at a very young age?
  • Does Mrs. Tsushima accidentally leave her phone at the Sakurauchi household? Does she actually know what she's doing? Or is she having an affair with Riko's mom?
  • Yoshiko: As by "looking for more little demons", does she also mean that she wanted to look more women to build their own harem?
  • Is Dia genuinely the Third Wheel in her group? Many fans note that she never seems to cause this kind of awkwardness, as she communicates with Kanan and Dia frequently. However, other fans point out that she is sometimes quietly left out and/or ignored by Kanan and Mari.
  • In Season 2 Episode 3, Kanan accidentally breaks off the lever as she intended to speed up the transport vehicle. Has her exercising really made her that strong, or was the lever just rusted to the point where a teenager could break it bare-handed?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • The walrus mascot that You dresses up as in "Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM" and Season 2 Episode 4 is a real mascot named Uchicchi, who serves as the friendly face of the Izu-Mito Sea Paradise.
  • Grilled mikan and mikan stew are real dishes, contrary to popular belief outside of Japan.
• Americans Hate Tingle: You consistently ranks on the top of polls in Japan (her fanarts also outnumber everyone in Sunshine), in large part due to Shuka Saito's charisma. In the west though, where exposure is almost entirely via the anime, reception is mixed due to her being Out of Focus often, with many considering her little more than a Satellite Character for Chika.
• Angel/Devil Shipping: This is where a good chunk of the appeal of Yoshi/YohaMaru comes from. Yoshiko's devilish qualities are found mostly in her trouble-making tendencies, aggressive and hammy personality, and the seductive streak in her character, whereas the opposite of these qualities are found in Hanamaru, who tends to shy away from the spotlight and is among the gentlest and meekest in Aqours. Incidentally, the motifs of an angel and a devil are also found in their characters outside of their personalities: Yoshiko obviously has her fallen angel shtick, while Hanamaru was raised in a temple and in some canons worked as a shrine maiden and a choir singer.
• Awesome Music: Now has its own page here.
• Base-Breaking Character: Similar to the original Love Live, and evidently just part and parcel for idol groups in general, all of the nine protagonists are this.
  • Similarly to fellow Defrosting Ice Queen Eli in the original Love Live, Kanan has become the biggest example of this as time has gone by. She is liked by many people for being genuinely kind and selfless, sort of a Cool Big Sis to the Second Years during the first episodes, for being a pretty mature person that doesn't work herself up about stuff, and for being a Cuddle Bug. The Les Yay moments she shares with Mari are also interesting and fun, whereas her status as the resident Ms. Fanservice has also attracted some people. There are, however, a big number of detractors that never lived down Kanan's refusal to reconcile with Mari during the first episodes, being a jerkass to her for no real reason; even after the reasons for this come afloat (not wanting Mari to hurt herself further during a qualifiers' performance, and forcing her to accept her chance to study abroad), although it was a moment of Good is Not Nice, people feel it was too much of a Disproportionate Retribution. Although season 1 episode 9 (on which Kanan takes a huge slap to the face from Mari when the latter learns what happened, but refuses to hit her friend and finally reconciles with her) had most fans genuinely forgiving Kanan after all what happened, some people thought her "Heel–Face Turn" to not be credible enough. Finally, while she does subvert Character Rerailment later on in season 2 episode 6, the fact there were implications she would go back to her old Good is Not Nice ways didn't help matters, either (though it did not happen, as she was understandably fed up and her intentions were kind).
  • Yoshiko is one of (if not, the) the most popular characters, but also one of the most divisive, for her chuunibyou behavior — some people love it and find her as a very interesting character as a result of this, others downright hate her (or just like her the least among the main cast) for it, since she doesn't break out of it a lot. This mostly has to do with the way Yoshiko was handled in season 2, as it exaggerated her chuuni persona compared to season 1. Following the conclusion of ther series, many fans are still split about her; one side still appreciates Yoshiko's dynamic singing voice and like her Running Gag, while the latter feel that said running gag was overused and caused her to fall victim to the worse side of Flanderization, with no meaningful impact on either the plot or any of the other characters despite her multiple focus episodes.
  • Fortunately for the Second Years, unlike the original Love Live!, they aren't hit with this as a group as much as the former Second Years were due to the anime focusing more on Aqours as a whole. However, they're still divisible in their own right.
    • Chika is liked for reasons similar to Honoka — people consider her an infectious nice Genki Girl, and love her very pronounced Character Development arc throughout the anime; she learns to become a school idol while differentiating her group from µ's, and is thus considered by some fans to be a better leader than Honoka was. She is, however, disliked for still feeling too similar to Honoka while trying to emulate her during the first part of season 1; this feeling is especially pronounced from both Honoka fans and haters, some of which have called her a worse and more selfish leader than the former. Some other people also find her energy to be overbearing, and her Rousing Speeches to be tiresome by the umpteenth time she makes one in season 2.
    • You is widely liked by the Eastern fanbase for being charismatic, for her innate ability to pick up skills from others and do it at the pace they can, and for being a subtle Ms. Fanservice. The charisma of her own voice actress, Shuka Saito, also helps. As seen above, however, due to the Western fanbase's exposure to the character being mainly through the anime, she has much less fans there because of her lack of overall focus aside from one episode that only addressed her Clingy Jealous Girl status towards Chika; thus, she is seen as nothing more than a Satellite Character, leading to feelings of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character due to her heavy underutilization.
    • Riko is liked for being the Only Sane Woman among the Second Years, while also being the biggest Butt-Monkey of the group. Her moments where she clearly loses her calm and starts acting like her friends are seen as funny, and the Les Yay moments she shares with her best friend Chika (most notable, the implied Love Confession in season 1 episode 10) are seen as heartwarming; overall, she's considered a well-written deuteragonist and a good foil to Chika (as the polite Elegant Classical Musician and Shrinking Violet to Chika's goofy Genki Girl). Others, however, fail to see Riko as interesting as the rest of the group nevertheless. Most notably, she is disliked by some zealous You fans who consider Riko took both the spotlight ''and Chika off of You.
  • Dia has her fair share of fans due to being a very good sister to Ruby, an incredibly Large Ham whenever she loses her temper (which by extension hugely subverts her Yamato Nadeshiko vibe and is just fun to watch), and for being a Tsundere. On the latter point, some people like how she's a different type of tsundere from Maki; although both are Harsh types, Dia is a classic tsundere rather than a modern one like Maki (so Dia is generally nicer despite her harshness). She also got a cult following from people that went through the first episodes thinking the anime and the future school idol group would likely never surpass µ's. Still, a bunch of people do dislike her hair-trigger temper and overreactions (which happen very, very often), finding them unnecessary at best and exaggerated at worst.
  • Ruby is liked for her Moe look, her high adaptability despite being pretty shy and having Hidden Depths to her character as the younger sister of Dia. However, she is also criticized for being the "generic Moe" character of the group, for having the tendency of saying "Pigii!" each time something happens that she doesn't like, and for not being able to stand up for herself. Fortunately, episodes 8 and 9 of season 2 managed to win over some detractors by giving her some genuine Character Development where she develops Silk Hiding Steel.
  • Mari, albeit to a much lesser extent than her fellow third years. Some people find her Cloudcuckoolander and gadflyish personality, fluent Engrish, and character tics as pretty funny and endearing. Others, however, find them as well as her voice rather annoying, similar to Rin.
  • While Hanamaru doesn't get this nearly as much as her fellow members, with most people finding her Big Eater tendencies and cheerful personality to be endearing, others think she lacks much of a personality beyond said tendencies and find her voice rather annoying as well.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Season 2 Episode 10 has one of these. The girls all want to go to the top of a hill to see shooting stars, so Mari takes them for a drive in her camper van. Suddenly, the vehicle sparkles, lifts off the ground, and flies in the air à la E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The others are amazed, and none of them seem to question it. It isn't clear if this is actually happening or if it's supposed to be some kind of visual metaphor.
  • How many feel Riko's Love Confession to Chika ended up, given that it is never brought up again in the rest of the entire series save for one Call-Back in the series finale, where You makes her own Love Confession to Riko.
• Broken Base:
  • Not all fans of the original series received Sunshine that well. Some were hyped about the new girls or thought it was a good thing that the creators didn't milk out µ's and searched other ways to keep the franchise going, but others weren't. Most of the 'anti-Aqours' brigade doesn't want to let go the original girls and calls the new ones boring copies of µ's.
  • The amount of Internal Homage and Mythology Gag the first season of Sunshine makes to School Idol Project is also a matter of debate among viewers. Some think the similarities between the two shows' storylines (e.g. Hanamaru giving Ruby a pep talk about not letting her shyness get in the way of her dream of becoming an idol, much like Rin once did to Hanayo; even the episode recognizes this connection by making Hanamaru relate to Rin as well as Ruby having Hanayo as her favorite idol) and character roles (e.g. Mari being the upperclassman that has a pervert type of humor and subtly pushes the group into happening, much like Nozomi) are just selective references to School Idol Festival, not interfering in the show's overall quality. Others, particularly casual viewers, think it's plain repetition and poor writing, and that Sunshine could've chosen more original routes to present its characters. They also think that these references detracts from what is unique about Aqours and harms Sunshine's ability to stand on its own two feet as a series.
    • One notable complaint about the plot of Sunshine is that the girls trying to save their school from shutting down by becoming idols and getting more applicants to enroll is exactly like the whole plot of School Idol Project's first season, though the series is self-aware enough that even the characters note the coincidence.
    • This complaint seems to have died down following the Season 2 of Sunshine, which significantly tones down references to the previous series, to the point where μ's isn't even mentioned at all. Some fans see it as a follow-up to Chika's resolve for Aqours to stand on their own two feet and distance themselves from μ's, following the end of Episode 12 in the first season.
  • Season 1 Episode 9, which established the third years' backstory: who was in the wrong, Mari or Kanan? On the one hand, Kanan did lie to Mari about her actions prior to the series, run away instead of facing her, and then acted cold to her when they met again, all very selfish things to do, but on the other hand, Mari shows a remarkable lack of concern for anyone other than herself that episode as well, repeatedly attempting to drag Kanan into Aqours and not taking no for an answer; when she finds out the truth about how Kanan deliberately threw the idol contest in the past to stop her from getting hurt, she is enraged, seemingly not caring that Kanan did it to protect her, and if it didn't happen she could have been injured permanently. There is also a third option that maintains they were both being very immature. Furthermore, was the intervention of Chika and the rest of Aqours necessary, or was it an issue Mari and Kanan could have sorted out on their own and none of their business in the first place?
  • Some fans of the original series have voiced complaints about Sunshine!!'s far more bleak tone during its drama episodes when compared to School Idol Project, claiming that it results in Too Bleak, Stopped Caring and that the drama has a tendency to be shakily written at points. Other fans welcome the darker tone of Sunshine!! and treat it as a way for the series to explore a level of realism to its drama that SIP rarely toyed with.
  • Song centers are a particular sore spot for the fanbase since the anime tends to give a lot of focus to Chika on the insert songs, with Lantis/Sunrise also giving her a lot of focus in the promotional videos. One side argues that she steals the focus that other characters should have (especially with songs such as "Mijuku Dreamer" and "Awaken the power" - that are the climax of the character development for the third years and Ruby/Leah, respectively, so it's argued that Chika shouldn't receive any focus to begin with); add to this that characters like Ruby, Mari and Hanamaru have barely had the opportunity to be the center in songs. The other side argues that Chika's prominence in songs isn't that extreme (for an example, she does have a few more lines, due to repetition, in "Mijuku Dreamer" than the other girls who aren't the third years, who are very obviously the focus of the song); there is also the fact that Chika is the leader of the group and is pretty much guaranteed to get more centers than the others, much like Honoka leads the number of song centers in μ's.
  • Where "Awaken the power" is concerned, some viewers found it questionable that for a song that was In-Universe written by Ruby and Leah to present as a tribute to their older sisters, that said older sisters, and let alone the rest of Aqours, were also singing the song as well in the anime. From a marketing perspective, including all the members of Aqours and Saint Snow as singers may be sensible in order to generate hype from the fanbase at the notion of two units collaborating, something never before seen in the Love Live! franchise. However, some viewers felt that to do so In-Universe is contradictory to the premise of the episode the song was featured in and Dramatically Missing the Point of it all. Others argued that the whole point of making the song in the first place is to have Leah perform together with Sarah one more time.
  • Shiitake's gender. While he's mostly referred as a male dog in the anime, half of the fandom believed that she's a female dog due to his voice actress and one of the stories in School Idol Festival, which (seemingly) solidifies Shiitake's actual gender. The issue is apparently fixed now that the final episode of the anime revealed that Shiitake is a female and also had puppies, although even then some people are confused as to how that even works (how none of Shiitake's owners knew her gender, and with what other dog she had puppies with).
  • Which one is better: the anime or the manga adaptation? Some of the fans believed that the manga's story is handled better than the anime due to the said TV series' interactions being somewhat forced for the sake of the LGBT Fanbase.
  • Is Season 2 an improvement over the first? Many feel it did, namely in telling a far more dramatic and emotional story that additionally averted the franchise's much hated penchant for Poor Communication Kills. Others however criticize the season for completely altering character relationships in the name of Pandering to the Base as well as completely side-lining several characters (with You, Yoshiko, and Hanamaru - and even Riko to a smaller degree - all being Demoted to Extra) in favour of focusing on Chika and the third years.
  • When it comes to real life; are the voice actresses (Notably Nanaka Suwa(Kanan) and Aina Suzuki(Mari)'s and/or Rikako Aida(Riko) and Aika Kobayashi(Yoshiko)'s Like an Old Married Couple chemistry) actually just teasing the fandom for the sake of boosting the audience ratings, or are they really THAT affectionate to one another behind the scenes? A translation of a magazine indicates the former. In Nanaka Suwa's case, her interview comments and off-screen actions does raise a few eyebrows.
  • Hanamaru's tsukkomi/straight man role: is it hilarious? Or is it just completely unfunny and out of character for her?
  • Group J winning the Duo/Trio Collection Vol. 2 voting was met with serious contention, with several fans expressing displeasure at all duos basically being year trios minus a character, other fans hyping up GuuRinPa (Chika/Dia/Yoshiko) getting an actual song, and other fans anywhere in-between.
• Common Knowledge:
  • In many corners of the internet, even this very wiki, it's often said that Season 2 shifted away from Chika/Riko and toward Yoshiko/Riko in a case of Pandering to the Base. However, Riko and Yoshiko's interactions are almost entirely confined to Season 2, Episode 5 and one scene in the immediately following episode. Otherwise, Riko's interactions are mostly with Chika and You as a trio, ditto for Yoshiko with Hanamaru and Ruby (as well as Leah in the case of Episodes 8 and 9).
  • On the internet, the squawking bird-face is commonly associated with Riko. However, not only does diamond-mouth (and its close cousin triangle-mouth) long predate Sunshine!!^note  Big Wind Up has been running since 2003, for instance, it's not even exclusive to Riko in this series. In episode 2x02, the first episode where the series started heavily employing the squawking bird-face, 2/3rds of Aqours get it at one point or another. Riko was just the most visible example, whereas the others tended to be quicker and less noticeable.
• Contested Sequel:
  • Enjoyment of the series compared to School Idol Project tends to depend heavily on whether you prioritize story or characters more. The plot is generally seen as an improvement over the original, but the characters are noted to be sloppily written and/or underutilized (whether this improves overtime or not depends on who you ask), which turned off fans who preferred the character-driven aspect of the original.
  • Season 2. Depending on the viewer it's either a well-executed, if flawed, attempt at a dramatic, overarching plot with memorable songs or a half-assed, poorly done attempt at melodrama that ruined most of the cast.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The "WONDERFUL STORIES" tour had an animated skit that played while the cast was backstage changing outfits where Mari and Riko walk into a bizarre scene of Yoshiko portraying an abusive father to "his" "wife" You and "daughters" Dia and Ruby. Later, Chika, Kanan, and Hanamaru portraying the yakuza come and repo everything they own. In a realistic context, this would be actually rather dark, but the given scenario (with Riko trying to be the Only Sane Man and Mari being Mari) is so absurd that it simply wraps around to hilarious.
  • The moment where Aqours receive 0 votes for their live performance in Tokyo and the fallout of this event? Heartbreaking. Four episodes later, when the girls find out that even after their reputation has been bolstered and they'd been admitted into the Love Live prelims, the number of new applicants to their school is exactly 0, Dia exclaims that this feels like a bad joke. This is then taken to it's most comical conclusion when Aqours has to melodramatically reenact this moment in Season 1 Episode 13, complete with Chika giving a faux-anguished shout of "WHYYYYYYYYYYY?"
• Die for Our Ship: Can be seen here along with the previous series.
• Discredited Meme:
  • Ultimately zig-zagged on the jokes about men not existing in their universe.
  • The eventual reveal of Tsuki's gender in the movie and the music video uploaded by Love Live's YouTube channel made fans stop speculating her as a feminine-looking boy. However, it hasn't stopped people from making fun of her as a "handsome man with breasts".
• Ending Fatigue: The finale of Season 1 drew some criticism for the Love Live! part of the episode, which consists largely of an over-the-top recap skit that reiterates literally every single episode in the first season. It takes up over half the episode itself, clocking in at a staggering 13-minutes.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The two lookalikes in Season 1 Episode 12 and Season 2 Episode 4, who resemble Honoka and Hanayo in terms of appearance. ^note Some of the fans (jokingly) speculated that this was their ships' (HonoTsuba, RinPana) offsprings.
  • The Kurosawa sisters', Yoshiko's, and Riko's mothers count.
  • Tsuki, a character exclusively created for the Over the Rainbow movie, which sparks a lot of debate on the character's gender in his/her first appearance.
  • Mari's mother is this as well.
• Epileptic Trees: A scene of Tsuki bowing to Mari's mother in Over The Rainbow led fans to believe that the character in question is employed as a mole.
• Even Better Sequel: While reactions were initially heavily split, it got better as time passed, and Season 2 Episode 7 is considered the tipping point for Sunshine!! to more or less succeed the original.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Owing to Saint Snow's status as The Rival to Aqours, fans have taken to nicknaming them "B-RISE", after the rival group in the previous series, A-RISE. Incidentally, the anime later reveals that Saint Snow were inspired to become idols because of A-RISE.
    • Megu Sakuragawa, who voices Tsubasa of A-RISE, made mention of it as she tweeted, "Am I the only one who wanted to hear Shocking Party after seeing Saint Snow?" after watching episodes 12 and 13 of Sunshine. The tweet prompted various responses from fans and a thread with Maho Matsunaga, who voices Erena of A-RISE, culminating in them making plans to go out for karaoke. It was all the more notable considering that Matsunaga had retired from voice acting months ago to focus on DJ'ing.
  • Wooby - Kurosawa Ruby. It just works on so many levels. (The trope, how Dia pronounces her name, and it's also cute as heck.)
  • Kanangst, which is used to depict Kanan's relationship with Mari before the 9th Episode.
  • Riko also had a few nicknames:
    • エロ梨(Ero-Ri(ko)) - A nickname given by Chinese-speaking fans.
    • In a pejorative sense: She is also named as "Redhead bitch", "NTR/Cuckold queen", or "Girlfriend thief".
    • Owing to her status as Aqours's resident Launcher of a Thousand Ships, fans have also referred to Riko as the "Harem Queen".
  • "Edge Pigii" or "Ruby Alter" for Leah because of her status as Ruby's "edgier" foil and the fact that their designs parallel each other right down to the pigtails.
  • "Mikan" for Chika, due to her obsession with said fruit.
  • "Dolphin" for Kanan, due to her association with said animal.
  • The voice actresses, like most Japanese celebrities, also have their own nicknames:
    • Anju Inami (Anchan)
    • Rikako Aida (Rikyako). In addition, she has also earned getting called "Aida-san" by fans (that caught on with her peers and colleagues) specifically when she does or says something ridiculously embarassing, crazy, funny or any combination of, whether accidentally or not.
    • Shuka Saito (Shukashuu)
    • Kanako Takatsuki (King/Kinchan)
    • Aika Kobayashi (Aikyan/Kyan)
    • Ai Furihata (Furirin/Aiai)
    • Aina Suzuki (Ainya). Is sometimes called "Ojisan" for her Dirty Old Man tendencies.
    • Nanaka Suwa (Suwawa/Osuwa)
    • Arisa Komiya (Arisha)
    • Asami Tano (Asamin)
    • Hinata Sato (Hinahina/Hii-chan^note from her Sakura Gakuin days)
  • In Season 2 Episode 3, Aqours has to ride a mandarin orange harvesting train to make it from Love Live! to Uranohoshi in time for the school open house. The way the shot is structured with Kanan at the front has given rise to calling it the "discount Happy Party Train", "Happy Mikan Train", or "Mikan Party Train".
  • Fans also created another pejorative nickname for the Anime series: "Love Live! NTR Project", due to the relationships between the 2nd years.
  • "Zaur" for Hanamaru, which is actually from her "Zura" verbal tic, but with the U and A swapped.
  • Due to "Bokura no Hashittekita Michi wa…" being unwieldy to use in the Western fandom, it has been given the nickname "Sou desu!" from the first line of the song.
  • "Guilty MILFs" or "Guilty Moms" for the Guilty Kiss trio's (really attractive) mothers.
• Fanon: Can be seen here.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
  • Rikako's (debated) stage fright in the 1st live. Some fans will get upset if anyone even insinuates that the incident was actually staged.
  • Several fans are also annoyed that some people implying that Kanako is emotionally manipulating people to vote Hanamaru as the center of the 4th single. It probably got worse as Hanamaru is the winner of the 4th Single Center poll.
  • Assuming that Tsuki is a male will completely piss off many fans.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Not as much of an extent as other examples, but some fans of other subunits can be a bit bitter towards Guilty Kiss due to Guilty Kiss' overwhelming popularity having a tendency to overshadow CYaRon! and AZALEA.
  • The Shibuya Note Awards 2018 created a rivalry with K-pop group TWICE when the said group lost to Aqours in the vote. This is despite the fact that the groups themselves are fans of each other.
• Fan Wank:
  • As with the previous series, and due to the series' fairly strong subtext; the fandom once again treated all of the main characters (Riko is one of the recurring examples, due to her Ambiguously Gay status) as genuinely queer lesbians, and the Ship Tease moments as genuinely romantic.
  • Many fans tend to permanently affix Dia with the Third Wheel trope, making her a canonical one in the fandom's eyes.
  • Played for Laughs or Played Straight depending on who you ask: While this one is treated as a joke due to the show's Chromosome Casting, several or plenty of the fans still believe that the males (including the girl's fathers) are genuinely non-existent in the Love Live! universe.
  • Since Season 1 Episode 12, several fans will always believe that the Honoka-lookalike is actually Honoka and Tsubasa's biological daughter, while her real mother is ultimately seen as the kid's nanny/guardian.
• Franchise Original Sin: Many of the series' issues that fans disliked were present in the original to some extent:
  • One of the issues fans had with the Riko/Yoshiko Ship Tease in the second season was that it was forced and unnatural, and was only put in because a lot of fans shipped them together. The original series, however, rocketed up the Maki/Nico Ship Tease between seasons when it was noticed how much of a popular pairing they were. The difference is, neither Maki or Nico were heavily teased with anyone in their series' first season, so even though there's little explanation as to how or why they got so close, it's at least plausible. In contrast, during the first season of Sunshine, Riko's character largely revolved around her relationship with Chika while Yoshiko in both seasons spent the most time with Hanamaru. The Riko/Yoshiko pairing then comes off as being a lot more noticeably strange and forced.
  • Complaints about the third years being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad can be traced back to the original series, where the second-year trio largely occupied the brunt of screentime. However, in the original, every character at least got A Day in the Limelight. Sunshine isn't so kind with its Character Focus, and some of the girls who are supposed to be major characters end up Demoted to Extra as a result.
  • The most common criticism of You is that she has nothing else to her character but being Chika's friend. To an extent, this was largely true of Kotori in the original series. The difference is, Kotori is given a few traits outside orbiting Honoka that end up being important to set up the climax of the first part of the original series. All of You's traits beyond being Chika's friend end up being Informed Attribute since the audience never gets to see them at work.
• Friendly Fandoms: As with the previous series, the anime's fandom also get along well with the fans from Jojos Bizarre Adventure. It ultimately took up to eleven due to many fans pointing out actual (and coincidental) references in the show (while creating a shared universe fanfiction) and also finding out that The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow taking place in Italy as Vento Aureo is still airing until 2019.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Chika/Riko as a pairing has a much larger following in the West, whose exposure is mostly through the anime. Needless to say, those fans were rather irritated when the relationship was largely ignored in Season 2 following its first episode.
  • Like Nozomi, Mari is also viewed as one of the popular gay icons in anime by the fanbase.
  • Despite her ambiguous sexuality, Riko is one of the most popular lesbian icons (along with Mari) of the anime by the LGBT Fanbase.
• Growing the Beard: The Sunshine series apparently tries to be somewhat more realistic, with setbacks and angst playing a prominent role. While most would say this marks Season 1 Episode 8 as the Beard Growing moment for the show, success in the overall series is somewhat questionable. By the the movie, however, the script writers arguably manage to tackle some serious themes and a great degree of depth can be found to the point where many feel that Sunshine ended on a much stronger note than the original series did in its movie.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • While Chika using a lollipop to lure Ruby out of hiding was intended to be Played for Laughs and cuteness, some viewers were disturbed by the fact that it is a common tactic used by kidnappers and child predators to attract children.
  • In Season 2 Episode 9, a special effect consisting of dog ears and nose is added onto Ruby's photo. In real life; the filter is mostly (over)used by most young women, which is controversially dubbed as the “hoe/thot filter” .
  • Although this is more of a coincidence than intentional, the torn-off poster on the punk-rock-themed Yoshiko UR card released on February 28, 2018 may reference the infamous Shanghai Happy Party Train FMT.
  • A scene of Yoshiko holding her ice cream in Italy looked normal, but eating in Italy's public streets will be threatened with fines of up to €150-€500 ($240-$800).
  • Riko's backstory features her having an anxiety attack on stage at a live piano performance. During Aqours first live concert, Riko's voice actress, Rikako Aida, ended up suffering a panic attack during her piano performance on "Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare".
  • Most of the CYaRon! songs about friends growing apart and old friendships being broken (courtesy of the lyrics writer, You Watanabe) finally makes more sense as she expresses her fears of the future of her relationship with Chika, in an indirect fashion, since You cannot figure out how to tell Chika directly.
  • The meaning of "Sora mo Kokoro mo Hareru kara", the song included in the second Blu-Ray, becomes quite a bit more sad when you know the context in which it's played in the anime.
  • Mari is seen injuring her leg during the Tokyo event in the first season's 9th Episode. Mari's vice actress, Aina Suzuki also injured her leg during the last stop of the Fan Meeting Trip session in Chiba.
  • Uranohoshi's real life inspiration, Nagaisaki Junior High School, eventually closed down in 2021 just like in the anime. Given that the series made the setting Numazu to give it a tourism boost, it's like everyone involved wanted to prevent that from happening, but it ended up becoming a case of Art Imitates Life. Considering Numazu's declining population, they did what they could.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Aika Kobayashi was once interviewed when she performed the ending theme to the 2011 anime Freezing (her professional singing career debut), where Izumi Kitta and Aya Uchida told her "You seem more like an idol". Skip ahead five years...^note Bonus points for Yoshiko and Kotori sharing an image color.
  • Also doubles as Harsher in Hindsight depending on who you ask:
    • Nanaka Suwa mentions that Dia is also a total loser only allow the fans to see Dia as a true Third Wheel despite not being one.
    • Remember Kanan's little-to-no screentime in the first half of the anime's first season? One of the lyrics (Hey, do you know me?) in "Sakana ka Nanda ka?" ultimately lampshades this.
  • In the anime, You gets several passerby girls to agree to watch the girls' concert by means of sheer charisma, and they even take pictures with her; upon seeing this, Chika mentions that You is "popular as always". In Real Life, You indeed won Aqours first popularity poll, which even got her a place as the center of the group's second MV, Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM. You also has the most fanarts in image sharing sites. Could be some sort of Fandom Nod as well.
  • Chika's speech in Season 1 Episode 5 mentions how μ's didn't care what other people think of them or if it would affect their popularity. While it is a heartwarming moment and it's true, some viewers will remember that μ's actually spent an entire episode of School Idol Project trying to change their image exactly for the sake of getting more appeal (by doing stuff like dressing up like KISS and imitating each other).
  • Adding to the hilarity, the Aqours sub-unit whose costumes are similar to μ's attempt to dress like KISS... happens to be called Guilty Kiss.
  • Yoshiko getting fourth place in the Aqours 2nd Single Center Election (the same where You got first place). She even lampshades how fitting that is.
  • A great deal of Hanamaru's character (namely, her idolization of Ruby, especially in non-anime material) becomes hilarious after Ruby's lack of concrete personality and superfluous nature left her incredibly unpopular in the JP fandom. Even funnier, her motive of wanting a starring role on stage is hilarious as she ends up Demoted to Extra after she joins, meaning that she ends up a background character regardless.
  • Guess which of them howls like the coelacanth in the April Fools video?
  • A photoshop of You holding her gun had actually made her officially wield one in the Granblue Fantasy collaboration.
  • A fanmade T-shirt by Redbubble features a parody of the KFC Logo with Kotori on it (the logo is later bootlegged by one of Indonesia's restaurants). Guess which of the Aqours' voice actresses actually held a KFC bucket?
  • Remember those Fanons/jokes about Mari being Eli Ayase's daughter? It turns out that Mari's mother herself had blonde hair.
  • During the 4th Single Center polling, there was a bitter rivalry between Hanamaru and Yoshiko fans, both believing that their girl was more deserving of the center spot. Ultimately, Hanamaru won the poll and got "Mitaiken HORIZON"... then it was revealed that Yoshiko got a center anyway, on the same single no less, by simply winning the Shadowverse poll instead.
  • In the November 2017 issue of Dengeki G's magazine, an illustration of Chika had the "Aqours" being written as "Aquors" on the sign. On September 25, 2019, Dia's voice actress, Ariya Komiya, miswrote "Aqours" as "Auours" on one of her tweets, which is ironic considering the character she voiced reacts to someone who mispronounced "µ's" as "U's"
  • Riko can now add "Riko-chan Beam Rifle" or "Riko-chan Beam Saber" as her new beam attack Catchphrases now that Rikako Aida is revealed as the voice actress of young Chall Acustica in SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays .
  • In Season 1 Episode 3, one of You's outfit ideas is a "train-theme" sketch. A year later, Happy Party Train was announced as their third single, and the music video has Aqours wearing train conductor-themed outfits.
  • Dia throwing a fit over Ruby's Elegant Gothic Lolita dress in Episode 5, considering that Love Live! School idol festival has even more scandalous outfits like the Little Devil set.
  • The Friendly Fandoms sitch between this franchise and the Jojos Bizarre Adventure series becomes this once Kanan and Mari's official duo unit is aptly named as "Stardust Ocean" by popular vote.
  • The infamous "Sexy Home Tutor" sketch is now this, because in ALL STARS, you can have Ruby as the center when performing "Starlight", a song with very fanservice-y dance moves.
  • In the Over The Rainbow movie, Sarah asking Aqours if they would let Leah join them since Leah had a very hard time getting members for her new school idol group becomes a whole lot funnier now that Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight's mobile game, ReLIVE, has an official collab with Sunshine!! in 2020, and one of the featured collab units has Junna Hoshimi, Hinata Sato's character in that series, wear Aqours's KimiKoko outfit^note She's wearing Mari's in particular. and become a school idol and member of Aqours just for that collab, so Leah did end up joining Aqours after all!
  • Aqours collaborating with Hatsune Miku is pretty fitting considering Ai Furihata and Aina Suzuki already have experience singing with Miku.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Jimo Ai for the You x Yoshiko pairing.^ExplanationThe name comes from their duet song "Jimo Ai ♡ Mantan ☆ Summer Life".
• I Knew It!: Has its own page here.
• It Was His Sled:
  • In that case, her: Tsuki's identity in the Over the Rainbow movie and her being You's cousin, which is revealed from Pixiv and Twitter fanarts.
  • Aqours scoring last place with zero votes from the audience in the first big Tokyo performance and the decision of Uranohoshi Girls High eventually closing down are two of the most known plot twists in the show.
• Incest Yay Shipping:
  • Dia and Ruby is pretty much this. The ship has later taken up to eleven due to their respective songs: Manatsu wa Dare no Mono? (Due to the live play at HAPPY PARTY TRAIN TOUR) and possibly WHITE FIRST LOVE.
  • Sarah and Leah as well, due to being Foils of the Kurosawa sisters.
  • Both You and Tsuki Watanabe are portrayed as an incestuous couple, like how fans ship Dia and Ruby. It helps that Tsuki's androgynous appearance in the Over The Rainbow movie while talking to You looks like they are a couple on a date.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: As noted under Broken Base, this is a very real complaint about the series, whether it's the complaint about the girls being a rehash of µ's or the storyline being too similar to the original series. Though, considering later events, this might be in part an Intended Audience Reaction.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A few or half of the fans watch the series just to see whether μ's actually made physical cameos. It doesn't happen though.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Riko, Riko, Riko, Riko. As of this writing, she's been paired off with literally everyone from Aqours and at least three of these ships (Chika, Yoshiko, and You) have some basis in primary canon. She's also been shipped with Maki and recently, Eli from the original series, the former of which has a significant amount of fan work despite the two never meeting in canon (at least until School Idol Festival ALL STARS), even receiving several doujinshi dedicated to the pairing, and the latter thanks to the first volume of the Dengeki G Love Live Sogo cover◊ featuring them as the cover pair for the month of July 2019. Even Chika's dog Shiitake gets to be shipped with her! It's a common joke in the fandom that Riko's the ultimate yuri harem magnet / shipping bicycle in the entire franchise.
  • Chika, while not typically as extreme as Riko in this department, has been paired with practically every other character in the group at one point except possibly Mari and Ruby. She's also been paired with Honoka and Sarah.
  • Dia is a minor example, having been paired with everyone in Aqours, with Sarah and with Eli.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Given Status Quo Is God in the original series, some fans were seriously skeptical about Uranohoshi actually closing down despite the fact that Season 2 spends at least a third of its screentime reminding the viewer that the threat exists. So it came as a surprise to some viewers when they actually did shut down the school.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Chika, mostly thanks to how she was portrayed in the April Fools' puppet show, where she got to subject Kanan (the physically strongest member of Aqours) to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, fought a gigantic coelacanth on her own before kissing it and it transformed into Ruby, and remorselessly headbutting Ruby afterwards before convincing her to join her school idol group. Thanks to that, people are now (jokingly) claiming that Chika has what it takes to defeat the likes of Goku and/or join the ranks of the badasses from Jojos Bizarre Adventure.
  • Also, in a rather degrading example: Chika is often seen as a dominator of all centers for every song released.
  • Due to her Big Eater status, Hanamaru is often portrayed as such, as many fans see her possessing an extremely high metabolism or a black hole in her mouth or stomach.
  • Aqours is seen as a walking force of nature that gives Honoka a run for her money, as fans believe that Aqours causes disasters before (or after) arriving at their destinations for live events.
• Memetic Mutation: Can be found here along with memes from the previous series.
• Memetic Molester:
  • In some fanarts, Dia is occasionally portrayed as a sis-con to Ruby.
  • To the Chinese-speaking fandom, Chika's father is often "portrayed" as a pedophile due to him marrying a short-statured wife.
• Memetic Psychopath:
  • You post-Season 1 Episode 10, as the fans began to portray her as a complete yandere to Riko after her confession to Chika.
  • Puppet Chika from the 2015 April Fools' puppet show, due to her habit of hitting the other puppet characters with no provocation.
• Memetic Troll: Mari, due to her tendency to mess with her fellow groupmates.
• Misaimed Fandom: Before the movie was released in the US, several American fans assumed that Aqours will eventually disband in the film like μ's did, though this turns out to be false as Aqours continues without the third years, with it even implied that it will go on with new members even after all of the original ones have left.
• Narm Charm: In Season 1 Episode 13, the girls of Aqours re-enact the events of how the group was formed on stage. While it is rather cheesy, especially with the over-the-top way the girls act, it's still genuinely heartwarming at the same time.
• Nausea Fuel: In a very minor extent: The foreign fans' initial reactions to the Grilled Mikans and the Mikan stew◊ seen in Season 2 Episode 11, which were believed as part of bizarre Anime-only/Millennial cuisine that is inedible in real life. However, those foods are real and edible dishes.
• No Yay:
  • Much like the previous series, het ships are nearly non-existent in the fanbase. It is downplayed, though, since the lack of any male characters (not even as background characters!) means there are no actual boys to be shipped with the girls anyway.
    • To make things better, Dia's chapter in the School Idol Diary reveals that she plans to run away if her future (arranged) marriage happens.
  • Due to voice actresses taking their own shipping up to eleven, almost everyone in the fandom refuses to acknowledge the VAs as straight people thanks to that.
  • Many fans (including shippers) are against any incest relationship between Ruby and Dia.
  • For western fans, Ruby is considered as their "precious gem", as they intend to shout anything Enforcer-related if they see one single NSFW pic of her.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Many people believed that Riko's comical diamond mouth is an original expression invented from the series, as they didn't realize that this mouth expression isn't new as other characters from various Anime and Manga also possessed the same comical mouth expression.
  • This is not the first time that Love Live! featured objecting parents, as some of them are seen in School Idol Diary.
• One-Scene Wonder: When it comes to minor characters:
  • A brunette-haired Kanan fan in Season 1 Episode 12, which is rarely viewed as Mari's "love rival" by the fandom.
  • The generic female cashier and the customer seen in the Lucky Pierrot restaurant in Season 2 Episode 9, which they're interpreted as a couple due to their eyes contacting to each other and possibly blushing. (And again, they also had sweat drops on their faces, which might have implied that they overheard the conversation between the first years.)
  • A third year student from Season 1 Episode 9 is pretty much like Shuka Saitou, the voice actress of You Watanabe.
• One True Threesome: All of the trios, but especially the third years (Dia, Mari and Kanan) due to their shared history as a three-person school idol group and how each one has quite a bit of Ship Tease with the other two.
• Pandering to the Base: The show usually provides easy shipping fuel for ships that are most popular with fans. This is most prevalent with Riko; in the first season, ChikaRiko was pushed quite heavily, but upon entering Season 2, seeing that Yoshiko x Riko was gaining ground, the anime suddenly stopped pushing ChikaRiko quite so heavily (though there were still moments) and gave a whole episode to Yoshiko x Riko. Only to throw a curveball at the end with You x Riko. Add the fact that YoshiRiko might not even be that popular^note YoshiMaru fanart on Pixiv outnumbers YoshiRiko by 50%, and a lot of YoshiRiko fanart only came out after Season 2 Episode 5., and Season 2 Episode 5 becomes an appeal to the very vocal minority.
• Questionable Casting: When Aqours' character designs first came out, many people immediately took Hanamaru for a Hanayo Expy and assumed she would have a similarly high-pitched, squeaky voice. So, when voice clips were first released and it was revealed that Hanamaru actually has a very distinctive mature-sounding, even deep voice, many were pretty shocked at the contrast. However, Tropes Are Not Bad: over time, fans did get more used to the voicing, and ultimately it ended up becoming one of the most commonly-praised voices largely because it's so unique and different to anything in µ's.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Season 2 Episodes 8 and 9 saved Ruby for some fans, granting her some genuine character development.
• Self-Fanservice:
  • You is one of the subjects of this trope, whose fans had drawn her with medium/large breasts and somewhat huge hips. In 2018, the character PVC figure of the Jacket Figure Series by With Fans! has sculpted her a very well-endowed hip.
  • Due to her bust size and relatively small height, Hanamaru is often drawn with larger knockers.
  • Sarah is also this in several occasions.
• Ship Mates: Fans who ship Ruby with Leah also happen to ship both their older sisters together as a complement to their younger sisters' ship despite Dia and Sarah having very limited interactions onscreen together.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • Yoshiko x Riko was formerly this, as the ship gained traction long before Yoshiko and Riko had any significant interaction in the anime, largely because of the subtext that exists in other official media and the teasing between their voice actresses. The most popular implication that started off this ship is Riko calling Yoshiko "Yocchan" ^note Note that Ruby, You and Chika has called Yoshiko by this nickname as well, also before the second anime season aired. Season 2 rectifies this by establishing early on that both of their families have gotten closer in-between seasons and even giving the pairing a dedicated episode. Although whether or not their increased interaction was handled well is another matter of debate entirely.
  • Due to Eli being Dia's favorite idol, some of the fans often paired the two despite their lack of interaction in most of the media, and they often made Dia calling her as "Eli-sama".
    • Their interaction has become canon in Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS. Her fanon portrayal as a crazed fan to Eli has yet to be seen canonically.
  • In response to Yoshiko x Riko getting more screentime, Yoshiko x You became this. Nobody expected it when the two were paired in Season 1's ED, but quite a lot of people welcomed it since they were the "remainders" of their respective year groups (ChikaRiko and RubyMaru were clearly paired off). Many hoped that the two would get interactions since they're the only ones who live in Numazu and take the bus together. However, Season 1 ended without the two having any meaningful interactions, and even when they got a duet together in the summer-themed CD which gave fans hope that the ship wasn't dead, both Season 2 and the movie ended the same way.
  • In a minor extent: both Kanan and her brunette fan from Season 1 Episode 12. The latter would be considered as a Designated Love Interest given the lack of any buildup to their relationship.
  • As stated above, Dia tends to be shipped together with Sarah as a literal sister ship to the Ruby x Leah pairing after the latter gained traction in the second season even though, compared to their younger sisters, Dia and Sarah don't have as much meaningful onscreen interactions as they did in the anime.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Like the previous anime, Love Live! Sunshine also possesses this trope.
  • The most intense shipping wars involve the second years; the most heated debate is ChikaRiko vs. ChikaYou (the latter going full blown Die for Our Ship against Riko), although alternatives exist, including YouRiko and One True Threesome, both of which the ending of the show seems to push.
  • YoshiMaru and YohaRiko fans started their war with the Yoshiko/Riko-themed short story in the November 2016 issue of Dengeki G's magazine. The flame wars further boiled up with Season 2 Episode 5 (which is a tribute to the pairing) and the simultaneous reveal of both the cover of the Sunshine Perfect Visual Collection book with Yoshiko and Hanamaru doing the heart-to-heart hand gestures◊ and the other half pieces of the Over The Rainbow Movie visual magazine◊, where it was confirmed that the wrist held by Riko belongs to Yoshiko.
• Signature Scene: Several key events mark Sunshine as a different show from School Idol Project.
  • Season 1 Episode 8: Aqours finding out that they placed 30th out of 30 in the competition with 0 votes
  • Season 1 Episode 9: Mari and Kanan's reconciliation
  • Season 1 Episode 10: Chika and Riko's confession scene
  • Season 2 Episode 7: Aqours failing to gather 100 prospective students, thus Uranohoshi is forced to close and merge with a nearby school
  • Season 2 Episode 13: You's unexpected confession to Riko
  • In addition, the performance of ''My Mai Tonight'' is often used as an example of good CGI in anime.
  • Ironically, one of the most iconic insert songs from Over the Rainbow doesn't even have Aqours in it: Saint Snow's "Believe Again" is frequently considered to be one of the main highlights of the movie alongside Aqours' performances of "Hop? Stop? Nonstop!" and "Brightest Melody".
• Signature Song: Ruby has one: "Cotton Candy Ei Ei Oh!". It's so utterly crazy, insane, and catchy (as any good denpa song would be) that it completely flies in the face of anything her character stands for to the point of looping straight around to "iconic", and has become known as the Ruby song. Its official upload amassed more views in two months than "Snow Halation" did in a year.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: A common complaint in Season 1 that many fans had was that the first seven episodes seemed repetitive of what had already been done in the original anime with many fearing that the show was just going to coast by on the same plot of the original Love Live! Then came Episode 8 and Sunshine began actively subverting many of the tropes of its parent show and a major plot of the first season became about Aqours learning to shine in their own way and not just be µ's imitators. The plot then became a lot stronger and the show allowed itself to gain its own unique identity.
• Special Effect Failure: The CGI stage and audience used in the "DREAMY COLOR" PV is really obvious and jarring, and for some fans who otherwise loved the rest of the video it can come off as narmy by comparison.
• Squick: A good number of fans who were against people shipping Riko and Shiitake together. And since Shiitake had gave birth to two puppies and wore a sweater with Riko's image color, let's just hope this didn't get worse.
• Super Couple: KananMari, YoshiMaru, ChikaRiko/You, and YohaRiko.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • "Guilty Night, Guilty Kiss" sounds a lot like "Teenage Dream", resulting in this mashup. It also sounds similar to “Two of Hearts” by Stacey Q.
  • Many Western fans have noted that Riko's BD solo "Pianoforte Monologue" sounds distressingly similar to "A Thousand Miles".
  • The chorus of "Mitaiken Horizon" instantly attracted comparisons to Momoiro Clover Z's "Moon Pride," the first Sailor Moon Crystal OP.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • When it comes to the visual revisions on the Blu-Ray/DVD releases, several fans prefer the TV version of the close-up of Mari and Dia's heads instead of the revised version, which is drawn better than the former.
  • Many felt that the 3rd Love Live! Tour ～WONDERFUL STORIES～ Blu-ray Memorial BOX concealed the camera angles that shot Anju's nervousness of Anchan before the backflip, and then exaggerating the emotion in her voice post-backflip.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A significant cost of the greater focus on an overarching narrative is that a number of characters are largely pushed to the side due to them being unable to contribute to it.
  • You gets hit with this the hardest. She ends up being one of the least developed characters in the entire series, thanks to a combination of factors such as the show pushing Riko's screentime at You's expense in Season 1, a lack of defined motivation for joining Aqours beyond wanting to do something together with Chika (which also makes her a Satellite Character by extension), a minor Character Focus that accomplishes nothing, and a straight-up lack of meaningful screentime or dialogue in Season 2 (which lead to the fandom joke that "You is the new Kanan"). It says something when Saint Snow, the rival group, not only got a better Character Focus than her, but it actually gave them more character development than her. This has led to many fans perceiving her as one of the most underutilized characters in the franchise, especially jarring considering she is also one of the most popular characters in Aqours and in the franchise.
  • Depending on who you ask, Yoshiko went this way in Season 2. Put simply, Season 2 severely slammed Yoshiko with the Flanderization bat and reduced her character by large into a gag, and she got a second Character Focus episode that, bewilderingly, almost entirely retraces her character development from her first Character Focus in Season 1, except it has ultimately zero impact on her character going forward.
  • Hanamaru ends up Demoted to Extra and gets little to no Character Focus at all after the episode where she joins Aqours, reducing her to being a Straight Man for Yoshiko. Noticeably, despite one of her basic character conceits being that she's Ruby's best friend, their bond isn't addressed at all in Ruby's spotlight episodes late in the series, instead developing a relationship between Ruby and Leah. Ironically, her relegation to being a background character is the exact reason she joined Aqours to avoid!
  • How many feel Riko suffered in Season 2. She was the closest thing to a Deuteragonist in Season 1, as well as receiving lots of Ship Tease with Chika. Due to said pairing not exactly taking off in Japan though, their relationship was largely ignored save for moments that were always shared with You, and consequently stripped her of her role in the story, leaving her with little besides the fifth episode which contained a bunch of Ship Tease with Yoshiko (which many fans found to be forced shipper pandering) and a half-hearted arc about her overcoming her fear of dogs. Seeing how important she was in Season 1, most felt this more than a bit of a downgrade.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • After Season 1 Episode 8 finally removed the It's the Same, Now It Sucks! factor from the series for many fans, the plot threads dangled in it seemed to be suggesting a third-year arc focusing on their shared backstory and working out the issues they had with each other. While all this did happen, it occurred in the space of one episode, and many fans thought it would have been better if it was drawn out longer.
  • Any fans hoping the apparent Love Confession at the end of Season 1 Episode 10 would lead to an actual romance and possibly even canon couple in the group were shot down by Season 1 Episode 11, which went right back to Status Quo Is God. And the entire relationship was largely ignored in Season 2, rendering the entire build-up retroactively pointless.
  • As for the conflict in The Movie of Mari's arranged marriage, many fans believe that the argument should have been taken seriously, instead of relying on one of their songs to change her mind.
• Tough Act to Follow:
  • Both in-universe and out of it, µ's was a tough act for Aqours to follow, with the newer group not coming into their own (and possibly outshining their predecessors depending on who you ask) until they made the choice to stop trying to follow in their predecessors' footsteps to the letter and learned how to better stand on their own feet as their own thing.
  • Any Guilty Kiss song will almost inevitably be compared to "Strawberry Trapper", which is near-universally considered their magnum opus track and set up incredibly high expectations for the sub-unit going forward.
• Unexpected Character: For some bizarre reason, You appears in the credits of a Character Focus episode that barely features her at all. Some fans became convinced that Sunrise had accidentally used the wrong ending animation. It turns out that a few episodes later, Dia would finally make her own credits appearance alongside her sister Ruby.
• Win Back the Crowd: Season 1 Episode 8 saved the series in many fans' eyes. It expanded the third years' background (even offering Kanan some much needed screentime, and cementing Dia as a Cool Big Sis) and gave Aqours a harsh result in a school idol competition (they get last place with zero votes) as well as a necessary lesson about how trying to be like µ's won't take them any further, and was overall a tear-jerking yet well-done episode.
• The Woobie:
  • You is the first to suffer from this: the fans sympathized her from being "cucked" after the confession between Chika and Riko since Season 1 Episode 10. It only gets even worse when You is witnessing Riko getting close to Chika (by squishing her cheeks) in front of her eyes in Season 2 Episode 10. History repeats itself, folks. It only gets even better if one realizes that You serves as an oarsman on a Gondola where Chika and Riko sat on the CD cover for Marine Border Parasol.
    • Meanwhile, some fans also pointed out a picture of Aqours' 1st live of Shuka witnessing Anju hugging Rikako as her genuinely "cucked".
  • Like Sora Tokui in µ's Fifth Live, they pointed out Dia's voice actress (Arisa) being (mostly) left out by the group in the videos and photos.
  • Hanamaru's flashback in the first season's fourth episode makes you want to sympathetically hug her.
    • Also, one must realize that Hanamaru will be the only remaining AZALEA member left once Dia and Kanan are graduated.
  • Leah Kazuno, in Over the Rainbow as she becomes frustrated at establishing her new school idol group after Sarah's graduation.
• Woolseyism:
  • The phrases "ganbaruby" and "Kowareyasuki" (from Guilty Kiss' second single) suffer from the same problem, in that they're both Japanese wordplay that portmanteaus two words together^note "ganbaruby" is a combination of "ganbaru" and "Ruby", while "Kowareyasuki" is a combination of "kowareyasui" and "suki". Translations resolve this by translating them into "I'll do my Rubesty!" and "Fragilove" respectively, which both mean similar things to the original Japanese. Interestingly, "Do your Rubesty!" was actually adopted by Ai Furihata as the English version of her call and response.
  • You's dish, "Youkisoba", is impossible to translate while keeping the pun on You's name so it gets changed to another punny name, "Niceoodles", in the the subbed version.
  • The Japanese term for Mari's Stewshine is a portmanteau of "shiny" and "nimono" that is pronounced the same as the catchphrase "Shiny". This ended up getting changed for English releases, making it a pun on "Sunshine" instead.
  • When Yoshiko falls out from the tree in the first episode, Chika says "You don't seem okay." The dub instead has:
    Chika: (surprised) Oh no, she's brain damaged!
  • The scene from Season 1 Episode 3 where Chika reacts to Mari's idea of a joke originally stated "Don't put so much effort into a joke.", but was dubbed into the memorable line:
    Chika: If anyone needs me for anything, I'll just be slowly dying inside.
  • Despite the reduced use of Japanese Honorifics in English compared to Japanese, the English dub still needed to convey Dia's concerns about getting closer to the other girls in Season 2 Episode 4. It did so by changing dialogue to incorporate various terms of endearment. The results have some interesting implications when interpreted a certain way, however.
  • The dub for the movie, Over the Rainbow, also avoided Japanese manners of speech. Mari's mother verbally nicknames Dia as "boop boop" instead of "desuwa/deathwar", taking the other part of her catchphrase.