Love Live! Superstar!! 2nd Season

As another year begins at Yuigaoka Girls' High School, ushering in a fresh batch of students, the school idol club Liella! is excited to expand their membership. However, Liella! is extremely popular due to the astounding talent they have continuously displayed; thus, new students lack the courage to even consider approaching the club, fearing the rigorous training that might lie ahead.

Amid her worries, club leader and co-founder Kanon Shibuya meets first-year student Kinako Sakurakouji and tells her about the world of school idols. This leaves Kinako in awe, but being fairly average herself, she feels she would not be capable of matching the spirited performances of the brilliant Liella! members. Nonetheless, Kinako receives encouragement to join the group and comes to share their dream of reaching for the stars once again in the grand Love Live! Competition.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shibuya, Kanon Main

Date, Sayuri Japanese

Tang, Keke Main

Liyuu Japanese

Heanna, Sumire Main

Payton, Naomi Japanese

Arashi, Chisato Main

Misaki, Nako Japanese

Hazuki, Ren Main

Aoyama, Nagisa Japanese

Wakana, Shiki Main

Ookuma, Wakana Japanese

Yoneme, Mei Main

Yabushima, Akane Japanese

Onitsuka, Natsumi Main

Emori, Aya Japanese

Sakurakouji, Kinako Main

Suzuhara, Nozomi Japanese

Margarete, Wien Supporting

Yuina Japanese

Ootsuka, Hiroshi Producer

Kyougoku, Takahiko Director

Nagasaki, Yukio Sound Director

Nakayama, Naoya Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 9, 2022

Marinate1016

Recommended

Just when I think Love Live has reached its peak it kicks things into gear and surpasses everything I thought I knew about this franchise. It’s with great pleasure that I say Love Live Superstar!! S2 is easily the best the franchise has ever been and is a blast from beginning to end.

When the Liella girls got announced a couple of years ago I was cautiously optimistic about how their anime would go. They had amazing designs, but not much was known about them since they were only formed in 2021. Fortunately, from the very first episode of season 1 I was hooked on the ... girls’ music, personalities and overall vibe of this LL iteration. That only continued to increase as season 1 went on, and things have got even better this time around in season 2. The biggest overall improvements for me are the story, the drama, the stakes and the performances. LL is at its core a light hearted idol series, but this season actually did a good job of creating tension with Keke’s family situation, introducing the new girls and Margarethe’s rivalry with Kanon.

Speaking of the new girls, I LOVE all of the first years, with the exception of Natsumi. I think they were all such great additions and Shiki and Mei have already become two of my fave idol girls in general. Seeing liella finally come together as a full unit and reach their full potential was just amazing. Of particular note for me was Sumire. She’s one of my fave characters ever, and you could really see her take major strides in this season. Going from kind of a jokey comic relief character to a real leader and her episode with Keke is among the top 3 in LL history imo. A truly beautiful episode.

Now of course, you can’t talk about an idol show without going over the music. I thought the music in this season was phenomenal. Several of the girls solo songs are on constant repeat in my playlist and it looks like Sunrise have nearly perfected CGI blending during performances too. It’s amazing how we’ve come from such blatant and obvious CGI during lives to not even being able to really detect it. Of particular note for me are Margarethe’s performance from episode 10, Liella’s first full 9 member performance and Shiki’s solo performance. All 3 were just stunning.

Love Live Superstar!! Season 1 is a must watch for any fan of the idol genre. Not only is it the perfect follow up to season 1, but it’s one of the best idol seasons, period. The Love Live franchise continues to push the bar and sit atop the music anime mountain, I do not see that changing anytime soon.

Love Live Superstar!! Season 2, gets 10 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 9, 2022

GG-WP

Mixed Feelings

Is this season better than the one before it? No, it clearly isn't. Is it, however, worth watching? Yes, the show was able to maintain its consistency in terms of comedy and SoL-like factor.

This season introduced new characters, including a rival named Wien Margaret, who appeared halfway through the season. The story for this season can basically be summed up in a few sentences: first-year students joins Liella!. Liella! fights for the honor of representing their region. Liella! defeats Wien Margarete, as expected. And Kanon Shibuya gets invited to study abroad at one of the most prestigious music schools, which is the final and most ... unexpected event in this season (With a 360 turn).

The plot in general was mediocre and lacked the spark that the previous season possessed. The show's finale did not help matters either. For the positives: The addition of new members added more personality to the group, making Liella! more lively and adding more drama to the show. Wien Margarete's singing surprised me, as it did most people, since she was clearly the best singer and had the best songs this season. And as for the negatives: The songs this season aren't as good as those from previous season or other Love Live series, but they're still worth a listen and adding to one's playlist. The introduction of the new members also had little impact; aside from Shiki Wakana and Mei Yoneme, who are at least decent, the other two's reasoning for joining and becoming idols didn't make much sense. And, let's be honest, Wien Margarete joining the fray as a rival was a bit of a puzzle, as it appears she was thrown in for the sake of being an antagonist and having a new and fresh face.

In general, I believe that the comedy and SoL aspect truly distinguishes this Love Live series from the others, as it manages to keep us engaged, from being sad, happy, to a genuine heartwarming moment, as that this series is designed to be light-hearted and a switch your brain off series to manifest different types of emotion. This is a show that is about feeling good rather than heavy drama. Given how engaging the story was in the previous season, I expected more from this season in terms of story and execution, but it is still worth watching.

I would recommend the show to the following people:
- Fans of Slice of Life.
- Fans of Comedy.
- Fans of Love Live.

I would not recommend the show to the following people:
- Not a fan of dull or boring stories with little to no progression.
- Not a fan of drama that doesn't elicit much emotional response.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 10, 2022

rrakku

Not Recommended

“Welcome to our world!” The five girls’ first performance of this season was a warm welcome not just to the aspiring members of Liella, but also to the audience for returning to witness a new chapter. And I mean, who could resist? Superstar season one is perhaps one of if not the best idol show out currently out there. So, how did second season fare?

Well, not great. Introducing new characters this late into the series naturally comes with some compromises, and this season of Superstar had the wrong priorities.

Now, I don’t mean that Kinako, Mei, Shiki, or Natsumi are bad characters, they are decent. They ... have strong, distinctive designs that reflect their personas; some of their character traits mesh very well with the original five, like Mei with Keke or Natsumi with Sumire. Mei and Shiki’s relationship is adorable. And although Some of their attributes on the extreme end, e.g. Shiki’s nonsense gadgets and Natsumi’s “desuno” mannerisms, could annoy some people, it ultimately comes down to personal preference and I digress.

To introduce new members to an existing idol group is to risk alienating your audience, because people came for Kanon, for Keke, for Chisato, for Sumire, and for Ren, not for Kinako, or Mei, or Shiki, or Natsumi. So the question is, how do you get people to keep watching while you introduce characters that no one cares about? The solution Superstar gave to this question is to get their introduction over with as soon as possible, cramming it all into its first episodes. I don’t think that’s a good approach. The first episodes resemble the real life equivalent of a freshmen ice-breaker, not necessarily the most entertaining stuff.

In later episodes, as the characters get to know each other, you can see their characters play off each other better. Conversations feel substantial, sometimes even fun, and not just vegetables talking to each other. In a sense you could argue that therefore the awkward start only makes it more realistic: the more time you spend with the same group of people, the more comfortable you are with them. However, disregarding the discussion of whether the realism of fiction is always preferable or not, it still doesn’t make it any fun to watch.

One could also make the case that their addition was a cornerstone to season two’s structure, essential for the dramatic confrontation between Keke and Sumire. Keke’s potential departure is perhaps the easily the most intricate, important, and interesting plot thread in season one left unresolved, it’s very intricate and showcases the emotional intelligence of both of them. However, in this season, the whole situation ended on quite a bitter note. The confrontation and solution is too cheesy, and the most detrimental part about it is the climatic scene where Sumire spills the beans about Keke. But there are redeeming qualities: the voice acting coming out of the whole sequence is done insanely well, the drama feels authentic and there are nuances in everyone’s thoughts that the audience can understand and appreciate. And that’s about the high-note of this season in terms of story.

Because if last season’s story required some suspension of disbelief, the story this season is sometimes borderline incoherent. I won’t delve into it deep here, because there plainly isn’t much to talk about, I’ll just give a few examples. Obligatory spoiler warning.

Episode 1: somehow because Kinako stumbled upon the five practising, they suddenly want to HER specifically as THE new member(?)

Episode 3: to celebrate(?) their loss at a local competition, they decided to hold a performance at their own school(?)

Episode 7: Ren got addicted to games, so their solution is to play together to overcome her addiction(?)

I guess the only other storyline that made any sense coincidentally also comes from a new character: Wien Margarete. She is the real rival of Liella, hinted at in episode two and only appears every now and then when she needs to. Even then, so little is known about her until an exposition dump in episode eleven, which backfilled her motivation and established a “she doesn’t have a soul of a school idol” narrative. Even then, it's like the writer knew that there would be a season three, so they just left this part of the story unfinished, so we'll see how that goes. On the topic of Margarete, we were told that her performances are jaw-dropping, insanely good, on a completely different level than even Liella or Sunny Passion. In reality, we can’t even see the performances when they have lost, and the only time we saw her beat, it was when Liella squarely diffed her both in terms of music and choreography.

Which brings me to season two’s saving grace, its performances. At this point I am convinced that the Love Live franchise has the most talented people in the industry working on the 3D models, animation, and music. They continue to be stunning this season, and sometimes even one upping themselves. Chance day, Chance Way! has Chisato jumping up in 2D but landing in 3D in one continuous shot, which I swear is more impressive than it sounds; Sing! Shine! Smile! has hands down the most beautiful set, most expressive faces, and most natural movements in any Love Live; Mirai no Oto ga Kikoeru is subtle and comparatively muted as a finals song, but it reflects on the growth of everyone over the season and the decision to put Ren in the centre was refreshing. They definitely do cut corners when the characters are not performing though, to the point where it feels like the video game equivalent of cutting back to gameplay from a cutscene when the girls get off the stage.

Superstar season two may be best described exactly as this, a series of dazzling music videos with this poor excuse of a story put in between them. Let's wish season three isn't as much of a disappointment.

At least the songs are still bangers.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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