DreamingBeats said:EGOIST said:Yeah this recap made me accept more why Sunshine is better than the original!(Original is good too!). I appreciated this recap :) might even rewatch season 1 soon
" To shine like muse, we can't be chasing after them ", " Thus, Aqours started their journey to shine in their own way " I think that's why this show isn't too well received here on MAL, they probably missed the whole point on why they keep saying muse this and muse that. I hope these lines would somehow reach the viewers who had their doubts on the first season :/
Hope this season changes a lot of people's opinion on sunshine :)
they didn't have to keep mentioning muse all the time...even at episode 8.
other series did a much better job at showing references to previous established idol groups while still focusing on the main characters of the show - and certainly not wasting too much time putting the previous idols on a high pedestral. one example is Pripara - they literally spent maybe 3 minutes in the 1st episode to show references to previous idol. they also showed a reference to them in a much later episode, but that was strategic and only lasted for like a minute at best. the series knew that the stars of the show were the main characters, not the previous idols. another example is Aikatsu: Akari season. Aikatsu was actually able to make a smooth transition from Ichigo -> Akari, and while Akari fangirls over Ichigo, we don't see Soleil performance or song shoved into the first few episodes - the star of the show is Akari, not Ichigo and the producers of the show understand that.
with LL Sunshine, however, the producers seem too worried to appease the established LL fandom:
the constant references to muse even going to episode 8, Dia being obsessed over muse - making a muse quiz to show how knowldegdeable she is about them. they could have spent 5 minutes the 1st episode showing how muse was legendary and then move on to Aquors. Aikatsu did with Akari -> Ichigo and Pripara did with previous idols -> Lala and some would even argue Lala -> Yume in idol time.
LL sunshine showed muse performances several times, which would be fine if this was a long-running series, but with only 12 episodes for season 1, this takes away precious time for Aquors characters - and they really needed the time. Aquors are the stars of the show afterall, not muse.
besides the constant references to muse, which i hope season 2 will avoid,
there's also the unecessary and pointless drama and the rush in introducing the characters.
after watching season 1, it's hard to give Ruby a better description than "that cute red-haired imouto that is introverted and wants to be an idol", and Hanamaru "that girl who's friend of Ruby and later joins Aquors". characters didn't leave a lasting impression, with the exception of You (due to her "Yosoro" remark) and Yohane (the chuuni character). granted, muse also had this problem with characters like Nozomi, and they somewhat fixed in season 2. season 2 really need to dedicate an episode or 2 on the individual characters.
as for pointless drama, compare the reason Dia opposed Aquors group vs why Eli opposed.
someone will complain that there's also pointless drama in the original, particularly when muse wanted to perform Snow Halation. this is true, but it only lasted for 1 episode, and the drama wasn't a major part of the story. by contrast, the reason Dia opposes Aquors drives the story.
after reading volume 2, i can say that season 1 could have been better. there's no rush in characters introduction, there's no pointless drama and the characters are actually better than the series. You in the anime series is a severe downgrade compared to You from the manga. they also don't waste too much time with muse - the focus is on Aquors.
I'm actually not all that annoyed with the constant muse circlejerking XD, guess I'm in the minority. What I actually like about sunshine is it's handling of its drama. It might seem pointless to you, but I think these drama actually adds up to the impact the character gives to the show. Compared to the original, there wasn't really any background/drama on all of its characters. They were just there. (Only talking about season 1, since season 2 solved that problem) Making characters like Rin and Hanayo go under the radar. Sunshine devoted most of its time focusing on a set of characters per set of episodes which most had drama in it and of course the circle jerking (I agree though, they can maximize their use of the time by replacing these) I guess they're actually trying to make an impact on their point with the constant mentioning of muse, I mean I think it wouldn't have made that much on an impact on me if they hardly ever mentioned who they wanted to become. Some people beg to differ though.