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I’m a manga reader who had a great time with this show as it came out. Not much to spoil, but I’ll try to only mention things that can be considered premise, or that can be safely guessed if you watch the first episode and have seen enough anime.

So this is basically a CGDCT anime with a gender bender protagonist. Mahiro is a 20-something year old NEET who is drugged by his scientist younger sister and turned into a middle-school-age girl. The show is full of gender bender antics and cute-girls slice of life comedy. It’s very fun, lovable, and mostly lighthearted, and there are ... some quite good jokes and gags that can be found throughout.

For the visuals, I was hesitant when I saw the first character visual, but in animation the character designs are softer and friendlier, and I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out. The show has a distinctive style that adds a lot compared to the basic art of the manga. The colors take some getting used to – the low contrast requires a little more attention from your eyes, but overall, I think it looks great. There’s a lot of animation and “good,” interesting cuts, and you can just feel the love that was put into the show visually. At the beginning, there are some cuts where character art (particularly shots of arms and legs) seem to be traced over CGI models or real life references, but thankfully, these are much less noticeable and frequent after the first 2 episodes.

Another small problem with the beginning is what I will call the delivery of the premise. Gender bender fans are expecting certain things, and willing to forgive others, to make the story work. The show wants us to just assume that Mahiro is going to accept whatever his sister does to him, but it doesn’t do quite enough to make us feel that it is “wholesome.” The manga had this too, but I think manga in general has an easier time “asking” its readers to accept its premise. The end result I think is that the first episode, maybe 2, seem weirdly paced, but the show hits its stride later on when it gets into the comedy. For me, this is not a major complaint, but it’s one of the things that keeps this show out of 10/10 territory.

The show also has a lot of sexualized jokes and scenes, and some of the girls are in middle school – this is one for the degenerates. I really like how the show plays both sides of wholesomeness and degeneracy, but it does go quite far, sometimes further than the manga. That is not a problem in my book – I actually respect the show a little more for doing what others haven’t – but some of it is a little too shiny and overly excited. One character, Kaede, was unfortunately turned from a wholesome, self-respecting girl into a tacky gyaru. However, all the other characters are very solid, interesting, and unruined.

It’s an interesting, nicely produced show that brought a smile to my face with nearly every episode. If you like anime with cute girls and slice of life, I think this one is worthwhile.

Now I wasn’t going to be expecting too much from a series of chibi, 3D-animated shorts, but Nijiyon Animation is very skippable. Animation-wise, it doesn’t get too much mileage out of the 3D models, I really feel like they could have gone 2D chibi and not used any more resources – except maybe the Fall Guys episode which was a snoozefest like most of them.

We can see here one of the reasons why Love Live fans are resistant whenever one of the generations expands their cast: when every character is forced to have an appearance and say their bit, every situation and line starts to ... feel very samey and predictable - especially when doing just that takes up half the runtime of every episode! [I actually wrote this before the most recent Liella reveal] It gets better in the second half, but the overall writing leaves an impression that it is very basic and simple, and not in an endearing way. There are maybe one or two decent jokes, but it’s lacking all of the things that I loved in the main show. The Nijiyon “series” on Love Live’s Youtube channel is far funnier and more interesting - I would check that out instead.

Welcome Saki fans – or just anyone who’s like me and prefers to leave no stone unturned as far as OVAs and special eps. I’m here to report that the Saki Biyori OVA is actually alright. The art style is not really chibi, but a simplified style compared to the main show. It does not feel cheap either, as there is actually a little bit of character animation in here. It’s shallow like you would expect from a 4koma spinoff, and the jokes are mostly “meh”, but the last segment with Ryuumonbuchi is pretty good. Stay for the ending credits and final scene.

What a lovely movie! I sat on this for over a year before finding the perfect time to watch it, and I’m happy to say it exceeded my expectations. Based on the promotional art I thought it would feel like the beach episode, but it’s a more well-paced, more well thought out adventure that uses the runtime wisely to create a satisfying arc throughout the movie, something longer and more immersive than what is possible in one episode. And I liked the character focus as well (won’t spoil who), but all of the main cast gets a chance to shine multiple times throughout the movie. ... I appreciate that they don’t oversell this, the main priority is just a fun vacation with the characters, this is just to tie it together.

Writing, dialogue, jokes, etc are all great and feel really good in the moment-to-moment, which is the main reason I give this 1 point over the rest of the series (for now). Animation is nothing special compared to the main series, but there were no moments that I felt were lacking and there is a decent amount of character animation in there. I also appreciate the minimal amount of CG, I can imagine if the movie was more ambitious some intrusive CG could have easily snuck itself in.

Look up watch order for best experience, but you can put this after season 2 if you don’t want to bother with OVAs. But definitely don’t skip this. If you saw the series a while ago like me, still a perfect time to watch right now. Easily gets you back into the world of NNB.

I consider this review to be spoiler-free. Since my opinion was different from the consensus again, I will try to actually add something to the existing soup of reviews by explaining why this show didn’t work for me. There were a lot of great things that rightfully generated hype. The artwork and animation is good, of course, and the music is wonderful as well, though the same tracks were a little overused. The first episode as a standalone is consistently high in quality overall and is really great. The problem is that the show goes downhill from there as the story comes in. The drop ... in animation after the first couple eps makes it so that it isn’t enough to carry the show where the story lacks.

A show can still be great for other things, like if the moment-to-moment humor is great, or the directing is particularly interesting, or maybe if there are just some really cool ideas. But I just felt that everything was mediocre here. This leaves the main story, which was I really thought was lacking. I must say here that unlike most people on MAL, I don’t get turned off of shows by tiny, little things, like single moments or small political/moral disagreements, and plot holes or inconsistencies by themselves won’t make me lose interest in the show. It is very hard for me to explain what is bad, though I will try where others haven’t. A lot of plot points just end up going nowhere. The background art for the world looks great (in the first couple eps) but there is nothing unusual or fantastical going on that would add magic to it, so it’s all just there. Cool new places are introduced, particularly later on, though they just seem like a drive-by and nothing really interesting happens in them. The worldbuilding and sense of place is unsatisfying somehow, and I struggle to explain it [Edit: I agree with some others' assessment that it's mainly to do with story and conflict resolution]. In the end, it fails to capture the magic that is what I love about anime so much, and in the second half I felt bored watching.

This is my first Yuasa show. I’m very slow at watching anime, but I am still excited to someday watch some of his other works that seem interesting.

For more context, I could only leave this review because I did manage to finish this show, and I still liked it enough to give it a 3, which I later raised to a 4. I watched weekly as it came out and I never watch with distractions, sped up, or skip OPs/EDs. It's definitely not a cookie-cutter show and I'm glad others had the chance to enjoy it, but for me it was a disappointment, especially from a story standpoint.

This was the surprise of the season for me. I gave the first Love Live a 5 - while I liked the idea of the franchise, the show itself was underwhelming. But Nijigasaki is a joy to watch. There are so many lovely details, so much good stuff going on, I quickly got invested in a seasonal show that I initially had low expectations for (possibly because the character designs frankly look a bit generic).

The animation was immediately the most impressive part. There is tons of character animation in the show, I haven’t seen a cute girls show with characters moving this much in a ... while. As someone who admittedly spends more time thinking about anime than actually watching it, the amount of animation, and detailed animation, really makes me happy while watching.

The music is great too, and the 3D models are much improved and look great. The placement/transitions to and from the dance sequences are really well done, as you enter and exit a sort of world of imagination, it feels very Love Live-y in a good way. I haven’t seen Sunshine (yet), but I may tentatively call this the best overall [edited to change this word] Love Live show.

The characters are much more natural and feel less like their respective cliches, though they still have that enjoyable ridiculousness that we expect from Love Live. One thing I noticed right away was that characters weren’t forced to have a spotlight or a line, and they didn’t always have to be all together for there to be group moments. That really helps in a show with such a large main cast. I appreciated that there isn’t too much drama or jokes, it’s mainly about simply enjoying time together in the School Idol Club. There isn’t much of a plot at all, which I really appreciate because it feels like anything could happen. We need more than 13 episodes!

The school setting deserves mention. It’s big, modern, and imaginative, and the rest of their city is too, and the background art is absolutely gorgeous and there is a lot of it. I love these slice of life shows with a slightly fantastical setting, and the overall mood of this show benefits greatly from it. It feels pleasant, like a place where I would want to live. I haven’t played the game or read anything about it, but this stood out in the anime.

For those who haven’t seen any Love Live, I especially recommend this as a starting point.
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Late-night follow-up: I guess Nijigasaki has made me fall in love with Muse again. While the new one still blows past the original in many ways, I still am nostalgic for the first generation. The characters, facial expressions, and jokes were so great that they are so fun to think about even years later, truly icons of their time. I also miss the team-building aspects of Love Live and the whole story of a group coming together, though Niji has that unusual structure and unpredictability in story that is one thing that I love in anime (where Muse was basic in comparison). They aren't connected really at all, so it's a great time to hop on (and no boob-grabbing or questionable CG this time!). That background art though. I know it's just based on real places, but the artists truly elevate it with beautiful color, and a sense of depth and scale, and put them together to create a city that is so unreal in a fascinating way.

The overall quality, effort, and thought put into Nijigasaki is still enough for me to put it higher, if the soul of the first Love Live might slightly beat it. I will have to go back and rate the original higher.