Back to Stalking's Profile Stalking's Profile

TL;DR: Coming from a Nijigasaki enjoyer, this is bland. Watch with low expectations of a story, it's just an extra episode with an insert song.

Nijigasaki is my favorite of all Love Live! franchises because of the music, character designs and the first season deviating from the "oh no, we have to save the school by singing, again" storyline.

With that said, and following the current trend of content that the Love Live! franchise is spitting out, there is little positive to say about this OVA. It is just a small bite of nothing.


STORY: 2/10
I couldn't care less about Isla. The story was outright... ... nothing. There was no story, it was just "this cartoonish foreign character is here, and now she is gone". After Emma, Lanzhu and Mia being quite good representation of what an actual foreigner is in Japan, this one girl dropping into the OVA and stealing the spotlight only to speak perfect japanese with a funny accent was insulting. They do nothing and then it's over. There were a couple of scenes showing how the girls react to being recognized, that was a highlight. Shioriko showed more of her character which was also refreshing to see, but it was too short for much to happen/for any characters to actually evolved.

ART: 8/10
Nothing out of the ordinary. The animation was up to par, but it wasn't particularly good either. It was nice on the eyes.

SOUND/MUSIC: 6/10
The songs were... ok (the best one being the one on the ending for some reason). This was so disappointing to me. Only one song was animated and show, but it sounded a lot more like Liella than Niji. The futuristic and simple vibe of the song just didn't match them. It lacked charm.

ENJOYMENT: 4/10
This is probably my own fault for being excited about anything Niji. After the lackluster second season (which I still enjoyed because of the subunit songs) followed by an overflow of cheap stories with high budget (Yohane in the Mirror and Liella, looking at you), I wasn't expecting any more Niji content so I was pleasantly surprised when I heard of the OVA, and expected to see our girls venture in a fun and short adventure with a little drama. It just didn't live up to the expectations set for Nijigasaki, but if I look at it thinking of all the recent Love Live! content, it fits. Love Live! has overstayed its' welcome at this point, and they only get away with it because of the fans that consume anything and everything as long as it has "Love Live!" written in it. It's pretty pathetic, the state of the fandom. There is no room for any sort of criticism, everything is "amazing" and "perfect" because Love live... If the consumer had a more discnering taste maybe we would get better stories. Think about that before you rate everything 10/10 and sink every bit of constructive criticism. You are doing this to yourselves.

Not worth your while... It's disappointment after disappointment, with a sprinkle of missed opportunities, loopholes and lack of common sense. It is an insult to the Hirashi series. This and Gou shouldn't exist. I find zero redeeming qualities on these two new seasons.

The animation is lazy, but I would maybe forgive that if it weren't for how bad the story is...
The motivations of the characters, the reasons behind their actions are a complete lack of common sense. It is infuriating and boring to watch.
While the original seasons of Higurashi "repeated" a lot of the same stories, they all came with new information, riveting ... misteries and excitment. The repeated stories in Gou offer nothing, since at the beginning of the season you are told exactly why the tragedies happen: Satoko injects people. So what's the point? You learn nothing.
To add insult to injury, they add Satoshi waking up on his own (????) right at the end, and do nothing with it! Nothing!
What is the purpose of this, who greenlit this, what were they thinking! That is a far more interesting mistery than whatever this anime tried to give us.

Avoid.

I hope that watching the season through to the end will change my opinion. I watch it every week, wishing and hoping it will get better, but it doesn't.

The only thing Superstar!! has over other LL! franchises is the animation quality/budget. Half of the cast's designs are inferior to all Love Live! predecessor's, the outfits are bland, the music is generic and the story is recicled -again-.

Being honest, no Love Live! is "revolutionary". They are all kinda silly and cringey, but enjoyable, with adorable characters, nice music and cute/well designed outfits most of the time. Liella! so far has been a huge ... disappointment for me. Some episodes barely make me breathe out of my nose, the rest of the time I am just staring blankly at the screen or straight out cringing. I'm not buying it.
And this is also the first time I absolutely DO NOT CARE for the rivals, and also don't think that their music is even good?? A-Rise, Saint-Snow and Lanzhu all had an edge, a reason why you would believe they could be perceived as "better" inside the LL! universe, it fit the storyline. But in Superstar!! I was appalled... That random Puricure looking girl's stage was a bunch of ballet moves with a taste of nothing. It's not believable that she won unless everyone else performed horribly. It's just... I don't see it, I don't see the charm. There are some salvageable moments, but most of the time I am just angry at the wasted potential.
I usually buy merchandise and go to concerts for Love Live! but I don't want to give Liella! a single cent. As if the only possible conflict/point of the series can be SAVING THE SCHOOL! and WINNING LOVE LIVE!!... Again.
If I wanted a copy of LL!SiP I would've rewatched Sunshine!!.

SCORE
Animation 10/10 Highly above average. Their only saving grace, wasted.
Sound 5/10 Only 2-3 good songs so far. The rest are just bland idol songs.
Characters 4/10
VISUALLY: Half the cast looks ok, a couple look very nice, and a couple of them are plain ugly. I've never thought this of other LL! franchises. Most of the outfits are also uninspiring or look bad, like the previous OP with the italian pizzeria tablecloth vibe.
PERSONALITY/INTERACTIONS: They feel like they are acting/reading from a script half of the time. It's not natural, it's not believable, they don't feel like people.
Story, pacing 3/10: Big nothing salad.

I hope to edit this and bring it to a higher score once the anime is over... I can only hope it doesn't sink further.
If you haven't watched Love Live!, I would recommend watching SiP first, following with Niji as a buffer, and then Sunshine. I wouldn't recommend Superstar!! so far.

I am forcing myself to watch this only because I want to see all four girls on screen, but it just keeps getting worse each week.

Insufferable MC.
All jokes are about masturbation.
None of the characters are relatable.

I am mistified as to why they wasted so much time and effor on making consistent animation for this hot piece of garbage.

*SPOILERS (kind of )*
*SPOILERS (kind of )*
... *SPOILERS (kind of )*
*SPOILERS (kind of )*
*SPOILERS (kind of )*

I was told by a friend who reads the manga that the MC continues to be the same useless, self-pitying sack of rotting flesh for the whole series.... And that nothing ever really happens. The girls continue to hover around him, he continues to wallow in his self-made misfortune.

Still, I already cringed through 9 episodes... Might as well cringe through all 12.
Would recommend this to anyone who'd like to go bald out of frustration.