ラブライブ！スーパースター!!
Synopsis
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.
Watch Love Live! Superstar!! 2nd Season Online
Review
Love Live as a franchise shows no sign of slowing down, and the 2nd season of Superstar happily continues that momentum. The thing with sequels, is that they’re generally not as good as the original, any piece of creativity that surpasses the original is about as rare as hen’s teeth. As someone who loves Love Live to the stage and back and considers Superstar to be the best out of the four current outputs, I had feelings of excitement, curiosity and disappointment.
Thankfully, the last feeling evaporated after watching this and even before the last episode aired, I realized any fear I had was simply misplaced.
The 2nd season of Superstar continues the story of Liella! with the hopes of winning Love Live after their defeat from the previous season whilst hoping to recruit new members to the group. All the charm, positive energy, and endearing character development are all present but also refined as the girls now all feel like veteran idols whilst having a reputation to uphold. This definitely helps when it comes to introducing the new members.
Which actually was the source of my aforementioned disappointment. When it was announced that season two would be adding new characters to the group, I was surprised. Watching (and then re-watching) the first season, I didn’t notice anything that indicated something like that would happen. I was disappointed because Love Live has had nine-girl idol groups before and Superstar instead focused on a smaller cast of five which was one of the biggest draws for me. Still, I did say I would keep an open mind and in hindsight, I’m glad I did. Previous series definitely struggled when it came to introducing nine idols all in one season since there would be a few characters who were significantly less developed or captivating compared to the others.
The way Superstar solves this is by fleshing out the girls in season one and now, with the school idol club in full effect and a tangible goal in everyone’s mind, season two serves as the perfect opportunity to introduce new girls and their aspirations for idol hood, letting their characters bring new life to shake things up a bit. The four new members to make their debut in the spotlight are: Kinako, Mei, Shiki and Natsumi.
I am unapologetically partial toward Shiki. She’s without a shadow of a doubt the most relatable character any Love Live has ever created to me. She’s a science geek, part-time mad scientist, loves reading and animals, is kind and gentle and to top it all off, she’s now an idol. Even though all of those are great, it’s her long-time friendship with Mei that truly establishes her. They have a friendship that could be a spin-off on its own and the anime does a unique job of making their friendship dynamic thanks to Shiki’s constant support of Mei into becoming an idol, flashbacks to when they were in middle school and Mei’s tenderness toward Shiki. It all ties in well when the two eventually join Liella!
Speaking of Mei, she’s even more obsessed with school idols than Keke. She even applied to Yuigaoka with the hopes of joining her faves! She has something of a stubborn, tough girl exterior, but mention anything school idol related around her and she’ll get cutesy and starry-eyed. She also has a talent for playing the piano. Her character is at its best whenever she’s around Shiki, but she also has amusing moments with others, especially Kinako. It’s not a coincidence her hair is red and Shiki’s is blue. They fit the red oni, blue oni trope to a T. They are essentially the same while being different. They both are bad at expressing themselves, they’re shy, they have similar insecurities and are trying to encourage the other to keep going forward even though they never take their own advice.
Kinako is, all the way to her design, the most “normal” of the bunch and is the first one to join. That’s not to say she’s boring, she’s an excellent addition to the cast as she initially provides an outside and hilarious perspective of Liella!. It can be easy to forget that every member has their own quirks and the ability to create chaos and funny shenanigans. She also provides a bunch of heartwarming moments in the anime. Her senpai/kouhai relationship with Kanon is a wonderful example of this. It used to be Kanon who thought she wasn’t good enough to be an idol, but now she’s in a place where she can provide support and encouragement for Kinako. Kinako isn’t the first character to think there’s nothing special about her to be an idol, and that insecurity is amplified when the 2nd years try to ease up on their training schedule since she’s so far behind and second guesses whether she’s really cut out for it. While the older girls’ have good intentions when it comes to handling Kinako, she takes it as a sign of pity which just adds to her insecurity. It makes it all the better when she does stand up for herself. She knows she’s behind, she knows she has to work harder, but she’s going to become a school idol with them no matter what so they don’t have to worry about her so much!
Natsumi tends to stay in the background for a bit working various side gigs, but does get her proper introduction later. She initially comes off more of a clout chaser than anything else. She likes money, a lot, like she’s Mr. Krabs. She also didn’t have any interest in idols whatsoever so it can be easy to dismiss her as selfish. I would argue she does end up being likable once her deeper motivations are revealed, it’s just that I wish Sumire played a key factor in that. She and Sumire had and have similar motivations for joining Liella!, similar experiences with failure, even down to similar hair colour! You’d have to be as blind as Joey’s sister from Yu-Gi-Oh! to not notice the similarities. I’m not just saying that because Sumire is my favourite from the OG 5 and I want her to have more screen time (though, that’d be nice), there was a lot of potential on writing how they’re alike and in doing so, Sumire can become something of a mentor/big sister to a first year and pass on her experience and lessons to someone who needs them. Hey, I only gripe about this stuff because I’m a big fan of Love Live and these characters are so realized, but I believe there are better ways to make that even more so.
Regarding realized characters, just because new characters are brought in, doesn’t mean the older girls don’t get any more development. Kanon becomes something of a mentor figure, Chiasto becomes more of a leader, Ren ends up picking up a new hobby, and Keke and Sumire’s relationship deepens. It shows how far they’ve all come while also having them take on new roles.
My biggest complaint though has got to be the character, Margarete. I don’t hate or even dislike her, but I did have mixed feelings about her in the beginning, and in the end, my feelings haven’t changed. But I at least sympathize with her. She’s supposed to be this mysterious, skilled rival to Liella!, and especially to Kanon. She comes off as someone who’s stuck-up, mean and aloof, but you begrudgingly admit they’re talented. As expected from Love Live, there’s always something else to it. It’s just that I don’t find it all that compelling when it comes to how her problem can be solved. No spoilers though!
Art and animation remain as impressive as ever. All the characters look as visually charming as before, the world/background still has a very warm feel to it, the performances are a treat to look at, and you can play a game of pausing the anime to see the distinct, unique and funny facial expressions the characters make (Natsumi and Mei do this a lot). Love Live in general never fails to impress in this department.
The 2nd season’s music is wonderful, another facet Love Live excels at. I really enjoyed this OP because it conveys the theme of winning, something Liella! hasn’t had the experience of yet. It gives a very happy, uplifting vibe to this season. The music throughout is all about keeping with that style, giving it a determined feeling. The voice actors continue to do a stellar job with their respective characters and kudos must be given to the voice actors of the new members as they convincingly bring their character’s personality to life.
Superstar continues to be a truly enjoyable series overall. Personally, I would see it equal in every aspect with the 1st season. While maintaining everything that made it great, the 2nd season leaves on a high note for the upcoming 3rd season.
