Love Live! S2 – 02

Hmm, I think they forgot someone

Love Live! isn’t really ever going to be a deep idol show, is it? But if it’s this or Wake Up Girls! weird pseudo-messagey pointlessness, I think I’ll take Love Live!’s silliness. So what did the gang get up to this week?

Training Time

It can be a little… lonely

Since they finally got Honoka to agree to enter µ’s in the Love Live! competition, we now find out about the ridiculous rules they’re going to keep piling on. Last time it was that it would be a huge comptition with multiple rounds and regional winners. This time we find out that they’re going to force everyone to perform an unreleased song. Apparently crafted as a way to keep a glut of fly-by-night school idol ‘groups’ that are just forming to perform dance routines to pop covers, it’s a way to separate the ‘real’ idol groups from the pretenders. So it’s not the worst rule. It would be funny if they kept coming up with stupider and stupider rules tho, like “all members have to wear feathers” or “at least one member has to stay completely still throughout the performance.” Then we could have Kayo-chin say “Taihen! Taihen!” every episode… ok, let’s not do that.

Honoka certainly inspires something

Unfortunately the ‘no released songs’ rule means that everything µ’s has done and released as a PV is off limits, so they have to come up with a new performance, and they have less than a month to do it in. Of course, thinking back to season one, isn’t that a ton more time than they had for their first show, and for all the other ones? But it’s putting the pressure on to get it done, and that means it’s time for a retreat. 🙂

Eventually things get done

To The Mountains!

Slave Driver Umi is taught a lesson by Nozomi

They imposed on Maki’s beach house last time, so this time it’s Maki’s mountain retreat. I think next time they’ll go to Maki’s ski resort / onsen. But while they all go together as a group, when they get there Maki, Umi, and Kotori are exiled from the rest of the group to work on new content: music, lyrics, and costumes. And they end up going bats from the quiet and solitude, causing the others to realize they need to ‘help’. Although you can imagine how much help the rest of the crew is.

Just grab the potato, Maki. It can’t be more than 140 degrees

I did like some of the gags, and the returning stuff like Kotori’s pillow (the same one that she always has, and forgot in Wonderful Rush) and Rin and Nico aware of how stupidly high that hill they were running down was. Also, completely ignoring Nico’s attempts to make everyone sing about her is always the right move. And in the end, Maki, Umi, and Kotori are inspired by the camaraderie of their friends to get a song and costumes done. Surprisingly, Nico is the one who tells Maki that they need to stop thinking “Do it for the 3^rd years” because “songs are always for everyone.” I like the sentiment, even if it’s a stretch for Nico to say something like that (it’s more of an Eli or Nozomi-ism in my view).

Bonus Costumes (and Legs!)

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A fun time this week, lots of the antics we know and love (“Wait, where’s Honoka?”), but not so much as to get tired of it. On our way, I think they’re going to start the competition next week, since the episode title is the same as the song that Umi wrote, and they showed a lot of A-Rise on the previews. Plus if there’s multiple rounds, we’ll need some time to get through them, because they’ve gotta get to the finals, right? Go-Go Kinda Sports Anime!

About Highway

Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!