Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably taken note of the rising popularity and plethora of idol related anime in the last few years. Any time I dare venture out to any anime convention that just so happens to be taking place within my proximity, I’m bound to be met with an onslaught of idol related merchandise from body pillows, those strange mouse pads that also have a pair of breasts on them, figures, CDs and even several cosplayers too – it’s inescapable! However, it’s not necessarily hard to understand why such shows garner such popularity, as they seem to be almost designedto be as marketable as possible. They feature an ensemble of cute girls, of various body types, whether that be the small loli (remember to tell the FBI that she is just a drawing when they come knocking down your door!) all the way to the plump and voluptuous, all the while having distinct personality types to appeal to every demographic of anime fan imaginable. Combine that with the fact that the girls are often made to wear skimpy and risqué outfits with incredibly small miniskirts, and sing generic, catchy pop-songs with their cute mannerisms, makes for a cultural phenomenon! Out of all the various idol anime out there, easily the most prolific and popular is Love Live; a franchise so popular over in Japan that in 2016 it was the highest grossing media franchise of that year, passing One Piece! (Damn, that’s a lot of scantily clad body pillows sold!) Over the last few days, me and a couple of other reviewer friendos decided to watch the entire series (for the most part anyway) all together, and while it was a very enjoyable experience to do so, even if we spent most of the time making fun of the show, I seem to have been left with rather severe PTSD, so much so, that every time I go to close my eyes to sleep at night, visions of each of the girls as they smile and dance appear in front of me. At first, it’s tranquil; calm, but as time moves along the girls become fierce and terrifying, laughing manically as I am trapped in this existential horrific nightmare in which even my own screams of pain and anguish cannot awaken me from the horrors that lay before me. I desperately want to run, to run from the visions, but I’m stuck; frozen in place as the idols slowly consume me and every fibre of my being…
Anywho, with that all said and done, and instead of contacting my closest therapist immediately, let’s form our own idol group, dress up in some revealing clothes whilst dancing and singing on stage, and dive into the world of Love Live!
Otonokizaku High School is on the verge of closing, due a lack of students wanting to partake in studies there, and is set to shut down after the current first year students graduate. As such, our main protagonist, Honoka, in an attempt to prevent the school closing down at all costs, decides to create an idol group, as a way to attract new students into attending said school, thus preventing it from its inevitable closure. The rest of the series sees Honoka recruit new members, as they all practice harder and harder to become great idols, intermixed with a touch of drama here and there. At the very least, Love Live’s set-up allows for some semblance of narrative stakes as the failure of the newly formed idol group, by the name of Muse, will bring an end to the school (even though we know as an audience from the get-go that the characters will succeed since there is nothing presented in the narrative that would suggest otherwise) and it also provides some kind of motivation and drive for the characters in the story. My main criticism of Love Live’s narrative is just how incredibly predictable and safe the entire journey is. It’s the most standard narrative structure one could possibly expect to see, and has been done so many times in so many other shows, that I can guarantee you that you would be able to identify each story beat and event that transpires in the show just by simply reading the plot synopsis presented on MAL. It genuinely feels like that whoever was writing the show, was simply ticking boxes off of things to include within the show. A hyper and energetic girl with good intentions who ropes everyone in and inspires them to try their hardest? TICK. An obligatory beach episode which is used for the purpose of training and seeing each of the girls in skimpy bathing suits? TICK. Drama that is introduced late into the narrative and is used more so to try and make the show seem more emotional than it is, whilst trying to manipulate the audience into feeling something for the characters, which will be ultimately resolved by the final episode leaving in a happy conclusion? TICK. As such, the narrative of Love Live feels tiering; a chore to sit through, as in my head I could easily map out the series and each one of the events that would transpire. It feels less like a journey you embark on with these girls as they try to save their school, and more so like a lecture in which you already know all the content the lecturer is going to go over, and you’re just listing them off in your head, waiting for them to get to the next point.
As I mentioned before, the show does have its share of drama, which I imagine was implemented into the narrative as a way to spice things up; to try and make things interesting, but it just comes across more so forced and trite than anything else, and the juxtaposition between the light-hearted hijinks an episode before, and scenes where everyone is yelling and fighting comes across as so damn jarring! Again, just like the complaints I talked about above about the narrative’s predictability, the drama in the show is foreshadowed in such a way that ignores the very notion of subtlety. After both Umi, Honoka’s friend, and Honoka’s little sister warn her not to overwork herself as she may fall ill, she then decides to go running in the pouring rain like an idiot, develops a fever, and ends up ruining everybody’s hard work as a result. The show expects me to feel sorry for Honoka, since the very reason as to why she developed this fever was because she was working so hard to prevent the school from closing down, but I simply can’t, as the character itself isn’t strong enough to illicit such emotions in me, especially since it’s so typical of these types of shows to go down this route that it leaves no impact on me! There’s even a scene in the show where the drama reaches a point in which Honoka gets bitch-slapped into the Shadow Realm after proclaiming her leaving of the group, whereupon I promptly laughed my ass off for a good ten minutes because I’m an immature dumbass. But, this disconnect from what the show expects me to feel, that is, emotional and probably shock from seeing one of the girls resort to physical violence towards her friend, against what I felt, that is, laughter at a moment where it obviously wasn’t warranted is the reason why I feel nothing for any of the drama they try and throw in the show, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that the characters are simply not strong enough to carry it. There’s just nothing really to sink your teeth into in this show in regards to the story, and, despite what some people may tell you, such as the entire show being inside one of the character’s heads (which would actually be kind of interesting as an idea now that I think about it) there’s nothing really of any substantial merit here (then again, the person who told me that has Eli as his favourite girl, so therefore his claim lacks any weight automatically).
Now, I’ve complained a fair bit about the narrative and why it feels so tiresome and dull, but this mode of storytelling is not necessarily a game breaker for me. I can forgive an anime in regards to its lack of overall narrative, as long as the characters, and the interactions between them are good; it’s the main reason why I liked Azumanga Diaoh after all. In that show, the narrative is simply about a bunch of high school girls whom progress through three years of high school, with them eventually graduating at the end, but the characters are all very likeable, to the point in which we grow attached to them as actual people, and the comedy in the show is strong enough to carry the entire experience. For me, the most important thing in most cases are the characters, since they hold the key to whether or not I care about anything the show prevents me with, and I think if the characters in Love Live were stronger, I could be more forgiving of the narrative and the whole show at large.
Much like in regards to the story, it felt like the writer constructed the characters in the most safe and predictable way possible, with two exceptions however. I’ve already somewhat alluded to Honoka’s character earlier in the review; she is the girl whom has the most energy, and acts as the driving force for pushing the story forward with her optimistic outlook to any situation and is the one that gathers everyone together, acting as the inspiration for the group through her hardworking attitude. She is not necessarily a bad character, just one that is not that interesting as a whole. As previously mentioned, she does run into some drama near the end of the series, but the small amount of development she embarks on, and character arc in general is still nothing remarkable as a whole. Umi, along with Kotori are best friends with Honoka and we see little snips of their past as children, which gives their characters a little more depth, although, and, again, is nothing to remarkable. They more so play the voice of rationality to Honoka in the series, with Umi being the shy and reserved type, but ultimately firm when the time calls, and Kotori…just being an airhead I guess. Whilst in the latter part of the series, she has to make a decision regarding her future, that being whether to move to America to study costume design, or to stay being a worthless school idol, which then cultivates in some more of that lovely, forced D R A M A that I adore, it feels inconsequential in the long run, since it’s pretty obvious that she will decide to stay with her friends since shows like this have practically programmed me to think as such.
Hanoyo and Rin add very little to the overall show and to be perfectly honest, I kind of forgot they were even there half the time. Rin joins the idol group just because Hanoyo does, and while Hanoyo’s reasoning for joining, that being because she wants to grow in confidence is a fine motivation to have, it’s barely developed or explored. Maki serves somewhat more to the overall story, as she can actually play the piano and sing rather well, which is then used for writing music for the group, and her Tsundere-esque personality can actually be kind of cute sometimes. Eli has somewhat more of a backstory than the rest of the girls, being that she was actually a ballet dancer in the past, which is then used to help the rest of the group and Noizoimi is one of the better characters, being as she has the most voluptuous body, and sexually harasses the other girls by grabbing their tits (if that’s not a well crafted character, then I don’t know what is). Nozomi takes on more of a mother role in the series, often dishing out random nuggets of wisdom to the girls whenever they’re in need of some, and that’s it as a whole. The characters in Love Live, for the most part, are extremely weak and cookie-cutter, so much so, that I’m struggling to even find anything to say about them. The only fun character in the entire show is Nico, and, yes, I understand at this point she is one giant meme, but she is the only character who has some semblance of a personality. She is an aspiring wannabe ideal, constantly switching between her idol persona, that being the adorably sweet Nico, with the catchphrase “NICO NICO NII!!” which me and everyone repeated so much during our watch that my PTSD is triggered every time I hear it. She’s like an antagonist in a way; the various things she does to try and prove that she is better than everyone else at various idol related things always blows up in her face, leading to some of the more entertaining aspects of the show (I also like to imagine to myself that Nico is a trap; a thought that brings me nothing but happiness).
The characters and their interactions are just fine as a whole. There are times when the chemistry between them does work, most strongest being during the beach episode I made fun of earlier since the girls are just messing around with each other (and Nico gets hit right in the goddam face with a beach ball so that’s always a plus), leading into some genuinely charming and funny scenes, particularly thanks to Nico as I just mentioned before, but the show really needed a stronger cast of characters to really pull itself together. That’s not to say that the entire show is without merit however. There were some scenes that I felt were kinda alright, such as in episode three, when, after the girls put all their efforts into practising for their first idol performance, and when the curtains go up to perform, they are greeted with only a few people rather than the full room like they were expecting, but despite that, they perform on anyway. Some of the facial expressions can also be pretty funny and charming too, such as when we’re first introduced to Maki after she finishes playing her song, she looks over at the door to see Honoka clapping profusely, all the while being cross-eyed; it’s a shot that never fails to make me laugh just because of how stupid it looks. As a whole, Love Live is just really bland and nothing of that much interest really happens as a whole.
In terms of animation, it’s overall pretty solid, with each girl appearing to be pretty damn cute with rather thicc thighs. I only mention the latter part due to the fact that the show has a tendency to have low camera angles, perfectly emphasising their thighs and butts (hey, I’m not a pervert for noticing this stuff, it’s the SHOWS fault for storyboarding it as such!) It does utilise CGI however during the performances scenes, which, to be perfectly fair, actually looks pretty good for CGI standards, but my main criticism is that they cut constantly between the CGI models and close-ups of with the traditional animation, and as a result, it ends up coming across as jarring; breaking the flow of both the dancing and my immersion. The music, as expected of a show all about music does the job, although I wouldn’t call it anything great as a whole. It’s generic, catchy pop that will forget about by the time the next generic, catchy pop songs comes on. Probably the only track that I really liked was Start; dash, mainly because some twat kept singing it during the Discord chat – what a strange guy that was…
In conclusion Love Live is just an incredibly bland show, and, despite a few moments here and there, is mostly devoid of anything of any substantial merit. I admit that I did enjoy myself whilst watching the show, but much of that enjoyment was indicative of watching it with everyone else. I’m sure if I watched this by myself, as I did with the last three episodes, I would be bored to tears! And this is coming from someone who typically enjoys cute girls doing cute things types of shows, but Love Live’s characters are just simply not strong enough, nor are their character interactions fun enough to hold the entire show together and becomes more so a chore to watch than anything else. I think now would be a good time to clarify that I do not begrudge anyone for enjoying this show, as the tone of this review may suggest otherwise, and, if anything, I’m envious. Envious of the fact that you could find so much enjoyment in something I found to be bland at best; envious that you can genuinely get excited whenever the girls begin any of their performances. As it stands, Love Live’s popularity confuses me, and I understand that I am critiquing an entire franchise with this statement consisting of a second season (which I’ve been told is much better than this) a movie, as well a spin-off series that also has its own sequel, but as an opening to the entire franchise, it’s incredibly weak, and doesn’t inspire much desire to go off and watch the rest of the series. At best Love Live is incredibly mediocre; at worst it gave me aids.
