Love Live! fans who have been waiting for a new anime to watch will have much to look forward to in the near future. The next generation of school idols will be receiving their anime series with Love Live! Superstar!! airing in July later this year. In addition, the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club anime will have a second season as well, next year in 2022.
Formerly known as the Hello!!! Love Live! project, Love Live! Superstar!! focuses on the group of five first-year school idols known as Liella! hailing from Yuigaoka Girls’ High School. Mixing up the usual Love Live! formula, Yuigaoka is a recently re-established school, making all of its students first years and all of Liella!’s members the same year. The group is also made up of only five members, down from the usual nine in previous generations. The name “Liella” comes from the French word “lier” which means “to connect” as well as the Spanish word “brilliante” meaning “inner glow” — hinting towards the franchise’s themes of a small group of newbie idols discovering their own talents.
No official story synopsis has been announced yet but this season will most likely not feature the same school closure plot that both the original series and Sunshine!! had. The combination of a new story format along with the smaller cast will be a boon for the anime. More screentime could be given to each member — an issue in prior series where certain characters would receive much more focus than others. This plot should be a much needed refresher that doesn’t retread the same territory prior seasons did.
As per tradition with the franchise, the anime announcement was shown during Liella!’s first live performance on May 6th, commemorating their debut single release “Hajimari wa Kimi no Sora.” As a multimedia franchise, Love Live!’s voice actresses play a key role in portraying not just the characters in the games and anime, but also in real life in the form of live streams and shows.
Production of the series was quite expedient as the auditions and casting for Superstar!! all happened early last year and since then the cast has participated in a myriad of variety shows and promotional content. Within just a little over a year’s time, Love Live! Superstar!! has gone from a simple announcement to becoming a fixture in the Love Live! franchise, with both their upcoming anime and their songs soon to be added to the official mobile game, School Idol Festival ALL STARS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3-UAdLBPIk
Speaking of School Idol Festival ALL STARS, fans of the game’s representative idol group, Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, can also look forward to a second season of the Nijigaku anime. At the end of Nijigaku’s 3rd live performance on May 9th, a single image featuring protagonist Yu Takasaki was shown, revealing the news for a second anime season now in development. It’s scheduled for a Winter 2022 release date.
The first season of the anime started airing in October 2020 and featured a rather relaxed plot, with most episodes being simple character intros. As the Nijigaku idols are tied to the ALL STARS mobile game, some fans were disappointed that the anime was a rather generic portrayal of the characters and that the anime’s depiction of their dynamics was lacklustre. Meanwhile, the plot of ALL STARS recently added multiple new characters such as new student council president Shioriko Mifune, American exchange student Mia Taylor, and the franchise’s first “villain” — rival idol Langzhu Zhong. The addition of these characters have been quite divisive as they are seen as the reason the story of ALL STARS become overly dramatic, far above what is usually seen from Love Live!, which some fans feel is forced and uncharacteristic of the show. However, this provides the anime with a chance to portray these new characters and introduce them to fans that are not in tune with the lore of the mobile game. The Love Live! anime series, from an outsider perspective, have sometimes been criticized for being too saccharine, which makes the overall franchise idea of “overcoming adversity for your dreams” fall flat. Injecting some tension into the series would certainly be quite unexpected and be a stark contrast to the relatively tame first season.
