Love Live! School Idol Project Review
MLPFan Hi guys, I'm back! And wanna know what's the best part of this "comeback" of mine? It's with another anime review!So the anime I'm reviewing is Love Live! School Idol Project, commonly known just as Love Live! It has gotten into among my top 5 animes and Is the tied between Madoka Magica for my fastest entire series marathon. If I can describe it in two words It'd be: MIND BLOWING! Especially for a school idol anime (I never had such affection for the genre). Now let's go into a more detailed review, kay?
STORY= 9.5
Why did I gave the story a 9.5? Because like I said earlier, It was simply mind blowing. I mean, compare this to stuff like Aikatsu then It wouldn't even be a good comparison. Unlike most idol animes where It's about some agency/idol school that trains girls into idols, In here such thing is absent. Yes, you read it right. Absent. Which means they make their own songs, their own costumes, their own promotional videos, their own choreography, and etc. If being an idol under an agency is already hard, then wait until you become an idol by yourself. Ten times the difficulty.
I also greatly admire the reason why the main characters wanted to become idols in the first place, which is to save their beloved school that their family has been attending for generations. They loved their school so much to the point that they were pained when they heard that their school would close down due to the lack of potential students, and coincidentally school idols were very popular that schools with popular ones get more and more students. By this, they decided to become school idols to save their school.
Another thing I liked from this anime in story, that stands out from most idol animes is that we were truly shown that It's not easy at all. I mean in most idol animes, we get way too much happy scenes as If being an idol is a piece of cake when It's not. In here, we do get a ton of practice scenes, scenes where there are things that get in the way of the main characters to perform their best, and many valueable moments. I mean, [spoiler alert] who can forget the scene where Honoka told Maki that doing push ups while smiling is hard (seriously, it makes us realize that it must be hard for all those idols that being able to smile, sing and dance on stage is exhaustingly hard), or when Kotori almost moved abroad to study fashion design, or when the group decided to disband after the competition, or when Rin led the team to perform 'Love Wing Bell', or when the school helped the 2nd years get to the Love Live! Qualifiers through the snow storm to sing 'Snow Halation', and last but not least when the 2nd years made their first little live happen but no one except the other main characters and four of their classmates who helped them came? [spoiler end]. Those scenes gave me goosebumps tbh. This anime's story is truly amazing to me (*screams from a mountain* Idolmaster is overrated!).
CHARACTERS= 9
I love all the main characters so much that I didn't hated anyone. But of course I have my favorite and my "least favorite" (but the girl's still awesome). So here's my top 9! (From most favorite)
1. Nico
Some of you might be saying "Why does almost everyone in the LL fandom have Nico or Maki as their favorites?!" Well, here's from my perspective: Nico was a funny character (I actually thought she was), has her iconic "Nico Nico Nii!", is cute, and is actually a deep character. She has three little sisters who seem to look up to her a LOT. Her mother seemed busy, as can be seen that she's the one who took care of her sisters and Idk what happened to her father. She had a little idol group in the past when she was still in her 1st year of high school but her groupmates resigned because she had too much expectations for them (you see, Nico is a huge fan of idols) and she was left all alone. Not to mention she secretly cares about her friends and family more than anything else, going as far as lying that she's a super idol to her little sisters because she didn't wanted to hurt their feelings. She does have some ego, but I still love Nico
2. Kotori
KOTORI IS JUST THE CUTEST!!! I love her cute voice so much! I know I shouldn't place a character so high just because they're adorable, but Kotori isn't only cute appearance and voice wise but also has one of the cutest personalities in the anime. She's one who's caring and considers about her friend's feelings, I just love caring and kind people! So kindness + cuteness = GREAT! For me 😅
Not to mention her little song was cute!
3. Eli
I'll be honest here. I didn't liked Eli that much at first but then once I saw episode 8 of season 1, I've grown to like her a lot. She's very mature and I actually love her style.
4. Honoka
I actually thought Honoka was a pretty good main character. She's optimistic and energectic but she doesn't really bug me. Besides, she's the one who made Muse (the group's name) happen. Although you have to thank A-Rise (the rival group) for inspiring Honoka to create a school idol group.
5. Maki
Maki is the resident tsundere, with her usual "B-Betsuni Ikkedo!". I'm not the biggest tsundere fan out there but Maki's still a great character to me. Not to mention she's a great pianist who composes the songs for Muse.
6. Umi
Aw, poor Umi~Chan is in number 6. But calm down, I don't hate Umi or anything. As I mentioned before, I love all the muse members. Now Umi can be a bit strict and "cruel" (the episode where Honoka and Hanayo had to go on a diet) but then, she does all of that because she greatly cares about her friends. I also found the scene where she's hiding when they were watching a romance movie because she was afraid of kissing scenes funny tbh. And her shocked expression when Kotori took one of her cards.
7. Rin
I love Rin a lot! Her nyan is just adorable and she taught me that girls who don't go all frilly can still be cute when she led the group to perform 'Love Wing Bell'
8. Nozomi
Nozomi was a really great character too. Her fortune telling skills were interestingly cool and she's the one who gave Muse a name which means for the nine greek godesses. If only she doesn't like to grope the other girls
9. Hanayo
First of all, the reason Hanayo is so low here isn't because I hate her or anything (read the point with Umi again) It's just that all we see from her is just that she's Rin's childhood friend who likes to eat white rice. But then again, she's so cute!
I also love the other characters, especially A-Rise. In most music or whatever themed shows/movies/stories where they have the rival group, the rival group is usually filled in a bunch of a b*tches or douchebags who most likely would sabotage the main group's performances which is an extremely cliché thing to do. That's why I'm really glad A-Rise isn't like that, not to mention their songs are pretty cool too.
MUSIC= 9.8
Since this is a music anime, of course the music would be It's main power. And the music is amazing! I love all of their songs, especially Yume no Tobira! Their OPs and EDs are pretty fun to listen to, too. Especially the first OP (it gives so much feelings)
ANIMATION AND ART= 8.9
The art and animation is good, but It's a shame that they have to use too much CG in the dance sequences. But It's understandable because the group has a bunch of members and drawing all of them PLUS animating all of them can consume time, especially since drawing the anime style is actually hard af (It just looks easy, but In reality It' not. So that's why it kinda ticks me off when people bash on an actually decent anime drawing, and It' not because I'm a butthurt weeaboo. Because I've tried it myself and It's hard. It took me two years to be able to draw anime, and more years for many others. My arms usually hurt and they feel like breaking after I even finish the sketch)
FINAL THOUGHTS
I think you guys can assume my opinion after reading how often I said "Amazing", though. This anime is one of the better idol animes to me (I'm not really a yay sayer for idol animes before LL). I recommend this anime to all of you guys!
Final score= 9.3
That's all from me guys, seeya next time!