This far into Love Live!, I’ve come to expect the main idol group to always win the preliminaries. That said, Superstar!! manages to evoke some anxiety by having Kanon read the winners off one by one and website crash on Liella!, before Sunny Passion reveals via text that they’ve passed. Also, those extra groups’ names have me curious. Where’s my Neo Mutant Girls show, Love Live?
After the news breaks out, the girls get called by the school director. Ren assumes it’s because the school saw her browser history (and now she’s up there with Riko as the most likely character Love Live! will confirm as lesbian) but in actuality, the girls are called up because they’ve been invited to perform at Kanon and Chisato’s elementary school. Chisato is worried that Kanon’s stage fright will resurface there as Kanon developed it after she froze up during one of her elementary school’s recitals. Conversely, having Kanon move on from her past will allow her to perform optimally in Love Live so the gang decides to go through with the gig. Before the concert, the girls visit the school and Kanon is able to sing on the stage once her friends join her. Well, I guess that’s settled…right?
For the next preliminary round of Love Live, school idols must include a solo in their performance. Liella! unanimously elect her for the job but Chisato wonders if Kanon can perform solo and she and the others realize that Kanon only sung at the elementary school because they were with her. Come to think about it, Kanon has almost always performed in a group. The only exceptions are the very beginning of the series, where she was either alone or didn’t realize people were watching her. So while Kanon has been able to sing onstage, she technically hasn’t overcome her fear.
At the risk of betraying Kanon’s trust, Chisato conspires with the other girls to have her sing alone at the concert. It’s an incredibly risky move that could end with Kanon beating the crap out of her friends but I understand the necessity of it. If the others perform with Kanon, they’d be back to square one. What would have been a bad move however is the others not showing up at all, which they apparently planned on doing at first. That would be insanely rude of them to do. Imagine if the plan fails and no one is there to help Kanon. Poor girl would be so embarrassed. Fortunately, the others are a bunch of worrywarts so they still attend the concert in secret. It makes sense that Chisato is the one who’s most concerned for Kanon and the most adamant for Kanon tackling her fear. Chisato is Kanon’s best friend and earlier in the show, she was adamant about overcoming her insecurity on her own.
I like that Kanon figures out what her friends are up to but she accepts it anyway. She knows their hearts are in the right place and that she has to confront her stage fright on her own. Right before the concert, Kanon sees her younger self and comforts her. Obviously, this interaction is entirely Kanon’s imagination but I still find it a very heartwarming image that represents Kanon’s character development in this episode.
Kanon’s performance isn’t really a MV. In fact, it’s the least stylistic performance depicted in Superstar!! so far. There’s no fancy effects or anything. The only instrument accompanying the vocals is the piano. The show only cuts away from Kanon a few times to show her friends’ understandably stunned reactions. For the most part, it’s just Kanon on the stage, singing her heart out. This isn’t an idol pop concert so not bothering to add some pizazz makes sense. In a weird way, playing the performance completely straight makes it stand out more and it puts your attention squarely on Kanon and the fact that she’s singing without her stage fright getting in the way.
I appreciate the fact that Kanon is the only singer before. That sounds like a no-brainer but this show has set a precedent where Kanon sings alone in-universe but what actually plays is a song sung by the whole group. I’m glad that the show went the solo route this time around. You do have the other girls joining in but the show wisely cuts to the ED right when they all perform so that it doesn’t detract from Kanon’s big moment. Also, Sayuri Date did a great job singing this song as Kanon. Everyone in Liella! sounds good but Date especially has been a great find for the franchise.
Watch Love Live! Superstar!! on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
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