During preparations for the school idol festival, Emma introduces the club to fellow school idols at Y.G. International Academy, whom she met online. The Y.G. idols are interested in participating in the festival but they’d like to first collaborate with the Nijigasaki idols in a joint concert. The Nijigasaki club invites Lanzhu though she declines, once again affirming her desire to perform on her own.
The gang later learns that Lanzhu has been holding surprise concerts throughout the city though the time and place is usually unclear. Emma (Maria Sashide), Kasumi, Rina, and Kanata (Akari Kito) sees Lanzhu by chance and tail her so that they can see one of her surprise concerts. The episode skips through the concert though if it’s anything like last episode’s MV, it’s safe to say that the crowd’s enthusiasm is warranted. After the concert, Lanzhu meets with her four stalkers and she invites them to hang out at her apartment, where she again insists on treading her path without the club’s help and she challenges the others to prove her wrong.
Lanzhu’s stance puts the club on its head. The whole reason the club decided to operate as solo idols is to allow everyone to do their own thing. Technically, what Lanzhu is doing is perfectly fine but she’s taking it to the extreme by refusing to involve herself with the club. Oddly enough, Lanzhu is actually a fan of the Nijigasaki school idols. She attributes them as her inspiration to be a school idol and she likes to collect merchandise themed after them. It’s surprising but it does inform Lanzhu’s decision to go completely solo. She’s a fan of the idol club but she’s taken the wrong idea from how they operate, concluding that she should act alone in order to be successful and refuse any help to surpass the club she admires.
Out of the four stalkers, Emma seems the most invested in changing Lanzhu’s mind. It makes sense given their shared background. They’re both exchange students who traveled to Japan for the sole purpose of pursuing the non-profitable yet lucrative school idol career. Kasumi’s involvement is also appropriate as well as hilarious. If anyone in the returning cast talks big like Lanzhu does, it’s definitely Kasumi (though I think Lanzhu walks the walk more). Conversely, the inclusion of Rina and Kanata stumps me a little bit. I’m not sure how they tie into Lanzhu’s arc thematically and obviously, they’re not close to her at the moment. That said, their involvement does add in a different sense.
To prove Lanzhu wrong and convince her to join the club, the four decide to perform together at the joint concert with Y.G. as a subunit. They reckon that giving a strong group performance will convince Lanzhu that solo idols are better when they’re supporting each other. Kasumi, Rina, Emma, and Kanata are actually part of a subunit outside of the anime so that’s why they get grouped together in this episode. Chances are, this is not the only subunit that’ll be canonized as there’s a curious shot where the rest of the cast happens to be grouped by their respective subunits. I’m surprised to see a Love Live! anime actually make a subunit canon. Up until now, that’s never been the case apart from a cheeky easter egg. Maybe someone finally realized that the show might as well incorporate the subunits. Plus, it’s a potentially good excuse to mix up the chemistry between the characters.
I’m guessing that going forward, the returnees will be performing in their respective subunits while the new girls perform solo at least once or twice. That sounds like a smart approach to me. It’s just way too impractical to cram in a song from every character as well as at least one song by the whole group. By incorporating the subunits, the show should have an easier time involving everyone in the music. It’s also worth noting that this episode actually doesn’t have an insert song. That makes me wonder if the music will be spaced out more this season. I hope that’s the case as it was exhausting hearing so many songs back to back.
Aside from Lanzhu, we learn a little bit about Mia. The girl studies under Nijigasaki’s music program and she attends the same class as Yu. Apparently, she’s from a prestigious family of composers and a music prodigy in her own right. Despite being a third-year high school student, Mia is actually 14 years old, making her the youngest main character in Love Live history. The most relevant tidbit right now is that Mia considers her relationship with Lanzhu to a strictly formal one. She makes music for Lanzhu to perform and that’s it. I think what’ll happen with Mia is that she’ll watch the joint concert and think differently about her relationship with Lanzhu after seeing the subunit perform.
Watch Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club on Crunchyroll and Funimation
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