It has not occurred to me that the idol club is not an “official” one recognized by Nijigasaki. Considering that they’ve run multiple events, some with approval from the school, and have more than enough members in their ranks, I kind of just figured they’ve always been an official club. Regardless, they are not officially endorsed by the school and Kasumi reveals at the beginning of this episode there are rumors of the school changing that. Setsuna doubts it’s happening since clubs have to request for a review themselves though Shioriko thinks if the idol club did make a request, they’d easily get officiated (again, just look at their resumes). There’s a couple of incentives to being an official club, the big one being the school’s permission to participate in official competitions such as Love Live, so the club contemplates on whether or not they should become an official club.
This plot basically addresses once and for all if the main cast will ever participate in Love Live. I’ve felt 50/50 on the prospect. On one hand, the show established early on that the girls would mostly be doing their own thing as solo idols. On the other, Season 2 muddled that element by having most of the cast form subunits and become really comfortable with performing as a group, making Love Live a potential possibility. It does feel late to bring up Love Live now, this show is 20+ episodes in now, but it honestly could go in either direction.
In the end, the girls decide against filing a request. Some of the characters would like to give Love Live a whirl, most notably Lanzhu, but the club is overall happy with what they’ve been doing and they don’t see much of a reason to change that. It’s a little funny to me that the Nijigasaki idols won’t involve themselves with the namesake of the franchise but I’ve enjoyed the show just fine without it so I’m cool with their decision. I highly doubt Nijisaki is ever going to close down so really, the girls don’t need to bother themselves with Love Live. That said, maybe they should still go ahead and become an official club. Some of the other perks they mentioned is getting a bigger club room and guaranteed access to training facilities in the school. Those sound very useful to me. Are they really going to pass on them?
Midway through the episode, we see Karin running into most of her underclassmen and asking what they’re up to. Later, she confides to Emma and Kanata that she’s depressed over her inevitable graduation and departure from the club. To be frank, this plot is bit undermined by the notion that Karin doesn’t have any pronounced chemistry with any of the underclassmen, beyond the general group dynamic. Like, her closest relationship is arguably with Ai and that pretty much came and went after DiverDiva’s featured episode. Compare this to Sunshine, which did something similar but had Ruby and Dia’s sisterhood so that it felt more personal in some way. That said, this does tie into Karin’s arc. At the beginning of the series, she wasn’t interested in joining the club. Over time, she grew attached to everyone. It’s only natural that she’s afraid of parting ways with them.
Emma and Kanata have some encouraging words for Karin. Rather than worry about what time there is left, the three of them should instead enjoy the present as much as they can. That then leads to Karin pitching to the club a concert with just the thirteen of them. Come to think about it, this would actually be a first for them. Up until now, they’ve either been performing solo or in their respective subunits and all of their group concerts have been at the school idol festivals with the other schools. This concert won’t technically be the last one for the club but it’ll hopefully be a good opportunity for Karin, Emma, and Kanata to make more memories with their underclassmen before their graduation.
The episode also teases something involving Yu and Ayumu. Ayumu gets an email from someone and Yu notices a flyer for a musical composition contest. It looks like Season 2 is gearing up for another round of drama with these two, much like the final couple of episodes in Season 1. I’m frankly not that excited for this. I’m not a big fan of Ayumu and I wasn’t very fond of her arc in the end of Season 1. Hopefully, this next plot will be better.
Watch Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club on Crunchyroll and Funimation
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