We begin this episode with Yuigaoka’s faculty introducing the school’s new student council. In addition to Ren and Kanon acting as a president and vice president respectively, we learn that Kinako has joined the council as its secretary. Having one of the newer characters follow Chisato and Kanon in challenging themselves with a new responsibility is neat and there’s no better candidate for that than Kinako. I am however annoyed that there was no leadup to this. Hilariously, Sumire wishes to be student council president again. I’m curious if she actually handed in an application form like Kanon did for vice president and if she told Ren what she was up to. I’d love to be a fly on that wall.
Aside from Love Live, the next major event is an open campus at Yuigaoka. After discussing with the rest of the student council, Kanon convinces the rest of Liella! to pass on performing at the event so that they can concentrate on Love Live and allow the school’s other clubs to shine. It’s a reasonable proposal but what will the club do instead of a concert? Well, Chisato decides to run a takoyaki stand and that immediately goes south because Natsumi decides to sell a smoothie with the takoyaki mixed in. That might be one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen in this entire franchise. At the same time though, this is the kind of trend chasing stunt I’d expect from a social media influencer.
The overarching plot of this episode has Liella! trying to find a good location for their remote performance during Love Live’s preliminaries. Save for a failed pitch by Keke, Kanon does most of the scouting for the club. To Kanon’s credit, her research is pretty extensive. She studies the history of Yuigaoka and Jingu and roams around neighborhood, all in an effort to find a meaningful location representative of Liella! and their school. That said, I wasn’t amazed at the location she ultimately picks for the preliminaries. It’s just some other street near the school. That’s it. Honestly, I figured the girls would perform at Omotesando, which is where they performed during the Season 1 finale. The show even brings this up in this episode. I can understand Kanon wanting to go for something more connected to Yuigaoka but as the saying goes: if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
I really like how the MV resembles a parade. There’s a giant float behind the girls as they perform (and random aside but I love the replicas of Kanon’s pet owl Manmaru and Ren’s pet dog Chibi). The girls don’t run across the entire street but they do make use of vertical space. It’s not like the Season 1 finale’s MV where the girls had to perform on a static platform so the verticality is only used for an admittedly very pretty light show. As for the song itself, it’s a bop. I like the mix of traditional and modern instrumentals and there’s a very energetic quality to the song. With all these elements combined, Liella! makes an exciting first showing in Love Live, which befits their confidence to win the competition and their status as the favorites.
Needless to say, Liella! passes the preliminaries. It’s the second season of a Love Live! series. Passing the first round is pretty much a guarantee. The real question here is how far Liella! will get this time around, especially since they have to worry about both Sunny Passion and Wien. Speaking of Wien, I’m so happy to see her again, even if it’s just a cameo appearance. I’m really happy to see Wien again in a cameo appearance. This girl has absent for far too long. I love how she watches the concert from afar and with her back turned, like some menace. I can’t wait see what kind of commotion she’ll cause in Love Live.
Watch Love Live! Superstar!! on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
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