With things extremely awkward between Honoka, Umi, and Kotori, Eli assumes leadership and puts μ’s on hiatus. This allows the original trio to sort things out on their own. Honoka in particular goes on an introspective journey. With help from her friends (and the power of DDR), she realizes that she wasn’t necessarily a school idol for the glory and to save her school but more so because she genuinely liked the hobby. Realizing this, Honoka proceeds to make amends with her friends before it’s too late.
I get what this season is trying to do here. By focusing on the second years again, the story more or less goes full circle. It began with these three and it “ends” with them as well (until the start of Season 2 but don’t worry about that). I’m not entirely against this approach. I really like the chemistry between Honoka, Umi, and Kotori and it was a big draw for the show early on. It’d be nice to see this bond explored some more.
That said, this does leave some of the other main characters with little to do. There’s a couple of exceptions. Nico contributes a bit here by continuing with her school idol training, thereby helping Honoka rekindle her spark. Eli plays a decently sized role here as well. As mentioned earlier, she keeps the ship afloat when Honoka abandons it. Eli also confides to Honoka about how the latter and the rest of the club saved her from feeling down about herself, encouraging Honoka to charge forward and not run away from what’s bothering her. That’s about it, however. Hanayo and Rin are simply doing the same thing as Nico. Maki and Nozomi are pretty much absent until the ending. Admittedly, it is kind of funny for Maki to disappear. She isn’t a people’s person after all. I guess Nozomi is straight up useless when her cards don’t tell her what to do. Either that or she feels she has no purpose in life when there aren’t any breasts for her to grope.
I’m fine with how this episode handles Honoka and Umi. Honoka definitely needed to reflect on things so it makes sense that a lot of the run time is dedicated to her. Umi more or less just waits for Honoka to find her way again but to be fair, she’s more or less the middle man in this situation. I just wish Umi apologized for slapping Honoka. Even if Honoka deserves that, it was an extreme way for Umi to knock some sense into her and it did complicate things even further.
As for Kotori, I’m sorry but I’m pretty bitter over this character right now. I just can’t believe how indecisive and weak-kneed she’s been in this final stretch of episodes. She struggled to tell her friends what’s going on, eventually needing Umi to spill the beans on her behalf. After that, she’s been so afraid of confronting her best friends that it lasts all the way to the freaking airport. Discussing a life altering opportunity isn’t easy, I get that, but this behavior has been so insane that I can’t bring myself to sympathize with Kotori.
That Kotori ultimately stays in Tokyo to be with her friends is to be expected. It just wouldn’t be μ’s without her or anyone else for the matter. Still, I take issue with this resolution. For one, it’s a little funny for Kotori to ditch her studies in favor of a hobby that makes no money and that she’ll have to a quit in one year’s time (without consulting with her mother no less). And two, it’s lame that Kotori changes her mind after talking to Honoka (who somehow manages to run from the school all the way to the airport…and back). I get that Kotori wants to hear Honoka’s two cents and it isn’t necessarily wrong to depend on someone for input but it annoys me that this whole arc, where Kotori can’t decide on anything, ends with her not making any decision on her own. Maybe she really does need the stat boost provided by her maid outfit.
Anyway, everyone’s happy again and they reunite to perform at the auditorium for one last insert song. The song is actually the same one from Episode 3, just with all nine main characters performing it as opposed to the initial trio. I’m of two minds with this decision. On one hand, this adds to Season 1 coming full circle with its story. Plus, I still really enjoy the song and it’s neat to see it performed by the entire cast this time around. Conversely, there is a reason why School Idol Project‘s successors rarely repeat a song. It’s a lot more fun and it’s a much better advertisement when the last song of a season is entirely new as opposed to a retread. Coming back to this particular song makes for a sentimental conclusion for the season but it does feel like the easy route to take compared to eliciting an emotional response out of a brand new work. One random detail that I really dig is that the girls are performing in their regular school uniforms. No fancy costumes or an impressive stage for that matter. It’s just the girls and the music and that accentuates their renewed unity as well as Honoka’s realization that she wants to be a school idol simply because she likes being one.
Honestly, this MV would actually serve as a good note for the show to end up. That said, the show does leave one sequel hook and that is Love Live itself. Sure enough, School Idol Project got renewed for a second season and that will presumably have the girls finally compete in the titular tournament. My intent with covering School Idol Project is to complete my coverage of the whole franchise so obviously, I’ll be tackling Season 2. Even putting aside that obligation, I definitely like Season 1 enough to keep going. I don’t think it’s my favorite season, that honor probably still goes to Superstar!! Season 1, but it has been a fun ride and it’s interesting seeing how the Love Live! anime began and all the foundations it laid for its successors to emulate. I’m also happy to finally finish this season after all these years as it was a pretty big loose end in my backlog.
Watch Love Live! School Idol Project on Crunchyroll
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