Aside from the new tournament structure, there’s another rule added into Love Live. Every contestant must perform entirely new songs for the competition. This is not the last time that rule is brought up. I recall hearing that again in the later series. Admittedly, this rule is a bit silly. Obviously, it’s an excuse for the show to do new music but the show was going to do that anyway so is this rule even necessary to establish? I suppose while watching Love Live, you might ask yourself why the characters don’t just reuse the song but that’s so nitpicky that I can’t imagine the staff being concerned over it. But whatever, this is an in-universe rule for why the girls have to make more material.
For the preliminaries, the girls again turn to Maki (Pile) and hold a training camp at another one of her family’s villas. This particular one is located around a mountainous region. I don’t know what’s funnier. The fact that the club consistently turns to Maki for a new change of scenery or the insane wealth that the Nishikino family apparently has. I know Maki’s parents are doctors but their salary must be high even for a doctor if they’re able to afford at least three houses.
Maki conveniently has a piano in the villa for her to use while brainstorming on music composition. She also provides Kotori and Umi with their own rooms so that they can better concentrate on designing costumes and writing lyrics respectively. Unfortunately, all three girls find themselves in a creative slump and can’t come up with anything for a new song. I love how in Umi and Kotori’s case, the show makes it look like they’ve gone insane. I really want to know what went down in their respective rooms that they left such concerning notes for their friends to find. Funnily enough, Eli is immune to this slump. In fact, Eli isn’t brainstorming anything at all this episode. I find that strange considering that she is the club’s dance choreographer. Maybe she’s preoccupied leading the actual training part of the training camp. Maybe she’s waiting for the song to be done before thinking of any choreography. Either way, it’s a missed opportunity to not lock her up in a room and have her go insane, like with Umi and Kotori.
To help with the creative process, μ’s decides to split into three groups with Maki, Kotori, and Umi leading each one. Kotori forms one group with Honoka and Hanayo (Yurika Kubo). Umi is joined by Rin (Riho Iida) and Nozomi for the second group. The third group is comprised of Maki, Nico, and Eli. This is actually a clever nod to the girls’ subunits from the franchise’s other media. Hilariously, the groups decide to camp outside on their own. I get that it’s give the creatives some space but this does make the girls mooching off of Maki for the second time entirely pointless. Good job, μ’s!
At first, these groups seem very unproductive. Maki’s group is simply cooking some food over a campfire. Over at Kotori’s camp, we see Honoka sleeping on the job (honestly, she and the others do that a lot this episode). I figured Hanayo and Kotori would at least come up with something but they do feel like napping as well. Meanwhile, Umi makes her group climb up a mountain. Why, you might ask? I don’t know, apparently this is a lifelong dream of Umi’s. That Umi wants to do this is funny enough but what further elevates this gag is how Nozomi is completely into it, leaving the usually peppy Rin to be the straight man in the trio. Gradually however, you do see the creatives learn a valuable lesson. While Honoka sleeping in is very funny, it does lead into Kotori learning that she needs to relax rather than stress over the Love Live preliminaries. Parallel to that, we see Nozomi use the mountain climbing as an analogy for Umi to consider. Rather than constantly strive for the top and overachieve, she should feel content with how far she’s gone.
I think I enjoyed watching Maki’s group the most. I’ve noticed that Maki and Nico are a popular ship in this show’s fandom. Love Live! has thrown a couple of gags involving the two and in general, there is a fun clash between Maki’s maturity and Nico’s complete lack of it. That said, all this duo has done up until now is provide a couple laughs, which is enough to make me acknowledge the ship but I’m not necessarily going crazy over it. This episode is maybe the first time where I really buy into the subtext. Nico realizes Maki is trying hard to make a song good enough for the third years and she reminds her kohai that it’s more important that they all enjoy the song. It’s a more serious interaction between these two characters and it helps make their relationship more interesting. The only downside to this scene is that Eli has nothing to do here. She just hides in a tent because she’s afraid of the dark (though to be fair, that is pretty adorable).
Watch Love Live! School Idol Project on Crunchyroll
Xenodude Scribbles 