With Love Live taken care of, the Season 2 finale moves the story over to the Otonokizaka’s graduation ceremony. We of course get explicit confirmation that μ’s has won the competition, with the gang receiving a special flag to commemorate their victory. You better get used to that design because all of School Idol Project‘s sequels use it. To be fair, it is a nice flag. I’m amazed at the lack of pizazz here. Like, we don’t find out about μ’s victory through a giant result screen. Instead, Nico shows it off to her folks in the clubroom. I get that μ’s reigning victorious is an obvious outcome but you’d think this show, the first one in the franchise no less, would hype up this moment some more.
Right before the ceremony, Honoka runs into Eli at the student council room. Eli is there to reminisce on her time as the student council president and Honoka takes the time to thank her predecessor for all the work she did for the school and for inspiring her to work hard in the role. I don’t think I’ve said it before but I really enjoy how far Honoka and Eli’s friendship(?) has gone over the course of the series. They admire, trust, and depend on each other so much now that it’s almost hard to believe that they were more or less enemies when this story began.
Considering Honoka’s big screw up at the start of Season 2, I was very curious about her speech for the graduation ceremony. I accept that Otonokizaka has somehow remained intact with Honoka as the student council president but I’ve yet to see her successfully give a speech outside of μ’s. How amusing then that Honoka admits that she didn’t truly write down anything fancy and instead prepared a song to sing at the ceremony. That’s putting it generously as technically, the song was actually created by Maki way back in the series premiere. Maybe Honoka ironed out the lyrics but it wouldn’t surprise me if she just asked Maki for a favor (and to be fair, that is kind of funny if it’s true). Joking aside, music is how Honoka best expresses herself so it feels earnest of her to go this route than give the usual speech. Plus, the song does lyrically pertain to the scene in question.
After the ceremony, we see Nico pack up her stuff in μ’s clubroom. I’m going ahead here but there’s a moment in Sunshine!! that reveals that very little is left of μ’s in Otonokizaka. Sunshine!! gives a sentimental reason as to why that is the case but coming off this episode of School Idol Project, I can’t help but think that the real reason is because a lot of μ’s stuff belongs to Nico and she took all that crap home after graduating.
Amidst the cleanup, Nico appoints Hanayo as the idol club’s next president. After some hesitation, Hanayo accepts the job and appoints Maki as her vice-president and Rin as the leader (much like Rin kind of, sort of was in the fifth episode of this season). Admittedly, it feels like the first years are only getting these promotions by process of elimination. The second years are preoccupied with the student council so all the idol club duties have to fall on the first years. At least Hanayo is a fitting choice for president. After Nico, she is the most passionate one about school idols.
The girls then proceed to tour around the school campus one last time before the third years leave for good. They pretty much cover every known part of the school. Even the alpaca stable gets visited again (and yeah, this show had me fooled over which one is male and which one is female). The tour alone is enough to make one feel sentimental though the ending at the rooftop is particularly emotional. With some (hopefully clean) water and a mop, Honoka paints μ’s name on the roof. Maki points out that it’ll quickly fade away due to the sun but Honoka says it’s fine. Honoka isn’t here to leave a permanent reminder of μ’s but rather to have her and the others say goodbye to the name. Just like the water drying out and fading away, μ’s is no more. From here on out, it is just a memory for our main characters.
Or is it?
So here is where the finale gets weird. Just when you think the show is finally over and everyone is about to go home, Hanayo gets a shocking notification on her phone, prompting everyone to go back into the school building. I figured this would lead into one final MV and you do actually get one at the end of the episode but judging from the editing, these two scenes have no correlation to it. The MV is just there on the notion that we can’t end the show without one final song. I like the MV, particularly for its cheerleader-esque aesthetic and how it scene utilizes the school campus, but it is weird that it has no bearing on the plot.
As for the mysterious message itself, my best guess is that this is setup for the movie. I did some digging and the movie was announced right after the Season 2 finale aired so this does check out. I have to wonder what could possibly be the plot of the movie, though. The show has resolved every plot thread in the story and the girls just finished putting an end to their school idol careers. Where else can the story go from here? Perhaps the movie will feel redundant but I would be lying if I said I don’t want to see more of μ’s. Love Live! School Idol Project has its fair share of clumsiness but so far, I’ve enjoyed my time with it (moreso with Season 2 than Season 1) and that largely has to do with its main cast. They’re a charming bunch and they really grew on me as the show progressed. This episode might very well be the perfect note to end the story on and the movie might suck but right now, I’ll gladly take one more adventure with these characters.
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