- Title (English): NIJIYON ANIMATION 2
- Title (Japanese): にじよん あにめーしょん2
- Year: 2024
- Studio: Sunrise
- No. of Episodes: 12 (+3 specials)
- Streaming: Crunchyroll
Like the first season, NIJIYON ANIMATION 2 is a chibi short spin-off series of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club where fans of the show can see more of the daily antics of the titular cast of characters. While probably obvious at this point, I recommend seeing NIJIYON after Nijigasaki season 2 as these shorts feature the expanded roster established in that season. NIJIYON 2 also has a brief callback to the events of mainline Nijigasaki‘s NEXT SKY OVA. You can watch the OVA afterwards but the show does assume you’ve seen it in between seasons of NIJIYON.
There’s admittedly not a whole lot of new things to say here. This season is more or less the same as the first one, just a series of random antics with the Nijigasaki idol club. I guess if you really want to be technical, it is slightly more serialized than the first season as it does include a three-part episode. Here, Yu (Hinaki Yano) has her friends perform in a very ridiculous play as a bunch of delinquents faced with a demon lord, with Kasumi (Mayu Sagara) of all characters being the straight man. Having the show revisit a scenario is a nice change of pace and it’s funny that this is the one it chooses to continue. What is weird then is that these three episodes don’t play back to back. Rather there are other episodes placed in between them. This isn’t a big deal if you’re binging through the season but it’s nonetheless a strange choice and it makes coming back to this particular scenario feel a bit odd.
One thing I’ve grown to appreciate with NIJIYON is that it does allow for some more atypical pairings. Season 2’s fourth episode for example has Shioriko (Moeka Koizumi) hanging out with Ai (Natsumi Murakami). In theory, Shioriko’s studiousness would play off nicely with Ai’s happy go luckiness but we never really see these two interact before apart from scenes with the whole club. It’s nice then to see these share an episode, even if it’s a very short one. The season also takes the time exploring some other established chemistry. In particular, Episode 2 is an update on Shizuku’s favorite ship the bond between Ayumu (Aguri Ōnishi) and Setsuna (Coco Hayashi). It’s a nice follow-up to their rivalry in Nijigasaki Season 1 and their formation of A・ZU・NA in Season 2. One of my issues with Nijigasaki is that the cast is just too big for its own good and it sometimes has a hard time juggling between all of them. At least with NIJIYON, that issue is ironed out a bit.
As I said with the first NIJIYON season, you have to be a fan of mainline Nijigasaki to get anything out of this show. If you’re not fond of the parent show, this spin-off will do little for you. But for fans, this show is a nice appetizer for them to watch, especially as Nijigasaki comes to a close with its three-part movie finale.
Score: 7/10
Pros (+): Some more antics with the Nijigasaki cast
Cons (-): Pretty much for fans only; odd choice to spread the one multi-parter across the season
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