There and back again.
Having covered every main season of Love Live! up until this point in episode reviews, I’m kind of just obligated to continue covering it until either the franchise ends or I myself kick the bucket. That said, I was excited to return to Superstar!!. I slightly prefer Season 1 over Season 2 but overall, it’s my favorite iteration in the franchise and I’m quite fond of Liella! in general (especially the original five members). Kind of interesting to see Superstar!! come back for a third season. That’s never happened before in Love Live!. Even Nijigasaki, which seems to be the more popular of the two current Love Lives is going the movie route as per tradition (albeit with three movies instead of just one). Personally, I’m all for it. If any iteration of Love Live! deserves a third season, it’s this one. Besides, the show kind of has to address the silly cliffhanger the last season ended on.
If you recall, Liella! won Love Live for the first time and Kanon (Sayuri Date) packed her bags to go study abroad in Vienna with Wien (Yuina). To her and the viewer’s surprise however, it looks like she’s not going to Vienna as Wien has seemingly transferred to Yuigaoka. The third season premiere elaborates on this a bit more. Wien’s family wants her to continue working as a school idol and study singing under Kanon at Yuigaoka. If this arrangement produces the results they’re looking for, then Kanon will get to study at the Vienna National Academy of Music as originally offered.
I am still a bit peeved at this development. One, it undermines the drama in the last two episodes of Season 2. And two, it would’ve been really cool to see Kanon study abroad and maybe bond with Wien so it’s a shame that it’s either not happening or won’t happen until the very end of the show. That said, I sort of understand this decision. Love Live! has to keep its orange-haired protagonist around and obviously, Wien is going to join Liella! at some point. It would be easier for the story if both girls are still in Tokyo. It also helps that in this premiere, Kanon and Wien react exactly as you’d hope at this news. Kanon is disappointed that her big opportunity is put on ice. Wien meanwhile objects to learning under Kanon, let alone join Liella!, due to tensions between her and Kanon’s group. She’s so against the idea in fact that she ends up creating her own school idol club at Yuigaoka.
As a new school year begins, Wien unsuccessfully tries to promote her new club. I presume her tantrum in the Love Live semi-finals has made her rather unpopular. Ren (Nagisa Aoyama) and Sumire (Naomi Payton) confront Wien and they try to convince her to join Liella!. I like that it’s specifically those two who try to invite Wien, given Sumire’s and especially Ren’s initial reservations about becoming school idols. Wien of course refuses to join Liella!. Aside from the aforementioned friction, Wien argues that joining Liella! would be the easy way out for her to return to Vienna. I can see where Wien is coming form here. She’s been trying to prove herself as a solo act for some time now. For her to join a group, especially the group she lost to, it could be seen as an admission that she isn’t that good on her own. I do however think that Wien might be misinterpreting her family’s expectations. The fact that her folks want her to work with Kanon suggests that it’s not just individual strength that they’re looking for.
Since Kanon is stuck in Tokyo, she spends a good chunk of this episode mulling over how to explain her situation to her friends. Although Kanon is blowing it out of proportion, her constantly trying to evade her friends is a really good gag. I love how embarrassed Kanon gets when she hears everyone talk about how much they already miss her. Also funny is Chisato (Nako Misaki) managing to catch glimpses of her and wondering if she might be hallucinating. Really though, the best part of this gag is that other than Chisato, Kanon actually managed to avoid everyone. I’ve seen all of Love Live!; I know how bad these girls are at stealth. I can’t believe it somewhat worked this time around.
Once Kanon finally reveals her to everyone, she announces to them that she won’t return to Liella! and she’ll join Wien’s club instead. While certainly an unexpected decision, Kanon has very good reasons to go this route. Kanon worries that without a shakeup of some kind, her and the others’ ambitions would grow stagnant. She also wants to fulfill the Margarette family’s request of being Wien’s mentor in the hopes that she can get the new girl to open up and have everyone perform as one big idol group. I’m excited to see where this development will go. It seems like a solid avenue to get Wien to join Liella!. The concept of a Love Live! main protagonist facing all of her friends is unprecedented and could be a refreshing change of pace. What I want to know is long this rivalry will last. It can’t last the whole season as the entire main cast will likely perform together during Love Live. At the very least, I imagine Wien and Kanon will compete against Liella! at the Yoyogi School Idol Festival. That was the first major competition in Seasons 1 and 2 so it stands to reason that it’ll happen again in Season 3.
Right as Kanon hands over her club application form to Wien, the two are approached by one of Yuigaoka’s new students. The identity of this girl was announced outside of the anime so I already know who she is. I won’t give her name away but I will say that her joining Wien’s group could be very interesting. Also, between this girl and Wien, Liella! will eventually have eleven members in total. I’m a little wary at how large the club is getting. Nijigasaki ended up with thirteen main characters and the amount of juggling it had to with them sometimes came with mixed results for me. That said, Superstar!! has established its cast much more slowly than any other Love Live! and at this point, the only character it needs to flesh out is the new girl. It probably will handle the juggling just fine.
Watch Love Live! Superstar!! on Crunchyroll.
Xenodude Scribbles 
Personally if I was Kanon I would be telling Wein’s Austrian family where to get off. Their shameless manipulation of Kanon and her future is going way too far. And after while the Austrian school is supposedly the best, Im sure Kanon cold find other music schools about as good around the world if she wanted to. Because she doesn’t do that she is stuck with Wein and her personality issues (hopefully the third girl foreshadowed at that end of the episode is a lot nicer), and plus Leilla! lost their precious center (another side effect of all that manipulation).
Of course no-one in Leilla or Yuigaoka will think that (Maybe the principal should though since its her job to protect her students), so we will see how it all plays out. I think Kanon will have a hard road ahead of her until Wein mellows somehow. 🙂
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