It’s nearly the end for Love Live! Superstar!! (I think). With all eleven main characters united as Liella!, all they left to do is win Love Live. I’m not too worried about their chances of winning. We’re this far into the show and there’s no rivals left to challenge Liella!. The show has also entertained the idea of a main school idol group winning Love Live! two times in a row, something which has never happened in the franchise’s history (at least in regards to the anime). Unless the writers want to be stupid, it’s very obvious that these girls have it in the bag. It can’t helped and I can accept the outcome being predictable so long as the journey makes it feel earned. And so far, the journey has been a real good one.
With so little left in Superstar!!, I’m curious who is getting some last minute character development before the curtain finally closes. This particular episode centers around Wien, who perhaps is the most obvious and most perfect candidate for this kind of treatment. Wien is undeniably one of the most relevant characters this season and considering how long it’s taken for her to join Liella!, there ought to be an episode detailing her adjusting to the group. Sure enough, we see in this episode that despite joining Liella! at her own volition, Wien doesn’t immediately become chummy with all of her new teammates. This quickly becomes apparent when Wien brushes off Kinako’s and Keke’s attempts at starting small talk with her (random aside but I love Keke’s exaggerated stamina during this scene; talk about character development!). While the third years understand that Wien is focused on training, they worry her unwillingness to grow closer with everyone will negatively affect her in the long run.
We then see everyone try to get Wien to open up some more. The third years decide to split Liella! into two subgroups that’ll practice on their own before finishing practice together. The reasoning is that a smaller group will ease Wien into getting used to working with the others without getting in the way of her training. Wien initially rejects this however, arguing that she can train just fine on her own. Kinako then leads everyone into roping Wien into playing games with them. I really like that Kinako in particular is trying to be Wien’s friend. Given that she’s also not from Tokyo, I can see Kinako relating with Wien’s situation. It’s also cute seeing one of the friendliest members of Liella! interact with one of its most guarded members. Honestly, Kinako’s idea isn’t a bad one. It would appeal to Wien’s competitiveness and it would at the very least keep her engaged in group activities. Wien however proves to be hilariously good at whatever her teammates throw at her. It’s a very good gag but obviously, it means this idea falls flat on its face.
What finally gets the ball rolling is when Kanon sees her younger sister Aria (Akane Matsunaga) receive lessons from Wien on how to bake a Salzburger Nockerin, an Austrian dessert. Wien ends up helping Aria because she couldn’t stand and watch Aria screw things up. Though Wien doesn’t shy away from criticizing Aria’s baking skills, the two nevertheless grow closer to each other. Frankly, it’s a little funny to see Aria be so involved in the plot. She usually stays in the background. That said, this is a charming and effective way for Kanon to figure out how to best help Wien. Rather than make Wien engage with the group and have everyone try to befriend her, Wien should instead be given a task that would interest her and would compel her to work with the others.
With Chisato and Ren, Kanon assigns Wien as the dance choreographer for Liella’s concert at Love Live’s first round of qualifiers. It’s a perfect plan. Not only would this appeal to Wien’s interest in music and her competitiveness, it would give her a reason to get to know everyone. The excuse Kanon, Chisato, and Ren give to Wien is that they want a more unbiased critique on everyone’s dancing abilities. To be fair, it would nevertheless benefit Liella! to gain a new perspective. While this plan does get Wien to pay more attention to the others, it does take an awkward turn when Wien bluntly informs the group that Kinako and Natsume are the weak links and they should be positioned at the far ends of the dance routine.
I really like the character development that ensues from here. To her credit, Wien confides to Kanon that she feels bad for calling Kinako and Natsume out. Even though she did her job as asked, she worries that she’s acting too heartlessly and such behavior is unbefitting of a school idol and detrimental to the group’s ability to act in unison. It’s a rare instance in which Wien completely opens up and it goes to show how much Wien has grown in understanding school idols. Naturally, and amusingly, Kanon can’t help but act like a proud older sister that Wien finally gets it. I share Wien’s sentiment that Kanon is being a little too emotional but then again, Kanon spent nearly an entire season being a mentor of sorts to Wien so the latter’s reaction is understandable.
Fortunately for Wien, Kinako and Natsume accept her input like a couple of champs. Rather than be mad at Wien, they’re instead ask her to train them so that they don’t hold Liella! back during the preliminaries. Feeling responsible, Wien agrees to the request and the ensuing practice more or less ignites Wien’s desire to grow closer to her teammates. In the end, the third years’ plan works as intended. I love that Kanon deliberately leaves Wien alone with Kinako and Natsume and instead join the other third years in watching the three train. She could have delivered another one of her pep talks and accompanied Wien as a sort of mediator but as Kanon points out, her time as a school idol is coming to an end. She can only guide Wien for so long and sooner or later, Wien will have to come to her own conclusion so she may as well do so now.
On the day of the preliminaries, Kanon has Wien give a speech to Liella! before they step onto the stage. In contrast to her usual self but in line with her character development this episode, Wien ends up giving a very passionate speech about Liella’s unity and her newfound desire to be a part of the group. I particularly love that she stresses that this Love Live! is the only time Liella! will get to compete in as an eleven member group and they have little time to be together in general. I was worried about there only being four episodes where the main cast is actually together but after Wien’s speech, it may actually work in the show’s favor to only have that many episodes to work with. It potentially makes the final stretch feel more special and it does create a stake in what would otherwise be a shoo-in for Liella!. All that would admittedly be lost to the viewer if the group had been unified for a longer period of time. Certainly for Wien at least, the lack of time available makes it all the more important that she finally opens up to her friends and try to make what time she does have count.
Also neat is Wien including Tomari into her speech. After spending so much time on Wien, it’s nice that the show acknowledges that Tomari shares the same sentiment as Wien. It’s especially heartwarming given the rocky start these two had with each other at the start of the season. Wien holding Tomari’s hand did make me raise an eyebrow but then again, it wouldn’t be Love Live! without some sort of romantic subtext for yuri fans to endlessly ponder over.
If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that Liella! is dressed in the same attire that they wear for Season 3’s OP, “Let’s be ONE”. Sure enough, that is actually the insert song they perform for the preliminaries. In fact, the entire sequence is nearly identical to the OP, save for some shots being replaced with original animation that’s more befitting to the plot of this episode. This isn’t actually the first time Love Live! has pulled something like this. School Idol Project! did this exact same thing towards the end of its second season. It does feel like the staff is cheating a little here. Like, what better way to save on animation than by recycling old footage? That said, I think the OP is incorporated in this episode extremely well. Given how long it took for Wien and Tomari to join Liella!, Wien’s arc this episode, and the speech Wien just gave, having the girls sing a sentimental song about uniting as one is the most thematically appropriate thing for them to do. Thanks to all that setup, it weirdly does feel like the show had been building up to this moment, even though we technically have seen this moment multiple times by now. The show may be reusing a MV but boy does it work great within the context of this episode.
Honestly, I felt a bit emotional watching this scene. I suppose that’s warranted. This is a satisfying payoff to the episode and there’s a bittersweetness to “Let’s be ONE” that denotes it as the final OP in the show. But beyond the episode itself, it really was dawning on me that this one of Liella’s performances in the anime and their story is coming to an end. And if I’m feeling this way now, I have to imagine how I’ll feel during the finale. I don’t think I’m ready to finish Superstar!!.
Watch Love Live! Superstar!! on Crunchyroll.
Xenodude Scribbles 