What’s the show? Love Live! School Idol Project.
And what’s it about? Making as much money as possible for the producers of this anime.
Wow, savage af. Not holding back anymore after that One-Punch Man review are we? Don’t get me wrong, Love Live isn’t a bad show, in fact the first time I watched it I really liked it, but well, you ever watch something that you think is pretty good but then find people obsessing over it so much that you wonder maybe did you miss something? And then the more and more you keep hearing about how amazing the show is, the more and more your opinion on it declines?
So it’s not fault of the show in this instance but the fans? I wouldn’t be so harsh as to criticise someone for something that they love, because I’d hate if someone did that to me. But I guess I have to chalk this one up to me just not getting the appeal aside from the surface value.
So what’s it really about? It’s about nine high school girls who decide to make an idol group to compete against other idol groups from other high schools.
Filthy normie that I am, care to explain what an ‘idol group’ is? Well it’s a group of idols, I thought that much would be obvious…
Okay smart-ass, what’s an ‘idol’? Well it’s like what people in the West would call a pop star.
Oh so like the Spice Girls? I don’t know what that is.
Right, I sometimes forget you subsist solely on a diet of Japanese everything. Um, okay so the Spice Girls were five UK popstars from the late 90’s, they all had different personas, like one was called Baby spice because she was ‘cute’, one was called Sporty Spice because she dressed like she was going to kick someone’s head in, one was called Posh Spice because the 1% need something to jerk it to too, one was called Scary Spice because she had an afro and wore leopard print (and probably because she was black, but let’s not get into that here) and one was called Ginger Spice because she was… well a ginger. Sounds kind of stupid now that I put it on paper but they were a big deal. Hmm, okay, well I guess idols are kind of like that except without any discernible personalities.
Wow… Are you deliberately trying to burn down your blog? Got a light?
I think you need to rein it in and come at this a bit more positively, okay? That’s easy, I could have just told you how I felt about this show when I first watched it. It’s fun and entertaining and the characters are all really cute and each have something likable about them.
But now? All that still applies except it exists under a cold and calculated veneer of capitalism and marketing and oversaturation, it’d be like looking at a really cute anime pinup online only it’s surrounded by pop-ups trying to sell you things and then when you try to minimise it to look at something else, it stays there in a small window in the corner, pestering you to come back.
But should you judge the merits of a show just because it’s got a high marketing budget and a lot of people bought into the hype that was generated in turn? But a rabid fan base and persistent almost suffocating marketing presence only seeks to highlight the issues in the show. If you watch a show that’s pretty good, maybe even very good and then that’s all you hear about it, your brain goes “sure, makes sense” but if you watch a show that is pretty good, maybe even very good and everyone around is frothing over it and it’s on billboards and the sides of buses, and the music is being played from trucks roaming the streets, it makes you wonder “how do all you people not see all that’s wrong with this show?!”
I get what you’re saying, I really do, but I still don’t think you’re being fair and impartial to the show. I don’t recall signing anything that said my reviews were going to be ‘fair and impartial’, they’re just opinions at the end of the day.
Fair enough, I’m not trying to tell you how to review, just trying to keep this from turning into another rant (although I think the ship has sailed on that!) I’m sorry if it seems like I’m ranting, I’ll try and be a bit more professional with my criticism and focus on the show rather than external influences.
Good, so that said, you’ve already asserted it’s a good / almost very good show, praised the characters and entertainment value. What’s not so good about it then? The plot is very safe and predictable, to the point where I was calling out story beats episodes before they even happened. The characters are interesting when they’re talking, but as soon as they get on stage it might as well be nine identical clones with slightly tweaked hairstyles; with the exception of Nico they have zero personality on stage. That and the songs are pretty ordinary and unmemorable, and I usually love Japanese pop music.
Nico? Nico Nico Ni! (I fully accept the online consequences of picking Nico Yazawa as best girl).
Is that a meme or something? Pretty much.
Right, we’re running long so it’s about time we wrap this up. We have a time limit?
No, it’s just if we don’t stop now this whole place will burn down. Final verdict? For the sake of this final score I’m going to pretend like everything outside the show itself doesn’t exist and thus won’t influence my final opinion. It’s a fun show, with characters that make you wish there was a more well developed and interesting show around them, the idol sections fall mostly flat but it’s still pretty to look at. 72 out of 100.
Anime QandA 