Name: A love letter to Sunrise
Item: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Rating: 100
Author: Yuukimeister

A love letter to Sunrise · Waifora

Whenever I think about Love Live I can think about my whole life so far : highs and lows, happiness and sadness, goals and failures, but most of all I realized one of the most important things in everyone's life, our friends. Most of the people when saying the word "friend" thinks about someone who likes and spends time with without getting bored, simply someone who fits his ideals or standards. In my part Love Live made me rework on the actual meaning of this word, and I say "someone who's there to help you and support you" or even better "a brother/sister you never had". I mean it sounds strange because when we say "you are my bro/sis", we say that to a really close person and by saying that I don't want to impose "my" version of friend and brother/sister because everyone has his own way to see someone.

How did I come to this?
I don't want to bother you with things about me but I'll sum up everything by saying that I've been feeling "really bad" since 1 year because of things. One day I decided to watch Love Live just because there were funny memes and I thought it was funny and hey I made a complete review about School Idol Project so check out here : https://anilist.co/review/9599.
With Sunshine I really understood how valuable are my own friends and how valuable were the friends that are not with me anymore; so now let me tell you the fantastic story about Love Live! Sunshine!!

What I was expecting I loved School Idol Project so I thought it could've been really hard for me to enjoy this show as the previous one. I was expecting something which could move my feelings and make me experience something really strong

#Rewriting the Idol Book again Yes, I know what you are thinking or saying "Eh but Sunshine is basically the same as School Idol Project with minor changes" and yep, you're right, I didn't realize that at first watch but then I rewatched it and I saw how similar they both were. But here's something not everyone understood : Aqours were chasing their first dream, µ's, and by chasing they you easily end up on their own steps. You visit the same places, you stay in the same places and you end up in the place they wanted to save : the Akiba Dome. µ's just wanted to make the Love Live something big and important and as they were able to do this you MUST appreciate and enjoy what they left to you. So yes, the storytelling is basically almost the same, with minor changes and different characters, but it has a whole different matter.

Everything starts with a stupid idea "I want to be like them" the first thought for Takami Chika, a normal girl who lives a normal life, is the same thought as many of ours, we all might have someone as a reference for life, I have one which is not with us anymore, and Takami Chika chose a simple idol group. "They were normal girls doing unique things", that was her second thought and that's relatable to everyone. We all are a simple person and we all can do unique things. I'm a simple person who can do unique things in what I love, for example I was a star in basketball;
Chika didn't want to keep her dream just for her and she decided to share this to everyone. Alongside with Chika there's her best friend, Watanabe You, who was really happy to see her friend having a dream and so she decided to join her in this journey.
Then something comes in our life, the moment we feel insecure and we think that we are pointless just because we made some error that are in the past and we cannot focus on our present life, this feeling is Sakurauchi Riko, a girl who moved to Uchiura trying to find herself with this moving away. Riko failed in her biggest dream, that piano contest where she lost beacuse of the stress she had on and so she feels useless and cannot trust herself anymore.
Chika doesn't want this, she just met this girl one day before but she doesn't want to see someone like that. Riko joins, hoping to find what she lost.
As the main trio is born, three girls are attracted by something they never seen, an idol group with simple girls but who do what they love.
Kunikida Hanamaru sees that, Kurosawa Ruby sees that, Tsushima Yoshiko sees that. 3 different girls but so similar.
Hanamaru decided to isolate herself years ago because she was seen as something weird by the other, Ruby decided to isolate herself and being a friend only to Hanamaru because Ruby is scared by the others, Yoshiko decided to isolate herself because she thought the others seen her as something weird. They are so different yet so similar.
Ruby always wanted to be an idol and so Hanamaru helped her to get into Aqours, after that goal she left everything and turned back to her solitude but the girl who always helped now turned the favor back and made Hanamaru join Aqours, in order to find the light she has never seen.
Yoshiko is the type of person who almost hate herself because of her mindset of being trash to everyone's point of view, but once you see the other's real point of view everything changes. And by that, Yoshiko is now happy with the friends she never had.

As a new group is born and old one is suffering because of the past and cannot focus on the present and on what is really important : Matsuura Kanan, Kurosawa Dia and Ohara Mari really need a help. They were close friends but one mistake ended everything and so they ran away, trying to avoid eachother to not hurt the others anymore. Only the light of the memories can help to heal the wounds, and Aqours were the light. The wounds are healed and the 3 girls, who used to hate eachother, now are back toghether once again, trying to obtain what they left. Now they are all together trying to catch a dream like a Young Dreamer.

Aqours need to realize what they really want, in fact they never really tried to catch µ's. µ's were just an imagination of their dream.
After previous failures Chika asked herself what's their real purpose. The question is still there, episode after episode.
Meanwhile they were trying to figure out the purpose they had to face Saint Snow, the other main idol group.
From enemies they became friends just by understanding the others' desire, as Saint Snow wanted to win the Love Live because it was the last time for Kazuno Sarah the Aqours wanted to win the Love Live to save their school, but is that all? We don't have the answer because it's hard to figure out what you want until you are on the point to lose it.
Once you are about to lose it, or when you lose it, you fully understand what you always wanted and Aqours existed with the only purpose to inspire the others and to cheer the Uranohoshi's girls. In order to cheer them they need to do the one last thing they asked to them : to make their School immortal, so they must win the Love Live because doing so the school will be for ever in the Love Live's story.
Once you did it all you can finally have the answer, "Why do I want this? How much am I willing to do that? At what cost?". The cost was high and they did everything they could, they were willing to do anything : they tried so hard, they ashamed theirselves in front of the adults and the youngs, but they did what's called a Miracle Wave and made themselves unforgettable for ever; They wanted to do this because they wanted to shine for the first time in their life, such an egoist desire which made one of the greatest idol groups ever who led the story of one unknown school, forgotten. But thanks to the Love Live they shown to everyone how beautiful is their Water Blue New World

The three girls from the third year graduate and so they leave Aqours because after obtaining their dream they can finally focus on their adult life while leaving the others behind and waiting for them in that new world. Now there aren't anymore the older ones who were there to help you and so how do you react? You might be confused at first because now you are alone.
The movie talks for itself : to know what to do when you'll be alone you need to understand yourself, you need to understand the others adn you must understand how is the world; as the mom bird leaves her sons they must learn how to act alone, and so you'll Believe Again in yourself. Once you get it you are now free and you can obtain everything you want and all of these will be forever a Wonderful Stories

#The beautiful music Sunshine is a huge step up from School Idol Project to me. In all of SIP I like something like 2 songs in the anime because µ's voices weren't the best for me. Aqours insted are what I always wanted : powerful songs, good bases, fantastic voices and a perfect coordinations for the lines, truly incredible to my ears. Of course I cannot say too much about the music because it's subjective and you taste might be different from mine but it's impossible to deny that Aqours' songs are really fantastic

#Conclusions That was my love letter. I will never be able to fully express what I feel to Love Live because it was such a wonderful experience which I'll never forget. It's incredible how an anime made me realize things that were so simple yet so important : always love who's near you because you'll never know what will happen in the future.

Never forget who's always there for you

If you disagree with my score, which is understandable, I ask you to read the review, if didn't do that, otherwise it's not a problem. That was just my letter to Sunrise and Love Live with me thanking them.

Story and Characters : 10/10

Music : 10/10
Arts and animations : 10/10
Personal enjoyment : 10/10
Final : 10/10
I will never forget it