Love Live Nijigasaki changed the standard formula which this series was using. Love Live School Idol Project, the first one, put the title in the market and was a big success in Japan. The premise was about a group of girls getting together to prevent their beloved school from closing. In order to do that, they started a school idol club, trying to use the popularity of the idol group to get more people to apply for their school. The story focuses mainly on the hardships they need to face in order to be a good idol group and maybe win the Love Live (the name of the school idol contest). The first Love Live has a good story and drama, with good solid characters and a satisfactory ending. After that, Love Live Sunshine was created, the story is good, the characters are good too, but the premise is the same as the last one. Again, everything is about the girls getting together in order to save their school from closing. Even some of the girls' personalities resemble some of the first Love Live characters. For example, in the first one, the student council president was against the formation of the idol club, and was not giving any suport to make it happen. The Love Live Sunshine studen council president was the same way, the same thing again. In my point of view, the best thing in Love Live Sunshine was the Saint Snow story (the rival group of the main cast), their music is much better and they should have won the Love Live Competition.
Now let's talk about Nijigasaki.
After seeing the same story two times in a row (Love Live School Idol Project and Love Live Sunshine), Nijigasaki goes in the other way. The past ones were mainly showing the hardships with some comedy. Nijigasaki, on the other hand, highlights the characters. In addition, it has some comedy, some slice of life and a little drama, though much less than in the previous ones. In Nijigasaki there is no school closing, the girls are simply having fun in the idol club. Because of that, there is no idol group here, each of the characters are solo idols with their own style and personality, which are reflected in their songs. Episodes 1 to 9 are focused on the characters. Each episode is focused on a specific character, and in the ending that character's solo song is presented. Episodes 10, 11 and 12 are focused on a festival that every character will perform and in the end they will sing a song together for the first time. Here in Nijigasaki, at least in this first season, there is no Love Live competition, in fact the Love Live was not even mentioned in the anime. The focus is really in the characters and their own motives for being an idol.
The characters play a very important role here, due to the fact that we don't have a big group.
Uehara Ayumu: She is kind, innocent, and sincere, often responding to the mischief from Karin Asaka and Kasumi Nakasu in a pure manner, which throws the two of them off-guard. However, she doesn't do this intentionally and is truly a pure-hearted girl. She tries her best to be helpful to others. She is a hardworking girl who puts everything in what she does, but she lacks confidence in her activities. She has a best friend named Takasaki Yu and she cares very much about her. In fact, I have the impression that she is in love with her, maybe we could see a real yuri here, in the future (adapted from https://love-live.fandom.com/wiki/Ayumu_Uehara)
Asaka Karin: Karin is very mature and gives off a rather seductive vibe. She uses her adult-like looks to her advantage, such as when she tries to tease her underclassmen. She also teaches others how to be sexy and cool like her. However, these lessons sometimes backfire when people begin to show her significant attention or respond in a pure manner, as Karin will become embarrassed. She works as a model, and has the best voice of the Nijigasaki and the best performance too, me thinks. Karin is my second favorite character in the series (adapted from https://love-live.fandom.com/wiki/Karin_Asaka).
Miyashita Ai: As a suggestible person who's always willing to help, Ai has a lot of friends who can be seen chatting with strangers at any given time. She is also very caring, especially with her family and friends. In the neighborhood she lives, she tends to refer to all sorts of people around as siblings. She has the typical gyaru vibe, but she is not a bad student or a bad person. She is very energetic and friendly with everyone. Ai and Rina are close friends (adapted from https://love-live.fandom.com/wiki/Ai_Miyashita).
Konoe Kanata: Kanata is often seen as being very sleepy and often takes naps during the day. She is very easygoing and prone to napping in the laps of others. She is like that because she does too many things at once, thus, she is always sleepy. She truly loves her sister, in a point where her song in the anime is about her and her sister (adapted from https://love-live.fandom.com/wiki/Kanata_Konoe).
Yuki Setsuna: Setsuna has an energetic smile and a distinctive style of performing. She is easily excitable and full of energy, and she can be moved emotionally very easily. She lights up whenever she is asked a question about her interests, which include anime, manga, video games, and school idols. She is the president of the student council, and in the beginning of the series she was the motive of the disbandment of the school idol club. She took her passion and tried to force it on the others members. In my opinion, she has the second best voice in the series, that only Karin can beat (adapted from https://love-live.fandom.com/wiki/Setsuna_Yuki)
Emma Verde: Emma is a kind and easygoing girl with a healing nature. She is very cheerful, pleasant, and tries to look after the other idols. She aims to be encouraging and to help others smile. Like Shizuku, Emma tends to keep her worries to herself because she doesn't want others to worry about her. She gets nervous easily. She used to live in Switzerland and has a very deep passion for her homeland, thus, she tends to use italian words in her songs or when she talks (adapted from https://love-live.fandom.com/wiki/Emma_Verde).
Tennoji Rina: Rina is not good at conveying emotions on her face. Because of this, she makes use of the "Rina-chan Board", a sketchbook that she draws her emotions on. However she is always trying to change herself, to make others understand her better. In addition, she likes game and technology stuff and is very skilled in making videos and animations. This is very present in her song she sang in the anime, where she says she is changing and uses very specific word like ctrl+z ( adapted from https://love-live.fandom.com/wiki/Rina_Tennoji)
Love Live Nijigasaki is my favorite one, it breaks the standard that was present in the series. It innovated a lot, changing how the club works and putting the characters in solo activities. If you want to see good character development, then you should try this one. You will probably fall in love with some of the girls, or all of them. In addition, it has good comedy and slice of life scenes too.
Special thanks to @mrdawn for reviewing this material
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