So it's been a while since my last review. This show is very dear to me, for one I obviously like the Love Live! franchise a lot but it also has shown me one thing: True dreams cannot be stopped.

Story:

At first sight, yeah this doesn't seem too special. To me personally it's a lot more than that though. Everything starts off with our protagonist Kanon, who attends the newly opened Yuigaoka High School. She makes a faithful encounter on her way to school with a girl known as Keke. Keke witnessed Kanon singing in the streets and fell in love with her voice, which leads to her proposal: She wants to be school idol with Kanon. Kanon, who wasn't able to sing on stage ever since she was in primary school, doesn't like that idea and tries to dodge Keke. Eventually Keke manages to catch Kanon and they meet the next important person, Student Council Ren Hazuki. She opposed the idea of school idols and wants to stop Keke. Kanon, who doesn't want to be an school idol herself but didn't like how Ren treats Keke, confronts Ren until she is being asked one question: "And what about you? Do you want to be a school idol?". Kanon is not being able to respond, so Ren leaves and Kanon and Keke go to Kanon's place, where Kanon tells Keke why she doesn't want to be a school idol. She promises to help Keke to recruit members though. Unfortunately they are having no success with it and so Keke tries to ask Kanon a last time to be a school idol with her. Kanon refuses but Keke doesn't leave it like that and tells her she would be supporting her with everything she has. Kanon is about to leave but eventually turns back and wants to give it a shot. And so everything is starting. They recruit new members such as Sumire and Chisato and even make Ren join the group. I could talk about every episode here but I don't think this is necessary and I don't really have the words to describe the experience.

Characters:

Kanon: What I love about Kanon is how normal and special she is at the same time. She is a lot less energetic than Honoka and Chika but is charismatic in her own way. Her major strength is her singing, which is described as amazing. The choice of the voice actress here is perfect, as, wow, what a voice Sayuri Date has. Kanon manages to be engaging in her own special way and that is incredible.

Keke: Keke is your run-of-the-mill idol fan, is what you would think but it's more than that. She manages to have an shining presence with her passion for idols. She also manages to find the right words in the right situation. Her interaction with Sumire is hilarious to watch too

Chisato: Who could be a better friend than Chisato. She wants to help Kanon no matter what and that is really admirable. She even goes to the point where she refuses to be a school idol because that would only show her weakness. That is a pretty human issue. If you always have to rely on one person, then well, you would probably feel frustrated too. She eventually manages to realize that she has her own strength and supports Kanon even more as a school idol.

Sumire: Oh Sumire, where should I begin. I will try to keep short here. On the outside, she might be your standard girl that longs for popularity, but ohoho that's not true at all. Being in touch with the world of show business early on, Sumire only has one dream: To shine, to be in the center. Unfortunately she never manages to achieve this and gets relegated to be a background character. She still keeps going to long for her dream and that's where school idols come in place. The world of school idols give Sumire the stage she has longed for to achieve her goals and dreams, alongside friends and comrades. Sumire is having issues at the start but eventually manages to find her very own radiance.

Ren: Finally, we get to Ren. Ren is a very hardworking and determined girl. She only wants the best for the school and its students and clashes with the school idols more than often. But plottwist, Ren actually wanted to be a school idol herself to save the school from closing because of missing funds. She held off that idea after she notices that the one thing her deceased mother didn't leave, was literally everything about her time as a school idol, so Ren figures she regretted being one, as they didn't manage to save their school. Kanon shows Ren that school idols were her most treasured memories and so Ren has no reason to not join the party.

Visuals:

There is not a lot to say about the visuals. Everything is stellar and bright. The 3d models that are being used for performances are better than ever and the sceneries are beautiful. But one thing I really liked were the expressions. This show really managed to make the characters lively by giving them unique face expressions and I loved it.

Music:

Just like in other installments of this franchise, the music is on point. Opening, Ending and Inserts are beautiful and accompany the show in a great way. We are having a lot of variety within the insert songs here too. For example "Wish Song" is a ballad that uses very soft instrumentals but is being followed by "Nonfiction!!, which goes very hard. I like that as it makes every song very special.

Conclusion:

This show had a lot of things going for me. While it might not be for everyone, since idols are pretty niche, I would still recommend to check this out as it really is a great show.