Superstar is the 4th installment of the beloved and long-running Love Live series. It is easy to follow and does not reference previous parts, allowing both old and new fans to enjoy it.

This installment goes back to its roots, arguably simpler than the base of its roots were. Kanon gets picked up by Keke to start a school idol club, but complications arise when the student council president tries to stop them; the standard Love Live stuff.

The special part about it this time is how Kanon acts in opposition to the other main characters of previous installments of Love Live. Kanon has stage fright. This stage fright helps drive her character throughout the story as an obstacle for her to get over. It is a good character element that can add some growth and depth to her character, but I felt it was rushed. There were not many episodes where it was the main focus and even when it was, I felt it was not explored enough.

This pacing issue crosses through Sumire as well. Ever since she was a kid, Sumire has always wanted to be in the spotlight but had never been there. This would also provide for an interesting plot, but once again, underdeveloped.

As rushed as I may be describing the pacing, this was only felt during the last third of the show, which is when a lot of the important parts of the characters' arcs happened.

Contrary to this was Chisato’s character arc. Chisato was introduced in episode one and slowly developed throughout the show. This is due to her arc directly tying into her relationship with Kanon, and how they affect each other. It climaxed beautifully and became my favourite part of Superstar.

And once again, in opposition to Chisato’s arc is Ren’s arc. Ren’s character arc did not make too much sense and was not developed a lot, kind of just happened.

Finally, Keke. So far, Keke’s arc has only been hinted at and not a lot has been revealed about her, even if she was the first member to join the group. Frankly, this is not a bad thing, as a later season is likely to go further into her character.

So far, I have only spoken about their development, but how are they individually? Honestly, I think I only like Chisato and Kanon individually.

Even if I only like two of them individually, the writing is something of note. The characters play off of each other very well. Every character has a different way of speaking to each other, whether friendly (Kanon and Chisato) or a more aggressive tone (Sumire and Keke), creating a very immersive environment and overall makes character interactions an enjoyable experience.

The writing also excels at telling jokes. The jokes are very fast-paced and usually succeed to at least put a smile on my face. It combines both visual humour and wordplay, effectively churning out jokes quickly. It is more visual than wordplay but is still a great combination of both.

Now onto the more technical aspects, the visuals of each new season of Love Live are always astronomically better; this applies to this season. Hair bounces with each step and the animated dance choreography always looks clean. Full of bright colours blending well together to create appealing visuals that are hard to get bored of.

As it usually is with Love Live, the performances where they sing and dance are mostly CGI. Love Live has quite the mixed history with CGI, as sometimes it looks very off, and other times it looks pretty decent. In this case, the CGI looks good. Used solely for the dance segments, studio Sunrise can create higher production choreography and CGI. It does a smooth job transitioning between the CG and the animated parts during the dance segments to help emphasize movement.

These stage performances also sound great. Love Live is often associated with cute girls and high-pitched voices, but it is cute girls and “normal” pitch voices this time. This change can make the anime enjoyed by many more people, as many people were turned away by Love Live due to their high pitch.

In addition to looking and sounding good, they also flow well. Every time song is broken into, it feels like you know exactly when it is going to happen and instead of being boringly predictable, it is satisfying to see.

Alongside the dazzling stage performances, the background music is also good. Nice and relaxing most of the time, but it can also get you a little hype for the more dramatic moments.

Despite its characterization and pacing flaws, Love Live Superstar provides a fun time for both new and old fans of the series. It has arguably the best looking and sounding in the series and is overall a worthwhile experience. I will be looking forward to more of it!

Final note, I’d like to thank @hnf01 and another without an Anilist for reading over and helping me edit this review.