Special thank you to my friends over at the everlasting cabbage head; this would not have been possible without you. <3
Perhaps some background information is necessary for you all to understand this perspective. I think I’d consider myself a fan of LL, even if the time I spent actually engaging with this franchise is rather miniscule compared to others. I got dragged down this hell thanks to Sunshine and went onto becoming a fan of Nijigasaki around the time of the global release of one of the mobile games, Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS. You could say that before the release of the Superstar anime I generally had a positive opinion on Liella!, but as you read this review, you can hopefully figure out how this anime affected my overall opinion of them.
The Good
Let’s start off with the things I did genuinely enjoy about this entry in the LL anime series. Right off the bat, I’d like to mention the visual elements. I won’t mince my words or try to put it eloquently; it’s gorgeous. Superstar is easily the best-looking LL has ever been. From the backdrops to the character designs to the animation; it’s all visually stunning. Speaking of the animation, that too is amazing; relatively speaking. If you were to compare performance CGI from School Idol Project (SIP) and Superstar, then it’s like comparing night with day. I won’t pretend like I was a fan since the SIP days but seeing this glow-up almost makes me feel like what I imagine a proud parent feels like seeing their child achieve something.
Next, I’d like to address the music of this show. While overall I would say that I’m mostly neutral on most of the songs that appear in this anime, I won’t deny the fact that the ending theme for this anime is a certified hood classic. Superstar continues the trend of me being a very big fan of the various ending themes across the series. While I can’t say I have a deep connection with µ’s, Kitto Seishun ga Kikoeru and Donna Toki mo Zutto still evokes some kind of sentimental emotion within me. The same can be said about my favorite of the µ’s ending themes, Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari; it does what the previous two do, but to an even greater effect. My love for the LL ending themes of course extends to Sunshine and Nijigasaki too (though, NEO SKY, NEO MAP! Is probably the weakest to me if I were to judge them based solely on how they make me feel). Superstar’s ending theme, Mirai wa Kaze no You ni, did not miss the baton passed to them from the previous series, and I’m glad that the quality of the ending themes stayed consistent with the series as a whole.
The Bad
Right, everyone that knows me knew that this was coming. No show is perfect, and if there was such a thing, then it sure as hell wouldn’t be an idol anime; let’s stay realistic here. Did I go into this show with the expectation that it would be good? I think I did, actually. Conceptually, this show had a lot going for it. There was almost no connection to the previous series besides some plot concepts, and the group only had five members; meaning that every character surely would get a time to shine and be…likable. Also, this is the third entry in the main series, and you know what they say: third time’s the charm! You’d think that LL’s writers finally cracked the code with Superstar; the idol anime to end all idol anime. Truly, if you had a miniscule amount of hope, you’d think that.
Regrettably, that isn’t what we got. I suppose that, even with the right ingredients, one can still make something completely inedible.
Let’s start off by addressing the elephant in the room, or maybe to adopt the thinking of LL’s writing team, let’s start off by adding the failing school the girls attend. “But Rose,” I hear you interject, “you love Sunshine and they did the same thing there!” Yes, I won’t try to deny that. The difference here is that I am a rather biased flower; Sunshine changed my life. Superstar didn’t even come close to resonating with me (then again, I am the one writing the review on Superstar here).
However, that doesn’t mean that Sunshine is absolved from any and all criticism on pulling the same stunts its predecessor did. You can most definitely criticize Sunshine for reusing that element, even if the story it tries to tell about radiance lies far beyond that. But where does that leave Superstar? The third main entry in a series of idol anime featuring failing schools, but without the beyond, perhaps. The fun of Superstar is that it actually comes up twice in the story! How does a school start closing twice? Better yet, why’d they double down on this plot element? Did the common critique that Sunshine received about another school closing fall on deaf ears? Whatever the reason is, it definitely doesn’t do Superstar any favors.
The Girls
Intrinsically tied to the school closing double whammy (SCDW) is one of the main characters; Ren Hazuki. Ren is the latest entry in the student-council-president-turned-school-idol archetype, joining Eli from SIP, Dia from Sunshine, and Setsuna and Shioriko from Nijigasaki. However, unlike them, she has absolutely no charm and is presented in such an unlikable light I scratch my head thinking how they were even planning to sell merchandise of her. In the first half of the story, her general role is that of the closest thing possible to an ‘antagonist’–although not a charismatic one. The second half doesn’t do her any favors either as the SCDW is so tied to her backstory that it ultimately casts a shadow over her as a character. The only positive things I can say about Ren is that her singing voice is unique and her character design is alright if you manage to ignore the fact that her hairstyle is literally just a combination of Eli’s and Dia’s hairstyles. A little on the nose there, LL.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike all of the characters. My favorite out of them all is Sumire, but I’ll talk about her later. Instead, I’d like to talk first about Kanon, my second favorite. Kanon is the newest of the orange haired leader archetype, joining Honoka from SIP and Chika from Sunshine. What sets her apart from them is that she’s not a genki character, often attributed to Honoka and Chika. For those unaware, genki is often the term used to describe very energetic happy-go-lucky characters. This, personally, makes her a rather refreshing leader-type to me. Her backstory and growth are primarily about how she can’t sing in front of a crowd, which she gets over after realizing that she isn’t alone while performing for the first time as a school idol; textbook stuff. However, later on, there’s an arc focused on making her sing even without the others. The inclusion of an arc like this was something I found very pleasant. I was fully expecting them to never bring the problem up again and let the previous solution remain as the answer to her problems. Instead they do seriously address the fact that at some point they would not be performing together anymore; leaving Kanon without the support she needed. So the other Liella! members make Kanon face this problem head on by making her perform solo for an event, which she of course, in typical LL fashion, handles without issue. Overall, the arc felt more mature than the typical LL story beats without being so mature that it felt jarring, cementing Kanon as my second favorite.
I’ll create a pattern here by talking about Keke next. Keke is an entry in the token foreigner school idol archetype. Other entries include Eli from SIP, Mari from Sunshine and Emma, Mia and Lanzhu from Niji. Before watching Superstar, Keke was my favorite member based almost entirely on character design, the few Liella! livestreams I watched, and her seiyuu (shoutouts to Liyuu). Superstar took that and tarnished it. The main problem is that Keke doesn’t really grow at all. Considering that I’m talking about a LL anime, everyone not having some form of growth isn’t too surprising; nor is it anything to fault a character for. Perhaps that’s setting the bar a little too low, but even with that low of a bar, Keke fails to reach it. You see, there’s this particular moment that I vividly remember where she criticizes Sumire for eavesdropping on her even though earlier on in the show Keke herself eavesdrops on Ren with the others when invading Ren’s house. What’s the difference there, I wonder? The circumstances, perhaps. Maybe it was an accident with Ren, and therefore, ‘okay’. But how do you know for certain that it wasn’t an accident for Sumire either? As a member of the same group you’re in, and perhaps as a friend, shouldn’t you give Sumire the benefit of the doubt here? It’s hypocritical, or maybe shoddy writing. That moment together with the fact that her personality doesn’t have any facets beyond being an idol geek in a similar vein to SIP’s Nico and Hanayo, Sunshine’s Ruby and Dia and Niji’s Setsuna, ultimately leads to Keke being nothing more than an archetype within an archetype that is tainted with hypocrisy. What a character. Maybe, just maybe, you could see her wanting Sumire as the center for that one round in the competition as growth. But that begs the question: is the bar so low that starting to become supportive of your fellow idol-in-arms is considered ‘growth’?
Speaking of Sumire, let’s talk about her. Sumire is the latest entry in the eccentric with a silly catchphrase archetype. Others include Yohane from Sunshine and maybe Nico from SIP. I think that should make it painfully obvious why I like Sumire the most out of all of the Liella! girls. Similar to Kanon, she’s very unique when considering the franchise as a whole. I’m not really sure whether liking characters solely because they’re a bit unique within the franchise reflects worse on me or LL. Either way, my praises for Sumire do not end simply with the fact that there’s little connection between her and the ones that came before her. Sumire as a character is quite fascinating, too. She has a crippling inferiority complex for one, and spends way too much time simply walking around the streets to try and get scouted for some gig in showbiz. Talk about a grindset. The episode where she joins the group has Kanon scout her like an actual producer or agent out on the streets after failing to make her join with normal means. Honestly, I just like that moment. There’s nothing really too deep about it; it just carefully considers what had been already established about Sumire and uses that for what could be the best ‘recruitment’ scene in the entire franchise. It only missed a little jingle or fanfare to truly make it the greatest of all time. Sadly, Sumire primarily only gets used as the silly one and as the butt of (isopod) jokes. The only big exception is where they take her seriously again in the episode where she gets chosen as center. It’s a bit off how she declared that she would claim the center position for herself when joining the group, only to not accept the position when the others want her to become the center thanks to her rapping ability. But fine, I’ll concede that and imagine that Sumire’s inferiority complex runs so deep that she can’t see herself as being superior to anyone. How ironic is it then, that she’s the bona fide best girl in this show?
Last, but definitely not the least, is Chisato. She is the childhood friend of the leader archetype like Umi and Kotori from SIP, You and Kanan from Sunshine and Ayumu from Niji before her. I’ll be honest, I don’t really have anything substantial to say about Chisato. Mostly because I have slightly forgotten what she was up to before joining the group, but I’ll imagine it wasn’t anything too offensive. I probably would have remembered if it was something bad. Though, you could probably make the argument that if it is forgettable, then that isn’t good either…meh, I’ll let it slide. I don’t necessarily dislike her or anything, but I don’t have any reason to really like her either. She is definitely a necessary existence within Liella!, as she was the one that initiated the arc where they give Kanon the courage to sing on her own. Because of that, I guess my neutrality on her leans slightly towards the positive, but again, I don’t really have anything besides that. Uhm, her character design is pretty striking when compared to her predecessors. Not many share her hair color. She likes round things. That’s quirky. Speaking of round things, I have yet to mention the absolute best character in this show. That’s right, shoutouts to my man Manmaru. It’s such a shame we didn’t see him take to the stage.
Outro
I don’t think there’s anything left for me to say. I was going to mention how their loss to the rival group of Precure characters was also a repetition of previous plot elements seen in SIP and Sunshine, but I think it wouldn’t really add anything to this review. It does make me think, though, do the writers think that LL anime should all follow some sort of formula? I guess if it isn’t broken, we don’t try to fix it. It would explain a lot. Like how they only had five characters to focus on, and yet still managed to make some of them feel like echoes of preceding characters. Or how plot elements constantly and shamelessly get used again and again like the SCDW. Is becoming fully predictable their endgame? Does LL hate innovation so much that they’d produce the same anime again and again as a cheap cash grab as if it were an isekai anime? Are they telling us to just keep consuming?
I’m just imagining things.
Hopefully, at least.
I hope my opinion of Superstar has become clear to you, dear reader. If you’ve made it here through the proper means, then I thank you for your time and hope that I managed to amuse you a little with my ramblings on a silly little idol anime. I think I’ve truly run out of words to put down here, so I don’t think I can give anything thought provoking as a takeaway from this review. Still, I would love it if I could at least say something meaningful with my last words. Oh, wait, I know.
Cope, mald, and seethe.
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