I’m not what you’d call a “Love Live fan”: I’ve never played the mobile game and I watched the Muse series many years ago, and I didn’t even like it back then. When Nijigasaki season 1 came out, I decided to give it a try, and surprise surprise, I enjoyed it. Nothing incredible or outstanding, but characters were cute, songs were bangers and always on point, visuals were good as well. The last part about Yuu and Ayumu felt quite terrible I must say, but overall it was an enjoyable series, which felt mostly an introduction to something… “better”? “Deeper”? Not sure, but I was hyped. After Nijigasaki I also watched Sunshine season 1 and Superstar, and guess what, they were even better, a lot better I'd say! So everything was going smoothly, and finally, Nijigasaki season 2 aired: characters were still cute, graphics and artistic-wise was still good… but it wasn’t a good show, at all. Where do I even start?

New characters and new units

This was something I was really thrilled about: brand new characters joined Nijigasaki! Right off the bat, in episode 1, one of them, Lanzhu, made her debut with an outstanding performance and a 10/10 song (we’ll talk about that later). It’s also pretty obvious her role in this series: she basically introduced herself as antagonist, since she wants to perform by herself and doesn’t want to join the Niji club. Aaand… that’s it. She has some screentime in episode 2, and then she’s just there, being somehow irrelevant. No monologue, no confrontation, every time she meets one of the main cast nothing really happens.
Things about her start (and finish, I guess) to happen only several episodes later

Spoiler, click to view

when Mia writes a song to her and then they both joins the Niji club,

until then she just doesn’t matter anymore. And really, that’s it, that’s Lanzhu: cool, great voice and nothing else, absolutely worthless.
The rest of the show is mostly filled with the original Niji girls creating new units in the worst possible way: something random happens, some of the girls are there and a unit is born, I’m not exaggerating here, it’s just random.
Luckily, Mia and Shioriko do had their own episode, but either time it felt incredibly underwhelming. Somehow they tried to “tie” this new three character together and it actually feel like that Mia, Shioriko and Lanzhu were close, but not in a good way. “What do you mean?” you may ask, and that leads us to the next issue.

Screentime management

Our new girls needed more screentime, or at least a more impactful presentation to Shioriko and Mia, not just one episode each. Really, this show never gives the right amount of screentime to things that really matter while it always has room for improvised drama that last one episode and then suddenly ends. Are we actually in season 2? Well, give us more in depth bonding within the cast please, not only about Yuu and Ayumu and not some random events that accidentally lead to create a unit. You literally had 13 characters, are you really telling me that every single of them isn’t worth to do something better than this? I’m not against episodic structure, but Nijigasaki s2 is every single time about an event that seems more melodramatic than it actually is and stop, a unit is formed and the episode ends. Guess what? The best part of this series is without a doubt episode 10, which is a comedy and more lighthearted moment about Kasumin.
So the whole storyline about Setsuna

Spoiler, click to view

finally revealing herself wasn’t important enough to have a whole dedicated episode? They absolutely needed to put in the same episode ANOTHER dramatic plot twist which endangers the festival but everything gets solved in 10 minutes, didn’t they?

So Rina

Spoiler, click to view

finally performing without her gear covering her face isn’t relevant enough to has his own space, they could just give it like a bunch of seconds during the last episodes

And guess what,

Spoiler, click to view

the unit about the damn new characters has absolutely no room in the whole series, it just suddenly appears for like 20 seconds in the last episode because, of course, it’s not relevant, isn’t it?

Music and performances

Finally, Nijigasaki season 2’s best part. I know, I sounded very angry just a moment ago, but when we talk about Nijigasaki’s music and performances that’s absolutely nothing I can say about it: everything is simply flawless. Lights, colours, stages, choreography, songs, voices… Nothing is out of place. “Enjoy it” is currently one of my favourite songs (ever, not just about Love Live or anime shows), but “Star we chase” and “EMOTION” are bangers as well. “Eutopia” is probably my favourite performance, Lanzhu shows perfectly how she’s talented when on the stage (if only they gave her actually some space would’ve been nice too…). Opening and ending are included, they’re both catchy and perfectly fitting the whole series’ mood. I’d say that we didn’t even need this anime, these MVs uploaded on YouTube would’ve done way better than the actual series did.

Verdict

It’s pretty common to watch a series and don’t liking it. When it happens to me, I always understand why a specific show that I dislike might be enjoyed from others, you know, "live and let live", "let people enjoy things". Nijigasaki season 2 is the first show I can’t believe is being enjoyed, I can't believe it actually has its own fans: almost everything is trash and worthless, even though songs are 10/10 we’re talking about like 4 minutes per episode (including op and ed), and I’m pretty sure that Niji fans aren’t watching 20 minutes of nothing just to have some short performances. Everything felt rushed, every single character felt inconsistent, it’s a sparkling show about nothing.
Did you like Nijigasaki season 1? Well done, stop right there, maybe you’ll better off playing the mobile game and watching MVs on YouTube, but really, ignore this season as whole. Let’s just forget about it, it’s not worth your time.