After having done minimal research on this new Love Live
series, I decided to give it a try despite having dropped the first season of
the original series.
Having watched the first episode to this series, I can say
that I am now tempted to return to the original to see if I maybe lost interest
too quickly as this first episode was pretty appealing, though as with
everything, is not without its flaws.
The plot thus far is that the main character, being inspired
by the School Idols from the first series, has decided to start a School Idol
Club at her school, though the Student Council President is very much against
the idea, which does little to dissuade the protagonist.
It sounds pretty basic, though the series makes sure to pack
as much exposition as it can in as little time. Though this is purely
subjective, at the four minute mark I thought we’d already been twelve minutes
in, and that’s typically not a good sign to me. The difference with this
episode is that the longer it went on, the better it got, though I might need
to rewatch it to learn all of the characters’ names considering that this
series has nine group members as opposed to the previous series’ eight.
Thus far, not all of their personalities have been
showcased, though a few seem samey because we’ve yet to have the spotlight
shone on them. The main character is incredibly happy, and suffers from Haruhi
syndrome where she realizes she’s painfully normal, and is determined to make
herself stand out with this idol gig. Because of the series she’s in, I doubt
she’ll turn into god, but we’ll have to give it some time before that’s
perfectly clear, haha.
Aside from MC, there’s a couple of other archetypes. There’s
a shy girl and a chuunibyou character, though she seems more anime-oriented
than video game-oriented, which makes me think she’ll be a cross between
Kuroneko from OreImo and Kobato from Haganai.
Additionally, a plot-important character in the form of (桜内 梨子 Sakurauchi
Riko) shows up to slow down the pace just enough to not turn this episode
into a too-quick-to-follow mess. This girl is a pianist, and is looking for
inspiration to write an Oceanic song, or so she claims.
At the end of the episode, she transfers to the same class
as the MC to move the plot forward, but she then refuses her invitation to join
the yet-to-be School Idol Club and the episode ends.
Truthfully, the fact that this episode ended with a
cliffhanger is shocking considering the lack of drama I remember from the
original series, though it’s a surefire way of keeping me watching, definitely.
While a few of my complaints stem from the fact that I can’t
help but feel that this series has a lot of that same-face/same-body syndrome
series like SAO suffer from, the plot helps in that all the characters are made
distinct from the beginning, though I can only hope that as the series
progresses they all grow to be their own person with their own goals and
aspirations, however, that might be expecting a bit much considering series
like these feel like an excuse to create anime in the musical genre.
Moreover, the episode’s directing was not comfortable,
because as I stated before, it goes too fast, and very rarely feels like it
wants to let things sink in. The original series felt like it went way too
slowly for my liking, but this series seems like it might be the complete
opposite. Additionally, there is a sequence where the MC is trying to stop
pianist girl from jumping into the ocean and to provide dramatic emphasis,
these weird camera effects were placed, which felt incredibly strange and
inappropriate since we are not told outright that anybody was snapping photos
of them.
However, that is as much as I have to say on this episode
without rambling on endlessly. Thank you for watching, and I’ll see y’all
later.
Addendum:
The camera effects from the scene where Rika is trying to
jump into the sea are used in another scene in that same episode, with the same
effect, though in that part of the episode they feel more normal. That part of
the episode occurs a little bit after the first time the effect is used, though
I still found it deeply distracting.
Furthermore, I really did forget that Umi existed. She must
not have left a lasting impact for me to have forgotten her, cause I believe
she had already been introduced by episode six when I dropped the series. I’ll
have to give the first series a try to go ahead and see what’s up there.
