“Love Live! School Idol Project” Review
“Love Live! School Idol Project” (hereafter referred to as “School Idol Project”) is one of six anime series within the “Love Live!” media franchise. This anime contains more inappropriate imagery, so I would not recommend watching it if you cannot handle/do not like that kind of content. The anime follows nine girls all trying to save their school after it was announced that it will close in three years. It follows the Idol group μ’s (pronounced as “Muse”) trying to gain popularity as a school idol group for their school. “School Idol Project” seasons one, two, and the movie are on Crunchyroll.
Season 1
During Season 1, we follow μ’s in their starting stages as a school idol group and try to save their school. We follow how they interact with each other, and recruit more members than the starting three members. We follow them as they perform and solve problems related to being in school.
I loved the first season, which is the only season I’ve watched. I enjoyed the character development in this season and the story progression. While there are some weird moments in the anime, I still liked it. The ending had me on the edge of my seat, and it was a beautiful ending to season 1. The visuals and music in the anime are just one of many other things that I enjoyed. My favorite song from the first season was “START:DASH!!”, it’s extremely catchy, and it’s just a good song in my opinion.
I’d give this season a 5/5. I can’t help but wonder what the second season has to offer!
Season 2 (SLIGHT SPOILER WARNING FOR SEASON 1)
In Season 2 of “School Idol Project”, we follow μ’s in the second half of the school year after achieving their goal from the previous season. Their goal throughout Season 2 is to enter this big school idols event called the Love Live (hence the name of the anime, I guess).
I loved the second season, seeing everything unfold, and the story progress was amazing! I loved seeing all the songs and everything leading up to the concerts. There are way fewer weird moments in Season 2 compared to Season 1, which I like (not like I had an issue with it initially).
My favorite song shown during Season 2 was “Snow halation”. I’ll be honest, I’ve heard this song before. I heard this song through the YouTube bait-and-switch video game music channel “SiivaGunner” (stylized as SiIvaGunner), which I’ve seen before been one of the reasons why this song is popular (specifically as a meme). 2 notable examples of SiIvaGunner is their upload “Snow halation – Love Live!”, which changes the song’s lyrics to be related to the 1960s cartoon “The Flintstones”, and a whole album dedicated to Snow halation called “Halation Celebration ~ 10th Anniversary Tribute to Snow halation” which was made in 2020 to celebrating the 10th anniversary of of “Snow halation” (with the release date of “Snow halation” being 2010).
I rate this season 5/5 stars and want to know what the movie contains, as this season ends with a cliffhanger!
Movie
The movie, “Love Live! The School Idol Movie”, is supposed to be the ending to the series and seemingly a final send-off for μ’s. This follows μ’s in their final moments together as the third years of μ’s have graduated (because they’re in Japan and your third year of high school is your final year), and they can’t be school idols anymore.
I loved the movie, everything that plays out, and I loved the ending. How they end up in the situation after what they teased in Season 2’s ending, and what they continued from there. Every bit had me wondering what would happen next! This was the perfect send-off for μ’s as a group. This movie has wonderful art and wonderful colors. They put a lot of detail into this, and the songs they played during it were also among my favorites.
I rate this movie 5/5 stars and am glad to see this has a good end.
Additional Info
μ’s has a YouTube Channel with all of their releases from the show. There’s also a manga for this anime, but it lacks an official English translation. There are video games for the franchise as a whole, but I’d like to direct you to the games section of the wikipedia page for the “Love Live!” franchise. Also, the 5 other anime under “Love Live!” are:
- “Love Live! Sunshine!!”
- “Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club”
- “Love Live! Superstar!!”
- “Nijiyon Animation” (shorts based on “Nijigasaki High School Idol Club” and adapted from the 4-panel manga spinoff)
- “Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror” (fantasy re-imagining of “Love Live! Sunshine!!”)
There are also two other projects that are not anime, that being “Link! Like! Love Live!” (a mobile game not available here in the US) and “Ikizuraibu! Love Live! Bluebird” (a project with a YouTube Channel and an X/Twitter Account).
