News
Love Live! Franchise Launches 'Virtual School Idol' Smartphone App Next April
posted on by Egan Loo
A teaser video debuted for the Love Live! idol franchise's "virtual school idol" project on Sunday. The teaser announces the April 2023 launch for the "Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club (Hasu no Sora Girls' School Idol Club) project's smartphone app.
The app will stream live concerts and talk sessions, host a idol-training card game, and offer other forms of content. The staff is accepting suggestions for the app's title.
The project will let fans experience the story "together with school idols over 365 days" and let players "walk the path to graduation with the girls." In addition to the smartphone app, the idol club members (and their cast) will stream videos, appear in magazines, release music CDs, hold concerts, among other efforts in various forms of media.
In 2010, the anime studio Sunrise, Lantis, and ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G Magazine launched Love Live! as a self-described "ultimate user-participation project" that lets its fans vote on the future of the fictional idols in the μ's school idol group, including parts of song lyrics, character details, sub-group members, and center positions. This practice would go on for future Love Live! groups. A series of music CDs and animated music videos then followed. The first Love Live! School idol project anime series (pictured right) premiered in January 2013, and the second series premiered in April 2014. The Love Live! The School Idol Movie film opened in Japan in June 2015.
The Love Live! Sunshine!! project was then announced in February 2015. The project's three key phrases are "Reader Participation," "Inspired by μ's," and "Seaside Town Setting." The franchise focused on a new generation of idols following μ's' footsteps. Fans chose the group's name Aqours by popular vote. The first Love Live! Sunshine!! television anime premiered in July 2016. The second season ran from October to December 2017. The Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over the Rainbow film opened in Japan in January 2019.
Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, the third new project in the franchise, debuted its first season in October 2020. The story focused on a new group named the "Nijigasaki High School Idol Club" in a well-off school, but with its members explicitly not participating in the titular Love Live! competition, and instead focusing on having strong individual personalities. The anime will have a second season that will premiere on April 2.
Love Live! Superstar!! is the fourth and latest project, focusing on the group Liella! The smallest group yet with only five members (initially), the new story focuses on a newly established school with no history, with its members focused on finding their own identity in a new environment. The first season premiered in July 2021, and the second season premiered on July 17 before ending with an announcement of a third season.
The first Love Live! School Idol Festival game launched on smartphones in Japan in 2013, and then launched overseas in 2014. It has since spawned the Love Live! School Idol Festival ~Afterschool Activity~ arcade game in 2016, and the arcade game in turn was ported to the PlayStation 4 console in 2021. The franchise has an upcoming new game titled Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Live! for iOS and Android devices.
Source: Love Live! franchise's Twitter account via Hachima Kikō
