Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2
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rizuchan
 Posts: 975 Location: Kansas |
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I'm been waiting on baited breath to see what they do with Shioriko this season and... it worked okay. I'm glad they were able to find an avenue to explain her motivation and actually show her true character a little. I'm still disappointed they completely removed her conflict with Setsuna and the group, though, and wonder what that means for the continuity spoiler[since it doesn't seem like she's going to be stealing the student council president position anytime soon, and in fact, Setsuna's arc rather made it sound like they intend to keep Nana as president. It's also rather interesting to me that the anime went with the message "you can do both things you love!" for Setsuna's arc, when the game went the opposite direction with "it's better to focus on what you love most than do two things half-heartedly."]
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Nate148
Posts: 470 |
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The song in this was an old one like what the og show did with snow halation.
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darkchibi07
 Posts: 5469 |
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Yeah, the anime played a variation of Tokimeki Runners. Though I have to admit, I was so-so with the song in the anime, but then once I heard the original, now I felt the anime version is a bit of a step up. |
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GhostStalkerSA
 Posts: 425 Location: NYC |
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TokiRun is kinda the signature song of the Niji franchise as it was introduced with the debut of SIFAS, so I’ll be disappointed if we don’t get 12 man TokiRun by the end of the season.
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harminia
 Posts: 2003 Location: australia |
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Looks like they'll be releasing yet another version of Tokimeki Runners.
The Nagashi Somen club truly are the best club. Such heroes. Where is Love Live! Nagashi Somen Idols. Also, I like that Yu doing random yoga etc poses to brainstorm lyrics mirrored how Kanon in Superstar brainstormed. |
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TaperW
Posts: 20 |
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"Tokimeki Runners" as the song Yu writes here probably works much better for those of us who've been fans of Nijigasaki from before the anime — a version was done as a joint music video with μ's and Aqours for the launch of the SIFAS game — and maybe that's a larger failing of the anime, to be honest. Like many productions, the staff is trying to both serve existing fans and attract new viewers, and they are maybe leaning too far to the former. That said, I can't watch it any way other than as a long-time fan, so I loved it. "Tokimeki Runners" sounds like a lot of Nijigasaki's group songs because, as their first, the later songs sound like it — but it felt very fitting for this.
(And I didn't expect a larger, quasi-plot-relevant return for the Nagashi Soumen Club. Gotta watch those corners.) It feels like they've been playing the long game with Shioriko, Mia, and Lanzhu's characterization, kind of like how they soft-pedaled Ayumu's codependency issues until they burst at the end of last season. I feel like I have a decent feel for what they're doing, modulo possible revelations, but, again, that may be overly colored by being immersed in different versions of the story and characters. As for rizuchan's comment, spoiler[Setsuna stated that her term as Student Council President comes to an end next term, which would seem to be the route they're using to put Shioriko in as her replacement without the whole recall storyline.] |
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rizuchan
Posts: 975 Location: Kansas |
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How dare you say that about Tokimeki Runners, further proof that ANN reviewers are a bunch of hacks. (/s x100) And yeah, Tokimeki Runners isn't going to have the exact same impact if you're really an entirely anime only fan, but isn't that also true with the throwback songs in the older seasons? Even if you haven't seen the video (which is on the official Youtube channel even if you don't play the game), the Tokimeki Runners album is on Apple Music's Featured Anisong albums, for crying out loud. I'd think anyone who has the smallest interest in Nijigasaki's music outside of the anime would have heard that album. Sure, Snow Halation has reached meme status, but Tokimeki Runners isn't that different from Bokura no Live or Kimi no Kokoro Kagayaiteru Kai. |
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sourpatchthekid
Posts: 64 |
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I'm an anime only watcher but i really liked episode 9. I loved seeing Rina reach out to Mina. Also just generally getting to know the characters a bit more this season
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TaperW
Posts: 20 |
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Yeah, the joke for all of Mia's songs has been, "This is Mia Taylor, and you're watching the Disney Channel." I'm rather fond of both this new one, "stars we chase", and her second solo song, "Toy Doll", though that may be mostly from the combo of an unironic appreciation of generic jpop and having English lyrics stick in my head more easily.
I feel like Lanzhu's backstory is an echo of, of all people's, Nico's — just like how Nico's first school idol group quit on her because she was the only one taking things seriously, and thereby alienating the others, Lanzhu's repeatedly been in the position of having a group of people go along with her at the start of some new hobby or pursuit, only to drive the others away with her easy mastery, (warranted) arrogance, and ham-fisted approach to interpersonal relationships. I feel like the difference between her approach in the anime and in the game is that in the game, she was not past her friend-making despair point. spoiler[She swept into Nijigasaki High and abused her funds and position, but in the honest belief that if she just showed everyone how great things could be under her leadership, everyone would love her like she wanted. When that didn't work, she tried more force — but even while preventing the Club from performing, she still kept trying to invite everyone to lavish meals and luxuries, because maybe buying love would work this time? But in the anime, either her mom isn't chair of the school or she has less influence, and] she's stopped trying to make friends because she's decided she can't — but if solo School Idols exist, maybe people will love me even if I can't actually be friends with them. (Mia's anime background matches the game's pretty closely, and I do purely love that in both, it's Rina who reaches out to her. I love the development Rina has gotten this season, and that her reduced affect display hasn't been either magically cured or treated as something that should be cured. Her Board helps her — but she can connect without it; metaphorically, it's acting as a cane rather than as a crutch.) |
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rizuchan
Posts: 975 Location: Kansas |
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I've heard a lot of people joke that Mia's songs are very High School Musical-ish, but I was never a Disney kid, so I can't compare. To me," I'm Still..." was so great because it's one of the few examples of an English anime song that really captures the lyrics of a Japanese anime song, but in English. Most other English anime songs are either too stilted by awkward Engrish and unnatural grammar, or they go too far trying to imitate western pop music and lose what makes them anime songs, but I feel like "I'm Still..." really found the perfect balance. "Toy Doll"... is in a weird place between anisong, late 2000s pop, and weirdly uncomfortable lyrics for a preteen character to be singing. (Which I guess might be on point for anisong, but not so much for Love Live)
Anyway, what I really want to say is, if Mia Taylor's songs all sound like Disney pop songs... maybe I need to be listening to more Disney pop songs. Do they all sing about dreams and friendship and hard work too? 
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harminia
Posts: 2003 Location: australia |
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I'm not a Disney person either so for me they all just sounded like songs from the 00s like Kelly Clarkson and Delta Goodrem. I'm not really a fan of Mia's songs but they give me such a nostalgic feeling lol.
Not sure how I feel about the trio's development. I know the game got a lot of flack for how aggressive the trio were but they feel too watered down here. Lanzhu is about the only one who has been mean enough to warrant them forming a subunit whose first song is called "monster girls" lol. |
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GhostStalkerSA
Posts: 425 Location: NYC |
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Even if it isn’t 12 man TokiRun, 12 man LUMF is acceptable as well.
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merr
Posts: 470 |
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Man, Lanzhu has some weird outfits this ep. They dress her like she’s 39 and just left 1980.
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TaperW
Posts: 20 |
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Two things to say about the finale review: first, the move of including fanart was also pulled in the final episode of season one — there's a scene of Karin in front of a bulletin board full of fanart at the first School Idol Festival. Second, all the songs presented, in-universe, as the solos Yu has newly composed for everyone, are pre-existing songs; they were the songs released as everyone's second solos.
(Which complicates the fictional authorship somewhat; Mia's, "Toy Doll", was in the game her own composition based on some previous juvenilia; given its love song tones and exhortations to "baby", and the fact that she calls Yu/the protagonist "Baby-chan", having Yu write it is a little weird.) That aside, I know a lot of fans are wondering what's next. I've heard a lot of folks assuming that the previous pattern of two-seasons-and-a-movie will hold true. But Nijigasaki has always been an odd duck. They weren't really supposed to get this second season; they weren't supposed to get an anime at all. They've left room to do more, and with the announcement that we're really getting the Yohane fantasy AU anime, it seems like a lot of the old Love Live rules might not apply anymore. I'm looking forward to whatever comes next, but I'm happy with what we got. |
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GhostStalkerSA
Posts: 425 Location: NYC |
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Great ending to the season, and while we didn’t get a second R3birth song, I guess Lanzhu and Mia coming out on stage during Aoi no Canaria and posing with Shioriko in the same positions as they appear on the cover of Monster Girls is an amusing callback. And yeah, watching the snippets of the Nijigasaki 2nd solo songs during the episode was great and reminded me that I didn’t have a copy of Love U My Friends yet (where most of the songs debuted, and the R3birth girls getting theirs on L!L!L! Love the Life you Live instead), and that I should fix that.
The N girls were already mentioned, but there was also the new London GothLoli Girl, who was voiced by Karin Kagami of D4DJ fame. The cameo seiyuu that Sunrise got for this season made a great game of hearing “wait, is that…?” before confirmation at the credits (also notable were Aimi as Jennifer, a member of iRiS whose name is escaping me as Rakshata, Yoko Hisaka as Kaoruko, etc). Also amusing was the absence of males in every single crowd scene. I know we in the fandom joke about men being extinct in Love Live (except for some very few examples), so throw another proof of that onto the pile. Last edited by GhostStalkerSA on Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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