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EP. REVIEW: Love Live! Superstar!! Season 2


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lomez



Joined: 14 Mar 2018
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2022 3:53 pm Reply with quote
My only complaint is that I'm getting tired of Keke and Sumire's battered wife dynamic.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 3:08 am Reply with quote
Yeah, I thought that the first season was everything that made the first season good, only better. I had not seen any announcements about the new season, so didn't know that there were knew characters, but I kind of guessed it was likely at the end of the first season.

Kinako kind of made an impression to me kind of like a mix of Hanayo and Rin, the insecurity reminds me of what took part in both their characters.

lomez wrote:
My only complaint is that I'm getting tired of Keke and Sumire's battered wife dynamic.


I don't know, some of my favourite moments in the new episode was with Keke kept blaming Sumire. The chemistry works from Sumire having such an ego that Keke has to take swipes at them, and somehow when Sumire is not doing her try to be famous thing she comes across as the more normal one. They fight, but you know it is a part of them being friends.
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lomez



Joined: 14 Mar 2018
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 7:37 am Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
The chemistry works from Sumire having such an ego that Keke has to take swipes at them.

Maybe she should wait until she's being cocky, then. The episode was all Keke shitting on her unprovoked, Sumire just taking it unless it's the isopod thing. And then still following her around all the time and worrying about her. Comes across as a typical abusive relationship, it's bizarre.
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DiscordMod



Joined: 10 Mar 2022
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 8:52 am Reply with quote
lomez wrote:
Comes across as a typical abusive relationship, it's bizarre.


You're looking too far into it. It's just friendly banter.
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lomez



Joined: 14 Mar 2018
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:22 am Reply with quote
Friendly banter is usually back and forth. Whole episode was Keke putting Sumire down and Sumire trying to argue for herself.
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merr



Joined: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 462
PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:27 am Reply with quote
I like the Keke/Sumire dynamic Confused And it was hardly the “whole episode.”
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lomez



Joined: 14 Mar 2018
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:36 am Reply with quote
The whole episode as in "all of their interactions in the episode".
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DLSF



Joined: 28 Jun 2012
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 11:00 am Reply with quote
lomez wrote:
Friendly banter is usually back and forth. Whole episode was Keke putting Sumire down and Sumire trying to argue for herself.


This. Sumire never insults Keke back, even in the first season. It's always Keke doing it to Sumire.

This kind of mean-spirited comedy is super prevalent in Superstar S1. And in the original Love Live too. I guess it's this director's style.
I never liked it. It's lazy low hanging fruit and just makes the characters (Keke in this case) look like arseholes.

It's not just those two. The new characters red hair and blue hair seem to hate each other's guts. And yellow hair keeps snapping at brown hair.

It's very disappointing to go back to this kind of drivel, especially after Nijigasaki last season which treated their characters with so much empathy in comparison. Even Sunshine IIRC treated their characters better.
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harminia



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 1987
Location: australia
PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2022 10:00 pm Reply with quote
DLSF wrote:
It's not just those two. The new characters red hair and blue hair seem to hate each other's guts. And yellow hair keeps snapping at brown hair.

It's very disappointing to go back to this kind of drivel, especially after Nijigasaki last season which treated their characters with so much empathy in comparison. Even Sunshine IIRC treated their characters better.


I didn't get a sense of red and blue hating each other, more that they've known each other for ages. But also I do know about the characters so I know spoiler[they're good friends and Blue (Shiki) really cares about Red(Mei). Mei cares about Shiki but is also like "damn guess I can't escape you huh"(secretly pleased).]

Yellow snapped at brown hair but she also noticed she was upset and gave her encouragement.


Anyway, I enjoyed the episode a lot! The faces were so hilarious, especially Kinako's after she sees the performance. I also enjoyed the song; I haven't been big on Liella songs (beyond Non Fiction) but this one was very fun and the visuals were cute.
Wasn't sure what I'd think of the new characters but they seem fun. I like how Mei swaps voices, and Shiki looks quite funny with her inventions - the next ep preview showed her with some weird device over her eyes that looked hilarious.
Hinako is pretty cute and I love her noises. Oninatsu I'm not sure about yet but she's got that dual personality I love. I just wonder how they'll distinguish her from Sumire as they're kinda similar.

Hearing the OP, I was pleased to hear the new VAs are good singers! I was worried we'd get a lousy singer, seeing as every season has had at least one so far and Liella had been the only safe one, but its sounding like my fears weren't met so I'm happy.

Still don't know how Sunny Passion won Love Live when their songs are pretty meh LOL.[/spoiler]
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DiscordMod



Joined: 10 Mar 2022
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 5:00 am Reply with quote
lomez wrote:
Friendly banter is usually back and forth. Whole episode was Keke putting Sumire down and Sumire trying to argue for herself.


IIRC Keke called Sumire a giant isopod and teased her 2 times saying Sumire is the reason that no people tried to join the group. It's just teasing. Best friends do it all the time to each other. There's no malicious intent behind it. Context matter, too. If you watched this whole episode and thought Keke is bullying Sumire and they are in an abusive relationship, I don't know what to say to you.
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lomez



Joined: 14 Mar 2018
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 7:58 am Reply with quote
It's not actual abuse per se, but it looks like what you get to see in public from one of those relationships. If a friend of mine was with someone who's constantly making that kind of one-sided "banter" and never makes any positive comments to balance it (or are we supposed to assume these happen off-screen?) I'd tell him to get out of there asap. Never mind the responding to demonstrations of concern with "you should mind your own business" part.
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lomez



Joined: 14 Mar 2018
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 8:06 am Reply with quote
DiscordMod wrote:
There's no malicious intent behind it.

Also, you forgot the
"You see anyone good?"
"They're all better than you."
exchange.
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DiscordMod



Joined: 10 Mar 2022
Posts: 14
PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 8:38 am Reply with quote
lomez wrote:

Also, you forgot the
"You see anyone good?"
"They're all better than you."
exchange.


Still, not abuse. When 2 people are close enough, teasing like this occurs all the time. As long as both parties are fine with it, everything's ok. YOU may not act like that with your best friend but a lot of people do. The teasing between Keke and Sumire is elementary stuff, too. The roasting between friends can get pretty extreme in some cases lol. But, at the end of the day everyone involved understands it's not malicious. If someone doesn't feel comfortable with that, they should just say so and the teasing towards them would stop. If it doesn't, they can just leave the group.
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merr



Joined: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 462
PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2022 10:13 am Reply with quote
Keep in mind that Keke is pushing Sumire away at the start of this episode because she doesn’t want her worrying about returning to Shanghai.

There’s also moments where Sumire snipes at Keke, like when they meet Kinako, when Keke builds that over-the-top archway at the school entrance, and when commenting on the seating chart. Those all happen before Keke does any teasing this episode. She doesn’t start until the last 10 mins, and all her teasing is part of a single running gag about why no one wants to join the club.

They are acting like siblings who poke fun at each other.
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lomez



Joined: 14 Mar 2018
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:01 pm Reply with quote
This week, Keke finally succeeds at gaslighting Sumire into putting herself down. Love to see it.
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