Love Live! Sunshine!!

Episode 21

Showbiz is a fickle beast, especially when you only get one shot at it. One day you're a shoo-in for the Love Live crown, and the next...well, sometimes there is no next day. And lest I understate the obvious, the same is true of all competitions, although it stings so much more when you only have three years to make your dream come true.

There has always been something romantically tragic about the Love Live! world. In theory, it shouldn't be any different from your usual high school sports story. You get three shots at glory, and while your seniors might leave, you'll always have fresh new members to fill their spots. It should be like a basketball or baseball team, gunning for nationals year after year. But school idol groups are different. They're unlike the AKB48s of the world, where members graduate all the time. Their bonds are made of stronger stuff. When you have your group, that's it—and µ's set the precedent early, to the great heartbreak of their fans. What would µ's be without Nico or Umi or Eli? Would they ever be the same? Would there even be a point in continuing? If the heart and soul of your group are your members, how could you even go on without all of them by your side?

It's sentimental and a bit schlocky perhaps, but it's what Love Live! has always been since the franchise made the gamble to shut the door on a fictional idol group that basically grew money on trees. And in doing so, the world of school idols has taken on something more meaningful. It's captured the intangible notions of “youth” and “friendship” and “sisterhood” and all that nonsense and bottled it into something that can only exist in one place at one time.

If the point wasn't made abundantly clear last episode, Love Live! Sunshine!! has taken another opportunity to drill it in further this time around. Aqours is on a field trip to Hokkaido (my inner adult kept screaming, “Why aren't you wearing pants? It's cold!”) to watch another regional Love Live competition, which includes crowd-favorite Saint Snow. But my excitement at getting another Saint Snow song was quickly dashed when their performance was abruptly cut short with the revelation that they had completely bombed. And just like that, their chance at moving forward in the competition was yanked away from them. (Congratulations, “KissBear”.)

Earlier in the series, one of the characters mentioned that this would be Saint Snow's last chance to perform together in the Love Live, because older sister Sarah was graduating. It seemed like pretty clear foreshadowing at the time, but it played out completely unexpectedly. Whereas I was expecting a final Aqours and Saint Snow showdown, I couldn't have imagined that the latter wouldn't even make it to the final round. This season of Love Live! Sunshine!! has been brutal. Life's not all rainbows, kids; sometimes it just sucks.

With the downfall of Saint Snow comes an opportunity for Ruby to confront her own feelings about Dia's impending departure from Aqours. Uranohoshi or not, the third years are leaving after this season, and while the girls have brought this up in passing, they haven't fully absorbed the reality of the situation yet. It's even harder for Ruby, whose experience in Aqours is so intertwined with the memories she's making with her sister.

Ruby has her best scene of the series when she seeks Leah out for a conversation. Normally timid, shy, and prone to squeaking, she's passionate about her love for her sister, and the ensuing throw-down between Leah over who has the best sister is good stuff. It's a chance for Ruby to grow up a little as well, and examine who she can be without Dia at her side.

This season of Love Live! Sunshine!! has been pretty rough on its characters, but it's been better because of it. I'm a sucker for a bittersweet ending, and it seems the writers are too. They're leaning pretty heavily into this whole “all good things must come to an end” thing, to the extent that I imagine it's just slapped across a white board in the writers' room with a big doodle of a crying child. I was holding out hope that the high school would still be saved in the end, but I'm not so sure anymore.

Rating: A

Love Live! Sunshine!! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Bamboo still tears up sometimes when she thinks about µ's. Follow her on Twitter.