Take A Pick: New Year's Edition: Love Live! School Idol Project
Some people have problems with the idol genre for various
reasons, what they are I can’t say I haven’t paid much attention to the
reasons. Though I will say one thing, there needs to be a respect for every subgenre
in anime to understand that different stories come from them and if you know
that, then you can prepare yourself for enjoyment. After all imagination grows
from many things and of the most potent ways is through enjoyment. That said I
don’t have a problem with the genre though I haven’t seen nearly as much as
others. Love Live was a choice the way I choose many shows, it looked good and
called to me. It’s a rewarding experience that allows you to root for a group
of girls that are bound by friendship and their differences only strengthen
what they find to become a singular goal.
Music made together.
The beginnings
of what it will become is from a humble and hopeful effort to save a school
they love. Due to low attending students for the last consecutive years it
seems that Otonokiza High school will be endanger of closing soon. Honoka
Kosaka and her friends Minami Kotari and Sonada Umi or broken by the news even
so Honoka is determined to keep it from being shut down and together they may
find the answer in an unexpected place. What Honoka finds is schools with their
own pop idols and she realizes something like that to represent the school
might bring it enough attention to get more middle school students to sign up to go there
next semester thus saving the school.
However the path to being a pop idol is not
easy, though with her mind set and her friends enlisted she uses their skill
sets to start composing songs, creating costumes and start the first of the momentum
wave with their own school. They begin to practice their hearts out and what helps it along is Honoka’s excitement and optimism,
even with certain obstacles like Elle the school president who seems against the
idol group at first. Eventually they choose the name U’s which is pronounced Muse
like the nine sirens of Greek myth and yes this is important to the future
storyline and the future members that will join. No matter how many members
join however, no one can seem to convince Honoka to wear pants or any of them
for that matter when in the second season it’s winter. Even when they are fighting
a blizzard to get to the concert to perform, I’m wondering why don’t they wear pants over that, isn’t it hard enough to fight a blizzard as it is. But I’m getting
ahead of myself.
With all the
effort they put on their first concert which they perform in an auditorium, something
really unexpected happens and you start to see that things won’t be so simple
for these good hearted girls, what it does though is trigger notice to other
girls who would end up joining u’s all contributing something special to the
group. Some were assisting from afar, others were against it, while it revitalizes
a dream for some, it weaves an interesting story and the bond that this group
has had on their lives as individuals which is something they begin to touch in
as they join and dive deeper in the second season. This foreshadows the
obstacles of what should really be simplistic but isn’t truly and that isn’t
performing.
One of the other interesting turns is that the goal to save
the school is accomplished halfway through the first season as a group, so the
love of what they’re doing and Love Live which is the competition of pop idols
throughout the schools becomes the main focus and adds more weight to what they’re
trying to accomplish ironically. Even if some of them like Minami Kotari has
juice but doesn’t use it, I mean her mom is the princpal of the school but that
doesn’t seem to make a difference in their challenges regardless. Like I said
they don’t make this music business easy. This means that the seemingly
innocent show has some hard knocks in store for them because what they want
will be the most challenging thing they’ve ever faced in their life.
What this leads
to are two large storylines, one is what they struggling for and the other a an
issues that’s building in the background and among it they understand the
leadership in the group, the focus on why they do it, the trust and friendship
and the wisdom they can offer each other sometimes. They learn these things the
hard way, it at times causes them to question why continue at all and by the
end of the first seasons you’re saying, you’re kidding me as well as cheering
them on. Especially when you realize the essence of the show, it’s something
they have to learn too whether composing the songs are being comfortable in
what makes them stand out as individuals, even if that means trading
personalities for a bit or understanding
what makes them so special to their fans.
Everyone gets an arc
in the story or an episode but that’s not enough as it’s revisited and
enforced, why are they here, what does it mean to them and the question no one
wants to ask but might be the most obvious? How long can this last? Is being an
idol a time stamped thing or is it something deeper. Some had to deal with confidence issues, the fear of failure, memories of being alone or the way people perceived them, they were in many ways separate from each other before U's. Everything from their personal futures and
their grade differences play a factor as they look toward Love Live, A-Rise and
the other idols and understand the real meaning in being an idol and what about
it makes them happy.
Then there are
the concerts which an extra helping of 3-D you see them utilized all their practice
and sometimes (dieting) in order to put on these shows. It’s funny even from
the beginning of the series they could be nervous before they get on and then
they’re performing perfectly. Even if sometimes they push themselves too hard.
They click as a group certainly and at least in the show, they seem like
naturals. I mean A-rise performed their thing but even the first time I saw it
I thought, man U’s has got this thing won. There’s always seemed a little more
creative, perhaps that’s me being bias though.
You can call it a
lot of things but it’s a story of friendship and passion toward something which
you can’t knock, these girls are determined and it’s hard not to root for them
at some point. They face the problems of being a teenager in school but not in
the sense of who are you in love with. There is no strong presence at all in
male interest, there really aren’t boys at all except maybe background shots
when they’re out in the city. Even Honoko’s father is a cut off face that doesn’t
speak though it’s hilarious to catch him in certain scenes. It helps that they have in their school
dedicated friends that push them along,
you see this quite often and it shows how many people and how much hope goes
into these things, it isn’t pushing aside future aspirations for something
temporary on the contrary it much more than that.
The
anime has done something right. U’s were on the list for 8th highest selling
act in Japan this year, even albums with single characters. The movie having
been released not all that long ago and one member has claimed the coming
concerts aren’t the end of u’s just the end of them touring alone, which means
there is no stopping the pop idol act. It’s impressive that with the voice
actors being the idol group in real life, it manages to penetrate on all
fronts, a massive undertaking for several companies to work on this joint production.
I’m sure it’s easy to see it all as one big promotion campaign but it’s also
easy to see it simply as a show. Going into it I knew what Love Live! was and
had been to Japan seeing it everywhere but hadn’t realized how much was going
on with the show, that wasn’t what sold me, it was them, the underdog story
which to some might be an old story but at times it’s one of the only sort of
stories that endure, we’re always fighting odds for the things that mean the
most in our lives. Not a bad message at all
As said before this genre is another way of telling stories,
the idea of the idol has long been implanted in shows even some of an entire other
genre such as Macross and spread out in various anime and various genders. This
is nothing new, so whether you’re a fan of the sort are want to take a chance,
School Idol Project Love Live is the way to go, here’s hoping you get something
out of it, I know that I did.
Want more reasons to boogey, well there aren't as many singing and dancing numbers but there is plenty of chatting about all things Geekdom and Otaku like, as well as movies, videogames and the likes. It's the Rats On A Plague Ship Podcast on Soundcloud. Come aboard for some fun and laughs.
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