Love Live! School Idol Project

Love Live! School Idol Project

Love Live! School Idol Project anime cover art featuring the members of μ's (Muse)
Love Live! School Idol Project Cover Art

Overview

Love Live! School Idol Project is an anime about, you guessed it, school idols. The anime follows nine girls who make up the school idol group known as μ’s (Muse).

μ’s was formed in order to make the high school the girls attend more popular. In recent years, there have been fewer new students applying to the school and it’s in danger of shutting down entirely. A school idol group is one way the girls think of attracting new students because they’re the new big thing for any popular school to have.

One of the most popular schools in the area has its own idol group known as A-RISE which is the most popular one in the country. While μ’s wish they could be like A-RISE, it doesn’t seem like they will be making it to that level of fame any time soon.

However, a special event is announced called the Love Live!

In this event, school idol groups from around the country have the chance to qualify to perform in a live competition to decide which group is the best. Only the most popular groups are invited to the event and so μ’s must work even harder than they ever have to earn a spot.

Characters

μ’s is made up of nine members, with three coming from each year in the school. The first years are Rin, Hanayo, and Maki, the second years are Honoka, Umi, and Kotori, and the third years are Eli, Nozomi, and Nico.

Rin Hoshizora is an athletic tomboy. She joined μ’s because her best friend Hanayo was afraid to join by herself. Rin tends to annoy me because she often tries to “talk like a cat” if that makes sense.

Hanayo Koizumi is probably my least favorite character. As mentioned just above, she’s best friends with Rin who was the one who pushed her to join the School Idol Club. Hanayo is completely obsessed with idols which is part of why I don’t like her, but the main reason is that her voice sounds like one continuous voice crack.

Maki Nishikino is the best of the first-year members; she’s the most normal. Maki’s the tsundere of the group in that she tends to appear annoyed with the other members constantly even though she actually likes them deep down. Her job in the group is to compose the songs.

Honoka Kousaka is the main protagonist of the series and one of the founding members of μ’s along with Umi and Kotori. Rin is a very energetic girl who tends to overreact about everything. She reminds me a lot of Akko from Little Witch Academia.

Umi Sonoda is one of Honoka’s two best friends. She’s the dependable, hard-working one of the second years and so is the one who comes up with practice schedules for the group. She’s also in charge of writing the lyrics for the songs.

Kotori Minami is the other best friend of Honoka and Umi. While she’s more dependable than Honoka, she isn’t quite as uptight as Umi. Kotori wants to be a fashion designer and so she designs and creates the costumes for the girls to wear during their performances.

Eli Ayase is the first of the third-year members and the president of the student council. She used to be a ballet dancer and so she trains the rest of the girls in choreography.

Nozomi Tojo is the vice-president of the student council. She tends to guide Eli by getting her to admit her true feelings about things. Nozomi also frequently uses tarot cards to predict things.

Nico Yazawa is the final member of μ’s. She’s the president of the Idol Research Club, which she is now the sole member of, and has been obsessed with becoming an idol for years. She tends to take being an idol way too far with her persona involving her “Nico Nico Ni” catchphrase pictured below.

Third year student and member of μ's, Nico Yazawa (from the anime Love Live! School Idol Project)
Nico Yazawa

Conclusion

Back when I reviewed Fuuka I made a statement about not understanding the appeal of anime about music because you could just watch a better anime that also happens to have a good soundtrack. Love Live!, however, has changed my mind about the genre.

I ended up enjoying the first season much more than I originally thought I was going to, and in the end, I’ll give season one a 7/10. It’s not as good as I was told (so far), but it was still good. There will be another post specifically for season two coming in the near future.

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