Love Live School Idol Project "First Live" Review

Anime much like music can make you feel different things depending on what it is your listening to or watching at the point in time. With them both also going together really well with a good example of this being the Love Live franchise as even tho it did start life before it became an anime thanks to the anime we now have not only several different series all of which bare the Love Live name but also quite a few different movies as well and well I thought that i'd take a look at one of the episodes from the very first series of the show and so then join me as I review the episode that see the girls realise a hard truth with the episode in question being called simply just "First Live" enjoy.

The plot of this episode is Honoka , Umi and Kotori don't have that long to get ready for their first ever concert however they also have to deal with the fact that Umi suffers from stage fright. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in tis very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As while this episodes plot isn't that deep of a plot and is really quite simple that's something that does work well enough to not only this episodes advantage but to the series advantage as well as this is a show that really doesn't require a deep and thought provoking plot as all it needs is the basic set up for the episode and that's it and to be fair to this episode that's where this episode really does excel as it's set up is strong enough to support an entire episode as all it is is the girls not only getting ready for but also performing there first ever concert together and that's it and that's all this episode needed to be from a plot point of view and while yes it would have helped the episode out a little bit if the plot of the episode was a lot more stronger then what it is as it does feel like the main plot of the episode is fighting for screen time with the Umi subplot but in doing that it would rob the characters of the chance to showcase just why there so likable in the first place as every single scene not only wouldn't be that much fun to watch but would also be about advancing the plot of either the episode or the show as a whole with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this episode is Marieve Herington as Honoka Kosaka , Erica Lindbeck as Eli Ayase and Cristina Vee as Kotori Minami. Also starring in this episode is Kira Buckland as Umi Sonoda , Faye Mata as Rin Hoshizora , Caitlin Glass as Maki Nishikino , Laura Post as Nozomi Tojo , Xanthe Huynh as Hanayo Koizumi , Erica Mendez as Nico Yazawa , Mela Lee as Hideko , Natalie Hoover as Fumiko and Ryan Bartley as Mika.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With all of this episodes actors turning in some really good performances in their own right which is something that does make alot of sense as alot of the actors that are in this episode are a bunch of really good voice actors in their own right many of whom have more then made there mark in the world of anime voice acting an therefor it does make sense that they would turn in some really solid performances in this episode and while some of the voices do sound a little bit weird like for some reason they give Umi this raspy sounding voice which just doesn't suit her character at all the performances on the whole are really good with the best actor in this whole entire episode being Marieve Herington as while she does give Honoka a really generic sounding voice when a character like this does demand one that makes her strand out she does deliver a really solid performance in this episode with her acting in this episode making all of the jokes alot more funnier then what they should have been and the episodes emotional moment coming across as being really devastating and all of that is done just in her performance alone with the acting that's in this episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.

Doing the animation for this episode really is the legends and the great that are currently over at Sunrise. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I im all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with the animation having alot of nice attention to detail when it comes to the backgrounds as it does feel like that you can read every single sign that we can see in this episode and while the characters do have some stiff looking movements some of the time when it counts the most that's when the animation on the characters gets alot more better with the animation even mixing in 3D CGI animation as well for the episodes big song sequence at the end which does blend it really well with the 2D animation that's used in the rest of the episode as even tho the characters are done in 2D and the backgrounds in 3D or that one song sequence really can't tell that's done in CGI as it doesn't stand out in a bad way all that much and while yes the fact that the episode does have the camera do moves that you could only do in CGI during that sequence it doesn't change the fact that the two elements blend really well as by all rights the two elements should have worked well together at all but because of the fact that the studio that did the animation for this episode also did the animation for alot of the bands IRL songs as well you get the feeling that they really knew what they were doing because of the fact that they've worked with these characters and because of that they were able to pull of some really good looking pieces of animation in this episode.

One of the things that was really shocking to see in this episode weas the fact that they spend quite alot of the episodes running time of showing Umi suffering with stage fright. With this being something that shows like this would usually skip over because of the fact that the main purpose of a show like this is to get you to buy the CD and that's it and yet they full on show how it effects her as a character which was a really great move to make as we then get to see both Honoka and Kotori try to help her out in their own ways which was a great way of showing just how close this friend group really is as the episode very easily could have skipped over that plot line and have her get over it in just one scene but no the makers of this episode actually show her struggling through it all the way until the episodes final musical number which was a great move as it then allows for us the audience to really emphasize with Umi who up until this point in the series really hadn't been given alot of focus as a character with her usually being the very straightlaced one of the group and yet in this episode we get to see a whole over side of her character and while she doesn't quite get over her stage fright in this episode the very fact that the makers of this episodes even dared to show one of the characters struggling with something that alot of people do go through was a great move with it being something that oddly enough makes this show that was made with kids in mind feel more mature and adult then alot of shows that are aimed at an adult audience due to the fat that it was something that was tackled in a really mature way when they very easily could have taken the easy route and have it not really factor into the episode a whole lot then what it does in the final cut of the episode.

Coming from someone who watched both the sub and the dub when they both coming out what I really hated was the fact that they don't dub the songs in the episode. Which fair enough might have been a rights issue but in which case why go through the bother of getting the rights to the series when your not going to be getting the rights to the songs as all that means is we go from characters like Honoka for example speaking perfect American to her then suddenly perfect Japanese for no reason which makes no sense and while not dubbing songs isn't really an issue in anime where the songs are just playing in the background and therefor aren't meant to the focus of either the episode or the show in this show and in this episode it's the opposite that's true as the whole point of the episode is the girls performing their debut concert together so it would have made more sense for them to dub the all of the songs in the show into English due to the fact that alot of the songs do play a huge part in the show and while this isn't something that takes away from the episode and could be seen as being more of a nitpick then anything else it is something that could also be seen as being distracting as all it does it take you out of the episode when during this moment in the episode your meant to be the most invested in it and while the dubbing on the whole was really good apart from the fact that they tried to give Honoka a catchphrase for some weird reason it feels odd that the makers of this episode would choose not to dub one of the most important aspects of the episode if it turned out that they just couldn't find people who could sing the songs well enough that's another thing all together as it would show that an effort was made to try and dub this shows songs in the first place.

Speaking of the shows songs even tho it does technically have two songs with one song being played over a montage called "Private Wars" it's the episodes second song that's the better one. As the episodes second song is "Start: Dash" only instead of it being sung by all nine of the band it's now sung by just three members of the group with this version of the song being very well done and is oddly catchy and while it's hard to say who sung as there most likely members of the Japanese voice cast the singers for the song did a really good job of singing the song as well with all three of them really bringing the song to life and making it a really fun song in the first place with this being something that works well when you take into account that just before the song starts the episodes has a really good gut punching moment where the girls find out that despite all of the help that they got to promote the concert in the days leading up to the concert no one turned up for various other reasons something which does cause all three of them to start to break down and it's only when one audience member finally turns up that Honoka is finally convinced to carry on with the concert as planned which does result in this song being sung with the song not only being a really good song in it's own right but one that does serve as the perfect counterbalance for what we've just seen as it let's us the audience know that we can smile again something that just wouldn't have been possible if this song wouldn't have been included as the episode would then end on a bit of sour note with it being helped by the fact that the song is also really well written as well altho admittedly it's lyrics could come across as being a bit childish they are something that does work in the context of this episode.

Now then this has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty three minuets and forty one seconds. Which again to be fair to this episode is pretty much the bogstandard running time not only for this show but also for alot of anime as well with this episode really having the right amount of plot thee to really cover that amount of running time but in saying this tho the episode really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as neither the episodes plot or it's subplot get alot of development as there both fighting for screen time with each other when the subplot with Umi is something that's more then strong enough to support an entire episode in it's own right with the same thing also being true for the episodes main plot as well and yet by having both of them be in the same episode it does mean that both plots could have work well enough on there own are now fighting for screen time with neither one of them getting the development that they really did need in order to make them work all the more better because of it and while the characters don't get that much character development either that's not really a negative thing in this regard as it could very well be argued that the characters get there character development over the course of this first season of the show and with this episode being only the third episode of the show it does somewhat make sense that the characters wouldn't be given any kind of character development but in saying that tho it would have been nice if some of the characters did get some very small amounts of character development tho but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho. 

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have t actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With all of this episodes being cure and funny jokes that all work because of the fact that they feel true to who the characters are which does make this episodes jokes feel very character driven and the kind of jokes that friends would genuinely do to each other as well which is something that makes all of the friendships in this show and in this episode in particular feel all the more real and the characters come across as being more like real people as a result of this with the best joke in this whole entire episode being when Umi finds out that the skirt for her outfit is above knee length which then results in her having a flashback to when she told a rather scared Kotori to make sure then the skirt on her outfit was above knee length which does make Umi come across as being quite scary but in context of the episode it is something that does come across as being quite funny and while the episode does have another cute joke with Rin scaring her friend and her locker the Umi joke just works all the more better because of the fact it is something that you could see that character doing this is despite the fact that the episode does have alot of really funny jokes all of which really do work in this episode because of the fact that the characters really are likable characters as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall it's really easy to see why this show lasted two series and a movie as this episode really is a good example of just how good that this show could be as it knows when to balance the comedy with the drama and when to just be flat out adorable to watch all of which are things that work really well in this episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very revue and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Love Live fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Love Live fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Love Live fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.

Love Live! Sunshine!! Season 1 Episodes 1-4 SPOILERS Review

Anime fans not alot of you will know this but i'm actually a fan of the Love Live franchise and well since i've been reviewing episodes of various anime before and yes I do have at least one more planned I thought that i'd take on a few episodes of this series. If i'm being honest it's always hard to for me to choose how many episodes I should do a review for an anime since I like it when a bunch of episodes tell a complete story but here I went one episode beyond that simply because I was enjoying myself and so here is my review of the first four episodes of the first season of "Love Live! Sunshine!!" enjoy guys and girls and yes there will be spoilers all throughout this review and so you can consider this your official spoiler warning.

The overall plot of these first four episodes is that Chika Takami is trying to get a school idol club up and running at her school and has trouble recruiting members. That's really it in terms of story and really for a slice of life show that all the plot you need since the main attraction to these shows isn't the deep and complicated plot it's seeing the characters grow together and form friendships and with that said the overall story for these episodes was really good and it was not only fun but also entertaining to see it play out.

Starring in these episodes are Jad Saxton as Chika Takami , Jeanie Tirado as Riko Sakurauchi and Michelle Rojas as Kanan Matsuura. Also starring in these episodes are Morgan Garrett as Dia Kurosawa , Apphia Yu as You Watanabe , Morgan Berry as Yoshiko Tsushima , Megan Shipman as Hanamaru Kunikida , Jamie Marchi as Mari Ohara , Sarah Wiedenheft as Ruby Kurosawa , Colleen Clinkenbeard as Shima Takami and Monica Rial as Mito Takami.

Honestly this was one of the easiest cast lists i've ever had to do just because all of the main girls appear in all four episodes hell every person i've credited appears in all four episodes. In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly really good all of the main actors give the characters voices that actually suit there characters which for a dub is always a plus since they very rarely give the characters voice the fit the characters and it helps that all of the main actresses give really good performances.

Doing the animation for these episodes as well as the rest of the series is Sunrise who of course did the animation for Love Live! School Idol Project and both the Love Live movies and will be doing the animation for the next entry in the Love Live! series. I honestly feel that the animation in these four episodes was nothing special which is oddly what I was expecting since no one goes into an idol anime expecting the dialog scenes to have great animation they do expect the musical scenes to have good animation and that's true for these episodes.

Since the animation in those song sequences is actually better then the animation in the dialog scenes which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing because anyone who watches an idol anime knows that the animation in the musical scenes is going to be good but it's a bad thing because the animation in the whole episode should be up to the same quality of those musical scenes as such one shouldn't be better then the other they should both be equally good.

To me these first four episodes seem to be not only about creating a group but also about friendships and the lengths people will go to for them. We see all throughout these first four episodes people trying to please there friends as well as people making new friends of course I could be wrong but to have the first four episodes have something to do with friendship or making new friends seems like to big of a coincidence if you ask me.

That being said if it is true then i'm glad that is featured in these episodes since it shows that not all members of the group are friends and that those bonds either need to be built or repaired. Which I find to be really interesting because whenever we do get an anime based around friendship it'a always about making new friends and never about repairing old bonds which is a shame because that does open the door to a lot of story and character development.

Honestly just going back to what I was talking about before about friendships being a theme in these episodes there is one group of friends that are good example of doing whatever it takes to make the other happy and they are Ruby and Hanamaru. For you see in episode four titled "Two Girls' Feelings" we see Hanamaru agree to do something that she knows that she wouldn't like but she knows would make Ruby happy but in the process she ends up falling in love with wanting to be an idol but convinces herself she can't do it that is until Ruby reminds her of how much fun she was having with the group.

This to me is an important part of Ruby's character because all throughout the show we see her do things to makes others happy and yet very rarely does she do things to make herself happy. Whenever you here of a person who is nice well to me Ruby is the very definition of that due to the fact that she's so selfless as well as being an genuinely enjoyable person to be around and to talk to and it's due to these reasons that I think she's the best character in the show.

Now I want it known that i'm not going to talk about the songs in these episodes just because I can't think of anything to say about them. As such i'll get straight to talking about the comedy in these episodes which for me at least was very hit and miss when there was a good joke then it would be really funny like anything to do with Ruby I found to be freaking hilarious but whenever there was a bad joke or they dragged a joke on for so long that it became unfunny then you really felt it and sadly alot of the unfunny jokes came from Yoshiko who is just a one joke character with that joke being she's pretending to be someone else and that's it that's the joke but it's one where they have scenes that drag that joke on so it becomes even more unfunny.

Overall these were some really fun , funny and at times heartwarming episodes and to me they are a great introduction to this series. That being said however there are problems with these episodes all of which i've covered in this review but those issues didn't really stop the episodes from being enjoyable but that doesn't mean that they weren't noticeable because they were as such these episodes get a collective rating of 7.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the official Love Live fandom wiki page or from Google Images. I have to admit I wasn't expecting any of the images to be as high quality as they were simply because Love Live isn't a well known mainstream franchise but every image in this review is shockingly high quality as such if you want high quality images from Love Live! Sunshine!! then use either one of these websites and for once I have no joke here so freaking yeah.

 

 

Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over The Rainbow Review

Anime fans as you may or may not know i'm a huge fan of the Love Live! franchise i've seen every episode of both shows , i've seen the first movie and played the game. So to say I was excited for this movie will be like saying Avengers: Endgame is a good movie and as of a few days ago i had the chance to watch it and i'm not passing it up so here is my review of Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over The Rainbow.

The plot of the movie as far as I can work out is the third years Kanan , Dia and Mari go missing in Italy and it;s up to the rest of the group to find them. Now i'm going to let you all know right now that that plot line is fully resolved within the first hour of the movie with the rest of the movie having to do with one of the girls from Saint Snow wanting to join Aqours. If i'm being honest the first storyline was alot more interesting because it was so different from anything Love Live! has done in the past but for some unknown reason they chose to resolve it early on in favour of a plot line that was better suited for an episode of the show.

The only thing that really ties both plots together is another plot line which sees the six remaining members trying to decide if they want to continue in the group or not. I didn't mention this when I first mentioned the plot because it's something that's only brought up once or twice when in reality if you combined it with the first story with the third years going missing then it would have made for an interesting plot.

Most of the actors who are in this film are returning from the show and so starring in this movie is Ai Furihata as Ruby Kurosawa , Aika Kobayashi as Yoshiko "Yohane" Tsushima , Aina Suzuki as Mari Ohara , Anju Inami as Chika Takami , Arisa Komiya as Dia Kurosawa , Kanako Takatsuki as Hanamaru Kunikida , Nanaka Suwa as Kanan Matsūra , Rikako Aida as Riko Sakurauchi , Shuka Saitō as Yō Watanabe , Asami Tano as Sarah Kazuno and Hinata Sato as Leah Kazuno. In terms of what I thought about the acting it's not that bad but I felt that it could have been better and i'm honestly not sure why that is. There was also a few new characters introduced but as I couldn't find who played them I couldn't list them and the same goes for there acting it could have been so much better.

If you know anything about this franchise then you'll know that the animation was done by Sunrise who have worked on everything to do with Love Live! from the very beginning. The animation here tho to me didn't feel like it belonged in a movie it felt like the kind of animation you'd see in an episode of the show which in some ways is a good thing but in others it's not because if I wanted to see something that looked like an episode of the show i'd load up my season 1 DVD.

There was a Marvel style end credits scene at the end of this movie which if i've read it right means were getting another Love Live! series but I might have read into it wrong. I'd be more then happy for another series if that is the case but I really do think that they should try and mix up the setup a little bit just to keep things fresh like maybe have a few male members in there or have them all be the same age or something like that.

Unlike the previous movie which only featured the main characters this one has a whole bunch of returning characters and that was something that I applaud the film doing. Since in the first movie it felt like it was kind of ashamed to admit that it was based on a TV show where as here it fully embraces it to the point where I have to say that if your not a fan of this franchise then I wouldn't recommend watching this movie.

I also say that you shouldn't watch the movie because the movie really doesn't tell you who the characters are and what there relationship to each other really is. That is something that I could very easily see putting alot of people of but at the same time if your watching this movie and your not a fan then you kind of have yourself to blame really but for myself and alot of fans I can't see this becoming a big issue.

I don't think i'm giving that much away when i;m saying this but this movie really does feel like a good send of for the third years by that I mean they get there chance to say goodbye to there friends and not to choose what they want to do in the future. I will admit that it was a great move on part of the film makers to just have the three older girls leave the group since it was something different but even in this movie it comes almost out of know where.

Incase you haven't noticed yet I prefer the first movie just for the fact that it had one storyline running through it and not three. I cannot stress that enough because it's such a strange thing it would have been ok if this was an anthology movie but it's not so it comes across as rather jarring it honestly feels like the script writer had three different ideas and asked the director which one he liked and instead of choosing one they chose all of them.

In a rather strange move they did what normally would close the movie at the start of it by having a big town wide musical sequence which in all honesty wasn't that bad but it felt like the movie blew it's load to early since whatever happens next is always going to fail in comparison. I will say tho that the songs and the humour of the movie were both pretty spot on I don't know the names but my two favourite songs was the opening number and one of the songs that Saint Snow sings.

Overall I can't say that this is a bad movie because it's really not but at the same time it's not a good one either the only thing I can say for sure is it's better then Tolkien. This movie is by no means better then the first one and it doesn't feel like it's the end of this group of characters so the movie gets a 4.5 out of 10 from me.