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. 

Love Live! Sunshine!! Season 1 Review

Anime fans you guys might not know this but I love idol anime and I know that saying that out loud can be a bad thing in the anime community but it's true. Heck I love it so much that i've seen every single season of the Love Live anime and it's sequel series plus i've seen the first movie and I plan on watching the second. I bring all of this up because for Christmas I got a special gift from the North Pole and that was the first season of Love Live Sunshine on DVD so you guys know what that means so here is my review of season one.

The basic premise for season one of the show is basically split into two because for the first half of the season the girls will try anything to get just one fan. In the second half however it takes the more familiar Love Live route and has the girls trying to save there school from closing down and it's also worth noting that this plot line would also carry on into season 2. If you ask me the show dropped the plot line that was a lot more interesting and different since in my opinion it would be alot more interesting seeing them try and get just one fan then it is seeing them try to save the school.

Now since i'm doing this review after getting the DVD I will of course be crediting the dubbed actors however when the series first aired I watched both seasons of the show both subbed and dubbed. So starring in the dubbed version of the show is Apphia Yu as Yo Watanabe , Jad Saxton as Chika Takami , Jamie Marchi as Mari Ohara , Jeannie Tirado as Riko Sakurauchi , Megan Shipman as Hanamaru Kunikida , Michelle Rojas as Kanan Matsuura , Morgan Berry as Yoshiko Tsushima , Morgan Garrett as Dia Kurosawa and Sarah Wiedenheft as Ruby Kurosawa. 

In terms of the acting I thought that it was really good what did worry me when I heard that this was getting dubbed was that it would turn out horrible like the first Love Live dub did. I only had those thoughts because when this was getting dubbed Love Live had just started releasing there episodes dubbed and it was bad but tho thankfully here everyone sounds exactly how you picture they would and all the girls do a good job in the series.

As with all things Love Live the animation for the show was done by Sunrise and what I found out was that this studio has several different studios within it depending on the show or film that's being worked on so when they say that this show was animated by Sunrise what they actually mean is that Sunrise Studio 8 worked on the show. As for the actual animation I thought it wasn't that bad all of the characters have some nice character designs and the country setting helps set this show apart from other anime in this genre.

When this show was first announced I like i'm guessing many other Love Live fans hoped that U's would make an appearance in the show. After seeing both seasons when they aired I have to say that i'm a little disappointed that they didn't show up at least in the first episode of the first season or if not then at least in the final episode of the same season but nope. Son now I hold out hope what little of it there is at this point that they would appear in the movie just because for me it would be rather fitting and it would serve as a great send of to both shows.

I didn't no this when I chose to review this season but there is an actual connection behind the scenes to the previous show and that's the fact that Caitlin Glass who played Maki Nishikino and who also wrote the English dub. She was the voice director for this series and after scrolling through her page and animenewsnewtwork.com I can say that even tho you won't know her name if your an anime fan you'll know the shows that she's worked on both behind the scenes and not because in terms of behind the scenes she's worked on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood , One Piece and Sakura Quest.

When it comes to starring in anime she's been in Absolute Duo , Attack on Titan , Black Clover , Dragon Ball Super , Fairy Tail , Love Live , Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood plus many more and when I say many more i'm not even half way through her animenewsnetwork page. That should go on to tell you how talented the people working on this dub are because they are true anime legends even tho the first Love Live had a talented voice cast the overall duality of the dub wasn't that good.

Like the previous show this show is full to the brim with drama like I think every other episode has some sort of drama in there. Which would be fine if this was the second season I wouldn't mind it as much since adding in drama there would make alot of sense but for the first season it doesn't make sense for them to have alot of drama so early on it would have made more sense to have the drama appear later on in the season because we would have had more time to get to know the characters but they do it very early on in this show and it's not as effective because we haven't had the time to get to know the characters.

Like the previous Love Live series both of the seasons for this show consist of thirteen twenty two minuets episodes. I have to say tho that even tho the episodes are the standerd anime length for some reason they actually felt alot longer then twenty two minuets and I have no idea why that is at all. I mean I didn't feel bored watching the series it's just really odd that the episodes would feel a lot longer then they actually are.

I'll admit when I first saw the show I was sad by the time episode thirteen of season one aired because this is a rather solid show and I was confused when in season 2 they seemingly changed the storyline. I say that because I forgot that they actually changed the story during the first season so that was one hundred percent my fault but tho with that being said I don't see any reason why they had to change the story the one they had with them just trying to get one fan worked but I guess they wanted to go back to what the fans knew instead of doing something new , different and interesting.

Now as we all know Love Live is basically a musical anime franchise and that means that there are songs a plenty to discuss. What makes the songs in idol anime stand out tho is that alot of them are sung by the actual actors and the same is true for Sunshine well kind of since it's the Japanese voice actors. Which is honestly really jarring at the beginning because the characters would go from speaking perfect English to suddenly speaking Japanese in my opinion if your going to dub an idol anime at least go all the way and dub the songs as well.

Not keep going on about the fact that the songs aren't dubbed but it's made even worse by the fact that two of the characters do sing in perfect English early on in the show I know why they couldn't do it but they have to realise that it be quite jarring. As for the actual songs themselves there pretty good all of the songs are pop songs and i'm not that big into pop music so alot of these songs aren't for me but the opening song "Aozora Jumping Heart" is a really good poppy type of song.

As is to be expected in the first season of a sequel series the show does a few call backs to the previous show. Those call backs mainly consist of the characters mentioning iconic locations from Love Live tho so if you havn't seen that show they could fly over your head but at the same time you should be able to understand what there referencing. Since i'm a fan of this song there is one call back that I really loved and it's in either episode two or episode three and it's where the main character talks about how she wants to be an idol because of U's and the song playing is freaking Start: Dash which when that started playing I just starting singing right away.

As with any Love Live anime this first season does spend alot of time getting the band together and of course that means there going to run into a pretty big cliche in the world of idol anime and that's the fact that the student council president hates idols and so will not allow them to make a school club. I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate this cliche and it's not just because it's boring and repetitive but it's because we know that in a few episodes that same character will be apart of the group so it makes that whole subplot seem like pointless filler.

Again as with anything to do with Love Live the show does have alot of humour in it and I might seem a bit bias here because i;m a fan of the franchise but tho in my opinion alot of the jokes really do work. Yes some of them might seem tired and repetitive but how they are done in this season of the show does somehow make them feel fresh and i'll admit I spent alot of the time watching this with a huge smile on my face which for me can only be a great thing.

Overall this first season was just as good as I remember it being but there were a few issues that I didn't notice the first time watching it but tho those issues didn't harm my overall enjoyment of the show it self. So Love Live! Sunshine!! season 1 gets a 6 out of 10 from me.

Some Anime Shows I Want To Review

Hello there anime fans as you might have noticed I like to review alot of things and that's because the things I want to talk about are things that havn't been talked about. Yes there is the odd new movie but it's mostly classic stuff and well I mention that because today i'm going to tell you some of the shows that I want to review at some point in the future.

My Hero Academia

When I first started thinking of shows to go on this list this show was nowhere to be found but as I started writing the intro I started to think it would be a really good show to watch. The only thing that's stopping me from doing it is the fact that there's alot of episodes per season to get through and that's very time consuming so i'll do it if they release some recap movies.

Love Live! School Idol Project

Now I do have a Love Live! review in the offing at some point in the new year but i'm also really thinking about reviewing this show. Which would make sense since I did review the movie and I plan of reviewing the Sunshine movie when that's out in the new year.

Love Live! Sunshine!!

As of right now this is the only Love Live! show that I can actually plan on reviewing since i'm getting the first season in a few weeks. I plan on reviewing it because nobody talks about the love live franchise be it good or bad so i'm going to do it just because no one else is and that is really surprising to me since it's a popular franchise.

Attack On Titan

Now that we've had a brief look in the idol genre let's dive back into the action genre because not only do I plan on reviewing Attack On Titan. I actually have a way to do it and it's so freaking simple my plan is simply this just watch the recap movies they cover all of the key episodes anyway so not only would that cut out alot of filler it would also save me a lot of freaking time.

High School DXD

I think every anime reviewer at some point has to take on this mammoth of a show the only thing that I would need to work out as how many episodes to watch. Since there's four seasons of the show and each season has twelve episodes it would be a huge task for any soul to take on. I promise you tho once I work out how many i'd need to watch and if I have the time i'll get right to it but that's a very big if.

 Blood-C

Now this is a show that I do actually plan on reviewing in the next few weeks and since I have the DVD it would be very easy to do. As with anything tho plans could change in a heartbeat so i'll say that if you see the review by next Monday then you'll know that my plans hadn't changed but if you don't see it then something came up that forced me to alter my plans.

Sword Art Online

Now this one would kind of be easy to do since there is a recap film of the first season out there. it's when we get to seasons two and three that things would get difficult to do it's not impossible by any means but i'd have to work out again how many episodes to watch in order to do the review justice but it's one that I look forward to working out and then reviewing.

Dragon Ball Z

As with a shocking amount of shows on this post the only thing that's stopping me from reviewing this show is the amount of episodes. Even if I chose to just watch the Kai series there's still a huge amount of episodes to get through and unlike a few of the shows i've already mentioned there's no recap films here to help me out. So i'd have to watch a huge amount of episodes in order to do this review any kinds of justice.

Five Anime I Like But Don't Get Much Attention From The Community

Here is my second anime themed post and since alot of anime come and go i don't expect people to remember these shows are movies but for some reason or another they don't get talked about by the anime community so here we go.

 A Silent Voice

This movie came out the same time as Your Name did in America and i think that's why people don't talk about this film that much because a whole lot of them went to go and see Your Name which is a shame because while Your Name is a good film i think this film is better and i wish more anime fans would talk about it.

Blood-C

This anime came out in 2011 and i can kinda see why people aren't talking about it that much since like i said before a lot of anime come and go but if people are still talking Cowboy Bebop then why can't they still talk about Blood-C but it seems not alot of people forgot about since it did get a live action film prequel called Asura Girl: Blood-C Another Story and a stage play called Blood-C: The Last Mind.

Hellsing Ultimate

This OVA series finished in 2014 so why people aren't still talking about it is beyond me it should still be fresh enough in people's minds but for some reason it doesn't get much attention but when it does it gets the praise it deserves.

Highschool Of The Dead

Again i get why people don't talk about this show that much since it did come out a long time ago but the most recent memory i can think of of people talking about it was when it broke that the series creator had died and thus couldn't finish the story so maybe they don't want to talk about because of that or because of the fact it's an unfinished story.

Anything From The Love Live! Franchise

Yeah this is a strange one because for some reason alot of anime don't like to talk about the Love Live! anime and for the life of me i can't work out why if they don't like it then that's fine but you'd think they would be a few people out there in the community who like this franchise i know i like it and i'm excited for the Love Live! Sunshine!! movie.

My Top 5 Cutest Anime Girls

Welcome to the first of two anime themed posts i'm doing today this one is going to focus solely on females and which ones i think are cute / attractive now i want you all to know that these are just my opinions so if there's a girl you like who isn't on here then she's either lower down on the list or i havn't seen the series / film so let's get on with it.

5) Rei Miyamoto (HighSchool Of The Dead)

I know alot of people either don't like or didn't watch HighSchool Of The Dead but i did and i'll admit that upon reflection Rei doesn't have much of a personality but she looks good with a gun and she kills alot of zombies.

4) Saeko Busujima (Highschool Of The Dead)

She was my first anime crush and she's here because unlike Rei she actually has some form of a personality even if it's not much of one plus she was a key part in what has no become the most famous scene in Highschool Of The Dead i'm of course talking about Matrix Boobs. This girl is also a really talented fighter and she can easily take on a lot of zombies just by her self that's how awesome she is.

3) Mitsuha Miyamizu (Your Name)

This list isn't just counting women from anime series and when thinking of my number three slot the only real person i could think was the female lead from Your Name Mitsuha she goes through alot in that film and not only does she come out of it she helps safe most of her town.

2) Shirayuki (Snow White With The Red Hair)

Honestly this was a tough call to make but in the end i'm glad i put her here because Shirayuki is a well written female character plus like Mitsuha she is drawn in a really cute way so you have no choice but to fall in love her.

Honorable Mention

Yona (Yona of The Dawn)

I put Yona as an honorable mentioned because i havn't seen the rest of the series yet i've only seen those first twelve episodes but from what i've seen of her i can see that she's going to become a total badass and in the first twelve episodes she has plenty of badass moments and that to me makes her all of what i said in the intro.

1) Ruby (Love Live! Sunshine!!)

Honestly any of the girls from Aqours could have easily filled this spot but Ruby is cuteness overload she goes out of her way to make others happy even if it means she ends up being un-happy plus she has the cutest catchphrase Do your Rubesty! which pretty much means Do Your Best.