Love Live! Sunshine!! Episode 6: Let’s Make a PV!

Hell no. NO.

SHUT

UP

I am so livid and disappointed that they did this. I was worried the entire week waiting for this episode. I was hoping with all my heart that the school closing down wasn’t going to become a plot point again. They just couldn’t do it again, I was thinking, they just couldn’t! But then I was worried because I could see them using the same plot because so far throughout the show, they’ve been relying on Muse references multiple times. The stairs, the roof, and now the school closing down. This doesn’t feel like a sequel, but a reboot of the original series but with different characters. I’m just…so disappointed.

I didn’t really care what happened in the episode because the same plotline being used just bothered me so much. The girls hear from Ruby that the school is going to join with a school in Numazu and Uranohoshi is going to close. Chika is actually really excited, because now she can use this opportunity, just like Muse, to save the school with her school idol group. And, just like Muse, they make a PV. Get it? Just like Muse. Just like Muse, they mention Muse all the time and it’s so annoying now. The girls have trouble with their PV though because their town is small and boring. But in the end of the episode they’re inspired by the people on the beach with their lanterns and then put on a performance that felt so disjointed with the episode that I didn’t enjoy it as much. Their outfits were on point though.

Short summary? Yes, because like I said, I didn’t care about any of that. I was just expecting more from this show. At first when they were mentioning Muse and making references to them and following the previous show closely, I was okay with it. They weren’t overloading us with it, but then it started to take a worrisome turn with episode 4. And ever since then, it’s gotten much worse. Sunshine is just a rehash now of the original. Sunshine, and Aquors themselves, lack an identity. They reference Muse so much that they’re trying to be Muse, and doing everything exactly like Muse, that they’re pretty much another Muse. They’re not themselves. Realizing this, I felt this episode to be empty. I’m seriously going to have to watch the same thing all over again.

I just don’t understand why they went this direction. Could they really not think of anything else? Could they not make this new idol group do something else to make them special in their own way? Muse is special because they were a group of different girls that all loved their school and performed together to save it. In the beginning, I saw Aquors, and even Chika, as special because she wasn’t doing all of this for any big reason, but because she finally found something where a normal girl like her can shine. So I thought this show was going to follow Chika and the rest of the girls make a name for themselves just because they were passionate about what they were doing. But now they’re going to save the school. As a viewer, that’s just so disappointing. I just don’t know what the anime team was thinking! Was it really that hard to come up with a completely new plot to differentiate this group from Muse? To make them special in their own way? Tell me, was it really that hard? Did they not have faith in Aquors? I just don’t understand it.

Now that we know what the plot of the show is, we already know how it’s going to end. Just like with Muse, Aquors is going to garner attention and attract more girls to their school so more people can enroll, so the school doesn’t have to close down, and happy ending. Of course, the whole group isn’t together yet. Mari knew for awhile the school was possibly going to close, which is why she became Director but that still doesn’t make sense to me. Saying the school “needs” school idols, she’s basically wanting to do what Muse did and recruit Dia and Kanan to the idol club so they can save the school. But Dia doesn’t want to, and says she’ll save the school in her own way. So we won’t be getting the entire group together for awhile.

I was right when it came to the third years. From a tiny flashback we saw, the girls made their own group, but something went wrong. It made Dia hate school idols altogether, and for some reason it became something traumatic for Kanan or something, we still don’t know shit about this poor girl. Mari is the only one that doesn’t seem to want to give up. But it became more and more obvious the more episodes we watched. It’s actually quite predictable. The first Love Live was predictable too, don’t get me wrong. Knowing how this show is going to go, the whole drama with the third years is the only thing that interests me in this show now. The three of them seem to be very close, even though at the moment they’re very separate from each other. Right now, I don’t care for any of them, but Love Live usually changes my opinion on some of the girls when I learn their backstory. Like with Nozomi, I didn’t really care for her too much at first but after her episode in the second season I fell in love. So, I hope that happens with these girls.

But yes, I can’t hide my irritation and disappointment. I was hoping this was going to be different. I was hoping that they were going to make a name for themselves in their own way, not because they closely resemble Muse. It’s boring. Which is sad to say because they could have used these characters better and made them their own person, but the similarities between Muse and some of the girls is evident, now even with the plot. It’s a shame because the production value for this show is much better than the original, and I’ve been finding Aquors’ songs catchy.

It’s just sad what they’re doing. Next episode they’re going to Tokyo, so I expect we’ll see more Muse references. :/