I'm kinda interested in how this will turn out. Or rather, how it will sell. Most non-Japanese Love Live fans I've talked to hated Sunshine since it was conceived. I wonder if Japanese fans - i.e. the people who actually matter and buy the BDs - will share that sentiment or if they're more attached to the brand than to the characters.

I guess I should point out I didn't particularly care for the first Love Live before I'll write anything about the new one. It's kinda impressive but despite having a pretty big cast I didn't grow to like any of the characters. I thought the anime was poorly planned, poorly made and had little to offer. Occasional drama bursts made me roll my eyes and there were plenty of developments that didn't really make any sense to me.
I've been told countless times that S2 is better in every aspect and I should watch it but frankly I still don't feel like it.

The thing I enjoyed the most about it were the SFW doujins. The fanon interpretation of the characters made them much more likeable and I even grew to like NicoMaki, despite pretty much hating Nico.
It's also cool how the doujins explore a variety of different pairings instead of sticking to the same 3-4 'OTPs'. Some pairings are complete crack but there were times when after reading a doujin I felt 'I guess this kinda works'.

ANYWAY. Enough digressions, back to Sunshine.
For the better or for the worse - for me for the worse - this felt a whole lot like Love Live S1. They managed to capture the spirit of the original I guess. They kept the same character designer seemingly and the arstyle hasn't changed - it still looks like it was taken straight out of a mid 00s anime. They had cameos for all the characters already and yet again I feel I won't grow to like any of them much, which is quite an achievement as my standards aren't particularly high. Some characters feel like knockoffs of their S1 equivalents. I have no freaking idea why they thought copying the entire elaborate setup with the student council president who takes an 'over my dead body' approach to the school idol club's existence and yet ends up joining it later was a good idea.

On the upside I think the setting is neat, I enjoy all rural settings period but in this case it also puts an interesting spin on the idol thing - how will they actually gain fame despite living in the boonies? I bet it'll end up being nothing but a wasted opportunity.

One way or another I plan to follow this.

>>26471
The designs are considerably less appealing. Muse's girls had brighter hair and seemed more memorable. The story seems to be a repeat of the original LL. Not a big fan of LL in general but I will watch it.

decided to give this a try, got through half of the first episode... dunno if i can do this. in my moe CGDCT anime, there are always 2 dimensional characters based on anime stereotypes crammed into a fucking myopic slice of life plot that could only intrigue the most moronic pleb... but you know what!? i fucking love watching cute fucking girls doing cute fucking things! so as long as my fucking anime makes their shitty girl characters at least a tiny bit three dimensional, their contrived dialogue at least slightly organic, or give their cliche based plot at least a LITTLE unique flair, i'll watch the shit.

i dont think i can watch this one. it has the girls, and they deliver the cute shit, but really, the fucking fuck... there is nothing to subvert the cliches and lack of good writing!

seriously, does this shit get better!?

yuyu shiki has organic dialogue, non non biyori has sincere characters, and anne happy has an interesting gimmick... what does this show have?

why is the butt hurt flowing through me like this? its like i spend a week with the slapper

>>26492
hm, should i have watched more than have an episode before getting all self indulgent with this diatribe?... no, i stand by my actions and rant.

polite sage

>>26472
Might as well quote myself for clarity, considering my stance towards S1 will be the key factor in what I think of S2.

So yeah, ep 2 wasn't bad. ... I think. Frankly, it started out really well. The opening segment with Chika asking Riko to join her and being unable to take a clue was funny and well made. I caught myself smiling even.
Similarly trying to bait a high schooler with a lollipop and the conversation with Dia (digression - poor girls, Ruby and Dia, their parents must really hate them) where she kept overreacting were nice.

And that was the first half. Combined with the very existence of the chuuni girl I started to think that Love Live has learned its lesson and that S2 will simply not take itself seriously and focus on somewhat tongue-in-cheek comedy. That would've been a really good change for the franchise. Would have been.

I'll actually make a separate paragraph out of praising the OST. It's good and fits the show very well. It's light hearted and fun and builds an easy-going atmosphere that blends well with the comedic feel of first half of ep 2. And makes the second half more bearable.

So hey, first half went well, surely nothing could go wrong? Of course it could. We're back to the eyerolling, cringe drama that I remember from S1.
I'm actually okay with the story of Riko. It's sensible. She loved piano but somewhere along the way lost her passion for it, it turned into more of a competetive job and now she can't play anymore. It's a down to Earth thing that most people should be able to emphatize with, even if they never were in a similar situation.
And hell, I'm even okay with her rediscovering her passion for music through being an idol.
But that's not enough for LL. They have to treat being a school idol like a deus ex machina for all problems. Reach out and grab Chika's hand and everything will be solved through a brilliant moment of katharsis! ... Not.

So yeah, I'm torn. On one hand the first half was great and I had my hopes up. On the other the second half was basically Everything That Was Wrong With S1: The Experience.

I'd also like to point out that I feel scammed again. This is supposedly an idol anime but like S1 they will spend the majority of the anime trying to get the characters to join the club, and they'll end up joining for completely nonsensical reasons. And then it'll end. This is another thing I disliked about S1 - good to see we're still following the same formula.

I feel that Sunshine is inherently flawed from the get go. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the original u's was a product of evolution which grew and changed over years before becoming what everyone came to love. The original character designs are barely recognizable from the current established appearance. The anime adaptation didn't come out until well after a number of albums and videos had already been made at a time when it was just barely starting to gain real popularity.
Sunshine on the other hand has little of that and has been thrust upon us with very little to support it, so it's obviously going to have to leach off the original a bit. The characters look and feel very uninspired and generic, I can barely tell some of them apart from each other. This water/aqua theme they have going only serves to make the group feel very shallow and gimmicky to me. I liked how they actually had reasonable motivation to create a school idol group in the original series with the intent being to save their school. Where as with Sunshine it's essentially a matter of copying what the cool kids are doing for shits and giggles. As for the music so far, it's 'fine' and that's about all I can say for that. It like the anime itself feels very paint by numbers, which I suppose is fitting. The animation quality is decent though, I guess I could give them that much at least.

Lastly, I'm also in the camp of people who resent Sunshine and the way love live has taking things in a 3dpd idol kind of direction, where they get cast out like garbage and replaced every couple of years for a new harvest. Virtual/2D idols have the ability to be timeless and rise above that sort of thing (just look at how long miku has been at it) but instead here they are pulling the old crew out of the spotlight at the peek of their popularity and force feeding us this trash.

>>26518
Miku is a computer program. μ's is played by real people.

Unlike both Miku and real idol groups, μ's is part of a story where it can't exist indefinitely. It's a school idol group. That μ's was retired also sets it apart from real idol groups rather than makes it similar to them. Morning Musume is almost two decades old, and some of the members were in the group for a decade. It'll keep going until the wheel falls off.

>>26532
>Miku is a computer program. μ's is played by real people.
And I suppose you believe said computer program creates it's own songs, games, and miscellaneous merchandises?

The story could easily continue indefinitely, the creators simply didn't want it to. There's countless long running animated series with characters that never grow old and the stories have never been an issue for them. Love live could have easily just never mentioned graduation and kept things going indefinitely if they wanted. Even within the confines of their established story line they could have kept the group together. They decided to break up the group just because a couple members were graduating from school. Besides the obvious option of keeping the group together without those members and adding new ones to take their place (which they would understandably have issue with) they could have just continued to meet after school and phase out the 'school' part of the school idol group. Instead like in so many other anime/manga they treat the act of graduating from high school like a death sentence, and it's obnoxious. It's almost like these shows take place in a version of Logan's run where students get 'renewed' when they graduate or turn 18. This reminds me a lot of how k-on ended where in they also treated the act of graduating like they were about to die and never see each other again, Not to mention it's end of the series movie is almost identical to the love live movie. Its almost sickening how obsessed the industry is with school and the way they project this idea that life essentially ends when school ends. It's one thing to focus in on that part of a person's life, but they treat it like it IS a person's life. They might as well decapitate the characters during the graduation ceremonies, They're already doing it metaphorically.

>>26534
>The story could easily continue indefinitely, the creators simply didn't want it to.
No, it couldn't have. Love Live was already an established franchise by the time the first anime was made. And you actually know it since you wrote:
>The anime adaptation didn't come out until well after a number of albums and videos had already been made at a time when it was just barely starting to gain real popularity.
Which is true. They couldn't have kept it going infinitely as the fictional characters are just part of the franchise. I know /tc/ couldn't give less of a shit about the non-fictional part of LL but you can't just get interested in some franchise, become a self-described 'fan' and demand it changes to better suit your needs, thus ruining for the actual fans. μ's last concert had over 250000 attendees, along with at least second that much watching the livestream (or so I imagine, I'm pretty much a laic when it comes to LL, I just looked it up).

You can hate the idea and hey, I won't even tell you not to. But one way or another Love Live was never meant to be purely fictional and kept to confines of anime/manga/games/whatever. As such the group effectively disbanding was a given, sooner or later. How the whole Nitta Emi thing factors into this is a subject of many conspiracy theories I'm sure.

So with all that in mind I agree with
>Sunshine on the other hand has little of that and has been thrust upon us with very little to support it, so it's obviously going to have to leach off the original a bit.
Love Live took years to get anywhere and the first concert had 1700 attendees. They went from 1700 to 250000. In that sense as a fan of the franchise you can feel happy the project went so well I guess. But Sunshine will have none of that. They essentially start with the anime. They're taking multiple shortcuts by just using the popularity of the old Love Live.

Which is why I'm interested in how it will turn out. I'm sure they managed to turn many people away bu canning μ and I'm curious if it will be profitable in the long run.
Personally, after 2 eps I feel Sunshine has been the better anime so far. But of course it's way too early to pass final judgment.

>Its almost sickening how obsessed the industry is with school and the way they project this idea that life essentially ends when school ends.
It's not the idea that originates from the industry, the industry just copies the general sentiment of Japanese people. I won't even get into detail as the topic is endless and not only can you write many books about it, many have in fact already been written I'm sure.
Personally I find the idea laughable rather than annoying so on some level I'm having fun thinking there are people who seriously think that way, as it's an ideology that you can put on par with those of people who are dead serious about horoscopes and whatnot.

>>26534
Real idols and seiyuu have complications that a computer program doesn't. Anyone can compose songs and create other content for Miku. Miku herself is eternal and not dependent on any specific people.

It's strange you criticized Love Live for resembling the real idol industry, but here you are explaining how μ's should have worked like a real idol group and just kept going and going.

>>26543
>here you are explaining how μ's should have worked like a real idol group and just kept going and going.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe the average idol group keeps "going and going" and instead get kicked out of the spotlight when the girls get old and wrinkly.

>>26540
You're right, sometimes I forget there's a real world side to love live which it's intrinsically connected to. I guess continuing on with the 2D side of things without the 3D side would alienate more fans than sunshine could ever dream of and take the franchise.

>>26546
>Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe the average idol group keeps "going and going" and instead get kicked out of the spotlight when the girls get old and wrinkly.
Idols do. The groups don't. They just change members and keep going ad infinitum.
And if by 'get old and wrinkly' you mean 'turn ~20' (which as I assume you know is the age when people in Japan are considered adult, both legally and in a broader sense) then yes, they do. You might even know what they call it when an idol quits a group - they 'graduate'. Yes, graduate. And using the word 'graduate' here is by no means a coincidence, you're supposed to think of school when you hear it. So yeah this hilarious, twisted cult of youth is what permeates Japanese culture and is in no way an anime thing.

>I guess continuing on with the 2D side of things without the 3D side would alienate more fans than sunshine could ever dream of and take the franchise.
It's less about what will allienate fans and more about what will result in biggest $$$ profit. The oldest member of the old group turned 32 yesterday (I looked it up, frankly I'm a bit surprised, figured the oldest one would be just below 30) and there are a couple of others who are close to 30. The clock was very much ticking.
Taking IM@S' example Love Live higher ups must've figured they can just change the cast periodically instead of killing the golden eeg laying goose. They will suffer a blow in popularity initially I bet but it's about a long term outlook.

Anyway, I guess this was worth clearing up but I hope the thread will focus on the anime rather than the idol group which I think none of us care about.

and then she feel and died and that was the end of love live.

How do you fuck up a throw that badly?

Now all she needs is a van.

and then the helicopter crashed and they all died and that was the end of love live.

Welp. Ep 3 went ahead and brought back all the eye-roller, unlikely drama from S1.

They gave everybody the wrong time - I'm sure that would totally happen - and then everybody and their mom showed up with the perfect timing and perfect synchronisation (all of them figured showing up to a concert at precisely the time it's supposed to start was a great idea) to save the day. And they even got to hear the final 30 seconds of the song, too! Pretty sure the girls had only one song, which is pretty eyebrow rising as well.

In other news I'm pretty disappointed Honoka Chika was such a wimp. Aren't these main girls supposed to be paragons of unyielding spirit? Being bad at giving up seemed to be Honoka's and Chika's only personality traits to begin... and then they just give up.

So yeah, this is going downhill fast. At this point it's like S1 except with even more bland characters, and I was never a fan of S1 characters to begin with.
And yes, I won't even spare a paragraph to Mari's setting.

>>26616
>and then everybody and their mom showed up with the perfect timing and perfect synchronisation
That scene really didn't sit well with me also.
It seemed like half the city had nothing better to do than travel to a school in the pouring rain just to watch a couple of random school kids they don't know sing a single song. Not to mention they somehow managed to all sneak into the gym without making a sound and packed themselves in while the lights were off for just a minute. I'd be fucking scared shitless if I were those girls to see the place full when the lights went on, if nothing else it'd be creepy and disturbing. Besides, it also feels a bit insulting to everything u's achieved to have aqours handed this much support out the gate without earning any of it. In fact what was that bullshit before the concert about 'only' being able to fit half the school in the gym? There's no reason why they should have expected more than a dozen or two people to show up.

First you make a "Shhh" sound quickly followed by the word "it".

I wish they'd at least pretend Sunshine isn't just a knockoff. The entire ep was basically all about how the new girls are based on old girls.
There's using old anime as a crutch, and then there's trying to shamelessly copy everything.
Fortunately I didn't like old LL to begin with, otherwise I'd pretty pretty disappointed by now.
Or maybe I wouldn't be? Maybe Sunshine appeals to people who liked old LL and maybe that's why I dislike it. Who knows.

>>26664
>There's using old anime as a crutch
Even that alone bugs me. At first it seemed like they'd only make little nods and references to the original, but turned out the original ended up being the entire foundation for the story and events of this anime. Now it's nothing but "hey guys remember how awesome u's was?!" and it feels like they're trying to sponge off it's popularity by proxy rather than do anything original or different.
What's strange to me is the anime almost seems self awear of this. Even in the confines of the story so far it's been made clear they're simply coasting off the efforts of others and all those people showed up to their performance because u's made school idols cool. That class president has every right to be pissed at them. Aqours(and sunshine) are basically leeches.

That's not a corner, and if you're playing in the sandbox at the base of the slide, you're gonna be surrounded by kids one way or another.

Yui was happy to play a tree, fuck you. You're lucky to even be on stage.

She was hiding behind a fucking fan, what are you blind?

They're like an inverted version of Nozomi x Eli.

>>26671
>Even that alone bugs me.
I acknowledged that's nigh on inevitable. What I didn't expect was how bad it'll get.
>What's strange to me is the anime almost seems self awear of this.
It is, and frankly it actively tries to lampshade it (prez saying Eli was a prez, too; Ruby being another shy meek girl like Hanayo and of course Hanayo is her favorite; etc.) but it does not work. Let's do everything like original Love Live - no club room, practicing on rooftop, girl starts around a genki orange haired girl and her two friends, blah blah blah.

>>26675
I don't think she was complaining.

>>26676
Uhh, yes, that's the joke, hence Riko's reaction.

>>26680
Pretty sure the Nozo-Eli is meant to be Dia x Mari. Frankly the diver girl is the only girl that doesn't feel like a copy of an original LL girl. The rest have their equivalent. That would leave her as Maki and I can kinda see it when I squeeze hard enough but it's not the exact same thing, which is more than I can say about almost every other character.

>>26702
Sorry, I took her reaction at face value. I find sarcasm is usually accompanied by silly faces in anime to make it obvious, much like they do for most other emotions/reactions.

>>26714
You's (the characters; thanks Japan) reaction is meant to be taken at face value. Ruby wasn't really hidden at all but for whatever reason You didn't notice her, which leads to this <- reaction from Riko.

>>26715
Again sorry, I confused you for riko (I still haven't remembered half their names yet). I thought you meant you when you said Riko since you was the the one who said that. You seemed genuinely surprised by it which is why I asked if you was blind. I never even noticed riko until you pointed her out.

Post edited on 29th Jul 2016, 11:32pm

So they don't care about English, fine fair enough it's a Japanese anime. You would still think someone would see during planning that there's a problem with naming a character "You" when much of the show revolves around a group called "u's".

>>26716
>I still haven't remembered half their names yet
I haven't either. The only ones I remember are Ruby and Dia, since those stand out. The rest I look up constantly.

>>26717
>You would still think someone would see during planning that there's a problem with naming a character "You" when much of the show revolves around a group called "u's".
First of all it's "µ's", not "u's". Second, even if it were "u's" u is pronounced ユ　and You ヨウ so they don't really sound similar.
So it's purely an English thing and yeah, they have no real reason to care.

>>26721
True, but Not-Honoka repeatedly pronounces it as "yous" rather than "muse".

Except you live on borrowed charm and personalities.

This week on LL not µ's: not-Nico turned out to be actually less Nico than you'd think. She fulfills a similar role but her attitude towards her fake character is mostly the opposite of Nico's as she wants to get rid of it. Surprisingly they actually made a rare, somewhat realistic portrayal of a chuuni character - someone who's neither delusional nor batshit insane, but rather a simple person who has absolutely nothing going for them but wants other to notice them nonetheless.
Kinda weird I'd say as any other portrayal (like the standard anime ones for example) would have made her cuter I think.

Weekly nitpicks (this shit doesn't make sense captain):
Just lightly pressing the power button of a laptop would simply put it in sleep mode, not turn it off. I think it worked the same way in essentially all laptops I've used (and I have used a bunch) and is simply an industry standard.
Last week Zura was incapable of keeping up with others for more than 10m while running, this week she kept up with them all the way when they were chasing Yohane. The special training must've paid off early, huh.
And of course we have a return of Lesbodynamics from Sakura Trick with Riko magically flying over from one balcony to the other and doing a frontflip while she's at it.

In my opinion they're the only decent aqours.

Yeah, more like an ocean of porn and toxic waste.

Rather than admiring her gracefulness or being surprised by her return, what if they're actually just staring at the large ball on the side of her head?

Being chased by a group of cute girls in Gothic lolita would be a dream come true for me.

Now that I'm actually starting to remember what some of their names are I couldn't help but notice one of the characters wears a hat with their name on it. I originally brushed it off as being more "engrish isu kool!" kind of stuff. Is this the creator's way of acknowledging how uninteresting and forgettable these characters are and that we might need blatant guides/hints like that, or is she supposed to be really self absorbed?

Oh, so the school is closing now. Amazing development.
Do I need to say it?
Do I really need to say it?

>>26795
How original...

Oh god, is she always going to talk in that annoying fake accent type voice?

It's like they adamantly refuse to do ANYTHING original.

I... I don't even.
How in the hell are there 4,900 groups worse than them? They have like two or three songs, performed only twice I think? and somehow they're in the top 100 already?!

They even have their own version of A-rise, with one of the members being an evil and more bipolar version of nico.

That's the face of a girl who just realized she possibly ruined an outfit that probably cost her a few hundred dollars.

Fuck right the hell off with this shit. How the hell do they expect anyone to give two fucks about any of this melodrama when they keep pumping it out so relentlessly?

Maybe it's just me but I care more when someone who's generally happy or content is suddenly going though a lot of pain and misery. When someone who's -always- miserable complains to you about how miserable they are it's nothing but annoying. That's what this anime is starting to feel like.

I'm inclined to agree with them.

Remember when Yohane wanted to get over her Chuunibyou?
Yeah me neither.

>>26952
Remember when Hanayo had glasses?

"I want to rock and roll all night, and party every day!"

Edited photo or actual drawing?

>>27003
The buildings look a bit dodgy but everything else seems redone.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-10-05/love-live-sunshine-tops-madoka-magica-as-no.2-tv-anime-bd-in-1st-week-sales-ever/.107276

And there you have Japan's answer to the entire Love Live Sunshine question (>>26540). Sunshine was pretty shit, forced and whatnot, but Japan just did not care. I can't say I'm very surprised.

>>27043
I expected as much. The creators probably knew this would sell very well no matter what going off name recognition alone, so it's no wonder they played it safe and copy-pasted the original series for this "new" installment.

>>27044
Copy-paste has an actual meaning, and it's not "things that I do not like."

>>27054
Did you even watch sunshine? It's blatantly unoriginal and celebrates it. It rehashes countless elements from the original series and is happy to do so. It's essentially a soft reboot where in they remake the original story but technically continue on from it. Even from a design standpoint the lead character Sunshine looks like a clone of the lead character from the original series, not to mention having practically the same personality.

Sunshine was made because of the scandalous nature of the first series involving the VA but not only do they set it in the same universe as the original series but all the do is promote the scandalous character of that VA in Sunshine. What more is the characters of Sunshine are markedly massively inferior to the original cast both in personality and looks. The chuuni is extremely embarrassing to watch instead to being a fun likable character and I never realized how the lack of NicoNicoNi would cause the show to be so unlikable. This series was a failure.

>>27062
>Sunshine was made because of the scandalous nature of the first series involving the VA but not only do they set it in the same universe as the original series but all the do is promote the scandalous character of that VA in Sunshine.
The entire matter is pretty damn fishy, considering the timing. That bomb was dropped just days after old cast's last concert, and a tad before Sushine anime was announced as well, although that was a matter of time anyway. That being said Sunshine project was started a good while before that piece of news went public, so things alligned a little too well to look like nothing but a coincidence.

Love Live never dies!

>>30668
When it comes to sunshine, I wish it would. Third group can't get here soon enough.