Love Live! Sunshine!!
Season: Spring 2024
Type: Buddy Challenge Contract
Contractor: @realbreadcat
Episodes: 26/26 (2 seasons)
Score: 9/10
My relationship with with Love Live:
I’ve seen a good amount of Love Live in general. I’ve seen both seasons and the movie of School Idol Project, one season of Nijigasaki, and one season of Superstar. I’ve seen all of it at the behest of my husband, who is a massive LL fan. Whereas S.I.P. didn’t resonate with me that much, I’ve been generally positive towards the franchise. I’m just not at the level of the resident fan in the household.
But I always knew Sunshine was a weird void in my LL knowledge so when I saw it on the list of Challenge contracts I knew now was the time.
Especially past the midway point in s2, I started really thinking and writing down my takes on the story and themes. I spent an evening staying up late chatting with Resident LL Fan about it all and mentioned “I doubt I’m bringing any new thoughts to this discussion” and he told me I’d be surprised. Apparently a number of people really just want 100% happy go lucky plots with some fun songs and not much else to think about in their LL and therefore Sunshine was a bit of a disappointment because it’s not really that. But I really was impressed by Sunshine’s ability to nail certain themes. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s talk about the characters.
Characters
It’s kinda hard talking about the characters without just talking about the story. Chika especially, since she’s so integral to the plot and its themes but I feel like all of the characters play into the theme in their own ways. These are summaries, kinda, of the characters plus some of my takes on their arcs and interactions. I have more to say about some than others.
What a bunch of DWEEBS. You gotta love them. Yoshiko is the stand-out with how loud she is, but these three really are very similar.
Ruby- The shy crybaby, don’t look at me ueueueue. Her arc with Leah in season 2 was really sweet. Ruby being able to see herself in Leah even before the Hokkaido qualifiers was so subtly done. I do wonder if she immediately put together Leah’s fear and pressure of living up to her sister’s dream before the performance. The resolution of both of them deciding to thank their role models (sisters) and prove they have made their own growth with the experience learned from following for so long was a very nice shift in mindset and was a good introduction to the themes of the second half of s2.
Hanamaru- The bumpkiniest of the country bumpkins, Hanamaru is probably actually the most loner of the trio, zura. She’s so loner that she thinks the crybaby is the main character and that she plays second fiddle to her, zura. However, she really is the only one with a consistent handle on Yoshiko’s nonsense, zura. Without her, I’m not quite sure the group would’ve known how to deal with the chuuni as well, zura.
Yoshiko- Ah, Yoshiko (Yohane!). You really refused to let go of the chuuni and stayed true to yourself. I appreciated how the group never told her to stop doing her chuuni stuff, just corrected in the moments that needed correction and ignored the rest. The episode where she and Riko take care of that dog gave more insight to her interests and I got a bit worried that she may actually be a bit more delusional than I realized initially. Deciding to steal a kid’s dog because of something you’ve made up to explain the bad luck she has. You can keep your Yohane side, just don’t go around dog-napping, please.
The second years very much had the theme of “Why Do We Want To Do This?” from different angles.
Chika- The embodiment of the themes of Sunshine, Chika really ran this story. Of course, as the leader, she was the one who brought everyone together and ended up feeling the burden of their goals the most (second to Mari). What I like about Chika is her immaturity, which is a really weird thing to say but hear me out. Once the idea that they were going to try and save the school through Love Live was established, Chika was completely extrinsically motivated. She had a few goals: The top being to save the school. Second to that was winning Love Live (so they could save the school). And third, which appeared after their massive failure at the end of season 1, was to at least get one person on their side and go from there. But all of it was fed into saving the school.
So what happens when your top goal is completely unattainable? What happens when things completely out of your control make your number one goal impossible? What happens when your extrinsic motivations fail you? Well, you kinda just lose all meaning in what you’re doing, as seen by Chika’s reaction in season 2 episode 7- she completely gives up. She does not want to do Love Live anymore and everything is meaningless. When the school provides her another extrinsic motivator- to immortalize the school’s name by winning, only then is she “back to normal.”
But this is the problem. She, at that point, still is acting immaturely. She still is simply motivated extrinsically. She wants to find that shine but she can’t and she won’t until the very end when she reflects on everything that happened and realizes that the shine she wanted was that internal feeling of grit leading to success. Her shine was the intrinsic motivation of having a goal (it really doesn’t matter what) and working towards that goal with her friends. This is a lesson that I really appreciate, as someone who also needs to keep herself busy to function properly.
You- You is interesting because her characterization is similar to Ruby’s in that she joined for someone else’s sake. She really just wanted something to do with Chika. Similar to Chika, it kinda didn’t matter what that thing was, as long as they were doing it together. Her arc was largely learning that yes it’s ok for your friends to have friends and you’re still just as valid in your relationship.
Riko- Riko is ALSO very interesting in that this whole idol thing is totally not her first choice in focus however she found committing to it ended up precious to her anyway. She never let’s go of her passion for piano, too, and continues to play and practice throughout. You ARE allowed to hold on to both, even if one is your main focus at the time. You also ARE allowed to flip priorities as needed, as seen when she went to the piano competition instead of the LL qualifiers. Her falling into Yoshiko’s chuuni circle was an unexpected relationship turn that I wasn’t expecting. Very fun, very cute. Don’t go stealing dogs.
First off, these three are so polycule-coded it ain’t even funny. They’re SO IN LOVE (Mari and Kanan especially but Dia is in there, too).
Mari- Mari aligns with Chika in her motivations to save the school, perhaps because she is also the director (man, their school is in such a poor position they have a student directing the whole place). She felt the sting already of failing, especially since she had suffered the injury that ended up being the catalyst to the original Aquors downfall. She was holding a lot and yet still came back to try again.
She needs to stop touching everyone’s tits, though. It’s unfortunate they gave Nozomi’s trope to Mari, because it’s the reason I hated Nozomi and it peeved me here, too. Luckily she doesn’t do it nearly as much and I liked her character otherwise.
Kanan- Man, Kanan is so well meaning and so frustrating. All three of the third years are so hecking STUBBORN and their overall arc is learning to trust in each other and the other members. This especially rings true for Kanan, who decided to take it on herself to sabotage Aquors so that Mari didn’t hurt herself more and also took the “better” opportunity of studying abroad. She just didn’t care to consider that Mari didn’t WANT to do those things and made up a whole thing about being unable to sing and blah blah blah… She definitely deserved to get slapped, fuck all that. I like her as a character, though.
Dia- Dia just needs to accept that she loves idols and also that she’s kinda hyper formal. I don’t know what else to say about it. She’s kinda a hot mess in being casual. Gotta loosen up.
Story
Outside of the anime lore, Sunshine was fighting a bit of a battle. It’s really hard to follow up within a franchise without the parallels being made. And of course they’ll be made- they’re following a similar set-up! Nine girls, separated three per grade, competing in Love Live, even with the similarity of their school being shut down. The parallels are obvious and the writers have to figure out how to do something different so it stands out.
Step one was pointing out the similarities as the character’s own motivations- if mμ’s could do it, so can we!
Step two was making them fail so incredibly hard that they really need to blaze their own path inside and outside of the story. They cannot rely on the success of mμ’s. Sunshine cannot rely on the success of S.I.P.
The 0 to 1 theme is so strong. I love the idea that the initial goal is not let’s win it all, but rather let’s try and just get a little bit better and see where it goes. Excellent all around. If we can just take little steps, then those steps will accumulate to a big success- saving our school.
The beginning of season 2 is where resolve meets reality. The school is being shut down and it would take a miracle to reverse this decision. It may be a miracle to achieve but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
But I gotta say… holy hell the set up for saving the school was impossible odds. Realistically, who would commute to a school so far away or who would want to move out there. This is an all girl’s high school they're talking about, and decreasing student numbers implies an overall population decline. There is really nothing that 9 teenagers can do to save one gendered school from the perils of population and probably economic decline. They got fish and mandarins holding up this dying small town. It is a problem well above them.
However, their strive to make this miracle happen instead had a separate effect- they were able to do a different thing wildly against their odds (qualify for LL) without the support of a well resourced school. They really were able to stand up against schools with many more resources and a base higher population (important in popularity contests) through sheer determination.
Chika’s characterization of just kinda a normal, not specially talented girl hits when you put it in that perspective. It's the gumption to keep trying and practicing when everything is stacked against you and you don't even have a gymnastics trainer available to support you learning a goddamn back flip? (ep 6) Girlie, that was wildly dangerous what're you doing.
The odds being stacked against you and deciding to do it anyway was what initially made me start loving this series.
Then, the presentation of failure was just so realistic and excellent. The increase of tension with almost making it is usually paid off in many anime by a last minute surprise and the moral of good old fashioned hard work and determination is celebrated with claps on the backs and huzzahs. So rarely do I feel like I see the pure frustration of giving it your all and still failing. And usually in life, failure isn't a grand event. It's not always not the tension of seeing your name on a list or scrolling to the bottom of a rank website. It's the sudden appearance of the worst case scenario- it's the red bar of APPLICATIONS CLOSED appearing automatically in the system. It's cold and sudden and plain.
The follow up of what to do when you fail and have to readjust your sights had me cheering. It’s so refreshing to see such a mature presentation of this story. It’s complete with a scene of celebrating failure (episode 11, where they hold the closing school festival). Celebrate what you had, grieve what you’ve lost, and continue forward.
The final few episodes leading up to LL was interesting in that we didn’t really see the “practicing for LL” parts. Instead, the story focused on future decisions and the fact that this moment, this final countdown to LL and the school closing is just as precious as what came before and what will come after. The third years all decide on their own, separate paths, the rest of the students prepare for their new school lives. Aquor’s won’t exist because not even their school will exist. It is a time to say goodbye and adjust your focus forward and this present time is just as important as all else.
They ultimately win and obtain their goal, but at that point it almost just feels like a given. The winning of LL, while a goal of the show, was not the POINT of the show. The point was exploring all the complex feelings around goals, success, failure, and the ever changing nature of life. The scene we get for winning LL was a reflective scene at the beach (followed by a final hurrah where they all dance for their old classmates together), not a full blown out festival like they did for the school closing.
Musings of a 30 Year Old Woman
This part is where I just kinda reminisce about my own personal failures that watching this show made me think about. It’s also a bit of reflection of the themes and perspective. It was written immediately after I finished season 2 so they’re… idk, authentically in the feels?
I did grow up with a situation where I had to change schools against my choosing due to a family move. I hated it and attempted to convince my parents in every way possible to let me finish high school where I was. I went as far as even getting parents in communication to set up a situation where I stayed at a friend’s house with my parents giving hers some money to support the cost of another teenager. However, in the end, my father told me plainly in a Sonic parking lot that he would not allow his daughter to live 350 miles away from the family. None of us had a choice in this, none of us wanted to move. But it was what had to be done and I was to go along with it. The decision was made and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
What I’ve realized is that change is practically synonymous with death. A life change is a death in a life you had expected to stay stable. Perhaps it's a life you fought for, perhaps it’s just what has always been for you. Big change requires grieving and, like the death of a person, requires us to adapt.
It is interesting watching this in my 30s bc I can look at it as a fondness for the naivety of teenagers. I say this without the intent to belittle, however. But really, a school closing and merging is not the end of the world (though, again, is indicative of a wider, much more troubling implication for the town). These teenagers will continue to get an education and will go on and live their lives once they graduate. No one will really ask or care that your high school has shut down in your adult life. Nobody has asked or cared much about my high school experience, or college, or even grad school.
It made me think about how important it is for people to have these moments in their lives, though, because they are just so important for development as a person. People need to feel true frustration. They need to feel that sting of trying your best and failing. That friction must happen to teach how to pick yourself up and continue existing.
Overall, I really enjoyed the themes and how they were presented in Love Live! Sunshine!! It was a refreshing story, I felt like a bit of a new take on the structure (at least, it deviated from S.I.P.’s structure for sure), and it revitalized my interest in Love Live as a franchise again. Great anime!
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