Love Live! Superstar!! – 12 (END)

“Song for All”

A bittersweet ending.

This season of Love Live was certainly a return to form, and much like that design, it decided to end things with a bittersweet melody. What exactly does that entail, we’ll talk about it in bounty following in a bit, spoilers follow of course. This season provided highs and lows, and emotional bouts to defy the ages. The emotional depth these characters provided was extensive, and watching it week by week was really such a wonderful treat. This episode, in particular, provided a meticulous bountiful stage, I really appreciated how the lights changed when one particular character was singing, and then all the colors shined as the girls sang in choir. Mimicking K-Pop videos. Heck, even Leilla has fan videos like that. The actual logistics of it all allude me, and so they should you. Let’s just chuck it all up to movie magic there were no rehearsals (that we know off) before the girls actually got on that stage, the lighting department didn’t have time to practice the light placements, no one had actually heard the song before the performance except for Leilla themselves. So what gives? Well, that’s one of the few liberty’s Love Live can take. Let’s just all collectively assume that there were exercises before they got on that stage to perform live across the world to everyone watching the love live.

But of course, in true Love Live fashion, the girls didn’t actually win, it was a given, the winter wonderland theme reminded me a lot of the first, the o.g. Love Live where they too had a similar theme and in a similar fashion, they too didn’t win, this was a long time ago so my memory might be hazy, but I sort of expected them not to win first place, because that would have been a little bit too easy, on the other hand, I’m interested to see how Sunny Pa compares to whatever the Leilla girls did, and what exactly merits them to win first place. But sometimes is all about the popularity contest. Also if they had won first place, there wouldn’t be an excuse to make more of Superstar. With how well it was received, I fancy they might make a second season, easy! It’s not too much of a stretch to say that this was in fact delivery planned from the very beginning, having them win first place, would have seemed like a be all end all, and the fact they didn’t skip over the OP and ED, makes me think that no additional scenes were planned, and the second-placed was the hook we needed to move forward into more Superstar content. When exactly that will happen is not known, we will not know until we know.

I loved that this final episode gave Leilla a little bit of leverage with their popularity and the whole school as a whole, it’s interesting to note that maybe at this point with the little recognition they have attained, people in both throughout their school and around their town, got to know them a little bit more and want to support them in their future endeavors, it’s really super endearing that, even though it was implied, some of the townsfolk actually helped in setting everything up for the stage to be as pretty as it was. With some popularity, they are bound to bring changes to their school, and the town around them, it’s well known that local idol groups bring tourism and reinvigorate a town that is otherwise financially struggling. And we already saw some of it, as the school got some more applicants, and it was said that they have even more students incoming to their payroll, ensuring the school can run for the next year and beyond. Or at least according to Ren.

Other than that, this was a fun ride, I loved how almost every episode we got a new song, certainly the show knows its limit’s and didn’t try to achieve anything more than it could because that usually ends up looking like fake advertising, some music anime try to foretell a big performance by showing bits and pieces of songs, but that usually ends up crashing down in on itself because once you actually hear the whole song all the way through, you’ve already listened to bits and pieces of it, and the shock value is not that hard. This might be nit-picking, but I’m glad Love Live didn’t do that, and instead opted to give us the song once it was completed, while still allowing us to view the creation process behind it, without being overly preachy. Kanon had some moments of doubt here and there, and that’s what made her human, or at least a full-fledged character. Everyone not only got their moment in the spotlight but also the moment where they were able to breathe and doubt themselves, it made for all the more compelling of a watch.

For now, we don’t know if Superstar will be back, but what we saw here was almost magical for what Love Live is all about, it felt like a fresh season all the way through, while at the same being a sort of reboot.

What did you think of this season of Superstar did you enjoy it? Leave your thoughts in the comments, as for now, thanks for reading all the way through, and let’s pray this is not the end, as Leilla still has more to give, and we want to see them shine and nab that first place, which is well deserved. Second place is not bad, but they were training for first, so it’s definitely a bittersweet ending.