Anime Review | Love Live! School Idol Project Season 2 (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Love Live! School Idol Project Season 2 (UK Rating: U)

This second season feels very much just the second part of the first season, and the final product feels much like one single story. This season gives the protagonist a new challenge as she has become the school council president and managed to drag her friends into the council, too. It's also time for the girls to say goodbye to the old guard as the previous student council president and vice president, Eli and Nozomi, prepare to graduate, not to mention the school idol study club leader, Nico Nico, too.

The story that develops over the course of this series is a simple and down to earth one - this slice of life tale follows the girls as they deal with the simple problems in their day to day lives: losing that extra bit of weight, struggling to write a love song, balancing budgets in student council meetings, and so on. Even the antagonists of the season - rival school idol super group Arise - are hardly an evil organisation, just a fellow group of young girls who love to make people happy.

The story may not be filled with thrilling moments or dramatic twists but it instead relies on the strength of its character development. Each of the individual members of the group are given some time in the limelight, showing a little of their history and elaborating on their personalities and quirks. Each character has its own arc across the two seasons, along with lots of bonding between members of the group. Most groups of friends bond over shared loves, things in common, but this group of nine is very different and are very individual people, so much so that it's easy to see why each has grown its own fan-base within the audience.

The quality of the show is once again high, the art, animation, and performances of the cast, plus the music are all fantastic. In fact, each of the elements that weren't as polished in the first season have been addressed here. The songs are catchier and the horrendous CGI-style dance sequences that previously looked completely out of place before have been completely overhauled, and now the CGI blends much more naturally into the drawn animation art and style.

7/10

Very Good - Bronze Award

Love Live! School Idol Project Season 2 is even more enjoyable than the first, closing off the story of Love Live in a completely satisfying fashion. The ladies have been on quite the journey across these 26 episodes and even for those that don't particularly enjoy slice of life or idols, this story could change some minds.