First Impression (Movie Review): Love Live! The School Idol Movie

Movie Poster
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What a wonderful Experience! Love Live! The School Idol Movie was both funny and entertaining from beginning to end. On the whole, I enjoyed it a lot. It has a few details here and there (which I will go into detail in a moment), but that would be being picky. I saw this movie in theaters and I was just as exited as the others watching it with me. I didn't have high expectations on this movie because the anime was Ok, not a masterpiece but entertaining and it managed to get you invested in it. I had doubts on the movie because I felt that the ending of the series (last episode of the second season) was perfect, so I didn't know how were they going to make the movie fit in the chronology, and let alone be good, entertaining and satisfying.

I want to comment on the audience before I get into the movie itself. First off, I didn't expect to see so many Love Live! fans in New York. In fact, not only the show I went to was sold out, but also the one on the following Monday and there were just a few tickets left for Tuesday. Although I understand that 95% of the audience were more hardcore fans than me, but I was still surprised how invested these people were. When talking about the 5 Seconds of Summer Concert in my last post, I guess this was the type reaction I was expecting from the audience. If the viewers of the movie knew the songs, I would bet $1000 that they would have sing along as well. In this one scene, there is like a roll call that the main characters do before a presentation in which they count to 9, then they follow up by saying "Muse... Music.... START!" which everyone in the theater joined in on that "START". As you be able to tell right know, the movie had a really positive reaction from the audience, but does this mean that the movie is good? I mean, people cheered for their favorite character at the beginning of the movie and each one had a different amount of fans on their own, so I guess you could say that the audience was predisposed to like the film. My personal take is that although they were, the movie was really good on its own right.  Let me explain (I may give away the ending of the anime, so if you haven't finished it: SPOILER ALERT).

Village East Cinema in NYC

The movie starts with Honoka Kousaka, Umi Sonoda, and Kotori Minami playing in a playground as children. Honoka is trying to leap over a big puddle of water, but she can't reach to the other side. Kotori tells Honoka to stop and Umi is telling her that is impossible, however, the mud-covered Honoka refuses to give up and gives it one more try. On her next attempt she manages to leap over the puddle. As an introduction, although cliche, is a nice way to ease you in and it gives you a little development on Honoka's character. After this scene, the movie jumps to were the second season left off: the third grade high school students are graduating and all 9 members of μ's (Muse) decide that once the third graders graduate, the group will disband (I warned you about the spoilers, didn't I?) because once they graduate, they can't still be School Idols and the group would not be the same without all the original 9 members. Hanayo runs to meet up with the group and show them big news she just received. Apparently, the success of the Love Live festival (a concert were several school idol groups perform and the audience decides who the winner would be. Normally, is just a yearly event, but this particular year was successful to have a second Love Live which μ's won) this year had been so successful that they are going to do a THIRD Love Live, this time in a bigger venue, and they want the champions of the last Love Live to help promote the event. However, since Eli, Nozomi, and Nico will have graduated by then, the girls are unsure on how to respond to the news. The director of the school (Kotori's Mother) also received the email and an invitation from the US to make a show on School Idols in New York. When discussing this, she tells the girls that it would be good for the school if μ's went on this trip, and if they continued performing afterwards. Since they still have 3 months before the third grade students officially graduate, they decide to make a final Live Show.


Keep in mind, Love Live! School Idol Project is a slice of Life, so there is no big drama or action in this type of story, so most throughout this first half of the movie, there is not much to comment on when it comes to the general aspect. μ's arrive to New York, and tour around to find the perfect place to perform their last concert. The jokes are pretty funny and there are moments where the characters there is a sad mood and that's done pretty well as well. The transition between the "Happy-Jolly-Joke" feel and the "sad, moody" feel isn't awkward nor forced. Just like in life, there are moments were you feel happy and have fun, and others when you feel sad and down. There are 3 things I would like to comment about this half, however:

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1. The art in this movie is BEAUTIFUL and the attention to detail is INCREDIBLE. And the scenes in NYC prove it. Maybe because I know the place and I've been there, but New York City in the movie was EXACTLY the way it is in real life. Example: When in Times Square and in Broadway, there are signs and billboards all over the place (which is pretty common) but there is a parody of EVERY BROADWAY CLASSIC. Wicked, The Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, they were all there with their name and poster sign slightly changed. Another thing is that the subway entries were exactly the same, you could even see the Metro North logo on the side (that's how accurate).
2. There is a musical number (which is not the Live Show). In fact, throughout the movie, there are 6 musical numbers (hey, they have to sell their last album with this series, am I right?): 3 that pop out of nowhere, 2 live shows, and 1 concluding song. Personally, I didn't mind these. the 3 songs weren't bad, but not their best, the live shows were fun to watch and the last song was pretty good. It gives the feeling that this is a musical, but since 90% of the film is not musical numbers, sometimes when they break into song out of nowhere can be a little awkward.
3.There is a scene where Honoka gets lost when she took the wrong train. As she tries to find her way back to the hotel, she meets up with this street performer. The way Honoka was looking, caught the singer's attention. After she was done, she and Honoka started talking as she helped Honoka find her way back to the Hotel. Interestingly, the singer mentions that she was from Japan as well (coincidence much?), and when she was younger, she used to be in a group as well, but they had to eventually disband. Since Honoka could relate, she asked her what did she do afterwards, and the singer replied with "Why do you sing?" which of course Honoka get's thrown off by the question. She they arrive to the hotel, while Honoka is talking to her friends, the singer leaves her without saying a word. What's interesting is that this woman kind of resembles Honoka (but she is older) in personality, history and physical appearance. She was not seen by any other of the main characters but Honoka and she doesn't want to be seen. So, this leads me to believe that this singer was a personification of Honoka's mind/consciousness. However, she was seen by many people other than the main characters AND Honoka brought her microphone by accident. So the question is: Was this woman real or not? Was this a clever way to portray Honoka's thought and emotion through personification or just lazy writing that the writers used to say "f**k continuity"? I like to believe that is a clever personification, but watch the movie and judge for yourself.

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After their Live Show in New York, they return to Japan, only to find out that the live performance was aired all over Japan and thus, μ's became nationwide celebrities (don't worry, there is a musical number about that too). This is were the drama starts, basically. Because they are happy to receive this much attention because that means that they liked their work. And although they were very grateful, μ's HAD to disband. It was decided way before the movie, however the sudden rise of popularity and fans made the already tough decision even tougher. μ's was not just theirs anymore, so was the decision of finishing their career their decision anymore?  I believe this is a good conflict, although is simple. The idea of giving people what they want and expect against sticking to your ideals is a pretty tough choice to make (specially in this case, you enjoy doing it and are passionate about it, but you also get paid). After discussing the issue with the group, Eli, Nozomi, and Nico feel that despite what happened, they should still keep break up μ's, since they took a decision and they shouldn't back down, Maki, Hanayo and Rin feel the same way, however Honoka is the one responsible of making the final decision as the leader of the group. She meets up again with the mysterious singer from New York and have another talk. Although the singer doesn't give an answer, she helps Honoka find her answer.


Honoka discusses the issue with the group once more and decides that if μ's should leave, they should leave with a bang. Honoka suggests a Live concert  (like Love Live) made with the help of their rival group A-RISE and other school idols from all over Japan. The idea was to rise the popularity of School Idols and the Love Live! Festival, so that other girls would have to opportunity to have an experience like theirs. Despite them not having much time to put this together, they manage to contact the groups, get together, compose AND rehearse the song ALL the groups were going to sing together, choreograph, set up the stage, etc. (it's a movie, of course this plan was going to work!). The day before the big show, Honoka notices that a lot of girls were excited to perform with μ's. Honoka thinks is only fair to tell all of the participants what the future of μ's. All of the girls were really sad and their motivation really dropped after, but at the day of the show, EVEN MORE PARTICIPANTS SHOWED UP to give μ's a warm farewell. I didn't go too into detail but let me tell you that this moment was beautiful. It was truly heartwarming and it almost brought a tear to my eye. They do the Live Show, then they follow up with what happened after, followed by final closing number and roll credits!

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The audience ROARED, and I can see why. The movie was great! Not a masterpiece, but still a pretty good movie. The animation was really good, the songs were good, the attention to the background was amazing and I never thought they could top the ending of Season 2 or let alone make a good coherent story that wasn't too obvious on the fact that the only reason this movie was released was to make a few extra bucks. In fact, they probably made a better conclusion to the series than the ending to season 2. Maybe the reason it was made was to earn more money, but at least there was a lot of thought and effort put into this movie unlike the Naruto movie which just screamed "LAZY". This movie took everything that make the anime good and multiplied it! However, I do have my picks. Although I don't mind the songs, I do have to say, the ones that come out of nowhere like a musical are a little awkward at first. The first time it happened I was actually startled and thought "Oh! So, we're doing a musical now, I guess". Another thing is that the story is very "Honoka-centric" as you probably noticed. We have 9 main characters, but the movie only focuses on the thoughts, ideas, and feelings of 1. To make a better story, this works because there is only 1 psyche to worry about, and besides, it's not like it totally ignores the other members, they do have their moments and even though Honoka has the last word, the Eli, Rin, Maki, Hanayo, Umi, Nico, Nozomi, and Kotori are the ones who support her and/or confront her if needed. Though I do feel that is a waste to have 8 other characters which in the anime we did touch in their emotions and struggles not have their share of the drama in the movie. Honestly, I started to get tired of writing "Honoka" so many times (I felt like Bart Simpson during the opening of the show). However, I have to make something clear: This movie is a sequel and a conclusion to the anime. So this means you have to see the series before hand, which brings me to this point: you will not like the movie if you haven't seen or don't like Love Live! School Idol Project. The movie has a lot of in-jokes and and overall humor and style of the storytelling is exactly the same as in the anime. Therefore, this movie IS NOT A STAND ALONE MOVIE! Judging this movie without watching the anime would be like judging the last Harry Potter, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings movies without watching their respective prequels (in the case of Star Wars would be watching Episode VI without IV and V). With this said, I say, if you finished the anime, watch the movie, and if you haven't watch the anime, if you like slice of life
and J-pop, give both the anime and the movie a try.