AnimeSuki Forums

Thank you and happy holidays to you too!

Happy Holidays!

After re-watching the Love Live Movie earlier today, and thinking back on Sunshine... I think you're right on Saint Snow. And I think, going forward, that might actually be Sunshine's biggest issue.

Great rivals bring out great heroes/protagonists. As much as I loved LL Season 1, I don't think μ's reached their full potential until their rivalry with A-RISE took off in Season 2.

I have strong doubts that Saint Snow can do this for Aqours. Saint Snow just doesn't have the same screen presence for me that Kira Tsubasa did. Either Saint Snow needs to get stronger, or maybe new rivals should be created in Sunshine Season 2.

Anyway, I'm sending this to you since I remember you being one of Saint Snow's biggest critics, and also because I've largely enjoyed our Sunshine discussions.

My favorite Sunshine girl is You. 2nd would be Riko. 3rd would be Ruby. After that, I think that Mari and Chika have some potential, but I have to be honest, Chika kinda pissed me off in the last two episodes, lol.

I really like You's character overall. She strikes me as hitting a good blend between military otaku tomboy and fun-loving friend-valuing genki girl. Riko has a very nice elegance and sweetness to her. I like the Dia/Ruby dynamic, and I find Ruby a little easier to take on an individual level of the two Kurosawa sisters.

I loved Hanamaru in Episode 4, but I felt she became a little too comedy character-like after that. Maybe she'll bounce back some in Season 2, and I think Hanamaru has good potential.

I have mixed feelings on Yohane, but she could be funny sometimes at least. Kanan's minimal screen-time makes her hard to evaluate, and I felt the 3rd years drama kinda flopped.

But yeah, at the top-end, at least I liked You and Riko and Ruby a good amount.

Oh no i still love Muse and Umi the most. The SS characters that i like are Chika, Riko, Hanamaru and You (only as a character, her voice is....weird like Kotori and Maki, but Kotori sounds cute and Maki still sounds great, while You is just weird). I can't stand Yohane as a character, but her voice sounds great and she has thunder thighs. I have bought tons of merchandise with a few copies of their Bluray boxsets. I have no intention of buying any Sunshine material besides a Chika or Riko Alter figurine in the future, but that is about it. Still no release date announcement on the Muse Solo Live vol. 3 it seems - -

But looking back on it as a whole, SS really is a mess with no replay value, besides their performances. I do think the good episodes make up for it though. They are over hyped and will get a 3rd season for sure, hopefully they can tone down on the silliness and be more consistent in the next two seasons.

What are your opinions on the SS characters?

Well, Pen, I would argue that Love Live Season 1 did a very solid job with pretty much its entire main cast. Maybe an exception of Rin. Maybe Umi should have had more focus in Season 1, but she still came across as a good strong well-realized character to me. And I felt the entire OG cast as a whole was handled well in OG Season 1. I definitely can't say the same about the Aqours girls in Sunshine Season 1. Also, is Umi still your favorite girl from both casts combined?

Don't let the Sunshine hypemasters get to you. You're far from alone. There's plenty of people, including myself, that significantly prefer the OG to Sunshine and would give the OG some big edges over it. I'm not saying you should give up all hope in Sunshine, but hey, it has a full season done now, no more "potential" excuses, imo. Season 1 vs. Season 1, OG wins that solidly, imo.

For the characters i cared for and that i think are important, then yes. But i would have to agree that the 3rd years are done pretty bad with how their attitude turns 360 immediately after their drama was over. I just have the impression that SS will have 3 seasons since the 3rd years are barely on screen, hell Kanon can't get more than 3 seconds most of the time. The situation with You, Riko, and Chika is far from over and they are essentially my main focus and i believe that is what SS wants us to focus on in season 1. Character wise i am just looking at the 2nd years for now and i think they did a great job.

As for writing it is a toss up because they flip flop all over the place. You get some strong episodes such as 4, 8-11, while i would consider the others fairly poor. The original is more consistence for sure though with plenty of just as good episodes too. Another thing is that i agree with you about SS being very spontaneous in their music performance with zero to barely any lead-in with episode 6 insert being one of the "WTF". One thing i could say for certain is that SS does have THE POTENTIAL to be great if they can be consistent. Their weakest point is really their consistency and i want to emphasize on it. A lot of what i believe is really on their potential since they have some great episodes and experience from the original to work with.

Anyways don't take that comment on the thread too seriously, i was just getting crewed out because i am not on the entire bandwagon 100%. If you swapped out most of their anime insert songs with their debut and sub-unit songs, then i would have no problem with any of the music in the anime. Not that they are bad, but they already have better stuff just sitting around. It seems if you don't like some of their music due to style and genre, it means you think they have no talent and are horrible. There are Muse songs that i can not stand like Puwa Puwa and After school Navigators, but nobody assumes that you hate the band. It seems the SS fans can't take any criticize and call you for being salty for Muse, not because you don't like Pop/Jrock fusion.

Seriously? Really? You really think that Sunshine has better plotting, better writing, and better characters than the original? If so, I strongly disagree.

Well, I still prefer the OG. But I never expected to like Sunshine quite as much as I do the OG.

What I like most about Sunshine is the Chika/Riko relationship. Because at least it's something different for the Love Live series, right? The OG had some very close friendships, and some light yuri teases, but nothing that felt as steadily developed and romantic to me as Chika/Riko does. I go back and forth on HonoKoto vs. HonoEli, and ChikaRiko is almost like the best of both of them to me. (No offense to you as an Umi fan, as I also like HonoUmi in the Love Live manga, and UmiEli had its moments in the anime).

I also find it interesting how Sunshine pretty much has an actual love triangle in You/Chika/Riko, which again is different at least.

But yeah, there's certain things the OG does way better than Sunshine. I agree with you on the OG's more serious tone compared to Sunshine's more silly/over-the-top antics. Partly because of this tonal difference, Sunshine doesn't give me the same FEELS that the OG did, when it comes to things like feeling goosebumps and having tears of joys. And in the area of music/live performances, I'd give the OG the edge over Sunshine, like you do.

But at least Sunshine isn't totally pointless. I honestly was worried about it being totally pointless after Episode 7. Sunshine isn't as good as the original Love Live, in my opinion, but at least Sunshine is an usually fun watch that brings something new to the table.

Oh, and I was being generous with that 10/10 rating for Episode 11. Don't read too much into that. That was mainly me being relieved over finally seeing an Aqours live that was actually energetic and cool, as well as me being impressed over them letting Riko go ahead and split from Aqours for awhile. Other than those two things, it was just a standard quality Sunshine episode for me.

So it's fine if you're not sold on Sunshine. I understand where you're coming from.

Seems like you're really into Sunshine right now? I am still a bit skeptical and it seems like Chika and Riko are the only thing that can be serious. Everything else still feels very childish, especially after the 3rd year drama is over, they now act just as childish as the first years. Mari's character is getting better though. I know a lot of people love the childish and overacting, but i still can't get over it. The other beef is the music and i haven't found anything i would listen to twice besides Step! Zero to One, Heroes and Azalea songs. It is hard to explain, but i just can't see any charm in most of the music. They just harmonize very good and that is about it.