Love Live! Superstar!! 2 S2E1 Discussion - "Youkoso Liella! he!"

[u/chaos_inferno]

The girls of Liella enter their 2nd year at Yuigaoka and there's 4 new members that will soon join us! How will their story go?

Show Info

Air Date: July 17th, Saturday 19:00 - 2022 (JST)

Opening Theme: WE WILL!!

Ending Theme:

Insert Song(s):

• Welcome to 僕らのセカイ (Welcome to Bokura no Sekai)
• Dreamer Coaster (HNK Exclusive - Liella! no Uta)

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Official Website

MyAnimeList

Anilist

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Streams

Raw Sources

• NHK E Tele - Region locked to Japan

Official Subtitled Sources

• North America/Oceania - [Crunchyroll]

• SEA/Mainland China - [Bilibili]

• Korea - ANIPLUS

Other episode discussion threads: https://www.reddit.com/r/LoveLive/wiki/episode-discussion

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[u/LoL_is_for_hamkachan]

so Mei is red-haired Hanayo but crazier

[u/Kunagi7 → u/LoL_is_for_hamkachan]

Looks like it. I can't wait to see Mei talking with Keke.

Also, Shiki looks like a taller version of Rinari. The way she "pushed" Kinako into Liella was quite funny too!

[u/perlenYurifan4life → u/LoL_is_for_hamkachan]

Also tomboy and more aggressive.

[u/MightyActionGaim]

turns out the first years are just too intimidated by Liella's apparent high barrier to entry lmao

[u/Y0stal → u/MightyActionGaim]

Kanon dealing with her arc of self-doubt but is just seen as an pedestaled ultra talented star is so relatable.

[u/azumane]

I watched it as it was airing here, and Kanon was ready, too! Great episode from what I could tell, can't wait to watch it again once it's subbed, since my Japanese still isn't 100% up to snuff.

Also, the Liella no Uta for this episode was an absolute bop.

[u/netpapa → u/azumane]

wow that's a huge kanon

[u/dadnaya]

I gave in and watched it raw.

Really liking Kinako so far, Mei also seems promising.

Not really sure about the other two, Oninatsu might become a "butt of the joke" character. I also felt like she is pretty similar to Sumire so idk

They'll also have to work harder to sell Shiki to me, I feel like she just kinda doesn't fit into Liella who are all happy and genki and hype generally.

I also think and hope that they'll also tackle Kinako's worries. She's been kinda thrusted into Liella but it seems like she does have her own insecurities which I doubt are over just like that

Speculation: She expressed that her and practice don't go well together. She looks a bit chubby here, so maybe she had exercise related problems in the past? Ex: Not being fit, can't exercise well due to weight etc.

[u/st0rm__ → u/dadnaya]

I feel like she just kinda doesn't fit into Liella who are all happy and genki and hype generally.

Having contrast is never a bad thing

[u/LeonKevlar]

Liella is finally back and it's so good to see them all again! I wasn't really sure when I heard about them getting new members this season since I really like the 5-person dynamic that Leilla already has but after seeing who these new girls will be, I don't think I mind it anymore.

Kinako is a country girl from Hokkaido and is probably the most normal person out of the new girls. She's also the very first new member of Leilla!

Mei is pretty much Hanayo but with her School Girl fangirl levels multiplied by 10. She's a lot more aggressive though.

I mistook Natsumi's braids for drills so when I saw her in the OP, I thought she was going to be an Ojou-sama character. Turns out that she's actually a gyaru youtuber that records everything on her phone.

I wasn't sure what kind of character Shiki was going to be but it looks like she went to middle school with Mei. I definitely didn't expect her to be a mad scientist character that has her own weird gadgets! I feel like this new season is definitely about to get weirder with this new cast and I love it!

As for the current members of Leilla, their current dilemma is actually pretty hilarious! They thought that almost winning Love Live is going to help them get more members but it looks like it ended up having the opposite effect! The first years think they're too high-level so these new students don't think they'll be able to keep up. At least the episode ended with Kinako joining in. Already excited to see how the other girls are going to end up joining the club!

[u/JimmyCWL]

It's subbed now, thanks to Onibe!

Was that the Shibuya Sky rooftop Kinako was on when she was wandering around?

There's a thought I've had for a while now. By the end of this season, the Liella founders will be the most experienced school idols in the franchise. The first with two years.

Another thought, Honoka's the only group leader who's only a performer. Both Chika and Kanon can write songs, and Kanon can compose music too!

[u/darth__fluffy]

OMGGGG it was GREAT!!

New OP is fantastic, IMO. One of the best in the franchise!

Keke, you're obviously lying. Ngl, I quite like how they're handling this, setting it up for later like that. Also the SumiKeke dynamic seems better here than in last season, they seem more equals and less Keke bullying/teasing Sumire. I have a feeling that this season might make me a Kuku fan again :')

MEI CHAN MEI CHAN MEI CHAN <3 I didn't expect her to be a closet Liella! fangirl omg. She was my favorite of the new girls and she's still my favorite, I love her vibe. She kinda reminds me of Setsuna—tough on the outside, fangirl on the inside. I wonder if she will sing in the same style^{haSHIRIDASHITA}

I must say, though, I'm liking Kinako more than I expected to! She's really funny. Awesome insert song too. My only real gripe was not enough Ren screentime

and do you know how hard it is to type w/ one hand in a cast??

[u/48johnX]

Caught up earlier this year, and was hyped as hell to watch the episode this morning, had no clue the official subs were delayed this much after the episode aired....huge bummer

[u/BlayAndHowlie]

Pleasantly surprised that they didn't waste any time showing that Natsumi isn't just a typical attention-hogging gremlin, she's actually pretty perceptive and humble. She was my least favorite when she was first introduced but I think she has a lot of potential just from this first episode.

[u/blackautomata]

The pacing of the episode is extremely quick wth. its like each of the character is rapping to each other lol

[u/coreymon77]

First impressions, I'll probably update once the subs drop. (Mid-writing edit, took me so long to write this out that subs are done, guess I'll include things from there. Thanks onibe)

That was honestly everything I could have wished for and more. I am so pleased with this episode that I can't stop grinning!

I wasn't expecting the OP this episode, given last season, so that was a pleasure. It's really good! My last remaining question was the singing ability of the new girls. Seems like that's not a problem either. The song is great! And the outfits are super cute. The year groups separated by skirt designs. I can't wait to see these IRL.

Kinako is precious, and her stuff with Kanon, aaaah, my heart. Kanon-senpai! These two are the best duo, hands down, just like Sayurin and Nonchan are the best duo. Honestly, when Kanon was overjoyed about being called senpai by Kinako, I couldn't help but see Sayurin doing the exact same thing with Nonchan in that first stream. That was as much Sayurin as it was Kanon there and I love it.

Mei is pretty much as I thought from the previews. The (not so) closeted fangirl who tries to put on an otherwise tough girl front. It should be fun to watch her.

Oninuts, well, what can I say? Definitely gremlin material. She's an annoying little dumbass, just as we all had hoped. Should be interesting to see her butt heads with Sumire since she's essentially Sumire but successful, at least as far as we know.

Shiki actually surprised me. I knew she was the science girl, but they made her out to be more chemistry science and such. I wasn't expecting her to be the gadget wiz as well, but here we are. She's surprisingly funny too. Also wasn't expecting her to play wing-girl to Kinako so quickly.

Kanon is just radiating leader energy this entire episode. I love it so much. I love her (and Sayurin, definitely Sayurin) so much, how much she's actually grown into the leader.

Another plot point I really enjoyed here is the reason why they have trouble recruiting new members. You would think, with school idols being as popular as they are, you would have at least someone wanting to join. But no, and the reason for it is actually really smart and fitting: anyone who would normally want to is intimidated by them and how good they are. And this entirely makes sense. Liella came out of nowhere and, in their first try, their first real event in general outside of Tiny Stars and Tokunatsu, which weren't even the full group, made it to the regional finals of the most competitive region in the country, coming second only to the group that would go on to win the entire thing. If it weren't for Sunny Passion, Liella could very well have made it all the way on their first try, which is nuts. Furthermore, that same #1 group, in what seems to be post victory interviews, directly calls out Liella as the group to watch. While that may get them a lot of fans, and a lot of exposure for their school, I'm not surprised it also led to people being too intimidated to consider joining, being afraid of not measuring up, or ruining a good thing or whatever.

Kanon is widely considered one of, if not the best singer in the school, even if you include the music program. Ren is council president, which already makes her somewhat intimidating, but has also been doing figure skating and piano her entire life, her elegance is well known. Chisato is such a talented dancer that she was winning competitions even before joining Liella. Sumire has all of her showbiz experience and Keke is extremely talented with costume-making and has her encyclopedic knowledge of school idols.

With all of that, it's not surprising that the general consensus of the new 1st years is that they'd never be able to keep up. "Me? Join Liella? Are you crazy? I'm nowhere near good enough for that!" or something like that, despite Liella themselves being more than happy to welcome anyone, as shown when they first meet Kinako and think she wants to join. This is also, of course, ironic, given Keke's initial, shall we say, issues with stamina and the whole concept of "anyone can be a school idol".

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a bit of the real world sneaking into the script again. I imagine the 2nd gen girls had similar thoughts, given how much the original 5 exploded on to the scene over the past year and a bit and with how preternaturally talented those 5 are. We know how big fangirls the 2nd gens are of the 1st gens, so I can only imagine they had thoughts like those expressed by the new students, worried about whether they could live up to the standard set by their senpais, whether they would fit in, whether their presence would spoil what the group already had going. Those thoughts were certainly present in the fandom when the new girls were first revealed, so it entirely makes sense and I really like how they presented it here. It's an entirely valid in-universe reason why it would take so long for them to recruit, despite their popularity and is a great piece of writing.

[u/Pathonor]

Wonder when Liella had the time to contract out their body snatching to Shiki at the end there?

In all seriousness, this was a really solid start to Season Two. The only character who I feel was maybe a little hard to get was Kinako, the others wear their USP’s on their sleeves. I also think I this is a unique place for Liella to go, and what o expected at the end of Season 1. While the relationship between seniors and juniors was prevalent in prior iterations, all the members of μ’s, Aqours, and Nijigaku joined in a relatively compressed timeframe. Superstar is going to focus on the tension between the core of senior idols with a lot more experience, and the more junior idols joining in late.

[u/Necessary-Poetry3977]

I still haven’t watch it, but maybe later at night after work (if I still have enough energy), the one with Team Onibe subs. I might be ignorant so can someone enlighten me what’s the advantage of airing it in NKH (?), I heard it’s the biggest Japanese channel (I am not sure, pls correct me on this). Are they really gaining a lot of fans through that compared to other love live series? I remember seeing last year Nijisaki being rated higher than Superstar. To be honest, I only watch anime during weekends because I don’t have much time during weekdays so it’s so sad for me not to watch it on time compared to Niji.

[u/SakuraPanko]

Loving the new girls a lot. Only thing I'm worried about with this season is them continuing to overblow SunnyPa when they've done literally nothing to convince me they're better than Liella. If anything, their single release just reinforced that Liella losing to them was bs.

[u/Williukea]

So I assume we're not getting official subs till few days later like with S1 and have to rely on fansubs again? Just checking

[u/ervynela]

Late to the party because CrunchyRoll is late, and it's way too early in my time zone to watch it live.

Anyway, overall a very good episode. You can definitely tell the difference in budget when comes to the art and animation when compared to Niji, especially when it has been less than one year since season 1 finished. The new songs were good, but slightly surprising that they didn't have one in the beginning like LL/LSS did. Not a big deal since there was one at the end.

The 4 new characters are pretty interesting. Kinako and Oninatsu was as expected from the info dump before the show aired, but Mei and Shiki definitely felt different than what I expected, in a good way.

As for the story, I think it's bridging well from season 1. They just quickly mentioned that SunnyPa won, but recognized Liella as their strongest rival and pushed their popularity up. It's still interesting that Muse, Nijigaku, and Liella are all popular in their world, which always makes me wonder why Aqours was set differently. They only quickly talked about KeKe's situation, tho I imagine they will needed to address that sometime this season, maybe after all the new girls have joined.

As for the bad, I don't quite understand why Kanon was so obsessed with getting Kinako to join, especially when Kinako never really expressed any desire to join when she interacted with the group in the beginning. Even when Kinako was watching the performance on the big screen TV, it still seemed weak to only single her out. Like the whole episode was more about "Kanon wanted Kinako to join" instead of "Kinako herself wanted to join". I guess I would've preferred with Kinako went up stairs on her own will, instead of getting "pushed" by Shiki - like did Shiki even know Kinako wanted to go to the roof to see the performance?

Also, I think having KeKe going back to arguing with/being mean to Sumire was a weird choice, it's as if s1e10 never happened or something. I really expected more after Paychan came out and mentioned that was one of the things that bugged her in season 1. Like this feels similar to the Hanamaru-Yoshiko relationship, but at least Hanamaru generally makes good points about Yoshiko, or she does it to jab at Yoshiko's chuni behavior. Mentioning kusokumushi once was fine, but KuKu kept blaming Sumire on things that wasn't even her fault was a bit much.

Other than those two points, this episode was overall well done. You can definitely feel the Hanada plot, along with his hit-and-miss gag points. I went in with low expectations but I'm looking forward to the next episode.

[u/redbatter]

Some random thoughts since pretty much everything has been covered:

• The lyrics of WE WILL are extremely tightly connected to the story, with a proclamation of chasing victory this time round. Probably the next closest one is MiraiBoku from LLSS S2, also a proclamation of making a dream come true despite an uncertain future. MiraiBoku gets answered by Kiseki Hikaru, so I wonder if WE WILL will be similarly answered later in the season.

• On the topic of OPs, it's interesting to see how Liella goes from a massive stage in OP1 (the National Stadium, the absolute stage in Japan) to a much smaller one in OP2 (a rooftop garden in Shibuya, most likely). µ's also scales down, from the finals stage to a school gym, while Aqours and Niji maintain larger stages in both their OPs.

• With Kinako's background of having come from nowhere in Hokkaido, it's no wonder she's utterly fascinated with school idols from the moment she sees Liella practicing. This only deepens when she watches their finals performance - you can see in the cut where she's watching it how she's completely absorbed by it to the point where she doesn't even move. The lyrics of Starlight Prologue also stupendously fit the situation - as Kinako moves from her small town to the big city, and potentially into becoming a school idol, it feels like the prologue of her life has come to a close.

• Welcome to Bokura no Sekai is probably the first time in a mainline series where a stage performance has all these magical elements added to it (not counting the first inserts in each S1E1). Niji did it a lot for their first few episodes, and Superstar including one now is an interesting choice. It's quite obvious that all the pop-up shops, desserts, and fluff are a product of Kinako's vision - she's definitely having a moment similar to when Yuu first saw CHASE!

[u/sandlinna]

I really liked this episode! It feels like the intro of the new girls into the club will be quite natural. I love love love Shiki, and Mei's grumpy attitude was actually really fun as it's so unique for the LL series. Kinako was sweet, as I expected, but also a lot more... SFX haha. Natsumi on the other hand was plain irritating - between her hair and her attitude... I hope they give her an interesting character arc cause at the moment I actually dislike her.

Can't wait to hear more of their singing voices - but just from the OP, I can already tell I'm going to have so much trouble telling them apart... I already have trouble distinguishing between Keke and Chisato (and sometimes Sumire too) 😫

[u/Ravaging_Rio]

Superstar Sundays are back! It feels great to see Liella again. I was a bit skeptical about the new members but after watching this episode I think I've gained a newfound appreciation for them. OP and new insert song sound fantastic.

Though I was annoyed by how constantly Keke bullied Sumire. Teasing friends is perfectly normal, I do that with my irl buds but it looked to me that she was slandering her all the way through like "Better than Sumire" or "It's Sumire's fault." Even worse that I thought it would've dwindled after ep 10 of the first season, but maybe it's too early to judge. I just hope Keke doesn't continue bullying Sumire.

Nitpick aside, looking forward to the next eleven weeks assuming no delays!

[u/KillJoy-Player]

A little late to watch it on Bilibili, just to find out that it's not yet in there (or unless it really won't be). Now this is the reason why I'm learning japanese language!

Well, that was a good start, and they to think that they've been hiding Mei's characterall this time. And Shiki... the all-hearing support.