Changing the goofy title, keeping the goofy format, it’s time for the weekly Love Live post!

No immediately glaring continuity errors this week! Huzzah, I’d say, if it didn’t rob me of the ability to make a witty post entirely out of easy targets.

1) Producer-san! Documentary desuyo, Documentary!

I have to say, it’s kind of a dangerous move for any idol-themed anime to start an episode from camera-eye-view, given that it’s immediately going to invoke memories of the opening of The iDOLM@STER TV show – even more so when it’s being done in documentary mode.

Admittedly, the difference here is that they aren’t trying to pull some kind of deliberate bate-and-switch – if anything, Love Live kind of has the opposite problem to iM@S, in that rather than having a character to introduce on the sly, the character line-up in Love Live is almost too well advertised in advance. Forget using it as a device to keep a character hidden until the end, in the case of Love Live we already know the characters quite well by this point.

This isn’t to say there’s no particular interest in what they’re doing with the character introductions in Love Live, but I do kind of think what they’ve lost in tension by having the Moooo’s line-up so widely known in advance isn’t entirely being made up for by the interest value of their joining circumstances (Nico aside, obviously).

2) Henshin!

I think Honoka might have mistaken signature pose for transformation pose, as if she’s a character in some Precure show or other. Unfortunately, there has yet to be any real evidence of magical girl transformations in this show, Nico being the only character to demonstrate any kind of supernatural powers.

3) Who did film that, anyway?

Kind of strange that they never figured out who captured the Moooooo’s concert on video, given the professional-quality camera-work displayed in that not-Youtube video, which likely involved crawling up real-close in order to capture the footage. That, and the ability to teleport at will, or perhaps an army of camera-ladies at their disposal. I’d suspect Nico if it wasn’t for the presence of Rin and her teleportation-disrupting aura.

Of course, it’s really just Sunrise reusing footage that was likely very expensive for them to animate, but I do think they should have been more careful in their selection of cuts used when we are shown the footage again. It gives the weird impression to the audience, or at least those pedantic enough to get annoyed by such things.

4) Chekhov’s Signiture: Redux

As if the whole Kotori-As-Charisma-Maid thing last week wasn’t blatantly obvious, they kind of make it clear with this in-bag shot. The question it raises, however, is why, exactly, Kotori feels the need to carry around a picture of herself dressed as a maid in her bag, in clear-view as soon as it is opened. If she’s going to carry that around, you’d think she’d at least secure it in a book, if not necessarily to hide it, then at least to prevent damage. As the case is, she’s just asking somebody to find out.

5) Nico is still the best character

I have to admit that there was an almost-overwhelming temptation just to make this entire post nothing but screenshots of goofy, or at least diverse, Nico-faces, given that the post provides ample examples for capture.

Also, I’m kind of curious as to what Nico was going to say she normally calls herself. Curses to everyone else for clearing off! That reverence from an episode ago certainly disappeared quickly…

It’s also somewhat amusing that a fair chunk of this episode, whilst pretending to be a stealth-Honoka episode, seems to be a stealth Nico episode, not that I’m complaining about that.

6) Hang on, what was the point of the last episode again?

Not that this wasn’t clear from the end of the previous episode, but I can’t help but notice that they’re still practising on the roof, and that they don’t appear to have secured alternate practice facilities in the event of poor weather. I mean, it’s not like they can use the Idol Research Club room given the shear amount of stuff that Nico appears to have collected.

7) Nozomi has a big Hometown

I guess that chart which was going around the other day must only have measured hip-width, because there’s no way Nozomi could possibly lose to any of these other girls in terms of bottom-size. Sir Mix-a-lot himself would get well sprung!

Actually, Nozomi has always looked a little… well-built, almost chubby – well, anime chubby, anyway. I think part of it comes down to her facial comparative proportions as much as her physical build. Not that I’m particularly complaining here, but it’s a little weird to see a less-than-waif-like anime character purely because because they’re kind-of uncommon, particularly in an idol cartoon.

8) Not quite a magic skirt…

It’s not quite as impressive as the magically extending skirt from last time, but this weeks Nico gadget is this megaphone. I can’t say there’s anything particularly interesting about it, but she does kind of pull it from nowhere off-screen. It makes me wonder if she carries it around with her constantly and merely recovered it from her bag, or if she has a secret elevator to her gadget-repository installed in the club-room.

9) Periodic reminder that Nico is still the best character

Because it’s been four points since point five. Again, though, I’ll restate my point from a couple of weeks ago – Nico is the best character because she actually has a bit of a malicious edge to her, here scheming to be the leader. It’s kind of an extremely sharp-contrast to Honoka, who is too nice (or at least too easy-going, or stupid if I’m less polite) to even bother to actively compete for the post.

Coincidentally, it’s kind of obvious that, infact, Nico really should be the leader – after all, she’s the only Mooooo’s member who is anywhere near as shrimpy as 0048’s Takamina.

10) Poyo-Poyo!

Hang on, this UFO Catcher seems to be full of Roundcats! I want one! Clearly Kotori is looking disappointed there for having scored the wrong prize.

11) Nico-Nico-Nyo!

Hmmm, does Brocolli have some hand in the Love Live empire? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Gema or Rabi~en~Rose in an anime, anyway.

12) DANKETSU POWA!

Hang on, the idea of having no leader came to her whilst watching idol videos on the internet? Hmmm, I wonder…..

13) No wonder Umi is wearing bloomers…

It’s nice to see the return of the spontaneous musical insert, presumably returning here because they have a second insert song CD to pad out with content and promote. Given that the context for it is supposed to be an in-universe PV shoot, though, it is a little difficult to buy that they’d be able to decorate the school to such a degree when the Student President is doing her whole passive-aggressive thing. Magical realism is one thing, and I can get behind over-elaborate music videos if they’re intended to be “imagined” as being that complicated, but by having it on Ericchi’s computer at the end it suggests it actually happened as we saw it.

Golly gosh, though, those skirts are short! They show-off quite a bit of arse at times – particularly during a few of the Hanayo cuts – and presumably required some very careful selection of camera angles. Leaping into the air seems like something of a bad idea, too. I can’t say I particularly blame Umi for opting for the bloomer-short variant costume given her personality, though Maki and Honoka seem to have taken an even more sensible approach by wearing a pair of full trousers (or at least thick, white tights) under the skirt.

14) And To End on a Random Note…

Not the cliffhanger, though I am curious as to what has Hanayo in a bit of a tizzy.

No, I’m curious as to whether anyone knows if there’s a specific reason why Maki wears a different coloured tank-top to seemingly everyone else in the show.

Actually, the one thing I did notice after the cliffhanger is precisely how short the next episode previews are for this show – I mean, it’s not one of those series which has adopted the fairly recent trend of skipping them altogether or just throwing up a title card, but it is only a handful of seconds in length and reveals very little.