And what a Super Idol Nico is, right?

It’s probably not much of a surprise when I say that I really enjoyed this particular episode of Love Live, but, then, I’ve made no particular secret about Nico being my favourite character in the show. Ostensibly a Nico episode, this instalment did a pretty good job as to hitting why I like her – whilst she’s kind of a self-conceited jerk sometimes (well, frequently), and certainly a little over-proud, she’s ultimately rather sweet and well-intentioned about things.

Mostly.

Also, this episode is one of those ones where a whole bunch of things which don’t necessarily make sense, when you actually think about them, happen, and those are the best episodes of Love Live.

In other related news, Kadokawa, fresh from buying up From Software, released a new teaser for the upcoming Love Live Vita game(s) yesterday. It’s looking way less rough than it did last I saw of it – or at least less rough than I remember it looking, though I guess the only real difference is that they’ve shown the gameplay layer, as well as having all the members on stage at once during a performance. Some of the other visual compromises start to make more sense that way, once you cast aside the assumption that splitting the game into three separate releases was in order to reduce the number of idols they had to render at once as opposed to just the cash-grab it probably is.

In any case, the game is coming from Dingo, who have a background in the likes of Project Diva and the upcoming Persona dancing game, so I wouldn’t be too worried about it anyway. The games release was pushed back a couple of months from it’s previously announced release date, though honestly, I wonder if that’s as much to do with getting it out the way of One for All as it was about the game needing more work.

In solicitation news, the OST for the second season went up in the listings of most of the major Japanese online anime retailers today, scheduled for release in the back-end of August. My main point of interest in this relates whether or not the A-RISE song, Shocking Party, is going to be relegated to the OST much like Private Wars from the first series.

That said, we probably aren’t going to get a track listing for the OST until after the last episode of the show has aired – they like to keep the names of the mooo’s insert songs a somewhat-secret until they are actually used in the show, and because they usually stick TV-length versions of the songs on the OSTs, they can’t reveal the expected track listing in advance even though the realities of TV animation scheduling means that all the songs have probably been recorded already.

Anyway, on with the cartoon…

1) Midnight Cats

Finally, the identity of the other idol unit, aside from A-RISE and Dream, that appears in poster form hanging upon the club rooms walls has been revealed!

Of course, this is where I’m probably holding the show to consistency standards the show itself may not be concerned with. I suppose that the qualification areas for the Love Live may not have been specifically mentioned, meaning that there could be several within the larger Tokyo area, but neither Midnight Cats nor East Heart ranked in the top 9 in the previous Love Live event. Infact, I’m not sure we’ve ever actually seen either unit name mentioned in the online idol rankings previously.

That being said, there were two Tokyo groups in the finals of the Love Live last time around – Littele Toyko actually came in second, whilst UC_G (Gundam joke?) ranked in the seventh slot. It makes me wonder what happened to them…

2) What’s the internet rule number for when you change gender and species?

The Mutant Girls dress as Ninjas wearing distinctly colour eye masks. Hmmm, sounds curiously familiar, if a bit less green than one remembers.

Admittedly, we don’t even know for certain if the Mutant Girls exist, given the entire nature of the particular scene in which they appear, but the Mutant Turtles seems like a really, really weird pull for a modern Japanese teenage girl to be making, even unconsciously in a dream. Possibly a weird pull for the animation staff too, for that matter. I mean, the existence of things like the TMNT Superman Legend OAVs demonstrates that TMNT was a least some kind of thing in Japan at some point, but do the modern Turtles cartoons still air over there?

3) STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Consider this your weekly reminder.

The revelation that the entire scene prior to the credits was, infact, Honoka retelling a dream she had certainly displays the typical goofy Love Live level of meta, though the fact that our other heroines react in what, I’d imagine, is the same fashion as much of the audience elevates it even higher. You really have to wonder how on Earth Honoka could have started recounting such a saga, in which those assembled around her all partake but presumably don’t remember, in a fashion that could actually result in them exclaiming in shock that it was all a dream.

4) Even Jeff Minter Would Blush

Obviously our heroines did actually make it into the Love Live this time – I mean, it’d be a bit deflating if they’d failed to do so for a second time, not to mention it’d leave the animation staff desperately flailing to find content to fill another eight or nine episodes of cartoon.

Although, I have to say, there’s something quite sad about the fact that, when the rest of the girls went off to celebrate with their friends and family (or just continued cowering in fear), Rin and Hanayo run off to hug the Alpacas.

(I’d make some joke about Rin hugging the female Alpaca, but meh, Rin)

5) Not to pick on animation continuity…

But Maki’s hair ties kind of just appeared between cuts there.

I guess the proper take away from this scene is that they have until December before the current phase of the Love Live tournament ends. This would, of course, mean an awful lot more if they’d actually given a particularly clear indicator as to when in the year we presently are. I’d have to guess at around mid-to-late-October, bearing in mind that the previous episode actually took place over a period of two weeks, and that this season probably started in September.

Although, I’d previously speculated that the first episode of this season was taking place in October, which would probably place this episode in mid-November, and that wouldn’t really leave much time for Eli and Umi’s new training regime to take effect. I’m pretty sure the production staff probably aren’t sweating the details on the shows timeline too much anyway!

6) You don’t get to say that!

There’s something that feels a little cosmically wrong about Rin being the one to proclaim that everyone is in attendance, being the idol-unit seat-filler that she is.

7) This one is for a separate post later…

Just leaving these delicious Mikan Boxes here for now.

I joked about Nico’s tracking skills back during episode 5 of the first series, but it’s a little funny to see the shoes on the other feet here. Somehow, despite the fact that Nico left the school earlier than they did, the girls managed to go back to the clubroom, get changed back into their uniforms, and then relocated (perhaps through teleportation) to the store Nico was headed to in time to conceal themselves before her arrival.

This isn’t to mention the fact that somehow Eli and Nozomi have the wherewithal to wait out-back, on the presumption that Nico will not only attend this particular supermarket, but will also end up in a situation which would cause her to flee through the staff-only exit.

I guess that, despite Eli’s insistence that it was her idea to wait there, Nozomi’s fortune-telling skills level up when she senses a groping may be involved, and, ultimately, everything which happens in this series is somehow part of Nozomi’s grander scheme.

8) Looking a little Yandere there…

I can’t help but notice that Maki looks a little disgruntled, or perhaps disgusted, at the suggestion that Nico might be sneaking off to cook for a guy.

Not that I wish to imply anything from that, you understand.

9) I’m pretty sure Akiba moves more quickly than that…

Speaking of Nozomi appearing to threaten groping on unit members who attempt to flee, it’s interesting to see the same adverts from back in episode 9 of the first series (see point 5) make a re-appearance. I guess that fake light novel is still a fake light novel, though.

Also, I’m a little curious as to whether those standee’s Nico tries to hide herself amongst are supposed to be cartoon characters, or if they are real-life idols who may-or-may-not appear at some later point in the series.

10) Finally, they’ve found a use for her!

Although it turns out that her use is having no boobs, and she still ends up losing track of Nico anyway. That being said, I do like Nozomi’s smug look of satisfaction after having finally found something that Rin is vaguely useful for.

11) IMO-TON!

So it turns out that Nico has a little sister – or two. Also a brother. The cute thing about this is that the entire Yazawa family – or at least those presented in this episode – were played by Nico voice actress Tokui Sora.

There’s something a little peculiar about Nico’s home life that this episode suggests, but isn’t specifically gotten into. For one thing, we all clearly know that Nico isn’t spending her evenings in a glorious waterside mansion, which makes one wonder what, aside from occasionally hanging out with Maki on dark street corners, Nico is actually doing on an evening.

It’s also a little amusing to note that Nico seems to have her own, rather lavishly decorated room full of stuff (though, curiously, that second copy of the DenDenDen DVD box set, or whatever it was called, wasn’t on display), whilst her siblings only seem to have the one whack-a-mole game (which was probably a hand-me-down stress relief toy of Nico’s at some point, given the moooo’se faces involved) to play with. Is her siblings lack of entertainment supposed to suggest some kind of familial poverty, because aside from that potentially getting all Yayoi-in-da-place, Nico alone seems to be presented as reasonably well off. Infact, the whole apartment looks reasonably well furnished – I particularly like the living room, which looks an awful lot like a karaoke box in terms of layout.

I’m not even sure what is up with the sleeping situation – Nico’s siblings are all sleeping in futons in the same room. Nico, it would appear, has her own bed in her own bedroom, but it looks like she’s set up a futon for herself as well in the same room as her siblings are sleeping. I’d suggest that she’s just sleeping with her siblings because her parents are away, but she also quickly retreats to her own room. It’d also seem a bit weird for her to have such significantly better sleeping conditions than the rest of her family.

tl;dr – I’m kind of confused, honestly!

(Unless Nico lives on her own, but the place looks too large and nice for that!)

(Then there’s also the fact that Nico appears to be egotistical enough to make her younger brother wear sweaters emblazoned with her own numeric moniker)

(Also, Nico’s photoshopping skills are terrible)

(Also Also, there’s a number of calendars visible throughout these scenes, but the date isn’t clear on any of them!)

12) Judge, Jury and Executioner…

When Nozomi holds up the Death card here, I’m pretty sure it’s not her performing any kind of fortune telling for once, but rather is being done so under the presumption that Nico doesn’t actually know what it means. I mean, the Death card isn’t necessarily implying that something bad is going to happen, but it sure is an intimidating and scary looking card!

13) I can’t help but notice…

That even Nico’s failure of an idol unit had a bigger attendance at their first live than Honoka, Umi and Kotori did!

14) It’s My Next Stage

Isn’t it lovely that they gave Nico a chance to have a nice moment with her siblings, giving some sense of closure to her lies in a fashion which allowed everyone involved to maintain some level of dignity?

Still, with the Love Live finals rapidly approaching, and with practice apparently stepped-up several notches in the build up, I have to wonder how on earth they managed to build that rather elaborate looking stage on the school roof – without Nico (or the rest of the school, presumably) noticing – whilst presumably not slacking on their practice.

Presumably, it can only be a case of Honoka abusing her powers as the Student Council President by making everyone else do all the work for them. Then not letting them watch.

Well, either that, or Nozomi threatened sexual harassment against a large portion of the student body. Actually, that sounds more likely…