This week on Love Live… the show takes idol graduation literally, and one is the loneliest number – though one can’t help but notice that BiBi is the unit that’s left with all the actual musical talent. I wonder if Maki will continue to grace the other girls with her gifts, or if they other girls will be stuck with trying to come up with their own music? Will Maki become the first one-girl unit to win the Love Live? Will Lily White even continue to be a thing when Umi alone is lumbered with Rin? Does Maki perform all the musical instruments on their songs herself, or does she just have a really flash synthesizer? All these questions and more, answered… never!

Of course, this weeks Love Live news is mostly about the fact that the second event has launched in the English version of Love Live School Idol Festival. Of course, the issue this time is that people actually have the gist of what they are doing, and they’re out for blood – the loveca have been out in force in a way that wasn’t quite so apparent at the launch of the first event. I’m… doing OK. It’ll probably be a 1000/1000 finish for me this time, as opposed to the 1000/200 finish I managed in the first event, unless that Umi SR card I unlocked last night gives a pretty big boost to my maximum potential Event Song score.

Otherwise, not so much going on, I guess. I’ve been listening to Dancing Stars on Me from the recent insert song single an awful lot. It’s pretty great, but a lot of that is just me liking the goofy sound of the electric keyboard in the songs intro.

But, I digress, mostly out of a lack of things to say this week. It’s a bit of a weepy, I suppose, but there’s not really much to unpack about extended sequences of girls bawling their eyes out. Unless that’s a particular fetish of yours or something. Hey, I’ll not judge you (at least not publicly).

Anyway, This Week in Love Live…

1) Does anyone remember…

There’s not really a lot to say about the younger sisters getting into their choice of high school – unlike, say, STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT Honoka, Yukiho actually seems vaguely on the ball, doing things like, well, studying, not to mention being the one who is actually being vaguely responsible towards Alisa’s moo’s obsession. Given that even Honoka actually managed to get into the school, I’d have been quite astonished if Yukiho had failed in her efforts, particularly with the supposedly reduced attendance numbers. That said, given the number of, errr, numbers displayed on the acceptance board as having gotten into the school, I’d have to assume that the number of applications to the school were way, way up on what they’d been in previous years.

On a tangent, though – does anyone remember back in the first series of Love Live, when Alisa and Yukiho had, for one brief moment at least, another actual friend? Whatever happened to her anyway? Is she the universes one straight girl, too busy obsessing over Johnny’s, or whatever the male school idol equivalent is in the Love Live universe, to go along with this shows malarkey, or as the sisters of successful school idols, do Alisa and Yukiho no longer feel the necessity of socialising with such rabble?

2) I’m looking at you here, Honoka

It’s one month until the Love Live finals, and Umi is advising that they don’t stress themselves out too much… which seems like a rather un-Umi thing to suggest, all things considered. Umi is all about stressing people out with excessive training regimes – she even looks weirdly strained about saying it in that screencap above!

Anyway, aside from the fact that they’re taking personal advice from the members of A-RISE (though I do ponder which member, specifically), I’d have to imagine that she remembers that time when Honoka kind of collapsed due to contracting Anime Rain Disease, resulting in Kotori’s mother yanking them from the Love Live rankings.

(I’m also vaguely amused that A-RISE continue to loom large, not only in advice, but also in terms of wallspace!)

3) The Wrong Trousers

Where by “Trousers”, I obviously mean “Short-Shorts”.

It’s funny, but for all the Yukiho that has found it’s way into the last few episodes, there’s not been one gratuitous ass-shot of her since that one time she found the letter saying that Honoka was fat. It’s almost as if she has matured into a completely different character.

This cut of Honoka’s butt does not make up for this.

(Also, Nico got to stretch with someone this week, even if her facial expressions suggest that Nozomi was trying to kill her)

4) Since when has…

…Umi practiced Kendo, anyway? I mean, I thought she was into archery, though I guess that, if her family runs a dojo or something, it’d go some way to explaining her elaborate traditional homestead. It is amusing, though, for all that the series wants us to acknowledge Rin as being the sporty one, it’s Umi who we have actually seen partaking in sporting activities in the show itself.

Though this does remind me that not a single additional chapter of the Love Live manga, in which Honoka was a kendo champion, has gone up on Comic Walker since it’s launch all the way back on the 30th of March.

5) They’re Not So Terrible!

Having been manipulated by a jealous Yukiho, who wanted to keep her away from Umi (well, probably not), Alisa declares that they’re going to throw their hat into the ring and start their own school idol unit. Does this mean that there’s be potentially up to four idol units attending the same school?

Let the Otonokizaka Idol Wars begin!

This does beg the question as to what Yukiho and Alisa are going to name their idol unit, though in the series grand tradition of george and naming things after innocuous normal names, I’m going for something like this.

Having already callously discarded their only friend, ivan will be ruthless in their pursuit of School Idol Victory. Obviously, their hit songs will include such numbers as In Soviet Russia, I Say Horosho, and You Say Khorosho and a funky idolised version of the Boney M hit Rasputin.

Or maybe not.

(Also, I apologise if Ra-Ra-Rasputin (Russia’s Greatest Love Machine) is stuck in your head right now)

6) A Throughly Convincing Argument

Nyaa?

I’m just saying, whilst everyone else at least having a go at presenting a reasonable excuse as to why the third years should join them on their day of wackiness, all Rin can offer the conversation is a random cat noise.

Also, she seems to have stolen Team Rockets bag. The rascal!

7) Exploitation!

I continue to be worried that the girls are continually shocked of the appearance of merchandise of themselves, particularly given so much of it appears to feature such high quality images. Is one of the stipulations of joining the Love Live tournament that you forfeit any and all merchandising and image rights to yourself, or is bootlegging widely accepted in this universe?

Or, perhaps, is Nico (or maybe Nozomi, given her penchant for carrying a camera around) making under the table deals in order to line her own pockets?

Although, given that their little excursion looks to have cost in the region of 10000yen per person, then maybe whoever it is was nice enough to subsidise their fellow unit members (else there was probably a lot of looking at Maki with teary, puppy-dog eyes…)

Also, that schedule is really intense, but it’s a good thing that we all know that the Love Live universe operates a 36hour day. I’m looking forward to whatever near-future disaster is going to cause that.

8) Koto-who?

Poor Kotori, left out of the shipping swan boat race. It’s kind of funny, as whilst almost all of the drama from the first season of Love Live ended up focusing around Kotori in one way or another, she’s rather been marginalised in this second series – I mean, there was the earlier episode in which Maki, Umi and herself had creative block, but since that point, she’s pretty much been a non-entity.

Which, swings-and-roundabouts, is probably just about fair, even if the screen time has been used for nefarious purposes such as giving Rin some kind of actual character, although she did regress back to mere cat noises shortly afterwards.

9) Maximum Atheist

I like Nico’s “this guff is duuuuuumb” face here, when presented with Nozomi’s choice of activity.

Also, Honoka seems to have lost her tramp hat here (by which I mean, adding that hat to the rest of the choice of clothing in this episode leads her to look somewhat like a hobo, not that it’s a hat which suggests some kind of sexual promiscuity).

10) Aikatsu means running. A Lot.

Whilst I’m aware that Honoka had already pledged earlier in the episode to continue her school idol ways even should moooooo’s disband, I do worry what will happen to her between the end of the school year and the beginning of the next, when presumably they’ll be looking to reform as a new unit, without her daily Aikatsu to keep herself busy…

But probably not.

Although I do think it’s funny that Nozomi talks as if it’s pretty much her unit, not that she wasn’t the one who manipulated them, if not into initially forming, then certainly into joining in most of their cases.

In all seriousness, though, I hope they do continue to keep up with their School Idol antics – remember that Kotori threw away an amazing opportunity to study fashion design at a prestigious foreign school for what, at this point in time, has essentially amounted to a further six-to-eight months of School Idolling. It’d be a bit of a punch in the gut for her for them to discontinue at this point.

Also, there’s probably also some joke to be made about this line right here, but whatever.

11) There’s something missing here…

No Kotori face, am I right?

Well, that and it’s amusing that the photograph that they choose to focus on is the one in which Rin is only visible in hand form.