Love Live! School Idol Musical the Drama (2024)

A short, light but enjoyable mess

The Love Live! franchise is a set of projects running since 2010 that include over 50 issues of manga, 4 anime series, 3 anime movies, games, apps, novels, live music events and a stage musical. I have seen none of those, and fans of the various projects would certainly know more of the context, but my impression is that there is little to no continuity between the projects and the common thread is that they are all about girl idol groups formed as school clubs in high school and aiming to participate in an annual performance event called "Love Live!" This series is the first live action television drama of the franchise and is based on the 2022 stage musical.

The protagonist of this series is Rurika who is the daughter of the principal of the prestigious, academically focused Tsubakisakka Girls' High School. Under the pressure of her mother's watchful eye, she's current #2 in the weekly tests, but she has gotten a dream to become an idol which could start by forming an idol club at her school. Meanwhile, Anzu is the daughter of the principal of a new and trending performing arts high school, the Takizakura Girls' Academy. Anzu is the center of Takizakura's successful idol group which is about to have its major label debut. However, while Anzu's the ace of her group, her being an idol is more her mother's dream than hers.

None of the major plot points in this short series make any sense at all, and the characters are all tired tropes and archetypes of the genre. But, to be fair, the whole franchise seems to be squarely pitched towards tweens. Despite Love in the title there is no romance anywhere, it's certainly in no ways near a GL, and there are no named speaking roles for any males.

The series is also not really a musical in the sense that the actors do not have any non-diegetic songs. There are a few typical idol songs throughout the series, but they are all sung at practice or performances.

Despite it's obvious flaws, I found the watch light and enjoyable. Rurika is played by Watanabe Miho, a former member of the idol group Hinatazaka46, and the character charmingly pressures all her friends to join her in her dream of being an idol. Anzu is played by Tomita Nanaka, the current center of the idol group ≠ME, and she does what she can with a character whose actions do not make a whole lot of sense. The acting overall is pretty broad, and the stakes are fairly absurd. But somewhere in there is a message about how the best idol group is the friends we made along the way.

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