It seems to be a rule of anime that if you have an idol show, there MUST be a second season and “Love Live II” is no exception. We follow our nonet as they decide to put on the gauntlet again and try for stardom. But they bring in a lot of artificial problems to force them to fish or cut bait.

The first problem is that Honoka Kōsaka (in the lead spot) is now Student Council president and doesn’t have the time for this. The second is that Love Live is now doing regionals and their group would have to beat A-Plus to move ahead. The third is that three of them will graduate by the end of the school year, so this would be the last time the original members could perform together.

What should they do? What can they do? What will they do? Any suggestions? Yeah, like you couldn’t see through that. Of course they forge ahead, ready and willing to sing like there’s no tomorrow (and, in a sense, there isn’t). It’s just that the second season seems pasted together and a lot of the ‘problems’ aren’t real problems, more along the lines of having to surrender parts of your youth to move ahead into the world of adulthood.

Now, remember, the original reason for doing all of this was to save the school from closing down, owing to falling enrollment. I guess that problem was resolved, so we can perform for the potential selfish reason of making a name for ourselves. Now, I will admit I did watch this show to see if they would and could succeed. We all like to see people’s hard work pay off, but some of the mini-tales seemed contrived; a way to have it become a full season, so we laugh, we cry, we eat too much pizza and we decide how to hand off the torch to the next generation that will follow.

I guess a grizzled old prospector like myself view this show differently than one of the teen girls for whom it was directed at. It’s just a weak show overall. I wanted a bit more depth of the problems, unless these ARE the caliber of problems that they encounter and it strengthens both spirit and resolve to move ahead, even in the face of overwhelming odds and inclement weather.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork 8 (Everyone’s gotta be cute, cute, cute)
Plot 7 (On the weak side)
Pacing 7 (Acceptable for what it’s telling)
Effectiveness 8 (It does tell the general story)
Conclusion 7 (It reaches a ‘coupler’, but doesn’t really end)
Fan Service 2 (A similar show would be “Okamisan”)

Overall 7 (Got a bit too weepy for me)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Friends forever and ever.