Love Live Sunshine Liveblog (Episode 7)
Aug. 13th, 2016 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
benevolentspectreHello friends bet you thought you got rid of me, huh? Well, you did not, and here is something significantly less depressing and weird than the things I posted earlier in the week! Spoilers under the cut.
LET ME BEGIN by saying that I'm still salty that this series has the "the school's shutting down" plot. I'm done with it, it was cute enough when Chika just wanted to be a school idol, etcetc. I whined enough about this when liveblogging last week's episode, so I'll shut up about it from now on, but I'm angry enough that I thought it was worth one more mention.
I really want to know if it's realistic how many views Aquors's video gets and/or how quickly they climb in rank. Like, I've tried posting vids on the internet for multiple things, and to me, fame really seems to depend more on being in the right place at the right time than anything. How did both u's and Aquors get this lucky as to gain pretty much insta-fame? Like, obviously they still had to work for it, but it seems, to me, like it's unrealistically easy. Are people in Japan just that obsessed with idols that that's all they do? Try to find new idol groups they haven't watched before?
Okay, Ruby as a character has been bothering me since she was introduced, and I couldn't figure out why. I mean, she's kind of coming off as the cutesy, "young-looking" girl, so that would essentially make her the Nico of this group? Sort of? I mean, I know she's meant more to be like Hanayo, and she obviously has a lot of similarities to Hanayo as well, but she really just comes off as...very childlike. And it confuses me why I don't like her more, because Nico was my favorite member of u's, so wouldn't I theoretically like the new childlike character? But apparently mixing Nico's traits with Hanayo makes a character I'm not overly fond of.
This brings up a weird point, though. I know I've said in previous liveblogs that I greatly prefer Aquors to u's, and this is still true. But where the weird conundrum comes in is that I think I prefer the members of u's as individuals over those of Aquors. Like, as it is now, I really like Chika, Riko, and Hanamura. I like Kanan so far, but she hasn't shown up enough for me to make a strong opinion on her. I also don't really have a full opinion on You or Yoshiko yet. I mean, I do technically like Yoshiko, but what the writers were intending to do with her character confuses me so much that I don't know if I like Yoshiko or my own interpretation of Yoshiko. It's hard to explain.
But then there are the three remaining: Dia, Mari, and Ruby. None of whom I really like? When it came to u's, I disliked Honoka. That was it. I liked every other girl. I had an opinion on every girl. It's episode 7, and I don't know enough about a third of Aquors to even make a real statement about them. I openly dislike another third of them. But then like I've said before, I like the dynamic of Aquors so much, I still like the entire group together more than I liked u's together. Which is odd. You'd think if I only genuinely liked three Aquors members, I wouldn't be able to like Aquors but I guess that's not how it works.
Anyway, back to actually watching the show.
I do appreciate that Dia isn't being a bitch about Ruby being a member of Aquors. She doesn't even really act bitter about it. She's a good big sister, if a shitty classmate.
Literally every scene where Mari is talking to Dia/Kanan reminds me of, like, the generic scene in every spy movie where the main character returns to their hotel room and there's a person sitting in an armchair there in such a way that their entire face is cast in shadow and like. Mari obviously isn't trying to hide, but her scenes give off the same vibe, and it's hilarious to me.
One other thing I don't understand is why (and this happens in other anime too) certain characters just say a...word? Sound effect? I don't even know what to call it (i.e. Hanamura and her "zura."). I've been trying and failing to come up with an equivalent situation in English so that I can make some sense of this, but I literally can't. Shows always try to push it off as a dialect difference, but there are different dialects within the US too, and they don't just...randomly say something akin to "zura?" They just use different words in place of words that exist, but they're still words with meaning.
For real, if anyone can explain the "zura" thing to me I will owe you my life.
Okay, that flashback scene where Ruby's getting ready to leave her house and Dia talks to her...She was wearing her normal clothes, but then when she shows up at Chika's, she's...not wearing her normal clothes? Does that mean that she went to Hanamura's and Hanamura dressed her up like that? What.
Considering the current Aquors members are going to Tokyo this episode, I doubt it's the episode where the third years finally join. How many episodes are there planned to be in this series, because there were only 13 in the original series. I really don't want, like, the season finale to be Dia, Mari, and Kanan finally joining and then all "JOIN US FOR SEASON 2 WHEN YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE ENTIRETY OF AQUORS" like no I want to see the entirety of Aquors NOW in THIS SEASON.
...I complain a lot about this show. XD
The two girls at the shrine are creepy/weird. I mean, I knew there was eventually going to have to be a rival idol group, but I was kind of hoping that it'd be akin to u's rival (where they were all pretty friendly with each other and just wanted to be school idols), but from that short encounter, that doesn't seem to be the case here.
Maybe they'll bring it up later in the episode, but I like how at the beginning, there was a moment where Ruby and Dia were discussing how Aquors might not even be able to afford the trip to Tokyo and then it was never mentioned again? XD Where did they all just magically get the money from if it was expected to be an issue?
You and her uniform obsession is terrific. This episode is endearing her to me a lot more. (Although I really wish they had decided to spell her name differently, because it's hard for me not to read it the English way. Makes for some confusing sentences.)
Yoshiko is confusing me more than ever. Yet again, I find myself wondering if her Yohane shtick is a genuine mental illness or just attention seeking. Like. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that someone would be that delusional and not mentally ill, especially if she doesn't want to act like that. I think I'm just going to have to accept the fact that I'm never going to fully understand what Yoshiko is about.
What the...Several Aquors members are eating food that Hanamura bought, and Hanamura is all "nooo" and then makes to eat it herself, and Ruby's all, "You shouldn't eat this late, Hanamura, you'll get fat." What about Riko and You? Don't care if those two get fat, do ya, Ruby?
Oh my god, Chika and Riko having a late-night talk. How gay can these two possibly get without actually making out or something? Jeez.
Chika leaves the hotel that morning to go running before anyone else is awake. She stops for all of two seconds to look at a giant tv screen and everyone somehow manages to catch up to her. Either Chika's super slow or the rest of those girls are lightning fast. Not to mention they somehow knew exactly where Chika went? PLOT HOLES.
I literally just realized that the subtitles on this show is spelling Aquors like "Aqours." Have I been spelling it wrong all this time?? *googles it* Oh no, I have been. Pfft, okay. Guess I'll try to train myself to spell it correctly, but forgive me if I still occasionally typo it. It's hard for me to not type a u immediately after a q. It's so ingrained in the English language.
I love the realism that they're wearing the same costumes as they did in the promo video. It always struck me as a bit crazy that Kotori was able to make new costumes for every single u's performance...That shit takes a lot of time and a lot of skill. Not to mention the money for fabric.
I knew deep down that this Tokyo thing was going to be split into two episodes, which probably meant that there wouldn't be a performance in this episode. But I was still holding out hope all the way until the ending song started playing and now I am terribly disappointed.
Next episode is called "isn't is frustrating." YES it's frustrating that I'm watching a show about idols yet there is RARELY A PERFORMANCE IN THE SHOW BY SAID IDOLS. Grrrjklhofidfha
Anyway, final thoughts: I already dislike the rivals. You's screentime was a little more substantial, which was appreciated. NOT EVEN A SINGLE MOMENT OF KANAN, STEP UP YOUR GAME, LOVE LIVE SUNSHINE.
Until next week! Ciao~
LET ME BEGIN by saying that I'm still salty that this series has the "the school's shutting down" plot. I'm done with it, it was cute enough when Chika just wanted to be a school idol, etcetc. I whined enough about this when liveblogging last week's episode, so I'll shut up about it from now on, but I'm angry enough that I thought it was worth one more mention.
I really want to know if it's realistic how many views Aquors's video gets and/or how quickly they climb in rank. Like, I've tried posting vids on the internet for multiple things, and to me, fame really seems to depend more on being in the right place at the right time than anything. How did both u's and Aquors get this lucky as to gain pretty much insta-fame? Like, obviously they still had to work for it, but it seems, to me, like it's unrealistically easy. Are people in Japan just that obsessed with idols that that's all they do? Try to find new idol groups they haven't watched before?
Okay, Ruby as a character has been bothering me since she was introduced, and I couldn't figure out why. I mean, she's kind of coming off as the cutesy, "young-looking" girl, so that would essentially make her the Nico of this group? Sort of? I mean, I know she's meant more to be like Hanayo, and she obviously has a lot of similarities to Hanayo as well, but she really just comes off as...very childlike. And it confuses me why I don't like her more, because Nico was my favorite member of u's, so wouldn't I theoretically like the new childlike character? But apparently mixing Nico's traits with Hanayo makes a character I'm not overly fond of.
This brings up a weird point, though. I know I've said in previous liveblogs that I greatly prefer Aquors to u's, and this is still true. But where the weird conundrum comes in is that I think I prefer the members of u's as individuals over those of Aquors. Like, as it is now, I really like Chika, Riko, and Hanamura. I like Kanan so far, but she hasn't shown up enough for me to make a strong opinion on her. I also don't really have a full opinion on You or Yoshiko yet. I mean, I do technically like Yoshiko, but what the writers were intending to do with her character confuses me so much that I don't know if I like Yoshiko or my own interpretation of Yoshiko. It's hard to explain.
But then there are the three remaining: Dia, Mari, and Ruby. None of whom I really like? When it came to u's, I disliked Honoka. That was it. I liked every other girl. I had an opinion on every girl. It's episode 7, and I don't know enough about a third of Aquors to even make a real statement about them. I openly dislike another third of them. But then like I've said before, I like the dynamic of Aquors so much, I still like the entire group together more than I liked u's together. Which is odd. You'd think if I only genuinely liked three Aquors members, I wouldn't be able to like Aquors but I guess that's not how it works.
Anyway, back to actually watching the show.
I do appreciate that Dia isn't being a bitch about Ruby being a member of Aquors. She doesn't even really act bitter about it. She's a good big sister, if a shitty classmate.
Literally every scene where Mari is talking to Dia/Kanan reminds me of, like, the generic scene in every spy movie where the main character returns to their hotel room and there's a person sitting in an armchair there in such a way that their entire face is cast in shadow and like. Mari obviously isn't trying to hide, but her scenes give off the same vibe, and it's hilarious to me.
One other thing I don't understand is why (and this happens in other anime too) certain characters just say a...word? Sound effect? I don't even know what to call it (i.e. Hanamura and her "zura."). I've been trying and failing to come up with an equivalent situation in English so that I can make some sense of this, but I literally can't. Shows always try to push it off as a dialect difference, but there are different dialects within the US too, and they don't just...randomly say something akin to "zura?" They just use different words in place of words that exist, but they're still words with meaning.
For real, if anyone can explain the "zura" thing to me I will owe you my life.
Okay, that flashback scene where Ruby's getting ready to leave her house and Dia talks to her...She was wearing her normal clothes, but then when she shows up at Chika's, she's...not wearing her normal clothes? Does that mean that she went to Hanamura's and Hanamura dressed her up like that? What.
Considering the current Aquors members are going to Tokyo this episode, I doubt it's the episode where the third years finally join. How many episodes are there planned to be in this series, because there were only 13 in the original series. I really don't want, like, the season finale to be Dia, Mari, and Kanan finally joining and then all "JOIN US FOR SEASON 2 WHEN YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE ENTIRETY OF AQUORS" like no I want to see the entirety of Aquors NOW in THIS SEASON.
...I complain a lot about this show. XD
The two girls at the shrine are creepy/weird. I mean, I knew there was eventually going to have to be a rival idol group, but I was kind of hoping that it'd be akin to u's rival (where they were all pretty friendly with each other and just wanted to be school idols), but from that short encounter, that doesn't seem to be the case here.
Maybe they'll bring it up later in the episode, but I like how at the beginning, there was a moment where Ruby and Dia were discussing how Aquors might not even be able to afford the trip to Tokyo and then it was never mentioned again? XD Where did they all just magically get the money from if it was expected to be an issue?
You and her uniform obsession is terrific. This episode is endearing her to me a lot more. (Although I really wish they had decided to spell her name differently, because it's hard for me not to read it the English way. Makes for some confusing sentences.)
Yoshiko is confusing me more than ever. Yet again, I find myself wondering if her Yohane shtick is a genuine mental illness or just attention seeking. Like. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that someone would be that delusional and not mentally ill, especially if she doesn't want to act like that. I think I'm just going to have to accept the fact that I'm never going to fully understand what Yoshiko is about.
What the...Several Aquors members are eating food that Hanamura bought, and Hanamura is all "nooo" and then makes to eat it herself, and Ruby's all, "You shouldn't eat this late, Hanamura, you'll get fat." What about Riko and You? Don't care if those two get fat, do ya, Ruby?
Oh my god, Chika and Riko having a late-night talk. How gay can these two possibly get without actually making out or something? Jeez.
Chika leaves the hotel that morning to go running before anyone else is awake. She stops for all of two seconds to look at a giant tv screen and everyone somehow manages to catch up to her. Either Chika's super slow or the rest of those girls are lightning fast. Not to mention they somehow knew exactly where Chika went? PLOT HOLES.
I literally just realized that the subtitles on this show is spelling Aquors like "Aqours." Have I been spelling it wrong all this time?? *googles it* Oh no, I have been. Pfft, okay. Guess I'll try to train myself to spell it correctly, but forgive me if I still occasionally typo it. It's hard for me to not type a u immediately after a q. It's so ingrained in the English language.
I love the realism that they're wearing the same costumes as they did in the promo video. It always struck me as a bit crazy that Kotori was able to make new costumes for every single u's performance...That shit takes a lot of time and a lot of skill. Not to mention the money for fabric.
I knew deep down that this Tokyo thing was going to be split into two episodes, which probably meant that there wouldn't be a performance in this episode. But I was still holding out hope all the way until the ending song started playing and now I am terribly disappointed.
Next episode is called "isn't is frustrating." YES it's frustrating that I'm watching a show about idols yet there is RARELY A PERFORMANCE IN THE SHOW BY SAID IDOLS. Grrrjklhofidfha
Anyway, final thoughts: I already dislike the rivals. You's screentime was a little more substantial, which was appreciated. NOT EVEN A SINGLE MOMENT OF KANAN, STEP UP YOUR GAME, LOVE LIVE SUNSHINE.
Until next week! Ciao~
