English Dub Season Review: Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season Two

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Nijigasaki High School Idol Club is back and they’re preparing for their second school idol festival. There are new students who come to the school, meaning new rivals and new club members. All of the members go through their own struggles and try to achieve their own goals. Even so, they always manage to come together and have fun as a club and as friends.

Our Take:

I’m not big into idol shows, so I was surprised when I ended up liking Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season One. I figured the second season would be more of the same. It is, but that’s not a bad thing.

The girls are performing at various stages, preparing for big events, and just hanging out like they did in the first season. It’s an easy-going and light-hearted show, so I don’t expect much more than that. Besides, I enjoy a lot of these scenes and episodes. It’s nice to just relax and watch friends be friends and have fun.

All of the characters from the first season are back.  My personal favorites are Kanata, Karin, and Rina. I always have fun watching these characters in particular, but the whole club is a lot of fun. I’m not a big fan of Ayumu and Kasumi, but they have their moments. We see a bit of development from some of the returning characters, mainly Yuu and Setsuna.

This season introduces three new main characters as well. Shioriko Mifune is a member of the student council and she mostly plays a support role to the idol club. Lanzhu Zhong is a transfer student from Hong Kong who prefers performing by herself. Mia Taylor is a transfer student from America and she’s mainly a composer. All three of these new characters are good additions to the cast and they each get a lot of development. Unfortunately, since there are so many characters, it took a while for me to connect with the new ones.

That’s my main issue with the second season. The cast feels bloated and it’s difficult to keep track of all of these characters. There are 13 characters in the main cast this season, which is hard enough to split up evenly. Then you also have to factor in all of the side characters the show introduces and puts focus on. It’s too easy for any given character to get lost in the shuffle. In fact, there are a few times where I forget which character was which. They all have unique personalities, but there’s just so much to remember here.

The idol performances are just as enjoyable as they were in the first season, if not more so. The visuals in the show are good in general, but they’re phenomenal during the performances. I love the variation in the outfits and visual effects. The dancing routines are animated very well too. Not o mention, the songs are all a lot of fun. There’s a lot of variety in everyone’s songs and they’re all just so catchy.

This season plays it safe much like the first season did. There aren’t a lot of big conflicts and the conflicts we do get are solved fairly quickly and easily. I expected that and that’s not a huge deal, but it might not be for everyone.

This season is just a much fun as the first one. Sure, it took a while to grow on me like the first season, but I still think it’s enjoyable. You don’t have to think too much about what’s going on. You can just sit back, relax, and enjoy some school idol fun.