English Dub Review: Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club “sing! song! smile!”

Overview:

Kanata, Rina, Emma, and Kasumin have sleepovers to prepare for the joint concert. Plus, Yuu has to compose a song for her music class.

Our Take:

The group of four is still set on performing as a quartet at the joint concert. To get ready, they sleep over at each others’ houses, bounce ideas off one another, and even learn about each other in the process. However, their goal is still the same and that’s to try and get through to Lanzhu.

Their actual performance goes well and they even manage to impress Lanzhu. It’s hard to say if she’ll change her stance on what being an idol means, but it’s a small step towards her progression.

We also see Yuu attempting to write a song for her music class, but she doesn’t know how to go about it. Mia tells her she only needs to write it for the teacher, but the school idol club gives her different and more constructive answers. They say the song should matter to her as well. Yuu doesn’t think she’s special, which leads to the other girls complimenting her and telling her why she’s wrong.

That carries over to the quartet as well. This is mostly an episode of friends building each other up and having a good time. It may be basic, but it works. Hearing Yuu’s finished song feels like she took all of her friends’ suggestions into consideration. Plus, the different sleepovers were enjoyable to watch. Both the main and subplots in this episode were executed well.

On a side note, it’s also confirmed that the the school’s cultural and idol festivals will be combined into one event. I wonder if this will have any significant impact on the school idol festival moving forward.

This is a step up from the previous two episodes. Again, the show isn’t doing anything new, but it’s using the familiar tropes well.