English Dub Review: Love Live Sunshine “Sound of Rain”

Sometimes, a temple is all you need.

Overview:

The girls review the hurdles that they have to overcome to save their school and try to bond between the years.

Our Take:

A better episode this time around, likely because there are traces of an actual conflict. The school board is still fairly resolute in their decision to merge, understandably so, but they say that they will host an open house if the number of prospective students rises to 100. This is a reasonable, understandable number, and a lot more than ten. Instead of the simple upset, the girls showed the last episode, they take this news well and decide to use the Love Live competition to draw more attention to their school. However, that means that they have to make an entirely new song since the rules dictate that only new material can be performed.

On top of that, they realize that the gap between the third years and the first years is too wide. Without any sort of communication, there’s no way they can stir up excitement across the school. Unfortunately, the younger members of the group aren’t very social.

They end up taking refuge in a Buddhist temple, and between being scared, they realize that the sound and echoes in the temple mix their voices, and they realize that they can work together.

The episode, unfortunately, takes a detour to show the girls relaxing instead of actually helping solve the problems— which would be fine if they weren’t crunched for time. Instead, the segment seems comedic, but largely out of place.

I’m still not impressed. Personal tastes aside, the show doesn’t do a lot in terms of conflict, and shows without conflict are largely dull. Considering how large the consequences could be if they fail, the girls should be hurrying as much as they can. The creative process isn’t linear of course, but showing more effort instead of them relaxing in a hot spring would actually make the consequences seem real.

Also, Aqours will be performing at the NHK World Presents: Songs of Tokyo concert, so that’s definitely something.