Preview: Love Live! Movie

Will the Love Live! movie become a needed expansion of the franchise?

Love Live follows a group of girls who try to save their school from going bankrupt by trying to gain publicity by starting an Idol Group. After a successful launch and branding campaign for their school, they go on becoming the best idol group of Japan.

The main focus of Love Live is mainly the portrayal of girls in skimpy outfits and implicate shoujai-esque relationships. I have feeling I say this a lot nowadays which is worrying, since it reveals a lack of true drive to create something unique and engaging. It caters to the most primitive drives in, mainly, male viewers and cash in quickly.

The preview doesn’t really show new and innovative elements. The animation is quite lacking for a movie adaptation. I’ve seen movie adaptations standout far above the anime versions. For example the K-ON! movie which really brought the franchise to life in an also more approachable format.

Admittedly I find the setting of Love Live! more approachable than its obvious counterpart The Idolmaster. The music is less annoying, the characters less hyper active and in terms of age, older. Older with a grain of salt. Love Live! still propagates a form of youthfulness in a distasteful manner.

Fans of the genre or Love Live franchise will welcome this new addition, but those expecting a movie that will bring Love Live! to new heights or revitalize the genre will likely be disappointed. Love Live fits within the idol entertainment of Japan and I’m sure the show is best suited for its native regional release.