Love Live! Sunshine!!

Episode 12

When the original Love Live! ended, I thought I wanted nothing more than to see μ's again. I wanted another movie, or an OVA, or at least maybe a brief speaking cameo in Love Live! Sunshine!!. This week, when Aqours went to Tokyo again, fantasizing about catching a glimpse of one of their idols, I realized that I didn't want that anymore. Between the first episode and now, I've become so emotionally invested in Aqours that all I wanted was for them to fly free. I was ready to let go, and I wanted them to let go too.

This episode left a pang in my heart until the last few minutes, because I yearned to impart any kind of wisdom on the young characters and tell them that things would be okay. Despite qualifying for the next stage of the Love Live!, and despite getting a boost in hits on their introduction video, the girls are disappointed to realize that their efforts have had zero impact on the future of their school. In fact, zero prospective students have RSVP'd for the upcoming open house, a number that reminded them all too much of the results from their first Love Live! stage performance.

The opposite of "none" is not "all" in this case, though; it's "some." And through Chika's declaration that her goal is to simply raise that number to "one," she's already demonstrating a maturity and resiliency beyond her years. But first, she suggests that they make another pilgrimage to Tokyo to try and gleam inspiration from μ's. They head first to Kanda Myojin, where we're teased with the possibility of seeing Nozomi (cue adorable fangirling from Dia and Ruby), but instead meet up with Saint Snow, who question the Aqours members about their motivations to be school idols.

Even after their not-so-peppy pep talk, Chika is still convinced that there must be something that they're missing that makes them different from μ's and A-RISE. It's a thought born partially from despair after seeing the "zero." After all, by this time in μ's' school idol careers, they had already saved their school. While this question was the impetus that gave us another chance to glimpse Otonokizaka, it still made my heart ache. I wanted to reach through the screen and tell Chika not to compare herself to the idol groups that came before them and that not everyone follows the same timeline. But it was the pilgrimage to Otonokizaka that finally provided that catharsis for both Aqours and the viewers.

When the girls get there, a student tells them that there's nothing of μ's left behind at Otonokizaka (a declaration that punched me in the gut stronger than I was expecting, no thanks to the weirdly depressing way that it was presented). The girls had moved on, taking their connections and memories with them, leaving behind just the school that they had saved. Now it was just a building. Nothing sacred, nothing magical— just a building. As the girls contemplate this, they see a young girl bearing the spitting image of Honoka, uninhibitedly zipping down a stair railing. It's the clunkiest metaphor I've ever seen, probably fuel for a dozen internet fan theories, but it's at least appropriately parallel to every time Honoka's ever jumped over a puddle or down a flight of stairs. Chika is inspired nonetheless. She realizes what I hoped they'd discover all along; they can't compare themselves to μ's, because they're not. In the end, Aqours is Aqours, and we love them for it. It's taken almost all season for the characters to realize the potential within themselves, but it's been a good journey. Now that the end is in sight, the girls can finally figure out what will make Aqours work and what will make them shine.

As a last aside, I'm really loving the antics of Yoshiko and Dia. Together, their goofiness really drives the humor in this series. Who could've predicted from the first episode that Dia would end up being such a total goober? I'll take more of all of the above, please, and about 1000x less tired boob-grabbing from Mari. That's two episodes back-to-back already.

Rating: A

Love Live! Sunshine!! is currently streaming on Funimation.

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