Yuu and Ayumu are longtime best friends who were just hanging out one day when they stumbled across a solo idol performance. The performance lit a fire in their hearts, and then they learned that the performer, Setsuna, was part of the school idol club from their very own school. Yuu in particular got so into school idols that night that the following day at school she just had to check out the club herself, dragging the curious-but-more-hesitant Ayumu along with her. Unfortunately, they found out that the club had been disbanded right on that day. However, Ayumu decided that she really did want to become a school idol, and asked Yuu to start a new school idol club with her.
Ah yes, good ol’ Love Live!, a franchise I’ve definitely been a huge fan of in the past. Even now, while I’m not following the series as closely, I definitely still like the franchise, and this episode reminded me why. At its core, this whole franchise is about learning about yourself and following your dreams, facing down obstacles along the way. This first episode already does a great job of setting up the story to follow those themes. Both Yuu and Ayumu are nice characters to start things off, and I do appreciate that we don’t have another hyper-energetic Honoka or Chika lead (nothing wrong with them, but it’s nice to have a change of pace the third time around). Yuu is certainly energetic but in a more toned-down way, and she also seems to be more interested in supporting Ayumu and the school idol club than be one herself. The two musical numbers in the episode also look really nice. As a side note I did know about the girls of this part of the franchise beforehand, so it was nice to see all the other girls make short appearances in the episode, too. Overall I really enjoyed this episode and will definitely be looking forward to how the School Idol Club gets started once again.
Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club is streaming on Funimation. Read our thoughts on all the new fall anime series, in additional comments from our other writers, on our fall 2020 anime first impression master post.
