Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai: Kanketsu-hen Part 2

Love Live! Nijigasaki Final Chapter part 2 is a massive improvement visually over the first film purely by virtue of it mostly going back to the way it looked for the TV series. While I do think Kerorira’s animation talent is useful in many places, it proved to be mostly incompatible with Nijigasaki’s base designs, and so not having him on board for this installment has brought back the same visual sense that I fell in love with years ago back in season 1. The lighting is gorgeous and deftly highlights the character models to bring out their most beautiful moments, the editing and imagery in the music video segments had me completely enraptured, and while there are a few compositing issues here and there, as there were in the TV series, it’s more than made up for by the wonderful background art. I even ended up getting engrossed by the costume design and how cute the girls’ outfits were. We’re finally getting back to the Nijigasaki I remember. As for what these visuals are portraying, the internal conflicts within this half of the Nijigasaki crew are fairly straightforward and familiar for those already deep into Love Live, but still executed with a solid sense for who these characters are. Mia’s struggle with whether she should return right away to America to improve her singing or stay as a school idol for a bit longer, and Yuuki’s slowly growing dread over eventually giving up her idol persona once she graduates both feed into the notion of school idols being a fleeting dream, a moment in time that is restricted squarely to their high school years. Yet, that is also what makes it so important. That fleeting nature is something that can only be had right now, and so it must be embraced with all your heart so you won’t have any regrets left over when it’s finally time to leave. That is the core of what Love Live consistently tries to convey, and I’m glad that this film trilogy is back on track and that we still have one more grand finale to enjoy with these girls.