Love Live! ラブライブ!

So what is behind "Love Live! School Idol Project", a multimedia project from the early 2010s which conquered Japan and the rest of the world in less than a decade? The answer could not be more straightforward: a girls' band, whose adventures we follow on the small and big screen, but also on paper.

See also: The pop group Perfume.

The pitch? Honoka Kosaka is a young high school student. When she learns that her high school is doomed to close due to a lack of students, the young girl and her friends create a group (pronounced "myuzu"), like pop idols, to attract new students to his school. The nine teenage girls intend to revolutionize life in their small Otonokizaka high school with their very different characters.

A Multi-support Game

The adventures of these young girls, "Love Live! School Idol Project," was jointly developed by a music label and an animation studio. The experiences of Honoka, Umi, Kotori, Nozomi, and their friends are offered on several media. CDs, but also music videos or even manga and video games.

Given the success of these "idols," an animated television series with 13 episodes was released on Japanese screens in 2013, followed by a new season in 2014. Once again, success was there. This is how an animated film was released in cinemas in June 2015.

Always further! The voice actors of the nine young girls form an open group that has given many sold-out concerts throughout the country. Adopting the hairstyles and outfits of the characters whose voices they are, they also mimic their personality and reproduce the choreographies of the cartoon identically.

Here is an excerpt from μ's final concert, during which the public accompanies the band with songs from fans and their glow sticks (this phenomenon is called wotagei ) and even goes so far as to change the color of the posts during solo (each singer having an assigned color). An almost frightening sight...

A Participatory Project

In addition to surfing on the success of idol groups, the success of "Love Live! School Idol Project" is undoubtedly in its desire to include the spectators and to make them participate in the group's daily life. Thus, when the label and the publisher unveiled the project, the characters, and the plot of the story in Dengeki G's Magazine, they immediately informed readers of their possible participation in the story, particularly in the choice of the first video clips or the organization of the group.

But "Love Live! School Idol Project" is also a free rhythm game, available on iOS and Android, which has more than one million players in Japan, making it one of the most popular rhythm games in the world. . Everyone can create their group and thus give concerts, by touching the screen in rhythm with the music. All to the sound of more than 80 original songs. Competition between players, winning prizes and cards, which allow you to achieve better performance, or even to perfect the style of your idols thanks to new costumes.

We won't tell you if Honoka Kosaka managed to avoid the closure of her high school, but it is undeniable that she managed to thrill the crowds and make her band's songs resonate worldwide. So much so that a new generation of high school idols took up the torch in 2016: Love Live! Sunshine!! The group Aqours (pronounced aquaアクア) uses precisely the same principle. An incredible success that is still there five years after the start of the Love Live adventure!

The promotional clip of the second live DVD of Aqours released in April 2018: