About Love Live - MagiCircles/IdolStoryWiki GitHub Wiki
Love Live! School Idol Project was launched in August 2010 as a co-production of Dengeki G's Magazine, the music label Lantis, and the animation studio Sunrise. The franchise originally started with the debut of the group μ’s, consisting of Honoka Kosaka, Kotori Minami, Umi Sonoda, Rin Hoshizora, Hanayo Koizumi, Maki Nishikino, Eli Ayase, Nozomi Tojo and Nico Yazawa. Later additions came with Aqours in April 2015 and Nijigasaki high school club revealed in 2017, implemented in September 2019. In 2020, Love Live!'s third generation was revealed as Love Live! Superstar!!! under the group name of "Liella!". As a series, numerous music CDs and music videos have been released, also including six anime seasons, two radio shows, the manga School Idol Diary, two films, and five games.
In April 2013, Love Live! made its mobile debut through the game Love Live! School Idol Festival (SIF) in Japan and a worldwide version was released in May 2014. The game was developed by KLab and published by Bushiroad. The rhythm game features songs from the Love Live! franchise and the girls from μ’s which can be obtained through scouting means. In 2016, Aqours was implemented into the game with the 4.0 update, adding in the girls and songs from Love Live! Sunshine!!. The gameplay features tapping icons on the screen to the chosen song with teams of nine members. Twice a month, one μ’s and one Aqours event are held, featuring two girls (originally one, occasionally four on the worldwide version), out of six potential event types. As of July 5th, 2020, events now feature a UR card of a certain girl and two gacha URs that are part of the event. There is also a "secret" SSR that can be obtained when enough points are earned and the image of the card will be revealed. In 2021, KLab announced that the once separate Worldwide and Japanese servers of SIF will be merging into one international server. This server would continue to follow the Japanese version's timezone and event schedule.
Four years later in March 2017, Perfect Dream Project (PDP) was officially announced as part of SIF's four year anniversary. As part of the Love Live! family, PDP would feature in a mobile game in development. The group consisted of all the idols from μ's and Aqours, and 9 new characters: three N girls who were voted as the most popular via a poll on the Japanese version of SIF; the winners were Shizuku Osaka, Kanata Konoe and Emma (later having the surname Verde be added). Six other characters created for the project were also designed. The 9 new idols were split into three teams of three girls to promote content from December 2018 which included Karin Asaka, Kasumi Nakasu, and Setsuna Yuki on Dengeki Online, Ai Miyashita, Ayumu Uehara, and Rina Tennoji on the Famitsu App and Kanata Kanoe, Shizuku Osaka, and Emma Verde on SIF. The new girls were later revealed to be part of Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. Likewise with μ’s and Aqours, Nijigasaki High School Idol Club later had voting for subunits to be implemented but with a different 2-3-4 formation. The winning subunits were DiverDiva with Karin and Ai, AZUNA with Ayumu, Shizuku, and Setsuna and QU4RTZ with Kasumi, Kanata, Emma, and Rina. Unlike the previous groups, Nijigasaki High School Idol Club is seen as mostly independent idols, and there is currently no plan for them to be in a 9-idols unit like μ's or Aqours. Nijigasaki High School Idol Club would finally be implemented in the Love Live! series officially with the release of Love Live! School Idol Festival: All Stars. However, with the release of SIFAS, the PDP name is no longer in use.
Love Live! made another mobile debut with Love Live! School Idol Festival: All Stars! (SIFAS or sometimes called LLAS) on September 26th 2019 in Japan. SIFAS differentiates from its predecessor in that it focuses primarily on an "RPG" aspect rather than the rhythm aspect, although it is still present. The game maintains the nine-member formation with strategy and team building being necessary to clear the song, in addition to skill. The girls of Nijigasaki made their official debut into the Love Live! series, although they had already released solo albums prior, but also features μ’s and Aqours. With the conclusion of the first season of the SIFAS story, Nijigasaki welcomed its tenth member, Shioriko Mifune, bringing a new formula to the classic 9-member system.
In December 2016, Love Live! School Idol Festival after school ACTIVITY (SIFAC) was released in arcade stores in Japan and was developed by Square Enix. Similarly to SIF, the game features nine icons the players must press on the machine but more than two icons can appear at once, often forcing players to use their palms to press across buttons. AC and SIF have had multiple cross-campaigns, allowing players to play beatmaps from each game on the other (EG Snow Halation) and SIF has received card art featured in AC, including Zodiac and Starlight Sailor. However, AC received its last update on November 10th, 2020, ending the support for the arcade version. Fortunately, Love Live! School Idol Festival ~ after school ACTIVITY ~ WaiWai! Home Meeting!! was released on March 24th, 2021 for the PS4. The game is free with eight songs with the ability to purchase additional songs.
Outside of the games category, Love Live! currently has two anime series, Love Live! and Love Live! Sunshine!!, both with 2 seasons each, and a movie each. The first series, featuring the girls of μ’s, aired from January 6th to March 31st in 2013 with a total of thirteen episodes, including a bonus OVA on November 27th the same year. The second season of the first series aired from April 6th to June 29th in 2014, also with thirteen episodes. The first movie for the Love Live! franchise, Love Live! School Idol Movie, premiered in Japan on June 13th, 2015 featuring μ’s taking their music internationally in order to make school idols reach even more people. Love Live! Sunshine!!'s first season began airing on July 2nd, 2016 and the second on October 7th, 2027. Aqours' movie, Love Live! Sunshine!! School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow premiered on January 4th, 2019 in Japan. Despite original reports that there were no plans for Nijigasaki was to receive an anime, a singular season aired from October 3rd, 2020 to December 26th, 2020, consisting of thirteen episodes. Under the name "Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club", it introduces the protagonist Yu Takasaki, Ayumu's childhood friend, akin to the protagonist in SIFAS. It is emphasised that Yu and the SIFAS protagonist are not the same person.
In addition, the Love Live! series has spouted two radio shows under the names Love Live! μ’s Public Relations Department ~NicoRinPana~ (featuring Sora Tokui, Yurika Kubo, and Riho Iida as main hosts) from May 2011 to March 2016 and Love Live! Sunshine!! Aqours Uranohoshi Girls' High School RADIO!!! from May 2016 and is still on-going. The Aqours radio show had a voting in October 2016 to determine the permanent members of the show and resulted in Anju Inami, Arisa Komiya, and Aika Kobayashi being chosen. Their voted name together was "GuuRinpa". However, in February 2018, Shuka Saito, Aika Kobayashi, and Ai Furihata were picked for the new hosts. The shows feature the girls talking about several topics and events going on. NicoRinPana also released the CD, Love Live! Web Radio「Love Live! Radio Kagai Katsudo ~Nikorinpana~」, which featured the songs Listen to my heart!! and After school NAVIGATORS.