What Is it? 

The LoveLive! Franchise is a Japanese multimedia anime project that debuted in 2010 in a Dengeki G’s Magazine. The franchise is produced and created by the  company Sunrise,Sakurako Kimino, ASCII Media Works, and Lantis. The franchise contains 4 anime tv series,2 anime movies,5 games, merchandise, 4 cafes for each group, An upcoming musical,novels and mangas,a magazine,and a ton of songs with different genres so people can listen to the type of music they enjoy! Also, the franchise does livestreams and perform concerts with the voice actors dressed and performing as their character to thousands of fans. 

What’s the story about?

Each series in the franchise focuses on a group of girls who become “School Idols” and compete in a competition called “LoveLive!”. At the beginning of each series, the protagonist/leader of each group encounters School Idols, wants  to become one, starts a School Idol club,( but gets rejected by the student council president who will eventually become a School Idol.)and encounters each of the girls. Then each of the girls gets motivation of why they want to be a School Idol, and join the Club. During their journey of winning LoveLive They have emotional conflicts, meet their rivals, and learn how to shine and be the best they can be! The story ends with them separated and going their own ways after what they Accomplished together.

Who’s in it?

Each group has about 9-12 girls so I’ll tell you group by group and I’ll tell you their voice actors. (sub and dub.)1st is Muse, the group that started the franchise and stars in the first anime series, LoveLive!School Idol Project. They gave it all they got and they had highs and lows .They are set in Akihabara,Tokyo and they go to Otonokizaka Girls High School.This group consists of 9 girls. They are:

Honoka Kousaka ( Sub: Emi Nitta Dub: Marieve Herington.)

Kotori Minami (Sub: Aya Uchida Dub: Christina Vee)

Umi Sonoda (Sub: Suzuko Mimori Dub: Kira Buckland)

Hanayo Koizumi (Sub: Yurika Kubo Dub: Xanthe Huynh)

Maki Nishikino ( Sub: Pile/Eriko Hori Dub: Caitlin Glass)

Rin Hoshizora ( Sub: Riho Lida Dub: Faye Mata)

Nico Yazawa (Sub: Sora tokui Dub: Erica Mendez)

Nozomi Tojo ( Sub: Alina Kusuda Dub: Laura Post)

and Eli Ayase ( Sub: Yoshino Nanjō Dub: Erica Lindbeck).

Next is Aqours,the group that stars in LoveLive!Sunshine!! They’re a seaside group that lives near the sea! They are the sequel of School Idol Project! They are also a group of 9 too. The group debuted in 2013.They are set in Shizuoka,Numazu and they go to Uranohoshi Girls High School. They are:

Chika Takami ( Sub: Anju Inami Dub: Jad Saxton)

Yō Watanabe ( Sub: Shuka Saito Dub: Apphia Yu)

Riko Sakurauchi ( Sub: Rikako Aida Dub: Jeannie Tirado)

Ruby Kurosawa ( Sub: Ai Furihata Dub: Sarah Wiedenheft)

Hanamaru Kunikida ( Sub: Kinako Takatsuki Dub: Megan Shipman)

Yoshiko Tsushima ( Sub: Aika Kobayashi Dub: Morgan Berry)

(Also is called Yohane )

Dia Kurosawa ( Sub: Arisa Komiya Dub: Morgan Garrett)

Kanan Matsuura ( Sub: Nanaka Suwa Dub: Michelle Rojas)

And Mari Ohara ( Sub: Aina Suzuki Dub: Jamie Marchi)

Now,it’s time to introduce the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club! The group of solo idols with different genres and diversity like a rainbow! The group debuted in 2017.They are set in Odaiba, Tokyo and they go to Nijigasaki High School.This group stars in LoveLive! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club! a spin-off show based on the game LoveLive!All Stars. This group consists of 12 members and Yuu Takasaki.(who plays as the Player in the game. She is not an idol.) They are:

Ayumu Uehara ( Sub: Aguri Ōnishi Dub: Suzie Yeung)

Kasumi Nakasu ( Sub: Mayu Sagara Dub: Kayli Mills)

Shizuku Osaka ( Sub: Kaori Maeda Dub: Jill Harris)

Karin Asaka ( Sub: Miku Kotoba Dub: Shara Kirby)

Ai Miyashita ( Sub: Natsumi Murakami Dub: Daisy Guevara)

Kanata Konoe ( Sub: Akira Kitō Dub: Lindsay Sheppard)

Setsuna Yuki ( Sub: Tomori Kusunoki Dub: Laura Stahl)

(Also know as Nana Nakagawa)

Emma Verde ( Sub: Maria Sashide Dub: Lisa Reimold)

Rina Tennoji ( Sub: Chiemi Tanaka Dub: Hayden Daviau)

Shioriko Mifune ( Sub: Moeka Koizumi Dub: Caitlin Myers)

Mia Taylor ( Sub: Shu Uchida Dub: Lindsay Sheppard)

Lanzhu Zhong ( Sub: Akina Hōmoto Dub: Courtney Lin)

And Yuu Takasaki ( Sub: Hinaki Yano Dub: Madeline Dorroh)

(Player in LoveLive! All Stars ,was called “Anata-chan”)

Lastly, is the most recent group that shines like a star in the sky! It is Liella! This group debuted in 2020. They just started but they are actually better than the other groups when they debuted! They are set in Harajuku and they go to Yuigaoka Girls High School. The group used to consist of 5 members but then 4 new members were introduced so now there’s 9 members. They are:

Kanon Shibuya( Sub: Sayuri Date Dub: Kristi Rothrock)

Keke Tang ( Sub: Liyuu Dub: Julia Gu)

Chisato Arashi ( Sub: Nako Misaki Dub: Maddie Matsumoto)

Sumire Heanna ( Sub: Naomi Payton Dub: Lizzie Freeman)

Ren Hazuki ( Sub: Nagisa Aoyama Dub: Natalie Van Sistine)

The new Liella members that debuted before s2 (no dubs yet)

Kinako Sakurakoji (Sub : Nozomi Suzuhara)

Mei Yoneme ( Sub : Akane Yabushima)

Shiki Wakana ( Sub : Wakana Ookuma)

Natsumi Onitsuka ( Sub : Aya Emori)

That’s all the main girls! There are also other groups/characters too

Such as: A-Rise,Saint Snow, Sunny Passion, And Wein Margarete.

Underrated Scale: Underrated and Overrated at the same time

I say it’s Underrated and Overrated because it’s such a successful Franchise, It has lots of Media in it, and lots of people love it globally . (Reference: in muse’s final live in 2016, there were about 250,000 people there in person.) BUT, In some places, not that many people are familiar or are fans of it so it’s hard to find people that like it. (Like me) And also, most LoveLive! Fans are 14+ so it’s hard to find some around your age if you’re 13 or under. Also, a couple of years ago, LoveLive! was popular but because of the fandom being toxic, people started leaving the fandom and it became not popular. The toxic-ness died down and now the fandom is normal.  So basically, It was popular but because of the fandom’s toxic arguments and chaos, people started leaving it and it became underrated. It’s still popular though in some parts in the world.

My Opinion 

I think the LoveLive! Franchise is good to join if you’re into Idols, Anime, and singing/dancing. It’s a nice community and it’s little-not toxic so don’t worry about the arguments and chaos.There’s lots of things to choose from and lots of things to look at! I really recommend it!  

*Hi! Thanks for reading our debut issue! We’re Underrated Everything!
It is a series where we post essay – length articles about Underrated things. (games, shows,anime,movies, music,etc..) We post one article every month. Three people work on it (Emata,Mackenzie, and Cadence.) So we will transition between who posts their article. Thanks again!*