is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine, music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. It is the first multimedia project in the Love Live! franchise. The project revolves around a group of nine schoolgirls who become idols in order to save their school from shutting down. It launched in the August 2010 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, and went on to produce music CDs, anime music videos, two manga adaptations, and video games.
A 13-episode anime television series produced by Sunrise, directed by Takahiko Kyōgoku, and written by Jukki Hanada aired on Tokyo MX in Japan between January and March 2013, with a second season airing between April and June 2014. An animated film titled Love Live! The School Idol Movie was distributed by Shochiku and released in June 2015. A follow-up project focusing on a new set of idols, titled Love Live! Sunshine!!, launched in 2015.
Plot Honoka Kōsaka is a teenager who attends . When the school is scheduled to be closed due to a lack of applicants, Honoka becomes determined to save it. She goes to UTX, where her younger sister planned to go for high school, and sees a crowd watching a music video of A-Rise, UTX's school idol group. Learning that school idols are popular, Honoka and her friends decide to follow A-Rise's footsteps and start their own school idol group called to attract new students. Once they successfully prevent Otonokizaka Academy from closing, the girls from μ's set their sights higher. They participate in Love Live, the ultimate school idol competition featuring the best groups in the country. Despite winning the competition, the girls from μ's disband soon after for their own personal reasons, and because the third-years are graduating.
Characters Where appropriate, the plot descriptions mentioned below refer to the anime television series. Other parts of the franchise, such as the manga and novel series, feature some variations in the storyline.
μ's
Honoka is a second-year student at Otonokizaka Academy. Her family works in a wagashi shop named Homura. She has a cheerful personality, and very determined, never giving up on anything, to the point of usually overexerting herself – which can prove costly at times. She is shown to be lazy and reluctant to do work but is highly driven when it comes to her school idol activities. Her hobbies include swimming and collecting stickers. In the manga, she was a part of the kendo club. She is the leader of μ's, and is seen taking the center position in most of the group's songs. She later succeeds Eli as student council president.
Eli is Otonokizaka Academy's third-year student council president who is determined to save the school. Although she opposes Honoka's plan at first, she ends up becoming the second-to-last girl to join μ's. She is part Russian because of her grandma, and tends to say the Russian word "" (; pronounced harasho, "good"). She is very talented, excelling at academics and athleticion, and is able to perform her duties as the student council president flawlessly. Eli's specialty is quilting. Her experience with ballet ultimately qualifies her as the group's choreographer.
Kotori is Honoka's classmate and childhood best friend, as well as the daughter of Otonokizaka Academy's chairwoman, whom she closely resembles. She holds responsibility as the group's wardrobe supervisor. She is very kind, selfless, and considerate and shows a care for everyone, but is also confident and holds opinions of her own, however, she can also be indecisive. For a short time, she secretly worked part-time at a maid cafe. At one point, she intended to move abroad to study fashion, but at the last minute she decided to stay in Japan and remain part of μ's. She later joins the student council and assists Honoka and Umi in taking care of their student council duties.
Umi is Honoka's classmate and childhood friend who is a member of the school's kyūdō club, in which she excels. She believes Honoka is a little bit bright and undisciplined but realizes the perks of having an adventured friend, and usually acts as the voice of reason among the second-year trio. She is the main lyricist of the group. Despite her strict personality, she is also kind. As the daughter of an iemoto mother and a shihan father, Umi has expertise in kendo (long sword), koto (Japanese Zither), nagauta (Shamisen), shodō (Japanese creative writing), and nichibu (Japanese traditional dance). Umi is said to be very scary by Kotori when her sleep is disturbed by others during the training camp with the members of μ's. She later succeeds Nozomi as the student council vice president. Her catchphrase is "Love arrow, shoot!"
Rin is an athletic first-year student skilled in sports such as hurdling, soccer, and basketball. She is a tomboy, and like Honoka, she has a cheerful and energetic personality, but loses motivation easily. She is best friends with Hanayo, who she tends to look after, and has a habit of ending her sentences with "-nya" (the Japanese equivalent word for "meow"). She has a complex about looking "cute" due to an incident in her childhood in which several boys made fun of her for attempting to dress in more feminine attire, but is eventually able to put the incident behind her with the help of her friends in μ's and begins to express her femininity more.
Maki is a first-year honor student who comes from a wealthy family of doctors. She is a talented young singer and pianist, but is expected to become a doctor and inherit her parents' hospital, which makes her reluctant to join μ's at first. She initially comes across as aloof and a tsundere-like personality, but eventually warms up to the group over the course of the series. Maki is the main composer and vocal coach of the group. She later becomes the vice president of the Idol Research Club after the third-years' graduation.
Nozomi is the third-year student council vice-president and the oldest of the group. She acts as the voice of reason to Eli, who was the first friend she made after spending her whole school life transferring from one place to another due to her parents' work, choosing to live by herself in order to stay in Otonokizaka. She also acts as the spiritually leader of the group, and has an almost all-knowing vibe to her, acting when she knew things got too far and even naming the group based on events that were yet to happen. Although she is not from that region, Nozomi speaks in Kansai dialect. Her hobby is fortune-telling, and she uses it to quickly fit in at a new school whenever she is forced to move. Despite having a serene personality, she has a rather mischievous side to her: she can be perverted – being prone to groping the other girls' breasts when she finds them distracted or depressed as a form of "cheering them up".
Hanayo is a first-year student interested in drawing and origami. She is Rin's close friend. Rin refers to her as "Kayo", an alternate reading of the kanji in her name. She has a fondness for rice and eating in general, and is natural, shy. Prior to joining μ's, she had poor self-esteem and was prone to giving up easily. She has dream about being an idol since she was a baby and her catchphrase is, "Somebody, please help me!" or a variation depending on the media. Nico later chooses Hanayo to succeed as the president of the Idol Research Club after she and the other third-year members graduated.
Nico is a third-year student interested in fashion, and thus acts as the group's wardrobe supervisor alongside Kotori. She has the strongest desire to become an idol out of everyone in μ's, and has tirelessly worked in order to achieve her goal. However, much to her chagrin, Nico is childlike in appearance and behavior despite her age, looking much younger than the rest of the group. Nico formed the Idol Research Club, but all of her club members left one after another because of her high standards. When Honoka and her friends ask her to have the club as μ's base of operations, she is reluctant at first, doubting how far they are willing to go to become successful idols, until she approves of their effort and eventually joins the group. She is rather tough and constantly craves attention, but deeply cares for the people around her. Unlike the other members of the group, she has an idol persona and tends to invoke her catchphrase, "Nico Nico Nii", with an accompanying pose. Nico is scared of water and can't swim. She is however a very good cook, which comes from having to caring for and look after her three younger siblings (all voiced in Japanese by Sora Tokui): (), () and (). After she graduates, she passes on the role of club president to Hanayo.
A-Rise
Tsubasa is the leader of rival group A-Rise and is a student at UTX High School.
Erena is a member of A-Rise with a more adult-like look than the others and is a student at UTX High School.
Anju is a member of A-Rise with a princess demeanor and is a student at UTX High School.
Others
Yukiho is Honoka's younger sister who often does embarrassing things in private. A 3rd year middle school student at the start of the series, she eventually enters Otonokizaka, heading the Idol Research Club by the end of the series, when all members of μ's have graduated.
Alisa is Eli's younger sister who is a big fan of μ's. Having mostly lived abroad due to her being part-Russian, she is unfamiliar with many Japanese customs. Like her sister, she tends to say the Russian word "" which means "good". She is very close friends with Yukiho, the two entering Otonokizaka together after middle school. She, alongside Yukiho, is seen heading the Idol Research Club at the end of the series.
Production Since the first issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine was published, the editors of the magazine have hosted reader participation games whose development is directly influenced by the people who read the magazine. The project was first announced in the July 2010 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, which revealed that the magazine would be collaborating with the anime studio Sunrise and the music label Lantis to co-produce the project. The project officially began with the August 2010 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, which introduced the story, characters, and a more detailed explanation of the project. The original plan for the story was written by Sakurako Kimino, who also writes the short stories for Love Live! featured in Dengeki G's Magazine. Original character design and illustrations are provided by Yūhei Murota.
Starting in August 2010, online mobile phone popularity contests have periodically been held to rank the characters, which influences the positions of the idols in the anime music videos produced by Sunrise. For example, the idol who ranks first in a given contest will be in the center position in the front row in the music video that follows. Other polls are used to determine different aspects of the idols, such as hairstyles and costumes. Starting with the November 2010 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, readers were polled to determine the name of the idols' group. After the editors narrowed it down to the five most popular names, readers were polled for a final time, ultimately choosing the name μ's. A similar polling system was used to determine the names of the three subunits: Printemps, BiBi and Lily White.
Media Print media