Love Live! The School Idol Movie is a 2015 original theatrical anime film by studio Sunrise. The staff credits include director Takahiko Kyōgoku, screenplay writer Jukki Hanada, character designer Yuuhei Murota and music composer Yoshiaki Fujisawa, and the film was theatrically released in Japanese theaters in June 2015.
It is a continuation of the Love Live! School Idol Project anime series that spanned two seasons during 2013 and 2014 and concluded the storyline with the first idol group μ’s.
Background:
“Although μ’s, the defending champions of the school idol tournament, plans to dissolve their group after the graduation of their senior members, they receive news that leads them to holding a concert event!
With the clock ticking, what kind of meaning will the μ’s members find in performing the most exciting live performance?”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, July 2021.
It’s been a decade since Love Live! first broadcast in Japan and since then we have had numerous idol groups from the franchise and various anime appear. And yet, the first series – Love Live! School Idol Project – despite its popularity, is actually a poor seller for home video here in the UK. MVM distributed the first two seasons and they didn’t sell enough to warrant the license of Love Live! the School Idol Movie, which concluded the idol group μ’s storyline.
Pretty much over the years, NIS America and Madman released the film for their respective regions (United States and Australia) and the UK had to miss out outside of a couple theatrical releases from a few festivals. Eventually Anime Limited acquired the second series Love Live! Sunshine and offered Love Live! the School Idol Movie as part of the Screen Anime online film festival programme. This eventually lead to the distributor licensing the film for home video release, so fans were finally able to complete their collection if they didn’t import already.
That said, I did in fact import the film from Japan which I have covered on my blog back in September 2019. But the difference here is that this UK release does have the English dub while Japan released their Blu-rays before the west so there’s at least something different and worth owning both for the shelf. The other reason was to have a consistent Love Live Anime Limited collection since the distributor also has the rights to the later series Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club and Love Live! Superstar.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Love Live! The School Idol Movie kept the same consistency that its sequel Love Live! Sunshine received with the collector’s treatment and Blu-ray packaging from Anime Limited. As mentioned, this is also the film’s first UK home video release considering MVM didn’t release it so there’s at least a good package for those who waited this long.
The package is presented as a rigid box with an Amaray Blu-ray case to house the disc and alongside the case is a 24-page booklet. The booklet features character profiles, costume galleries as well as comments from the Japanese cast.
The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £34.99. As of the time of this write-up, a standard Blu-ray currently has yet to be scheduled.
The film was one of the anime titles made available for a discount during the Easter sale (£14.99).
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and Amaray packaging
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 24-page booklet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 19th July 2021
The collector’s edition release for Love Live! The School Idol Movie contains a single Blu-ray disc, with the encode and authoring done by NIS America. The audio options available for the film include Japanese with English subtitles and the Bang Zoom! English dub commissioned by NIS America.
The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 1 BD-50 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
- Original Japanese Promos
- Clean Ending
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Love Live! The School Idol Movie is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition Blu-ray can be acquired on on Amazon UK, Anime Limited’s store, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, and United Publications.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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