Love Live! Superstar!! (ラブライブ！スーパースター!!, Rabu Raibu! Sūpāsutā!!) Season 1 is a 2021 television anime series that’s part of a multimedia project between Kadokawa, Lantis and studio Sunrise. The television series is directed by Takahiko Kyogoku and produced by studio Sunrise (now known as Bandai Namco Filmworks). Staff credits also include writer Jukki Hanada, original character designer Yūhei Murota, character designer Atsushi Saitō and music composed by Yoshiaki Fujisawa. The first season of the series first aired in Japan on July 2021.
Background:
“The first students have arrived at Yuigaoka Girls’ High School, a new academy built on the crossroads of Omotesando, Harajuku, and Aoyama. With no history, no upperclassmen to rely on, and no name to speak of, this school’s totally starting from scratch!
In the midst of this, a team of five girls led by Kanon Shibuya discover “school idols.”
So the hopes of these stars, still small in stature, begin to accumulate…and so begins the “School Idol Project” of five girls with a blank slate and infinite potential.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, August 2023.
It has been 10 years since Sunrise introduced Love Live! to the world with dozens of idol songs, seasons, characters and even multimedia projects. The franchise is huge and despite similar tropes and story beats, each series does stand on its own. I have watched the first two series overall; with Love Live! School Idol Project! that focused on μ’s and Love Live! Sunshine!! with Aqours, but I have not yet seen the two series that came after which are Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club and Love Live! Superstar!!.
And here we have the latter, which once again follows a different cast of young students who want to form an idol group. These girls form the group Liella! and for its first season we only have five members which then eventually grew to nine members with the second season. Interestingly, a third season is also in the works which is a first given the previous series/groups primarily only had two seasons and an extra like a spin-off or a theatrical film.
Licensing-wise, the Love Live! franchise has been available for streaming since the start, and the Japanese Blu-rays even have English subtitles which is a rarity. The streaming and home video license for Love Live! Superstar!! is split between Funimation (now Crunchyroll) for the United States and Canada, whilst Anime Limited for the United Kingdom and Ireland. The latter in particular is also in a bit of a weird situation, as the first season did manage to see a legal stream through Crunchyroll (whilst at the time US & Canada could only watch it through Funimation) but timings were inconsistent. The consistency for streams did get worse for the later seasons for both Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club and Love Live! Superstar!! as well as the Aqours spin-off Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror, which is very unfortunate, as it’s forcing people to piracy at a time where accessibility is important for anime.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Love Live! Superstar!! continues the streak of collector’s editions for the franchise by Anime Limited, and much like the previous series Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club we also have a Scanavo case in the mix though thankfully no issues with the size of the artwork.
This release is presented with a rigid box containing a Scanavo case to house the Blu-ray discs, and alongside the case is a 12-page booklet as well as 7 Art Cards. The booklet features interviews with the Japanese cast and ending credit illustrations.
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 limited edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £69.99, and is expected to receive a standard edition Blu-ray release later down the line.
I pre-ordered the series during the early bird line-up in July 2023, and is among the first to be under Anime Limited’s newer price model due to rising costs and inflation, so the SRP and early bird prices will be higher going forward, but I have Anime (Un)Limited membership so the price went from £39.99 to £35.99.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Scanavo packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 12-page Booklet
- 7 Art Cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 21st August 2023
The collector’s edition release for Love Live! Superstar!! Season 1 contains all 12 episodes across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode & authoring done by Crunchyroll. The audio options include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub.
The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are compatible with Blu-ray players set to A & B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Bonus Animations “Liella’s Song”
- Promo Videos
- Commercial
- Textless Insert Song “Future Forecast Hallelujah!”
- Textless Opening Song “Start!! True Dreams”
- Textless Closing Song “Mirai wa Kaze no Yō ni (The Future Is A Gust of Wind)”
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Love Live! Superstar!! Season 1 is available to order through multiple retailers across the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can be purchased through Amazon UK, Anime Limited’s online 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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