Love Live! - Music discussion (OP/ED & OST, etc.)

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by OZ7UP

Not a problem at all. In fact, I was just listening to ASN again, and I'm also picking up vibes of 80s Metallica in the intro as well. The moment I stumbled upon the song in an event when I first started playing LLSIF was the moment I knew I was hooked.

The fact that the songwriters are willing to incorporate plenty of musical influences into the songs is one of the reasons why I love the Love Live franchise in general.

The incorporation of a wide range of musical influence, I feel is something that can keep the Love Live Franchise going, and making each iteration of the franchise and each new group feel distinct from one another. A willingness to play in a wider range of genre and musical material provides much more opportunity for each group to distinctively develop their own identity

I'm hoping that Thrilling One Way is not the furthest into heavy music they take Aqours into. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why, but I feel that the differences between Aqours and Muse come out most strongly in those genres outside of the traditional idol fare. To me, Daydream Warriors and Thrilling One Way is uniquely Aqours (even when compared to Daring! or After School Navigators, the closest comparable Muse song I can think of out of the top of my head), while more "normal" pieces like "Is your Heart Shining?" feels as if it could easily be sung by Muse without much of a difference.

Then again, Aqours started feeling like a distinct group to me, with Mijuku Dreamers. It might actually have been a deliberate strategy, to start Aqours out to resemble Muse and gradually have them perform songs that distinguish them from Muse.

I actually wouldn't be surprised, if it turns out that the next Guilty Kiss song due to come out with the BDs might be even heavier than Thrilling One Way.

Ultimately, I think the idea of each group having to find their own identity distinct from Love Live, is both going to be a theme within the "narrative" of Love Live (so the next group will take a season to realize the need to distinguish themselves from Aqours, just as Aqours took a season to distinguish themselves in Muse), and in actual musical output.

[OZ7UP]

Originally Posted by novalysis

The incorporation of a wide range of musical influence, I feel is something that can keep the Love Live Franchise going, and making each iteration of the franchise and each new group feel distinct from one another. A willingness to play in a wider range of genre and musical material provides much more opportunity for each group to distinctively develop their own identity

I'm hoping that Thrilling One Way is not the furthest into heavy music they take Aqours into. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why, but I feel that the differences between Aqours and Muse come out most strongly in those genres outside of the traditional idol fare. To me, Daydream Warriors and Thrilling One Way is uniquely Aqours (even when compared to Daring! or After School Navigators, the closest comparable Muse song I can think of out of the top of my head), while more "normal" pieces like "Is your Heart Shining?" feels as if it could easily be sung by Muse without much of a difference.

Then again, Aqours started feeling like a distinct group to me, with Mijuku Dreamers. It might actually have been a deliberate strategy, to start Aqours out to resemble Muse and gradually have them perform songs that distinguish them from Muse.

I actually wouldn't be surprised, if it turns out that the next Guilty Kiss song due to come out with the BDs might be even heavier than Thrilling One Way.

Ultimately, I think the idea of each group having to find their own identity distinct from Love Live, is both going to be a theme within the "narrative" of Love Live (so the next group will take a season to realize the need to distinguish themselves from Aqours, just as Aqours took a season to distinguish themselves in Muse), and in actual musical output.

Haha, I know exactly how you feel. That said, I think a bit of a backstory is in order...

I first got into Love Live some time after the second season of the original series finished, so I ended up going on a bit of an anime and music binge to get caught up with everything. Naturally, when LLSunshine was announced, I was a bit hesitant to become interested in it because, face it, we can be pretty resistant to change.

That resistance started to crack as I started to watch LLSunshine from start to finish, and even more so as they introduced more songs throughout the series. The first time I heard the ending "Yume Kataru yori Yume Utaou", the first thought that came to my mind was that I could actually detect two ABBA songs in there: "Mamma Mia" and "Under Attack". The cracks grew upon listening to "Yume de Yozora o Terashitai" since I was pretty sure I could detect the Bee Gees in there somehow (used to listen to my dad's music collection as a kid during road trips), and as a sucker for music harmonies (whether it's dual lead guitar stuff in heavy metal or vocal melodies), any resistance that I had against LLSunshine was finally broken upon listening to "Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare".

Tying everything back together in response to you, and to keep things on track, I wholeheartedly agree with the notion that the decision to incorporate a wider range of influences into Aqours' songs has definitely given Aqours a unique feel compared to µ's. If they do choose to carry on with the franchise after Aqours' story is wrapped up, I'm looking forward to seeing how this will affect all future songs for future groups.

Random thought is random: if the heavier songs from the original Love Live series were influenced by Judas Priest, will the heavier songs from LLSunshine be influenced by Iron Maiden, or will they stick to the bluesy hard rock of Guns-N-Roses?

Heh, this has been a pretty good discussion. I'm definitely glad to be posting on the forums again after years of inactivity, and what better way to do so than to talk about music in the Love Live sub-section?

[novalysis]

Apologies for the delay in the reply.

Originally Posted by OZ7UP

Haha, I know exactly how you feel. That said, I think a bit of a backstory is in order...

I first got into Love Live sometime after the second season of the original series finished, so I ended up going on a bit of an anime and music binge to get caught up with everything. Naturally, when LLSunshine was announced, I was a bit hesitant to become interested in it because, face it, we can be pretty resistant to change.

I had a slightly different path - I watched both seasons of the anime but didn't really dip deeply into the music beyond what was featured in the anime (oh boy, the anime is just the tip of a massive iceberg), until close to the end of the lifespan of Muse. I think it was ironically the announcement of Sunshine that actually got me to look up the larger discography of Muse.

That resistance started to crack as I started to watch LLSunshine from start to finish, and even more so as they introduced more songs throughout the series. The first time I heard the ending "Yume Kataru yori Yume Utaou", the first thought that came to my mind was that I could actually detect two ABBA songs in there: "Mamma Mia" and "Under Attack". The cracks grew upon listening to "Yume de Yozora o Terashitai" since I was pretty sure I could detect the Bee Gees in there somehow (used to listen to my dad's music collection as a kid during road trips), and as a sucker for music harmonies (whether it's dual lead guitar stuff in heavy metal or vocal melodies), any resistance that I had against LLSunshine was finally broken upon listening to "Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare".

The first Aqours songs that really caught my attention was Strawberry Trapper and Mujuku Dreamers. To me, both songs represent the point Aqours really begins to distinguish themselves from Muse. I remembered in the earlier episodes, listening to songs like "Kimeta yo Hand in Hand" and thinking two things to myself - firstly, the Love Live anime is a musical disguised as an anime, and secondly, while Hand in Hand was recognizably Love Live, it didn't noticeably felt distinct from the works of Muse.

I really enjoyed looking up all those various versions of "Yume"Yume Kataru yori Yume Utaou" with different combinations of singers as Love Live Sunshine aired. It is definitely a catchy song, but comparing the various combinations of singers in each version was a fun experience allowing comparisons to the uniqueness of the different voices in Aqours. I think this song really informed my decisions as to which singers in Aqours I enjoy more, and which singers I subjectively think are weaker.

That being said, I think I was quite warm to the concept of Love Live, because the entire premise of the story itself is inherently interesting. In some ways, I regard Love Live as a cross between elements of the Sports anime genre, and the Idol Genre - a musical sport that fuses the Eurovision, modern dance competitions, with original compositions and the idea behind American Idol, all into one package and constructed into a team sport. It was the idea of School Idols as a fantasy team sport that led me to be quite warm to the idea of Sunshine.

Tying everything back together in response to you, and to keep things on track, I wholeheartedly agree with the notion that the decision to incorporate a wider range of influences into Aqours' songs has definitely given Aqours a unique feel compared to µ's. If they do choose to carry on with the franchise after Aqours' story is wrapped up, I'm looking forward to seeing how this will affect all future songs for future groups.

I think they will continue the franchise after the Aqours story is wrapped up - Love Live is probably going to be for the Idol-anime genre, what the Gundam is for the mecha genre. It's a premise that can be easily reused, with many different scenarios run while following the rules of the same sport and existing in the same world. So long as it is successful, it will be a powerful branding exercise for Lantis to give new singers a massive headstart and early public exposure into the wider J-pop scene.

I wouldn't be surprised that each new group would first play around the same range and dispersion of influences and genre pieces as their predecessor, before drifting towards their own unique distributions of influences and genres. Each group will probably encompass a slightly different range and concentration of genres and musical influences. Nevertheless, I think the irony is that every new group in Love Live is going to be judged on how well they answer the question that Aqours seems to be set out to answer - how to ensure each generation of Love Live is unique on it's own while remaining noticeably part of Love Live. In a way, successors will likely be judged in the same manner as Aqours rather than Muse.

I suspect in future Love Live iterations, there will be a grace period before the anime where the successor group can closely resemble it's predecessor in style and spirit - but that grace period runs out once the anime promises or explores the variant of the idea of Aqours cannot be Muse (and like wise, Group X cannot be Aqours and so on).

It might be too early to make conclusions, but if Happy Party Train is an EDM or Rock piece rather than a Ballad or Idol-pop (which Aquarium and Is your Heart Shining belongs to), I'd say it's quite clear as to the ranges of genres the producers intend Aqours to concentrate in. Personally, I think Aqours can pull off heavy music and EDM in a way Muse can't.

Random thought is random: if the heavier songs from the original Love Live series were influenced by Judas Priest, will the heavier songs from LLSunshine be influenced by Iron Maiden, or will they stick to the bluesy hard rock of Guns-N-Roses?

I suspect that it will depend on whether we are talking about the sub-units, year-group songs or Aqours-wide songs. I think Guilty Kiss will lean towards the heavier influences on the scale of Metal music, while Aqours wouldn't deep too deeply into metal. I'd like to think that the producers aren't completely joking when they had the younger six members of Aqours dressed in gothic outfits in episode 5 - we will get a Single down the line which would exceed Loveless world and After School Navigators in "heaviness", and the cover art would put Aqours in Episode 5 style gothic outfits

Speaking of which, I find the name Guilty Kiss to be quite hilarious in the light of a certain scene in the second season of the original Love Live. In that scene, Muse dressed themselves up in a manner reminiscent of KISS in an attempt to change their image. Guilty Kiss might be what you'd get if such an image-change was executed on a sub-unit, and a sub-unit really wanted to craft themselves in the image of Metal and Hard Rock bands.

Mari being a metal-head in the side materials is probably partly an out for Love Live Sunshine to justify either plunging Guilty Kiss or Aqours deeper into hard music, past the level of Hard Rock in-story.

Heh, this has been a pretty good discussion. I'm definitely glad to be posting on the forums again after years of inactivity, and what better way to do so than to talk about music in the Love Live sub-section?

At the end of the day, the story of Love Live itself is tied up with the music, and I imagine that the music will also be partly tied to the story of Love Live. The songs that are coming up with the later BDs, I suspect is a direct answer to the question raised towards the end of Love Live Sunshine - how can Aqours distinguish themselves from Muse?

G Senjou Cinderella, Daydream Warriors and Thrilling One Way all provides potential answers - these songs are noticeable by their move away from the traditional ballad and pop style genre ranges that Idol Music normally confines itself to. And I hope those aren't aberrations, but permanent fixtures that carry over into the second season of Love Live Sunshine itself.

I've also enjoyed this discussion. I think it's quite different from the normal "who are your favorite and least favourite Aqours singers" or is "Aqours better than Muse" debates that unfortunately dominate a lot of Love Live Music discussion. That's not to say they aren't valid questions of course, it's just that discussions can be richer than this.

For the record with regards to Sunshine, I think King (Hanamaru), Aikyan (Yohane) and Shuukashuu (You) are the best singers in Sunshine. King and Shuukashuu have a very noticeably rich texture to their voice that makes them unique, which becomes clear when their singing part comes before one of Aqours weaker singers. Aikyan, on the other hand, has a very wide vocal range, one of the most powerful voices in either Muse or Aqours and a very rich voice when she sings in deeper octaves. On higher notes, Aikyan is average among Aqours, but on lower notes, she's one of the best singers in the franchise yet.

As for the weakest singers in Aqours, I think Anju (Chika) and Furirin (Ruby) are unfortunately the weaker links in Aqours. While they are competent singers, their voices just don't really stand out and are far less richer than the likes of King, and I suspect that Furirin being forced to sing in a cutesy high voice really limits her.

And Aqours v Muse is increasingly a matter of comparing Apples to Orange, and wasn't a fair question earlier on in any case, since the singers of Muse are far more experienced than Aqours.

[SleepingTerror]

Listened to the previews of the new subunit songs, and LONELY TUNING (Azalea) is my favorite of the three, despite Hanamaru having my least favorite voice.
As for CYaRon, Ruby's voice actress has definitely improved while still capturing Ruby's personality. Fortunately and unfortunately, I'm having less difficulty distinguishing Chika's and You's voices, but it's more a result of Chika's voice falling out of favor with me >.>
Guilty Kiss has the combination of my favorite voices. I don't know if it's the genre of the song, or just the singers' talent, but they really put in a lot of emotion. I know subunits are supposed to stick to a similar theme, but I hope they'll still get opportunities to sing in other genres.

[blakstealth]

I like all these songs, but they can't top the original ones.

[AP24]

Only one week left until Aqours First Live concert. Congratulations to those who live in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, and Philippines who can watch it live. Those who live in US still get one week delayed screenings at some theatres. Those in China only get to see one week delayed online broadcast. Unfortunately those who live in Indonesia don't get anything this time.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by SleepingTerror

Listened to the previews of the new subunit songs, and LONELY TUNING (Azalea) is my favorite of the three

I agree with this. LONELY TUNING struck me as a song that would make a very good OP song for a Key/Key-style anime. And that's a pretty high compliment coming from me!

CYaRon's new song is just too super-high sugary for me. I don't like writing that, since You is my favorite Aquors girl, but I want to be honest here. I'm sure there's some people this type of music works well for, it's just not me.

Guilty Kiss' Guilty Eyes Fever is pretty good. It sounds like very solid J-Pop techno to me. It reminds me some of A-RISE, actually, and that's a good thing.

[SleepingTerror]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I agree with this. LONELY TUNING struck me as a song that would make a very good OP song for a Key/Key-style anime. And that's a pretty high compliment coming from me!

CYaRon's new song is just too super-high sugary for me. I don't like writing that, since You is my favorite Aquors girl, but I want to be honest here. I'm sure there's some people this type of music works well for, it's just not me.

Guilty Kiss' Guilty Eyes Fever is pretty good. It sounds like very solid J-Pop techno to me. It reminds me some of A-RISE, actually, and that's a good thing.

I'm a huge sucker for that instrumental in LONELY TUNING, to be honest And I surprisingly really like the autotune.
CYaRon's song is tolerable, but I like the first two far more, and Genki Zenkai DAY! DAY! DAY! is still my favorite subunit song. It's not bad, but it doesn't particularly stand out to me, yet.
I'm actually more of a fan of Guilty Night, Guilty Kiss style when it comes to Guilty Kiss, but I agree, they're pretty solid.

[novalysis]

Rikayo may have just defined the First Live during the second day. While playing the piano during Omoi in the second day of the First Live, Rikayo had a panic attack, and Ainya and An-chan had to comfort her - while the crowds encouraged her. Omoi is basically a song where the Center never sings - because Riko is the true center of Omoi.

[Pen3]

I knew Riko was the best Aqours girl since the beginning.

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by Pen3

I knew Riko was the best Aqours girl since the beginning.

Riko probably just won the fourth center election becsuse of the First Live.

[blakstealth]

Originally Posted by novalysis

Rikayo may have just defined the First Live during the second day. While playing the piano during Omoi in the second day of the First Live, Rikayo had a panic attack, and Ainya and An-chan had to comfort her - while the crowds encouraged her. Omoi is basically a song where the Center never sings - because Riko is the true center of Omoi.

aw, poor Riko!

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by novalysis

Riko probably just won the fourth center election becsuse of the First Live.

That would be a great way for fans to show added support to Riko and her seiyu. I hope it happens!

[Nork22]

Originally Posted by novalysis

Rikayo may have just defined the First Live during the second day. While playing the piano during Omoi in the second day of the First Live, Rikayo had a panic attack, and Ainya and An-chan had to comfort her - while the crowds encouraged her. Omoi is basically a song where the Center never sings - because Riko is the true center of Omoi.

At first I thought she could have carried on after a couple of mistakes, but as you can tell when they stop the performance to calm Rikako down, it made for a heartwarming watch. This also makes the point that the seiyuus are working hard to give meaning to their characters they play.

Anyway, it was a great 2 day concert. Now I expect some great cosplays coming out of the concert.

[blakstealth]

The whole show got stopped? holy shit. This is like some idolm@ster shit.

[novalysis]

I actually had a fairly detailed post of my thoughts on the first live elsewhere, but here are a few brief opinions that came from watching the concert on the first day.

1. Rikako's piano playing during Omoi Hitotsu was simply breath-taking. At that point of time, I only saw Riko on that piano. Omoi Hitotsu is actually one of the most interesting songs in Aqours right now - since it's a song where the Center does not sing or dance, but plays an instrument. I am hoping for more songs of that type, but I'm not sure whether the producers will take the risk after Rikako's breakdown during the second day of the First Live.

2. Guilty Kiss live debut secures Guilty Kiss position as my favorite sub-unit in Aqours. I've always wondered what the Strawberry Trapper choreography would have looked like. It's absolutely intense, and the highlight of the choreography were the Guilty Kiss singers (Yohane, Riko and Mari's VAs) treating the microphone stands as if they were electric guitars. Simply amazing.

3. One big downside I felt during the Live, was how many of the singers appeared to be singing worse in the Live compared to their recorded voices. Shuka/You had one of the biggest vocal quality drops in my opinion - during Hand in Hand, she was having problems nailing the notes in the climax of the chorus and her voice was much noticeably weaker. On the other hand, Hanamaru/King was in top form on the first day - her Toririko Please solo was absolutely stunning and possibly even better than the recorded version.

4. Even in a Live Viewing (in Singapore), the audience itself makes the price of admission (70SGD) worth it. They were out in full force, with glowsticks and Wota leaders where most people stood up for every song.

These are just some first-day impressions. I do regret not going for the second day, and the magical moment where everyone rallied behind Rikako. It takes some crazy guts to have your debut piano performance be in-front of 17k people live and knowing that several times that number are watching you in a Live Viewing. With only 6 months of Piano Training. That's some badassery here.

Here's a first hand account of what happened: . Scroll down to the section on Omoi Hitotsu to see the full account. Rikako on the piano IS the defining moment of the First Live - for good or ill, Riko's VA will always be associated with Omoi Hitotsu and the piano, and Omoi Hitotsu would be the iconic song of the First Live. The scary thing is, what happened to Rikako also happened to Riko in the anime.

[blakstealth]

I had no idea that the members are all born in the 90s with Anju being the youngest

[Nork22]

Originally Posted by blakstealth

I had no idea that the members are all born in the 90s with Anju being the youngest

Actually Shukashuu is the youngest. That's why Anju and Shuka are very tight, with Anju calling Shuka "kinda dumb, but very lively and is a good person" in a big sisterly way.

In regards to the concert, as a first big performance at a huge venue, you can tell that a few of the girls got overwhelmed by some of the pressure to perform. They did get some experience from their mini-lives in preparation them for the big one. However, you have to remember these girls had a big shortcut to popularity thanks to the Love Live brand, and in comparison to what other anime idol groups go through this was certainly a big ask. Overall they did delivered a performance that pretty much solidify their own group and pleased a lot of fans and probably made a lot more fans after this.

Here's my rough comparison of first big live performances by anime idols (trying to avoid mini-lives or events):
- Aqours' first live - Yokohama Arena (17,000)
- μ's first live - Yokohama BLITZ (1,700)
- im@s first live - Studio Coast (2,400)
- im@s CG first live - Maihama Amphitheatre (2,000)
- im@s ML first live - Nakano Sun Plaza Hall (2,200)
- im@s SideM first live - Maihama Amphitheatre (2,000)
- WUG (they didn't have a major concert, but did a tour) - MUSE (350), Bunkyo Civic Hall (1,800) and Sendai Rensa (700)
- STAR☆ANIS - Shibuya Kokaido (2,000)

[novalysis]

So, they've credibly acquitted themselves infront of a large audience? My esteem for Rikako grew quite alot because of the First Live - she was amazing during the first day when I was at the live viewing, and after the second day....

I wouldn't be surprised if Guilty Kiss next single gets a huge boost because of this Live - because of how hyped the Guilty Kiss performance was, as well as Rikako being in Guilty Kiss. And Guilty Kiss is already out-selling and out-streaming the other two sub-units.

[blakstealth]

I'm dying dying dying dying dying to listen to Happy Party Train. I need to justify my dumb love live spending.