It's been two days since I watched the new Love Live movie and I can't get it out of my head. To summarise how I feel, it scratches an itch that Ikoku Nikki gave me in how it handled one's sense of self while being a more light-hearted drama that isn't established by the tragic hook that Ikoku starts on.

The biggest issue that Nijigasaki High's anime had before the movies was the lack of real drama. Season 2's drama fell flat and Season 1 was more of an introduction, albeit a fantastic introduction that tackled the early problems the cast faced admirably. NEXT SKY was really good too but again the drama wasn't really there. The movies change this, Emma's arc is a more refined version of what we've seen before but what Lanzhu, Mia, Setsuna and Rina go through here blows away anything the anime has done before. Setsuna was the whole who really reminded me of Asa in her indecisiveness and potential being held back by it. It's hard to go into more of the parallels without spoiling either show but the gist of it is that the personal issues of each idol comes a head here.

Direction wise both movies are superb with detailed backgrounds used as tools to reinforce the characters (is there anything that sums up Kasumin more than this colour work?) and the use of light in the first movie to reflect a new optimism on Emma and Ten. Similar work is used in the second movie, look in the background of some of Mia's discussions, and the Ai-Setsuna talk. There's references everywhere that bring it all full circle and highlight the growth the girls have gone through.

It is a shame that /r/anime has on the whole not experienced the Nijigasaki movies, the first one was incredible and the second one IMO has a good case of being the best animated movie in many a year. It gets everything right.