The Fall 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Love Live! Superstar!! Season 3

No sooner had Kanon said her goodbyes, when her trip to study abroad was suddenly canceled! She'll be staying at Yuigaoka, where Margarete will now be attending as well. Margarete is expected to learn the finer points of music from Kanon, but the Austrian songstress has no intention of joining the school's Idol Club with Liella—in fact, she's going to start her own club! Kanon will have to make a decision about how to continue her pursuits in this new, upended situation, but first there are more pressing matters: first, she needs to actually tell her friends that she never left!

Love Live! Superstar!! Season 3 is part of the Love Live! idol franchise. The anime series is streaming on SERVICE on Sundays.

Goodbyes don't need to be forever. We'd all be overjoyed if a friend we thought was gone suddenly returned to us.

Given how the last season of Love Live! Superstar!! left off, several immediate questions are going into this third round. Questions like "What?!", "Why?!", and "Seriously where do we go from here?!" Even though I have to assume this whole arc was planned in advance, getting those drama bombs squared away proves to be the clumsiest hurdle this premiere stumbles over. It would have been neat to actually move Kanon on to Vienna and do this season without her present for the whole thing, but I understand how branding and character popularity mean that that was probably always going to be a non-starter, no matter how well the last episodes of the second season sold it.

The actual way that Love Live! Superstar!! writes out Kanon's would-be bon voyage isn't its strongest maneuver, however. For all the influence in the musical world that Margarete's parents have, it still seems incredibly cheap that they can take the opportunity that Kanon worked so hard to earn, and effectively renege on and retract that deal. Kanon's exasperatedly pissed, and I think she has every right to be. Of course, she's also struggling now because, after several episodes of high-emotion decisions and definitive good-byes, she has to go back to her idol friends with naught but a "Just kidding!" Love Live!'s more dramatic elements thrive on characters acting in overblown, occasionally outrageous ways, but I wholly believe that Kanon would skulk around avoiding her friends entirely to avoid an awkward conversation.

As clunky as that cliffhanger reset is, it's out of the way relatively early. Then the good news is that even as it's chickened out of deporting Kanon, Love Live! Superstar!! still has some pretty strong status-quo shake-ups ready. Unlike Kanon, Margarete has never shied away from ignobly jumping in and declaring her intentions. That's already manifesting in her decision not to join the School Idol Club, but instead create her own, which'll be way better, with blackjack, and hookers! Around here, with Kanon still separated from her teammates (if by emotions rather than an ocean) the gears start turning in attentive audience members regarding a maneuver the show could make, and when it delivers on it by the end, it's a resounding swerve.

Before the big payoff though, Love Live! Superstar!! is still the same strong, heartfelt, funny series it's always been. The little details continue to elevate the show, especially after two seasons of building them up, so it's very easy to appreciate stuff like Natsumi having her phone out recording the entire time Margarete's making her big evil declaration to the club, then having to run home to edit and post it. And the other girls talking about Kanon, or Chisato sending her messages like she's not actually right around the corner from them is a solid bit that the episode doesn't overuse. Through it all the anime is as bouncy and characterful as expected, even if it hasn't gotten to wholly show off with a musical performance yet besides the opening. There is a nice-looking sequence of Margarete singing on a stage by herself, but it's subdued, and I appreciate the detail that the stunt she pulled at the end of last year's Love Live! has left her as something of an idol pariah.

That villainous rival status, and Kanon's decision aligning with it, is the big trick Superstar is pulling out to set up this season. That's right kids, it looks like we've got a full-blown idol civil war on our hands! Granted, it's the friendliest civil war ever, as Kanon reveals herself to her friends and makes it very clear that this is only intended as a temporary rivalry to push everyone to be better before coming back together later. And even then this isn't necessarily a new concept—Love Live! has always indulged in rival groups, and Lanzhu's coalition from the second season of Nijigasaki High School Idol Club was similar in concept if lacking punch in execution. But specifically breaking Kanon off to join Margarete's faction pushes the idea further than ever, and really feels like uncharted territory. As with the previously presumed trip to Vienna, it's a plotline that I feel this anime could go anywhere with. It also means this unprecedented third season has the benefit of starting off with anything but the same old song and dance.