Love Live! Sunshine!!

Episode 20

Did I tear up at the end of this episode? Maybe. Did it also accompany 20 minutes of angry denial where I petulantly cursed every brick in Uranohoshi High School and their cavernously empty hallways and giant underused swimming pools? Look, I went through a lot of emotions. And even though I thought I had guarded myself against sentimentality, in the end, Love Live! Sunshine!! played me like a fiddle and jabbed me right in the soft spot.

As expected, Aqours has moved onto the Love Live finals. Chika's tumbling pass successfully pushed them to victory, and the school idol world is loving them for it. The view count on their performance is shooting through the roof, and the girls are optimistic that their newfound popularity will also lead to increased school applications. And it does. But they're just not rolling in fast enough to hit the numbers and deadline that Mari's terrible 1%-er dad has arbitrarily set. Luckily, she's able to convince him to give them an extension, but because he's a cranky, unfeeling Mr. Moneybags, he only gives them until the morning, which seems kind of unfair, considering people sleep at night. In the end, the girls fall just short of their goal. It's a punch in the gut, especially knowing how close they were, and it's especially frustrating because it feels as though the girls were set up to fail.

It's a difficult moment to fully process as a viewer. Even as I've grumpily stated over the weeks that the school ought to close, I still wanted the girls to succeed. Having been privy to all their hard work, all their struggles (despite Chika's teary assertion that they hadn't truly struggled yet), and all the blind optimism they had to have throughout the journey, it's impossible to not want them to beat the odds.

At the same time, this is perhaps one of the boldest and best decisions the story has made yet. Everyone loves a hero story, and there's perhaps no better hero story than girls who want to carry their school to glory, even knowing there's nothing for them on the other end except a line in the school idol history books. Narratively, it almost mirrors something you'd see in a war movie, were it not watered down by the frivolity of song and dance. It's emotional catnip for viewers who love a sacrifice story, except with school idols pushing towards the Love Live instead of a fiery battle with no way to survive.

It's also one of the only ways this series could one-up the original Love Live!, which already used the retirement card at the end of the second season. It makes complete sense that Love Live! Sunshine!! would end after two seasons as well, with the same kind of permanence that amber-traps the transience of school idol triumph. It's bittersweet but fitting, and Sunshine!! seems to have gotten a head start.

From this point on, everything Aqours does will be tinged with melancholy. They will have their bravest faces on at all times, and every practice will be a stark reminder that all the good things in life are just passing by. It's sad and beautiful, and if anything could possibly top the crushing desolation that µ's fans felt after their disbanding was announced, it might be this.

Rating: A

Love Live! Sunshine!! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Bamboo would watch an entire show about Shiitake. Follow her on Twitter.