Love Live! The School Idol Movie
A school idol group faces disbandment after a final concert.
Love Live! The School Idol Movie is a 2015 Japanese animated youth school musical film directed by Takahiko Kyōgoku and written by Jukki Hanada. It is part of the Love Live! School Idol Project multimedia series and follows the events of the second season of the anime television series. The film was nominated for Animation of the Year at the 39th Japan Academy Prize and was the ninth highest-grossing Japanese film of the year in Japan.
Quick Facts
- Director
- Takahiko Kyōgoku
- Producer
- Yūki Makimoto
- Kaoru Adachi
- Satoshi Hirayama
- Screenplay
- Jukki Hanada
- Based on
- Love Live!
- Sunrise
- Lantis and Dengeki G's Magazine
- Starring
- Emi Nitta
- Yoshino Nanjō
- Aya Uchida
- Suzuko Mimori
- Riho Iida
- Pile
- Aina Kusuda
- Yurika Kubo
- Sora Tokui
- Music
- Yoshiaki Fujisawa
- Cinematography
- Daichi Nogami; Daiki Sugiyama
- Editing
- Daisuke Imai
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The film opens with a childhood scene of Honoka attempting to leap over a puddle, cheered on by Kotori and watched by Umi. After the second season, μ's learns that a third Love Live! competition is planned at the Akiba Dome. They are invited to the United States for a TV feature to promote the event. Although they have decided to disband after the third years graduate, they agree to continue as school idols until the end of the month. While training and sightseeing in New York City, Honoka gets lost and meets a mysterious Japanese singer performing alone. The singer encourages Honoka to reflect on why she sings, then disappears, leaving her microphone and a question: “Whose sake do you sing for?” μ's performs "Angelic Angel" in Times Square and Central Park. Back in Japan, μ's has become a nationwide phenomenon. Fans beg them to continue, and Principal Minami hopes they will reinvent themselves. Honoka struggles with the decision until A-Rise’s Tsubasa suggests they could go pro. During a rainstorm, Honoka again meets the mysterious singer, who transports her to a hill of flowers and tells her she can "fly" whenever she chooses. Honoka reaffirms her love for school idols. Eli delivers the third years' decision to end μ's activities. The group agrees to one final large-scale concert to celebrate all school idols. Tsubasa accepts the idea. Few idols respond initially, so μ's travels nationwide in groups of three to recruit them. Kotori and Anju collaborate on costumes, while Maki and Tsubasa work on the event’s main song. On the night before the festival, Honoka publicly announces μ's disbandment.
Production
The Love Live! School Idol Movie was first revealed in June 2014, following the final episode of the second season of the Love Live! School Idol Project anime, as part of the franchise's fifth anniversary. Three CD singles featuring songs from the film hit stores in July 2015. The first, "Angelic Angel / Hello, Hoshi o Kazoete," came out on July 1 and climbed to number two on the weekly Oricon Singles Chart, moving 82,000 copies in its debut week. By the end of 2015, it had sold roughly 131,274 units, making it Japan's second top-selling anime CD single for the year. A week later, on July 8, "Sunny Day Song / ?←Heartbeat" was released. It set a new franchise first-week sales record with 86,000 copies, also landing at number two on the chart, and went on to sell about 125,225 copies, ranking third among anime CD singles in 2015. The third single, "Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari / Future Style," arrived on July 15 and broke the previous week's record with 96,000 copies sold in its first week, again reaching number two. Its estimated 124,254 sales placed it fourth for the year. For international releases, a licensing issue forced the replacement of the song "As Time Goes By" with an original track, "Stars, Come to Me!," both performed by Minami Takayama.
Release
The film was set for a June 13, 2015 release, with that date announced in January 2015. Its Blu-ray home video arrived on December 15, 2015. The Limited Special Edition moved 193,769 units in its first week, making it the top-selling animation Blu-ray in Japan for that week. By January 24, 2016, sales had reached 220,772 copies. When NHK Educational TV aired the film for the first time on January 3, 2017, viewers used the hashtag "#lovelive" in their tweets, pushing it to the number-one trending spot in Japan. Theatrical releases occurred in South Korea on September 3, 2015, the United States on September 11, 2015, and Indonesia on October 21, 2015. By December 2015, the film had also screened in Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, with a Canadian release planned for early 2016. For the 10th anniversary of the Love Live! School Idol Project anime series, the film returned to Japanese theaters in 4DX on March 15, 2024.
Reception
The film was number one on its opening weekend in Japan, with 251,811 admissions from 121 theaters. In its second weekend, it topped the box office in admissions and theater average earning. It topped the box office through its third weekend, reaching a total gross close to ¥2 billion and over 1 million admissions. After three consecutive weekends at number one, it was overtaken in its fourth weekend by Avengers: Age of Ultron. By August 1 it had grossed over ¥2 billion with over 1.5 million admissions. By September 12, it had grossed over ¥2.8 billion, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film distributed by Shochiku since 2000. The film was the eighth highest-grossing Japanese film and the sixth highest-grossing anime film at the Japanese box office in 2015. In South Korea, it became the anime film with most admissions, with 86,400 as of October 13, 2015, and went on to sell 133,362 tickets. In the United States, it grossed $236,901. In Taiwan, it grossed $241,490. Nick Creamer of Anime News Network said the film is "not a series high point, but it's a reasonable conclusion to the first Love Live! saga. The film placed second for Best Picture at the Newtype Anime Awards 2015. It won an Award of Excellence by being nominated for Animation of the Year at the 39th Japan Academy Prize. It won the Theatrical Animation Division prize at the 2016 Tokyo Anime Award Festival.
More in Idols & Students
Elsewhere in Love Live
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced