Love Stay! Celebrity!! is considered one of my favourite entries within the Love Stay! franchise, however even I used to be uncertain if the third season was crucial. The earlier season ended on a excessive be aware, and the women of Liella! may have ridden off into the sundown for a satisfying conclusion. However regardless of some misgivings, I made a decision to keep it up. Luckily, my religion was rewarded as soon as once more, and by the top, I discovered that this season solidified my ongoing perception that Celebrity!! is the best possible of Love Stay! from a storytelling perspective.
Love Stay! Celebrity!! third Season begins with protagonist Shibuya Kanon and the remainder of Liella! coming off the excessive of lastly profitable the Love Stay! nationwide college idol competitors. They begin the brand new college yr decided to be first back-to-back champions, however just a few hurdles stand of their method. First is the stress of being the reigning staff. Second is the presence of 1 Wien Margarete, a switch pupil from Austria who competed in opposition to Liella final time and decides to kind her personal college idol membership at their college as a substitute. Third is the truth that Kanon decides to tug a shock heel flip (of kinds) and be a part of Margarete’s aspect together with one other woman, Onitsuka Tomari. Now, as a substitute of everybody working as one, the 2 sides should compete to see who will symbolize their college.
The thought of rival golf equipment is an intriguing one, however Love Stay! will not be actually a franchise that may make it significantly intense. Or slightly, the final time they tried with the (now-defunct) Love Stay! All Stars cell sport, it backfired among the many fanbase, and the anime adaptation needed to tone issues down. And so occasions proceed pretty predictably, with the 2 sides ultimately coming collectively and any animosity being simply caring and affection in disguise. In that sense, Season 3 is a little bit of a disappointment, however I ultimately realized that this was the mistaken angle to have a look at the entire thing.
The Love Stay! competitors itself isn’t truly the primary focus in third Season. Even the need for a repeat victory and the problem of getting there may be merely a backdrop than the driving pressure. As an alternative, the true story is about how everybody offers with the inevitability of change that comes with the truth that Kanon and the opposite founding members can be graduating from highschool. All of the third-years are excited about what their grownup lives will appear to be and what careers they wish to pursue. The second-years would be the ones to inherit the membership, and so they should go from being the newcomers to changing into the core. And the first-years, Margarete and Tomari, see their participation in additional cynical phrases. They’re all at completely different levels.
Celebrity!! can also be the primary time we’ve adopted a core solid from the beginning of highschool all the way in which to the top. Within the first season, Kanon’s major battle is overcoming her trauma that forestalls her from singing. Within the second, it’s determining learn how to assist others overcome their very own fears and doubts. And within the third, it’s about forsaking a system and legacy that can encourage much more sooner or later to have braveness and chase their ardour. This might sound par for the course in comparison with earlier generations of Love Stay!, however there’s a important distinction.
In each different case, the story begins with a set of first-, second-, and third-years all coming collectively. Whereas characters develop in their very own methods, they’re additionally restricted to a level by this format in a technique or one other. Typically, the particular roster is portrayed as lightning in a bottle—one thing that can’t (and perhaps even mustn’t) be replicated. In distinction, all three seasons of Celebrity!! collectively work to indicate that at the same time as Kanon and her classmates depart, the membership will proceed to develop and alter. Every iteration of Liella! has been vital in its personal method, and the anime implies that this received’t cease even after the unique 5 are not there. This circulate of time is what units this collection aside, and finally makes this third season satisfying to observe.
In order that’s Love Stay! Celebrity!!…or not less than till the collection will get a feature-film send-off. Whereas I’ve nice fondness for all generations of Love Stay!, I actually do suppose that this one is particular due to how sturdy it’s as an total piece of narrative fiction. Celebrity!! depends the least on anticipating from its viewers an inherent receptiveness to idols (and by extension the “college idol” idea), and I believe this versatility helps make it a really rewarding collection total.
