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Zak
I just got my copies of Hajimari wa Kimi no Sora in the mail today, so I thought I'd let everyone know what I thought, as well as dive into some things I noticed in the PV! Afterwards, I want to talk about an issue I feel the Liella! might run into in the future. As for what I think of the other songs, those will be in the comments to conserve space, as well as some other things~
Right of the bat, this is way better than KimiKoko. I can't say it's better than Borarara, but there's certainly more to see here. What's even better is that they ditch those dumb looking jackets (sorry to anyone that actually liked them lol). They look wayyy too awkward with how they're wearing them, so I am so very glad that they threw them off. Another design choice that I noticed quite a lot is that the faces look really... wide? Surely it's not just me who's noticed something looks different, right? It doesn't exactly get in the way of enjoying the song, but just something I noticed.
What I really find interesting though is that even though there are only five characters this time around, I don't feel that we see enough of their individuality in this PV. Keke especially feels very bland and I'm not quite sure what to think of her character as of now as a result. I understand that we're really not supposed to know each girl's entire story before the anime even starts, but I still feel like they could have done more. After watching it a few more times, I started to guess why each girl may have became an idol just from the PV, and here's what I came up with:
- Kanon lacks confidence and isn’t particularly good at anything (aside from the Latte Art, at least), so she does her part for the school by becoming an idol.
- Keke likes idols so much that she came from China to become one (kinda boring but whatever).
- Chisato didn’t have friends as a kid, and never really stood out as a result, so she works hard at dancing to stand out more. Later on, she’s given the opportunity to become an idol and show her true self? Hell, she’s even able to go from standing completely upright to doing a handstand in about 1/24 of a second (anime runs at ~24 frames per second, so 1/24).
- Sumire did her best to stand out in competitions at a young age, but always came up just short of winning. Though she’s a very expressive and animated person, she still deals with the pain of “not being good enough”, so by becoming an idol she’s able to stand out amongst her peers and show her individuality. *Ren does ballet. Ballet is a form of dancing. Idols dance. Ren becomes an idol.
That being said, as of now my character rankings are as follows:
- Sumire
- Kanon
- Chisato
- Ren
- Keke
Overall, the PV itself is fairly solid. I wouldn't put it on the level of, say, A song for You! You? You!!, but it's a good start for Liella!, and I'm glad to know that the future of Love Live! is in good hands.
I mentioned one issue Liella! might face moving forward earlier in the post, and that issue is the lack of variety in their vocals. Both µ’s and Nijigaku have such great variety between all of their members that it’s super easy to pick out who’s who. Aqours seems to struggle with this, and I’ve noticed that for quite some time now, actually. Liella! is still new though, so they still have much room to grow. However, what they lack (much like Aqours), is deep voices, or voices that sound super different. Ren is Hanamaru+Dia, Chisato is Chika+You(I think?), and Sumire sounds a bit like Riko, though I couldn't tell whether she was singing at higher or lower octave than Riko normally does. But again, at the end of the day, it's come down to whether or not you really care about stuff like this. Maybe you really like how they sound, and if so, more power to you! It's hard to judge them completely since this is their very first release, but this is how it feels right now.
That about does it for my little spiel, though. Let me know what you guys think about the songs, the girls, and the future of the group! I'd love to hear what some of you guys think!~
(And for those wondering, I chose the Sumire and Ren backgrounds using the codes from the singles. In hindsight I should've chosen Chisato over Ren, but what can you do ¯_(ツ)_/¯?)
