hi, i’m magician, and my love live story isn’t very special but i thought i’d share it anyway.

my best friend watched love live before me and i actually teased her a little about it. all i knew (or thought i knew) about love live back then was that it was cutesy, its fans were obsessive and creepy more often than not, and that nico and maki were characters in it. it wasn’t until march of 2016 (the day before my birthday) when i first downloaded the game, mostly as a joke.

surprisingly, i actually sort of enjoyed the game. i picked maki as my starter because she was the girl i’d heard most about, i played a few songs, made some stupid newbie decisions (good bye mermaid rin, now fed into pool umi) and overall, was mildly entertained by it. i played off and on for the next few months, playing religiously for a week or so and then closing it and not touching it the next. it wasn’t until may/june of 2016 i caved and watched the anime, and i understood why love live was so popular.

from then on, i was a fan. i officially ended up calling maki my best girl, i bought μ's’ greatest hits album and memorized the lyrics. that summer was when sunshine was airing, and i admit i really didn’t care much about aqours at that point. i liked hanamaru and yohane and called them my best girls, and i thought their music was pretty nice.

a little background in my personal life, because that’s an important part of this story as well: in 5th grade (2014-2015) i was diagnosed with adhd-pi (primarily inattentive). the years before that i was loud and talkative and very, very creative, but i also didn’t really mature like the rest of my friends did. i loved playing pretend, and drawing, and acting out stories on the playground. a number of my friends began to sort of avoid me because i was so bright and energetic.

in sixth grade i was bullied quite a bit. a good part of that was mildly homophobic bullying but the majority was making fun of my art and my interests. safe to say when i moved to junior high in seventh grade, where all the elementary school kids mix and friend groups are both disbanded and formed, i was depressed, got sucky grades, and did my best to hide any of my immaturity. i also didn’t really have any friends except my best friend, mentioned earlier, but even she started to make new friends as she was the more social one of us.

getting into love live the summer before seventh grade seems like fate in retrospect. love live was the one thing keeping me going through school and made me excited to get up in the morning. the music- about fighting for your dreams and believing in yourself- felt empowering.

but it doesn’t end there. when i saw love live sunshine for the first time and truly fell in love with aqours was when i began to view those nine girls as my best friends. especially yō watanabe, who had those same issues i was having, feeling left behind by her friends but learning her relationship with chika hasn’t broken but grown to touch other girls as well.

aqours became my favorite group in no time. watching them grow, waiting excitedly for their releases, supporting them the best i could- it felt like they were taking my hand and helping me back on my feet. to this day, aqours remains the group that makes me the happiest. each of the nine girls has helped me in some way with their unique stories and personalities and i can’t express how thankful i am for that.

aqours (and love live in general) makes my days brighter, brings a smile to my face, and delivered me to a much better place. i met many of my friends through the game, one of which i’m proud to call my girlfriend, i was introduced to idols in general, which are a source of joy in my life, and i actually began to be myself again in real life.

that’s my love live story. it’s not sparkly or anything, and it’s just a personal journey, but love live has truly been a source of light in my life and i hope it will forever :)

🌼 Idol Story 🎀 is now officially launched, WOOHOO! 🎉

We are so happy to see how enthusiastic everyone is about our new Love Live! community. We didn't expect so much attention right from the start, but we couldn't be happier!

With the official launch comes the opening of the activities feed 💬

🌼 Post about your favorite idols! 🌼 Share your new cards and event results! 🌼 Meet new friends! 🌼 And so much more. Your imagination is the limit!

To celebrate and properly start the feed, we are organizing a special event!

• 🎀 Prompt: What's your Love Live! story?
• 🎀 From October 12th to 31st 2019
• 🎀 Post an activity on 🌼 Idol Story 🎀 with the hashtag What's your Love Live! Story?

What does Love Live! mean to you? When did you join the fandom? What got you hooked? We can't wait to read your stories~! Short or long, we want to hear it! 🌟

As a thank you from the staff, we will also give away some Love Live! goodies to a few participants:

• 🎀 1 random entry will get a physical prize and 1 random entry will get a digital prize.
• 🎀 Our staff's favorite entry will get a physical prize and our 2nd favorite will get a digital prize.

Please note:

• You need to follow our rules to post activities.
• You're free to insert images, links to videos or audio, graphic edits, etc.
• Only post official artwork from the license, or artworks you made yourself.
• If you share your entry on Twitter, we will retweet you on @idoldotstory.
• If you share your entry on Instagram and mention @idoldotst, we will share your entry in our Insta stories.
• Prizes can be shipped worldwide. No shipping fees will be required.
• You're free to join even if you don't want to get prizes.
• We only accept one entry per person to be eligible for prizes.
• We will announce the winners at a later date.

Hello! My name is EndlessSkyPride or Nicolas, maybe you've seen me on BanPa, and today i'm here to tell you my LL! story, even though i'm not an All Stars player yet (you see, too many new stuff in japanese...). I'm trying to develop my english but it's still bad, so my text is gonna be bad too but anyway, lets try!

It was 2014, how i can remember. I was watching random YouTube anime videos and found a funny LL! video. Then i found an anime, and decided to watch it. My first love was Eli... just because. A love at first sight. Then i was watching 2nd season as ongoing. Of course i like it! Then i found out Love Live wiki and started to listen Love Live songs.

In the fall of the same year I started to play sif. Just found it in the LL group on the one russian site. I played EN version, I remember it was 1st score match with Maki (oh shi-- it's so nostalgic), and then i downloaded jp version too and played both for a long time. It was very fun! My 2015 summer is still my best summer, and one of the reasons is how much i spent in sif!

In 2016, i played less and less, i don't know... just it was not until this. But I continued to follow up LL news, and yes, here comes Aqours! When i first heard about them i didn't get interested, tbh. But then, when both music and anime came up I undersood: i love them. I still love Ruby and Riko more than anyone from μ's and... i thought their music was a bit more interesting in some way?

LL brought me a lot of pleasant memories, and I appreciate it.

Hey everyone! My name is Crystal and I'm going to talk about 5 year long idol journey. This is going to be long as hell ,so buckle up and hold onto your jpgs because I'm going to talk about my decent into idol hell.

It all started back in 2014. I was not in the best mental state and to top it all off I was going to a completely new school! Back then I was a shy individual and entering this new school was in no way fun. However, during this time I also got my very first phone a Samsung Galaxy s3. If it wasn't for this phone I would have never started my Love Live journey.

It wasn't until I got my homework done that I got on my phone. Since it was brand new I didn't have much on there. So I went to the Google play store to get some games. So I got basic games like Subway Surfers and simple games like that. Then I went searching for some fun rpg games. I downloaded a game called Brave Frontier and then I saw it. Love Live School Idol Festival. The icon was still Honoka at the time and for some reason I got pulled in. I clicked the icon and when I saw it was a rhythm game I hit the download button immediately. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

When I first booted up the game I was met with μ's. I at the time had no idea that there was an anime (in fact I didn't watch the anime until 2015) so I chose my best girls based on their hobbies and looks. So I chose my starter was Hanayo! Her cute hair style topped with her hobby of drawing made her my first best girl. Nico was number 1 for overall looks though. I soloed all the time since I didn't know the meaning of saving ,and I didn't participate in events because I didn't really pay attention to them. I played super casually until February 2016. That was when White Day Hanayo came out on World Wide. I couldn't scout because I had no love gems ,so I resorted to begging my father to buy me love gems. Surprisingly he actually did and I was on my way to scout for White Day Hanayo. After it loaded I saw the envelopes come out and lo and behold she came home. She was the only SR+ card I got from that box ,but I didn't care. I had gotten my first UR, White Day Hanayo.

By this time, I had watched the anime. From there I finally found my best girl who is still my best girl to this day. Maki Nishikino. I saw myself in her as she is stubborn, didn't have many friends, and I can be a bit childish at times. From that moment on I wanted to get as many Maki cards as possible to show my support. So I saved for Maki's next UR which so happens to be my dream UR. Circus Maki. The day had come and I didn't get her. In fact I didn't really get anything from my gem. I was devastated but I decided to do a blue ticket. I had gotten a UR! It wasn't Maki though. It was Honoka! Snowy Mountain Honoka to be exact. Of course I could go on for hours and hours talking about my failed and successful scouting attempts. Some of those attempts made me want to quit. Yet for some reason I kept going despite the unfair rates.

Another monumental moment during my journey was Aqours. When they were first introduced I was completely against the group. Because well they were ,in my eyes, replacing μ's! I thought because of them μ's was going to have no more new cards and that no new content was going to be produced for them. I remember when they finally got into the game in 2016. I took a screenshot of the OG Honoka icon as a token of μ's and updated the game to the now well known Chika Icon. I barely participated in the first Aqua event and didn't really give them a chance until my friend (who I introduced Love Live to) and I finally watched Love Live Sunshine. Ever since then I accepted them as equals to μ's.

My Love Live journey has been a long one thats for sure. I have no idea who I would be if Love Live wasn't a part of my life. Because of μ's and Aqua's stories and leaders I branched out. I became more extroverted and met new people and made new friends. Love Live made me feel better about myself and was one of the many reasons I worked to be in a better mental state. Overall, Love Live has made me a better person and I wish to keep it in my life for as long as I possibly can.

Hi! So my love live journey probably starts with...my friend! We’re not friends anymore because she ended up being quite toxic but my love for this series still remains! One day we were sitting in a park and she asked me if I wanted to watch her scout! It was for the summer maru SSR, but unfortunately she didn’t get her. So I got the game, played it briefly, soloed quite a bit, and decided it wasn’t for me. Thats until one day, there was an azalea box and I soloed per usual...and out came circus kanan! I was so shocked and happy, and it prompted me to play more. This would spiral into me becoming good at SIF, watching both the muse and aqours anime, and then getting my first neso! (snow halation kotori). One day, this friend who got me into love live went on a confession account and asked if there were any fans who lived on Long Island! A dozen or so people said yes, and she would then DM them forming a discord group chat! The chat was extremely fun and everyone was so sweet. Eventually four of us decided to meet up! It was me, my toxic friend, a good friend of mine even if we fell out of touch a bit, and my best friend now! I got really close with one of the girls, and she was so good at love live, and also had a hefty amount of merch. I started getting more merchandise as well, and we’re still super close to this day! Though, now we are more into enstars, love live allowed me to meet this amazing person and I’m so grateful for that!! :)

My Story with Love Live~!

It's taken me a while to finally get this posted but it's time for me to have a lil trip back through my journey with this amazing franchise!

Back in September 2015, I had only heard of Love Live though some memes but I didn't know much about it. However, I had followed an Instagram account (it was a pokemon fan account at the time) that began to post some llsif related things every so often such as account updates and pictures of event cards that they had obtained. The game looked cute, so on September 17th 2015, I made the jump into idol hell and downloaded the en server of llsif.

Not gonna lie, I was terrible at first. I loved rhythm games like guitar hero but it took me a while to get the timing down! I read through each character's bios (only muse at this time!) and I remember being stuck between Eli and Nozomi but I went for Eli just because she had the same hair/eye colour lmao-

The event that was on at this time was the Forever Friends Umi event and well,,, I didn't get terribly far as I didn't know how it worked. I only unlocked up to the second story part before the event ended and I remember being super dejected as I wanted to know why Honoka ran away, but it simply was too late. I only recently got to finally finish the story with the release of the story key items and I was super happy about it~

The first event that I actually got the card from was the Harvest Goddess Hanayo one. I absolutely fell in love with her design and while I knew I'd never be able to tier to get her idolised (ah, the days before seals/stickers) but nonetheless I did my best to get her so maybe I could idolise her in the future. I was s o proud of myself when I finally got her and set her as my partner to "show off" even if it really wasn't that impressive.

As for the first event I tiered in, it was the bathrobe Nozomi one! By this time I had gotten to know the girls through the stories (and I had watched the anime now) and had fully decided on Nozo as my best girl. Therefore, I was determined to tier for her in the next event that she starred in. It took a lot of time and love gems (especially considering my weak teams) but in the end I landed in tier 3 and couldn't be more happy. I set her as my partner for a g e s after that, even after I got my first UR.

Speaking of first UR, I had the worst luck when I started. I never saved so I lived off solo yolos and ended up getting my first scouted SR (halloween Umi) about a month after I started! Even worse, it took me more than a year to get my first UR, Pool Eli! (Umi was later sold by a friend who I had gotten into love live. I gave them my phone so they could see my cards and they sold around 20 "as a joke" and I was s o upset,, I'm still working to get them back even now! Thankfully Umi herself did return and I made sure to idolise her as soon as I could as an apology of sorts.

From then on I just got better at the game, I learned about team structure and different event types and strategies, and my account grew! In this time so much happened, saved up gems for Nozomi's birthday, Aqours was put into the game and I adopted Mari as my best Aqours girl, I downloaded the jp server so I could see new cards and features quicker (but I still focused on my en more), I bought merch, I started actually interating with the community and I watched as much ll media as I could, all the anime seasons, OVAs and movies.

I played Puchiguru tons as well, and was totally devastated when it was closed. As someone who doesn't own any nesoberi's, I found it to be a super cute way to make up for the nesoberi-shaped hole in my heart.

And now, with the release of PDP and sifas, I'm still as invested in the series as ever! I'm still juggling between Kanata and Rina as my favourite PDP girl but I love all of the new girls who have joined the ll universe. I adore seeing all the new cards and I've even (finally) got around to trying to learn about the seiyuu out of respect for everything they've brought us.

That pokemon fan account that first introduced me to love live has moved on but I am still here in the love live community, 4 years later! I still play the en and jp servers of llsif and I'm thoroughly enjoying play sifas as well, I'm super excited to see how it develops!

I love seeing how far my account has grown (I was going to add progress pictures but I cant seem to work out how to add multiple ones RIP) and I hope that no one found this post too boring!

μ'sic forever~!

Since everyone is doing it (and I'm kinda doing nothing but be in pain of a stomach ache right now lol), I thought, sure, why not, might as well join in with this as well!

Hi hi, hello, my name is Yuino Sery and I am currently 22 (soon to be 23) years old! I'm a female, bisexual mess from Germany and have been in love with Love Live!, and more specifically µ's, for a whole while now.

I discovered Love Live! back in 2013 when memes from the first season were posted on Anime sites on facebook. I got intrigued, bookmarked the anime but didn't actually watch it until April 2014. I liked the anime a lot, but it didn't click with me until a month later when I saw cosplayers at a local event and got reminded that I even watched the anime! So I rewatched and... suddenly it clicked? By the end I was crying and more emotional and happy than the first time around. I had to hold myself back from watching Season 2 while it was airing at the time, because I prefer binging over seasonal watching! This didn't work for long though considering I decided to go with seasonal watching for Season 2 a week or two in.

Nozomi has been my favourite from the get-go and, once I got more and more into µ's with the rewatch of Season 1 and Season 2 airing, I also got a lot more interested in checking out 'more'. It was around that time I was told the game (SIF EN) released as well! I was hesitant at first since I don't have a feeling for rhythm but slowly went for it after all and... it was a life changer.

See, I've been depressed for as long as I can remember. Life's just kinda been shit, yknow? And I found Love Live in my darkest time. And having something to look forward to (Season 2, the Movie, new Nozomi card releases lol) gave me something to live for and, let's be real, as long as you got something to live for, who cares what it is, right? So I'm real glad I found Love Live, it really saved me. It's also why µ's will forever be important to me.

I've tried with Aqours but it didn't really click and Nijigasaki has been nice so far, so I'll see where I go from here with them. :)

I kinda quit SIF years ago when I found other games to play and where I liked the gameplay more (like deresute), but I'm back in full swing for SIFAS!

whats your love live! story? my love live story began in mid 2015, sometime in summer. my instagram feed was plagued by posts of LLSIF gameplay and related things, and i decided to give the game a shot. i instantly got attached, and began hyperfixating. i watched the anime in early 2016, and began cosplaying LL that year as well. 2017 was the first year i spent money on SIF (lol), which was to buy gems for the hanayo birthday box. hanayo has stuck out to me since the beginning, sticking out to me as i can relate heavily to her character. she will always be my ultimate best girl and hold a special spot in my heart. ive been following the LL franchise closely since 2017 ish, and to this day it remains one of my special interests. im beyond excited to get more development for the pdp/nijigaku girls! i love everyone in the love live community, and i cant wait to meet more like-minded people here and make friends~♡

Hello everyone! My name is Marco, I am 21 years old. I'm from Argentina, so if you notice any grammatical mistakes, please let me know!

My Love Live! Story is probably like a lot of other stories haha

I only got into anime when I was 17 and I didn't know what was good and what wasn't. I wasn't sure what I liked either. I got sucked into Attack on Titan so I was off to a great start IMO!

Anyways, like I mentioned before, I didn't know what I liked, so I started digging. I watched a lot of YouTube videos talking about anime and most of them had one commentary in common: "Love Live is trash" therefore, didn't pay too much attention to it.

I started watching other action animes because that's what I liked in the beginning. It wasn't until I started to open up more and dig deeper when I found out I really liked great slice of life animes. ToraDora, Your Lie in April, AnoHana... All amazing stories and they didn't need flashy action sequences to be that!

(I have a point, I promise lol)

Some time passes and I was browsing YouTube again to see if I could find an anime to watch. I stumbled upon a season review (can't really remember the video or the user) and it mentioned Love Live! Sunshine!! and, you guessed it, the same comment: "This is trash".

And I said to myself "c'mon, an anime can't be THAT bad!" so I decided to give it a chance. I didn't even know what it was about and I didn't want to look up the synopsis because reasons lol

I pressed play on the first episode of Love Live! School Idol Project.

And no, it wasn't love at first sight. In fact, it was... If anything, it was awkwardness at first sight.

I didn't like the side ponytail on the orange color hair girl, I wasn't a fan of the OP and my god was that CG atrocious!

But I had started it, so I wasn't about to drop it. As episode two rolled its credits, I was curious to see how things where going to turn out, so it had that going for it.

But then, episode three. That's when it all clicked.

Suddenly, I felt for the three girls that had worked so hard only to stand on a stage in front of an empty auditorium. They had overcome every hurdle, only for it to end like that? I was NOT having it. Thankfully, Honoka wasn't having it either.

And then, those piano notes gave the cue and the song "START:DASH!!" started playing.

I was suddenly IN LOVE with those girls. I was in love with their voices. I was in love with that song! That song got stuck in my head for weeks! That amazing song that was practically saying "if you think this is trash, you have no idea what you're talking about!"

"START:DASH!!" was everything I didn't know I needed! It made me love Love Live!. A love that I hope never fades away.

Anyways, I know this was long and nobody's gonna read it lol but thanks for the space to express myself! My Love Live! Story started with "START:DASH!!" and it continues up to this day and hopefully it continues until the day I'm gone.

Goodbye everyone!

Hey, i’m Roh and let me tell you about My LoveLive History. It all started around april 2014, i was 16 at the time. The circumstance was in a group in facebook and two guys were arguing over a character i didn't recognize, learn later it was Nico-chan. One of the guys was saying that she was annoying for this and that, the other person was trying their best to defend her. I find her cute, and made me mad that this guy was calling all those horrible things to a someone’s favorite character. I didn't intervene but i did search for Nico, find cute fanarts, screenshots etc. Avoiding spoilers of course. I grow up curios so i search for the anime, from there till this day was a wild roller coaster that i don't want to get off. I start listening their songs on youtube everyday. Especially Natsuiro Egao de 1,2 Jump!, my favorite song from u’s. When i discover SIF… i was so bad at it. My phone at the time was a culprit too, can't even hold notes for more than 0,1 secs. Nowadays i end between rank 100 and 200 in events. With Aqours it start almost the same. The announcement of Sunshine really made me happy but seen many people complaining about being a “copy” of u’s really made me mad. I think that is one reason why i always been a quiet fan. Let the time pass. I caught with Aqours at the end of 2017. Was different, because this time not only i did relate to the characters but the VA’s too. They were around my age at the time (20), i feel more close to them, many of the cast of sunshine just started their career and i just started college at the time, anxious, nervous about this new experience. I really love them all. Nowadays with NijiGaku (PDP) i was there with them since the very beginning, and my heart pound hard when i think that im watching them build a wonderful future with this project. Maybe still today their path seems a little rough or even not fair. But i fully believe that it gonna be better. Their dream and ours too, just started again with a really bright, full of love future. So… that's my story, more like my view for this project, what hits more in me. It hook me up with characters, histories, songs, seiyuus even fans, that i can relate. It made me feel special. I truly thankful for this project, it give me strength, hope, self confidence. It made me laugh till my tummy hurt, and cry for over hours without stopping. This will not be the end of my story with LL though, because more are coming up since i just started being more “social”. Whoever ending reading this, thanks, i love you, and now go drink some water, watch your health. Bye <3

Okay, everybody else has been doing this, so this is my history when I found out about the franchise.

In around spring 2015, I was a huge MLP:FIM fan, and I found these videos on YouTube:

YouTube video

Youtube video

I thought the songs were amazing, then I looked up LL! OP2 and saw a cover of it, then I go "WHY IS THERE NINE OF THEM?!"

Then I found out about SIF in around the same year, and I go "I really wanna play this!!", but I didn't have a mobile device.

Then when I was playing osu! in July 2016, on an account caled Rerifu Chan, I found a beatmap of "Aozora Jumping Heart", it was qualified at the time, and I didn't know what it was from. There was also the ending.

"Wait a second... THAT ANIME HAS A SPIN-OFF?!", I had no idea that spin-off existed.

Then in December 2016, I listened to "Bokura no LIVE Kimi to no LIFE", and I fell in love with it and started becoming a fan.

My first idol song, series, love. Yume no Tobira, a friend sent it to me as a random youtube whim. And I was mesmerised!

I know what they mean in the show about "shining" because truly, she shone out of my screen and into my heart.

As a failed ballet dancer too, I felt the struggle. I could see her trying to be a good leader, and I wanted to as well. She gave me hope that I could keep dancing despite being ill, injured and beyond my time. It didn't have to be perfect, it just had to make others smile. And make me smile!

Still, every time I hear her voice I smile. So brightly. And all you've ever done is make me want to make other people smile. I know I'll never be as bright as you. As the seiyuus, as any other idol I've seen. I know my cosplay is nothing in your image.

And yet when I twirl around in my living room, shouting SUNNY DAY SONG! and clapping my hands, I feel like I'm at the centre of the world. I feel like I can do anything. And you taught me that.

I honestly wasn't that intrested in the song until I heard your solo. It sounds so cliche to say it now but I feel like I knew that we were connected and you would be my best girl. My first. My last. My only.

Sometimes I'm still bedridden from my illness. And I can see your face on the wall, telling me it's okay to fail. For those years in a wheelchair, I could carry your pin around with me, reminding me that I could believe and I'd get another chance.

Every step I take now is a victory. And that makes me smile. I know you'd be proud of me too.

An idols job is to make others smile, and you did that for me in the darkest of times.

I'm new to all stars, but an old SIF veteran. I hope I can just honour you in another way, and make so many more good memories. Thank you for always taking care of me, and for singing your way into my life.

We really have made a story together! I remember making my first internet friends over SIF, when I couldn't go to see the movie due to living in London, a friend bought me a ticket! And the little dog plushie she bought with her, a substitute for me, came home with a shiny Sunny Day Song Eli SR for me. My prized possesion. Both a symbol of friendship and love across oceans, something very important to me with not much chance to go outside, and a symbol of how far I'll go for you.

This summer I got to see Aquors in LA. I'm lucky, in that sense, because I got to feel the power of idols. I hope when I sing little covers to the society at university, or I sing to myself in my room, I can shine even a little bit as bright. But I know, to me, you would've shone brighter. You always have. You light me up.

I can be pessimistic, stubborn, and I can get controlling. Sometimes I feel like my way is always right, and it isn't. My way hardly ever is perfect, and is sometimes impossible. But there's always other paths, other ways and other reasons to smile. Like you. You make me smile. I hope I can make you smile too, by telling you how much you mean to me.

Please accept my confession!

Happy Birthday Eli. <3