Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-24187738-20151214152123/@comment-26435807-20151215110140

I've always drawn a line between idol and singer. I've never been particularly interested in idols because they had features that didn't interest me. To me, being an idol is being someone able to do lots of different things (singing and dancing of course, but also posing for photos, shooting videos about random subjects etc.). That feeling got even worse ten years ago when idol music was depicted as "bad music" in the manga Beck from Harold Sakuishi. So while I was totally aware of this whole universe, I never got interested to it for those reasons.

 Until the beginning of this year…

 My life was being a real mess. I was doing the worst job I had ever done, I had still trouble recovering from a 3-year-old relationship break-up and I was not happy with life. As a video game passionate, though, that didn't prevent me from playing on handheld devices every evening before going to bed. And after getting (quickly) bored with Terra Battle, I had the idea of looking for a rhythm game. And that's how I got introduced to Love Live! Unlike many people I didn't discover it via the anime but via LLSIF.

 Of course I had no idea of what to expect. It looked nice, and the free-to-play economy system didn't seem bad (God I was wrong x)). So I chose my girl, randomly picked Rin (have a thing for short-haired girl) and started playing. And in less than a few days, I was already on the Internet checking what anime this game was from. I saw that Crunchyroll had it with French subtitles; I didn't hesitate, paid the monthly fee and watched it.

 And the machine accelerated, I watched the whole two seasons in a few days while I was keeping playing LLSIF. I liked it even more to see that some songs from the game were in the anime (well at that time, only Bokura no LIFE and Snow Halation, but still). And then it went REAAALLY fast. I realized that I liked most of the music, that I had let every opening/ending playing until the end on both seasons (which is something I NEVER do) and that I wasn't unlocking songs fast enough on LLSIF. I wanted "moar". I checked the net; fell on a site called Love Live Wikia, and spent a good chunk of time trying to understand what exactly was Love Live! And it appeared to me that there was more than meet the eye.

 In a few weeks I ended up with the whole discography on my MP3 player that I was playing over and over again at work. I grew to like most of the songs and always wanted for more. That's were things really changed for me. I discovered the concerts. That was a turning point. That's where Love Live! changed from "music I like" to a "life-changing project".

 Based on my favorite songs I watched the tracklist of the different concerts and decided to watch the New-year one. That was… A blast. These girls I didn't know were the actual seiyuus of the anime and they were singing and dancing on stage? I loved it. It took me the time to download them to watch the 1st concert and the 3rd one. The 3rd one really moved me. I had done some research on them; I knew most of them had their major debuts with Love Live! and seeing them crying of happiness because of the ever growing success of the project made me feel really happy about them.

 And from then, I started to get really interested in the seiyuus. I realized that before being seiyuus, they were first and foremost singers. And while I was watching their personal information, I realized most of them were around my own age. For some reason I totally felt connected to them. They were giving so much of themselves in those concert they totally deserved their success. Dancing while singing for more than 2 hours (almost 4 hours for their last concert) is something that makes me put them over most western artists. And I'm not even talking about cloths changing every 2-3 songs.

 For a long while, every time I thought about µ's, I was happy. They were my drug to deal with the world we're living in. As someone pretty cynical about mankind, they were my fresh oxygen. And they still are. They even managed to unlock something I didn't know it was possible to unlock. My ability to cry naturally. That's one of a shameful thing to say. Thanks Internet for letting me hide behind a screen. Before them, I subconsciously forced myself to restrain tears which caused small headaches every time I cried. Now, it's gone. For the first two months after I discovered µ's I even ended up crying of joy when I was alone just thinking about their success. That's pretty silly if you ask me. Especially for a 29-year-old male. I don't know why I reacted this way. I'll probably never know. But liberating me and managing to make me happy just by their presence is more than any of my favorite bands ever managed to do (and I'm a metal man, my two favorite bands are Megadeth and Iron Maiden).

 Last time I surprised myself having a smile on my face when a character was speaking in the anime LocoDoll just because she was dubbed by Emi Nitta. At this rate, it's not just Love Live! that I love, it's the heart of Love Live! : Their singers/seiyuus.

 And I one of the reason I think I truly love them (all) is because to me they're NOT idols. Their characters are but not themselves. And that's the whole difference. Those girls have flaws and that's what makes them interesting. Whether it's physical flaws (I'm sure I can find at least one for each girl) or just the fact that they manage to screw up even after so many years (Ucchi wrong line in 2014 live's Mermaid Festa, Shikaco forgetting to sing a few lines in 2015 live's Suki Desu ka or even funnier, Pile forgetting/mixing the name of some of their firsts songs) it makes them so human, so close to me that I'd never feel towards probably any western artist (which is a great paradox considering I'm French hence supposedly more connected to western artists. But France and Japan has always been a great love story :p). Every time they mess up something I don't laugh, or if I do it's not with any bad meaning. I smile, I usually find that cute and deeply human.

 I could probably write twice or three times more but I feel like this is already too much. I can't share this passion for Love Live with anyone here. A friend of mine is "supporting" it, but that's all. In Europe, the whole project is nonexistent. UK has the 1st season and we have Crunchyroll, but no DVDs, no BD, and no goodies. Nothing. So I felt I had to write this just to share my story. It saddens me deeply to know that I'll never manage to see them live, that I'll probably never have someone with whom I'll be able to share all my love for Love Live! in real life, but that's easily counterbalanced by how those girls changed my life. I'll keep following Love Live with Sunshine, and I'll probably like most of the songs. But I highly doubt the new singers will have the same effect on me than the one µ's had. I actually doubt that any artist in the world through the rest of my days will ever affect me as much as µ's did. And considering how commercial the whole thing is (cause let's not hide it, it's a VERY commercial project), the girls of µ's can be twice proud of what they have accomplished. And I now despise Sakuishi for his comparison between idol music and what he would call "real" music. I know my classics, that doesn't prevent me from enjoying a lot µ's music.

 Ucchi, Kussun, Shikaco, Rippi, Pai-chan, Nanchan, Soramaru, Mimorin, Emitsun, no matter what you do after Love Live ends, you can be sure I'll keep following you. I'm sure you'll keep making me smile just with your sole presence, no matter the project you're in.