Love Live! The School Idol Movie

'''Love Live! The School Idol Movie' is a movie of Love Live! School Idol Project'', first announced at the end of Season 2. It has a listed screen-time of 102 minutes, and was released in Japanese theaters on June 13, 2015. It was released on Blu-Ray Disc on December 15, 2015.

Its first trailer was revealed during the 5th live concert μ's Go→Go! LoveLive! 2015 ~Dream Sensation!~.

It was released in theaters outside of Japan, starting on August of 2015. It was aired at theaters in various regions and countries including Taiwan, Hong Kong , and Thailand in August, followed by screenings in the United States , Australia , New Zealand, Korea, Singapore , and Mexico in September. It debuted in Philippines, Malaysia , Vietnam, Indonesia, and UK on October.

The movie was awarded one of the five Outstanding Animation Awards handed out at the 39th Japan Academy Awards, though it failed to clinch the Most Outstanding Animation Award. It was awarded the Animation Of The Year award at the Tokyo Anime Festival 2016.

Synopsis
First Press Release = The story of the film begins after the events of the second season, at the graduation ceremony of the third-year students. Knowing that the graduation of the third-year members means the end of μ's, the nine girls take a walk around the school filled with memories. However, when the students attempt to leave the school gates, a single email is sent to them, and the curtain on a new story for μ's is raised. TVCM Summary = Although μ’s, the defending champions of the school idol tournament, plans to dissolve their group after the graduation of their senior members, they receive news that leads them to holding a concert event! The 9 girls continue to learn and grow in this new and unfamiliar world. What is the last thing that these girls can do as school idols? With the clock ticking, what kind of meaning will the μ’s members find in performing the most exciting live performance?

Summary
The movie begins with a scene from the second years' childhood, where Honoka is trying to jump over a puddle left from the rain, with Kotori cheering her on and Umi watching from behind a tree. Despite failing multiple times and being asked by Kotori to give up and go home instead, she finally manages to soar over it in the end.

The story takes place after the events of the second season, where μ's receives a notification that the organizers of Love Live! intend to hold a third competition, aiming to hold it within Tokyo Dome this time. But in order to achieve that dream, they require more publicity in order to have it become a sell-out concert. Therefore, to spread the appeal of school idols to even more people, they have decided to send μ's to America where a TV agency has offered to do a cover on them. Even though μ's had already decided to disband, they agree to perform in order to help Love Live! gather more support, as they are still school idols until the end of the month.

While preparing for the live and doing their training in New York, μ's continues to enjoy themselves as tourists as well, with the insert song Hello, Hoshi o Kazoete played at the end of the montage. During one of these times, however, Honoka gets separated from the rest of the group. Lost in a foreign land, she encounters a lone Japanese female singer performing on the streets, and is charmed by her beautiful voice singing As Times Go By. On the way back to the hotel, Honoka asks about her story, and realises that they were the same. The girl also used to perform music with her close friends, and ended up alone in New York after many encounters and partings. Honoka was led back to her hotel safely by the girl, but when she turned to introduce her to the rest of μ's, the girl had already vanished. Honoka was left carrying the girl's microphone set, with one question lingering in her head from their conversation: "What's most important is, whose sake do you sing for?" The first section of the movie concludes with them performing Angelic Angel in New York's Times Square and Central Park.

After returning to Japan, μ's had become tremendously popular, with the whole of Akihabara covered in their advertisements and goods. Since the video from New York was broadcasted across Japan, the girls are now stars, needing to sneak around wearing disguises, with the insert song ？←HEARTBEAT playing. But with all the fans telling them that they want μ's to continue forever, the girls' hearts begin to waver regarding their decision to disband. They realise that they have to answer to their fans, and they have only two choices. To surpass the barrier of being only school idols and become actual idols, or to hold onto their original determination and halt activities upon the third years' graduation. Principal Minami also calls them to her office, informing them that she too wishes them to continue even if they have to reinvent themselves as something other than school idols. While Honoka is fretting over the decision at night, Tsubasa calls her out on a late night ride with A-RISE, and tells her about the possibility of lengthening μ's career just like they themselves had, and introduce their management company to her.

Faced with the dilemma out in the middle of a rainstorm, Honoka hears a lone voice singing, and runs into the same singer she met before. Insisting that she needed to thank her, Honoka drags her back to her home, only to have her stop just outside, saying that that was good enough. The singer then asks if Honoka had found the answer to her question yet. After having Honoka close her eyes, the two of them are transported to a hill full of flowers, in front of a large lake. The singer then asks Honoka to jump over the lake, telling her that she definitely can fly whenever she wanted. Honoka proceeds to run down the hill and take the jump, reaffirming her love for the existence of school idols. Eli also sends Honoka a message on behalf of the third years after they had discussed it, telling her their decision to stop activities.

Honoka wakes up the next morning and heads back to the rooftop, where everyone has come to the same decision. There, Honoka announces her final idea, to hold a concert to promote all school idols as their final contribution to the industry. She goes over to UTX High School where she pitches the idea to Tsubasa, who accepts it readily. Despite having sent emails to all school idols across the country, not many of them are accepting of it, which leads Honoka to decide that they need to meet them personally in order for their feelings to get through. Future style plays after this sequence.

Using Maki's money for train fare, they head out in groups of three across the nation to convince school idols to join their endeavor. The massive crowd gathers in Akiba at the end, and begins preparing for the school idol festival to occur. Kotori and Anju work together on the costumes, while Maki and Tsubasa work on the song. On the final evening before the event, Honoka announces to everyone the news of μ's disbandment, to everyone's dismay.

The day of the festival finally arrives, and all of μ's heads towards Akiba together. As Eli decides to start a race there and μ's begins running, Honoka is distracted by a single drifting petal, reminiscent of the flowers upon the hill in the illusionary world. She begins to run while doing pirouettes and spins along the way, feeling that just like before, she really can soar anytime she wanted now with the burden off her shoulders. When she gets to the site, all of μ's is greeted by the sight of all of the school idols already there, dressed in costumes following a style similar to their own design. The massive crowd parts to give them a clear path to the stage, and the festival begins with the performance of SUNNY DAY SONG, which is now the song for all school idols.

A new school year begins in Otonokizaka High School, with Yukiho and Alisa shown as third years carrying on μ's' will and discussing their plans for the Idol Research Club. The pair give the welcoming speech to the freshmen, talking about how the school was saved by μ's and talking about their final performance. Meanwhile, a reformed μ's partakes in another Love Live preliminary. The movie concludes with Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari where μ's is shown performing at Tokyo Dome, most likely at the third Love Live!.

Cast

 * Japanese
 * Emi Nitta as Honoka Kosaka
 * Yoshino Nanjo as Eli Ayase
 * Aya Uchida as Kotori Minami
 * Suzuko Mimori as Umi Sonoda
 * Riho Iida as Rin Hoshizora
 * Pile as Maki Nishikino
 * Aina Kusuda as Nozomi Tojo
 * Yurika Kubo as Hanayo Koizumi
 * Sora Tokui as Nico Yazawa
 * Nao Touyama as Yukiho Kosaka
 * Ayane Sakura as Alisa Ayase
 * Masumi Asano as Honoka's Mother
 * Noriko Hidaka as Principal Minami
 * Kikuko Inoue as Maki's Mother
 * Kotono Mitsuishi as Nico's Mother
 * Sora Tokui as Cocoro Yazawa
 * Sora Tokui as Cocoa Yazawa
 * Sora Tokui as Cotaro Yazawa
 * Marie Miyake as Hideko
 * Nozomi Yamamoto as Fumiko
 * Sayuri Hara as Mika
 * Megu Sakuragawa as Tsubasa Kira
 * Maho Matsunga as Erena Todo
 * Ayuru Oohashi as Anju Yuki


 * English
 * Marieve Herington as Honoka Kosaka
 * Erica Lindbeck as Eli Ayase
 * Cristina Vee as Kotori Minami
 * Kira Buckland as Umi Sonoda
 * Faye Mata as Rin Hoshizora
 * Caitlin Glass as Maki Nishikino
 * Laura Post as Nozomi Tojo
 * Xanthe Huynh as Hanayo Koizumi
 * Erica Mendez as Nico Yazawa
 * Christine Marie Cabanos as Yukiho Kosaka
 * Brianna Knickerbocker as Alisa Ayase
 * Julie Ann Taylor as Honoka's Mother
 * Karen Strassman as Principal Minami
 * Unknown as Maki's Mother
 * Unknown as Nico's Mother
 * Stephanie Sheh as Cocoro Yazawa
 * Janice Kawaye as Cocoa Yazawa
 * Julie Ann Taylor as Cotaro Yazawa
 * Mela Lee as Hideko
 * Natalie Hoover as Fumiko
 * Ryan Bartley as Mika
 * Cassandra Morris as Tsubasa Kira
 * Erika Harlacher as Erena Todo
 * Corina Boettger as Anju Yuki

Members of μ's
''The following are the members of μ's before disbandment. It was shown in the movie that μ's was later disbanded and all of its members were graduated before the end of the movie, that is 3 years later.''
 * 1) Honoka Kosaka
 * 2) Eli Ayase
 * 3) Kotori Minami
 * 4) Umi Sonoda
 * 5) Rin Hoshizora
 * 6) Maki Nishikino
 * 7) Hanayo Koizumi
 * 8) Nozomi Tojo
 * 9) Nico Yazawa

Videos
Movie PV = (30 seconds) (90 seconds) (English) TVCM = Public Memorial = (PV) (TVCM) BD = (TVCM) (Contents PV)

Notes/Trivia

 * There are many differing fan theories about the woman who helped Honoka while she was lost in New York City.
 * One theory is that she is simply a future version of Honoka, as their personalities, actions and appearance have a resemblance to each other's. They both consider heavy issues, are both clumsy, and have blue eyes and orange hair (albeit different shades). Near the end of her second appearance, the woman also tells Honoka to fly, "just like you did back then", referencing Honoka jumping a large puddle at the start of the movie, which suggests that she knew about some parts of Honoka's childhood. This sequence, however, was shown almost immediately afterwards to be a dream, which makes perfect sense, because it involved Honoka teleporting from the middle of Tokyo into a plain next to a small pond, far from any buildings or city sounds. Additionally, when Honoka asked about her singing career, she informs Honoka that she and her friends had formed a group in Japan. However, the group was later disbanded, strongly implying about the dissolution of μ's.
 * The other theory consists of the woman who is actually Honoka's even older sister, which is previously mentioned in the September 2011 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine.
 * The final theory was that she was simply a figment of Honoka's imagination. No other individual within the movie saw the woman, and, in fact, when Honoka turned to thank her after finding her way back to the group, hoping to introduce them to her, she was no longer there; no other member of the group saw her. In the alleys where she was performing, no-one was watching her--or even acknowledging her. In New York, she was the only Japanese individual Honoka encountered aside from her own group. In Japan, she featured heavily in one of Honoka's dreams, although that could just mean that she left a heavy impression on her.
 * This is slightly incorrect, in New York, there are a group of people who cheer when she finishes singing, meaning she was clearly seen and heard by those people.
 * During their first dinner in New York, Kotori has an entire cheesecake to herself, which is her favorite food. Additionally, she is the only member of μ's that has her cup of water almost empty while everyone else's is still full. This small detail is a reference to her voice actress Aya Uchida, who is often caught on camera drinking water during live concerts while the rest are talking.
 * During the first scene where Honoka hears a children choir as she jumps over the large rain puddle, the song being hummed is SUNNY DAY SONG.
 * In the Japanese version, the mystery girl sings "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca when Honoka first meets her. In the English version, however, the song is changed to an original song called "Stars, Come to Me!". Both are sung by the same voice actress.
 * Although not physically appearing, Maki's father made a cameo in this film.
 * This is the second time Maki does the Nico Nico Nii gesture. The first one is from the Mogyutto "love" de Sekkin Chuu! PV.
 * Kotori has the same yellow pillow that she previously used from the Music S.T.A.R.T!!,Wonderful Rush, No Upperclassmen Allowed! and Wonder Zone.
 * In the Bokutachi wa Hitotsu no Hikari segment, each of the nine individual members had symbolic flowers in their respective flower-themed backgrounds:
 * Maki/Rose: Passion and to be in love
 * Rin/Chrysanthemum: Optimism and Hope
 * Hanayo/Peonies: Bravery and Good Fortune
 * Honoka/Sunflower: Radiance and Shining brightly
 * Kotori/Narcissus Anemone: Sincerity and Self-Esteem
 * Umi/Hydrangeas: Pride and Dignity
 * Nico/Pink Camellias: Yearning and Desire
 * Nozomi/Bellflowers: Humility and Gratitude
 * Eli/Forget-me-nots: Undying Love and Everlasting connections
 * During the SUNNY DAY SONG sequence, this marks the first appearances of Rin's mother, Hanayo's mother and Umi's mother.
 * In Season 1, Episode 2, Honoka mentions that two important things µ's has to worry about are how to sign autographs, and how to disguise themselves while walking around town. Both of these things are seen in the movie: The autographs are seen when µ's returns to Japan; The idols disguising themselves is seen in the ？←HEARTBEAT number.

Continuity notes

 * Umi and Kotori play Old Maid in their hotel room since A New Me.
 * In one scene in an ice cream shop, lily white appeared again since Season 2 Episode 2.

Errors & Goofs

 * Continuity Errors:
 * As mentioned in the theory, Honoka's friends are unable to see the female singer despite being seen by the audience's eyes.

Gallery
Official Art=