Yep, Honoka finally meets A-RISE, their future rivals in person.
After the massive preparations from last time, the preliminary rounds are finally here.
From the start, it’s quite surprising that Tsubasa from A-RISE conveniently appeared in front of Honoka and dragged her into the school to introduce themselves. There is no surprise that A-RISE still believes that Muse will become their rivals for the fact that each member has a specific strength that makes the group unique. Sure, Muse’s unfortunate and premature withdrawal from the first competition after breaking top 20 might have caused some disappointment from A-RISE. Despite that, they still believe that Muse had a lot of potential, which is probably why they wanted to meet them in person. From their first appearance, the members of A-RISE are surprisingly friendly and don’t look like the people who will sabotage others to win. If they actually played dirty, I bet 100% that they won’t be as popular as they are now.
Umi still has a lot of work to do until she finally shreds her stage fright.
As for the performances, while I won’t comment which one is better, it’s interesting to see how different the two groups are. Of course, A-RISE will have an easier time with their choreography, which in turn allows them to be a bit flashier to easily impress their audience. Of course, when you have more members, the choreography becomes a bit more complicated since everyone has to synchronize their moves with each other. However, more singers allow a wider variety of voices, which makes it sound pleasant. Furthermore, the choreography will look more impressive if it’s properly synchronized. Regardless of the differences, Muse’s performance pretty much confirms that they will be formidable rivals to A-RISE, meaning that both groups will have to do their best in order to win the number one spot.
Overall, while it’s interesting to see the big differences between Muse and A-RISE as they perform on the same stage, it’s quite obvious that both groups will pass the preliminary rounds. The question remains, what will Honoka do next in preparation for the next round as they already have an idea of how their rivals perform. We’ll see soon enough. ¶
Pretty much all that needed to be covered. The competition’s sized up and now preparations must be made to step things up against the formidable champions.
It will be interesting to see what they do from here… Still, I wonder about what the resignation letters are all about in the preview.
We’ll have to wait and see this Sunday or Monday.
It’s good to see some friendly rivalry on display; by allowing Muse to perform on their territory, A-RISE clearly have class. I also wonder with 9 or 10 episodes to go, will the final boss be Wake Up Girls!, Project iM@S, or another group? But regardless, be sure to buy the CD when it comes out on 05/28.
While I don’t have any plans to buy any CDs yet since I spent most of the money on video games (I might consider once I have an actual job), I think it was interesting for Muse to perform in rival territory as they didn’t get the chance to in the first Love Live. Still, I admit that it will be interesting if the studios banded up together to make a big crossover show that the groups duke it out in a big competition.