Following the announcement of the second season of the Love Live! Sunshine!! project at the Aqours 1st LIVE event, a brand new project was announced: Aqours Next Step! The new project has many new events, products, and of course the second season.
A total of 6 new projects and events have been announced as part of Aqours Next Step! and they include:
A second season of the Love Live! Sunshine!! TV anime airing this Fall/Autumn season. The Fall/Autumn anime season generally begins in October. The first season of the anime aired in Summer 2016 and ran for a total of 13 episodes.
The second announcement is the second LoveLive! for Aqours, a live tour featuring the idols’ third and latest single, HAPPY PARTY TRAIN. There will be a series of concerts in the following 3 locations:
- Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya on August 5 & 6
- World Memorial Hall in Kobe on August 19 & 20
- MetLife Dome in Saitama on September 29 and 30
You can find more information about the Aqours 2nd LoveLive! HAPPY PARTY TRAIN TOUR here: http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/uranohoshi/sp_2ndlive.php
The single itself has debuted with over 55,000 copies sold, ranking #2 on Oricon’s CD single chart. It is the group’s highest placing and highest selling single. Here is the PV for the single:
A brand new CD containing 11 songs will be released on June 30 in anticipation for the launch of the official fan club, Aqours CLUB. The CD will feature unique versions of the anime’s theme songs, as well as a code for the fan club, a badge, passport and a small photo book.
And the club itself is a new project and comes with many new events. Starting off with the CD Set on June 30, the club will also have a special fan meeting later in the year. The club will require a digital membership and members will get special content such as a diary of Aqours listing their daily activities.
You can visit the fan club website here: https://lovelive-aqoursclub.jp/mob/index.php
Here is the video announcing and welcoming everyone to the club:
A live fan meeting for members of the Aqours club. The fan meeting will be taken place in various cities around Japan and will also have Aqours perform a number of songs, in essence another concert. Tickets for the meetings can only be purchased by members of the fan club.
The concerts will start from November and will take place in Osaka, Sapporo, Numazu, Fukouka, Nagoya and Chiba.
More information can be found here: http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/uranohoshi/sp_fmt.php
The final announced project is a series of song CDs that will pair two or three idols together as chosen by fans. So there will be a few unexpected pairings singing new songs. The new singles by the chosen pairs and trios will release on August 2nd. The costumes that the pairs will wear will also be voted on by fans.
The chosen pairs and trios include:
- Chika & Kanan: Twilight Tiger
- Dia & Ruby: Inferno Phoenix
- You & Yoshiko: Unicorn Blizzard
- Riko & Hanamaru & Mari: Hurricane Blossom
Here is the announcement video for the new project:
The main cast for Aqours, the idol group and main characters of the series, includes:
- Anju Inami (Ino Yamanaka in the Naruto Stage Play) will voice Chika Takami
- Rikako Aida (Poona in Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart) voices Riko Sakurauchi
- Nanaka Suwa (Yaya in Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de) as Kanan Matsuura
- Arisa Komiya (Gravure Idol and Yoko Usami/Yellow Buster from Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters) is voicing Dia Kurosawa
- Shuka Saito (First Major Role) will join the cast as You Watanabe
- Aika Kobayashi (Singer of Freezing ED) will voice Yoshiko Tsushima
- Kanako Takatsuki (Cover Artist, Part of AnisongCollab) as Hanamaru Kunikida
- Aina Suzuki (Contestant in the 2013 Anison Grand Prix) voices Mari Ohara
- Ai Furihata (Various Game Voices) is voicing Ruby Kurosawa
Love Live! School Idol Project is an original anime produced by Sunrise studios that aired in January 2013. The conception of the anime project started in 2010 by Dengeki G’s Magazine. The editors wanted the project to be heavily influenced by fans, such as the costumes, hairstyles and names. Throughout this process, a manga of the project simply called Love Live! began in early 2012 by Sakurako Kimino and Arumi Tokita. The next part in the project was the anime series, followed by this app and an OVA. The second season of Love Live! School Idol Project aired in 2014 and an anime film was released in Summer 2015. The main idols of the anime, µ’s, held their last concert in early 2016. A new project titled Love Live! Sunshine!! was announced with an anime airing in July 2016.
Here is a synopsis of the Love Live! Sunshine!! from MAL:
Uranohoshi Girls’ High School, a private school in the seaside neighborhood of Uchiura at Numazu city, Shizuoka prefecture.
A small high school in a corner of Suruga Bay, it is home to nine teens, led by second-year student Chika Takami, driven by one seriously big dream: To become the next generation of bright, sparkling “school idols”!
As long as we don’t give up, any dream can come true… All we have to do now is keep pushing hard for fame and glory!
Now their “School Idol Project” begins to make their dreams come true!
Aqours is heading into its next project, Aqours Next Step!, which comes with many new events, songs and concerts, as well as a second season of the anime. Further details will be revealed soon.
You can visit the project’s website for more information: http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/uranohoshi/
And follow their Twitter as well: @LoveLive_staff
“Love Live! Sunshine!!”, “Love Live! School Idol Project”, images and all associated brands and titles © 2017 Love Live! Project, Sunrise, Lantis and ASCII Media Works