is a Japanese

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

project created by

Hajime Yatate is a pseudonym for the collective contributions of the Bandai Namco Filmworks#Sunrise, Sunrise（Bandai Namco Filmworks） animation staff. Name "Hajime Yatate" is considered to be named after a quote of Matsuo Bashō's ''Oku no Hosomichi'': ...

and Sakurako Kimino and co-produced by Kadokawa through

ASCII Media Works , formerly , is a Japanese Publishing, publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing headquartered in Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It originally formed on April 1, 2008, as a result of a Mergers and acquisitions, merger bet ...

;

Bandai Namco Music Live formerly Bandai Namco Arts, is a Japanese company formed by the merger of Bandai Visual and its subsidiary Lantis (company), Lantis by its owner Bandai Namco Holdings in February 2018. The company is responsible for the same area of its predece ...

through music label Lantis; and animation studio

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

. Each of the individual titles within the franchise revolve around teenage girls who become "school idols". Starting in June 2010 with '' Love Live! School Idol Project'', the franchise has seen multiple

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series, three anime films,

light novel A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging. The abbr ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

, and video games. The

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

series ''

Love Live! School Idol Festival (often abbreviated as ''LLSIF'' or ''Sukufesu'') is a Japanese rhythm game series. The first game, developed by KLab and published by Bushiroad's Bushimo, was released in Japan on April 15, 2013, for iOS and June 8, 2013, for Android (operatin ...

'' features characters across multiple ''Love Live!'' titles.

Overview

Each title in the ''Love Live!'' franchise focuses on groups of teenage schoolgirls who become "school idols" as an

extracurricular activity An extracurricular activity (ECA) or extra academic activity (EAA) or cultural activity is an activity, performed by students, that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school, college or university education. Although approved a ...

, and their main activities involve singing and choreographed dancing to self-

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

songs they perform at concerts or other music events. Other activities include designing their own costumes, as well as filming promotional videos and

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

s. Top-class groups are very popular among fans of school idols, aided in part by exposure in magazines and other media, in addition to

merchandise Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of Product (business), products ("merch" colloquially) to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative w ...

of school idols sold in shops catering to ''

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, such as anime, manga, video games, computers or other highly enthusiastic hobbies. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. ...

''-related items. The ultimate school idol competition featuring the best groups in Japan is called Love Live, and entry into the competition is determined by the popularity of each group. The size of these groups can range anywhere from solo idols to groups with nine or more members. Due to the highly competitive nature of the Love Live competition, some school idols opt not to attempt entry and simply take part in performing at other events. However, participation in the event is very prestigious, and any group that wins the competition is afforded legendary

status Status (Latin plural: ''statūs''), is a state, condition, or situation, and may refer to: * Status (law) ** Legal status, in law ** Political status, in international law ** Small entity status, in patent law ** Status conference ** Status c ...

Franchise history

'' Love Live! School Idol Project'' was first announced in the July 2010 issue of

' ''

Dengeki G's Magazine was a Japanese magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) and sold monthly on the thirtieth that primarily contains information on bishōjo games, but also includes an entire section on anime based on bishōjo games, and seri ...

'', which revealed that the magazine would be collaborating with the anime studio

and the music label Lantis to co-produce the project. The project officially began with the August 2010 issue of ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', which introduced the story, characters, and a more detailed explanation of the project. The original plan for the story was written by Sakurako Kimino, who also writes short stories and light novels for ''Love Live!''. Yūhei Murota created the original character designs. Starting in August 2010, online mobile phone popularity contests were periodically held to rank the characters, which influenced the positions of the idols in the anime music videos produced by Sunrise. For example, the idol who ranked first in a given contest would be in the center position in the front row in the music video that followed. Other polls were used to determine different aspects of the idols, such as hairstyles and costumes. Fans also determined the name of the initial school idol group, ultimately choosing the name μ's (, muse). Lantis released the group's first single in August 2010, and they continued to release several more singles and albums over the course of the next two years, including performing their first concert in 2012 at Yokohama Blitz in

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

, Japan. This was soon followed by an anime television series that aired from 2013 to 2014, and an anime film in 2015. The

series ''

'' developed by KLab and published by

Bushiroad is a Japanese entertainment company, producer of collectible card games and trading cards, and publisher of mobile apps and games, which was founded in 2007 by Takaaki Kidani and is headquartered in Tokyo. Bushiroad created and owns various med ...

's Bushimo for Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

platforms launched in 2013. The initial game is

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

with an

in-app purchase Microtransaction (mtx) refers to a business model where users can purchase in-game virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions ...

system. It features songs and characters across multiple ''Love Live!'' titles, along with newly introduced girls, and stories that are not included in other media. The English localization was released worldwide in 2014, and it also was localized in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. An arcade version of the game developed and published by

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing video game, role-playing game franchises, such as ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', and '' ...

titled ''Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity'' was released in Japan in 2016, and a

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

port was released in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, Japan, and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

in 2021. Another spin-off game titled ''Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars'' was released in 2019 in Japan and 2020 worldwide. The next major installment in the franchise was the

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

'' Love Live! Sunshine!!'' announced in 2015. Fans also chose the name of the idol group for ''Sunshine'', deciding on the name Aqours (, aqua). Similarly to ''Love Live! School Idol Project'', Lantis released the group's first single in October 2015, releasing several more singles into the following year. This was followed by an anime television series that aired from 2016 to 2017, and an anime film in 2019. In March 2017, the official website of ''Love Live School Idol Festival'' launched the "Perfect Dream Project", which featured nine new girls that would be incorporated into '' Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club''; a tenth member was added in 2020. Unlike μ's and Aqours, they are not a traditional group, but rather individual school idols who compete with each other are referred to collectively as the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club. The idols are featured in ''Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars'' alongside μ's and Aqours, and also appear in the main ''Love Live! School Idol Festival'' game. Lantis released the debut album for Nijigasaki High School Idol Club in 2018, and this was followed by two more albums and several singles over the course of the next two years, including performing their first concert in 2018 at DiverCity Tokyo Plaza Festival Square. An anime television series premiered in 2020, with a second season which premiered in 2022. In January 2020, a franchise-wide concert, titled ''Love Live! Fest'', were held at

Saitama Super Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Chūō-ku, Saitama, Chūō-ku, Saitama (city), Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It opened preliminarily on May 5, 2000, and then was officially opened on September 1 of the same year. Its maximum capa ...

, in commemoration for the franchise's ninth anniversary. All three groups at the time performed at this concert, including μ's, which was their first performance after a three-year hiatus since their "final" concert in April 2016. Another spin-off titled '' Love Live! Superstar!!'' was announced in 2020 as an anime television series. Fans also chose the name of the idol group for ''Superstar'', deciding on Liella! (). The anime series premiered in 2021; a second season aired in 2022. A third season premiered in 2024. Another spin-off, focusing on "virtual school idols" was announced in February 2022. They began their activities in late 2022, with the six new girls referred to as the Hasunosora Girls' High School Idol Club. A teaser video in October 2022 announced the launch of a smartphone app, '' Link! Like! Love Live!'', released in April 2023. A new project that focuses on

musical theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, moveme ...

performances titled ''School Idol Musical'' was announced on September 26, 2022. It features 10 girls, five of each who are students of two "legendary schools" located in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

and Hyogo. The stage performance premiered at the Nippon Seinenkan Hall on February 9, 2025. A new project titled ''

Bluebird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous passerine birds in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. Bluebirds lay an ...

'' was announced on February 2, 2025.

School idol groups

Media

Anime series

A 13-episode

television series of '' Love Live! School Idol Project'' produced by

, directed by Takahiko Kyōgoku, and written by Jukki Hanada aired in Japan on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent station, independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts ...

from January 6 to March 31, 2013 and was simulcast by

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

. An

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and special episodes of a series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the ...

episode was released on November 27, 2013. A second season aired on Tokyo MX from April 6 to June 29, 2014, also airing on

TV Aichi Aichi Television Broadcasting Company, Ltd. (TVA; ), also referred to as , with the callsigns JOCI-DTV (channel 10) is a Japanese television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity ...

Yomiuri TV JOIX-DTV (channel 10), branded as , is the Kansai region flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned by the , itself a subsidiary of Yomiuri Chukyo FS Broadcasting Holdings. FYCS is partially c ...

, and BS11, and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. Both seasons are licensed in North America by NIS America, who released the premium edition of the first season on Blu-ray on September 2, 2014 and an English dubbed version was released with the standard edition of the first season, along with the premium edition of the second season, on February 14, 2016, as well as the standard edition of the second season on April 12, 2016. The Blu-ray set for season one has since gone out of print and season one was removed from Crunchyroll in 2020, although it has been returned to the streaming service as of March 2023. MVM Entertainment released the first season in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2015 on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

, with plans to release it on

Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...

in 2016 with an English dub. MVM Entertainment also released the second season in 2016.

Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, stylized as MADMAN, is an Australian film and television production, distribution, entertainment, and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising ...

released the first season in Australia and New Zealand on June 10, 2015 on DVD. A 13-episode anime television series of '' Love Live! Sunshine!!'' produced by Sunrise, directed by Kazuo Sakai, and written by Jukki Hanada aired between July 2 and September 24, 2016 and was simulcast by

. A 13-episode second season aired between October 7 and December 30, 2017. The series is licensed in North America by

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

, in the United Kingdom by

Anime Limited Anime Limited, also known as All the Anime, is a British anime distribution company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It releases anime for British, Irish, French and other European audiences. The company was established in 2012 by Andrew Partridge, ...

, and in Australia by

. An English dub by Funimation began streaming from July 30, 2016. A 13-episode anime television series of '' Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club'' produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks, directed by Tomoyuki Kawamura, and written by

Jin Tanaka is a Japanese anime screenwriter. He has served as the head writer for anime such as '' Go! Princess PreCure'', '' Kirakira Pretty Cure a la Mode'', '' Laid-Back Camp'', '' Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club'', '' The Misfit of Demon K ...

, aired between October 3 and December 26, 2020. It was also streamed live through the Bandai Channel, Line Live, and YouTube Live. A second season aired between April 2 and June 25, 2022. ''Nijiyon Animation'', an adaptation of the spin-off four-panel manga ''Nijiyon: Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Dōkōkai Yon-Koma'', was announced on September 18, 2022. It aired between January 6 and March 24, 2023. '' Love Live! Superstar!!'' was announced in 2020 as an anime television series, and aired for 12 episodes between July 11 and October 17, 2021 on

NHK Educational TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK E, is the second television service of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). It is a sister service of NHK General TV, showing programs of a more educational, documentaries, cultural, children's or intellectual n ...

. A second season aired between July 17 and October 9, 2022. A third season aired between October 6 and December 22, 2024. '' Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror'', a fantasy spinoff featuring the cast of ''Love Live! Sunshine!!'', was announced on June 26, 2022. It aired for 13 episodes from July 2 to September 24, 2023.

Films

An animated film titled ''

Love Live! The School Idol Movie is a 2015 Japanese animated youth school musical film. The film is part of the '' Love Live! School Idol Project'' multimedia series by Sunrise, Lantis and ''Dengeki G's Magazine'', taking place after the second season of the 2013-2014 anime t ...

'' was released in theaters on June 13, 2015. The film was released theatrically in South Korea on September 3, 2015, in the United States on September 11, 2015 and in Indonesia on October 21. As of December 2015, the film had been shown in several other countries, including Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and was also scheduled to be released in Canada at the start of 2016. It was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

in Japan on December 15, 2015. The film was released in North America by NIS America on June 28, 2016 in a premium edition, and July 26, 2016 in a standard edition, both with an English dub. An anime film titled ''Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow'' was released on January 4, 2019 in Japan. An English dub of the film was released on February 25, 2020. The main staff and cast return to reprise their roles for the film. A trilogy of theatrical films based on the Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club project is slated to release in the future, with the first film set to release in 2024.

Video games

Several video games have been developed featuring characters from the ''Love Live!'' franchise, primarily consisting of

s, deck-building games,

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

s, or a combination of these genres. The first video game in series, ''

'', was released in 2013 for

and Android, and marked the first release in the ''School Idol Festival'' (''Sukufesu'') series. This was followed by ''Love Live! School idol paradise'' in 2014 for the

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, then in other international territories on February 22, 2012, and was produced ...

, and '' Love Live! School Idol Festival: After School Activity'', an arcade game released in December 2016 and later ported to the

in 2021. A spin-off game, '' Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars'', was launched in 2019, and the most recent installment, '' Love Live! School Idol Festival 2: Miracle Live!'', was released in 2023. Although most these were initially released exclusively in Japan, many were later localised for international markets. In 2015, Sega introduced the first plush toys based on ''Love Live!'' characters. In April 2018, these plushies would go on to feature in the tile-matching game developed by Pokelabo, Inc for iOS and Android. An upcoming game, , developed by Bushiroad Games, is scheduled for release in April 2025 via

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and playable on

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

Magazine

A dedicated ''Love Live!'' magazine launched on July 1, 2019 as a spin-off of ''

'' published by

. Initially untitled, the magazine offered readers the chance to suggest names for the magazine and vote on them, leading to the magazine's title of ''Love Live! Days'' starting with volume 3. The magazine offers information on the entire ''Love Live!'' franchise including the latest information on school idol groups, media adaptations, and also includes serialized ''Love Live!'' manga. The magazine also gives fans the ability to influence the franchise by voting on ideas for songs and costumes.

Sales

''Love Live!'' was ranked No. 1 in top-selling physical media franchises in Japan for 2016 and ranked No. 4 in 2015. The franchise's physical media earned over ¥8 billion in 2016 and over ¥5 billion in 2015. This includes the raw yen totals of Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, music CDs, novels, and manga, but not video games, film tickets, digital downloads, and other forms of media sales. In 2013, physical media sales generated () in Japan. DVD and Blu-ray sales of the anime's second season in 2014 sold () in Japan. The franchise's physical media sales generated () in Japan between 2015 and 2018. The following table lists the annual content revenue from ''Love Live!'' media in Japan, as reported by market research firm

Hakuhodo is a Japanese advertising and public relations company owned by Hakuhodo DY Holdings. It is headquartered at Akasaka Biz Tower in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. History Hakuhodo is one of the oldest advertising agencies in Japan and was founded ...

Notes

References

External links

*
Official worldwide website
{{Sunrise ASCII Media Works Bandai Namco franchises Bushiroad Kadokawa Corporation franchises Lantis (company) Mass media franchises introduced in 2010 Sunrise (company)