Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club The Movie – Finale – Chapter 1

This movie is the first of three films made to bring the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club anime to its end. It opened in Japanese theaters on September 6, 2024. Sunrise made it, the same studio behind the TV series, and Tomoyuki Kawamura directed it. Jin Tanaka wrote the script, Takumi Yokota designed the characters, and Naoki Endo wrote the music. Bandai Namco Filmworks and Shochiku handled the release. The plan for three films was first announced in June 2023.

It helps to know the series first. Nijigasaki is a big, free-style high school in Odaiba, a waterfront area of Tokyo. Its idol club is full of students who want to be school idols. A school idol is a student who sings and dances on stage to represent their school. Unlike most Love Live! groups, these girls do not always perform as one team. Each member has her own solo style and her own dream. Yu Takasaki, a friend of Ayumu since they were little, is the club's manager rather than an idol. She cheers the others on and writes music for them. The anime ran for two TV seasons, in 2020 and 2022, followed by a short theater episode called Next Sky in 2023. This film picks up right after all of that.

In this first part, the club gets an invitation to the GPX, a large grand prix contest for student idols from all over Japan. The contest will decide which school idols are the most loved. Six members travel to Okinawa, a warm island area in the far south of Japan, to compete. They are Ayumu Uehara, Kasumi Nakasu, Shizuku Osaka, Kanata Konoe, Emma Verde, and Lanzhu Zhong.

Okinawa gives the film a bright, summer feel, with blue sea, sunshine, and green nature. There the girls meet strong performers from other schools and see just how many talented idols are out there. Ayumu, though, does not feel right about the contest. She has mixed feelings about it, and her friends soon notice that something is wrong. Part of the story is about why she feels this way and how the group handles it.

Like the TV show, the film mixes friendship drama with big song and dance numbers. It is gentle and warm, with a focus on chasing your own dream while still caring for the people around you. The Japanese voice cast returns, including Aguri Onishi as Ayumu, Mayu Sagara as Kasumi, Kaori Maeda as Shizuku, Akari Kito as Kanata, Maria Sashide as Emma, and Akina Homoto as Lanzhu. The other club members also appear. The next film follows a different group of six on their own trip.