Love Live Bluebird: R.I.P.
Mar. 3rd, 2026 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gildedstageI was already growing dissatisfied with how they’ve been handling the story and medium, but I wasn’t expecting the sudden decision to consolidate the girls’ individual accounts with the main staff account to spark the topic into a community wide discussion.
I’ve felt for months now that they haven’t used their already polarizing social media medium to its full potential, but it’s still disappointing to think that now they may never have the chance to respond to feedback and improve. I would have never picked Twitter for their medium myself (not even pre-Musk), but I still tried to understand and engage with the vision behind it. It’s still bizarre they chose this concept but rarely or even never made use of features like replies, quote retweets, and pictures/videos. They didn’t fully commit to the real time aspect either, frequently causing immersion breaks when the story would suddenly halt for holidays and weekends, even if something significant supposedly happened those days. The story already had the painful combination of being both slow and dragging (ex: dedicating an entire IRL week to every girl’s thoughts on Noriko transferring) and that definitely didn’t help.
During the conversations about this on Discord, someone said they believe real time can only work if there’s a continuous flow of content (like Hasu) and I think that’s why the format was starting to lose me with its pace. I wonder if it really was a good idea to pick a real time medium *and* mirror the slow rollout of early μ‘s. Real time seemed like a good way to develop the girls’ individual aspirations and school idol activities at the same time, but now I’m concerned since that didn’t happen. Love Live has never been good at distributing screen time and development even when school idol was all it had to be, so I wonder how their future will turn out.
It’s disappointing since they’ve set up interesting concepts like Shion having a poor relationship with her parents and wanting to move out, or Yukuri being influenced by her experiences with illness and loss, but so far the character arcs have relied on Love Live tropes (transferring or school closure) instead of using the conflicts unique to them. (I also have/had the same worry about them slowly turning the online school setting into a regular school).
It’s because I’m invested in their story that I hoped for more by this point. I really respect how Sakurako Kimino managed to develop a sense of mystery and tragedy around Yukuri in such a limiting format and I always looked forward to what new perspective Yukuri would bring. I hope that will carry over into whatever they have Kimino write next.
It’s already very early Wednesday in Japan and so far the story hasn’t continued on the staff account. I just feel baffled most of all? It’s bizarre that only a day or two after I hoped they would ramp things up now that they’re entering the second year, they suddenly cut off the main story with two days notice and no transition lined up. Is it really going to be even quieter than their debut until the stream on the 18th? I’ve tried to be patient and understanding with the direction they’ve chosen for Bluebird, but I’m still sad… At least everything outside of the story has been solid enough to make up for it for now. I hope something will change soon, though, since they have so much potential.
I’ve felt for months now that they haven’t used their already polarizing social media medium to its full potential, but it’s still disappointing to think that now they may never have the chance to respond to feedback and improve. I would have never picked Twitter for their medium myself (not even pre-Musk), but I still tried to understand and engage with the vision behind it. It’s still bizarre they chose this concept but rarely or even never made use of features like replies, quote retweets, and pictures/videos. They didn’t fully commit to the real time aspect either, frequently causing immersion breaks when the story would suddenly halt for holidays and weekends, even if something significant supposedly happened those days. The story already had the painful combination of being both slow and dragging (ex: dedicating an entire IRL week to every girl’s thoughts on Noriko transferring) and that definitely didn’t help.
During the conversations about this on Discord, someone said they believe real time can only work if there’s a continuous flow of content (like Hasu) and I think that’s why the format was starting to lose me with its pace. I wonder if it really was a good idea to pick a real time medium *and* mirror the slow rollout of early μ‘s. Real time seemed like a good way to develop the girls’ individual aspirations and school idol activities at the same time, but now I’m concerned since that didn’t happen. Love Live has never been good at distributing screen time and development even when school idol was all it had to be, so I wonder how their future will turn out.
It’s disappointing since they’ve set up interesting concepts like Shion having a poor relationship with her parents and wanting to move out, or Yukuri being influenced by her experiences with illness and loss, but so far the character arcs have relied on Love Live tropes (transferring or school closure) instead of using the conflicts unique to them. (I also have/had the same worry about them slowly turning the online school setting into a regular school).
It’s because I’m invested in their story that I hoped for more by this point. I really respect how Sakurako Kimino managed to develop a sense of mystery and tragedy around Yukuri in such a limiting format and I always looked forward to what new perspective Yukuri would bring. I hope that will carry over into whatever they have Kimino write next.
It’s already very early Wednesday in Japan and so far the story hasn’t continued on the staff account. I just feel baffled most of all? It’s bizarre that only a day or two after I hoped they would ramp things up now that they’re entering the second year, they suddenly cut off the main story with two days notice and no transition lined up. Is it really going to be even quieter than their debut until the stream on the 18th? I’ve tried to be patient and understanding with the direction they’ve chosen for Bluebird, but I’m still sad… At least everything outside of the story has been solid enough to make up for it for now. I hope something will change soon, though, since they have so much potential.
