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Love Live Bluebird: Debut Thoughts
May. 13th, 2025 03:09 pmI meant to post this yesterday, but I got tired of trying to fix the formatting.
So much happened last night and this morning, from the project and character introductions to their first song and other announcements.
From the project introduction video, the themes of Blue Bird will be “even if you fail, there will be a next time,” “this is a story of possibilities,” and “a new story we will fulfill together.” With the “life is hard” branding, I assumed that it would be a larger-than-life drama the way AveMygo was, so I was surprised (and uncomfortable) by how relevant it feels to my life as someone who has failed hard recently.
The set-up is intriguing so far. I said in my last post that the “girls across Japan” theory was disproved, but it seems like it’s actually true. The girls are spread across three satellite schools. The 4 founding girls attend the Asakusa satellite, Noriko and Miracle attend the Hokuriku satellite, and Yukuri, Aurora, and Midori attend the Umeda satellite. Since Shion is grouped with Noriko and Miracle in the promotional material, she may join them at the Hokuriku branch later to even out the numbers. Even more interesting is that there are no third year students and only two of the ten girls are even second years. I was hoping that Shion would be a third year, but she’s another first year. 10 characters is already a lot to start out with, so I wonder if we’ll ever get more than that.
Look at them
There is still a lot of debate whether Blue Bird is living up to the “life is hard” title and I don’t see it clearing up anytime soon. Personally, I think a lot of people are mistaking the bright idol aesthetics for levity, even though Polka’s failure has been our introduction to the series twice and hardships have been hinted at (though not in all the girls, which is why I think the branding is still unclear and the debate won’t stop yet). Their first single “What is my LIFE?” is representative of this. The composition screams traditional idol song, but the lyrics waver between hope and uncertainty. They doubt whether they want to even start, but view their vague desire for something new as a sign. There are too many lines I like to quote them all, but I especially like “Could the ones dreaming up something big / Be us someday, someday / It’s a mystery” especially.
Besides failure, another aspect of Blue Bird that appeals to me is the focus on the character’s individual aspirations outside of being a school idol. They have continued with that in the character introductions by including their future dreams, alongside their special skills and hobbies.
Polka Takahashi: Polka’s voice was very unexpected. It’s calmer and deeper, but it still has that protagonist flair. I think it’s great that the protagonist failed something as significant as her high school entrance exams. Since it’s something everyone went through, the feeling of failure is more visceral and grounded than failing something like seiyuu auditions (no offense to Noriko). Also, it was a good choice to give someone other than the depressed character no dream yet, especially among such an ambitious cast. I don’t think she’ll be one of my favorites, but she fulfills her role well and I want to see how her arc plays out.
Mai Azabu: I didn’t like her design at first glance, but it really grew on me. I think it’s funny that she has a hard time talking to other girls because they talk about “shallow” things like celebrities and cosmetics. I want to see her interact with Laura, who loves that sort of thing. Her dream is to become an IT Ceo. I didn’t expect them to go beyond the surface level of a nerd girl who likes to program, so I was surprised to see they went all in with a girl who loves logic and math.
Akira Goto: She is one of the least interesting characters to me, but she surprised me by having my second favorite design out of the cast. Her hair color and eye color surprisingly work very well together. I don’t think we really learned anything about her that we didn’t know already, except that her dream is to open up a bike shop.
Hanabi Komagata: Cute design, but there’s not a lot of new information here either. I think her “serious and direct” personality combined with her social awkwardness is charming.
Miracle Kanazawa: I didn’t realize it until I saw her design, but I expected her to have multi-colored or gradient hair, so her actual appearance was a shock. I love the new characterization that she’s someone who says what she thinks without filter, but also doesn’t listen to what other people are saying. I was surprised that she is a second year and therefore one of the oldest students in the group. That definitely recontextualizes her Tweets and friendship with Noriko.
Noriko Chofu: Her design and personality is so perfect that I won’t be surprised if she ends up being the most popular member (biased?). I was expecting her to be an absurdly socially anxious girl, but she seems to be shy with self-confidence issues. Her backstory is very interesting to me. At the end of middle school, she gathered her courage and auditioned and got accepted into an agency, but she hasn’t received any work yet. I really enjoy the implication that she normally struggles with taking the first so she is now struggling with her usual hesitancy even after she got what she wanted. I also really enjoyed the passion and intensity that Miracle’s comments to Noriko drew out. I honestly feel a bit offended by how much she appeals to me.
Yukuri Harumiya: That was not the fashion style I expected *at all*. It feels at least ten years out of date. She seems like she’ll be a very interesting character, with all the contradictions piling up. She is laid-back, yet has an emotional and Romantic undercurrent to her words. She takes the most practical steps every day to fulfill her dream, yet she prefers “one second of dreams over 365 days of reality.” She says her reason for joining the group is because her “otoko kokoro” (male heart) yearned to help “little Polka” who was “working with all her might.” She does mention it potentially being useful for her dream of being on the stage and playing the male role, but only as an afterthought and her website profile mentions the Polka angle again. I was shocked to see she is a first year student, but now I really need to see this prince interact with the older students.
Aurora Konohana: Aurora, not Laura, then. Her design doesn’t really appeal to me so far, but I enjoy her girliness for its own sake and her focus on love, peace, and authenticity (“Born This Way” is her motto).
Midori Yamada: I’m glad we got more information on her since she is one of the characters who only had one defining trait. We learn that she has loved camping, bugs, and animals since she was a child. She hated dodgeball, but loved reading and studying led her to become aware of the Earth’s environmental problems. I was skeptical of a character this green, but she’s really cute outside of that thing she’s holding.
Shion Sasaki: I am fascinated by her so far. I think it’s funny that Mystery Girl 2 ended up being an actual mystery girl in the promotional materials. Her intro video broke the pattern and doesn’t mention a dream or message for her classmates. Since she’s also not on the map of satellite schools, it seems likely that she could still belong to a regular school (though still not showing up for school). I’m really happy that my guess of her being the musician of the group ended up being right after all, as she has piano and violin mentioned as her special skills.
My top girls are still the same: Noriko, Shion, Yukuri, Miracle, and Mai.
Finally, I looked into everything right away only to realize that everything announced is at least a month off. The first seiyuu stream is on June 17th, while the first single releases July 30th. The June issue of Love Live Days should have them too. At least we’ll have more Tweets to analyze and maybe some videos.
So much happened last night and this morning, from the project and character introductions to their first song and other announcements.
From the project introduction video, the themes of Blue Bird will be “even if you fail, there will be a next time,” “this is a story of possibilities,” and “a new story we will fulfill together.” With the “life is hard” branding, I assumed that it would be a larger-than-life drama the way AveMygo was, so I was surprised (and uncomfortable) by how relevant it feels to my life as someone who has failed hard recently.
The set-up is intriguing so far. I said in my last post that the “girls across Japan” theory was disproved, but it seems like it’s actually true. The girls are spread across three satellite schools. The 4 founding girls attend the Asakusa satellite, Noriko and Miracle attend the Hokuriku satellite, and Yukuri, Aurora, and Midori attend the Umeda satellite. Since Shion is grouped with Noriko and Miracle in the promotional material, she may join them at the Hokuriku branch later to even out the numbers. Even more interesting is that there are no third year students and only two of the ten girls are even second years. I was hoping that Shion would be a third year, but she’s another first year. 10 characters is already a lot to start out with, so I wonder if we’ll ever get more than that.
Look at them
There is still a lot of debate whether Blue Bird is living up to the “life is hard” title and I don’t see it clearing up anytime soon. Personally, I think a lot of people are mistaking the bright idol aesthetics for levity, even though Polka’s failure has been our introduction to the series twice and hardships have been hinted at (though not in all the girls, which is why I think the branding is still unclear and the debate won’t stop yet). Their first single “What is my LIFE?” is representative of this. The composition screams traditional idol song, but the lyrics waver between hope and uncertainty. They doubt whether they want to even start, but view their vague desire for something new as a sign. There are too many lines I like to quote them all, but I especially like “Could the ones dreaming up something big / Be us someday, someday / It’s a mystery” especially.
Besides failure, another aspect of Blue Bird that appeals to me is the focus on the character’s individual aspirations outside of being a school idol. They have continued with that in the character introductions by including their future dreams, alongside their special skills and hobbies.
My updated impressions of the characters so far (it got long)
Polka Takahashi: Polka’s voice was very unexpected. It’s calmer and deeper, but it still has that protagonist flair. I think it’s great that the protagonist failed something as significant as her high school entrance exams. Since it’s something everyone went through, the feeling of failure is more visceral and grounded than failing something like seiyuu auditions (no offense to Noriko). Also, it was a good choice to give someone other than the depressed character no dream yet, especially among such an ambitious cast. I don’t think she’ll be one of my favorites, but she fulfills her role well and I want to see how her arc plays out.
Mai Azabu: I didn’t like her design at first glance, but it really grew on me. I think it’s funny that she has a hard time talking to other girls because they talk about “shallow” things like celebrities and cosmetics. I want to see her interact with Laura, who loves that sort of thing. Her dream is to become an IT Ceo. I didn’t expect them to go beyond the surface level of a nerd girl who likes to program, so I was surprised to see they went all in with a girl who loves logic and math.
Akira Goto: She is one of the least interesting characters to me, but she surprised me by having my second favorite design out of the cast. Her hair color and eye color surprisingly work very well together. I don’t think we really learned anything about her that we didn’t know already, except that her dream is to open up a bike shop.
Hanabi Komagata: Cute design, but there’s not a lot of new information here either. I think her “serious and direct” personality combined with her social awkwardness is charming.
Miracle Kanazawa: I didn’t realize it until I saw her design, but I expected her to have multi-colored or gradient hair, so her actual appearance was a shock. I love the new characterization that she’s someone who says what she thinks without filter, but also doesn’t listen to what other people are saying. I was surprised that she is a second year and therefore one of the oldest students in the group. That definitely recontextualizes her Tweets and friendship with Noriko.
Noriko Chofu: Her design and personality is so perfect that I won’t be surprised if she ends up being the most popular member (biased?). I was expecting her to be an absurdly socially anxious girl, but she seems to be shy with self-confidence issues. Her backstory is very interesting to me. At the end of middle school, she gathered her courage and auditioned and got accepted into an agency, but she hasn’t received any work yet. I really enjoy the implication that she normally struggles with taking the first so she is now struggling with her usual hesitancy even after she got what she wanted. I also really enjoyed the passion and intensity that Miracle’s comments to Noriko drew out. I honestly feel a bit offended by how much she appeals to me.
Yukuri Harumiya: That was not the fashion style I expected *at all*. It feels at least ten years out of date. She seems like she’ll be a very interesting character, with all the contradictions piling up. She is laid-back, yet has an emotional and Romantic undercurrent to her words. She takes the most practical steps every day to fulfill her dream, yet she prefers “one second of dreams over 365 days of reality.” She says her reason for joining the group is because her “otoko kokoro” (male heart) yearned to help “little Polka” who was “working with all her might.” She does mention it potentially being useful for her dream of being on the stage and playing the male role, but only as an afterthought and her website profile mentions the Polka angle again. I was shocked to see she is a first year student, but now I really need to see this prince interact with the older students.
Aurora Konohana: Aurora, not Laura, then. Her design doesn’t really appeal to me so far, but I enjoy her girliness for its own sake and her focus on love, peace, and authenticity (“Born This Way” is her motto).
Midori Yamada: I’m glad we got more information on her since she is one of the characters who only had one defining trait. We learn that she has loved camping, bugs, and animals since she was a child. She hated dodgeball, but loved reading and studying led her to become aware of the Earth’s environmental problems. I was skeptical of a character this green, but she’s really cute outside of that thing she’s holding.
Shion Sasaki: I am fascinated by her so far. I think it’s funny that Mystery Girl 2 ended up being an actual mystery girl in the promotional materials. Her intro video broke the pattern and doesn’t mention a dream or message for her classmates. Since she’s also not on the map of satellite schools, it seems likely that she could still belong to a regular school (though still not showing up for school). I’m really happy that my guess of her being the musician of the group ended up being right after all, as she has piano and violin mentioned as her special skills.
My top girls are still the same: Noriko, Shion, Yukuri, Miracle, and Mai.
Finally, I looked into everything right away only to realize that everything announced is at least a month off. The first seiyuu stream is on June 17th, while the first single releases July 30th. The June issue of Love Live Days should have them too. At least we’ll have more Tweets to analyze and maybe some videos.
