Love Live! School Idol Project Season 2 - Episode 13 (Completed)

The Love Live is over (and there are no prizes for guessing who won), which leaves just the small matter of graduation to be tackled by both third years and the student council alike.

As you might imagine, Honoka's attempts to write a graduation speech to deliver as student council president proved rather torturous and led to some last-minute panic, but otherwise everything is in-hand and organised, leaving Honoka free to offer some comforting words to Eli before delivering that graduation speech, which of course actually turns out to be a graduation song instead.

With all of that done and dusted, there are still some final things to tidy up - literally in Nico's case as she packs up her club room paraphernalia, but also figuratively as the Idol Study Club now needs a new leader... a role to which Hanayo seems perfectly suited despite her protestations.  A final tour of the school for the graduating girls takes in all of their familiar haunts - the stage, the alpacas (who have a surprise of their own, it seems), and of course the rooftop that turned from makeshift practice arena to the group's home from home.  Saying goodbye to all of this is a sad moment, but Honoka eventually realises that, just as she promised at the start, she and her friends followed through on their dream to the very end.  But is this end though? Not when there's a bucketload of cash to be made from a Love Live movie it isn't... place your bets on what that will involve, but my money is on an international Love Live tournament.

So ends (for now, anyway) Love Live - I know I've compared it to K-ON a number of times over this second season, but it certainly sits in a similar position for me as a light and fluffy story with a decent dose of comedy that can nonetheless tug mercilessly at the heartstrings when it really wants to. The proof of quality for a show of this ilk is in its emotional payload, and although it never quite reaches K-ON's level is certainly delivers surprisingly well in that regard in its later episodes including this finale, while still piling up the colourful fun and frolics leading up to those moments, even as someone who doesn't care all that much for the show's music. In other words, even putting aside the obsessive aspects of its fan base, it isn't too hard to see why Love Live has been a major success even in an ever-more crowded market of idol-based anime.