After slogging through this show I just had one question on my mind the entire time: where are the fucking Gundams? I started getting worried after like 8 episodes in how Sunrise was going to work giant robots into the series but as it turns out they animate one other thing that isnt Gundam these days. All jokes aside this is the first time Ive watched any idol anime so Im new to this whole idea of moe blobness musical funfests. Im aware that Love Live is ridiculously popular and honestly after watching this I can see why. Its colorful the girls are cute and have a pretty well defined moeautismo personalities for people to latch on to and the music is all kinds of Jpop infectious good if youre into that kind of music. Sunshine is a spinoff of the main Love Live franchise focusing on the creation of the Aquors a reallife Japanese idol group. The shtick with these idol shows is that all the actual idols of the real group voice act for the inshow group effectively granting them anime avatars. This is a big part of the draw of these show and although Im not into it in the slightest I get why it causes these idol shows to skyrocket in popularity. Aesthetically the show is pretty alright. The art style is incredibly... washed out? I dont know how to describe it but the colors are overly bright to the point where they obscure detail. Character designs are overly cutesy like instant diabetes level but considering that Love Live is first and foremost a product and not art this is to be expected. Sunrise knows what theyre doing to create boatloads of money with this franchise and who am I to complain if they keep using the funding to keep making kickass Gundam OVAs? One thing I do have to praise this show for is its use of CG. Love Live is a perfect example of how you can use CG in even the most important scenes and still have absolutely no one give a single fuck: perfect execution. Sunrise is straight up with you that parts of the dances WILL be CG but the models are incredibly detailed and are constantly shot at angles that make you question whether or not they are CG. The backgrounds are also styled to make the models pop less off of them and the blending is done very well. If you like Jpop youll love the music. If you dont youre going to want to kill yourself. This alone will probably be the deciding factor in you watching this show. Storywise Sunshine is criminally formulaic. The first half of the show is about recruiting all the 9 different members of the group with sprinklings of drama placed about and then ending in dreamlike song and dance sequence. Theres a strong recurring theme of facing your fears and putting yourself out there even if you might fail trying your best despite that. The moe comedy is alright at best with 99 of it being tired spins on the same gags youve seen in every SoL show. The term generic is something I keep coming back to when trying to describe the plot and character elements of this show and I think it describes that aspect of Sunshine pretty well. Despite all this bullshit I still found myself guiltily enjoying this show and for the life of me I really couldnt figure out why. But then a shocking realization came to me... Love Live is literally the anime equivalent of Glee. As someone with a history in performance this song and dance spectacle shit is always entertaining to me. Glee and Love Live follow the same sort of formula and almost cater to the same type of demographic except that you replace Glees celebrity spotlight shit with Love Lives moe otaku pandering. The shows are even structured the same. Every episode is set up contrived school drama resolution song and dance Glee just went out of its way to try to edgy sometimes with its drama while Love Live tries to be as diabetes level cute as it can while also being anime. As much as I ended up guiltily enjoying it I still cant bring myself to recommend it. Its still painfully average and generic even as just a slice of life cutegirlcuteshit show just with a little more musical flair. Also there really arent any Gundams in the show which for a Sunrise production was really a massive letdown.