LogFAQs > #976165700

I finished Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror. I'm one of the crazy people who thinks Love Live: Sunshine is the best in the franchise. Couple that with Yohane being my favorite LL character, and I was really excited for this anime! Having the Sunshine crew go on an adventure in an alternate fantasy world sounded magical. It was like something right out of one of Yohane's chuuni delusions. This anime went to a lot of fun and unexpected places. At one point, Dia used a magical motorbike to battle corrupted animals! If that isn't awesome, I don't know what is. My favorite part about this show was Lailaps, Yohane's gigantic talking dog who acted like a wise big sister.

Still, in the end, I felt a bit let down by this anime. Don't get me wrong, it was fun seeing the old Aqours crew (or at least an alternate version of them). Almost everyone still had their core character, and there were a lot of great interactions between them all. There were some nice idol performances too. My biggest complaints came down to two things: the central plot and Yohane herself. The central plot, an inexplicable corruption brewing on the outskirts of town, felt incredibly generic. A lot of episodes outright ignored it to focus on the girls getting to know each other or having fun, and those were the best parts of the show by far.

As for Yohane, I fell in love with her in Sunshine because she was a wacky chuuni girl, but she also had character depth beyond that. She used her fallen angel persona to feel special, and to hide her insecurities. Since this show was set in a literal fantasy world, she didn't have her fallen angel persona... which left her with nothing but her insecurities. Yohane still had some great moments of unearned ego, like early on when she declared that she was destined to be a superstar and everyone should ask for her autograph. Sadly (for me, at least), she spent most of the season moping or feeling inadequate. The main focus of the show was about her finding a path in life, so I get that she was aimless and had doubts early on. I just wasn't a huge fan of a few of the ways those doubts were explored. One plotline in particular just made me really sad why did Lailaps need to lose the ability to talk in order for Yohane to get her magic back, I didn't understand that at all. It also felt like they kept retreading the same plotline. No matter what she succeeded at, she started doubting herself again the instant she hit the next setback.

In conclusion, Yohane the Parhelion was still a fun anime. It was nice seeing all the Aqours girls again. I just didn't like how they took Yohane, the hilarious chuuni girl, and turned her into a mopey girl. Out of everyone, she felt the least like her original character. In the original Sunshine, she pretended to be an all-powerful fallen angel. I honestly would've preferred this anime if they went that direction instead and turned her into an ultra-overpowered protagonist, one who lived up to all her boasts and was flawless just like she always pretended to be. Instead they focused on the other half of her character, her insecurities, and it just wasn't as fun as it could've been.