Trivia / Love Live! Sunshine!!

• Amateur Cast: Unlike the main cast of the previous series, which included several veteran voice actresses such as Yoshino Nanjo and Suzuko Mimori, all of Aqours' voice actresses were completely new talents when first cast, with only Arisa Komiya (who voices Dia) having any professional voice acting experience before this series.
• Ascended Fanon: As with the previous series, various fanon stories are once again officially published by Dengeki for their Anthology books. The "Ascended" part is still subverted, though. Nakane Nata's official 4Komas in Dengeki G's' website, on the other hand...
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Anju Inami shows her theater acting background when they did the anime skit before performing "MIRAI Ticket" during their First Live.
  • Aina Suzuki has training in enka-style music, a form of traditional Japanese music. This tends to come out whenever a song with "traditional" style is featured like "MY Mai TONIGHT" and "Sunshine Pikkapika Ondo", as unlike the other girls she can be heard using kobushi during her solo parts, a vocal technique associated with enka music where she rapidly fluctuates her singing pitch within one scale.
  • Arisa Komiya learned how to DJ at some point in her career. She gets her chance to DJ (credited as DJ Dia) at the end of the AZALEA Back In Love Live! online viewing.
  • Kanako Takatsuki plays the acoustic guitar since 2019. She finally gets to show off as part of Love Live for Hanamaru's solo, "Yaa! Kouunryuusui!?", during Aqours 6L WINDY STAGE in Tokyo Dome.
• Channel Hop: The first series was licensed in North America by NIS America and dubbed by Bang Zoom! Entertainment. Sunshine has been distributed and dubbed by Funimation.
• Contractual Purity: Tora Con's Twitter page reveals that the voice actresses refused to date any of the male Love Live! fans. Ironically, the actors are somewhat beyond family-friendly actresses (as least for the Yuri fandom) as they repeatedly does a number of teasing on each photos & their live stage plays.
• Defictionalization: Has its' own page.
• Demand Overload:
  • Infamously, Aqours' Anime Expo 2019 concert. Unlike the previous year, where Aqours was part of Anisong Matsuri and were featured in the Microsoft Theater, in 2019 Aqours was moved to a neighboring theater called The Novo as a result of a Mel Brooks event being held at the former theater on the same day. The problem is that while the Microsoft Theater has a very comfortable seating capacity of 7100, The Novo has less than half of that at 2400. To no one's surprise, tickets sold out within mere minutes, leaving many fans at the mercy of scalpers (or people who couldn't make it, if they were lucky).
  • A special bus tour with a Mari-themed bus took visitors to various real-world locations that were featured in the anime, ending with the Awashima Hotel (where Mari stays). Tickets for that also sold out almost immediately.
  • In 2019, Guilty Kiss was selected to perform at Lantis Matsuri at Anime NYC. A combination of this being the first time anyone from the Love Live! franchise performed in the US in a state other than California and the Hammerstein Ballroom, where Anisong World Matsuri was held the year before, being used for BravoCon lead to the tickets selling out in 10 minutes. Due to the demand, 1,000 more tickets had to be added a month before the show.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Rikako Aida (Riko), Nanaka Suwa (Kanan), Shuka Saito (You), Kanako Takatsuki (Hanamaru) and Ai Furihata (Ruby) have all dyed their hair (maroon, navy blue, greyish blonde, golden auburn and light red, respectively) on various occasions to further resemble their characters during concerts and other events. On the flipside, Aika Kobayashi (Yoshiko) has dyed the tips of her hair for the same reason. The other 3 members don't dye their hair, but they do style it the way their characters do. For example, Aina Suzuki wears Mari's iconic loop to events and concerts.
• Ink-Suit Actor: By coincidence, Arisa Komiya and Dia Kurosawa resemble each other. The resemblance actually worked out in Arisha's favor as she later revealed that she auditioned for the role of Chika and You, but because she didn't want to miss the chance, also auditioned for Dia, noting their similarities.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Only two of Aqours' overseas performances (the 2019 New York Lantis Matsuri event featuring subunit Guilty Kiss ^note  the first Love Live-related performance held on the East Coast of the United States and the first day of the 2019 Los Angeles Brand New Wave concert ^note  better known as the concert where an earthquake occured in the middle of Brightest Melody), have seen official releases in full via a MyAnimeList livestream and a Fuji TV broadcast done to promote Love Live Fes, respectively. This is despite most of these lives usually have memorable moments that were special parts of Love Live! history, like the Aqourainbow formed by the fans at the end of Beyond the Pacific. Live viewings were held for the Aqours World Tour events in 2019, but only in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, and they never recieved re-releases afterward.
• Late Export for You:
  • As stated below, Love Live! Sunshine!! received a limited release due to the change of licensing companies. However, more territories were added after the broadcast of the first season and during the broadcast of the second one. For example, on July 1st, 2017, Funimation expanded the territories to include South Africa, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, in order to broadcast on Crunchyroll^note Crunchyroll, however, broadcast the first season of the series because Anime Limited started to distribute in the UK and Ireland..
  • On November 16th, 2017, it was finally announced that Funimation made available the two seasons of Sunshine!! in Latin America, when the seventh episode of the second season was about to broadcast. This announcement, however, was made with no much fanfare, promotion or advertisement. This is one of the reasons the series was met with a lukewarm response and it contributes with the debacle of the franchise in Latin America, unlike the first Love Live! series.
  • The Movie suffered the same fate in the US, being so late that the Blu-ray Disc of the movie was released in Japan in July 2019 before its US theatrical showings in August.
• Life Imitates Art:
  • Riko's stage fright and subsequent return to playing piano on stage thanks to her fellows in Aqours starkly mirror what happened to her voice actress in the second day of the Aqours First Live.
  • Shortly after the premiere of Season 2 Episode 6, this sign◊ was spotted at the real-world Awashima Pier, which explicitly states not to throw anything into, or jump into, the water, accompanied by chibis of Kanan and Mari. This is a reference to a scene in said episode, where Kanan throws her notebook into the ocean while at said pier, and Mari jumps straight off the pier trying to catch it.
  • Hokkaido Hakodate Nishi High School is the basis for Seisen Girls' Academy, the school which Saint Snow attends, and similarly to the events of the series, plans are underway to close and merge it with Ryouhoku High School in 2019.
  • Similarly, Numazu Municipal Nagaisaki Junior High School, the basis for Uranohoshi Girls' High School, will be closing down in March 2021. The building will be renovated and will eventually reopen as an elementary-junior high school, merging Nagaisaki Junior High with Uchiura Elementary School and Nishiura Elementary School.
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • Funimation released its dub of Season 2's two-part Hakodate arc (episodes 8 and 9), set at Christmas time, over the last two weeks of December 2017.^note Episode 9 had a one-day delay because December 25 fell on a Monday, which was otherwise the weekly release day for the broadcast dub.
  • Likewise, episode 10's dub was released on January 2, 2018.^note It was also delayed because January 1 fell on a Monday. Besides being set in the new year, it happens to feature Chika writing calligraphy; kakizome is usually traditionally done on January 2.
  • The Aqours Solo Concert albums are released on each character's birthday from 2020-2023 starting with Chika.
• Milestone Celebration: Aqours' 5th anniversary was celebrated with the release of the "5th Anniversary Jimo Ai! Take Me Higher Project", which included the release of Aqours Club 2020, a special 5th anniversary exhibition, the group's first solo album releases, the "Aqours World Love Live! Vol. 1" international concert compilation, the release of "Duo-Trio Collection Vol. 2", and Aqours' 6th Live Tour, the first tour in franchise history to be a dome tour. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 Pandemic had put the international concert compilation on indefinite hiatus, and the entire dome tour was cancelled.
• No Dub for You:
  • Averted for the series. Unlike the time when the original series' first season was initially sub-only before being dubbed for its re-release, Sunshine!! received a dub within the same year, since this spinoff got a broadcast dub from Funimation for each of its two seasons.
  • Subverted with the movie Over the Rainbow. Months after the US received theatrical screenings of its Japanese/subbed only version, the movie received a dub for its North American February 2020 Blu-ray release.
    • The Brazilian release of the movie also averts this due to licensing reasons,^note the movie has two different licensors for Latin America (Funimation and Sato Company) as the channel itself dubbed it instead of the licensor.
• No Export for You:
  • Unlike the original series which is available in North, Central, South America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, most of Europe, Africa and the Mid-East (thanks to the contribution of The Japan Foundation) and Asia, Love Live! Sunshine!! received a much limited release. This is because the distributor for this series was changed to FUNimation in America and local distributors decided to get a separate license from Japan.
  • At the time of writing this, both seasons of Sunshine!! are available on the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Latin America, France, Germany, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and (previously) the Philippines. Keep in mind that more territories were added during the broadcast of the second season (see Late Export for You for more details).
  • Spain, Portugal and Italy, however, only have the first season and nothing more. Furthermore, a distributor in Spain licensed the series but doesn't distribute it.
  • Also, Singapore doesn't have the series, although live presentations and concerts were shown there.
  • The series' manga counterpart has no releases outside of Asia whatsoever. Weirdly, the series is officially available in English through Kadokawa Gempak Starz, a Malaysian magazine that serializes the manga among other series.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: Just like the original series, much of Sunshine's direction comes from the fans.
  • Aqours had their name be decided by fans.
  • The sub-unit names ^note CYaRon, AZALEA and Guilty Kiss as well as their member composition were also decided in the same manner.
  • The costumes for the first Duo-Trio units^note Twilight Tiger, Inferno Phoenix, Unicorn Blizzard, Hurricane Blossom are decided by reader polls.
  • "GuuRinPa" (ぐ～りんぱ), the official group name of Arisha^note The 宮 from Komiya (小宮) Arisa can be read as “Guu”., Aikyan^note The 林 from Kobayashi (小林) Aika can be read as “Rin”. and Anchan^note The 波 from Inami (伊波) Anju can be read as “Ha” and through rendaku becomes "Pa". used in their radio show, was chosen from letter submissions sent by fans.
  • The configuration and theme for the second Duo-Trio units are decided by online polls.
• Overtook the Manga: As with the previous series, the manga adaptation is still ongoing.
• Promoted Fangirl: All members of Aqours' voice cast were fans of the original Love Live series, and auditioned because of that. In her interview from the November 2016 Dengeki G's issue, Arisa Komiya (who voices Dia) also revealed that she came to know of the franchise through working alongside Emi Nitta (who voices Honoka).
  • The biggest fangirl in the franchise is Aqours' leader and the voice of Chika, Anju Inami. If given the chance, she will talk for minutes about her love of µ's and the franchise.
  • Kanako Takatsuki, Hanamaru's seiyuu, was a fan and as a cover singer (utaite), sometimes sung Love Live songs.
  • Hanamaru's English voice actress, Megan Shipman, was/is also a huge Love Live fan even before getting the part. She's even cosplayed her before the announcement.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The framing for the "KU-RU-KU-RU Cruller!" music video is Aqours performing an online concert from their individual homes with webcams and computers, reflecting lockdown measures present during the then-ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Screwed by the Network: The Movie suffered a bad case of this due to opening in a smaller number of theaters than the previous movie and opening over the period when many people (most notably children) have New Year's break, resulting in the film being outgrossed by several kid-oriented films, most notably Ralph Breaks the Internet and Dragon Ball Super: Broly.
• Sequel First: The Movie Over the Rainbow wasn't simply dubbed in Portuguese before the TV series, but it's also the very first product in the Love Live! franchise to be officially dubbed in that language.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Sunshine is this for the entire main Japanese cast, as the result of Darkhorse Casting and all of the major nine actresses having little prior acting and singing experience.
  • In the English dub: Along with Gonna Be the Twin-Tail!! and Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, this was one of the anime that launched Sarah Wiedenheft to stardom.
• Tourist Bump: Sunshine!!'s popularity is almost single-handedly credited with boosting tourism to the city of Numazu, with the city collaborating with the series regularly as part of promotional events. Marusan Book Store, a real bookstore in Numazu which is depicted in the anime as Hanamaru's favorite bookstore, was a particularly popular tourist spot for fans until its closure on May 21, 2022.
• Tribute to Fido:
  • The dog featured in Season 2 Episode 5, Anko, is based on a real dog formerly owned by one of the animators, which passed away in March 2017.
  • Yoshiko tries to name the stray dog Laelaps. This may be inspired by Aikyan's dog, Laela, as revealed in Ultra Jump April 2018's "100 Questions for Kobayashi Aika" interview.
• What Could Have Been:
  • When the profiles and visuals of Aqours were first revealed, Dia and Yoshiko were initially second year students, while You was going to be in her first year. Of course, this was changed along the line so that Yoshiko, You and Dia are now first, second and third year students respectively.
  • Some official art depicts Aqours wearing their unique Black School Uniforms during the winter season. Fans believed this would be ideal for Season 2 since it took place between Fall and Spring season, but since then, it has not been used for anything other than just promotional arts. Though this was later used in the manga adapatation of School Idol Diary.
  • Some personal hobbies were left out in the anime, like Yoshiko's tendency to play video games and Hanamaru being part of the choir group at a church.
  • The original poll that decided the sub-units presented alternate configurations of the girls based on different types. One configuration described Chika, Riko, and Dia being "charismatic type," Kanan, You, and Ruby being "natural type," and You, Yoshiko, and Mari being "daredevil type."
  • Multiple Aqours concerts that were meant to take place over the course of 2020 and 2021 have been delayed, cancelled, and replaced as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. AZALEA's "AMAZING TRAVEL DNA" concert was delayed, then cancelled twice over two separate occasions, and the "Dome Tour" concert series and the "LET'S GO WONDER TRIP!" concert were both cancelled, with the Dome Tour being replaced by an online concert and having its theme song released anyways on CD.
• Word of Saint Paul:
  • While it remains that most Aqours song centers haven't been officially revealed, most fans have taken the centers given by Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS as the closest thing to "official", as the game properly attributes centers to every other song.
  • A Love Live! episode of Songs of Tokyo on NHK has Shuka Saito and Rikako Aida claiming that "Misty Frosty Love", a song about a Love Triangle, is specifically about the relationship between Chika, Riko, and You.