Unboxing [US]: Love Live! School Idol Project - Season 2: Premium Edition (Blu-ray)

I'm back in idol hell... or heaven I suppose. Nico Nico Ni!

Love Live! School Idol Project is now one of the biggest anime shows in recent years. The series has spawned two seasons, a movie and a successor series Love Live! Sunshine due sometime in 2016. Why the popularity? Well there's cute girls doing cute things, pretty good songs and a neat storyline to go along with it. The CGI, while not perfect, is pretty solid all around. I honestly don't have a best girl choice so I'm one of those folks who just prefer all 9 of them as the best, don't kill me.

I was lucky enough to acquire Season 1's Premium Edition back in September 2014, NIS America announced it had gone out of print days before it even got released but due to fan demand it got reprinted at least twice. So I was expecting the same to happen with Season 2 but apparently NIS America won't be reprinting it this time around, so go on Rightstuf if you want to grab a copy as soon as possible.

This release is handled by NIS America with their old style premium box packaging to match the first season (consistency!). The set includes two slim DVD cases with one Blu-ray disc each, some promotional notes and a nice hardcover artbook that covers episode guides, character info and illustrations. This time around NIS America have provided an English dub (alongside the original Japanese audio) for the series and from what I've heard it's good enough, it's worth noting that the songs aren't sung in English to respect the original singers (similar to what Sentai Filmworks have done with AKB0048). The discs are region locked to A only but the subtitles are unlockable.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages: Japanese, English

Audio: LPCM 2.0 [Japanese], LPCM 2.0 [English]

Video: 1080p HD Native 16:9

Region: A

Subtitles: English [Japanese language & On-screen]

Subtitles Locked: No

Discs: 2

Plot Synopsis (via NIS America):

Otonokizaka High School is planning to close within three years. However, nine female students come together with one thing in mind: to form an idol group to revive the school’s popularity and keep it from shutting down.

“In order to protect our beloved school, there’s only one thing we can do...become school idols!” Their goal is simple: become an overnight sensation and use their nationwide media exposure to promote their school and bring in a wave of new students to the ailing area. A simple but solid plan, they figure. Naturally, they’re nervous and wonder if this plan can really succeed, but for better or worse their journey continues in Love Live! Season 2!

Extra Content:

Chipboard Premium Artbox

Artbook with Episode Guides, Character Info & Full-Colour Illustrations

Clean Opening and Ending Songs

Original Japanese Promos

Love Live! School Idol Project is available from NIS America for North America. The series is also available from Madman and MVM for Australia and United Kingdom respectively.