Love Live Announces New Anime Series

Love Live! Sunshine!! ended its run earlier this year with a feature film effort, and this means that yet another Idol group from the famous Love Live! franchise has been retired for now. There’s currently no word on whether or not Aqours will make a comeback, but now the franchise will be moving onto the next Idol Appreciation Club. But what’s different about this newest group, however, is that they were already established before in a mobile game! Love Live! has announced the next anime series in the franchise, dubbed Love Live! Nijigasaki Academy School Idol Club.

This will feature the idol group first introduced in the Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS mobile game produced by KLab Games and Bushiroad, but it’s currently unclear whether or not the anime will feature the same voice cast or character personalities introduced in that game. But fans can see the first look at the new anime’s group with a special key visual released on the series’ Twitter account.

There is currently no concrete release date or window as to when the new series will premiere, but at least now fans of the franchise can look forward to the next generation of idols. More information is expected to be released in the coming months, so ComicBook.com will be here to share any pertinent updates!

Love Live! School Idol Project is a joint project between ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki G’s magazine, music label Lantis, and animation Studio Sunrise. The story follows Honoka Kosaka, a girl who is attending a school that is about to be closed down due to a lack of new applicants. Discovering that school idol groups are very popular, Honoka decides to start a group with friends from school. Soon they enter in the cross-country idol competition, Love Live.

The series first launched in Dengeki G in 2010, and has subsequently released many music CDs, animated music videos, manga, video games, and two seasons of an anime series. The first season ran for 13 episodes in 2013, and the second season aired in 2014 for the same episode count. The series has been licensed for an English language release by NIS America, with a sequel series following a new set of school idols, Love Live! Sunshine!! launching in 2015.