One of the world's sneakiest mages, Levi is the Trinity Seven's ninja and one of the most reliable girls to have around when trouble strikes. Quick to ally herself with Arata, the two get on surprisingly well, with both having a teasing and blunt attitude. She also appears to be one of the few students at the academy who is properly trained for combat, with the others often having to rely on her for protection. Levi's strength is her ability to take on opponents in 1 vs 1 scenarios, including those who should be much stronger than her, such as Lugh and Liese after becoming a Magic King Candidate. Her mix of speed and ninja arts allow her to outmaneuver her opponents, on top of being able to flat out out-think many of them. Although unconfirmed, she may also be capable of using her Last Crest already which could put her ahead of the rest of the Trinity Seven, bar Liese. Her only weak point currently is that when it comes to crazy powerful finishing moves, she's still fairly reliant on people like Arata or Arin to finish the fight.

A cutie living in her own dream world, Yui proves to accidently be one of the most troublesome members of the Trinity Seven, struggling to control her own powers. As a Cardinal class mage, the only person more powerful than her at the Academy is supposedly Master Biblia himself, hence why she struggles to keep control. Her ridiculous raw power sadly kept her away from others for a long time, but thankfully those days are now over, with her able to walk around normally without sending everyone to sleep. Yui seems to have some of the strongest area of effect magic in the series, being able to draw all the students of the academy into her dream world at once, as well as previously putting everyone in the academy to sleep. Her main drawback was that she was unable to properly control her powers, though this problem was largely solved after Arata and rest of the Trinity Seven rescued her. As her magic is mainly defensive, it's not certain how well she can hold out in an actual battle, but she's more than capable of protecting others whilst someone else does the real fighting.

The first of Arata's two grimoires, Sora was supposed to keep up the illusion of a normal life for him, after a breakdown phenomenon destroyed the city. Cheerful and shameless, Sora has no qualms going along with Arata's perverse skits, even encouraging him on occasion, as she seems to enjoy how it messes with some members of the Trinity Seven. She's also a self-proclaimed genius, being much more knowledgeable about certain subjects than everyone else. Though she also appears to have no clue as to how some things work, including parts of her own magic. As we see right from the beginning, Sora is capable of creating and maintaining an alternate dimension, and also protecting Arata from his own Breakdown Phenomenon, neither of which are small feats. A large proportion of her other powers are ones she provides to Arata, including her ability to copy other mage's magic. Her main downfall is that she appears to be quite lazy when it comes to actually looking out for or dealing with enemies, causing the rest of the group numerous problems.

A thief with a serious self-expression problem, Lugh is a member of Iscariot and plays a major role in their attack on the Royal Biblia Academy. Possessing three legendary treasures, Lugh is strong enough to hold her own against members of the Trinity Seven (though perhaps not all at once) making her quite a problematic opponent for the Academy. Along with the confusion regarding Iscariot's intentions, although Lugh is an enemy she doesn't come off as inherently evil, rather just someone fighting for a different cause. As mentioned before Lugh is in possession of three legendary treasures, which are what allow her to duke it out with the Trinity Seven, despite her apparent lack of a Magus Mode. Though perhaps more than the treasures, her status as the "God of Light" is her most powerful asset, with her being able to move at the speed of light itself. This allows her to avoid almost any attack, physical or magical, though there are of course exceptions to this.

The splitting image of Arata's cousin Hijiri, though a bit less smiley, Arin is Arata's self-declared wife, whether or not he agrees to be a different matter entirely. Her blunt and odd personality make her a bit of a mystery to the other characters, as she's quite difficult to interact with and comes out with some very strange lines. At the very least though she's a straightforward girl, reflected in her Chaotic Rune magic, which is pretty much solely used for good old fashioned blowing stuff up. Despite only being a member of the Trinity Seven, Arin's magic is supposedly capable of matching a Magic King's in terms of raw power. With her focus being purely offensive, she can concentrate fully on dealing damage, which she's gotten pretty good at. Her recent acquisition of the Demon Spear Gae Bolg not only boosted her already strong magic, but added some more defensive abilities to her arsenal, making her less of a glass cannon and more of an actual cannon cannon.

One of Arata's two loli grimoires, Ilia recently came into his possession after she was defeated by Astral Trinity. Although adorable in her human form, Ilia is quite the terror before her defeat, being originally tasked by Hijiri with detaining him inside a separate dimension. Although he never knew it himself, Ilia had actually known Arata for a long time prior to that, often looking after him in Hijiri's place, because of which she's already taken quite a liking to him herself. Like Sora, Ilia is capable of creating an entire dimension singlehandedly and holding both Arata and Mira of the Trinity Seven inside. Not only that, but she was able to seal Sora inside a black cube, utilising her as a power source, essentially giving her her own grimoire to use. Although not necessarily more powerful than Sora, Ilia's intelligence allows to her out think her opponents and defeat them that way, in theory at least.

A member of the Trinity Seven gone awry, Liese turned to the dark side after acquiring her Magic King's Element from the Eternal Library and thus becoming a Magic King Candidate, like Arata, in the process. The most perverted out of the Trinity Seven (there seems to be a link between pervertedness and power going on), Liese and Arata get on surprisingly well despite starting off as enemies, though the rest of the Trinity Seven find her a bit much. Being a good girl deep down, Liese is happy to be back with her friends and twin sister after her defeat. Prior to her Magic King's Element being removed, Liese was by far the most powerful member of the Trinity Seven, and possibly stronger than Arata in a one on one. Though no longer a Magic King Candidate, she remains one of the strongest members of the group with her Logos Art giving her control of time and space, which even in her now weaker state is still pretty crazy. Along with that, she is still able to steal the magic of others and use it as her own, meaning that if given the opportunity she could wield an immense array of different magics by herself.

The girl with all the answers, Hijiri is Arata's cousin and seemingly one of the only people that actually knows what's going on with all the Breakdown Phenomenon that are occurring. Although she saved him before and even gave Sora to him, she's also proven herself to be an enemy on more than one occasion which is confusing, to say the least. We can only hope it's all part of some bigger game that's being played, because she was pretty cute before she turned out to be a crazy Magic King Candidate. It's suggested that Hijiri may be more powerful than Arata himself, although this has yet to be seen in the anime. Her status as a Magic King Candidate alone means that she should be stronger than the Trinity Seven, though her overconfidence regarding this turns out to be her undoing. Her strongest ability yet, Satan, gives her a new form surpassing Magus Mode, which provides her with an immense amount of power, though seems to turn her into some kind of demon in the process which looks a lot like Arata's Astra Trinity. It's scary to think of what Hijiri would be capable of if she still had both her grimoires.

The perverted headmaster of the Biblia Magic Academy, whether he's there for the teaching or just to hang around cute girls we may never know. Quite the mysterious fellow, there's not much revealed about the sly dog yet, apart from his status as a Paladin class mage, and that he's far more intelligent than he lets on. Yes behind those perverted eyes and ability to constantly get his arse kicked, is some kind of magic genius guiding the Trinity Seven from the shadows. Although we haven't yet seen the true extent of Master Biblia's powers, we do know that he's one of the few Paladin class mages in existence, and that a clash between Paladin class mages could quite well destroy the world as we know it. More often than not he's seen intentionally losing battles in comical ways, likely allowing for the Trinity Seven and Arata to deal with things themselves. We do know that his grimoire "Solomon's Gate", which is only visible to powerful mages, can drive people insane just from looking at it, which is pretty darn crazy in itself.

The Magic King Candidate that creates Breakdown Phenomenon by accident, Arata is both the luckiest and unluckiest guy in the series. Exceedingly close to having his body taken over by another being, Astral Trinity, but also being surrounded by so many cute girls, what a life. But he's handling it all pretty well, with his honest and dry attitude doing a surpassingly good job of keeping him alive and making him friends. Arata only begins to realise his true powers towards the end of the series but they're pretty devastating, with even Ilia not holding a candle to him. The only problem at the moment is that when his true powers are unleashed Astral Trinity takes over, and Astral Trinity is kind of a dick. Apart from that, we've seen that he's also already capable of copying the magic of others with little to no training, a feat that should be impossible, as well as dispelling all magic, and clothing, in a wide area. Looking like the strongest Magic King Candidate about for the moment, it's likely that Arata will exceed the strength of even Paladins like Biblia in no time.

With her sleepy face and soft blue hair, Saya starts off as a mere add-on to Ayato's harem, but develops into her own character, with her and Kirin Toudou fighting their own battles. Despite her short stature and quiet voice, Saya's blunt and dry lines cut through any situation like a hot knife through butter, whether it's for the sake of a joke or honesty. Despite her unwavering voice and expressionless visage, Saya remains a very passionate friend and a member of Ayato's group. As well as that, she's probably one of the toughest girls, with very little capable of keeping her spirits down for long. With an arsenal made up entirely of impressive looking guns, Saya is an offensive fighter, to say the least, being at a huge advantage when she has a partner to back her up and keep her foes at range. When it comes down to it, Saya's tactic is basically "if one gun doesn't work, use a bigger gun", which has thus far proven to be pretty effective. Although she's proven herself seriously powerful through her weapons alone, Saya's reliance on others to help her fight is the one thing holding her back from being a powerful character in her own right.

Not only the beautiful and strong princess of Lieseltania, Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld is also Seidoukan Academy's flame wielding rank 5. Fiery and independent, Julis' lone wolf temperament starts to fade once she realises she has friends that she can rely on. In particular, her calm and calculating side reveals itself during the Phoenix Festa, where she and Ayato rely mostly on strategic thinking to overcome their opponents. Julis is also one of the girls with the clearest goal: to make enough money to help the people of her country. Although Julis is essentially the main heroine of the series and is technically very powerful with the Asterisk War universe, she comes off as one of the weaker members of the cast due to the sheer power of everyone else. Having no access to an Ogre Lux, nor sword skills as sharp as Kirin or Ayato, she relies on her fired based abilities as her main form of offense and defense. Julis's main strong point is her ability to create traps that can be activated strategically during a fight, which she uses to both confuse opponents and to catch them off guard for massive damage. Much like Saya, although very powerful by herself, Julis definitely works best as part of a team.

Top heavy cutie Kirin Toudou is the sword wielding, former number one at Seidoukan Academy, and most recently Phoenix Festa partners with Saya. Kirin is basically the most adorable member of Ayato's harem, with her original composed exterior hiding an easily flustered and nervous young girl. After having her number one rank stripped from her by Ayato, Kirin actually became freer than she'd ever been, and surprisingly enough stronger as well. Most of Kirin's strength comes simply from her incredible sword fighting prowess, making her insanely powerful in one on one scenarios. As you can imagine, it's this kind of talent that gets you to the number one position on the academy leaderboard, given that position is decided by duels. Kirin's one downfall is that since she's always fought alone, team fights are not her specialty. This is one of the things that makes her and Saya an interesting combo, with her focused on dual-type scenarios, and Saya relying on a strong partner to back her up.

The very well connected student council president of Seidoukan Academy, Claudia Enfield is one of the few characters in the series so far who has been present throughout, but who we still know very little about. Additionally, although we know she's in possession of a powerful, and frankly badass, twin blade Ogre Lux "Pan-Dora", we have yet to see Claudia spend much time using it. Despite what looks to be a grim life behind closed doors, Claudia always comes off as being cheery, and supportive during the rest of the group's difficult times. Being the only one of Ayato's gang apart from him to own an Ogre Lux, we can already assume Claudia is seriously strong, with her being ranked number two at the academy as well. From the times we've seen her use it, Pan-Dora appears to send Claudia into an almost altered state, with her eyes changing colour, and in the case where she attacked Ayato, losing control of herself. Without knowing more, it's hard to say just how strong Claudia is, but she must have something up her sleeve for her to be keeping her sword sheathed all this time.

One of the top duos at the Jie Long Seventh Institute, the Li twins are a pair that can leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth. Arrogant and sadistic beyond words, they enjoy torturing their weaker opponents, playing with them like a cat plays with its food. It's this arrogance that perhaps lead to their eventual defeat at the hands of Julis and Ayato during the Phoenix Festa. Though with such bad attitudes, we somehow doubt they've learned their lesson. The Li twins take a smoke and mirrors approach to their battles, relying on trickery and misdirection to confuse their opponents as well as lure them into traps. The real strong point of the twins is their ability to work together, which gives them a huge amount of power over other duos, who have a lot less experience fighting as a unit. To be fair to them, the two are very strong as individuals too, with Shenhua being skilled with illusions and capable of turning herself invisible, and Shenyun being able to create realistic clones of himself and using powerful elemental spells. Even so, the two definitely come as a pair and are significantly weaker when separated.

Irene is the Rewolf Black Institute's fiery and fanged entrant to the Phoenix Festival. Irene's introduction pins her as being quite literally a vampire, although it turns out this isn't quite the case. Yes, her taste for iron actually comes from her dangerous looking Ogre Lux "Gravisheath". In spite of her brash, rude attitude, though, Irene's heart is certainly in the right place, with her desire to look after her little sister Priscilla being her driving force. Obviously confident in her abilities, with Priscilla as her partner, Irene takes on their Phoenix Festa battles pretty much solo, strong enough to deal with two opponents at once with ease. Gravisheath's ability to control gravity is overwhelmingly strong against anything but Irene's most powerful opponents, putting weaker foes out of action with little difficulty. Besides that, her skill with the cruel looking scythe by itself isn't something to be taken lightly, with her harsh life clearly forcing her to learn how to fight her way out of any situation.

The most well-known idol in the world, Sylvia Lyyneheym is beautiful and graceful beyond belief, so it's hard to believe she's also a top level Genestella. Sweet and playful, Sylvia almost always keeps up her professional persona, apart from the brief time she spends with Ayato. Although being an idol is a big part of her life now, Sylvia remains as the number one strongest student at Queenvail Girls' Academy. Sylvia is there one character on this list who we have yet to see really fight, although as the top student at her academy, we can assume she's at least on a level similar to Kirin and Claudia. We do however get to see her incredible tracking ability, a feat which is much more impressive than it perhaps sounds, and demonstrates the huge strength and range of her singing based abilities. Offering what was really only a teaser of her character, Sylvia is a pretty and powerful girl we'd love to see more of.

An example of how quite frankly scary the puppets of Arlequint Academy can be, AR-D is their mechanical entry to the Phoenix Festa. Although teamed with his female counterpart RM-C, AR-D is the real beast of the battlefield, combining with parts of her to become unbelievably strong. Although quite arrogant due to how weak he finds most of his opponents, AR-D becomes humbler and more honorable as he realises that there are many who are still stronger than him, or who can at the very least put up a fight. AR-D starts off seeming almost overpowered, as he demonstrates that to weaker opponents he is virtually untouchable. His defensive barriers are stronger than any others we see in the series, seemingly able to stop any attack, with the only option being to out maneuver him. Even then, being made of metal it's pretty hard to so much as dent AR-D's body. Along with that, after combining with RM-C his hammer is able to decimate anything in its path. Really it seems like a miracle he didn't accidentally kill anyone.

Unreasonably lucky with the ladies, Ayato Amagiri is the harem lead of The Asterisk War, and currently the rank one student at Seidoukan Academy. His main objective was originally to find his missing sister Haruka, however, since then his friends have given him more reasons to fight and become stronger. Due to his unusually large prana reserves, numerous seals were placed on him by his sister to stop him hurting others, or himself. But now that he's older and needs to become stronger, Ayato has been gradually breaking the seals himself so that he can protect everyone. Although Ayato by no means has an easy time against most opponents, he is not only able to out think the majority of them but also overpower them by releasing his seals. Along with his unusually high default power level, he wields the Ogre Lux "Ser-Veresta" which perfectly complements his sword fighting style after a little tweaking. As the main protagonist with imaginable strong plot armor, Ayato will likely remain pretty much at the top of the power chart throughout the series, though that inevitability certainly makes him no less fun to watch.

Very recently introduced, Ophelia Landlufen is Julis' childhood friend, although she's changed a lot since those times. Orphelia became a Strega after being subject to human experimentation, leaving her the shell of a person that she appears as now, with powers she should never have had. Although very pretty, with a cool albino appearance, Orphelia usually holds a sad expression, or none at all, likely due to her unfortunate circumstances. The experimentation performed on Orphelia left her with an incredible amount of prana, even compared to Ayato, meaning her raw power alone is insane. She fights by manipulating miasma, allowing her to create hands that essentially win her battles for her. On top of that, anything she touches, herself or with her miasma, corrodes, making her unable to touch anything living lest she accidentally kills it. Orphelia is a ridiculously powerful and dangerous enemy for Ayato's group to take on, though given her tragic backstory hopefully there's a light at the end of the tunnel for the poor girl.

One of the many students to attend the distinguished Tristain Academy for young magicians, Louise is also potentially their biggest failure. Set in the country of Tristania in a fantasy world, Zero no Tsukaima follows Louise and her newly summoned human pet Saito through breakfast, magic classes, and wars. Despite being from a highly regarded noble family, though, Louise's non-existent abilities have earned her the title of "Zero", although non-existent isn't quite accurate. Thankfully her fiery and brash attitude seems to be enough to keep her going regardless of what anyone says. Louise's volatile and quick-tempered personality is more or less identical to Taiga's, although while Taiga is feared throughout her school, Louise is considered to be hopeless. On top of that, they both, of course, share the iconic tsundere attitude we want to see, as well as a passion for punishing their boy-toys. Next, we have the loli aspect, with both Louise and Taiga being terrifically short and flat as a board, with wonderfully wavy hair going down to their waist, a couple of real cuties. You might find Louise's voice sounds familiar as well, with her and Taiga sharing the same voice actress, Rie Kugimiya, known for her feisty tsundere roles. Along with one other girl, Louise and Taiga are considered part of the Tsundere Trinity of three almost identical flat and fiery girls, so if you like one, you're bound to love the other two as well.

Part of a secret war between Flame Hazes and Crimson Denizens, Shana is one such Flame Haze, charged with protecting the balance between our human world and the Crimson Realm. Starting off with a cold attitude, Shana seems more like a weapon than a person, her emotional development coming second to her duty as a Flame Haze. As she becomes friendlier with her companion Yuuji however and starts attending school, the young girl within Shana emerges and she quickly develops into a much fuller character. Along with Louise and Taiga, Shana is the final part of the Tsundere Trinity. Her appearance is very similar to Taiga, being incredibly short and cute, with absolutely nothing going on in the chest area. The main difference here being that Shana's hair goes from black to red, and is much straighter than Taiga's. Both also have Rie Kugimiya as their voice actress, whose voice is perfectly suited to this type of character. Shana also shares Taiga's aloof and strong personality, along with frequent outbursts of "urusai" and a rarely seen cute and flustered side. Shana is basically Taiga if she were to be put in a very different story setting, with a real katana instead of a bokken.

A story about a group of friends who are all slightly whacky in some way, Tsumiki is the main girl of the series, with most of her days, spent following around her indifferent friend, Io, in hopes of garnering his affection. Being overwhelmingly quiet and nervous, however, as you can imagine this is fairly difficult for her, on top of which she often gets involved in ridiculous occurrences and schemes caused by her friends. With an amazing ability to stay inside her own head, it's always lovely to see Tsumiki stop sniffing Io's clothes, or bleeding profusely out of her nose, and actually talk to him. Although given her personality Tsumiki might seem like the opposite of Taiga, she actually perfectly captures Taiga's most dere side, permanently. Her approach to Io is just like Taiga's approach to Kitamura, being virtually unable to say or do anything in his presence except sit there with a red face. In fact, Tsumiki is basically an ultra cute version of Taiga all over, from her personality to her even longer and more colourful hair, dopey eyes, and ridiculous ahoge. She also takes the whole tiger thing literally, sprouting kitty ears and talking like a cat during the cutest moments. If you wanted a 100% dere version of Taiga, Tsumiki is the girl.

Heir to the Sanzenin family's absurdly large fortune, Nagi is the ultimate spoilt rich girl, with a seemingly limitless bank account at her disposal. While incredibly smart for her age, as well as fostering numerous otaku hobbies, Nagi is really just a foolish young girl at heart, made obvious by her inability to be honest with her new butler, Hayate, about her feelings. Instead, she expresses herself through anger and locking herself in her room, which doesn't seem healthy no matter which way you look at it. Far more on the tsun side than dere, Nagi is potentially angrier than Taiga should such a thing be possible. Much like Taiga's idea of Ryuuji, Nagi considers Hayate to be a beast despite liking him and wants to protect her closest friends from him. Although looking a fair bit different to Taiga, Nagi is a total loli too, with no chest to speak of and standing at an adorable 138cm tall. It's impossible to not mention as well the return of high pitched tsundere voice actress Rie Kugimiya, who's angry and cute voice you can look forward to hearing once again. Though a bit less so than Louise and Shana, Nagi is all over another tiger in disguise.

Rough and tough, Ryouko is the muscle of Otogi High School's Otogi Bank, a club responsible for trading favours with students. As Ryouko deals with the more dangerous requests, she spends most of her time in the gym training to become stronger and owns a pair of specialty made Neko Neko Knuckles that pack quite a punch. Despite her tough exterior though Ryouko is still very much a girl on the inside, something which few see, bar her admirer Ryoushi. Think of Ryouko as an older, taller version of Taiga, with her bokken traded for a pair of fists. Thanks to both Toradora and Ookami-san being produced by J.C.Staff, the two quite literally look like the same person too, with both series having the same art style. Both girls share a very strong desire to hide their feminine side as well due to traumatic events in their past, using their tough, angry act as a shield. This, of course, leads into Ryouko's all too familiar tsundere personality, with her best friend Ringo (I.e. Minorin) being the only person she shows her warm side too. Stronger and more mature than Taiga, but not quite as short and cute, Ryouko is one for those of you who are after a woman more than a girl.

One of only seven level 5 espers in Academy City, Misaka is an electromaster ranked number 3 among them. Nicknamed "The Railgun" after her signature move, where she fires coins using her electricity the same as a railgun, Misaka has few qualms using her powers to stop troublemakers, often aiding disciplinary committee Judgement as well. Despite being one of the top espers in the city and attending Tokiwadai Middle School, one of the top 5 schools, Misaka is not nearly as high class and lady-like as many consider her to be, having a ludicrously short temper, violent tendencies, and an overall very tomboyish personality. Though with all that said, she also remains a girl that likes cute things, and the boy who tries to protect her. As another series produced by J.C.Staff, you may once again find something about Misaka familiar, particularly those big brown eyes. Apart from that, though, Taiga and our Misaka look a fair bit different, bar, of course, their pitiful chests. For it's within their personalities the main similarities lie, as we once again meet with the tsundere archetype, a running theme with these waifu. Although Touma, Misaka's love interest, is thankfully able to shrug off her electrical outbursts, others are not quite so lucky and effectively act as human stress balls. Her dere side is what you would expect as well, with her becoming a red-faced, blabbering mess whenever she gets embarrassed. Another short fuse bomb waiting to blow with a secret sweet side, fans of Taiga should definitely check out Misaka's electrical antics.

Despite being a key part of Rin's character development, Love Wing Bell often does not get the credit it deserves. Struggling to show her feminine side, as well as having the pressure of group lead put on her, we discover that Rin is not as strong and cheery as she seems on the outside. But along come the rest of the band with butler outfits and a wedding dress in hand to let Rin know that she's cuter than she knows, and can sure as hell lead the group on stage. Outside of the anime, this also lead to an explosion in Rin's popularity, not that she wasn't already a popular girl. The song takes Rin, who had long been fairly neglected in the series, and puts her as the main vocalist, which is a refreshing change in itself. Along with the wedding outfits, we also hear wedding bells, strings, and in particular harps during the break of the song, giving the song a real wedding feel to accompany the performance. The track is overall quite simple, but does a really good job of representing Rin's feelings of finally being able to accept herself.

The very first performance of what would later become μ, START:DASH!! receives two includes throughout the series: one with Honoka, Umi, and Kotori, and one with all nine members of the band. The first performance is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the show, with only a small number of students turning up to watch the three girls perform. This is also the beginning of μ's formation though, as Hanayo is one of the excited audience members. The second performance essentially resolves the lack of an audience in the first, with the band now playing to a filled auditorium. Along with SUNNY DAY SONG, START:DASH!! is one of the only performances in the series to use a full length song, although it is altered slightly. As you would expect, START:DASH!! talks about the girls starting off their journey to become idols, which holds true in both performances. When only performed by Honoka, Umi, and Kotori, the song has a particular charm as we get to hear each girl sing solo during the otherwise fairly quiet verses.

The opening for Love Live's first season, what could be a more iconic song for the series than Bokura wa Ima no Naka de. Although it introduces every episode to us for a whole series, it's not until the end of the second season that μ actually performs the song as an encore for what they thought would be their last performance at the Love Live finals. Hearing the song start in that episode had that same feeling as when someone mentions a movie's title during the movie, they were finally performing the first song we saw them singing together. Bokura wa Ima no Naka de is designed to be a crowd pleaser, featuring everything from violins, to loud drums, and a short guitar solo. The girls always sing in groups during the song, with a heavy focus on backing vocals, creating a sense of togetherness for the group, and also giving a spectacular performance without us needing to know the voices of each girl very well, ideal for the series' opening.

Aishiteru Banzai! features in the original Love Live series twice, both times with only a piano accompaniment, demonstrating how strong the song is with its lyrics alone. It's first appearance is in the first episode, performed by Maki alone with her piano, and with Honoka listening in. There's a certain irony to this as although the performance is very beautiful, given Maki's isolation the lyrics don't hold the same meaning as they do later in the show. The second performance is at the end of the second season at the third year's graduation, by a teary eyed μ, and is one of the most heartfelt, if low-key, performances in the series. Although the single itself features more instruments, the performances in the series really demonstrate the ability of μ to hold their own as vocalists with little accompaniment. The song itself speaks about moving on from what they've achieved and accepting the present, which is an important step given how the girls were struggling with the thoughts of μ breaking-up. Moreso it talks about how even though they're moving on, they still love each other very much.

The opening to Love Live Sunshine, Aozora Jumping Heart is a worthy competitor for Love Live's previous two openings. For many, this will be the first time that they heard Aqours perform together, and as the successors of μ, the pressure couldn't be higher to at least match their senior's set standard. It's safe to say that they did a great job though, with this hype generator of a track. Much like Bokura wa Ima no Naka de, Aozora Jumping Heart includes no solos, and focuses on having all the girls singing together, which makes it both very loud and powerful, helped by the "Woo!"s throughout. They're excited to be there, and they're making sure that you are too. Although we don't hear the distinctive voices of each girl because of this, we do get to see the difference in vocals between μ and Aqours, which is just as important, it not more.

The ending for Love Live season two, hearing those first few notes at the end of an episode was always an "ohh s***s going down" moment. Although never performed by the group in the main series, Donna Toki mo Zutto's ending performance, with all the girls swaying and singing in line, is a reminder of the group's togetherness, as well as a callback to their roots, practicing together on that rooftop. We also get the opportunity to hear the song performed by different group members in each ending which keeps it feeling fresh each week. Donna Toki mo Zutto has a really nice build up at the start, with a surprisingly fast beat, that almost gives one the feeling of running alongside Honoka. The highlight of the song is the cheer of "Ganbarou yo!" from all the girls, with the whole song providing a strong feeling of pressing forward and trying your best. Interestingly the feather scene at the end is referenced in the new season, where Chika catches a white feather at the train station.

Wonderful Rush is one of μ's best known singles to not actually make an appearance in the show itself. Despite that though, the song has it's own full length PV with excellent choreography and some lovely blue and white outfits. The Love Live School Idol Movie actually references the video at the start as the girls are getting ready to fly to New York, with Kotori pointing out that she's brought her pillow with her which she forgets in the Wonderful Rush PV, and is the reason they almost miss their flight. The "Dan-dan Kokoro" build up at the start of the song is debatably one of the most recognisable song intros in μ's discography, with the lyrics both starting and ending the song on a high note. The bridge after the second chorus is also very memorable, with Maki hitting an absurdly high note, as well as Nico having a small talking (shouting) section, before the chorus of "Hi hi super jump"s comes in. Wonderful Rush is certainly, in a musical sense, one of μ's most interesting songs.

μ's second to last performance, SUNNY DAY SONG features near the end of the School Idol Movie, and along with START:DASH!! is one of the only songs throughout the series to be performed in it's uncut, full length form. Labelled as the "anthem" for all school idols, the performance features a crowd of other girls performing alongside μ, as well as showing the members teaching the other idols how to sing, dance, and make costumes. The performance signifies μ passing the torch of Love Live on to all the new school idols, now that their time in the spotlight is drawing to a close. Given that this song comes near the end of μ's career, it's nice to hear something so insanely upbeat and happy, with an amusingly literal title. The lyrics speak to both the other idols and to μ themselves, about how the group are happy having achieved their dream, as well as how this is a new beginning that they should step forward into smiling. It's this kind of send off that acts as inspiration for groups like Aqours to step up.

Aqours' big break, Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare is their chosen song for the Love Live qualifiers, and one of the most touching performances of the series. After dealing with both Riko's absence and You's worries over her friendship with Chika, their performance is so much sweeter and heartfelt than if it were just another song on an album. With the choreography even themed around their missing member, although she's away the group feels more together than ever. Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare features solo piano sections at both the beginning and end, a reference to the group's absent pianist, as well as adding a classy touch to an otherwise fast-paced j-pop song. With them down to eight members, the girls pair up for vocal sections, which makes a change from the usual solos or groups of three, as well as allowing all the girls to get a chance to sing whilst keeping the uncluttered, clear nature of the song intact.

One of μ's most well known songs, even outside the fandom, Snow halation's performance in the series also shows off some of the girl's most well known outfits, which even have their own series of figures. It's also the group's first attempt at a love song, something which they struggle with a lot due to none of them having experience in love. They manage to overcome this though by writing it together, making it also the first song that they wrote together as a group. Snow halation is among μ's slower, more relaxing songs, stepping away from the hectic, j-pop idol group tunes that make up the majority of their works. Despite this however, it doesn't lose the uplifting feeling that comes with all of μ's best hits, which is probably helped by the overall wintery feel that comes with the snow theme and use of bells throughout. The song was actually released, along with a PV, much earlier than it's appearance in the series, with the anime version essentially providing a new, updated version of the performance.