The TV anime for Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club now has a date, a key visual and a new class of characters. The official website announced on Sunday that the series premieres January 10 at 10:30 p.m. on Tokyo MX, and that it will run for seven episodes.
The first broadcast goes out on Tokyo MX at 10:30 p.m. Japan time, which is 8:30 a.m. Eastern. BS11, Sun TV, KBS Kyoto, TV Aichi, RKB Mainichi Broadcasting and Shizuoka Broadcasting System air it later the same day. Hokkaido Broadcasting picks it up on January 11, and Hokuriku Broadcasting on January 17.
Seven episodes is a short run, and the content explains why. The anime follows the 106th class at Hasu no Sora Girls' Academy across April, May and June of their school year. The previous anime film and the smartphone game only ever covered the 103rd through 105th classes, so this is a deliberate handover to a new generation rather than a continuation of the old one.
The new girls and who plays them
Three cast members were revealed with the key visual:
- Julia Hoshimiya as Maika Kinjo
- Kana Asahi as Aoi Reisawa
- Kanae Yuasa as Mion Shinowa
They join a main cast that carried the project through the app era. Nozomi Nirei plays Kaho Hinoshita, Kokona Nonaka is Sayaka Murano, Kanna Kan is Rurino Osawa, Hina Sakurai is Ginko Momose, Fuka Hayama is Kosuzu Kachimachi, Rin Kurusu is Hime Anyoji, Miu Miyake is Ceras Yanagida Lilienfeld and Amane Shindo is Izumi Katsuragi. Niina Hanamiya (Kozue Otomune), Kona Tsukine (Megumi Fujishima) and Kotoko Sasaki (Tsuzuri Yugiri) played characters who have since graduated. The group's artist photo was updated alongside the announcement.
Same staff as the film, with two changes
Gō Kurosaki (Shikizakura) directs at Sublimation. Fumiaki Maruto (Engage Kiss, White Album 2) writes the scripts, Haruko Iizuka (Ensemble Stars!, Horimiya) designs the characters, Kaito Hamakawa handles CG direction, Keiichi Nozaki is sound director and Yoshiaki Fujisawa composes the music, with Lantis producing.
The rest of the team: Yū Kisaragi on design works, Yasuhiro Okumura as art director, Marina Manode on stage concept art, Hikari Komiya as color key artist, Fumika Takahashi and Hiroshi Tanaka as directors of photography, and Manabu Kamino editing.
Most of that lineup carried over from Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jogakuin School Idol Club Bloom Garden Party, the 3D anime film that opened in Japanese theaters on May 8 and covered the last day before the 103rd class graduated. Two names changed. Komiya replaces Emi Chiba as color key artist, and Takahashi joins as a second compositing director of photography next to the returning Tanaka.
An anime outliving its app
The Hasu no Sora group belongs to the wider Love Live! franchise alongside Kaho, Sayaka, Kozue, Tsuzuri, Rurino and Megumi, and it was built primarily inside Link! Like! Love Live!, the smartphone app that launched April 15, 2023. The app was designed around the idea of spending 365 days with the idols and walking to graduation with them. It ended service on June 30 this year, and Odd No., the company behind it, filed for bankruptcy on August 5.
So the anime arrives after the platform that introduced these characters is gone. That is unusual for a multimedia project, and it puts pressure on seven episodes to work as a standalone introduction. Fans who followed the app already know the 103rd to 105th classes. Everyone else meets the 106th cold in January.
The Hasu no Sora group's first album, Dream Believers, came out March 29, 2023, and the members have kept up streaming and live appearances outside the app.
What to expect
A winter 2027 premiere on a late-night slot, seven episodes, and a story locked to a three-month window of a single school year. If you have watched Love Live! before, the shape will be familiar: a small group, a stage, and a deadline. The difference is that this one is functioning as a soft reset, with a new class and a new set of voices carrying a franchise that has been running on the same six girls for years.
Source: Anime News Network and Anime Corner, citing the official Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club website and X/Twitter account.
Source: Anime News Network and Anime Corner, citing the official Love Live! Hasu no Sora website and its X/Twitter account
Featured image: Key visual for the Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jōgakuin School Idol Club TV anime, via Anime News Network.
