#12.4.18

Season 1 Riko is an absolutely phenomenal character, and is easily the best written and developed character in Love Live, in my opinion.

Riko’s arc is one of rediscovering your passion. At a piano competition in her first year of high school, Riko was unable to play the song she had prepared, and left the stage, bowing in apology to the audience for her rather disappointing performance. This event, unsurprisingly, had a pretty severe impact on Riko. She’s gone her entire life adoring the piano, but got super stressed out when expectations became too high. And piano is all she really had, she hadn’t even heard of school idols because of how focused on piano she was.

And so Riko’s family moves from Tokyo to Uchiura. There are a few explanations for this action. The most significant explanation, and the one that the anime uses, is that Riko wants a change of scenery so that she can better capture an oceanic feel for her song that she failed to play in her first year. It’s also possible that she moved to get away from a sense of shame after her failure, she’d inevitably get dirty looks in class for something like that. Moving to a new place means you don’t know anybody, so nobody knows of your failure or really has any major expectations of you. Riko can take comfort in that fact. However, the change of scenery is the most important thing. Riko couldn’t play her song because she didn’t think it was good enough. It was supposed to feel oceanic, but she didn’t know how to capture that feel, so she didn’t play the song. This completely encapsulates just how all of the pressure on Riko affects her. She felt her song didn’t meet expectations, so she didn’t play it. If she just perfects the song, she can win the competition and validate herself, effectively. But that last step about winning the competition, Riko doesn’t realise that yet.

Enter Chika “orange you glad we live next to each other” Takami. A really good character but this is about Riko so we won’t go into that in great depth. Chika’s story of school idols and normal people shining in episode 1 is a simple one, but it cheers up Riko and encourages her to do better. This is the start of the absolutely fantastic relationship they’ll develop. Chika wants Riko to be a school idol, but Riko’s entirely uninterested. After spending presumably a few days repeating the cycle of “Do you wanna be a school idol?”, Chika sees Riko on the beach and takes a quick peek up her skirt before telling her that they can go listen to the sound of the ocean together. This process goes smoothly and Riko hears the sound of the ocean she so desperately craves. Content, she decides to help Chika and You with composing, and in that moment comes to understand just how passionately Chika loves school idols. Later that day, Riko plays Yume no Tobira on her piano, and Chika, who happens to live beside her, takes note. It’s in this scene where Riko opens up about her problems and history with the piano. Chika’s response is to recruit her anyway, but Riko says she can’t quit piano. It’s here where we get an absolutely beautiful exchange between the two:

Chika: “Try it, and if you can smile and change, you can go back to piano. You won’t be quitting”

Riko: “It’d be rude to try being a school idol with that kind of motivation when you’re trying so hard.”

Chika: “If it helps you, that makes me happy. Putting smiles on peoples’ faces is what a school idol is about.”

And with that, Riko joins up as a school idol. Her motivation – enjoy being a school idol and therefore enjoy life, allowing her to return to piano and enjoy that. Across the rest of the season, Riko and Chika gradually become closer and closer, with Riko being an incredibly supportive friend to Chika’s issues as well as her being the one who notices why this town is so great – something that makes sense for her to realise as she’s the most inexperienced with the town.

Episode 10 and 11 are where Riko’s arc is brought into the spotlight again, as she receives an email informing her about that piano competition. And she deletes the email, because she’s content being a school idol. Chika overhears her sister and Riko’s mum talking about the competition though, and Riko’s mum is concerned since Riko hasn’t done anything about it to her knowledge. Chika takes matters into her own hands and, when the rest of Aqours are asleep, Chika wakes Riko up and they cycle to the school, where she asks Riko to play her ocean themed song from much earlier. Riko does, Chika likes it, and then they talk at the beach. Chika tells Riko that she wants her to enter the piano competition, and in this moment, Riko’s shocked, too shocked too even respond for several seconds. Several seconds after Chika suggests this and even managing to ignore Chika’s explanation, Riko jumps to the conclusion that Chika doesn’t want her to come along. Across this season, they’ve developed such a wonderful, beautiful friendship even, and Riko’s become incredibly comfortable as Chika’s friend and as a school idol. The moment that piano competition is brought up again, Riko jumps to a false conclusion, that Chika doesn’t want her at the Love Live event. She’s still insecure. She’s suddenly way less certain about what Chika thinks of her. Riko’s showing her weaknesses. Let’s be real for a second, Riko’s conclusion is irrational, but that’s how her insecurity manifested. Thankfully, Chika explains everything. As we already stated earlier, Riko’s arc is one of rediscovering passion, and this is what happens here. Chika basically tells Riko that the piano was important to her, and that she shouldn’t just forget it. Riko’s allowed to balance out these things, she doesn’t need to choose just one. And in episode 11, Riko does indeed go to that piano competition and play her finished song, taking 1st place in the process. By taking 1st place and doing what she couldn’t do before, Riko’s essentially validated herself – she’s proven to herself that her decisions were right. I’ll get into it later, but season 2 does do something to give this arc a more definitive conclusion.

And there’s Riko’s arc. It’s one of a very insecure character losing passion for something she loves, but, thanks to the help of others, she learns to enjoy life again and can go back to her old passion with a smile. The thing that makes this especially great though is how good the execution is. Love Live has a tendency to introduce a character’s problem and then give them all the development they need to overcome it in just an episode, and it often ends up feeling sort of superfluous. That development methodology isn’t terrible per se, and SIP actually does it quite well with the likes of Rin and Nico, but taking the time to carefully develop Riko as an individual as well as developing her relationship with Chika worked wonders. It’s no surprise that an arc that great would result in Riko being my best girl and Sunshine season 1 is my favourite season of Love Live.

However, while all of this was really, truly fantastic, there was one major flaw in Riko’s treatment in season 1. She gets no significant interaction with anyone in Aqours sans Chika and You. I’ve briefly touched on why Chika’s great, but the interaction with You was poorly done, imo. Remember how I mentioned Love Live introduces character flaws and overcomes them in the same episode? The 2nd year drama was that for me. You’s jealous of ChikaRiko even though every interaction You has with the two of them prior indicates that she wouldn’t be even remotely jealous. Heck, You seemingly flirts with Riko at times. But that’s a thing for another day. For now, let’s take a look at how season 2 developed Riko and her relationship with the other members of Aqours.

Or I suppose I should say with Yohane and nobody else.

But before I open that can of worms, let’s touch upon the definitely great moments for Riko in season 2.

See, Riko definitely gets off to a strong start in season 2. Yes, Riko-chan Beam is actually an incredible scene for highlighting Riko’s development as a character and the security in her relationship with Chika. Remember Riko’s reaction to the suggestion of going to the piano competition by Chika? That was a pretty scary situation for her. In the 1st episode of season 2, after Riko tells Chika that it’s okay that they lost because they were disadvantaged but did their best. Chika’s response…

“If you really mean that, I despise you.”

Woah. Despise? That’s pretty intense, Mikan. But Riko’s response isn’t just perfectly calm, it’s playful. She does the Riko-chan Beam! It doesn’t take a genius to identify that, if Chika had said that to Riko as she were pre-S1EP10, she’d cry. That Riko was fragile and insecure. After that whole ordeal though and her piano competition, Riko’s finally feeling content again. She’s comfortable. She’s secure. She hears Chika suggest that she despises her, and she responds by being a cute little goofball. Just goes to show you how much more confident she’s become.

Riko also gets some closure to her arc in season 1, which I alluded to earlier in this essay. See, by winning that piano competition, Riko essentially validated her decision to participate in it. She got what she wanted from it, it was the correct decision. But Riko’s also an idol now. And in episode 12, when Chika asks everyone if they want to win Love Live, Riko’s response is as simple as saying that she wants to win Love Live to prove to herself that being a school idol was the correct choice. She wants to be a school idol. In season 1, she validated herself as a pianist, and in season 2, she validates herself as a school idol by winning Love Live. Her arc in season 1 felt complete, but this detail in season 2 makes that feel more complete. That she’s playing piano so confidently in many scenes in the last few episodes is the icing on the cake.

Anyway, now I can open the aforementioned can of worms that is YohaRiko.

First and foremost, I’d like to clarify something. I love YohaRiko. It’s not my favourite Riko ship, that honour goes to ChikaRiko by far, but YohaRiko takes second place. I think the two go incredibly well together aesthetically, and there’s a lot of potential for genuinely good character interaction be it platonic or romantic between the two. With how popular the ship is and the fact that even their seiyuus love it, it’s no surprise that the writers tried to capitalise off of its popularity in season 2 and just have more of it.

Emphasis on “Tried”.

See, Riko and Yohane’s relationship starts in episode 5, where Yohane discovers a seemingly stray dog and, unable to take care of it herself because of rules and such, as well as unable to give it to most of the other members, offers it to Riko, who begrudgingly ends up taking care of it. They bond in the process of caring for the dog, and eventually end up returning it to its owners. After a quick “is this loss” meme (I’m serious) the two wait near the owner’s house wanting to meet it again, and have a conversation about the natures of coincidences and fate and datenshis. The development for each character individually doesn’t really mean anything. We don’t really learn anything about Yohane we didn’t learn in season 1, and Riko’s development in this episode is completely meaningless outside of this episode. Honestly, it’s the most filler episode in Love Live. But at minimum, it’s still cute fun with two girls we love very much. And from know on forth, we can have Yohane and Riko having significant interaction! With the opportunity to put these characters in a lot of interesting scenarios and develop a genuine relationship between the two to match the likes of ChikaRiko, what do you think the writers did?

It’s pretty simple, really. Yohane does some Datenshi things. Riko gets mad. Yohane calls her “Riri”, and then Riko gives an angry Datenshi response. And that’s every interaction they have for the remainder of the season.

To say it’s unfortunate is an understatement. These 2 had potential. Riko’s biggest flaw in season 1 was the lack of interaction outside of Chika. Yohane’s biggest flaw was a pretty severe lack of development. Give Riko someone else to interact with and give Yohane someone more grounded than she is yet still understanding and have Yohane develop thanks to her. In the process, give us some funny and varied jokes and cute moments. Try not to forget about ChikaRiko in the process, preferably. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, and yet, we get none of it. Simply put, it’s wasted potential.

Plus, perhaps it’s just me, but I think it’s even more offensive in the case of Riko. Yohane didn’t really have much going on in season 1, so for her to be in a similar situation in season 2 was fairly whatever to me. I’d definitely have preferred she get development, but she wasn’t Hanamaru’d at least. She’s pretty even across both seasons, there’s a consistency in quality, even if that quality is somewhat disappointing. Riko meanwhile was the most interesting character in season 1 for me, so for Riko to otherwise be the butt of Datenshi jokes was infuriating to me, even in spite of the good moments I’ve mentioned. It’s not impossible that this upsets me more out of bias towards Riko, but really, how could I not be upset? I think even if you’re not a fan of Riko, you have to agree that this isn’t the best direction to take her character, right? Maybe you don’t. That’s whatever.

Season 2 Riko isn’t exactly flanderised or anything. Those good things I mentioned about her portrayal in season 2 still hold true in spite of what they do with YohaRiko. Her being a Datenshi joke is only really a thing in the middle of the season. It starts and ends with phenomenal development for her. And sure, the YohaRiko scenes can get annoying, and I’ll admit in hindsight that they weren’t really very good. But at minimum, they’re all still cute and basically all of them managed to make me laugh on my first watch.

All in all, Riko’s an odd one. Her season 1 portrayal is absolutely incredible. It’s extremely well written and her relationship with Chika is stellar. Her biggest problem is a lack of interaction with others, and season 2 flops when it tries to fix that. However, season 2 gives her season 1 arc the conclusion we didn’t know we needed. And in that aspect alone, I gotta give season 2 Riko some props. Is she the worst girl in Sunshine season 2? Absolutely not, no way. Hanamaru still exists, You was barely a character, and as I already mentioned, Yohane was underwhelming. Is she the best girl though? Probably not, I think I’d give that to Mari. I still liked Riko though.