Genjitsu no Yohane: Sunshine in the Mirror

As a spirited young girl, Yohane ventured into the big city with ambitious dreams of becoming a star. Two years later, she has yet to a single audition. Since Yohane cannot herself alone, her mother invites her back home to discover something new that only she can do. With limited options and an empty wallet, Yohane reluctantly returns to Numazu, her hometown.

In the seaside town, Yohane reunites with her canine companion, Lailaps, and slowly settles in, opening a fortune-telling shop. She reconnects with old friends she had forgotten and meets new ones, all of whom help in her search for a unique purpose and meaningful path in life.

Unfortunately, all is not well for Yohane and the people of Numazu: a mysterious power is affecting the town and disrupting nature and wildlife. While forging stronger bonds with her newfound allies, Yohane devotes her summer to finding the magic that may help save Numazu.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tsushima, Yoshiko Main

Kobayashi, Aika Japanese

Watanabe, You Main

Saitou, Shuka Japanese

Kunikida, Hanamaru Main

Takatsuki, Kanako Japanese

Sakurauchi, Riko Main

Aida, Rikako Japanese

Ohara, Mari Main

Suzuki, Aina Japanese

Kurosawa, Ruby Main

Furihata, Ai Japanese

Kurosawa, Dia Main

Komiya, Arisa Japanese

Takami, Chika Main

Inami, Anju Japanese

Matsuura, Kanan Main

Suwa, Nanaka Japanese

Lailaps Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Ootsuka, Hiroshi Producer

Iwata, Yoshihiro Producer

Nakatani, Asami Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Animation Director, Key Animation

Morita, Yuuichi Sound Director

Reviews

Sep 17, 2023

Marinate1016

Recommended

Very rarely does a meme turn into something as good as the Yohane spin-off. Originally created as an April Fool’s Day joke, Sunrise saw the reception and decided to make it a real anime. I’m glad they did. Yohane has been my favourite Aquors member and 2nd favourite Love Live girl for a long time and the story in this one really did her justice.Allowing her to shine in a way she just couldn’t get in the main anime due to sharing the spotlight with the other girls. The show manages to keep the feeling of the original Sunshine series, while mixing in a modern ... fantasy element. The fantasy aspect is a little underwhelming. It does feel like the story is very self-contained to the small town in which it takes place, however, as with all Love Live titles, the show really shines with the character interactions.

Yohane and her faithful companion Lailaps have a very nice, almost sibling relationship. Over the course of the show we see the two of them bond and come to understand each other. Despite being an original creation for this anime, I quickly got attached and fell in love with Lailaps. The struggles that she and Yohane go through over the course of the show, how she comforts Yohane in her times of need.. Just really resonated with me. It’s a simple yet poignant relationship. While the other girls do feature in the show heavily, it’s very much a Lailaps and Yohane story at its core. Yohane growing into her own person is a very sweet story and I loved every moment of it.

As I said, the rest of the Aquors cast are in the show as side characters. Some more than others. They basically act as a plot device for Yohane to become more independent and leave her childhood behind. There’s some cute moments with the cast as they try to help Yohane through some emotional trauma she’s had, but this is very much her story. So don’t expect too much in of substance and development from the other girls.

The fantasy elements like I said are kind of weak. The whole overarching plot of the calamity ended up being somewhat underwhelming, but the characters are the main selling point in this one. I think if you are at all interested in Yohane from the Sunshine anime this is a must watch as it really shows who she is at her core. A lot of times she was used as comic relief during the main anime, and while she is definitely funny, there is a lot more to her than memes. So this was a welcome development.

Of course, you can’t talk about Love Live without the musical performances. As expected based on the series’ recent form, the songs in GNY are all great. There’s a couple group performances and some solos and they’re all bangers. I swear the songwriters are just getting better and better with these. They’re going from more anime-y songs to legit bops.The CGI continues to improve to a point where it’s almost indistinguishable from 2D animation in these performances. The future is certainly bright for idol shows.

I thoroughly enjoyed Genjitsu no Yohane and thought it was one of the most underrated shows of the season. It went from an April Fool’s meme to a genuinely heartwarming and moving experience for one of my favourite characters that had me in tears for a couple episodes. If you’re a Love Live fan it goes without saying this is a much watch, but it’s also an enjoyable slice of life fantasy watch for casual fans. It’s cute, simple, but effective.
Genjitsu no Yohane gets 9, out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 20, 2023

B3MyGuest

Mixed Feelings

Directionless: The anime starts off strong with introductions to Yohane and friends, beautiful artstyle for the animation, and great music. Then comes the middle of the show where each episode just felt like time filler for the next song that will be performed and the main antagonistic force at play is completely forgotten about so much so that the show felt like it was dragging. Fantasy setting? Very underutilized. World building? Not much of it. What danger is there? Just a few deer in 2 eps... While the final episodes finally turned the gears for something to happen in the show, the emotional parts fall ... flat due to the dragging of those middle episodes but at least the ending is a bit middle of the road. The anime could've been better if it didn't introduce an antagonistic force and focused on being a pure slice of life but they chose to try to do both and somehow sacrificed the plot and made a muddy sol. In conclusion, if you're an Aqours fan you can find some moments that can make you excited Aqours is back animated if you ignore everything else...while for others new to this franchise looking for something not idoly I'd say it's safe to skip.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 23, 2023

Rhysais

Not Recommended

Preliminary (7/13 eps)

Animation and songs are nice.

Characters redesigns are fun, but you won't know their personalities unless you watched Love Live Sunshine!!.

Story beats are a remix of Sunshine!! in worse : girl in small town doesn't think she's special but turns out she's the most special one of them all for... reasons. She met girls who became instantly her friends for... reasons. She struggles because she feels she has to do it alone but turns out she doesn't have to. The end.

Genuinely speaking, it doesn't have the heart you'd find in SIP or Love Live Sunshine!!. The character of Yoshiko / Yohane who could be ... entertaining in Sunshine!! became a watered down version of Chika from Love Live Sunshine (the main character of Sunshine who's basically invisible here) and all the story beats are rehashed and worse versions of things you've have already seen in other Love Live anime.

This anime feels mostly aimed at Yoshiko's fans and if you are one of them, the note is probably bumped to a 7, but for anyone else, even if you loved Love Live Sunshine!! and want to see again characters you loved but who aren't Yoshiko, just rewatch the original show because you'll get basically nothing.

You'll have people defending this show saying that "It's Yohane's show so of course other characters wouldn't appear as much" and it's fair enough, but then the problem become that Yohane isn't really that great or interesting as a protagonist and the Yohane you met in episode 1 is more or less exactly the same as the Yohane in episode 13.

Her struggles are kind of shallow since every two episodes it's seems she has to learn the same lesson and her personality that can be endearing the first three episodes just becomes extremely frustrating to watch.

End of day, Love Live Sunshine!! made me cry my heart out for a district school closing down, in Genjitsu no Yohane Numazu was threatened with destruction and I felt nothing. I ended up the show wondering why Dia wasn't the main character when she's the one being actually active in the story and fighting for Numazu.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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