Nothing Can Prepare You For This Love Live! Spinoff Anime

Yohane the Parhelion Sunshine in the Mirror key art

I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve never really been into Love Live!. It’s not that I don’t like idol anime, I definitely do, but the fans of that franchise have done that thing where they definitely make you not want to be a part of anything to do with that. Then a fantasy spinoff was announced, and I thought “hey, maybe now is the time to check it out.” Absolutely nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror is, nominally, a spinoff of Love Live! Sunshine!!, the second anime series in the Love Live! franchise. It takes characters from Sunshine and reimagines them in a fantasy-ish world, but mostly focuses on Yohane, a “mirror” version of Yoshiko.

Related: Love Live Spinoff Yohane the Parhelion Gets a Surprising Game Tie-in

Yohane, after a series of misfortunes and being unable to be accepted into an idol group in the city, moves back to her hometown, alongside her very large talking wolf Lailaps that everybody seems to be totally cool with for some reason. Here, she tries to find her place in the world, and after a magical performance at her childhood playground – the forest, of course – she gets gifted with a magical staff that, I dunno, does music magic or something. It’s fun, and kind of idol-y, so there’s nothing particularly strange yet.

The second episode is much more slice of life-ish, with Yohane trying to be a fortune teller (poorly) and learning from her childhood friend that sometimes just trying to help is enough, even if she doesn’t make any money. She learns to listen to her friends, helps the townspeople, and has a lot of fun enjoying being part of the society she’s in.

And then she gets attacked by a deer possessed by dark magic in the forest, only to be saved by three magical girl superheroes and a Power Ranger. Yeah.

Honestly, having gone into this series totally blind, I was very much shocked. I assumed this was going to be the same as any other idol anime, just with a bit more of a fantasy touch to it. I assumed very, very wrongly. It turns out that Sunshine in the Mirror is an action-packed pseudo-parody of a host of different genres, and somehow, against all odds, it all works together while still taking itself mostly seriously.

The third episode continues with Yohane traveling to a mysterious island castle in the fog to meet with the demon lord, a strong and powerful woman who seems to command the spirits of sea creatures. I assume she’ll join with Yohane in her evil deer-fighting crusades, but I actually wouldn’t know. I had to take a break after the third episode because my mind had been so thoroughly blown.

If you’ve got a Crunchyroll subscription, you absolutely have to check out Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror. I don’t know if it’s good, exactly, but it’s a ridiculous, joyous blast that’s a heck of a lot of fun to watch.

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