Development
The franchise announced a brand new anime project following the release of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club in January 2020, with the premise featuring a new set of characters who are all first-year students in a newly-reopened school originally on the verge of demolition. The school lies between the Omotesando, Harajuku, and Aoyama neighborhoods of Tokyo. An audition for one of the main cast also occurred on March 12, 2020, but was postponed due to COVID-19.[6] Atsushi Saitō serves as the character design adapting style of the series' original character designer Yūhei Murota.[7] The school name was decided through fans' votes and ended in May 2020 with Yuigaoka Girls High School (結ヶ丘女子高等学校). The main characters names were also announced: Kanon Shibuya, Tang Keke, Chisato Arashi, Sumire Heanna, and Ren Hazuki.[8]
The project's name, ''Love Live! Superstar!! was announced in July through the series' exclusive magazine Love Live! Days''.[9] In September, the school idol group's name, "Liella!" was also chosen through fans' votes.[10] The name was chosen among 16 options that fans could vote for.[7] The name "Liella!" comes from a combination from a French word "lier" which means "to connect", which is the same as Yui (結) in the school's name in Japanese, and "brilliante", which means an "inner glow". Behind the group's name lies the feelings of the hope that the small stars of today who have their own brilliance will become superstars someday.[11]
The cast of the initial five main characters was later revealed in December 2020: Sayuri Date, Liyuu, Nako Misaki, Naomi Payton, and Nagisa Aoyama. Date and Aoyama are members who passed the open audition that was held earlier in the year.[12] The group's debut single, "Hajimari wa Kimi no Sora" (始まりは君の空) released on April 7, 2021. The single includes an animation PV and released in two versions—each with different B-side tracks: "Minna de Kanaeru Monogatari" (みんなで叶える物語) and "Watashi o Kanaeru Monogatari" (私を叶える物語).[13]
On April 28, 2022, four new characters were announced to be joining Liella!'s member lineup for the second season in an issue of the ''Love Live! Days'' magazine: Kinako Sakurakoji, Mei Yoneme, Shiki Wakana and Natsumi Onitsuka, and the second season's air date was given the timeframe of summer 2022.[3] Shortly after the confirmation of a third season in October 2022, a second nationwide open audition recruiting one cast member for Liella!'s 'third generation' was announced. On June 11, 2023, a new character named Tomari Onitsuka was introduced in an issue of ''Love Live! Days'' magazine. Additionally, supporting character Wien Margarete, an antagonist who first appeared in the second season, was confirmed to be joining Liella!
