The first chapter of the new Love Live! series manga “Ikizu Live” has been published on KADOKAWA’s manga site “Comic Walker.” The work portrays the relationships between girls each struggling with life in their own way, and its departure from the franchise’s usual “school idol” formula has become a hot topic. On 5ch’s Love Live! board, posts have been buzzing about the words and actions of lead character “Polka,” along with jokes comparing other past characters with lines like “isn’t this one an Ikizu Live case too?” Reactions were split between fans who welcomed the new direction and those questioning the heavy expository dialogue and the artwork.
Great, so it's another manga that's just gonna slap the plot together sloppily and then get cancelled?
3AnonymousSep 24, 2026 11:50
I genuinely can't see Polka as anything but unhinged.
5AnonymousSep 24, 2026 12:40
A new era begins
7AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:00
Now that the story's actually gotten going, you can finally see each character's own struggle with life.
10AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:25
For Superstar!!, that whole "music department" setting ended up not mattering at all.
11AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:27
Yoshiko: let her chuuni phase spiral out of control and ended up with zero friends. Stopped going to school from day one.
Rina: grew up half-neglected, can't communicate properly, can't even manage a smile. Zero friends.
Himeme: both parents passed away. Her computer is her only friend.
These guys are basically Ikizu Live material too.
12AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:29
Yours truly → fat, bald, glasses, virgin, "never had a girlfriend for as many years as I've been alive," a NEET in denial about it
This is Ikizu Live too, isn't it.
13AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:33
The girl in the μ's-style stories was just an ordinary kid, but this time they brought out the real deal.
14AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:33
This is basically "Mii-chan," but the mild version. (Mii-chan: a notorious extreme case that's come up on 5ch before.)
15AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:35
She doesn't really seem like she's got it that hard
It's gonna turn into a sparkly feel-good story in the end anyway, so the whole setup is pointless.
16AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:36
It's interesting that Polka is aware that "some part of her is always sticking out from everyone else," while at the same time having a strong urge to wear the matching uniform — meaning she wants to be a normal part of the group like everyone else.
This looks like it'll be a story about accepting your true self, approached from the opposite direction of Chika in Sunshine!!
17AnonymousSep 24, 2026 13:52
It actually holds together as a real story about a girl who seems genuinely burdened by life, and it's an easy read.
Unlike that bunch who suddenly went around calling themselves "superstars," this one plays it straight.
30AnonymousSep 24, 2026 16:14
Too much of a hassle to read the manga.
I'm not asking for a full anime, but at least give us a voice comic.
31AnonymousSep 24, 2026 16:20
I'm actually in the camp that dislikes voice comics — you can't read them at your own pace.
166AnonymousSep 24, 2026 19:16
Is Ikizu Live's protagonist supposed to have ADHD?
168AnonymousSep 24, 2026 19:30
Livestream starting at 8pm tonight📺
#AguPonPonPon
https://x.com/iris_official_/status/2103064403130364315
169AnonymousSep 24, 2026 19:38
It's forgiven because she's a cute girl.
170AnonymousSep 24, 2026 19:49
Read it, and yeah, it's got every one of Kimino Sakurako's bad habits on full display.
Way too much expository dialogue, so naggy it got "ugh, enough already."
Or is that on the artist's shoulders for not trimming it down when adapting the script?
174AnonymousSep 24, 2026 20:09
Where'd everyone who went to Keio Arena go?
175AnonymousSep 24, 2026 20:09
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HS-B3sTaMAAZbWd.jpg
176AnonymousSep 24, 2026 20:12
Everyone's off playing the new BanG Dream! app or watching the Sakamichi group announcement.
There's also the Project Sekai 6th anniversary program going on.
178AnonymousSep 24, 2026 20:30
Johnny's aside, isn't it just that the series' own fans caught on? Doesn't seem any different from last time.
179AnonymousSep 24, 2026 20:33
Johnny's is dealing with the arrests and disbandment, so it's rough for them right now…
181AnonymousSep 24, 2026 21:18
Everyone's talking seriously about the live show, one member at a time.
The Liella! sports day livestream had more than half the cast looking like they weren't even into it.
182AnonymousSep 24, 2026 22:19
They read out something like 20 emails on the livestream.
Not as bad as the "Hoshi" one last time, but still rough.
Viewer numbers aren't gonna climb much with content like this.
183AnonymousSep 24, 2026 23:56
Every Ikizu Live livestream is the same — read some emails, make a few announcements, and that's a wrap.
Feels like that's true of every group these days.
They've probably already accepted this can only survive as a closed fandom for existing fans now (a "closed content" scene with no new fans coming in).
Even if they try something new, it's not like new fans are going to show up because of it.
And it's not just the livestreams — even the radio shows just plow through their segments flatly, with zero personal talk about what's actually going on inside the group.
Background and Talking Points
“Ikizu Live” appears to be a title conceived with existing Love Live! characters in mind. In the thread, posters brought up characters who already carry “hard to live” traits within the main series — like Yoshiko, who let her chuunibyou phase spiral out of control and ended up friendless, or Rina, who struggles with communication — framing this new work as an attempt to tackle those elements head-on. Some posts guessed the script was written by Kimino Sakurako, but that was one poster’s speculation, not an officially confirmed credit within the thread. Opinions split over the artwork and the amount of expository dialogue, and a handful of posts also mocked characters’ behavior by linking it to mental illness or developmental disorders — since that risks veering into discriminatory territory, those remarks have been left out of this article.
*This article is an excerpt and summary compiled from the 5ch (Love Live!) thread “Ikizu Live Finally Begins.”
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