Love Live! Superstar!! - Season 1 (2021)

Kanon and Keke are allowed to form a school idol club despite Ren's misgivings. After Sumire overhears them talking about the club, she expresses her interest in joining.

Unable to practice outside due to a heat wave, the girls try to find somewhere else to prepare for the Love Live competition. While at Kanon's cafe, they are visited by Sunny Passion with an invitation to perform at a local concert.

Kanon, Keke and Sumire continue to prepare for the upcoming concert with Yuuna and Mao. Kanon completes the lyrics for their upcoming performance and gets positive feedback from Chisato, who Kanon in turn encourages for her upcoming dance competition. Meanwhile, Ren discovers that Chisato plans to withdraw from Yuigaoka if she does not win the competition so she can gain confidence by doing something on her own as opposed to having been supported up to now by Kanon.

When the girls discover that the school council inauguration is about to happen, Keke and Chisato want Kanon to apply for student council president, much to the latter's dismay, as both girls believe that if someone other than Ren becomes the president, school idols wouldn't be prohibited. Sumire then decides to run for student council president, but it does not go as well as she hoped. Later, they decide to investigate and find out why Ren does not like school idols.

Tension continues to rise at school between the music program students and the general education students, prompting Kanon to try to find a middle ground, but to no avail. The director tells Ren to explain her position at an upcoming assembly so as to reach an agreement among the students. Ren tells the school idols how her mother had once tried to save her school from closing down by being a school idol, but was unsuccessful in saving the school. Ren could not find any records of her mother as a school idol and concluded her mother regretted the attempt.

Applications for the upcoming Love Live competition have opened, but the girls first have to decide on a group name.

Due to there being more Love Live applicants this year than ever before, the school idols have to perform a song based on a rap theme, with the groups who pass allowed to continue to the preliminary round. Sumire shows the other girls that she has a knack for rapping, allowing her to take the center position for their stage performance. However, after the girls upload a test video, the general opinion of their schoolmates is that Sumire should not be in the center position, upsetting her as a result.

Liella makes it through into the preliminary rounds for Love Live, and the girls agree to perform at the elementary school Kanon and Chisato attended. Chisato is concerned about Kanon's performance issues returning at the school where her stage fright had first manifested. Liella will have to perform a solo as the theme for the Tokyo preliminary round, and Kanon is unanimously elected to perform it for the competition. To help Kanon overcome her fears, the other girls conspire to have Kanon sing alone at the elementary school.

Liella's recent concert has brought in new applicants to their school for the following year, and they are gearing up for a live-streamed concert on Christmas to determine which school idol group will represent Tokyo. Their schoolmates offer to produce the stage for the concert so Liella can focus on their performance. Yuuna and Mao visit Kanon, and the latter explains how she has never really cared about winning or losing as long as she could sing. They tell her that once she sings at Love Live, she will understand why everyone feels like they have to win.