The character writing this season is definitely some of the best in LoveLive. For example, while the first 3 episodes or so are nothing really that special, episode 4 dealt with a slightly dark topic and completely changed my opinion on one of the characters. Natsumi really just always seemed like a gimmick character, which they always seem to have a few of in every group. But it seems like Liella really doesn't have any gimmicky characters anymore, which I can really appreciate.
Another thing I can appreciate over every other LoveLive season/group is that it feels like there is a real resolution with what will happen to the group after the 3rd years leave, and even what will happen to the 3rd years after they leave. The original (muse's anime/movie) did a terrible job with this, and I feel like Aqours' anime did a bad job with it as well, but I feel like if Liella's story ended here, I wouldn't have a single complaint.
That being said, it's still not perfect. For how good of an episode 4 was, there was another episode that was complete filler and honestly fairly boring. It felt like it shouldn't have even been there considering the only noteworthy information they gave was that there performance in the previous episode was amazing, despite it being probably their worst song so far. I just felt like I was being gaslit the whole episode. There was also supposed to be a Chisato episode (I think) where we barely saw Chisato at all and she ended up singing the ending. I definitely feel every character got their time to shine this season except for Chisato, but I always felt like Chisato is the type to do all of the work and take none of the credit, so maybe it is fitting. There was another point where there was very obviously supposed to be a song, but instead the episode just kind of ends... It didn't seem like a big deal, but was just kind of weird.
Edit: I found out that Fighting Call was supposed to be the song played at the end of episode 4. Which is a real shame because that song would have ended the episode perfectly, but it must have been cut at some point. I'm taking a point off for this because WTF
Which leads me into the worst part of this season: the music. I don't understand why they didn't use the CD songs instead of some of the songs they used. Itsumo no peace sign would have been a perfect song to replace the song I mentioned earlier, and while I kind of like "Superstar" (the song) it doesn't feel like it should have been the song to win their final LoveLive because it really isn't that good. I just always think back to how they sang Starlight Prologue (one of their best songs) and supposedly lost, and I compare that to this and it just doesn't make any sense.
This is also the first season of LoveLive to break the mold of not showing men's faces. Not sure if that's good or bad, but it is notable considering people always associate LoveLive as the series that men don't really exist. (or they do, but are never shown)
