Aqours (pronounced as 'aqua'), is a word merged from the words ‘aqua’ and ‘ours’, and represents the nine person idol group from the love live franchise. Their journey within the anime begins after the original love live group, µ's. Here I’ll break down 
exactly why I love these girls, and the talented voice actresses who bring them to life.
Click a characters' icon to meet them...
While Love Live is a multimedia franchise, a lot of Aqours story that I’m familiar with comes from season 1 and 2 of the anime (Love Live Sunshine!!) as well as having a movie, which picks up from where season two finishes. There’s also a spin-off fantasy series (sunshine in the mirror) which I STILL haven’t finished!!!! so that won’t be added to this shrine until I watch it.. love my girl Yohane though she’s like 9 apples tall. Anyway…
Aqours launch starts in the year of 2015, where on the 26th of February, a teaser image, showing the new leader for the yet unnamed school idol group was born[1], later followed a similar teaser image, showing all members of the group. At the end of April in 2015, the character names and voice actress lineups were released.
Dengeki G's Magazine is a monthly magazine where a lot of information about Love Live series come from, and it’s often used to communicate with fans of the series, this is often where activities to participate in are held, giving readers more control over what they want to see in Love Live! Aqours name, stems from a fan vote deciding what their name should be, with Aqours being announced to win the #1 spot in August. The Love Live Sunshine!! History section on the Wiki shows this list of potential names for Aqours. [2]
Around when Aqours; chosen group name was announced, their first single with an animated PV was announced, Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru kai? (Translated to “Is your heart shining?”) and on sale 7th of October 2024, with the pv on youtube on the 30th of October 2024.[3]
As well as being used to choose the group names, this was also used for many things like choosing who the center of each song should be, choosing things like merch or arranging the Aqours subunits. November 2015 saw the first character poll to see the center of the second single, and December announced that You had won. December of this year was also when subunits were voted on, with six different configurations to choose from. The winner ended up being announced as the 4th set. The group names for each subunit was also selected, through audience voting, too, with "CYaRon", "AZALEA" and "Guilty Kiss", being the chosen sub unit names.
Aqours’ anime was announced for the summer of 2016, and this follows the end of µ's (pronounced “µ's”) solo idol activities. µ's was the founding group of Love Live, and had their final live, µ'sic forever, on March 31 and April 1st 2016. There’s a lot of discussion on why µ's disbanded, from talk of reaching the end of their contract to scheduling conflict and a history of injuries. While there are obviously some fans looking forward to the debut of Aqours’ anime and story, many fans wanted µ's back in the limelight, upset that their faves weren’t performing anymore. There was (and still is..) discussion often comparing the two groups!
In the actual story of the anime, this idea of following in µ's shadow is intentional to the plot. Like µ's, there are a few similar character types (not to a T, of course, but tend to follow a similar trend for love live characters) to the first group. Some examples would be Chika and Honoka, who on surface level are both the genki girl[4] trope, Ruby and Hayano tend to be shy, quiet and withdrawn as well as Dia and Eli both falling into the student council president who (initially) opposes the starting of Aqours or µ's.
While the above history section is only brief it gives a small introduction to the beginnings of the group. Aqours' structuring at the start of their serious clearly intended to have similar plot points (as subsequent love live groups will also have) to µ's, though unlike it's successors, it will continue to frequently namedrop and link itself to µ's' story within it's storytelling. While I personally love and adore the similarities and differences between the two groups, what can't be avoided however is talking about how especially in their earlier days, µ's's shadow follows both the characters and the voice actresses themselves.
While Aqours is a beloved group to me personally, when µ's at first helf their final live, many people... didn't like Aqours for their introduction and subsequent focus. A handful of fans often saw it as Aqours replacing µ's fully, treating the story told as nothing as they are set on only focusing on their favourite groups. However, while I personally understand not liking something and thus not engaging with it, a lot of the comments about Aqours around the time of their first introduction felt like they were just there.. to complain? A few complains I remember seeing around, both present and in the past are Aqours being a "cash grab" and "carbon copy of µ's", due to having 9 members, having characters that have similarities to the girls from µ's and having songs that sound similar, too. This doesn't complain all the complaints that were floating around, but hopefully puts into mind the sort of things that were being said. This didn't stop at just words, but there were actions done to hurt the seiyuus behind voicing these girls too, ranging from bad fan ettiquette at shows to unconfirmed reports of harassment and stalking of the Aqours seiyuus, with mentions of bottles of.. liquid.. and phone numbers to various sex work agencies being left in their gift boxes[5] [6].
You might be wondering "Hey, June? This is an Aqours shrine, why are you mentioning bad things they've gone through", well.. I think it's important to understand what these girls have been through. Despite being compared to µ's frequently, Aqours has delievered smiles to many, they have withstood needless gross fan behaviour and delivered a beautiful story. Without acknowledging years of hecking and being compared to their predecessors, it feels as if I would be wiping away the struggles they have faced and thus not be painting an accurate portrait of Aqours. Additionally, without highlighting and looking back on previous gross fan behaviour, even if what has been shared is only a very small part of it, one can't grow from others' uh.. rancid behaviour.
These are bullet pointed specifically because it's just things I am listing from the top of my head! In no particular order and includes things from live performances and songs as well as the anime. This is only a few (at time of upload) but will grow to be more once I add them!