Of course, a new Love Live! series needs a new batch of anime schoolgirl idol singers to follow as their chase their dreams of stage stardom and forge friendships along the way, and that in turn means that the new series needs a new crop of voice actresses to play them.
There’s absolutely no way the new Love Live! series will deviate from the formula that served as its predecessors’ license to print money by not making the voice actresses themselves highly visible parts of the franchise, and with idol singers in Japan routinely having contracts that prohibit them from even dating, “no getting married” is actually a comparatively less restrictive rule.
But the success of Love Live! has turned its voice actresses into idol singers themselves.
The new Love Live! series and its auditions are really a case of art imitating life imitating art imitating life.