TL;DR two fools wondering about the philosophy of what makes something a Mega Hit... a.k.a. Why some series are worth a second season... I will let to you who the more reasonable one was...
@Lhmac First, I'm sure I hammered said point of yours in my last comment...
If it's a creation of a single mind with some "niche" concepts or if it's a behemoth of the marketing filled with all kinds of corporative interests and engineered with "what the casual fan wants the most" in mind...
I even recognized we are in (very) different pages...
You insist that the unquestionable difference between Machikado Mazoku and Love Live is the multi-media production committee backing the later...THIS SHOULD BE OBVIOUS! They put money in it, it sells, people buy it,
people talk about it, it sells even more and the multi-media production comittee get their money back in spades... Why you think they would put money in something that doesn't seem profitable is really beyond me... In this game
the anime is just a mean not an end goal... A reward for the loyal fans that to this day keep pushing the brand forward...
I see your claim as putting the cart before the horses... The games, shows and merchandising ONLY exists because of the manga and anime that came first and did what they were meant to do, the reason why the game sells more? You only need to buy the anime dvd/blu-ray once... The game sales clearly includes people that buy the physical and the digital copy of the same game[1]... DLC... The special editions... The micro transactions and the Gacha...
A interesting detail is that each new season brings in different girls... that will be added later to the games... Although the contrary is also true with franchises that release a game/manga/lnovel first and a anime to reel a different public too... anything goes...
Even if modest Machikado Mazoku employs efforts besides the anime and manga... singles for OP and ED, the regular merchandise... and their characters were featured in a game recently too... I insist that they do the same things and the only difference is scale... a scale backed for loads of money... money that is backed for POPULARITY!
The one that play the games, buy the merchandise, read the manga and the novels, goes to the shows is the same girl/guy that got infatuated by an anime character![2] If more people happened to learn about how endearing Shamiko, Momo and everyone else are I sincerely believe it has the potential to do as such... Numbers are a very important asset in securing a second season...
Therefore Machikado Mazoku and Love Live play the same game the difference is that the later is a "pay to win" player...
And I can keep writing and writing but this isn't a science... There's no right answer[3]... As such be sure you can still find holes in my reasoning... These walls of text are unreadable, My field of view too simplistic (romantic maybe), I can't understand the phenomenon that Love Live is...
One last thing:
Lhmac: Love Live is popular because it is not just an anime. It never has been just an anime, it didn't even start as a manga and then turn into an anime. That is the reason for its' popularity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Live! The manga is from 2012, the first anime 2013, the first PSP game is from 2014...
Edit [JUN-05-2020]: Got a peak and sure there is a single listed with a release in 2010!... Well, that's a fan for you... My shame I guess...
You wanted to know why it is popular, I answered for you.
I was sure a brought Love Live to the conversation cause I was aware it was a example of something that sells a lot with the japanese... But if you say so... Thanks for your efforts, I guess...
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mr. Poneis
[1] Kanemochi domo me!
[2] And how it pains me admitting to it...
[3] Be sure if I knew such a thing I have a list of series I would love to see adapted!