It was as I expected it to be really...put simply, it was not very good, and I did not enjoy it.
I'll deal with the characters first, that's where it's at for me with Love Live so they're what I'm looking at most closely here.
Obviously, this being a blatant attempt to copy mu's, Chika is everywhere here, and it confirms just what I thought of her - she's probably on some cocktail of drugs.* For the first half of the episode she actually seemed fairly normal, but somewhere after the point where Kanan and Mari were first introduced, she just started having a crazy amount of emotional swings for no reason at all. So that's a bad problem with her. But actually, she's not all bad: she sounds alright, both when singing and when not, and I have to give her credit for actually trying to beef with Dia. However, the way she's drawn changes just as much as her emotions, giving her an incredible ability to go from looking really rather good to really rather horrific. Still, at the end of the day, she is more likeable than Honoka.** Although that's not exactly an achievement.
Rika I didn't like because she just seems too blank with her personality. And no way can she decide, or even manage, to transfer in the space of one day, not even from that other, little-known school called 'Otonokizaka High'. Also Chika is not in love with her in any way, shape or form. Not at all. Nope. Plus, her singing voice is not good enough either.
You is a welcome character because I actually like her, mostly because she just stays out of the way of all the silliness. Like Chika, she sounds alright when speaking or singing. She's the middle ground of the lot and there's really nothing wrong with that.
Now for the third years. Dia is the most prominent and she is as evil as she looks. Still, you can tell quite clearly she's not gonna hold out for 8 episodes this time. She's nothing special at all.
Kanan is trying so hard to be Nozomi it's painful. Literally fits her bill in every single way and therefore she is absolutely worthless. And Mari we barely saw at all, but from the one brief line she spouted I could tell she sounded really ****ing weird. Can barely imagine what she'd be like as a singer...I won't get to find out.
But by far the worst were the first years. If Ruby is meant to be the shy one, why does Hanamaru sound softer? And oh god, she has a constant verbal tic. Those can **** off. Ruby herself just looks stupid when she ****ing explodes for no reason at all. That's not being shy, that's being hysterical. And Yoshiko...no. Just...no. OK?
Speaking of Yoshiko, and that quote Chika mentioned when she started getting deep, why does space seem such a central theme in an anime called Sunshine? As we now know from Pokemon, the two are complete opposites.
Other things. I'm not sure if the animation has improved, it's hard to tell. I wasn't into a lot of music from mu's and I'm really not into either of the two from Aquors we saw here. And as for the episode itself, there were a couple of funny bits, although mostly it was just plain and boring.
However, definitely the worst bit about the whole thing has to be the fact they actually put in one of mu's songs in the middle of it, and referenced them so often. The message is clear here: do you really think Lantis wanted to get rid of mu's like they have done? Do they hell. Everyone still worships those nine like crazy and they must have wanted them around for as long as they could. The fact that they are so deeply referenced after one episode of Aquors' anime just tells you that Aquors have only been done as they are to try and keep something like mu's going. Which is just what I suspected at first. Unfortunately, I reckon Lantis will be in for a disappointment.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - they should have done something notably different, not just another gang of nine. Hopefully they'll cotton onto that when it's time for a new band to come around. I won't be following Aquors, so I'll be in for a long wait till Love Live's current affairs are worth my time again...
Until then the best I can hope for is that Aquors is to be remembered as the 'Chris Evans' of Love Live.
*Not like Honoka, who I presume would end up being an addict, Chika is already there.
**Clearly she's not trying hard enough to be like her.