Hi!!!!! I have a current obsession with iceberg memes, and my love live knowledge runs pretty deep, so I thought I'd dissect this love live iceberg posted on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Otonokizaka/comments/l21rdw/made_a_love_live_iceberg/ I hope you enjoy!
TIER 1
(for tier 1 and 2 I have left out any blatantly obvious topics)
Smol nozomi: a mascot created by an artist on tumblr that was then used by silvagunner as a mascot on his channel.
TIER 2
Silvagunner: A youtuber who posts meme remixes of love live music disguised as regular SIF rips.
Umi poker face: One scene in the SIP anime where Umi made a funny face and it turned into a massive meme on the scale of the Nico Ni.
Future Honoka: It's widely believed that the older woman who helps Honoka in the SIP movie is a future version of Honoka. She has the same eye shape, colour, and hair colour.
TIER 3
Pizza Hut box: Love live did a collab with pizza hut in 2014 which consisted of love live themed pizza boxes and love live themed delivery bikes.
434 copies: Borarara only sold 434 copies when first released, many of which were bought by the families of the Seiyuus.
Cursed mari plush: A furyuu Mari keychain plush that has a very "cursed" aura and has become a huge meme in the LL fanbase.
Rina has autism: A theory many people in the LL fanbase believe, due to Rina exhibiting many autistic traits.
Rin's cat allergy: In rin's school idol diary she says she is allergic to cats despite loving them and acting like them.
Chika has ADHD: Another theory many people believe, due to her exhibiting many ADHD traits.
April Fools puppet show: A 15 minute puppet show featuring the aqours characters that was created for april fools day 2017.
School idol Paradise: A playstation vita game released in 2014. It's similar to SIFAS as in you play songs and collect costumes for 3D models of the characters - but it's a lot worse. Not many people remember this exists.
TIER 4
You, Dia and Yoshiko had different years: Apparently in the initial stages of Aqours, these characters all had different years. I can't find much confirmation about this.
Emi's dad: The father of Emi Nitta, seiyuu for Honoka, bought ten copies of Borarara to support his daughter.
Nozomi is lesbian: In nozomi's school idol diary, she states that she's never had a crush on a boy and she wouldn't mind falling in love with a girl.
Basketball Yoshiko: Apparently, Yoshiko was originally supposed to be a talented basketball player. again, I can't find much confirmation about this. Many people say it's due to the mandela effect and it was never a thing at all, which is believable.
DiaRuby: For some reason, some people ship Dia and Ruby (which is gross as hell because they are sisters).
TIER 5
µ's and Justin Bieber: They appeared next to eachother, along with other japanese musicians, for some kind of event featuring musicians who were popular on japanese radio. I think this was in 2015 or early 2016, not sure which.
Nic cage sees the SIP movie: A fan bumped into him in an anime store before going to see the SIP movie, and posted a picture of him. This led fans to believe that he actually went to see the film, which is untrue.
Powerpuff Girls collab: for april fools day 2020, SIF did a collab with the Powerpuff girls, featuring cards of µ's and aqours in PPG style, and some stories.
Buso liver: A busoliver is a love live fan who arranges love live merch such as pins, tapestries or keychains to appear like samurai armour. There have been some instances of busolivers being banned from cons or events.
Aqours earthquake: There was an earthquake during an aqours concert at AX 2019. All performers and the audience were safe though.
Love live signs at WWE: Some LLSS fans held up signs with aqours characters on them during a WWE event in 2016.
Nozomi Shrine is real: The shrine nozomi works at in the anime is a real location in Tokyo called Kanda shrine.
TIER 6
Sonic crossovers: Love live has done multiple collaborations with Sega, featuring Sonic the hedgehog as the mascot. There were multiple official arts of rin and hanamaru alongside Sonic, and some real life events. There were even plushes of rin and hanamaru with sonic, and a figure of rin with sonic.
Honoka is a god: Some people theorise that Honoka is a god, and has weather powers (eg when she stopped the rain in SIP s2), has teleportation powers (eg when she teleported to a lake in the SIP movie), has gravity powers (multiple times she has jumped an unrealistic height in the air and appeared to float), and has time travel powers (see theory later on in this post).
Chika skirt controversy: In early 2020, Chika was chosen as a mascot for Japan Agriculture, to promote the sale of Mikan Oranges. This involved a promo artwork of Chika holding a mikan in front of mikan trees. However, many fans took issue with the way her skirt was drawn (extremely short and vacuumed to her crotch) saying it sexualised her, and the promo was halted and the artwork was taken down.
SIF homosexual references: The EN server of SIF mistranslated homescreen dialogue from the N girl Chiduko to remove references to lesbian relationships. It also mistranslated dialogue from one of nozomi's stories to remove her saying she likes "looking at cute girls".
Billie eilish merch scandal: In 2019, Billie Eilish released merchandise featuring stolen fanart of Nozomi in a bikini. The merch has since been called out and recalled.
Important: the last two tiers will be in the comments due to the character limit.