Love Live is basically a collection of SoL episodes, while the actually LL event happened basically off screen.
Even the school solving story line wasn't actually a thing past the first episode.
The Idolmaster has actually a progressive development regarding 765 Production. Also Puchimas.
I'm talking more about character arcs than plot progression here. While the storyline regarding saving the school takes a backseat, Love Live takes its time to show how the girls become friends and train to actually become better at whatever it is idols do. The narrative push gets overshadowed by the character vignettes, but it serves as a backbone from which to do the rest of the show.
There's a certain aspect to that in im@s, but it's much more episodic in that regard. You get some brilliant episodes like Makoto's when you get a competent writer at times, yet the vast majority of the time you are dealing with genuinely boring stuff like the girl who is afraid of animals, or the girl who is shy and goes to a glass blower, or the child idols being annoying child idols. There's very little interaction between the characters, with barely a hint of character progression for the end of season finales.
Disclaimer: I only watched up to the end of Aqours' first season because at that point I realised it was the exact same shit as the original. Watch Aikatsu instead, kids!
