I got my PR Yume in photokatsu last week after spending lots of dollars on it. I can’t believe it. 21 rolls and finally just 1 PR. That must be a chain of pretty bad luck. But finally finally Yume is now in my grasps. Now I just need Rola to complete idols collection I really want.

Aikatsu Stars 83

Elza seems like she lacks the mental state to get the Sun Dress now because she lacks the tanoshii. Others is going to teach her a lesson soon enough.

This also feels like the first episode where Rei starts to enjoy herself due to her being away from Elza. She really needs to be away from Elza for some time to learn that “Subetega Elza no Tameni” is not right. She even chants this catchphrase when she is actually helping others which is so out of place.

There’s also the foreshadowing from Nozomu’s fortunetelling that Elza is likely to be in trouble soon and Rei is probably the one to help her out of it.

Otherwise, this is a pretty fun episode. Yume was pretty cute fluttering to make all the takoyakis. Mahiru had shown Rei some of the fun that she wouldn’t have experienced on Venus Ark. There’s also the rare cameo from Haruka Ruka, which I suspect we won’t see her again for a lot of episodes. Yuri also had shown her other side – being so much of a gluttony. Lily is probably the one that completes Barefoot Renaissance performance, making it looks much better than the solo version. Also noted both of them Rei and Lily are mostly showing their serious faces when performing, and complements each other very well as a unit. Yume and Aria were all smiles last episode in their unit performances as a contrast.

Idoltime Pripara 34

MICHIRU starts to open up to Yui and Nino, unfortunately Galala does not have her dream. Seems like she will get find back her lost dream in some way or reawaken a new dream. Another performance reuse of brand new happiness. I hope they get to form the unit in a few episodes time.

Aikatsu Stars 81

I guess this is a drama episode without the drama song. Personally I am not a fan of this episode though. Humor in Aikatsu can be a hit or miss for me in drama episodes. Some of the out-of-character performances from Lily and maybe Rei irk me a bit. I guess it is still fresh to see them acting this way though. There’s a token YumeRola shipping in this episode which I am quite happy with, with Yume claiming Rola as her prize, since they got overshadowed by YumeKoharu in the past few episodes. 

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The guydols With finally got their first 3DCG performance, and surprisingly I enjoyed that very much. I still remembered the good ones for guydols in Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live although I can’t be bothered with King of Prism because they are too much for fujoshi bait. Yui and Laala also get a different coord for their coord for a change which was nice. Galala starts getting resistance from the girls though, poor Baku getting chopped by Nino. I can’t see her being effective in shutting their dreams until near the end though.

It’s been two weeks since my last post because I went for a vacation to Taiwan. It’s been a fulfilling family trip.

I did found some Pripara and Aikatsu arcade in Taiwan. First time when I found it in Tainan, there were kids queuing so I kinda gave up on that but when I reached Taipei, I finally obtained a chance to actually try them and actually got some Aikatsu N cards. As I am totally suck in rhythm games, the experience were just so-so, so I guess I wouldn’t actually play on them even though I have other chances in the future. Still a meaningful experience though.

Aikatsu Stars 80

As expected for weeks, the final planet Uranus SPR appears. From discussion with various people, the main controversy of this episode seems to be Rei’s reason for continuing Aikatsu: “Elza no tame ni”, rather for fans or for herself. As this post was being delayed due to me in Taiwan, I had some time to think through this. Personally I don’t blame Rei for doing this. Rather I believe that Rei knew that half-hearted attempts for fans or for herself will not bring her to obtain her wings, thus she focused her passion for Elza for the best results. I think Elza being a result-oriented person would have understood her ways.

Her performance atmosphere was slightly different from the DCD version to less of my liking though. I expected it to be more powerful, but it was softened down and made more feminine. With all the planet SPRs appeared, now we are moving on to the next arc though, which is the Sun dress obtaining phase. It remains to be seen what Bamco is planning for Ako though since she is not getting anything throughout this 30+ episodes. Still hope she gets a PR, if not SPR. 

Idoltime Pripara 31

Falala has awoken and performed. Not a fan of this song though. The backstory for Galala was really suffering. Poor Galala being alone all the time. I do sympathize with Galala though. Falala is really biased with Yui though only giving Yui an extra Yume Rare coord to perform but it’s kinda time for them to change coords now. At least it was some change rather than carbon copy of the same performance again.