Aikatsu Stars 99 and 100

For Aikatsu Stars, I am merging the last two episodes into one review. I was so lazy to finish up this review and delayed until even Aikatsu Friends had started airing. Finally and finally Aikatsu Stars has come to an end too. I am going to miss the old cast for some time, until I gets totally engrossed with the new generation.

For 99, plotwise it was a satisfactory closure for Yume and Hime’s rivalry. Even at the start of S2, even with Elza’s introduction, I have always feel that Hime was going to be the true final boss for Yume. With the reveals of Moon Dress in part 6, we have always been waiting for Hime for coming out to surprise Yume. Even when Yume was supposed to be ichibanboshi after actually becoming the world’s top first idol, she was still lacking something because she had one person she wasn’t able to beat and surpass. She can’t be the true ichibanboshi with that baggage. With this episode, Yume finally had beaten Hime and finally became the ichibanboshi. I feel that the CG performance for Start Line was lacklustre though. In my opinion, Sun Dress and Moon Dress with their big dresses were just the worst in almost any kind of performances. The wobbling movements in those dresses are just awful. I really really hope Aifure won’t have these kind of dresses again.

For 100, plotwise the first part of the episode doesn’t really make sense at first thought because while it was supposed to be a sending off for Rola, it certainly felt like it was a sending off for the whole main cast. For an episode finale, it makes sense though as this would be the last we would see of them. Next we had the five people person from the main cast for Aikatsu Step. Aikatsu Step was the Aikatsu song for Aikatsu Stars but somehow it wasn’t that iconic and was actually unused in S2. It just was unable to invoke as much feelings in me unlike Aidoru Katsudou for OG. In the final part, we got a glimpse of how all the main characters will fare in the future and apparently all of them have obtained the sun dress in some way. It felt like a condensed part of what the staff wanted the Aikatsu Stars to be, but for reason didn’t get the chance or resources to finish them. Overall, I do think that this episode was well done, although it was not something that makes my heart go dokidoki and Aikatsu Stars certainly do deserve a closure like this.

Finally, I am a bit conflicted on how I should feel for the Aikatsu Stars series as a whole. One thing that is certain that I was quite disappointed at the plot and individual episodes towards to the end of the series. Aikatsu Stars had potential and I really liked most of the Yotsuboshi characters. The inferior CG, the lack of high impact episodes, the lack of character development for most of the characters (mostly Mahiru and Ako), and the underused side characters left a lot to be desired. It was definitely less enjoyable for me to watch Stars as compared to OG. However, I am still sad to see this ending and it was the show I watched so passionately for whole 2 years.