Aikatsu Stars 87

It’s the obligatory Aikatsu Christmas episode again. Some things are just tradition and never really changed much, but it’s always nice to see them back even with some small changes.

Elza basically stopped caring about anyone else, even her Venus Ark students, so let’s ignore her in the meantime, while Kirara, Rei, Aria get to have fun with the Yotsuboshi cast. They including Rei are actually better off without Elza imo.

Then we get to the Aikatsu tradition – Christmas Treecutting. It’s Rei and Mahiru time to shine. Although using katana and karate for tree cutting is kinda ridiculous, it’s tradition and it’s meant to happen. Come to think of it though, Yume has never participated in the christmas tree cutting unlike Ichigo and Akari. She is lacking in Aikatsu MC power and tradition.

Ako x Kanata romance is the only one realized in Aikatsu Stars til new. Ako is so adorable being tsundere to Kanata, and she pretty much half-confessed to Kanata and got accepted. Other pairs are too much of a pipe dream for now though.

It feels so justified to see Rola being acknowledged by someone after that depressing episode last week. Now it is left for her to decide whether she’ll accept and go on to world debut. For her character’s sake, I hope that happens though. It’s too unfair seeing her trying to compete with MC powers directly. She’ll be better off and come back even stronger.

Finally we get the first ever 5 people performance in Aikatsu Stars, though We Wish You a Merry Christmas is quite bland and actually not much different from last year’s performance. Well I am not expecting much from Bamco Pictures 3D CG nowadays. 

Idoltime Pripara 38

It’s a christmas episode for Pripara but it does not feel very christmasy. The cast just spent almost the whole episode trying find a resolution of Falala and Galala to co-exist but runs out of time as Falala falls asleep again. The implication seems to be the last arc being darker than usual as Galala is sure to go all out making sure Falala will never awaken again. And finally FINALLY FINAAALLY, Laala’s twintail form is back completely. I have been waiting for this for so long. Now Laala can use her bullshit powers to help the cast more successfully now.

Aikatsu Stars 86

To summarize this review in a few words: POOR Rola.

This was the episode that Rola was supposed to redeem herself. All the insecurity, motivation build up, training, support from friends especially Yume were supposed to make us root for her, it had done so very successfully. Rola really had extreme bad luck to be facing a final boss character Elza at this time, but the build up had actually given us some hope until THAT happened.

We all know that Rola still might lose even if Elza had given her normal performance, but the lost to Elza this time was really hammered into our mind. It’s all game over when we see Elza started with a new song and performance “The only Sun Light”  and literally exploded into her Sun Dress. It’s really that unfair to Rola. There’s just simply no chance. Everyone is totally surprised and I am really sad to see Rola being devastated. From now, I really want Aikatsu Stars to just give Rola some deserved wins against her opponents if possible in the rest of this season.

As for Elza, I won’t focus too much on her performance. The transformation effects into Sun Dress was really cool and I feel the flame effects was really fitting, but otherwise there were some weird camera angles which I don’t really understand. I feel like Elza really had descended to craziness in this episode though. She was depressed enough to be such an asshole towards Rei at the start of the episode, that she was actually losing reputation as a headmistress in Venus Ark. She was simply not doing her job. Would have expected her to return to her ordinary smug self after the Sun Dress, but apparently she had went into an evil kind of above all others craziness instead. This really makes me feel some disgust towards her character and want someone (probably Yume) to just beat up her up in her own thing.

I would say it is a very well written episode, really one of those that triggers a lot of emotions and feels unlike most episodes in Stars. It’ll be good if there’re more episodes like this.

Idoltime Pripara 37

Feels like it is a pointless team-building episode for the new unit this week as we already known they will go through that pretty easily. At least the process itself is pretty boring. My Dream (MyDre) itself sounds bland but is actually catchy enough. As expected, MyDre won over Shuuka and Falala finally has awakened for long enough (not sure if permanently though). Hope Falala will have actually enough time to do something though. Looks like the final arc will be a full-on conflict between Falala and Galala, and the idols trying to help both of them though. I am actually looking forward towards how they execute this.

Aikatsu Stars 85

Apparently the audition that Yume is joining is with a group of greenhorns. They are just like free exp points to her and she would probably win by a handy margin without doing anything.

This episode’s title “Passing on the Radiance” is what Yume did for the whole episode. Yume being already an experienced S4 senpai is being responsible and inspiring to all the kouhais while shining even more brightly herself. Yume is so precious and I really want more Yume-focused episodes.

As for the Music of Dream performance, the 3DCG was quite OK, but there are always some questionable bad camera angles that makes me scream why this is not Samurai Pictures. Guess I would have to wait until the Sun Dress performance to see if they would have better angles for this.

Idoltime Pripara 36

It’s the obligatory unit episode and unfortunately they do need time to get up the speed. I was waiting for the whole episode to wait for them to reveal their unit name, but apparently they have forgotten about unit name though. The new unit song was not really good though. Almost everyone else’s unit song is catchier than that.

Aikatsu Stars 84

This episode finally we gets an “explanation” of why Ako being so nonchalant about not getting Star wings. She was not participating in the Aikatsu ranking and was supposed to focus her work as an actress. To be honest, I think it’s just a bullshit reason as it does not even explain why Ako is not at least getting a normal PR as a S4. I swear Bamco just made up the random reason recently because of the backlash of Ako not getting SPRs.

The idols in Venus Ark really have issues in independence, being all too dependant on Elza, first Rei, now even Kirara. There must be something wrong in the Venus Ark education system after all. In the end, I feel like Kirara just switches her dependance from Elza to Ako.

Other than the above issues, overall this is a really cute episode. Kirara and Ako together are just too cute and also fun. Elza looks like she is still deep in depression though.

Idoltime Pripara 35

Finally, Michiru’s dream awakened. She has to the most professional out of all the other girls, managing to suppress her dream inside her shoulder, before Paku attempts to eat away that. So Idol MICHIRU is just a manifestation of her dream all the time. Now all the personal development threads have been cleared. Next on: trio unit.

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. 

Idoltime Pripara 32

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.

Aikatsu Stars 79

It’s been 79 episodes, and something really unexpected and astounding finally happened. Koharu, KOHARU, KOHARUUUU finally FINALLY got her first 3DCG performance!!!!! When most of us have thought that they missed all kinds of previous opportunities to get Koharu perform, this is a real blessing amidst countless performance reuse. The new poses for characters debuting after S2 (Aria and Koharu) are put in extra efforts really with all the special effects and some weird action. Other than that it is just the same old Message of a Rainbow duet performance with Yume.

Other than that, it was a weird halloween episode. Things are happening too fast and poor Taiyaki Rola and Kaitou Lily got vanquished by Elza in just an instant.

The cut of Cat/Sheep fighting was really so fabulous that I have made a gif of that even though I was kinda lazy to do that for a long time.

It’s still fun to see all those ridiculous costumes. And Yume got into tako mode instead of kraken lol.

Idoltime Pripara 30

Halloween episode with Galala being the main antagonist running around trying to steal dreams. Galala is actually quite adorable, childish but sinister.

Apparently Baku could just eat dreams without them asleep which make it quite dangerous, but the main cast are still more dangerous to have their dreams being eaten lol. Poor Baku trying to eat Nino’s and Shuuka’s dream and being karate chopped and broken his teeth.

It does seem like Baku had tried to ate all the girls’ dream when they were young though, probably some kind of preventive measure to prevent Falala from being revived. And maybe that’s the reason why Danpri is popular because no girls wanted to be idols because of the dreams eaten. So zannen for the girls.