Anime 37204 Aikatsu Friends

Oh, Aikatsu, how I missed you being so good!

NOTE: This is the first season where Voice and Song actresses are the same people. That's why some of the earlier songs are a little rough around the edges versus the seasons with professional singers, and honestly, I think that's just fine - in fact, it makes sense given their characters are supposed to be 'bad/new' at the start too!

CHARACTER: 8

Unlike Stars, which felt like someone slapped new names and hair colours on OG characters, FRIENDS actually creates a very unique crew, with surprisingly realistic arcs.

I love Aine's growth from simply following Mio along, to actually being ... a competitor in her own right. Similarly, Mio's journey from a walled-off professional into an actual friend was lovely to watch. Maika and Ema focused less on character arcs, and more on having fun - and they brought lots of it, complete with the kind of positive, girl-power competitive energy I love in Aikatsu. Sakuya and Kaguya provide a mature, gothic balance to the show with their songs, and their sisterly antics will feel very familiar to anyone with siblings.

Karen and Mirai act as the mentor/rival pair Love Me Tear, and while I do like the way they push and challenge the younger girls, they sometimes feel a bit too distant and harsh.

The growth of the cast - which numbers 8 leading ladies and many, many side characters - is done over the course of the season, making it much easier to consume and giving every girl a chance on screen. Their relationships and rivalries are truly what make the show worth watching.

I also appreciated that they had more than one idol school, as well as independent idols, right from the start. It made the competition and industry feel truly competitive, and avoided several mistakes made by its predecessors.


STORY: 8

FRIENDS goes back to the OG, slice of life style that Aikatsu became so known for, but even with all cute girls doing cute things, there's still a clear goal - beating Love Me Tear. Friends does a wonderful job of making sure its characters work for it, to the point where I would have been genuinely mad had they not won (something I couldn't say about Stars.)

The new idea of idol 'friends' units gives the show a unique spin, and allows the wonderful relationships between characters to truly drive the narrative, in a way that the changeable teams of previous incarnations rarely achieved.

Art: 7

The CGI has undeniably improved since the early days, and the 2d animation - while not always consistent - is at least decent. The dresses and cards are all utterly gorgeous, and the unit co-ords are well designed to suit both the individual characters, and make them co-ordinate. I particularly loved the various school uniforms.

Sound: 9

Aikatsu is one of few idol shows that include every genre imaginable, from rock to pop to dramatic ballads, with all of them enjoyable sans context, making each live stage insert a unique and genuine joy to watch. The OP and ED songs are all wonderfully catchy too. Some of the early songs aren't great (see note above,) but they improve tremendously as the series progresses.

Just as a reminder, Aikatsu Friends, as the rest of Aikatsu entries, is stand-alone and you can start with this one without worries, which considering the length of the others can be a great idea if you want to see if this anime is for you in order to try out the others as well.

In Aikatsu Friends we follow Aine, a cheerful and kind girl who can quickly make friends with anyone to terrifying levels. One day she meets Mio, a very popular girl from the idol division of their school and they quickly connect, the story focuses in their idol activities together as friends, ... wanting to become the best duo someday.

This anime is doing a fantastic job so far handling their relationship, Aikatsu Friends seems to be centered in "becoming Best Friends", with two characters forming a unit together, and this leads to heavy focus on the interactions between pairs of characters (be the main duo or the other characters that got protagonism, all with their fun and likeable personalities). Each episode is a lot of fun seeing in what events our characters are, be preparing dresses, participating in TV programs, or doing performances between others, while also seeing them develop and becoming closer as time passes and they get to know more about each other.

Talking about the performances, the CGI animation of them just keeps shining with its quality, the dances are beautiful and full of movement and effects, making for a visual treat, the series as a whole looks nice, with very appealing character designs (I love the gradient hair of the main duo in special), the animation of the series is also solid, although as expected of long running series, some episodes can't keep the level of the rest.

Aikatsu Friends has been fantastic so far and I can't recommend enough to give it a chance, be it your first Aikatsu entry or you having already watched others before.

My expectations for Aikatsu Friends! was way too high. Aikatsu Stars! was great and I just couldn't wait for the next series.

Then we have Aikatsu Friends!

I was way too hyped for this series, I regretted it. First episode was okay, that was because we were first introduced to the new dressing room (I thought that was cool) and our brand new protagonist, Aine.

I liked the art, the character designs weren't that bad except, they decided to throw in rainbow hair colours that matched their idol type. For example, Aine (cute-type): pink, Mio (cool-type): blue, Maika (sexy-type): purple and so on. The only characters that contradict ... this is probably Karen and Mirai.

I couldn't give the sound a 8 because of the voice actors. Karen and Mirai's voice actors were fantastic but I disliked the rest. I love the ending song, it's very catchy, the solos by Mio and Maika were amazing. The music part is probably the best part about this anime. (EDIT: Sakuya and Kaguya's songs made me change my opinion. The songs are amazing)

I dropped this anime at episode 6, after they introduced Ema, I just couldn't continue on. I know there are new characters like Sakuya, a gothic-idol that you need for every aikatsu series but I still can't get into this series.

Honestly, if you're new to the Aikatsu series, just watch Aikatsu! and Aikatsu Stars! Forget about Aikatsu Friends!