The people want to know: What happened to her rollers?
You thought this episode was only going to have one plot thread? Well think again. There’s also a rather interesting returning voice actress who made this all the more enjoyable to watch.
Mezashite!
Not with quality but with love
Nice, thanks.
Interesting that in Aikatsu S2 the paparazzi was clearly shown as “evil” (by the series’ standards anyway), while this time we got a much friendlier depiction. Aikatsu Friends, indeed.
I think the photographer herself was rather friendly and I liked her character, but the overall portrayal and dialogue concerning them at large was too sugarcoated. In particular, “I wanted to become a journalist so I could spread the truth,” was so awful and naive that I would have considered it a joke if not for how seriously the show ran with it. No matter your political leanings, it’s hard to deny that there are few journalistic outlets or journalists that spread untainted truths.
But yeah, kids’ show.
It’s not perfect and it’s nothing mindblowing, but like last week’s Valentine’s Day episode, this felt like coming home after a long day of work. All’s calm, sweet, and as you left it. And more importantly, it’s home. Feels extra good to me because I was sick of the super-dramatic arcs this show had going for a while.
I dislike a lot of this writer’s other (typically dramatic) episodes, but I think here he managed to insert a nice dose of light dramedy the series has neglected for a good while, plus tell a story that could only be told in a show like Aikatsu. It brings back the franchise to its base principles, both asking and answering a lot of questions along the way. I also appreciate the straightforward approach to the episode, since I find Friends episodes usually try a bit too hard to be subversive or complex.
Pure Palette’s introduction of a “children’s only” live event is the same way Aikatsu handles its real-life live events, and is possibly inspired in part by that. Another nice touch was the crowd during the CG stage having a ton more kids than usual, all attending with their parents.
This episode doesn’t look quite as bad as last week’s, but the slipping animation and background quality is still bugging me and tugging at the back of my mind. It’s at a point where I don’t think it will ever be addressed and I worry the staff will never have the resources to handle it.
I forgot to mention:
The only line that took me out of this episode was Aine saying “how much we’ve changed since becoming Diamond Friends” or whatever. I personally haven’t seen or felt any change in them in the last few episodes, so I’ve got no idea what they’re talking about.
that’s been bothering me a bit too. Diamond Friends feels very business as usual for them, and we have yet to see them cope with what that would really entail
You don’t know what they’re talking about? Then congratulations: you have put yourself in the mindset of Aine and Mio. Although to them, and thus the audience, as we see the world through their eyes, they haven’t seemed to change at all, the reverberations of their new level have spread throughout the world. The explosive increase in followers, the 10x upsale of macarons, the instant sellouts to people with access to ticket bots. They may be intending to do the same thing they always have, but the way they’re doing it, their drive and motivation, not to mention ability, is higher than ever.
In contrast, think of Akari in S4. Many people (but not me) think she changed too much, or that she somehow lost what made her a good character and she acted too cool. But that’s what happens when you mature and get more experienced. You know how to handle more situations, and things that used to give you trouble are now routine. In both cases, the core of their personality remained the same, but how they act when faced with different scenarios changed.
Aine’s friend power is the same (albeit stronger), but now she spends her off days working instead of relaxing. Mio still plays with the kids, but to them she’s this goddess, because they didn’t grow up with her (and in fact, they first met her already as a top idol). There are some things about yourself you can control, and others that are influenced by other people’s perception of you. Both of these are on display in this episode.
You are now realizing they cancelled a thousand tickets last minute and resold all of them to children and their parents in about two days. RIP everyone who bought them originally.
Will I get a refund? o_O
This Episode got me thinking about what age are the fans most of the time in the last two shows it has been mostly Teens and Adults yeah we had kids here and there but most of that time it was family or friends. So are kids not a big fan group when it comes to the Aikatsu! world is it more to Teens and Adults.
Thanks!
Thanks!