53 episodes and I didn't make the connection between "Raichi" and "lychee" until the show pointed it out.

(end of season one/start of season two spoilers)

Having Ichigo leave for America and all the emotional capital that episode built felt a little squandered by having a timeskip and bringing her back the very next episode. We were built up for an absence that we never got to actually feel, nor did we get to experience its consequences. I was sad to see Ichigo go myself, sure, but any happiness from having her back is dwarfed by the disappointment in seeing that sort of opportunity squandered. It opened up so much potential and nothing even came of it other than one pretty good episode.

I mean, you could've at least had her missing from the show longer than CM Punk was missing from Raw after his grand exit. (I watch little girls' idol anime and pro wrestling because I'm an adult.)
***

So, are Daisuki's official releases based off of fixed-up BD versions of the episodes? Did the production values suddenly go downhill a bit? Am I just now starting to notice it? Because I'm seeing a number of occasions where characters are noticeably off model as well as a few animation errors, and I don't recall this being the case before episode 51 where I had to switch over to fansubs based off of TV encodes. I don't know what Daisuki used as their source video and don't know of any Aikatsu! TV vs BD comparisons, so I guess I'm just left to wonder why and be a bit disappointed by the dip in art quality. When Ichigo's eyes are suddenly way too massive or a side profile of Kii has the wrong color glasses frame, it's not show ruining, but it's distracting. Oh well. Mezashite seems to be in no hurry to release BD versions of these episodes, and I don't even know if those would be an improvement. I'll just to have to deal with it, I suppose. Still a bummer, though.
***

I don't care one bit about real life idols, so tell me: Why have I become so emotionally invested in these 2D ones?
***

Apparently there is an official Aikatsu shop in Japan, and I'm kind of glad an ocean, a language barrier and some sense of social restraint stand between me and it. Or I would be, except there doesn't seem to be much in the way of collectible Aikatsu merchandise, at least that I could find available to import online. Which I guess makes sense, since it's aimed at little girls and not otaku, after all. While my money may breathe a sigh of relief, my longing to own an Otome fig goes unsated. It probably won't happen, but I'm prepared to spend unreasonable sums of money on Aikatsu merchandise if it ever expands beyond basic stuff like candy and stickers. (Even just an adult-sized Aikatsu t-shirt for me to be somewhat ashamed of wearing would make me happy.)

I'm getting way too into Aikatsu.
***

Now, I don't mind the odd slice of tomato in a hamburger or a grape tomato in a salad or what have you. But tomato juice was so intensely "tomato" tasting I had to water it down significantly to get through it at all, and I still gagged a few times regardless. So for Yurika to down that stuff straight on the regular for the sake of her character, well, her tenacity in that regard has my respect. I mean, I outright enjoy the taste of carrots, and I still have to water carrot juice down a bit. Vegetable juices seem to have a very in your face flavor. Even if we assume Yurika genuinely loves tomatoes, tomato juice is another beast.

And now I'm stuck with the reality where the rest of a bottle of tomato juice is in my refrigerator because a character in Aikatsu! who wouldn't even make my top 5 drinks it fairly often (also it sounded healthy enough) and I've got to drink it somehow. This is just a taste of how strong the obsession has become. When I started this show I gave it its tag as a bit of a joke, but it has become absolutely true. It's just so many things I desire from an anime all in one show.

I thought about what I'd do when this show one day ended and I joked to myself that of course I'd just start rewatching it. But then that actually sounded like a great idea and maybe this is getting a little out of hand. I've enjoyed plenty of anime before, sure, but none have filled me with such a compulsive urge to want to own merchandise, to hunt down clips of it on YouTube, to get so utterly absorbed like this. It's not because it's the best made anime, certainly, but it has pretty successfully hit a personal sweet spot. Wait. I guess Pokemon was an anime, after all, and when I was a kid and Pokemon was at its peak you could've branded a punch to the face with a Pikachu and I probably would've craved it. Well, it's the first to make me feel that way as an adult, anyway.

But it's basically all children's merchandise. I could import Aikatsu! cards but the shipping is pretty brutal just for that, so I'd have to find somewhere I could buy a bunch of different ones in bulk to justify it and that's more difficult. But basically, there are YouTube channels where people in Japan have their kids demo Aikatsu merchandise (I have seen far too many of these videos) and it's all cheaply made fashion and promotional items from 7-11, McDonald's and places like that. But there's an Aikatsu! variant of The Game of Life that I kind of want...

Oh God the Aiktasu! wiki says there's actually apparel from the show sold in adult sizes. Time to scour the Internet to see just how much money I'm actually willing to burn in the name of Aikatsu!, I suppose.

(Try mixing carrot juice with orange juice, by the way. It works pretty well.)
***

(Trivial episode 81 spoiler)

Why does a school that has security guards stopping outsiders from entering have a gift shop for visitors?
***

I...

These aren't the characters I spent 101 episodes getting very emotionally attached to. The transition to focusing on this other set of characters was really sudden. It's not like the original cast had their character arcs wrapped up and we gently switched over to Akari and co. It's basically "Yeah, the original cast are all off doing things still, but forget them! Here's these characters now!" and that's jarring. And why? Why are we switching the focus to this new cast of characters? Why are you wounding my heart like this, Aikatsu!? Those characters, their dynamics, their growth, they're a big part of why I became so enamored with Aikatsu! in the first place. I didn't come here for a show about idols, I came here for a show about those idols. And these ain't my idols, Aikatsu!. Maybe I'll grow to like them, sure. But they'll always be the ones who inexplicably took away from me a cast I held dearly.

I would've been content to watch Aikatsu! forever. But now I just don't know anymore.
***

If you think you can bribe me with a fun OP and a Halloween episode that's over the legal limit for adorableness, then... you're kind of right.

But while members of the... previous? Original? cast show up as side characters here and there, there's been a noticeable glaring omission: Where are any Dream Academy characters? The old ones aren't there and there haven't been any new ones taking their place. Don't think just because Starlight Academy has cuter uniforms that nobody will mind if Dream Academy mysteriously ceases to exist.

I've grown to like these new characters, even if some of my favorites from before have no suitable analogue now. (Who could ever replace Otome?) And the show has the same strengths its always had, pretty much. But this transition was anything but clean. I can guess various reasons why they'd essentially reboot the series, and all of them seem cynical. (Younger cast to appeal to the younger, toy buying demographic; Ran out of ideas for where to take the show; New characters to sell new merchandise; The game changed its characters so the show had to as well, regardless of how that would disrupt the show; etc.) I still love this show. I'll still almost certainly watch it for however long it continues to run. But while point A and point B are both delightful, the way we got from the former to the latter was handled pretty terribly.

Unless of course it's actually all resolved neatly and satisfactorily in the movie. Which is still an imperfect way of handling things, but it's better than the alternative. And the original characters are in the movie, so maybe that is the case.

...I really want to see the Aikatsu! movie. But of course only Love Live! is an idol anime that's a big enough deal to have its movie screened in English somewhere I could realistically go see it. There's no justice in this world, I tell you.
***

"Jurius Caesar Salad."

This slow clap is for you, Aikatsu!.
***

I mean, I get that a point in the show literally called "Akari Generation" is going to focus on, well, Akari, but if Noel still exists in this show it's kind of weird that her sister doesn't seem to any more. Maybe if I just downloaded those partially finished subs of the movie I could learn how Dream Academy apparently vanishes into the ether.

Even if Kii, Seira, Maria and Sora have just disappeared somehow, can't there be new Dream Academy characters, at least? I'm really hoping that maybe they just haven't introduced them yet because this is getting awkward.
***

What did Yuu do to get this kind of treatment? She's literally only showing up occasionally to be gotten rid of so they can bring in other characters. Her whole point currently is to not be around. Yuu, if they ask you to transfer to Dream Academy, run for your life.
***

pripara has figs for sale but aikatsu! doesn't

I mean I kinda want to blow money on those PriPara nendos anyway, but I'd really rather I wasn't able to because I'd already spent that money buying as many Aikatsu! figs as possible. I thought they weren't making Aikatsu! figs because of the target audience. Now I have to wonder if it's just to spite me.

please let me make irresponsible economic decisions, aikatsu
***

(episode 139 spoiler)

D-Dream Academy?! Where have you been? Why has the show kept you away for dozens of episodes? Why, if the show is finally acknowledging that you still exist, aren't there at least some new Dream Academy idols around Akari and co's age? Will we see you again? it all makes no sense but it's so ok-ok-okay to see them now

Fun episode all around, too.
***

You know what there hasn't been for a while? A drama audition episode. Those are fun in their exaggerated absurdity.
***

(spoilers)

Much earlier in the series, Aoi dismissed the idea of idols not being allowed to fall in love or date people as "old fashioned." And that was refreshing. A bit later, that stance was softened to idols not being allowed romance because an idol's love "is for everyone." Which, besides being inconsistent, was also a disappointing change in course. It's not that I'm particularly angling for romance in Aikatsu! (it really doesn't need it) but I wish they'd stood by that dismissal of a toxic real life practice instead of going on to later perpetuate it even in a form that's a bit more palatable than the real world reasoning is. The... "Ichigo Generation(?)" did a lot of things well, but that particular bit ultimately wasn't one of those things. And I think it'd feel less noxious if they hadn't handled it so well before then walking back that notion.
***

So long as we're shopping Yuu out to various idol schools anyway (just how long is it going to take to fix that leak?), maybe she could do an exchange with Dream Academy? Although Dream Academy members were pretty much at Starlight all the time anyway before Akari made them disappear for so long.

The return of Aikatsu8 might be a great opportunity to bring in a Dream Academy member! There are really lots of ways Dream Academy could show up more often, and the show apparently hasn't tossed them down the memory hole entirely, so why does it continue to neglect Dream Academy so?
***

They apparently get paid the same no matter how much they actually say in a given episode, but having a show that was formerly steady work call you in after months to say just one word must still feel awkward, no?
***

I'm not surprised that some of the characters have separate people doing the singing parts, but I'm surprised at the number who apparently don't. Also the voice of Otome was also the voice of Kumiko in Euphonium? This is the first and only role for Sumire's VA? Mikuru's VA was also Mako in Kill la Kill and Tamako in Tamako Love Story? My utter inability to recognize voice actors between roles is resulting in just constant surprises here.
***

It turns out some arbitrary German in an episode of Aikatsu is from Kant's "What is Enlightenment." I mean it's surely just there for visual flair with the presumption the viewer won't have any idea what it says, but huh, odd source to randomly pull from.

Also moving away from talking into one half of a book to having Aikatsu smartphones was a great change because the former sure looked silly.
***

I was wondering if Daisuki was ever going to sub anything beyond the first 50 episodes, but now it seems they've pulled down all Aikatsu! episodes altogether. Welp. One of the realities of streaming video. Now the only way to see any English subbed Aikatsu! at all is piracy. Congrats, Bandai? I could see if they didn't feel it was worth the money to translate more of the show, but I'm not sure what they gain by removing the only legal avenue to watch it. The show's still available fansubbed so the world goes on, but I'm puzzled by this move. I assume they had their reasons, but heck if I can guess what they were.
***

"(adult male fans are often called "Aikatsu Ojisan/Aikatsu Old Man")."

That's... huh. Precure's "big friends" is certainly more flattering. Or maybe that term is more widespread? I'm admittedly not expertly versed in the phraseology of "adults who enjoy children's franchises."
***

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2016/01/05/aikatsu-ichigo-and-aoi-join-bandais-sh-figuarts-line


ahhhhh

how much money do you want

just take it

They're only like $37 each on Amiami. But I've never bought anything from Amiami, so I'm not sure what the shipping costs are like. Although the general impression I've gotten is "what you'd expect, ergo not cheap." The pictures also show a Ran fig. Why do I not see a Ran fig on Amiami. Please let me spend even more money on Aikatsu! figs. Just keep making even more I'll buy all of them.

Okay my money isn't actually infinite so there's a limit to how much I can realistically spend on Aikatsu! figs. But I'm pretty prepared to make that limit "as much as possible." Are "Figuarts" considered quality figs? I mean I'll take what I can get but obviously I'd be happier if the figs were of decent quality. For $37 I only realistically expect so much.

Enough realism. oh gosh release an otome fig and i'll buy it in an instant

they're actually doing the thing i asked for

i am too excited by the prospect of getting to own aikatsu! figs to manage any sort of grammar right now

i've wanted to have some sort of decent aikatsu! merch to buy for so long now

seriously i will buy an akari fig, a kii fig, a sakura fig look pretty much anything you make in this area i will want

just let me give you money for this, bandai. let me give you the money i've wanted to spend on aikatsu! merch for a long time now
***

Hmm. They cost a bit more on Tokyo Otaku Mode than on Ami Ami, but if I just wait for the Ran fig to be available I should hopefully be able to pre-order all three at once and get free shipping unlike on Ami Ami so I figure I'll just go with the easier option even if TOM will mean waiting a little longer to get them. I'm not experienced with Ami Ami and don't want my long-awaited chance to buy Aikatsu! figs to be when I start experimenting with that.

There's a chance they might sell out if I wait too long to pre-order them, but Aikatsu! isn't a hugely popular series in the west or anything so it'll probably be fine to hold off at least until Ran's available for pre-order. I still don't know if Figuarts are considered decent quality or not but I'm super excited to get them this year.

But looking at the description for the Aoi fig on TOM, I couldn't help noticing it described one of her accessories as an "eye cutlet" phone. It's not the first time I've seen this odd form of... romanization? localization? of Aikatsu's name, but the first time I've seen it used by a source this official. It's such a silly title I can't help but giggle. Even the thought process one imagines went into that is odd. "We can't call it by its Japanese name in English! How should we translate it? Yeah, just going with two unrelated English words that sound like the show's name seems like the right way to handle this."

Also it says "Aikatsu!" a number of times elsewhere on that page so what the heck, dude.

Anyway, as aforementioned, please keep releasing more Eye Cutlet figs and I'll keep buying them.
***

Thinking about it, it's probably a machine translation. Neither Google, Babelfish nor Bing would spit out "eye cutlet" as a translation for the show's name, though. No idea what crummy/amazing service gives you "eye cutlet" as a translation of "Aikatsu!" or why an official description with otherwise fine English that refers to it a number of times as "Aikatsu!" would include such a silly machine translation of the show's name without someone noticing/caring.

Regardless of how it came about, "eye cutlet" is just too silly a name for me to not like it.

And, oh gosh, it seems like her eye cutlet phone is the original design where it was shaped like a book. Switching away from that was a sound move on the anime's part and I wish the fig's phone was based on the smartphone style design rather than the book one, but oh well. Also kind of surprised to read that they're only about an inch taller than a Nendo. They looked bigger than that in the pictures. The sculpt isn't stunning, but it seems alright. These things seem pretty on point for what I'd reasonably expect at their price point, with perhaps the number of accessories exceeding my expectations a bit. I'm not blown away, but I'm satisfied.

My only real complaint is that there's only three I can buy. That there are now Aikatsu! figs at all has made my hopes and desire to own an Otome fig grow that much more. The truly dubious hope? Figs of Dream Academy characters.

(Also, is it telling that when they chose the first characters to make figs of, they didn't choose any from the Akari generation? I'd totally still buy an Akari/Hinaki/Sumire fig, but the ones they went with definitely seem like the smarter choice.)
***

Ami Ami's description cleared it up. The Aoi fig seems to come with both the book and smartphone style phone. Which would be ideal. Yay.

(If you can't tell, I'm really excited about these figs.)
***

Aww. They fixed the item description.

This really shouldn't amuse me to the degree that it does. Maybe this is what happens when the latest Aikatsu! episode hasn't been subbed yet. Didn't have to worry about that sort of thing before I caught up with the series. Could just watch three episodes in a row! Which is part of the reason I wound up becoming current with Aikatsu!, I suppose.

I want a new episode of Aikatsu! to watch. And the next movie has a BD release in about 17 days. Although it seems like it might be like that Pripara movie. That is, a thin bit of plot stringing together a bunch of repeated performances from the series. I really hope that's not the case. That'd be even more disappointing than the Pripara movie because at least the Pripara movie convinced me I really want to check out Pretty Rhythm.

Figs, new episodes, movies. My Aikatsu! obsession continues to get fed quite well.
***

Also figs are fun and cute/pretty but holy crap maybe don't pick up this hobby if you're not already into it. These Aikatsu figs are around $40 to pre-order (once you factor in shipping [sites like TOM offer free shipping but charge more so it generally evens out]) and that's on the cheaper end for figs. Nendos and things like this aren't cheap per se, but they're "affordable." It's not unusual at all to see some of the fancier figs retailing for about $75-150, with some of the larger/fanciest ones retailing for $200+. These little trinkets are wallet vampires and you'll only ever want more of them.

And dolls? Oh man, forget it. There's some "cheap" dolls for $150 I'd consider as an extravagance, but prices of $400-600+ are what you can expect for stuff like Volks and even up to four figures for some things. I can totally justify spending around $120-130 on three Aikatsu! figs. Multiple hundreds for one doll is a little rich for my blood. But maybe your financial situation is quite a bit more comfortable than mine in which case buy whatever collectibles you want, I guess.

why am i picking up an expensive hobby like this ugh

(but figs are just so neat)
***

And, of course, don't forget cleaning your figs and figuring out how to display them. Display cases are an extra expense, and you're going to need to keep those somewhere which means you need to either have or get furniture to accommodate them. You could keep them in their boxes but you still have to store those somewhere and now you don't get to actually display your fig.

Figs are expensive, inconvenient little paperweights that don't even have much practical use. They're great.

(Crunchyroll has Ichigo and Aoi as part of their current daily deal. I'd save about $7.50, too. But I've heard plenty of negative experiences about buying figs from them and then I'd still have to find a way to buy Ran later without getting stuck paying an arm and a leg in shipping costs. Well, even if "where" and "when" remains in question, there's at least no question of "if.")

Also, I've seen some comparisons and Figurarts quality seems... okay? Not "good" or "great," but acceptable. The quality doesn't seem on par with similarly priced Figma releases, which is annoying, and some people report getting Figurarts releases with paint defects which is troubling. But everything seems to boil down to "these could be better" rather than "avoid 'em."

Also maybe I should get some Figmas whenever Aikatsu! figs stop eating up my figure budget. They seem nice.
***

So I was gonna maybe point out that the latest Aikatsu 8 went nowhere at all and gripe a bit about the current state of the show. But then I caught wind of some rumors. Rumors that Aikatsu! was gonna end soon. There're further claims that this will lead to a timeskip and a new series. And if that's true, that's a bit more significant than elaborating on why Aikatsu!'s started to feel like "idol Bleach."

you can't take my Aikatsu! from me

I know. This series has gotten far more episodes than most do. But I want infinite Aikatsu! so I would probably never be okay with the show ending. A timeskip wouldn't be the end of the world, but the timeskip is rumored to be for a significant chunk of time and as kinda poorly defined as the character arcs in the Akari generation have been, they certainly don't feel like they're near a conclusion (the rumors claim the end will come within a couple of months). So... they're just gonna ditch all of this and try to start fresh? They kinda did that with the Akari generation and it didn't go great. This would just be an even worse way to abandon things and try that.

And then there's the nature of what Aikatsu! Stars even winds up being. Is it a full-length show in the Aikatsu universe? Is it a series of shorts? Is it, as some suggest, partly a variety show?

Or none of the rumors are true at all.

It's a wild time in the world of Aikatsu!, I tell you.
***

Oh, and there's a new rumor about Aikatsu! getting licensed in the US, but that sort of rumor's floated around for a while and the backing behind this latest one isn't particularly strong. Assume it's false until there's some kind of official announcement, I'd say.

The rumors around Aikatsu! Stars have what seems like much more solid backing. While not official yet, there's at least reason to pay attention to these claims. (The Aikatsu! wiki is satisfyingly more active than I expected.)

To bring up Love Live! for just a moment, they gave their character's arcs a fully sensible conclusion before transitioning into a new generation of characters to try to keep their money train going. I don't see why Aikatsu! can't manage the same. (If somehow the new Love Live! were to bomb they could probably find a way to bring back the original cast but whatever, this is about Aikatsu! and I don't care much about Love Live!, so I'll not pursue that thought any further.)

If there's to be a positive about this I'd like to believe that a reboot and third generation with a new academy and everything can give them a chance to course correct and make this more like the first 100 episodes of Aikatsu! but I'm rather skeptical about that. I liked Pripara and that made me figure I should check out Aikatsu!, which wound up completely outshining Pripara and enrapturing me. But lately Pripara has seemed more focused and together than Aikatsu! and it's not because Pripara suddenly got stronger.

urgh i need more official details
***

"Grown Woman has Strong Feelings About Child's Idol Anime"
***

"Hey IssacandAsimov, we heard you wanted an Otome fig, so we made one! By the way, it's a limited edition release that's exclusive to one online shop in Japan that doesn't ship internationally. You're welcome!"

Why do you want to hurt me, Bandai? Time to get gouged on the secondary market! At least ordering Ichigo and Ran was simple enough, and Aoi should be as well when she gets to join them. I'm not sure I can financially justify paying whatever blood money people will be asking for that Otome fig and buying the alternate costume releases of the Soleil members, so it's a pretty easy choice to prioritize the former. And it wouldn't have to be a choice of Bandai saw fit to give the Otome fig a standard release, but alas. Why yes, the inconvenience I'm facing trying to buy an anime figure is a serious and meaningful problem. (Okay, no, but it's still annoying. She's my favorite character, dude!)
***

These are the tiniest little Aikatsu! cards, holy crap. It's like they were designed to be lost.

"S.H. Figuarts is a new standard figure series that incorporates the Bandai action figure 'Art' under the theme 'Pursuing Character Expression through Humanoid Action.'" Now that's a catchy motto.

The instructions have English for all the little warning signs that seem to suggest "You'll break this thing if you ever touch it," and the rest is in Japanese. I'm not sure why there's any English at all if it's gonna be like that, but I guess I'll take what I can get. I can't read all these kanji, man. I can read the hiragana telling me there's supposed to be a rice scoop and the katakana telling me there's a clip for the stand, but that's about where my skills end. I mean this is what I signed up for when I bought a Japanese figure and it's not like it's actually that complicated, but when Good Smile is including English instructions these days I do wish a little that Bandai had followed their lead.

No really these Aikatsu! cards are smaller than my pinky's fingernail. Writing "do not misplace" in the instructions isn't going to make actually doing that any easier.

I still feel Nendoroids would've been preferable, but Figuarts releases still beat no Aikatsu! figs. I'll get more Aikatsu! Figuarts releases because they're Aikatsu!, but I don't know that I'd want to get Figuarts releases for other series. At least not when I could either go with Good Smile Company for quality at this level, or spring for a fancy statue or something. It's not that Figuarts is unacceptable, it's just that there're better figs I could buy if they're not the only source for a series that's dear to me.
***

I found a review of the figure on the Aikatsu! wiki and the author took a picture of one of the cards on her fingernail. I'm not exaggerating about how tiny these things are. With Ran and Aoi each coming with minuscule cards of their own, these'll sure be fun to keep track of.
***

I was watching a Japanese unboxing video of the Ichigo fig, as one does, and pretty much the first thing they brought up was how tiny the cards were. Truly a universal reaction. At one point she was holding them in her hand and comparing them to an actual Aikatsu! card and she had to stifle laughter over just how tiny they were.

Also it's kind of telling how there's two versions of the members of Soleil plus an Otome and Yurika release without even a mention of any Luminas members or anyone else from the Akari generation.

I'd still buy them, though. And probably some Aikatsu! Stars figures if those ever happened. Just... just give my money a chance to breathe between releases, maybe.