CHARACTER: 6.5
The new character, Raki/Lucky is...excessively annoying. She's prone to literally repeating back what other characters said, to an extent even Aine can't compete with, and says her 'lucky' catchphrase far, far too often. She's compulsive and brainless in a way that's less cute airhead, more intentionally ignorant. It doesn't help that almost everything she tries, she excels at in record time, with minimal effort. It's painful seeing her achieve in a matter of days what took her predecessors weeks or months of desperate struggle to even complete, let alone excel at. I can at least appreciate the fact that she does learn her lessons eventually - but the keyword there is, unfortunately, eventually.
Raki's sister, the "mastermind", barely exists. I can't comment on her personality because, while she's intended to push the story, really, all she does in hide out and make vague passing comments. She's a total waste of air and could have happily been replaced with an existing character.
Aine and Mio, a much as I nomrally love them, managed to have both a ton of screen time while also not doing much of anything. It was a misuse of their characters, and of time that could have been used on building a story.
I never loved Yume, but at least her character - when on screen - keeps her personality and continues to grow. Poor Akari barely features, and when she does, it's usually more as a prop than anything else. At least the original Trio (Soleil) have kept their vibes going, and add a great atmosphere when on screen - though like Aine and Mio, it never adds up to much.
The other assorted background cast feature surprisingly often, and mesh well, providing storylines unique to this series. Even the notorious M4 did eventually show up... eventually. Barely. It's sad, and they deserved far more screen time as Aikatsu's only all-male band (or really, male band period.)
STORY : 6.5
To be honest, I didn't expect much of a story from what is essentially a drawn-out All Stars series. What you see in the trailer is well and truly exactly what it ends up being. It's fine - just not particularly unique or engaging. I wish they'd used Wakaba, who needs a Friend, or had Raki search for a Friend, but instead they threw years of lore into the wind. Oh well.
SOUND: 5
Sigh. They've literally taken songs from previous series/seasons and had other characters/actors re-do them - or just repeated the literal original and pretended nobody would notice. Some re-dos go down better than others. I wish they'd actually remixed the songs to suit their new singers, and created more brand-new songs, because I honestly don't see the point in re-watching when I can buy the CD or watch clips on youtube. '
There's a handful of new songs, but Raki's theme in particular just sounds like it wasn't made for her, and the others just fall flat of their potential. It's particularly unfortunate given we're treated to multiple of these lackluster performances every episode.
ART: 7
There's some gorgeous new dresses, Raki's uniform is well designed both for her character and the existing leads' colour pallette, and the CGI has definitely improved over the years. Unfortunately, there's been quite a few random mistakes in the 2D animation, like when Yume's hair was suddenly her S1 style for no apparent reason.
Some of Raki's later dress 'designs' looked like rips of Rare dresses by other characters, which was unfortunate, because they really were quite pretty.
Still, they've done a good job of combining the different styles of each season, without making it looking weird.
OVERALL:
I'd have to give it a 6.5 - there's nothing epically horrid about it, but I'd only recommend it to the most loyal of fans.
