Honestly, I didn't expect much out of this series coming out of it, especially when I initially attempted to watch the 1st episode only to be EXTREMELY turned off by the dance cgi, thus making me not want to watch the series even with it's supposed interesting lighthearted idol premise. However, I gave it another try, and honestly, after finishing this season, I didn't expect a series like this to resonate with me so well.
Let's start off with the plot. If you're looking for something dramatic and serious in this idol anime, then you're not gonna find it here. It's more of an episodic slice of life cute-idols-doing-cute-things with levels of natural character development and nicely-done cathartic moments. And I like that, as it gives room and time for us to know and personally get attached to the characters, especially with a sizable 50-episode span that this season has.
Moving on to the characters. They're overall likable, but I feel like some of the supporting ones can be a bit underwhelming in terms of charm and overall personality (except Yurika, she's great). Although, the main three girls we see and encounter a lot in this series; Ichigo, Aoi, and Ran, are surprisingly good and have nice chemistry with their interactions and personalities. Ichigo is your typical gung-ho optimistic cute girl who likes to eat a lot, Aoi is your cool-type girl who is a very big nerd when it comes to the world of idols, and Ran is your mature, multi-talented model girl who can get embarrased being pestered by her friends. Their development is slow, but meaningful, something that surprised me a lot about the three. Sure, the series has a generally happy optimistic viewpoint about the world of idols and is a bit unrealistic, but the way they realize and handle their hurdles and problems makes you care about them more overtime.
And I can't end this section without mentioning Mizuki. Personally, I can find her idol decisions as the series later goes on weird and her personality a bit underwhelming, but she serves as a decent mentor/senpai figure to the younger idols such as Ichigo, who receives astounding amounts of insight and understanding about the idol world from her.
Onto the artstyle and animation. Outside of the CGI (which I will get into a bit), the artstyle and animation of how the world is detailed and the characters move are average. Nothing too spectacular, but nothing shitty either. Though as more episodes pass by, you can see the slow transition of the color palettes and character designs being more defined and less clunky. And now let's get to the main bone of contention which can make-or-break this series for you...
The CGI. Oh boy, the early episodes of it were... pretty bad. The way the characters were designed make them look like noodle figures, and the way they articulate and move around (combined with prior mentioned noodle structure of their bodies) makes watching them dance a bit of a painful sore of an eye to handle. But if you can handle these portions of the early episodes (as it's generally a few mins per episode), then you're good to go and luckily, the later episodes slowly improve on the CGI and makes the dances and character designs more refined and fluid. Example: . . . . . . . . ▶ ▶ ▶ And lastly, the music. Aside from some really good musical pieces (such as Glass Doll and Wake Up My Music), the overall music palette and vibes are generally what you expect from an idol series. Though in this case, there's more variation with the sounds and melodies but not enough to strike or impress me a lot, but it's definitely passable and if you love idol music, their wide selection of musical choices will make your idol fandom in you happy.
▶ And I almost forgot to mention the OST's (the bgm side) they use in this series, and quite frankly, I like it. It sets the overall Aikatsu-wholesome atmosphere well, and it's never afraid to use some of the more melodic, emotional pieces in their more cathartic scenes (which I won't mention certain cases obviously cause spoilers).
Overall, while I did mention some technical flaws such as the atrocity of the CGI in the early episodes, I pretty much love this series. From it's lighthearted fun episodic premise with natural development to its fun and charming cast of characters, it's no wonder I was able to finish this series in the span of like what, 2 days. If you want a series that will make you happy and feel a bit inspired from the rough times you've been suffering through, or just want to see cute anime girls doing cute idol-themed things, then this series is for you.
