This is a review covering my opinion on the four seasons of the original Aikatsu, a series that I had for a long time as a "I would try it out, but it's so long..." until the day I finally gave it the chance it deserved, and boy I sure didn't expect it to become one of my favorite works.

What is Aikatsu?

Aikatsu is a series set in a school that has as objective training idols to make them reach stardom. This includes seeing the characters practice for concerts, facing problems and how they improve thanks to them, and seeing them participate in idol-related activities like TV programs, firming autographs (and all the awesome moments that come from seeing fans interacting with them) or being actresses in movies/TV dramas among others things. This gives a very solid variety to the series and together with the nice comedy coming from the cast makes each episode so enjoyable to watch.

It's worth saying that this anime has zero fanservice and has quite a lighthearted tone compared to others from the idol genre. Outside of some unique (and greatly executed) moments, the drama is never particularly big, being “rivals” is another way to say great friends to improve with, and damn if it's wholesome, it's hard to not smile all the time watching this! That doesn't mean that Aikatsu doesn't have emotional moments though, instead it actually delivers the hardest when it comes to payoff when seeing the characters succeeding and taking a step towards their dreams.

Becoming a star and inspiring future idols

A big theme of the series is finding the inspiration for a dream thanks to another person, with the own protagonist at the start of the series, Ichigo, being clueless about what she wanted to be until she was invited to the concert of the most popular idol of the moment and was so impressed with her performance that she wanted to become one as well.

This is something that will happen many times in the future as we see the characters grow and how they end up inspiring the next students that join the school as the years pass with their actions (yes, years pass as the series progresses, leading to more focus on new characters progressively). That is such a satisfying feeling because we don't see the characters just in the “getting good” phase, but further than that.

Dances and CGI

As it's to be expected of a long length series that has a dance scene (or more) in the majority of the episodes, Aikatsu uses CGI animation for them and, being honest, they don't look too good at first, but that changes fast with the pass of the episodes to the point they look fantastic.

If you want some examples, here are (visual spoilers for the characters who dance) Episode 71 and Episode 110, and they only keep getting better!

Episode 71 (dance starts at 1:00)

Spoiler, click to view

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Episode 110 (starts at 0:50)

Spoiler, click to view

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Characters

Ichigo Hoshimiya, a cheerful girl with a heart of gold, absurdly likeable and a big eater, and damn if she can be badass too, nothing stops her!

Aoi Kiriya, a total expert when it comes to idols, she's more of the cool type and combinates so well with Ichigo, who is her childhood friend.

Ran Shibuki closes the main trio with a more mature personality, she has been working as a model since she was younger and is praised for her style.

This is really just an introduction to the main trio, between the other idols who get the spotlight (who are a lot), the designers of the brands each idol uses, Ichigo's family, and all the other characters who have chances to shine, the cast becomes really big, but it's done in a well paced way and each character has a nice personality and actions that makes them stay memorable. And I haven't even talked of best teacher Johnny Bepp yet, yeah!

In conclusion

Do you like following lovable characters and seeing them grow over time in their journey to fulfill their dreams, inspiring future generations to do the same? Do you like great dance scenes with music that you will most likely add to your playlist to listen to again? Do you want to feel awful when you realize that you're halfway through the series and you don't want to see it end of how much fun you're having watching it? Well, Aikatsu is just what you're looking for!

I hope this post gives you the push needed to watch this anime in the future, as Aoi would say, it's really something special!