Episode 07 - The Road Continuing towards Mirai★

The Road Continuing towards Mirai★ (ミライへ続く道★) is the seventh episode of the Aikatsu Friends! anime series. It aired on May 17th, 2018.

Summary
Nominated by Love Me Tear's Mirai, Aine has been chosen to make a guest appearance in the drama "The Idol is a Witch!". With repeated practice, Aine was supposed to have memorized her lines perfectly, and yet she kept making mistakes. With her in such a situation, Mirai decided to take Aine out for a bit. What exactly is Mirai's encouragement!?

Plot
One late evening, a group of shady men are in the middle of a business deal when a mysterious girl suddenly arrives to stop them. With her magical beam she turns the men into a group of adorable kittens and the episode comes to an end after she runs off.

Aine and Mio compliment "Idol Witch", and bring up that despite how seemingly comparable to a children's show it is- the deeper themes make it popular with older people too. Aine agrees with this and they comment on how charismatic Mirai is as Tamaki joins them to reveal a new job has come in for Aine from Idol Witch, requesting she make a guest appearance.

At her desk, Tamaki brings up how Mirai had been spying on the audition session from a while back and probably saw something special in Aine. While Aine is honored, she fears that she may not be capable of performing to her expectations, which Mio is able to deduce noticing how odd she is reacting. Mio promises to help her train though, unwilling to send her off unprepared like this and together they change clothing and head into the dance room. There they go over Aine's character while she takes notes, deducing that she is the Idol Witches understudy who believes she is a real witch and is trying to gather evidence. Although she is clumsy, her luck and sincerity manages to catch attention in the idol world. They start to go over the script, but seeing how tense Aine is, Mio tries to help her loosen up and performs the line to demonstrate before recalling the advice she was given during her first time acting.

They are joined by Ema and Maika, who bring up how much endurance and energy acting takes; with both of them having performed in their own acting roles in the past; Ema in an action movie, and Maika as the heroine of a musical. Aine is delighted by how talented her friends are, and as they explain various details that will help her improve, she must remember her lines. She tries again, managing to grow more naturally as she keeps repeating the line.

That evening, Mirai and Karen discuss her decision to include Aine in her show. While it will be her first time acting Mirai is sure this will be fun, and she mentions how she couldn't imagine anybody else playing the role after reading the script.

The following day at Penguin Cafe, Aine prepares to leave when to her surprise, she finds Mio in the vehicle instead of Tamaki. Mio brings up how an incident occurred earlier, so she is taking her place for the time being since she is off for the day. Happily Aine joins her as Mio admits to being worried about her, although Aine teasingly asks if she wanted a chance to see Mirai as well.

They arrive to a large building where filming takes place, and Aine is taken by the room she is brought into and admires the stage setup, the equipment, and the large table full of snacks. But before she can enjoy anything they overhear the staff nearby and watch as Mirai begins to film on a green screen. She introduces herself as Idol Witch, pleasing the staff with her first take, and she compliments the directors efforts. Mio and Aine join them to thank her for allowing them to attend for the day, while Aine clumsily thanks her for inviting her to partake in the role. Mirai introduces her to the director of the show as her nerves soon get the better of her. She changes and sits by herself until Mio arrives with the recording schedule- and suddenly she is called onto the filming stage. Stiffly she makes her way over as Mio helplessly watches, wondering if she will be okay.

While the staff prepares a final touch up of Mirai's makeup, Aine worriedly begins to think about the several people she would be letting down if she fails to surpass her nerves. She would not only be letting down Mirai, but the staff, and Mio. They begin filming but she stumbles over her words, stuttering terribly until they cut the recording. They continue to try, but each time Aine continues to mess up, growing worse to the point of not even speaking before the Director decides to take a coffee break and suggests Aine takes a breather as they apologize. The girls agree and return to the waiting room as Aine tries to determine her problem. She remembers her lines but she is having trouble speaking them. Mio suggests they have a run through of them when they are joined by Mirai, who asks to borrow Aine and takes her outside. Aine is confused, asking if it's okay to leave so suddenly until Mirai explains that because the scene was moved to the evening it's fine.

She decides to take Aine to a cafe nearby and has her order something, explaining that not only are the sweets delicious- but they are "cunique". At first Aine doesn't understand, until she takes a bite of her chocolate cake to see that sweetened cheese had been added to it. She finds it to be very good and Mirai decides to take a picture and share it on Friendstagram, showing Aine her page and some recent pictures before asking if it's okay if she uploads pictures of her as well. She tries to get Aine to loosen up by showing her a shocked expression- then criticizes it for being too normal.

They finish and take off, approaching a nearby water bus and boarding it to admire the beautiful scenery. Mirai takes many pictures while discussing it, and Aine finds herself amazed by it and the wind as Mirai shows her how one properly enjoys it, then they head to the Milky Joker shop, the brand she is the Muse of.

Inside Aine admires the elegant and cute, unique outfits and accessories as Mirai spots a ribbon and brings up how she designed all of the outfits for her show. Aine is amazed and compliments the ribbon, and Mirai places it into Aine's headband while explaining how much joy she feels in doing this work. Initially Aine is confused again, but as she realizes that having clothing that is a part of you as an "ally" is is another form of "friendship". She explains her reasoning to Mirai, who appears to like it and agree.

They return back to the studio and chat about the fun they had, with Aine wondering if Mirai took her out to try to encourage her and make her feel better. She responds vaguely and takes off as Mio rejoins them, and now feeling better Aine agrees that she will be fine and she changes to return to the set. As they prepare to start she remembers that she will be okay, because she has her friend by her side, and flawlessly she goes through her lines and keeps up with Mirai, amazing everyone by her improvement as they end the scene. Mirai and Mio congratulate Aine and the director points out that now they will be filming Mirai's performance of "Identity".

That night Aine sits down with her family to watch her performance as she makes note of it on her social media. After it ends, everyone is delighted by how well she did. She suddenly gets a message to see that several people are starting to leave her messages.

Meanwhile, Karen brings up how Mirai was right in that Aine suits the role. She wonders what sort of miracle she will bring to the Idol world and Mirai remarks on this with a cheeky expression.

Characters

 * Mirai Asuka
 * Aine Yūki
 * Mio Minato
 * Maika Chōno
 * Ema Hinata
 * Karen Kamishiro
 * Tamaki Enjōji
 * Masamune Yūki
 * Nene Yūki
 * Kazune Yūki
 * Suzune Yūki
 * Momone Yūki

Trivia

 * The title serves as a pun, referring to both "the future" and Mirai herself.
 * The song Identity debuts as an insert song in this episode.
 * The Bunny Parade Coord makes its debut in this episode.
 * The social media platform Friendstagram (トモスタグラム) that Mirai uses is a reference to the social media platform in real life, Instagram.
 * The bottom menu is more similar to the older versions of Instagram than the latest one, while the upper menu is the same as the current version.
 * Instead of three images per row with squares as the standard size, Friendstagram is two per row with rectangles as the standard size.
 * As of this episode, Mirai has 800 posts, 8 million followers and is following 217 people.
 * Mirai claims to have taken all the pictures on her page. However, a number of her pictures feature Mirai with both hands visible in the shot, and thus it would have been impossible for her to take them herself.