User blog:CureHibiki/Hibiki Reviews: Aikatsu Friends! OP/ED Theme Song Single

Hello, I am back!!! Don't think anyone missed these but too bad, too sad! I'm back from the dead!!! I dunno, I fell behind in Aikatsu because there were like no songs coming out and there wasn't much to say...plus, year 12 and first year of university was hectic to say the least. But I decided I'd give it another crack, especially as I hardly do much around here... my job of adding lyrics have been taken away from me ;-; Anyway, so without further ado~ My possibly really bad reviews of the first three songs in Aikatsu Friends begins now!!!



This theme song single contains our first opening and ending themes for Aikatsu Friends. All in all I think they're pretty good for this show's first set of OP and EDs. To summarise, the OP is alright and the ED is better. As well as these two songs, we have our Idol Activities 4.0 song. As always it is catchy but is it as good as the previous three Idol Activities for me? You'll soon find out.

In my other reviews, I reviewed the cover art and as always, I shall keep that tradition up! Aikatsu never fails to make these beautiful. It reminds me of AiStars art for their CD covers, which is not a bad thing. The art on those are so good so whoever's idea it was to keep up this sort of trend for the OP and ED theme song cover art deserves a cookie. It's something about the pastel color palette that are my aesthetic that I just can't help but fall in love with these type of cover arts. My only complaint is the romaji for "Arigato Daijobu" I'm so used to it being either "Arigatou Daijoubu" or "Arigatō Daijōbu", okay!!!

With the cover art out of the way, time to actually review the songs on this single!!!

Thank You⇄It'll Be Alright
Thank You⇄It'll Be Alright is the opening theme sung by our two main protagonists, Aine and Mio; which is actually Aine's theme song. I'm going to start off by saying I love the first few opening chords of this song. Something about it is just really pretty!!! To be honest, the instrumental is actually really nice to listen too. I don't think the song is at all boring, the lyrics match the theme of the show and the song's melody does feel very friendship-py but I feel like it still lacks something. As a performance on its own, it's pretty good but it just doesn't feel like an opening, if you get what I mean.

Onto the vocals, Mio's voice is just so clear and pretty. It has your average "I've been singing since I was young and I'm a professional too" sound to it which matches well with Mio. Meanwhile Aine's voice...everyone is complaining about it. I get what you all mean by flat and bad however she is not a bad singer. In fact it could just be her tone that is putting you all off, especially as we are also comparing her to Mio's vocals which are more clear and defined. On top of that, we were probably spoiled with high pitched sounding protagonists (Ichigo, Akari and Yume) and now we have Aine who has a deeper tone. I also think Aine sounds like this cause in the story, she has never ever performed before!!! Do you all really expect Aine to sound as amazing as Mio right off the bat?

What I am trying to say is, I don't think Aine is that bad of a singer - I complained a bit myself but after listening to this song a lot, there is absolutely nothing wrong with her vocals. I sing myself and that is what made me stop complaining in the first place. So before complaining about Aine sounding flat, you try singing yourself, and then you'll realise that Aine's vocals aren't all that bad.

Believe it
Believe it is the ending theme sung by the goddesses of Aikatsu, Ran and Aoi!!! Wait, what? What do you mean I'm wrong? Oh wait. Sorry, Karen and Mirai. Hahaha. lame joke, I know At first, when I heard this song for the first time, I was raving about it. Then it's full short version came out and I hated the "Onaji kokyuu, onaji rizumu" lyrics. And now I absolutely love the song. No questions asked.

Starting off with the instruments...umm well...EDM instruments as well as some drums??? The beat and instrumental melody are so good - there's this child like feel to some parts of the instrumental before the first and second verse but it still shows off the mature vibe that Karen and Mirai emit. I absolutely love the instrumental after the second chorus though!! It sounds like violins and well, it just sounds so cool and pretty!!! Now onto lyrics...but it'll be a short segment to be honest. Whoever came up with "lalalalalalala runway / light up" deserves so many cookies, it's insane. That part is just so...catchy. I find myself just randomly screaming it out of no where sometimes when I am bored.

Now onto those splendid vocals. First off, Goddess No. 1, Karen!!! She sings very well in that high octave and doesn't seem to waver at all. She just sounds beautiful and like the angel she was meant to be. Her voice is what I expected for Hime so thank you Bandai for getting it right this time for Karen!!! Onto Goddess No. 2, Mirai!!! Her voice is heaven. Like hot chocolate melting in my mouth, so good. Okay no metaphors...never again. Oh and on top of that, she gets the best parts of the songs in my opinion. Also, her singing is also on point. These two sound really good together too! One thing I dislike about this song is their lack of singing together. So I hope in their next duet if they get one they have more lines where they're singing together.

Oh and as good as the song is, I agree with SingMeloetta ( I think it was you ), about the ending of the song. It does feel a little cluttered with the "TAKANARE - Onaji Kokyuu" etc. I don't know why they did that... but it's not bad but it could have ended better in my opinion. It doesn't take away from the song though.

Aikatsu Friends!
Aikatsu Friends is the main theme song for the show and is sung by Aine and Mio...again. Two duets by the same two girls... what about Ema and Maika, Bandai??? Hmmm??? Oh well, that aside, this song isn't too bad. Its opening instrumental after the first lyric is just so...good??? I don't know why but I am in love with that short segment. Over all, its instrumental is very nice and pleasant to the ears. As much as I love the song, it doesn't go anywhere unfortunately. It's catchy as hell and I would definitely have this on repeat but it's a shame how it just feels the same the whole way through.

Should I speak vocals? Yeah, I guess I will. So, I personally think Aine's vocals don't suit the opening but here? They really stand out and sound really good!!!! I can't find a flaw in my opinion. Mio sounds amazing too. I really think this song was made with these two in mind as they sound really good in this song. Like I said in my shorter review of this last night, if this wasn't the theme song, this should have been Aine's song cause it suits her so well. Her vocals really do sound amazing here. I get I'm not talking about Mio's vocals as much, don't get me wrong, they're amazing too however they're so good you can't really discuss them, if you get what I mean.

Oh and I should answer my question about whether this lives up to the past three Aikatsu theme songs. I say it does but it isn't as good as them. Like someone said, it lacks a key change toward the end that does make it seem pretty repetitive. I don't think it's a bad thing, not having a key change doesn't ruin a song but it could have spiced it up a tiny bit more.

Overall thoughts?
Overall, I don't think this was a bad first single for AiFure. No song is bad. They all have their own flaws but their flaws don't make them un-listenable to me. Granted some of you guys will hate the living daylights out of these songs because not all of us have the same taste, but I honestly think AiFure is starting off well. Not as well as Akari Generation or AiStars did in terms of their first ever songs but in my opinion, better than Aikatsu's first ever single I was never a fan of Signalize! okay...

Anyway enough about me and my terrible review. Do you agree or disagree on my opinion? Please go ahead and write below!!