Episode 18 - Even a Slight Chance

Even a Slight Chance (わずかなチャンスさえも) is the eighteenth episode of the Aikatsu Friends! anime series. It aired on August 9th, 2018.

Summary
The school's biggest event of the summer, the Star Harmony Cup, is about to begin. The favorites to win the event, Honey Cat, are having a training camp in the gym so that they can pull off a Friends Appeal worthy of their dresses. The two undergo lessons while also busy with work. Can they show off the results of their training at the Star Harmony Cup?

Plot
The episode begins with Mio and Aine in the office of Tamaki Enjōji as they hand in their entry form for the Star Harmony Cup to her, followed by Honey Cat doing the same. Aine expresses pleasant shock that Honey Cat is entering the cup, and Maika replies there's no way they'd ignore it because it's the hottest summer fest at Star Harmony Academy. Afterwards, in the auditorium, Ken Mayuzumi goes over the essentials of the Star Harmony Cup, explaining that each unit will give a single performance and the judging will be done by active professionals, as well as how the winning Friends will go on to represent Star Harmony Academy at the Brilliant Friends Cup in the fall. Mio remarks that since Honey Cat is the most popular Friends unit as of now, they will be Pure Palette's biggest hurdle to get into the Brilliant Friends Cup.

Outside, Maika and Ema are talking about how they need to work harder and Maika remarks that there's no point in entering if they aren't the hottest unit. Then, they decide their Friends Appeal is the only thing left to work on, and perfecting it will be the key to blowing everything they've done so far out of the water in addition to bringing out the best of their dresses. Just as they've made their plans, however, Maika and Ema are discovered by Tamaki-san, who tells them to get to the van, as it's time for work. After the photoshoot, Ema and Maika attempt to go off training, but are instead promptly dragged to their next gig. Finding time to train continues to be impossible, with neither Ema nor Maika having adequate room in their schedules. After a radio interview, even though they are being told to take it easy, Maika remarks about how she doesn't want to, and Ema agrees. And so, both Maika and Ema go to Tamaki-san to seek approval for getting use of the training gym early in the morning, as well as late at night, and receive the necessary permissions. After that, Ema and Maika balance training with their other activities, despite being exhausted in the process. One day, while training to pull off their Friends Appeal, Ema remarks how nice it is being Friends with Maika, because if Ema was by herself, she probably just would have stuck with work and given up on training

Maika wakes up early the next morning and decides to go for a walk. In the fog outside, she sees the shape of a person, which wanders around, consequently convincing Maika that there is a ghost outside. Maika screams, scaring the so-called "ghost", which runs into Aine and Mio as they're doing a morning run and turns out to be none other than Sakuya Shirayuri. Sakuya explains that a divination led her to come to Star Harmony Academy this early in the morning. As Maika is unaware the so-called "ghost" is really Sakuya, she attempts to convince Ema that the ghost was real the next day. As the two are theorizing, Ema tells the story of the Idol Ghost, an idol who wanted to reach the top so badly she forgot she was a ghost, and now she wanders around while looking for someone to form Friends with. Instead of comforting Maika, however, this story only scares her more, and Ema figures out that Maika is scared of ghosts. Brushing it off, Ema suggests the two get to training instead. Along the way, however, Maika's fear of ghosts seems to be getting the best of her, as she sees a black cat while appeal training with Ema and consequently messes up the appeal. With immense difficulty, Maika puts her fear of ghosts aside and vows to make the dresses of Honey Cat shine as they finally nail the appeal. The next day, the Star Harmony Cup finally begins, with Honey Cat going last for Day One of the competition, and the pair then go on to perform to You × I.

As the episode ends, Mio remarks that Pure Palette will have to make a big bang on stage tomorrow to beat Honey Cat, and Aine realizes just how many fans Honey Cat has as she begins to panic.

Characters

 * Maika Chōno
 * Ema Hinata
 * Aine Yūki
 * Mio Minato
 * Sakuya Shirayuri
 * Coco
 * Tamaki Enjōji
 * Ken Mayuzumi

Trivia

 * The title is a reference to the bridge of the song You × I.
 * The Dolly Lady Coord and the Charmy Lady Coord make a cameo appearance in this episode.
 * Kaguya Shirayuri makes a cameo appearance in this episode.