User blog comment:Dorayaki/Your expectation for Aikatsu Friends?/@comment-34567418-20180204181951

I’ll split this into a list of what’s essentially wishful thinking and more realistic expectations.

Wishful thinking:

0. Little to no reycycled performances. The first season, possibly due to the cheaper animation, was the best with this. 0. More coord other then PRs and school dresses. Again the first season, followed by the third, was the best with this. In fact I’d like to see characters ware coords that aren’t form their brands like that one episode where ever one wore angely suger for a single performance. 0. Solo and units performances with more then two(or fore) members still be a thing. 0. The aifri’s first season brands mostly consist of ideas that weren’t used in previous seasons. Realistic:

0. Decent plot and character arcs. I almost put both these into the wishful thinking section. Aikatsu, IMO, has always been pretty bad with both. Characters that develop usually revert back to their pre-developed state, usually to keep their character gimmick. Either that or the character development is extremely superficial and doesn’t actually change anything.

Then there is the plot; it always either : A)obviously sets up something and then back tracks so fast out that you wonder what was even the point. B) really half-baked C) there is none and it’s just and endless stream of filler D) (exclusive to aistars) going full on with a really stupid idea.

So what stoped me from putting this in the wishful thinking list? I remembered that there was an actual point where this wasn’t the case: ran (and debatably akari but I’ll get to her latter). While not my favorite ran has clearly devolved and evolved greatly over time. The ran in episode 24-26 is different to the ran at the start of the series and is also different to the ran from after the the tri-star auditions. Her development also happened in ARCS both which, IMO, where extremely Well done. The tri star arc specifically is the amount the quality that I’d love the series to return to. Not only was it a moment of growth and emotional but it also used *gasp* subtle cues. It can be argued that akari went through an arc and changed but other then her skill has she really changed? Really she just seems, at lest to me, Cary the exact same attitude as when she started.

0. Some diversity in coords but not that much. 0. 1 or 2 original ideas for brands 0. Quality songs.