Trivia / Aikatsu Stars!

• Follow the Leader: Part of the reason for this sequel, as well as its successor, has to do with dropping sales figures for the Aikatsu franchise caused by fierce competition with PriPara, a rebranding of the original Pretty Rhythm series, which eventually did win out.
• Franchise Killer: Aikatsu Stars the Movie! being a Box Office Bomb and Aikatsu Stars! My Special Appeal flopping hard on the 3DS pretty much have seemingly stopped any further production on theatrical releases and development on home consoles respectively. The anime and arcade game have also been bleeding out revenue overtime, and in 2017, it finally fell out of Bandai Namco's top 10 profitable franchises, and has a poor forecast for 2018. After only two short years, it's scheduled to be replaced by Aikatsu Friends! in April 2018 as a second attempt at rebooting and reviving the series.
• Non-Singing Voice: As with the original series, the characters' singing voices are provided by a specially formed unit known as AIKATSU☆STARS!, composed of Sena (Yume Nijino), Rie (Rola Sakuraba and Rei Kizaki), Nanase (Koharu Nanakura, Lily Shirogane, and Tsubasa Kisaragi), Miki (Ako Saotome), Kana (Mahiru Kasumi and Yuzu Nikaido), Ruka (Hime Shiratori and Aria Futaba), and Miho (Yozora Kasumi and Kirara Hanazono). They are joined by unofficial member Risa, who voices Elza Forte.
• Screwed by the Network: The series' first movie suffered this in Japan, due to it being released during a major holiday in Japan (Obon), the success of The Secret Life of Pets and five typhoons hitting Japan during the two months it was in theaters. It wound up making less money than the two previous Aikatsu! movies as a result.
  • Aikatsu Stars! My Special Appeal for the Nintendo 3DS completely had miserable first week sales (10k) due to being released while Pokémon Sun and Moon was still riding hot in Japan, and its overall sales (17k) not even matching Aikatsu! My No. 1 Stage! first week sales a year prior (24k). Combined with the movie bombing in theaters, mediocre ratings at best on television, the overall downturn in interest for idol media in general and the fact that Stars! has been very controversial amongst the fans, Aikatsu! is walking on shaky ground.
  • With the dissolution of the StarAni system, Stars! also doesn't have much time to keep its singers, given that many of them were part of that.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the beginning interviews, the creative director mentions that he wanted to take Stars! in a direction and tone more reminiscent of Shōnen Demographic works.
  • It's been said that the arcade game machines for Aikatsu Stars! were reused for Aikatsu Friends!, suggesting they may have been considering a third season before abruptly shifting towards a reboot.
  • Part 2 of Aikatsu Friends! featured unit dresses for a Yuzu/Lily team (called Yuzu and Lily) and an Ako/Kirara team (called Fuwafuwa Dreamer, almost as an answer to "what if Stars had a more unit-centric season?"
  • According to one of the producers at one of the festivals, Stars was initially meant to be one season, but Bandai Namco gave the series a second season despite the entire project being a massive bust at that point.

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