YMMV / Aikatsu Stars!

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Rola really a hard-working and serious idol who just can't catch a break no matter how much she tries? Or is she nothing more than a copycat artist, making a career out of rehashing Tsubasa's music as her own, rightfully deserving every loss she gets?
• Americans Hate Tingle: While Mahiru is fairly popular in Japan, a lot of western fans aren't really fond of her, due to her karate chopping gag, her abrasive personality, and her relationship with Yozora.
• Awesome Music:
  • As with the original series, the music is catchy and well-varied. From the positively uplifting Startline, to the epic, Soul Calibur-esque Barefoot Renaissance, the music is a real treat to the ears.
  • Memories of a Rainbow is a very catchy song. When Koharu gets to sing it for the second Halloween episode, everyone was delighted.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Yume herself is either an incredibly gifted idol who is sometimes unaware of her friends' occasional anguish as well as struggling with understanding her true abilities, or a glory hound who can pull off an awesome aura at the drop of a hat and slaughter the competition with ease. Yume winning a spot in S4 did not help matters.
  • Ako is a divisive character as well. While some do like her cat motif and her interactions with some of the characters (particularly with Kanata and with Kirara), others find her to be underdeveloped and don’t like her Running Gag of falling over herself where Subaru's involved, saying that she still hasn't learned from it.
  • In Japan, Mahiru is this. The main complaints about her there are mainly that she's basically an uninteresting and poorly done version of Ran Shibuki while being stubborn as a bull. Some have also accused of her being a Creator's Pet since she often outperforms and gets more screentime over far more popular characters such as Rola, Lily and especially Koharu. She still has a number of defenders who enjoy her stubborn and hard-boiled nature and she has many entertaining moments throughout the series.
  • The M4 as a whole are also this in some circles. To their fans (including some of the staff), they’re welcome in the series and provide a decent change of pace, especially seeing that Yume sees them as genuine rivals instead of Love Interests come Episode 43. Their detractors, however, see them as one-note Spotlight-Stealing Squad who feel totally out of place, due to the setting (and the fact that Four Stars' Male Division never appeared doesn't help) and their lack of (or at least, questionable) purpose in the story, especially in Season 2.
  • Elza Forte started off nearly universally liked as a serious antagonist and good chunk of them still remain entertained by her villainous actions, but as time wore on a rather sizable part of the fanbase have gotten sick of her consistently winning numerous auditions without a loss of any kind. Yume being a something of a doormat (including praising Elza when she deliberately kicked out a student from her own school for doing a task assigned to her) during most of the season only adds fuel to the detractors' ire.
  • The introduction of Aria didn't sit too well with a majority of the fans, who were disappointed that an entirely new girl would be getting wings instead of characters like Ako and Koharu who were present from the very beginning. It also doesn't help that her brand isn't an original, instead, she takes over My Little Heart from Hime. When she makes her appearance on the show, however, some fans were won over by her personality and by her gimmick, although she still has her detractors who find her to be unnecessary.
• Broken Base:
  • Some fans think that the competitive spirit in Rola and Yume's rivalry fizzled out, leaning more towards the "friend" part of Friendly Rivalry and not doing much to fix it, and cite that Rola's character over the course of Season 1 more or less revolves around Yume. It's far from a universal opinion, but it's a prevalent one.
  • Rola and Hime winning top spots in Episode 48 was met with a lot of disdain. The detractors of these developments state that with Yume winning a top spot as well, it's all setting up for either a Yume or Rola win for the Song S4, and feel it's undeserved considering their character arcs.
    • Yume having officially won a spot in S4 broke the fanbase even further, with some calling her "lucky" and "overpowered" (more so than Akari). The fact that the second season has Yume, alongside a few others, actually (or at least implies them) leaving Four Star Academy for a different school is really not helping with this.
  • Related to the M4 above, the ship teases in general have gotten this reaction. While some fans find them to be sweet and enjoyable, others find them to be distracting, superfluous, and sometimes poorly handled, not helping that some ships get more focus than the other.
  • The performances of Sena Horigoshi, Yume's singing voice, has been a huge point of contention since day one. Detractors have come citing her singing sounds more like screeching and on certain songs even sounds completely unenthusiastic otherwise. Those who defend Horigoshi cite that early songs like "So Beautiful Story" where she sounds perfectly fine and has gotten better overtime, with the recent performance of "MUSIC of DREAM!!!" sounding very good. Although taking so long to get to that level often gives her detractors only more reason to call her one of the weaker (if not the weakest) singers in the series.
• Die for Our Ship: The preview for Episode 79 has Yume x Subaru shippers already gunning for Aria's head.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Lily Shirogane had fanart come out of the floodgates before she even debuted in the show proper.
  • S4 members Tsubasa and Yuzu for both being a Cool Big Sis and Genki Girl respectively. Fans find it a shame that neither really showed up much, Yuzu especially.
  • Koharu goes in and out of focus in the anime, but she remains popular with audiences. In one game popularity poll, she ranked first above even Yume.
  • Among all the Venus Ark characters, Kirara is far and away the most loved of them for being a Nice Girl, having fun interactions with Ako, and having decent writing for most of her screentime.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Even though Ako canonically has a crush on Subaru, her scene chemistry with Kanata is preferred by a lot of fans and many of them hope that the two end up together.
• Fandom Rivalry: Just like its predecessor, Stars has this with PriPara.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series flopped in Japan, mainly because, among other reasons, the target demographic couldn't get used to it over the previous show, and while it’s also contested in the west, it has a small but dedicated and vocal fanbase there. Some of them love its' unique take on the Aikatsu concept, while a few of them watch the show for the romance elements involving the girls dealing with their feelings for the boy idol group M4 (namely Yume/Subaru and especially Ako/Kanata).
• Harsher in Hindsight: Late in the first season, Four Star Academy is at risk of shutting down due to overambitious projects like Aikatsu Island putting the school in the red. Aikatsu Stars the Movie completely went bust during its run in theaters.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: When the newly renamed Rainbow Berry Parfait brand was first announced, a lot of fans weren't thrilled to say the least. What certainly didn't help matters was the Rainbow Étoile coord, where fans felt that it looked too similar to Angely Sugar's Star Festival coord (or Mermaid Pisces depending on who you ask). Come episode 73, after Yume asks Koharu to help her with designing a dress, and none of Koharu's designs are to her liking, Yume expresses concern over her friend wanting to change up Berry Parfait's image, and even tells Koharu that her designs look too similar to another brand's.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Yume, naturally as the heroine of the story. Almost every episode provides Ship Tease between her and someone else.
  • Koharu is no slouch either. Besides obvious shipping with Yume and Asahi, she's been shipped with Yozora, Ako, Mahiru, and Kirara as well.
• Love to Hate: Elza Forte. She is pretty manipulative, and isn't the most pleasant person around, but a sizable portion of the fandom like her because of this, and they are relieved because it's the first (and only) time the franchise introduces a character who is actually antagonistic.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Poor, poor Rola. Win or lose, she's forever overshadowed by Yume both by the fans and the writers.
    • It's to the point where Elza doesn't even bother scouting Rola because she doesn't have a brand of her own or a strong aura. To add insult to injury, even though Rola does manage to get a SPR coord, it's undermined by the fact that she doesn't even get a new original song (that isn't Tsubasa's) to go with her shiny new wings, like her friends.
    • Even though she obtains her own pair of star wings, Elza once again attacks her for being "Like a soulless Rock Star" and for having no passion.
    • In the first half of Season 2, she was reduced to Sukombu or Taiyaki gags or was shown as Yume's administrative sidekick. Made worse by Yume not giving her any credit for assisting her in becoming more reliable. Instead Yume gives full credit to Hime who had been missing for most of that year.
  • Since near the start of season two, Headmaster Hikaru Moroboshi has been ribbed by fans for being an incompetent boob who regularly gets outwitted by Elza Forte, the rival school's headmistress. Who is a teenager.
• Memetic Mutation: The "rival-zone" scene from episode 43.
• Narm: The sequence in episode 66 where Yume asks the children to cheer is seen like this.
• Seasonal Rot: While the first season was perfectly servicable, many fans' reactions towards the end began to sour because of the S4 Election arc and the results of it. The second season is more prone to criticisms as well, and hasn't quite shaken off its critical reputation.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While the end of the first season of Stars! was divisive and soured opinions, the Venus Ark season has been more warmly received with a few bumps in the road, providing a decent antagonist, bringing back Koharu, and putting more development into the girls' growth. Though it slips into Seasonal Rot towards the middle, given that the writing hasn't improved in some fans' opinions and the Venus Ark storyline and characters are seen as lackluster, Koharu's mini-arc, Ako/Kirara subplot, and the main Venus Ark characters besides Elza had a lot of generally positive press, and Season 2's second half had entertaining writing.
• Shipping:
  • As per Aikatsu! tradition, Yume is shipped with either Rola or Koharu.
  • Subaru/Yume is also a popular ship, particularly among the younger shippers. However, the ship itself had been downplayed heavily in Season 2, especially with how little M4 appears, but the primary audience went (and still goes) crazy over it.
  • Mahiru/Koharu is another popular yuri ship, due to the fact that Mahiru seems to like the girl a little too much. Becomes an OT3 when adding Yozora or Asahi in. Alternately, she has a lot of scenes with Rola, so Rola/Mahiru has gotten quite a bit of fanart.
• Shocking Moments: Koharu's performance in Episode 79 was one. More accurately, it's because Koharu performed at all, after 78 prior episodes where she doesn't get even one token song. "Koharu-chan" started trending in Japan while the episode was airing!
• So Okay, It's Average: For the viewers that aren't on either extreme, they find Stars! to be a decent and fun show despite its flaws and inconsistencies, but it could be a lot better than it is.
• Special Effect Failure: The arch-based auras have a tendency to distract from the CGI performances with fans complaining that they sometimes block views of the idol. It gets worse when more than one idol perform, as the auras cross into each other on top of rotating. A major example of this was Lily's first performance of "Dreaming bird," which combined her distracting chain aura with some serious camera issues. The latter problem was fixed in a follow-up concert, but the issue with the aura remained.
• Spoiled by the Format: Episode 93 pits Mahiru against Elza, and much fanfare is had about her possibly dethroning the "Perfect Pirate" once and for all. Problem is, the audience knows they only had a handful of episodes left before the finale, and we still haven't seen Yume perform or Hime's Eternal Princess coord, so Mahiru was already marked for failure.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Aikastu Stars! introduces a wide plethora of characters with interesting personalities and backstories from the onset, but many of them go underdeveloped due to its incredibly large cast. These include S4 members Tsubasa Kisaragi and Yuzu Nikaido, teachers Tamagoro Miwa, Dave Sato and Momoko Yachigusa, and the entirety of the M4, especially Nozomu Igarashi. It's pretty bad with Tsubasa and Yuzu, considering they were touted as major characters in early promotions for the series.
  • Tsubasa does at least get a fair bit of attention early on, she just becomes really flat after she explains her motivation for joining the Bird Theater Club (which would have made for some great interaction with Rola that's never explored). Yuzu on the other hand seems to exist purely as a Foil for Lily to the point that her importance is practically tied to Lily's development.
  • The first crossover episode does not feature Juri, Madoka, Rin, Nono and Risa, disappointing quite a lot of fans. Juri in particular is considered a very odd omission, considering her high popularity.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The anime makes an attempt to include several original elements like male idols, an on-going Story Arc that tests many of the characters, etc. but due to being tied to the arcade game, does little to expand beyond rudimentary elements. The only four male idols ever seen (in a school that supposedly has an entire division of them) eventually become nothing more than recurring background characters and the Story Arc involving Yume's mysterious power resolves itself nearly as soon as it becomes a serious issue.
  • During the Crossover episode centering on Luminas, many fans expressed disappointment in Yume and friends not performing with the group, with only a still at the end of the episode showing What Could Have Been.
• Uncertain Audience: There is a possible argument that this was the cause of Stars ultimately failing in the long run. During its run, it's clear that the production crew tried to experiment various different elements with the series while at the same time keeping it within its target demographic of young girls. The end result: the darker elements scared away its young core audience while the older fans pretty much were frustrated with the constant changes in tone throughout. Fans of the series' predecessor were also still irritated that the original got replaced at all.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Hikaru Moroboshi was meant to come off as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wanted Yume to avoid the same fate his older sister Hotaru did when she used the Dangerous Forbidden Technique far too much, to the point of losing her voice. Unfortunately, Moroboshi oftentimes appeared highly antagonistic throughout the Myth Arc, going as far as sabotaging Yume's album release in a failed attempt to demoralize the aspiring idol. Adding salt to the wound, is that the very few times Moroboshi did interact with Yume revealed some underlying hostility on his part and a clearly frightened Yume in return. This often caused a painful run of Poor Communication Kills and holding the Idiot Ball, basically forcing Hime to comfort Yume on many occasions during the arc.
  • Mahiru, for Western fans at least. After a few cameos where Mahiru was shown to be fairly level-headed, her first episode focusing on her shows her being incredibly abrasive and standoffish towards her older sister Yozora due to the perceived notion that Mahiru was abandoned by the latter. A lack of sense for personal space aside, Yozora showed nothing but unconditional love for her younger sibling, going as far as carrying her to the nurse's office after Mahiru collapsed due to overexerting herself during training. What does Mahiru do as thanks? Chews out Yozora for bothering her and tells her to piss off. Fans found it hard to fault Yozora for slapping her sister after that. While they do reconcile by episode's end, fans felt that wasn't enough to fully redeem Mahiru in their eyes.
• Viewer Name Confusion: Most fans find the official romanization of "Rola Sakuraba" to be strange and often refer to her as Laura and less commonly, Lola, both of which were theorized names before it was confirmed.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Despite the rough start, the CGI has gotten better over time, however, with even smoother motion capture, better camera angles, and gorgeous special effects. One Step, TSU-BO-MI ~To the Vivid Future~, The Wasteland's Miracle, Message of a Rainbow and Pirouette of the Forest Light are just a few examples of improvement. Also of note is that the "rainbow" auras have pretty much been scrapped later in the series in favor of the more traditional encircling auras from the original series.
  • The general consensus is that Elza's episode 86 performance was part of the peak of the series' CGI. The special effects, her transitions, and even her appeal at the end all blended together well and showed how much of a threat she really was as an antagonist.
• The Woobie:
  • Rola Sakuraba started out as The Ace, with a great amount of talent in a number of fields and was the top recruit of the Flower Song Class. But as the series wore on, Rola began amassing major losses to Yume due to her possessing a rare talent, leaving Rola frustrated and losing steam. After losing out on a spot in S4, a new rival school appears and its headmistress and top idol Elza Forte completely disregards her and tells Rola to bugger off since Elza sees Rola as nothing more than a weak idol. Rola would then get continuously bullied by Elza to the point she is driven to tears and runs to her best friend for comfort. By this point in the series, Rola really needs a big and comforting hug.
    • Ironically her zodiac sign is Scorpio. This sign is notorious for being especially difficult to be born under. Scorpios tend to deal with horrible painful life moments that other's will never experience. If something can go wrong, it will probably go wrong. This is why the Scorpio is actually symbolized by three different symbols; the scorpion, the eagle and the phoenix. It represents enduring horrid situations to learn and grow to eventually transform into a stronger being. Despite how hit and miss this show is regarding zodiac signs, it suits Rola extremely well.
  • It's pretty damn hard not to feel bad for Kirara in some of the later episodes of the second season. The poor girl is one of the nicest characters in the series and the one person she looks up to most can't even be bothered to show up to an event she was participating in that was really important to her, not to mention when she doesn't get into the Aikatsu Ranking semifinals and ends up sitting on her bed in the dark crying to herself.
• Writer Cop Out: Fans have been getting increasingly frustrated over how shockingly lazy the 5th Anniversary had been. The two-part crossover (especially the first part) considerably wastes the long-awaited appearances of beloved characters and not giving most of them a performance, as well as having several popular characters like Mikuru and Juri be completely absent. The update for the arcade game that adds six of the original series characters has also been torn apart for forcing fans to go hunt for a new set of cards for the cast and not adding anything worthwhile such as backward capability with older cards.

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