Aikatsu on Parade!

this is basically an all stars season featuring characters from the previous aikatsu series (aikatsu, aikatsu stars and aikatsu friends) so there is in my opinion no point in watching this show if you haven't seen the previous seasons. aikatsu on parade assumes that you know all of the characters, their quirks, stories, etc. and has many references to the past seasons which don't really make sense on its own. i watched this because i love aikatsu! and i enjoyed this season, just like all of the previous seasons! however, out of them all i have the most mixed feelings. my biggest issue is probablywith the protagonist, i felt like they didn't have to introduce a new protagonist for this series. because they were trying to include both a bunch of performances/songs into every episode, include crossovers for all the previous idols, all while trying to develop this new character, i felt like her story was not developed very well. of course she grew over the 25 episodes of the show, but the pacing was very strange for me and having too many characters really prevented her from forming very deep/meaningful relationships with any of them... in my opinion, it just felt like she was a bit of friends with everyone, but didn't connect very deeply (which is fine, but a lot of them were just = they gave a word of advice to her -> she listened to it and improved -> the end). another thing is the lack of new stages ; w ; of course, the other aikatsu shows always had recycled shows. however, in this season, they include multiple shows in the same episode, and many of times they are not original to aikatsu on parade. it's good for nostalgia, but i felt like this could be improved :c there were not many original songs, and not many original stages. the ones that are new are good, but few and far between. i think you should watch this if you like aikatsu and want to see the characters again! however, for me, the story isn't really remarkable, and it falls short of the previous ones. it's kind of like a nostalgia fever dream c':