News

Aikatsu Friends! Debuts in April as 3rd Aikatsu Idol TV Anime

The official website for the Aikatsu Stars! game and anime revealed on Thursday that the Aikatsu! idol franchise will launch the Aikatsu Friends! Project. The Aikatsu Friends! television anime will premiere on TV Tokyo in April, and the accompanying Aikatsu Friends! Data Carddass arcade game will also launch in April.

The taglines on the visual above reads, "Let's go, together! Head for the goal, Diamond Friends!!"

The new anime will have a theme of "Aikatsu with your friends!" and will center on a new protagonist named Aine Yūki, who is good at making friends, and is enrolled in Star Harmony Academy's general education track. She befriends Mio Minato, the school's top idol, and becomes an idol herself.

The staff of the Aikatsu! franchise will hold an Aikatsu Friends! project unveiling event and stream part of it live on YouTube on February 4. (It will then stream in full on YouTube on February 8.) The "baton-passing" event will reveal more details about Aikatsu Friends!

Aikatsu Friends! is the third entry in the Aikatsu! franchise, which began with the original arcade card game in October 2012. The original game inspired a television anime that ran from 2012 to 2016, and three anime films. The second entry in the franchise, Aikatsu Stars!, inspired a television anime that premiered on TV Tokyo and its affiliates in April 2016 and is currently airing. It airs on Thursdays, and also airs on BS Japan on Mondays. Aikatsu Stars! received an anime film in August 2016.

The arcade games have shipped over 250 million cards.

Source: The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web