Adaptation Displacement: Some Western fans aren't aware that the anime series is an adaptation of the arcade games, which are exclusive to the Japanese market.
Americans Hate Tingle: The reactions for Aikatsu Planet! varies between Japan and The west. While Japanese fans are more or less forgiving toward the installment and its adaptation and find them to be at least mediocre, the reactions of Western fans, on the other hand, are more negative, mainly because of the adaptation’s Tokusatsu/Anime hybrid format, as well as other issues like the weaker writing and characterizations and unappealing visuals compared to previous entries.
Awesome Music: With so many songs to choose from, there's a lot to love in the series.
Cult Classic: Despite not being as hugely popular and successful as Bandai Namco’s other idolfranchises, Aikatsu still has gained a decent and dedicated fanbase over the years.
"Eyecuts", for the series itself. Though mainly used among Western fans, the use has spread to Japanese fans as well.
Older men who play arcade game is commonly called "Aikatsu-ojisan" (Aikatsu uncles).
Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans treat the entire franchise after seasons one and, to an extent, two of the original series as if didn't exist.
First Installment Wins: With pretty much everything starting with season 3 having more divisive receptions, the first two seasons of the original Aikatsu! (especially the first one), also known as "Ichigo Generation", are seen as the best of the anime franchise. Having the best sales of the entire franchise by a long shot also helps with this notion.
Periphery Demographic: The arcade game has a fanbase of adults, notably older women, who play alongside their daughters, or are attracted to its clothing designs.
So Okay, It's Average: There is a handful of fans who see the whole franchise as this. while it has some positive points despite being Merchandise-Driven, such as the colorful character designs and outfits, surprisingly good production value, catchy songs, and the overall feel-good vibe, it suffers from a number of problems that become more apparent as the franchise goes on, like the inconsistent writing and pacing, typical stories that focus more on each show's protagonist and their personal triumphs, and characters who, while mostly likable, are seen as either simplistic or one-note and underdeveloped. Not to mention the franchise's tendency of ignoring several of its storylinesand characters, a problem even the fans will admit that keeps getting worse in each show.
Surprise Difficulty: Prospective players who watched the anime first beware: while the game itself is easier than most arcade rhythm games, the game itself is not a cakewalk. Strict timing judgments and quick time events will make careless players fail.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: It’s safe to say that a lot of fans, especially in the West, disliked changes that were made by Aikatsu Planet, from the live-action/anime format, the artstyle, to the Aikatsu system. and the fact that Planet is the final installment in the franchise doesn't help.
Tough Act to Follow: The first season of the original show is widely regarded as the best season of the series in terms of writing, character development, and world-building in spite of the less-than-stellar animation. Some of the franchise's most iconic songs, namely "Diamond Happy!" and "Calendar Girl", also come from this season. The following seasons and itssuccessors are generally considered to be significantly weaker in the aforementioned categories despite the improved animation.
For the original series
Americans Hate Tingle: Mizuki is hugely popular in Japan. In America, she's one of the least beloved characters in the fandom, partially because she is seen as kind of bland and for her departure to Dream Academy for rather poorly written reasons.
The Dream Academy girls are well accepted among the casual crowd, but in serious circles, they are hated, The fact that two of them use already established brands instead of new ones is also a point of contention.
Sora and Maria. While they do have their fans, there are some who disliked them for being boring and one-dimensional characters.
Otome's whole schtick is seen as either cute or just annoying.
Broken Base: Fans are divided with the second season. Some welcome the rival school Dream Academy, its characters who are new, and the competition between the two academies. Others believe that S2 would be better off without them since they do not give room for the less established fan-favorites from the previous season (Shion, Hikari, Sakura, among others). The fact that Mizuki transferred to Dream Academy gives her haters another reason to loathe her.
Raichi and Noelle have been received well by the fanbase, mainly for being surprisingly well-handled by keeping their appearances limited, which keeps them from being completely annoying and allows for some very good interactions with the main cast. The latter even becomes an idol, though to the disappointment of the fans it goesto waste.
On forums, there's a lot of good to be said about Johnny Bepp-sensei for his bombastic reactions and his genuinely caring attitude toward his students.
Yuu Hattori had a very limited screentime throughout the series, which was vastly surpassed by the number of fanarts she got.
Sunao Yoshikawa, Ran's former singing voice, still has fans to this day that want her back thanks to her unique mix of cute and mature voices that fit well with the character. The fact that the franchise declined pretty badly shortly after her graduation has made her lack of presence sting all the more.
Franchise Original Sin: The first 3 episodes of the second season are criticized for reusing the same insert song, which is a rock remix of the second insert song of the first season. This also happens in the first season, albeit that it was the first two songs that get recycled for 3 episodes as well. Thankfully, the third season avoids this.
Heartwarming Moments: The opening to season three's second half shows everyone, the girls and the teachers, celebrating Orihime's birthday and making her happy, cake and all. D'awwwwww.
During the New Year's episode, one of the judges was a scary-looking bear as far as this series will go hailing from a horror show. That premise sure sounds familiar...
In this series, Soleil consists of three very talented performers who can sing very well. Come Fire Emblem Fates, a female mercenary named Soleil is introduced and it's revealed that she can't sing to save her life.
Episode 42, Johnny dresses up as a pirate. Remember the guy is based on Johnny Depp.
In episode 159, the Cool Starship of Starlight Academy is vaguelt turtle shaped, and a plot point involves finding a spy amongst the students. Sounds familiar?
It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: How some fans reacted to the Sangria Rosa brand. It's supposed to be a flamenco/Spanish-culture-inspired brand, but it comes off more as the rose version of Spicy Ageha, which focused more on butterflies but had plenty of coords with roses on their designs (including one Premium Rare, which was Ran's first in the anime).
Fairly mild but becomes blatant when Yurika is around and when she and Ran (and later Kaede) are together.
Mizuki and Mikuru, especially in one of their early episodes.
Mikuru: By the way, if we're newlyweds, then which one of us is the wife?
Episode 132 is officially about Juri and Hinaki forming a unit together. But you don't need to be wearing high-grade Shipping Goggles to see it as this.
The axe scene from the Christmas special is this for many fans. It's not exactly uncommon to find a fanart of Ichigo wielding it for any number of crazy reasons.
"Kiyohara, this is absolutely unforgivable!" Explanation During the original airing of episode 176 had a news telop appear about Kazuhiro Kiyohara being released from jail appear during the scene in which Sumire fails her special appeal. Many fans who watched the original airing jokingly blamed her failing on Kiyohara, and even the show's director got in on making fun of it.
Memetic Psychopath: Poor Sumire, Despite being quiet and well-mannered in canon, there are plenty of fanworks that portray her as a psychoticYandere who acts violently towards anyone who gets closer or even simply talks to Akari, particularly Sena.
Moe: Most of female characters are quite adorable, such as Ichigo, Ran, Otome, and later Akari, Madoka, and Rin to name a few.
One True Threesome: There are a few units that fall into this trope, but Ichigo/Aoi/Ran (also known by their unit name, Soleil) is the most notable example in this show, and arguably the entire franchise.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Mizuki managed to win some respect from her critics after they watched her background story near the end of season one. She even got more love in season two when she returned with a new partner and an agenda of her own.
Rooting for the Empire: Non-villain example. Many fans wanted WM (Mizuki and Mikuru) to win the Twinkle Cup instead of 2wingS (Ichigo and Seira). The former group lost.
While Ichigo/Aoi is no surprise, Ran/Yurika is the more obvious and popular. In Season 2 however, fans jumped ship to Kaede/Yurika after their episode together.
Japanese fans take a liking to ship Akari with Sena Tsubasa due to the Ship Tease going on with them in seasons 3 and 4.
Likewise, Ichigo/Naoto remains a pretty popular pairing among fans since season 1.
Special Effect Failure: One thing fans can't deny is that the CG models of the first season's concerts, especially in the earlier episodes, look... quite off, to say the least. Thankfully they have improved significantly in the following seasons.
The Problem with Licensed Games: Minor example: the first 3DS game, Cinderella Lesson, adapts the anime's setting very well, but the rhythm game part plays like Taiko no Tatsujin. This was fixed in the games following it, starting with the second 3DS game, Futari No Princess.
One common criticism of the anime (and the franchise as a whole). Some fan-favorites do not get a fair amount of screentime; such as Hikari, who is supposed to be The Rival for Ran but only shows up in a few episodes; and Shion, who is Aoi's partner in their detective show, remains in the supporting role, although she has a couple of episodes dedicated to her.
Akari's roommate from season 2, Yuu Hattori, never really stood a chance. She had some appearances in Season 2 but gets sidelined at the very beginning of Season 3, thanks to a terribly convenient roof leak. Her cool-idol type essentially got given to Sumire while her short blonde hair got passed to Hinaki.
Season 2 also introduced Agent S, a scandal-hunting photographer who is considered The Dreaded among idols. Of his very few appearances, the biggest thing that happened was that he was forced to hold the Idiot Ball after catching some massive scandal, was thwarted and bolted. He hasn't been heard from since.
Tsubaki Saionji, full stop. When the anime episode featuring her was aired, many of the fans were hoping for the development of Friendly Rivalry between her and Akari which was established then. Tough luck, she didn't reappear until the third movie... with her name not even appearing onscreen, unlike nearly everyone else's.
Noeru/Noelle Otoshiro to some extent. When it was revealed in Episode 172 that she was accepted to Dream Academy, there were lots of fans hoping for her performance. But then, there were none.
She would eventually be the main protagonist of the Aikatsu on Parade! 9-minute mini-webseries years later, and regardless the opinions on the said mini-webseries (or the entirety of On Parade), at least that's something.
Asami Himuro and Michelle Tachibana, forming the unit SpLasH!, both have immediately gathered fans after their debut. The producers didn't care at all, though...
All the tour characters (except Nina), some of them not even making it to the anime. Seems justified regarding how the final season was short compared to the previous ones, in order to switch to the spinoff series.
Two background idols from the first season, Yuna Nakayama and Michiru Kurosawa are an interesting case. Yuna managed to get an episode dedicated to her, while Michiru has been shown to be a fairly successful idol in later seasons, and both surprisingly got a fairly significant amount of voiced lines. The latter also has the interesting distinction of sharing the same eye color and surname with the Akari-generation character Rin. However, the kanji for both of them are spelled slightly differently. Nothing ever comes up from these points and both of them fell to the wayside.
The Summer Tour of STAR☆ANIS, where the eight main characters of the first season travel the country together as a group, lasts...barely two episodes. All the events except the start and the end happen off-screen. What a way to disappoint fans, huh? Especially considering they did an episode and a half of the build-up.
Before she debuted, Juri had a poster released that featured her with Raichi and Noel, possibly hinting at some sort of friendship (or possibly more) between Juri and Raichi at least. The two would ultimately never interact in the series proper however.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The CG concerts of the anime's second season are very good-looking. So does the 2014 update to the arcade game. Strangely enough, the latest game, Aikatsu 365 Idol Days for Nintendo 3DS, does not use the improved CGI the anime uses.
is to believed.