Aikatsu! 2 episodes

One year after Ichigo left for America, a new rival idol school, Dream Academy, has been formed, raising its own idols. Meanwhile, at Starlight Academy, where Otome is the current Starlight Queen, Aoi and the others meet a peculiar girl, though can't identify her amongst the listed idols. The next day, Orihime announces a new evolution to the Aikatsu card system, Constellation, before introducing Dream Academy's headmaster, Tiara Yumesaki, and announcing a competitive concert between the two schools, with Aoi chosen as Starlight Academy's representative. Later that day, Aoi and Ran overhears Orihime discussing with Johnny that if Aoi loses, she will quit being headmaster. The next day, the girl from before introduces herself to Aoi and Ran as Seira Otoshiro, a new idol and Dream Academy's representative, along with her producer, Kii Saegusa. Seira soon makes her idol debut and pulls off a new type of Special Appeal, Constellation Appeal, that stuns the crowd. As Aoi becomes anxious about her own performance, Ichigo makes a surprise return.

After Ichigo rekindles with everyone, Seira decides to test if she can pull off a Constellation Appeal, with Aoi letting her take her place in the concert. Ichigo manages to pull off a Constellation Appeal, which results in the contest ending in a draw. Orihime, pleased that Ichigo is returning to Starlight Academy, gives her a new Aikatsu Phone and a Constellation mark. Afterwards, the girls hold a welcome home party for Ichigo, who talks about her experiences in America. The next day, Ichigo, Aoi and Ran decide to 'infiltrate' Dream Academy to do some research on Seira as she goes about her day, unaware that Mizuki is watching them.

After failing to find some concrete details on what Ichigo got up to during her year in America, Kii sends Seira over to Ichigo's house to ask her in person. Meanwhile, Ichigo and Raichi go to a café, where they meet Noel, a fan of Ichigo who also turns out to be Raichi's classmate and Seira's little sister. As Ichigo learns more about Seira from Noel, Seira comes to understand Ichigo a bit more from eating Ringo's lunches. Later, Ichigo and Seira are asked to perform together for a Swing Rock event, this time with Seira managing to win over Ichigo. Despite her victory, Seira feels she wasn't shining as brightly as Ichigo.

As the idols have some new promotional photos taken, Ichigo, Aoi, and Ran, along with Seira, are asked to help promote a new camera model by letting fans take pictures of them. After running into each other whilst practising their candid expressions, Ichigo, Aoi, Ran, Seira, and Kii go shopping together to explore the range of expressions they can make, before stopping by Seira's café. There, they discuss how their best smiles naturally come from doing the things they love. After Ichigo and co finish up their performance at the photo session, Seira ponders how it would be nice to stand beside friends on stage.

With an audition for the next Pon Pon Crepe image girl to replace Aoi coming up, Seira suggests Kii give it a go, but she states it wouldn't suit her since she's a producer. Whilst remaining curious over why Kii became a producer in the first place, Seira hears from her about how her mother helped cheer her up with her hair accessories. After seeking advice about the audition from Aoi, Seira secretly enters Kii into the audition and has her act as her own producer. As Kii becomes reluctant to do the audition, Seira gives her an Aikatsu card of the accessory her mother made for her, encouraging her to show off her cuteness. Kii manages to pass the audition and become Pon Pon Crepe's new image girl, starting her off on the path of an idol.

The presence of a reporter known as Mister S, who is infamous for exposing idol love affairs, puts the other idols on high alert. Meanwhile, Aoi and Kii are asked to participate in a fashion show themed around 'first love'. Feeling that Mister S may be targeting Seira, Kii has her take asylum in Starlight Academy, as she feels her secret hobby of cutely talking to cats clashes with her rock idol image. Thus, the gang decide to conduct a plan to publically announce Seira's love of cats themselves before Mister S can make a scandal out of it. Whilst contemplating what Mister S's true objective is, Orihime tells Ichigo and the others her thoughts on idols and love before Aoi and Kii hit the stage for their fashion show. Meanwhile, it is shown Mister S's real objective is to find the secrets behind Dream Academy's sudden success.

As the subject of mascot phone charms is brought up, Ichigo notices Ran seems to have her own mascot charm. Meanwhile, Ran is given a Constellation Premium Dress by Spicy Ageha's top designer and is tasked with performing a Constellation Appeal at her next fashion show. The next day whilst checking on Ran's room, Ichigo and Aoi discover Ran is incredibly fond of a mascot character called Ebipon, choosing to keep it secret so that it won't affect Ran's image. However, they soon learn of a delivery of a giant Ebipon plush Ran had won in a contest, and rush to try and keep it getting delivered whilst she is being interviewed by a magazine, to no avail. Ran explains that she came to like Ebipon as a way to relieve the stress of her career. Despite her love of Ebipon being revealed to the public, Ran remains confident and manages to perform a Constellation Appeal and is offered a job to be Ebipon's PR model.

Seira and Kii are due to do a performance together, with Kii suggesting they do their own choreography. Wanting to learn about choreography, the two seek out Johnny, who decides to give them, along with Ichigo and co, a lesson on how to compose choreography. After giving points about listening to the lyrics and imagining poses that fit alongside them, Johnny gives them a cryptic point to think on themselves. When Seira and Kii feel something is off with their choreography, Ichigo and co offer them some pointers to help their poses feel more natural, telling them to have fun and help each other out. Afterwards, their computer suggests they do some work at an airport to improve their dynamic movements. Before heading on stage, they come to understand Johnny's final point; to think about their fans who support them, and pull off their choreography flawlessly.

Aoi is approached about creating a TV drama to promote some new chocolates. After deciding to make the drama about a chocolate-eating detective, Aoi asks Ichigo and the others to audition alongside her, with Seira and Kii also brought in to audition. However, they find the scenario the producers have put together is more old-fashioned than what they had in mind. Meeting together with the producers, Aoi and the others manage to come up with a cuter, more chocolatey feel to the show. After pairing up into pairs of detectives and assistants, the girls undergo the audition, in which they must help Kaede locate some stolen chocolate. As the plot reaches its climax, Ichigo and Seira deduce that Kaede was actually tricking them into stealing the chocolate, which just winds up being eaten by Ichigo. At the end of the day, Seira and Kii are chosen for the roles.

After Otome, Sakura and Shion pay a visit to Seira's café, Ichigo, Seira, and Kii tail them to get a glimpse of Powa Powa Puririn's activities, which happen to include line-balancing, leaf sweeping and games of tag. It is then shown they are filmed in secret for their television show in order to capture their appeal. When a change in her filming schedule leaves Shion unable to appear in a fashion show with the others, Otome and Sakura try and search for a replacement to fill in for her. After learning that they hadn't been able to find a substitute for her, Shion manages to arrange for Kaede to fill in for her at the last minute, with both the fashion show and Shion's filming turning out to be a success.

Sora Kazesawa, a Dream Academy student studying in both idol and designer courses, is approached by Tiara to start her own Aikatsu brand. However, Sora feels a bit nervous about the responsibility of running a brand, as she's always been free in the way she's designed her clothes. Wanting to help her out, Seira and Kii visit her dorm, where they meet her pet parrot, Palm, and hear about what inspired her to become a designer. Whilst staying in Morocco when she was a kid, Sora met a Bohemian named Mimi, who taught her how to design accessories, whilst also being inspired by her to travel the world once more. Wanting to carry on what Mimi taught her, whilst still retaining her own identity, Sora decides to name her brand Bohemian Sky, showing off her new design in a performance, where she also manages to pull of a Constellation Appeal.

Dream Academy decides to hold a Christmas party with Kii as producer and Sora at the designer, whilst Ichigo features on a christmas cake designed by Asuka. Kii eventually arranges for the party to be a joint celebration between Dream Academy and Starlight Academy. On Christmas Eve, students from both schools assemble at a lodge on a snowy mountain to prepare for the party, with Sora planning to make an extra large version of the christmas cake. However, a sudden blizzard causes the cable cars to the lodge to stop working, preventing the patissiers from arriving on time, so the idols band together to make the cake instead. With the life-size Ichigo doll they were planning to use still with the patissiers, Ichigo herself takes its place on top of the cake.

As idols from both Starlight Academy and Dream Academy gather to participate in the Red and White Aikatsu Battle, Mister S is spotted, hoping to find the person responsible for Dream Academy's rise to fame somewhere among them. After interviews, Ichigo, Aoi, and Ran go to greet the event's super special guest, enka singer Sabuko Nishijima, helping to carry her giant 'Enkatsu card' that she had brought to the event. Shibuki then informs Ichigo and the others that Mizuki is somewhere in the building, prompting the girls to search for her, eventually finding her in the auditorium. Mizuki reveals she has been working at Dream Academy as Tiara's advisor, stating that her time with Star Anis had got her interested in potentially becoming a producer. She then gives Ichigo some Trend Collection cards for her stage performance with Seira, asking her to keep their meeting a secret. Having overheard their conversation, Mister S prepares to write a big scandal on Mizuki's 'defection', but is stopped by Sabuko, who uses her influence to keep him quiet. The Red and White Aikatsu Battle soon gets underway, which culminates with Sabuko's performance and Ichigo and Seira's concert, with both Red and White teams ending in a tie.

At the start of the new year, Starlight Academy and Dream Academy are poised to compete in a Lucky Idol Race, with a custom-made Constellation Dress up for grabs for the winner. All the idols make preparation for the race whilst Raichi is busy preparing his Aikatsu Newspaper. The race soon begins, with many Aikatsu-related obstacles along the way. Thanks to some encouraging words from her father, Ichigo places first and wins a custom-made Angely Sugar dress, with Seira and Aoi coming second and third respectively.

Ichigo and the others are informed of a Starlight Idol Festival occuring in March, with Ichigo as the headlining act. However, on the day Orihime announces the festival, it is also revealed that Dream Academy is holding its own Dream Academy Carnival on the same dates. Feeling that it is too much of a coincidence, Ichigo, Aoi, and Ran follow Nao, the only other person who heard about the festival in advance, and learn that he is in fact Tiara's younger brother. After Nao tells the others how it was Tiara's dream to start an idol school, Orihime and Tiara decide to combine their two school's festivals into one single event, the Star-Dream Festival-Carnival, which will culminate in a face-off event between Ichigo and Seira. Whilst watching the announcement, Seira recalls how she became interested in the world of idols after watching Ichigo's performance on TV and seeing how happy it made others. She auditioned to enroll into Starlight Academy, but was rejected as the judges felt she was more suited to rock music, which eventually led her to enroll into Dream Academy, whose policy was that anyone who had passion could become an idol.

After producing a successful makeup commercial for Seira, Kii is lined up to audition for the poster girl of her favorite beverage, Brain Thunder. Wanting Kii to audition, Seira tries to take her to search for Magical Toy's top designer whilst he is in town, but finds it hard to drag her away from producing her next commercial. As Kii struggles to focus on her own audition after Seira bans her from thinking about the commercial, she is approached by Mizuki, who assures her that Seira is doing her best to encourage her. The next day, Kii tries to search for Magical Toy's top designer, with Ichigo and the others deciding to help her out. When Kii gets a cramp whilst chasing after the designer's van, Seira manages to catch up to it and pull him over, with Kii managing to persuade him to give her a Constellation Premium Dress, which she uses to pass her audition. Meanwhile, Mizuki takes her leave from Dream Academy to pursue her dream of supporting others.

Ran enters an audition in which she has to make an ehomaki for Setsubun, seeking advice from Ichigo and Aoi. During a festival where the Starlight Academy idols give their fans homemade treats, however, Ran comes to realise that her healthy approach to cooking isn't going to impress anyone. Determined to make a more flashier ehomaki for her audition, Ran's over concentration leads her to getting lost in a forest, alongside Sora, who is also entering the audition. Whilst waiting to be rescued by Ichigo and Aoi, Sora makes Ran an ehomaki made from ingredients found in the forest, telling her to make an ehomaki that she feels is right. On the day of the audition, Ran follows her grandmother's advice and makes her own healthy ehomaki that manages to impress the judges, taking her to the final dance audition against Sora. They both perform so well that they both pass the audition together and become image girls for an ehomaki campaign.

Dream Academy idol Mario Himesato, who is due to appear on an 'Idol Princesses' television program where she will receive a Constellation Dress from Green Grass, decides she wants daisies incorporated into the design to remind her of the mountains. Seira and Kii take her to Ichigo's bento shop to pick up a daisy, where she also tries one of their seaweed bentos. As Sakura and Sora go to pass on Maria's message to Green Grass, Maria takes Ichigo and the others to her home on the mountains for the show's recording. Sora eventually rejoins them, delivering the Constellation Dress and a video message from Green Grass.

Given the chance to appear in a special episode of Idol Princesses, Maria decides to invite her friends from both Dream Academy and Starlight Academy to a house party at her mansion. There, the girls find themselves amazed and moved by the Aurora Fantasy-like world and Maria's kind hosting heart. Maria explains that, even though she felt lonely whenever her parents were off travelling around the world, she found comfort in Green Grass' books and found happiness in every day. After Maria gives some Valentine's Day chocolates to everyone, the girls decide to sing some songs together, before giving Maria a special present; a holographic aurora.

Seira, Kii, Sora, and Maria are invited to audition for a four-girl drama series. Unable to decide on which roles to audition for, they let Kii's computer choose for them, with Kii ending up as the leader character. The girls ask Ichigo, Aoi, and Ran for advice on drama auditions, learning how to utilise their skills to fit their assigned roles and make them their own. The audition soon begins, in which they must navigate a jungle course while following a script. As the girls struggle fitting into their roles, they come up against a group of tigers, but they manage to handle them in their own way. They eventually reach a ruin filled with traps, where Ichigo and the others have been assigned as some villains standing in their way. With teamwork, the girls manage to get past them and reach the treasure, passing the audition.