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... “triangles” instead of “trigons.” ⏎Aikatsu! ⏎ Rating: 2.5 (of 5) ⏎ Review: Short on your quota of sugary-sweet fluff for the season? Then this one's probably for you. ⏎ First-year middle school student Ichigo Hoshimiya helps out in her mother's bento shop and loves working with her mother, but otherwise she has no real goals or ambitions in life. One possibility is presented to her when she discovers that her younger brother Raichi is a big fan of the idol Mizuki Kanzaki and, through her idol-expert friend Aoi, helps get him tickets to Mizuki's next performance. Aoi and Ichigo go, too, and the performance makes quite an impression on Ichigo. When Aoi declares that she's decided to try out for Starlight Academy, an exclusive school for budding idols, Ichigo gets cajoled into coming along, too. Though Ichigo is not entirely sure of herself, Aoi insists that she has the “smell of an idol” and she does, indeed, prove quite adept at using the Aikatsu Card system (which all idols use) to her advantage to make quite a performance impression during her audition. ⏎ As one might expect from the description, this anime is essentially a complement to a like-named card game aimed at teen and preteen girls, one which is being released in Japan simultaneously with the series. The card game involves assembling matching parts of an idol's outfit to equip a prospect sufficiently to an audition to become an idol, and the anime doesn't even try to disguise the fact that its structure is built around that mechanic; in the series, an idol who equips her Aikatsu Cards goes through a quasi-magical change to turn from a regular anime character to a CG-animated idol performer, a visual contrast that can be jarring but which seems to be done a lot with fare like this. The two idol performances are, naturally, the highlights of a very basic and formulaic plot; veteran anime fans have seen a set-up like this many times before, and even the hints dropped about future developments (naturally, there will be rivals at Starlight Academy and Ichigo and Aoi will have to struggle to remain friends) are very ordinary and expected developments. But hey, this one is hardly aspiring to be anything fresh, deep, or sophisticated. It knows exactly what audience it's playing to and sticks resolutely to the elements its creators think will most appeal to that audience. Picking up otaku fans along the way is just gravy for them. ⏎ Blast of Tempest episode 2 ⏎ Rating: 3....