The staff of the Aikatsu! 10th Story ~Mirai e no Starway~ (Starway to the Future, an apparent reference to the Japanese translation of the Led Zeppelin song “Stairway to Heaven”) anime film announced on Wednesday that the film will open in Japan on January 20, 2023. The staff also unveiled a new visual and ending theme song artists for the film.
Waka Kirishima, Fūri Uebana, Yuna Ichikura, Remi Mitani, Eri Aino, and Risuko Sasakama will all perform the film’s ending theme song “Kōri no Mori” (Ice Forest). In addition, Kirishima, Uebana, and Ichikura will also perform the film’s opening theme song “My Starway,” which the staff previewed in a clean version of the film’s opening title sequence (seen below) earlier on October 8.
The staff also debuted the below clip for the film on Wednesday, but the clip is region-restricted to Japan only.
Aikatsu! 10th Story ~Mirai e no Starway~ is the franchise‘s 10th anniversary film. A similarly titled film accompanied the opening of the Gekijō-ban Aikatsu Planet! film on July 15 this year, and this new film follows on from that film, and similarly celebrates the 10th anniversary of the franchise. As with the previous film, the new film will be set in the story of the 2012 to 2016 Aikatsu! anime, and will center once again on protagonist Ichigo Hoshinomiya.
The Aikatsu! Planet seires premiered on January 10, 2021 and ended in June 2021. BN Pictures‘ Gekijō-ban Aikatsu Planet! film opened on July 15.
The Aikatsu! franchise began with the original arcade card game in October 2012. The 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. Aikatsu Stars! received an anime film in August 2016.
The third entry in the Aikatsu! franchise, Aikatsu Friends!, premiered in April 2018 along with the accompanying Aikatsu Friends! Data Carddass arcade game. A sequel television anime titled Aikatsu Friends! ~Kagayaki no Jewel~ (Shining Jewel) then premiered in April 2018 with its own aracde game tie-in. The sequel is set two years after the story of Aikatsu Friends!, with the main character Aine Yūki now in high school.
The Aikatsu on Parade! television anime premiered in October 2019 with the new lead character Raki Kiseki and characters from the previous Aikatsu! anime series.
Sources: Aikatsu! anime’s website, Comic Natalie
