Episode 79 - Yes! Best Partner

Yes! Best Partner (Yes！ベストパートナー) is the 79th episode of Aikatsu! TV anime series and the 29th episode of its "2nd Season". The episode aired on April 24, 2014.

Story
''As the Partners Cup approaches, everyone gets to work choosing partners. Kaede sets her sights on Yurika in this time and attempts to spend the day with her, unaware of her own desire to ask someone else. ''

Summary
One late evening, Orihime and Tiara are discussing the recent reveal of Mizuki's new unit. But she expresses concern over the possibility that the unit may win the upcoming event. If it does it could make things hard for both schools.

Meanwhile, Aoi explains to Ichigo why this would be bad in the dorms. If an independent unit was to win instead of one of the top two schools right now, it could cause everything to drastically change. Ichigo starts to express guilt knowing they should focus on beating Mizuki, but she really wants to perform with them. More importantly, Aoi reminds her that they need to pick partners for the Partner Cup.

The girls take this time to overlook the list of idols attending Dream Academy as Aoi mentions how many different alternatives there is to picking a partner; choosing someone who is a lot like you in terms of personality or idol talent, or go for a total opposite. Ichigo asks about doing something like that, and Aoi points out their friends Asami and Michelle, members of the long-established Splash; Asami is reserved and quiet, while Michelle is energetic and perky. They are very different but together they work really well. Although Ichigo is capable of understanding this, she is quickly overwhelmed by her options.

The next morning Aoi and Ki have set up The Forming a Unit for the Partner's Cup Best Partner Searching Party, which will help any girls who wanted to enter find a partner. They remind everyone that there isn't any rules in choosing, and while Yurika doesn't appear supportive of this she remains in her spot- only to express surprise when Palm startles her.

As this is going on Ichigo starts to chat with Otome, surprised she isn't partnering up with someone from Powapowa-pururin. Otome claims she would have liked to, but Shion will be too busy with a drama and Sakura was asked by someone else. She is a bit sad, but she is happy they found their perfect equivalents and now she wants to.

At this point Aoi suggests they start by drawing pairs from the box, although someone is missing. While they wonder who it is, Yurika is again startled when she finds Kaede suddenly behind her. They observe the mask she brought with her before they all take turns picking, and it is revealed the pairs are: Ichigo and Ki, Kaede and Maria, Seira and Otome, Sora and Yurika, and Ran and Aoi.

Everyone gets together and they change clothing to start the party, where they work to see how well they can sing and dance together. As this is going on they watch as Kaede starts to play with Ki, and how well Sora and Ran look together on the stage. For a break, they sit down and they decide to test compatibility by writing down their favorite songs, revealing that Seira and Ki chose the same song, along with Ichigo, Ran, and Aoi. Yurika is surprised by Kaede's choice as they move onto the next question asking what they want to eat right now. However, nobody ends up matching, other than Seira and Ichigo as they picked nothing.

With this, Aoi suggests they move onto the final portion of the party to determine partners; they should let fate decide for them. She compares it to a company and how they tend to match random people up all the time, and usually they end up being successful, she also believes Ki can be of aid with the assistance of Compy, and Ki gives an example, starting with Aoi and saying how someone using Pop coords would be a good match for her- while Kaede matches her height more closely, she herself is still an option. Aoi enjoys Ki's company and she considers choosing her, although Ki isn't very sure of it herself.

Later, Aoi tells everyone to write down who they think their best partner would be and asks them to bring their papers back tomorrow. As they are preparing to leave Kaede asks Yurika if she has anyone in mind yet, but she claims it's too difficult to decide, due to the many options. Ichigo is also shown having a lot of options, but she's already determined that she would like to join Seira.

As Aoi and Ichigo go to bed, Aoi voices her assurance of the good partnership Ichigo and Seira would have, and she claims even Ki thought so. They are able to perform together well, and as rivals they keep pushing each other, and they naturally get along and agree on a lot of things. She continues to encourage Ichigo unil she decides that she wants to give it a chance.

Meanwhile, Yurika stays up in her own room in an attempt to figure out a good partner. She is unable to think of anything though- and by morning she is shown to have fallen asleep after writing down a name.

The girls meet up again, this time to announce official partners. So far, the known pairs are Otome and Maria, Ichigo and Seira, Ki and Aoi, and Sora and Ran. Yurika is disappointed by this as she had chosen one of them as her partner, and now they are no longer available. But she decides not to let anyone know she is upset, and she claims that as a vampire nobody was good enough for her anyway. Kaede tells her that they should be partners and confesses to having written her name down, but Yurika refuses, saying she would never be with her and storming off. Curious, Kaede follows after her while the others start to wonder if they got into a fight since they usually managed to get along before. It's then Aoi remarks that it must be difficult for the girls to be together, due to Tristar disbanding a while back when Mizuki decided to leave.

Yurika continues to remain stubborn as Kaede tries to speak to her back in her dorm room. She confesses that she is concerned the media would try to make them look stupid due to being leftovers now that Mizuki is gone, and after this happened they had a mutual agreement not to partner up again. She recalls what Orihime said after Mizuki left, saying that with Tristar being so popular, the girls could still go on without Mizuki and remain a unit, but Yurika didn't like the idea of Tristar being a two person unit and they broke up. Yurika also brings up that others would only think they are holding themselves back to remain in the shadows of their old unit- but Mizuki keeps moving forward and so should they.

Kaede claims to understand how she feels, then she suggests they go out. Yurika is initially confused, but she is left with no option and they change clothing before going into town. She finds herself annoyed by everything, although Kaede remains in a good mood. They head to an area in town and Kaede decides to test something out, loudly announcing their arrival and watching as several fans surround them, causing the girls to have to run away from them.

Having ran through the entire town, the girls manage to evade the fans by getting themselves disguises. At this point Yurika can only wonder what she did to deserve this, but Kaede claims it was to help them, saying they would be stopped if they became partners. When Yurika points out they are stopped now, Kaede reveals she thought this out already and shows her a plane nearby. She forces Yurika to join her and explains how she had it waiting as they ride by a beautiful view of the setting sun. She asks Yurika if she's reconsidered yet and claims that they would be good together, and if they would let a bunch of rude people stop them from performing then it would be what held them back; so they should focus on surprising everyone.

Annoyed, Yurika calls Kaede pushy before deciding to do it and Kaede happily embraces her, then she suggests they let everyone know while handing her a pair of goggles. Yurika doesn't understand until Kaede suddenly grabs her and jumps from the plane, with Yurika initially freaked out until she realizes they have a parashoot on and are slowly floating down while admiring the sunset. Kaede expresses how happy she is to finally see the real Yurika again, although she is happy to see how well she can keep up with things, she likes to see who she really is too. Yurika admits that Kaede is very talented as well, stating that she manages to get a lot of attention by being herself, without using a character.

As the girls float to the ground, the others watch them from the school. As does Orihime and Mizuki, who thinks to when she last saw Kaede.

It's then Yurika confides that she had assumed Kaede would leave back for America once Mizuki left, but Kaede claims that because of her friendships with everyone she wanted to stay around longer. Seeing them all perform on the internet made her want to get to know them as well, not only Mizuki. As they are getting lower to the ground, Yurika teasingly points out that she found out about the trips Kaede takes when she gets homesick and Kaede pleadingly asks her not to tell anyone.

Characters

 * Ichigo Hoshimiya
 * Yurika Tōdō
 * Ran Shibuki
 * Kaede Ichinose
 * Seira Otoshiro
 * Aoi Kiriya
 * Otome Arisugawa
 * Ki Saegusa
 * Sora Kazesawa
 * Maria Himesato
 * Mikuru Natsuki
 * Mizuki Kanzaki
 * Tiara Yumesaki
 * Michelle Tachibana (mentioned)
 * Asami Himuro (mentioned)
 * Akari Ōzora
 * Palm

Trivia

 * Despite Yurika's worries that the media will see her and Kaede as living in Tristar's shadow, her first choice for a partner, Ran, was also a former Tristar member (although Yurika and Ran were never in the unit at the same time).
 * In this episode the idols choose the songs they would like to perform to:
 * Ichigo, Aoi, and Ran chose the same song, Diamond Happy, coincidentally their Soleil song.
 * Seira and Kī chose Idol Activity
 * Maria chose Aurora Princess
 * Otome chose Angel Snow
 * Yurika chose Glass Doll
 * Sora chose Kira・pata・shining
 * Kaede chose Growing for a dream

Major Events

 * This is the first episode in the anime to not have any type of stage performance or audition.
 * This is the first episode in season two to hear Moe, Yurika's singer, in the insert song.
 * The pairs chosen for the Partners Cup (anime) are as follows:
 * Ichigo and Seira
 * Aoi and Kii
 * Otome and Maria
 * Yurika and Kaede
 * Ran and Sora
 * Ran and Sora are the only duo who share the same idol-type (Sexy)