Episode 137 - Exciting☆Unit Cup

Exciting☆Unit Cup (ワクワク☆ユニットカップ) is the 137th episode of Aikatsu! TV anime series and the 36th episode of its "3rd Season". The episode aired on June 11, 2015.

Story
''After the order of appearance has been decided for the unit cup, the 8 teams are very motivated. This round, the idols will have their true selves reported backstage. Thanks to the event, the teams will have many chances of bumping into each other!? Now, right here, let the Unit Cup begin!''

Summary
The girls have come to enjoy the Pre-Party before the upcoming Units Cup, and in celebration Yotsuba has prepared special donuts for the newly formed units. He made sure the Sweet & Soft☆Nadeshiko donut is fluffy and sweet with an interesting flavor, while Passionate Jalapeño has a spicy and sweet donut. While it is good, the girls still believe it may be too hot to handle, so he promises to keep working on it and introduces the donuts he made for Dancing Diva, which is cooling and sweet with a mint flavor. For Skips, their donut was sprinkled with candy and has a unique, popping flavor.

After everyone tries the donuts, Johnny-sensei summons them all into the Auditorium for the main event during the Pre-party; a special drawing to determine the order of performances the following day. He has all of the participating units come up on the stage and reveals the order of the eight performances before Orihime comes up onto the stage. There, she explains that they will be trying a new, expirimental scoring system that will be recording the idols actions off of the stage as well. This is a way to get everybody involved.

The next day, the Units Cup begins. The announcer explains what will be going on, such as perfromances and the fans involvements. He also brings up how fans can support their favorite unit by pressing a special button on their home remotes while viewing their before and after performance activities. The fans votes will be taken into attendence from this and with that, the announcer brings the first duo up; Hinaki and Juri. They change into their coords and perform "Chica Chica".

As this went on, Sumire and Rin are watching from another room when a man comes by to tell them to prepare for their backstage reports. He takes off after the girls compliment Juri and Hinaki's wonderful performance and leave the room to find Akari looking around. She mentions how she is waiting for her dress to arrive due to some last second size adjustments needing done. The girls worry but Akari assures them it will be fine, he called her earlier and he will be arriving soon.

With that the film segment begins. Sumire welcomes everyone and tells them that if they enjoying the honest and unadorned actions by Passion Jalapeno they will be witnessing, they should put in their vote. They walk into the changing room and greet the girls before asking them about their thoughts regarding their performance. The girls answer while unwinding, having some water and wiping sweat off until they realize they feel hungry. They decide to try some of their donuts from earlier but like before, they're still too hot. They are quick to drink their water, causing Rin to comment and ask to try one out of curiousity. Like them its too hot for her to handle and she downs her water as Sumire quickly ends the segment. The announcer reminds the audience that if they enjoyed seeing this, they should vote.

In their room, Madoka is busy doing stretches while Akari brushes her hair. The second performance will be going on and Akari is a bit concerned that Sena won't be showing up in time. Madoka also voices concern and Akari leaves to contact him, until she sees a girl nearby who reminds them that they need to go on standby for their report. Seeing their disappointment, the girls explain how Akari's dress hasn't shown up yet, but to lend her a hand the girl offers to look around for the time being. A box outside has her name written on it and seeing it, she asks to take it to Akari and heads back inside.

With that, Madoka and Akari begin their backstage report for Fluffy Sweet Nadeshiko, who are preparing for their turn. They step into the room, where Kokone is quick to do her catchphrase and pose. They respond to it before Akari asks what they do while preparing to go on stage, and Miyabi mentions how she likes to concentrate in a quiet room, while Kokone likes to take a quick nap. She claims she wasn't doing it right now though, instead she was going over an outfit she picked out for Miyabi. Once again she refuses, and to her shock, Kokone develops a case of the hiccups. She slowly panics, worried that she won't be able to perform on stage like this, so the girls try to help her. They get her a bottle of water, but this does nothing, then Miyabi mentions that she could try to hold her breath.

When this fails, Madoka mentions that sometimes being tickled can help. The trio tickle Kokone, so the girls keep tickling. They are reminded that they are out of time, so quickly Akari and Madoka try to hurry up and end the segment while they resume tickling Kokone. In order to lend them a hand, Juri and Hinaki go backstage to find some girls struggling with something. They were told to bring in the many fan sent in gifts but they are trying to find somewhere to keep them because where they are now is just an obstacle. Juri and Hinaki are able to help them determine an idea and they run off to find Kokone, Miyabi, Akari, and Madoka. To their surprise though, Sumire and Rin are also there. Hinaki brings up the hiccup situation and decides to try her own method.

Meanwhile, as the girls are picking up all of the gifts, they accidentally take the package with Akari's new dress.

With Hinaki's hiccup trick having failed, they move onto Rin's idea- which involves twisting the waist from side to side. This fails, so Hinaki suggests that Kokone yell. The girls keep trying to suggest ideas and in the background, Miyabi and Akari chat amongst themselves. Akari brings up that surprising Kokone would probably be the best bet and Miyabi agrees, so Akari hands her the cutesy coord Kokone wanted her to wear. She is sure that if Miyabi put it on, it'd shock Kokone and surely rid of her hiccups; but Miyabi hesitates because she doesn't like such cutesy clothing. But for the sake of her unit, she decides to put it on and quickly changes.

The girls surprise Kokone and let her see Miyabi. Her cutesy outfit and catchphrase that Kokone wanted her to do works to shock Kokone, and the girls are happy to find out that their plan worked. With that, someone announces that it is now time for the fourth performance, which is Kokone and Miyabi. They go to change and come on stage to perform to "Love Like Caramelize".

Afterwards, the announcer chats before he concludes the first half of the units cup. He shows everyone the scores of the units up until this point, and taking the lead is Fluffy Sweet Nadeshiko. Juri and Hinaki congratulate them for doing so well, not at all upset to be in second. As he is announces that the second half will begin soon, Akari and Madoka watch the segment from their dressing room. They got very high scores from the fans voting, which encourages the girls to work as hard as they can too. But suddenly, Akari notices their dresses are not anywhere in their room.

Characters

 * Akari Ōzora
 * Sumire Hikami
 * Hinaki Shinjō
 * Juri Kurebayashi
 * Rin Kurosawa
 * Madoka Amahane
 * Kokone Kurisu
 * Miyabi Fujiwara
 * Yū Hattori
 * Orihime Mitsuishi
 * Johnny Bepp
 * Raichi Hoshimiya

Trivia

 * This episode premiered on Hinaki Shinjō's birthday.
 * Other teams that are participating in the Unit Cup are: Orange Grape, Mimi♪Rara, THUNDERBOLTϟ and Shampoo & Rinse.
 * The song Chica×Chica appears for the first time.