Episode 144 - Surprise Idol Battle

Surprise Idol Battle (ドッキリアイドル大作戦) is the 144th episode of Aikatsu! TV anime series and the 43rd episode of its "3rd Season". The episode aired on July 30, 2015.

Story
A surprise show makes Sumire their target with the title of the "Surprising Sumire Strategy." Akari and Hinaki are in on this and set out to surprise Sumire through various methods. Will they be able to pull it off...?

Summary
The girls discuss the summer weather one day during break when Sumire suddenly mentions her plans to head back to the school. She has a magazine interview to get ready for and plans to leave very soon. Akari and Hinaka wish her luck before flashing each other a grin after she is out of eyesight. Akari turns to signal to the camera crew watching them and begins to speak to the audience. As it turns out, Akari and Hinaka set up a hidden camera show for Sumire, where they plan to throw many surprises her way.

At a different location they speak to Director Itsumo, who thanks them for this. Akari mentions how excited they both are, as they hope to see an unexpected side of Sumire through this. After being told they will do anything to help, Itsumo informs them that they have some time before they need to do anything and has them go on standby. So while Sumire approaches her destination and is seated by one of the staff members, Akari, Hinaka, and Itsumo discuss how the interviewer is in on their plans as well. They are excited with the prospect of surprising Sumire, not only to catch her reaction, but because it's also their first time doing such a thing. Akari mentions that the biggest surprise yet will be from the final present for the day, but they refuse to say anything to Itsumo or the Staff about it.

The interviewer joins Sumire at the table and they begin to speak, greeting each other.

Meanwhile, Akari returns to Itsumo and Hinaki, where it turns out she has put on an elaborate disguise for the first surprise. They believe she makes a convincing staff worker and wish her luck before she takes off to put the first plan into action. She grabs a tray with two, fake glasses of water glued onto it. She approaches them and forces herself to stumble by tripping over the corner of a chair. While a purse is knocked down and the glasses come inches to her face, Sumire remains still; abit confused, but not surprised or startled. Akari is quick to apologize and she runs back to the van, where Itsumo and Hinaka await. She admits to her failure, showing the audience the trick tray and Hinaki prepares for the second plan.

As the interview is going on, a strange person is a cute duck costume is walking by with a bunch of bright, colorful balloons. The duck approaches Sumire to offer her a balloon, but to everyone's surprise, the balloons suddenly pop. Again Sumire remains calm and poised, and seeing this, Hinaki panics and takes off - much to the disappointment of the children. She sits down in front of the camera back inside of the van and removes the duck head while Itsumo fans her. Akari insists that it was a nice try anyway and gives her some water while she sadly confirms her defeat.

Outside of the van, Itsumo and the girls begin to chat. Itsumo suggests they try to take this in a new direction by thinking of an object or something that would surely cause her to respond with shock. Akari and Hinaki give it some thought, with Akari bringing up raw fish. He decides it is worth a try and they run off to prepare for Plan three.

At a studio, filming resumes. They explain that it will be involved with the next plan and recall how startled Sumire was when she saw all of the raw fish inside of the food container back when they went to the beach. A woman watching for Sumire enters the room to inform the girls that she is just about to enter and warns them to hide in another room.

Sumire and the Interviewer step inside and approach the set for Sumire. The interviewer explains that she wished to get some pictures of Sumire cooking and shows her the fresh ingredients they even brought in for her to use. She looks up to see a girl that resembles the one from the eatery earlier on, bring in a small cart of items. The three approach a counter and Akari uncovers the container, revealing a row of fresh, raw fish inside of it. Instead of showing alarm as they expected though, Sumire happily picks one up and compliments it's quality before asking if she can begin. With gentle ease, Sumire begins to cook while Hinaki complains over this plan failing. None of them can understand this, considering how she reacted a while back.

As she finishes, the Interviewer compliments her. Sumire admits that she was unable to handle Raw Fish before, but she recently trained herself to suppress her fears of them, knowing that she would have to be ready at a given notice to handle any sort of job that would come her way. She was very happy when she was able to finally touch one, then she decided to learn how to cook them in order to get used to handling raw fish; and now she actually really likes it. She goes on the reveal her finished food to everyone and tells the interviewer to try it, once she gets her pictures. After she takes a bite, the Interviewer is beyond amazed by how wonderful it tastes, and while this goes on, Akari and Hinaki sadly discuss being unaware of Sumire's training. With this they decide to get to their final plan and head out to a new location.

The girls have changed their clothing and quickly use a set of cards to explain their plan to the audience. They will lure Sumire to the bench and upon sitting down, the trap will activate, sending her up into the air and down a ramp that leads to a pitfall for her to fly into. As they finish the girls from earlier returns to let them know that Sumire is approaching with the interviewer. When they spot her, they call for her and the Interviewer explains she called them in to help with something. The Interviewer asks to take some pictures of them first and the girls suggest the bench. Sumire agrees to head over there with them, but before they can, Akari hears a sound and runs up the pathway with the Interviewer. She asks if this is part of the plan, but as it turns out, it is not.

They watch a loose sheep run straight for them. But at the last second, it turns and downs down the hill, towards Hinaki and Sumire. As Hinaki panics, Sumire is able to realize how frightened the sheep is and she quickly notices that if it was to keep running, it will run straight into the tree. Without a second though she takes off and jumps, grabbing the sheep in order to stop it. They land inches from the tree and it starts to lick Sumire as she is joined by Hinaki and Akari. They remark on how amazing this was and she comments that it is used to people, but probably got put on edge by all of the fuss going on here.

Meanwhile, Itsumo was also watching this but the noise of him and his Cameraman attracts the attention of Sumire. She asks about what was going on and they go back to the top of the hill and resume filming while a curious Sumire watches. Akari fills in the audience on the incident and their plans of letting Sumire know what they have been doing all day. She mentions that it was a Hidden Camera Show, and they had planned all sorts of surprises to try to shock Sumire. She mentions that she did think something odd was going on, but really wasn't all that aware of anything suspicious. With how this day ended, Akari voices how worn out and tired she is by now. She approaches the bench to sit on it, but suddenly Hinaki panics and points out that it was the trap, causing Akari to panic as she is flung down the slide and into the air, then into the pit fall.

Sumire and Hinaka join her at the bottom of the hill to check on her. With relief, Sumire is unable to hold back and a few tears fall from her eyes. She admits to being scared out of concern for Akari, so she is glad to know she is okay, but this causes the girls to realize that in a strange way, their plan actually worked. Sumire then starts to laugh, along with Akari and Hinaka as they finish the recording. Akari then calls for Itsumo and she mentions that they still have their special present for Sumire. They bring in inside of the Van and she questions what may be inside, but they just tell her to open it. She does and while initially expecting something bad, she is surprised to see the Growth Dorothy coord and the Aikatsu Cheer Bracelet. She spots the messages and reads it before expressing her happiness. She puts the bracelet on and takes out the cards, complimenting them and the Cheer Bracelet before thanking them.

With this, Itsumo requests that Sumire uses this coord to put on a performance to end the program. She agrees to the request and they head to the performance hall, where she changes and heads on stage, performing to "Emerald Magic".

Afterwards, she returns to Hinaki and Akari and Itsumo compliments their job well done.

Characters

 * Akari Ōzora
 * Sumire Hikami
 * Hinaki Shinjō
 * Maya Yumekōji
 * Tsubasa Sena (flashback)

Trivia

 * During the final pose scene, The Wizard of Oz symbol is a rainbow instead of a hot air balloon.
 * This is the second time an Aikatsu! Yell Bracelet is used in the anime.
 * This is the first time a Premium has debuted before all the premuims from the previous collection have.
 * The song Emerald Magic makes its anime debut.
 * Sumire obtains her second premium rare.
 * The Growth Dorothy Coord makes its anime debut in this episode.