Episode 69 - Hospitality Heart♡

Hospitality Heart♡ (おもてなしハート♡) is the 69th episode of Aikatsu! TV Anime series and the 19th episode of its "Second Season". The episode aired on February 13, 2014.

Synopsis
''Maria is given the objective of being "The Best Host" and she decides to invite the girls from both schools for a big house party. ''

Summary
In class, Johnny is going over how popular Dream Academy is currently. He tells his students that they should be using this as the time to work harder in order to keep up with them or focus on overcoming their rivals.

Meanwhile, over at Dream Academy, Tiara has informed Maria that a special episode of Full Exposure: Idol Princesses will be going on soon and they requested shooting it at her home. She thinks this would be a great time for a house party, which excites the girls as Maria brings up how fun it would be to invite them all.

Later, Orihime informs the girls that they have been invited by Maria to attend the party and they express surprise. While Ichigo and Aoi are super excited, Ran reminds them that it will also be part of work too, causing Sakura to remark on how good of a role model she is. Whenever she gets excited about something she puts in a lot more effort. Suddenly, Ichigo suggests they bring a present.

Ki is trying to determine what the party will be like. They ask Maria for some hints but she decides not to divulge such information, instead decides to bring up her desire to be the best host possible since everyone is taking their time to come. Since this is her hosting task, the girls decide to take off and leave it in her hands.

That night at Starlight Academy, Ichigo is packing a huge amount of snacks, games, and a volleyball to play with when Ran warns her that she is packing too much. To her shock, she sees that Aoi and Sakura have also done the same, and she is able to convince the trio to leave a few items behind. Ichigo suggests they call the girls from Dream Academy as well in order to figure out what present to give to Maria. This way instead of two separate gifts they can focus on one larger present and brainstorm together.

The following day, up at the mountains, Maria is shooting the promo for the special episode. Everyone has just arrived at the entrance area that will lead them to Maria's home and they eagerly discuss their excitement. It's then they are told she often comes here during the weekends when she isn't working- and suddenly, Maria arrives by a cow-drawn carriage. The girls are taken by its cuteness and compare it to that of a horse-drawn carriage as she tells them to board it. They go on to admire the scenery with plenty of compliments, and Aoi takes advantage of Maria thanking them to get a quick picture of her.

Upon arriving at her home they observe the several staff members she has. They also take notice of all of the shiny, expensive ornaments of the entrance room while she leads them through another set of doors, which leads to the entertainment she set up especially for this event. Sakura is especially excited, because of how much it reminds her of the books she loves so much as the others bring up how comfortable it looks and feels. Maria expresses her desire to see them be really happy while they are there and they sit down for some tea and cake as she explains how she prepared in advance to give each girl items that would fit their individual images. She and Sakura quickly hit it off as she expresses further gratitude for her consideration and they realize they both share an interest in the same books. The girls admire how wonderful everything is because of Maria's care for it, which makes her feel very happy.

Later the girls take to relaxing for a bit and comment on how they didn't even need half of the things they ended up bringing after all. They admire the sunset as Maria expresses sadness in being unable to share such scenery with her parents- who travel the world due to their work. They can only come for a quarter amount of days each month, and as a result, she used to feel lonely when they first moved there. But one day she found the Aurora Fantasy books, which encouraged her to stop being so sad and lonely, and instead look forward to their next meeting so that she can be happy every day. She is very happy to have left a good impression and mentions how she wants this for her Idol career as well, to leave everyone with the feeling of wanting to stay forever.

With that, she brings up a final event she planned, to celebrate Valentines Day. She hands each girl a bag of heart themed colored chocolate to each of them, with Aoi wishing to save them due to how pretty they look; although she'll probably eat hers, and Ran appreciative that hers is sugar-free the way she likes.

With the camera crew watching, they comment on how nice it seems before the director reveals Maria made a bunch for them too- much to their surprise.

That evening, Maria has just finished giving some neighborhood children chocolate as well. As they leave, she mentions that she uses a lot of the mountains fruit when making them. However, because the girls aren't quite ready to leave yet she suggests they sing together for a little while. Due to where she lives it won't be bothering anyone. They then draw lots in order to decide the pairs and number order as a little stage is set up, and it is revealed that Maria and Ichigo will go first. They run behind the stage to enter the changing corridor and reappear on it to perform "Aurora Princess".

Afterward, the girls decide to reveal their present for Maria: a special light-up display that they put together that resembles the aurora lights in the evening sky. She is very touched by this act of kindness and the girls thank her for having them there today as they embrace, and she thanks her staff by expressing happiness as they watch and comment and how they can now understand Johnny's words from earlier.

Character Appearances

 * Ichigo Hoshimiya
 * Maria Himesato
 * Sakura Kitaōji
 * Aoi Kiriya
 * Ran Shibuki
 * Seira Otoshiro
 * Kī Saegusa
 * Sora Kazesawa


 * Tiara Yumesaki
 * Orihime Mitsuishi
 * Johnny Bepp
 * Palm
 * Miteru Itsumo

Trivia

 * "Omotenashi" (おもてなし) can translate into "hospitality" or "hosting" depending on the context. That being present, the title can also mean "Hosting Heart".
 * It is revealed that Maria's parents travel for their jobs.
 * In this episode, Ichigo's singing voice becomes much softer and quieter to fit the tempo of the song.