Episode 177 - The Present Heading Towards the Future

The Present Heading Towards the Future (未来向きの今) is the 177th episode of Aikatsu! TV anime series and the 25th episode of its "4th Season". The episode aired on March 24, 2016.

Story
The three days of the exciting Starlight Queen Cup is coming to an end, and the only stage left is Akari Ōzora's performance. Everyone is anticipating about who will be taking the crown of the Starlight Queen. The stage filled with all kinds of thoughts and emotions, the stage of Akari Ōzora begins right now!

Summary
Sumire sadly approaches the chair for her score reveal. Despite how saddened she is she remains modest as its revealed she placed eighth due to her appeal failure. Orihime and Mizuki discuss how Sumire probably would have taken first place had she managed to pull off the Special A-rank appeal. She chose to challenge herself rather than safely take first place, an admirable trait despite the outcome.

Seeing Akari in the hallway, they cross paths and Sumire voices confidence that she will do well. Akari assures her that she'll give it everything, momentarily grasping Sumire's hand before heading into the hallway that leads to the changing booths. She recalls how poorly her first time went in there, but now it will have a much better outcome. She changes and appears on stage to perform "START DASH SENSATION". She blows everyone away with her heartfelt performance.

With everyone finished the results for the Starlight Queen are to be announced, and Akari places above Hinaki. She is stunned as they go on to reveal she is now the official Starlight Queen; recalling the many tears it took to get her this far. She shrugs off her tears of joy and happily thanks everyone as Hinaki leads the girls in applause; some of whom also joyously cry for her as well as they reveal Akari pulled off the SA-rank appeal. Everyone returns to the main hall, where the top eight girls give some words to the audience.

Sumire begins, accepting how today went because she gave it her everything, and she promises to do even better next year. Lisa admits that while she was upset with her placement, she's just happy that she could come this far from a girl back in Hokkaido. She thanks her parents for believing in her and the audience, then hands the microphone over to Rin. She expresses how much fun she had, and how she feels blessed to have such great rivals, Nono goes on to thank everyone and express how passionate everyone was. She wants to become an even greater Idol and with Lisa by her side she asks that everyone keep supporting them. Madoka goes next and starts by asking how everyone enjoyed themselves, then she cutely asks them who the most cutest of them all. When they respond with her name, she thanks them and promises to take her time and become the next Starlight Queen. Juri explains that she has no plans to change how she performed and she thanks everyone for their support, followed by Hinaki who greets everyone and explains ow excited she was while she held first place. She weeps and explains that while she really wanted to win, she will try even harder next time and thanks the audience.

Akari joins everyone as Orihime, the host, and Mizuki approach her for their own words. They explain how she grew up from a once clumsy failure to a wonderful and still-growing Idol who can surpass everything to shine on the top, and Orihime offers words of encouragement to those who find themselves in a place similar to Akari of the past. With that, Sakura is brought on stage to bestow Akari with a personal bouquet as the previous Queen. She compliments Akari's radiance and how beautifully she blossomed over time. Akari then goes on to thank her and Orihime is tasked with presenting Akari the Starlight Queen tiara; but for this year she decided to give the duty to the one who first discovered Akari's potential back during the Caravan. Akari is stunned as Ichigo appears with the tiara and she places it upon her head and embraces her. Akari happily thanks everyone and expresses how her dream was to become an idol who could bring smiles to everyone, and even off stage she was always looking for ways to inspire and make others happy through fun gestures they could do together. As a child she was a crybaby until she saw Ichigo, whose smile and brought joy filled her with happiness. This inspire her to want to become an idol who could do the same, and she's going to continue doing this for as long as she can.

That evening Akari finds everyone in the hallway waiting for her. They congratulate her and a party is held, where everyone happily lets off steam and enjoys the lovely meal. Lisa and Nono share food with each other, while Rin watches Madoka in amusement while she eats a large cake, Orihime and Naoto have wine while Johnny eats, and Juri snaps a picture of AKari with Sumire and Hinaki. It's then Sena arrives to congratulate Akari, who teasingly brings up that as she is on top, he is now too because he was the one who designed her coords. He then goes on to reveal that he can't stay as he has an interview to get to, but he wanted to let her know that he's been inspired to make her a new outfit she can look forward to.

After participating in a long interview, Akari returns to the Starlight Queen's home. As the Queen she will be living alone now, a thought she makes while heading inside. She comes to a large, empty room and observes it to find a pot of flowers and vase has been left for her, along with a note. Sakura explains that there will be an upcoming Starlight Queen Party being held soon and expresses that if she feels lonely she should head to the fridge. Akari is confused but does as instructed, then she finds a paper on the pudding cup to check out the nearby pot. The pot has a note under it, and through a series of notes Akari finds herself in a bedroom, with a note on the pillow telling her to open the closet door. Curious, Akari does and to her surprise she finds Sumire and Hinaki waiting in there, who tackle her onto the bed in response. After recovering from the surprise, the girls sit down for tea and Akari explains that she can still hardly believe what happened. Sumire and Hinaki agree that while they were sad over their own losses, she managed to brightly cheer them up again and feel she truly earned the title.

The following morning, Akari is revealed to be sleeping in the bed along with Sumire and Hinaki. She quietly gets up seeing the time and gets dressed before exiting her new home. She stops to observe the vast, bright sky above her. It's become clear once more.

Characters

 * Akari Ōzora
 * Sumire Hikami
 * Hinaki Shinjō
 * Juri Kurebayashi
 * Rin Kurosawa
 * Madoka Amahane
 * Nono Daichi
 * Lisa Shirakaba
 * Ichigo Hoshimiya
 * Aoi Kiriya
 * Ran Shibuki
 * Mizuki Kanzaki
 * Orihime Mitsuishi
 * Johnny Bepp
 * Naoto Suzukawa
 * Tsubasa Sena
 * Yū Hattori

Trivia

 * This episode marks the end of the Starlight Queen Cup.
 * This is the only episode of Aikatsu to ever skip the Opening Song sequence.
 * Akari becomes the new Starlight Queen.
 * This is the first time the dress aura of a Premium Rare dress has been shown.
 * Akari becomes the only idol to ever successfully perform a SA-rank Fever Appeal.
 * Additionally, Akari becomes the only idol to ever max out the Stage Points meter in a competition.
 * The title of this episode is taken from the lyrics of START DASH SENSATION.