This page contains blogging of the PriPara anime and background info about the franchise. PriPara(PP) is Pretty Rhythm‘s successor which launched in July 2014 with an anime and an arcade game. Watching the Pretty Rhythm series beforehand isn’t necessary at all to watch PriPara, but you will miss many references and jokes. You should however know that PriPara is very different from Pretty Rhythm. One shouldn’t be used to judge the other. The Pretty Rhythm yakuzas & the few English speaking people who used to watch Pretty Rhythm as it aired knew this beforehand, as the 1st key visual for PP didn’t feature skates, for example. Like me, the majority of them kept watching and became PP fans as well.
Moreover you should know that, in my opinion, the first PP season is below average and has many flaws. Except for a handful of episodes, (episode 7 and 14 being my favorites), most jokes aren’t funny and the story feels as if made on the go. It’s also only 39 episodes long instead of the usual 51 episodes. If you find the first season bad, I suggest not giving up on the show, as starting the second season it gets exponentially better. Though it still retains some heavy writing issues and inconsistencies, most jokes are still predictable and the side characters remain underused.
The PriPara anime ended with its 4th season, titled Idol Time PriPara, which started in April 2017 and ended in April 2018. While not a reboot, the beginning of the season was quite similar to one, as they added a new heroine called Yui and slowly reintroduced past characters. PriPara was succeeded by Kiratto Pri☆chan in April 2018.
Episodic blogging and news
PriPara school specials
(aired before the show started)
PP Season 1
Episode 11 (End of the post has the story of how Takara Tommy boss explicitly said at a shareholders meeting Aikatsu is a ripoff of Pretty Rhythm and they countered by making PriPara)
Episode 24-32 (stuff about the s2 and movie)
PP Season 2
PriPara season 2 review&final impressions
(coming soon, making this as I stopped episodic blogging)
PriPara season 3 review& final impressions
(coming soon)
Idol Time PriPara review&final impressions
(coming soon)
Background info of the PriPara series
Background info on how Garuru was made
Background info on Hanazono Mia’s performance in Idol Time PriPara 42 (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4)
Background info on Idol Time PriPara 50 (mine, crunchyroll post, i☆Ris farewell messages translated by a nice /ai/non )
Nekketsu Nikki 
If you think it’s that bad why do you even watch it?
P.s the aikatsu thing is outdated. Third season is better as they learned from their mistakes. (Not that you are going to watch it anyway)
I never said it’s bad.
I like it.
Sorry the way you worded it made it seem that way
Saying there’s better shows doesn’t mean it’s bad
You can’t really fault them for trying to copy Aikatsu, their main audience is kids not us after all.(Not that I really see the appeal of Aikatsu)
It is unfortunate that they have so little room for development though, only Dorothy has anything in the way of traditional PR drama going on. Shion is awesome of course, but she feels like she’s already fully developed from her previous life as a samurai or whatever, and the rest are kind of one-dimensional or gimmicky.
It might not be PR but it’s still a fun show. I enjoy that they’re trying new things in some areas though like the mascots being comically self-centered. The only thing that really bothers me is the outfits kind of suck normally, and then really suck after the cyalume(?) change.
Just realized I forgot to answer some of the things you said and got carried in my own thing
For Shion, while she’s my favorite character, even she could actually use some development. Just like her description when her design got revealed said, sometimes she gambles and take too much risks. They could do an episode where she realize that flaw of her. Maybe it happened, as of now I haven’t watched past episode 23.
I’m not a big fan of the mascots in PriPara
And yeah the vast majority of clothes in PriPara are really bad.
I agree.
Comparisons to pretty rhythm or aikatsu aside though, the biggest reason why I say the show is really mediocre, is because it barely fits into my description of a good kids show. IMO it needs something that shows it can give something to the child watching. For example, while Seimei no Kagaku: Micro Patrol is a perfect example of what I’m thinking about, it doesn’t need to be particularly educational like that. There’s also educational looking shows that are imo actually dumb and don’t fit in this category of mine, like Dora.
Basically I think a show needs to have the bare minimum of substance to be something else of dumbing down kids and only try to make them want to buy the toys etc and nothing else. And sadly PriPara almost does nothing but that.
I tried explaining what I mean in a post here too
I’m okay with Pripara, but like most music animes I’m only there for the performances. I stopped watching the full episodes actually. Since Shion is your favorite, I heard that at episode 62 she’s gonna have a solo. And for Aikatsu…in later episodes the S1 characters start coming back and have performances! Yes, Soliel, Tristar, Powapowa Pururin (actually with the other Shion!) are back! You might not watch the whole of S3, but you could watch those episodes…
i have seen pretty rhytme and loved the first season.. hated the second and tried the first few eps of pripara… but honestly could not bother with it seeing i already found aikatsu at that point.
i loved that even tho aikatsu and pretty rhythme were similar they also had there differences (icescating vs fashionshow/ dance performance)
i think you should give the second season a try (aikatsu) the main chars will be having a bigger role after a few introduction eps from dream academy.
season 3 i really hated in the beginning (i dislike akari’s character and storyline) but there are a few new idols that redeem most of the third season in my eyes.
dream academy aside (they all died or something they popped up ones or twice i think) the main cast from season 1 is still there as supporting characters they pop in ones in a while.
I agree
There is a new show Aikatsu Stars out, which is good and, I think has romance?
Anyway PriPara I thought was good at first, but then got disappointing!
They added new characters that immedianetly passed out the main characters
They just keep adding more and more characters that it gets boring.
Hi! I’m a new “reader” of yours and I found out about this site this year only(2020). Back when Pretty Rhythm was still on air I really didn’t catch up on the latest episodes which lead me to watching random episodes in the three seasons that’s why I rewatched all of them this year. And I have to say, reading your blogs after each episode became my routine, unfortunately you stopped in Pripara season 2, which is what I have finished recently, following the pretty series sequence. I liked all of your judgement, even if we’re not on the same page on some things but I really enjoyed most of them! Thank you for all your effort!