Bandai Namco Pictures announced on Friday that the Aikatsu Stars! anime will have a new anime film titled Aikatsu Stars! Hoshiboshi no Progress (The Progress of the Stars) that will open in early spring 2027. The film celebrates the anime’s 10th anniversary (the anime premiered in April 2016).
Image via Aikatsu Stars! anime’s X/Twitter account
©BNP/BANDAI, DENTSU, TV TOKYO ©2016 BNP/BANDAI, AIKATSU STARS THE MOVIE
The Aikatsu Stars! anime series director Teruo Sato returns to direct the new film at Bandai Namco Pictures. Original series head writer Yūko Kakihara also returns to write the film’s story. The original series’ character designer Yukiko Aikei also returns to design the characters for the film.
The Aikatsu Stars! television anime series debuted on TV Tokyo and affiliated channels in April 2016, and ended in March 2018 with 100 episodes. The Aikatsu Stars! anime film opened in August 2016.
Aikatsu Stars! was followed in the franchise by the Aikatsu Friends! anime from April 2018 to September 2019, the Aikatsu on Parade! anime from October 2019 to July 2020, the hybrid anime/live-action series Aikatsu! Planet in January to June 2021, and finally the franchise’s first foray into a YouTube-exclusive VTuber project with Aikatsu! Academy! in July 2024. Aikatsu! Planet also got an anime film in July 2022.
The Aikatsu! franchise began with the original arcade card game in October 2012. The game inspired a television anime that ran from 2012 to 2016, and three anime films. Each of the successive anime installments of the franchise had their own associated arcade card game (Aikatsu! Academy!, as a YouTube-exclusive project, has no associated anime and arcade card game).
The Aikatsu! 10th Story ~Mirai e no Starway~ (Starway to the Future) anime film is the franchise’s 10th anniversary film, and it opened in Japan in January 2023. The brand-new story for the original Aikatsu! series reunites that series’ director Ryuichi Kimura, scenario writer Yoichi Kato, and character designer Hiroko Yaguchi. The project is set in the story of the 2012 to 2016 Aikatsu! anime, and centers once again on protagonist Ichigo Hoshinomiya.
Sources: Aikatsu Stars! Hoshiboshi no Progress anime film’s website, Comic Natalie
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
