Episode 07 - The Three Shining Suns

The Three Shining Suns (かがやく三つの太陽) is the seventh episode of the Aikatsu on Parade! anime series. It aired on November 16th, 2019.

Summary
Raki and the others arrived at a bento house named "Nandemo Bento". There, they find the idol unit Soleil and its members, Ichigo Hoshimiya, Aoi Kiriya, and Ran Shibuki! Raki, who was able to assist the three's live stages, gets...!

Plot
Raki, Aine, and Mio arrive at a shopping district they can't recognize. As they try determining where they could be, a delicious scent catches Raki's attention. As they follow it, a trio of girls are preparing food when the trio step inside of the shop, known as "Nandemo Bento". Inside, they are greeted by Ichigo, who gives them a recommendation.

Once the food has been prepared the girls quickly dig in after Ichigo brings it to them, and they begin to fawn over its quality.

As this is going on, Raichi arrives home and steps into the kitchen when he picks up an "idol scent" from the three girls. He points it out to Aoi and she excitedly runs to the window for a closer look after recognizing them from the Costume Contest. This causes the trio to realize they're still in the city of Starlight School and Ichigo reveals what Akari old her about them. Aine brings up that she and Mio are part of a Friends unit as Ran joins them, and in this moment they recognize the uniforms they have on. When given a break, Aoi, Ichigo, and Ran lead them to another room, with Raichi tagging along.

There, they explain that they are also idols, and on their off days they sometimes come to help out at the shop. Mio realizes this is why they were wearing disguises earlier and with that, Aoi believes proper inroductions are in order. She introduces Ichigo as being one of the top idols within the Aikatsu Ranking -although Ichigo believes its too much praise- followed by the cool beauty Ran, who is a top model and uses the brand Spicy Ageha; much to Raki's joy as she asks to see the brand more closely. Raichi then steps in to eagerly talk about Aoi and how she's been in multiple productions, stars in various drama, and is even known as the "Aikatsu Professor". Aoi stops him there and overwhelmingly begins asking to know more about Aine, Mio, and Raki, but in the process Ran forces her to take a step back by reminding her they have enough to deal with right now. Aoi goes to Ichigo -claiming she was bullied- and they explain how she's been trying to do searches on them, but no matter how hard she tries looking she hasn't been able to find out anything about the girls. Ran tells her not to be so agressive next time and hands her book back over, and Aine and Mio remark on how close their friendship is.

It's then Ichigo brings up a concert they will be holding and they invite the girls to join them. Mio goes on to ask if they're in the same unit -shocking Raichi greatly- and Ran brings up their trio unit Soleil. It's then Ringo appears and offers the girls a place to stay as its beginning to get late. In hopes of paying them back they offer to lend a hand in her shop the following day, and once Aine mentions her family runs a cafe Ringo decides to consider it. Aoi is bursting with excitement knowing she can finally learn more about the girls through this "sleepover", until Ran reminds her that they need to return to the dorms to prepare for their concert tomorrow. But Ichigo calms her down by saying that they will have plenty of time after the performance to talk to them.

As the girls prepare to leave for school, Raki begins to think about what she learned earlier after the S4 incident. She stops them to ask if she can help with the preparations for the concert, and seeing how much it would mean to her they agree.

The following day, Aine and Mio are busily working with Ringo at the shop. For today only they have decided to include a limited time Tomato-Basil-Cheese Sandwhich, which Ringo remarks is proving to be really popular. She checks the hamburg steak Mio was preparing and confesses to how teaching them how to make the food has been bringing back memories for her, as she used to do this with Ichigo before she became an idol. She then explains how Ichigo became an idol and Aine recalls how Mio did the same for her, but when Ringo says Ichigo "changed her scoop into a microphone", she explains how prior to becoming an idol Ichigo wanted to inherit the shop one day. But she found a new dream in Aikatsu and has since ran straight ahead with this single-minded plan with her precious friends.

As this is going on Raki brings in a final set of flowers in the room, she pauses to admire them all in amazement. She is joined by Orihime, who recognizes her as Raki, and she properly introduces herself, shocking Raki in the process until pointing out Ichigo informed them of her involvement. Happy with Raki's work she allows her to check out Soleil as they prepare for their concert, and Raki quietly heads into the auditorium to find them practicing.

The girls have just finished the song, but they consider how they could further improve it after Johnny returns to compliment them. They ask that they run through it again and he eagerly agrees on the decision, leaving Raki to admire their dedication to their fans as Orihime rejoins her. Even though it's nearly time for the concert to begin they're willing to keep going, something she explains as being the power of their fans cheers, which gives them the energy to keep going past their limits, and as long as an idol knows this they will continue going far.

Later that day, a large crowd arrives at the location of the performance. They perchase merchandise and admire the flower stands, then get seated as Ringo, Raichi, Aine, and Mio arrive. Aine and Mio are delighted to see the excitement of Soleil's fans and they sit down, excited to watch. As Soleil appears on stage, Raki is shown to be on the sidelines watching them. Each girl takes her turn to perform, with Ran performing to "Trap of Love" and Aoi singing "Prism spiral".

With each one, Aine, Mio, and Raki become more excited as they take into consideration their performance capabilities and outfits. However, Raki finds herself curious and wonders why they would spend time working at the shop when they're such established idols. Ichigo arrives and claims to have an answer, saying the stage and her bento shop are the same. On the stage there are people who come to see them perform live, and how they see them smile. But she realized that it was the bento shop that made her see that she loved to make people smile by doing something she loved. Raki recalls how she, Aine, and Mio reacted when they ate their meals there the prior day and Ichigo says that she likes helping out still because it reminds her of this feeling. With that she heads backstage and changes into her brand new coord from Angely Sugar, evolved from her first Premium Rare Dress. She appears on stage and performs "Admired Customization☆".

On stage, Ichigo waves to their fans as Aine and Mio describe how they felt watching them. Ichigo returns backstage when she's told she has a few minutes to spare and Raki stands back, watching Ichigo in awe. Ichigo sees her and smiles.

Characters

 * Raki Kiseki
 * Aine Yūki
 * Mio Minato
 * Ichigo Hoshimiya
 * Aoi Kiriya
 * Ran Shibuki
 * Johnny Bepp
 * Orihime Mitsuishi
 * Ringo Hoshimiya
 * Raichi Hoshimiya
 * Asuka Amahane (cameo)

Trivia

 * The Bless Aurora Coord makes its debut in this episode.
 * The members of the unit SpLasH!, Michelle Tachibana and Asami Himuro make a cameo appearance in this episode.
 * Yurika Tōdō, Kaede Ichinose, and Mizuki Kanzaki are shown to have sent flower stands to Soleil.
 * The song Admired Customization☆ makes its debut as an insert song in this episode.