Aikatsu Stars! Hoshiboshi no Progress finally has a date. Bandai Namco Pictures showed the full trailer and a new key visual at a fan meeting for the film on Saturday, and the trailer confirms the movie opens in Japan on January 22, 2027.
The film marks ten years since the Aikatsu Stars! television anime, which ran from April 2016 to March 2018 and closed out at 100 episodes on TV Tokyo and its affiliate stations.
The trailer also previews the main theme song, “Five stars.” The ending theme is “Anata e” (To You). Both are performed by Sena, Rie, Miki, Nanase and Kana, the five-member unit tied to the film. The tagline Bandai Namco is running with reads: “Our (rainbow-colored) dream isn’t over yet.”
What the film is about
Hoshiboshi no Progress picks up just before Yume and the rest of the cast graduate. Elza of Neo Venus Ark invites them to perform at the Venus Jamboree, an event that puts them on stage with the world’s top idols. A mysterious passenger ship called the Petit Venus Ark then appears.
That setup keeps the film inside the series’ own timeline rather than jumping forward. Graduation was always the horizon the TV anime was walking toward, so building a movie around the weeks before it gives the story room to use characters at the point where they still have something to lose.
The team coming back
Teruo Sato, who directed the Aikatsu Stars! anime series, returns to direct the film at Bandai Namco Pictures. Yuko Kakihara, the original series’ head writer, is back for the scenario. Yukiko Aikei returns as character designer. Bandai Namco Pictures is also distributing.
Almost the full core of the TV production is intact, which is rare for a franchise anniversary film and usually a good sign. Anniversary projects tend to bring in outside directors for a fresh look. This one is doing the opposite.
Where it sits in the franchise
The original Aikatsu Stars! film opened in August 2016, months after the TV series started. Since then the franchise has moved through Aikatsu Friends! from April 2018 to September 2019, Aikatsu on Parade! from October 2019 to July 2020, and the hybrid anime and live-action series Aikatsu! Planet in the first half of 2021. Aikatsu! Planet also got a film in July 2022. The franchise’s first YouTube-exclusive VTuber project, Aikatsu! Academy!, launched in July 2024.
The whole thing began with an arcade card game in October 2012. That game spawned a television anime that ran from 2012 to 2016 and three films, and each later installment got its own arcade card game. Aikatsu! Academy! is the exception, since it has no associated game.
The franchise’s overall tenth-anniversary film, Aikatsu! 10th Story ~Mirai e no Starway~, opened in January 2023 and reunited the original Aikatsu! team of director Ryuichi Kimura, writer Yoichi Kato and character designer Hiroko Yaguchi to tell a new story about Ichigo Hoshinomiya.
Why this one matters more than a nostalgia lap
Aikatsu Stars! has been off screen as a standalone story since 2018. Ten years is long enough that the kids who watched Yume’s first audition are adults now, and the film is clearly aimed at them: the tagline trades on a dream that “isn’t over yet” rather than introducing a new generation of idols.
Idol franchises have been doing this across the board. The Love Live! Nijigasaki film lands in February for much the same reason, closing a story that started on television rather than opening a new one. The commercial logic is sound too. A January opening puts Hoshiboshi no Progress in the same slot the franchise used for Aikatsu! 10th Story three years ago. The card game and the music keep the brand warm between anime installments, so a theatrical release has an audience already in place.
Whether that translates outside Japan is a different question. No overseas release has been announced for this film, so for now January 22, 2027 is a Japanese date.
The film’s official website and Comic Natalie both reported the trailer and the opening date.
Source: Aikatsu Stars! Hoshiboshi no Progress official website and Comic Natalie, via Anime News Network.
Featured image: Key visual for Aikatsu Stars! Hoshiboshi no Progress, via Anime News Network.
