The Calming Kigurumi Party Before a Storm

It was the calm before the storm. A young girl has set out to achieve what has only been achieved by one person so far. But before destiny reaches its hand to meet her... a kigurumi party is in order!

"Oh yeah, I've already prepared 'that' thing for later, by the way."

It was seemingly one minor break from their busy idol work week.

This was the particular short period of rest where Rizumu Amamiya decided to invite over her fellow friends and MARs unit members Aira and Mion for a sleepover party. Aira, being the enthusiastic girl that she is, agreed almost immediately. But the reserved Mion held on to an excuse and tried to refuse the invitation.

"It's okay! It's all the same after we scarf it down anyway!"

The party thus became set for that following evening. But before the festivities even officially start, it's beginning to look like a grand home buffet instead of a regular sleepover party. Aira throwing heap loads of vegetable over the flat griddle, while Rizumu making her "special brand" of home salad.

"Are you still doing one of those Plasma Shows, Mion?"
"It's Prism Show."

Mion meanwhile, seemed to have immediately regretted her excuse. Her decision to attend the fancy elite dinner date was boring as heck. It didn't help either that she was simply more or less treated as just another one person added to the occasion, even if all attendees fully acknowledge who she is.

Can you guess what she decides to do next?

"All these ingredients taste cheap."
"And yet you still keep eating."

As expected, she eventually found herself in front of the Amamiya residence, still wearing the fancy dress, while holding a box of macarons for her two fellow unit members. It was at this point where we finally see what Rizumu was really planning all along.

"Ta-da! Been wanting to do a kigurumi party at least once!"

It was not just some sleepover party, it was meant to be a kigurumi party! And yes, if you are wondering, that is exactly a paraphrased quote from our hostess herself. Naturally, she had all of the needed kigurumi for the three of them to wear:

First, Aira dons the black cat kigurumi. Iconic in its own right, as we already know, but has a bit more specific design points that make it somewhat more different.

Rizumu defaults to a dog kigurumi. This particular design scheme is pretty generic. But nevertheless, it is still considerably distinct compared to other dog kigurumi we usually see.

Mion had a penguin kigurumi especially reserved for her. This light blue scheme is yet again quite odd for the creature it represents. But then again, this seems to be very common, so no actual complaints there.

"See? I knew it would fit you very well."

"I'm taking this last macaron as payment for this request then."

"Meow! Meow!" "Bark! Bark!"
"Huh? How the heck do you transform penguin sounds into direct onomatopoeia?"

Normally we would just boringly go on to how they spent their cute night during their kigurumi party and end it there.

"You mean, the legendary Sonata Kanzaki is your mother?!"

But, tension between them suddenly sparked up when Mion happened to have glanced over Rizumu's notes. She realized that she was about to do something really risky; that she was planning to recreate the original Aurora Rising performance.

"This set of moves...!"

This performance was the one and only special move that only Rizumu's mother, the Prism Queen, has performed perfectly. The rest who attempted the move all ended with severe injuries, some even ending their performance careers right then and there.

"Watch me perform it. Then if you still won't understand, I'll leave the team."

Despite Mion's concerns, Rizumu immediately explained back, and maintained her resolve to achieve her goal. She declared that would attempt to perform the trick after one of their shows, in order to prove just how serious she is.

*grips tightly*

The time then came. With bated breath, Mion unconsciously held tightly to Aira's hand, as she watches her friend risk her life for a once in a lifetime performance...

"Mom..."

... and then she failed.

If not for Jun's perfectly timed save, she would have incurred the same injuries as all those who have failed to perform it. As explained by her managers, Rizumu lacked all the minor tweaks, skills, and adjustments to perfectly execute the move. Though this did not break her resolve to eventually succeed, this failure still left her extremely disappointed.

"Alright. But you need to show me every inch of your progress."

In the end, Mion imposed several conditions for allowing Rizumu to continue pursuing the perfect execution of Aurora Rising. This includes, unsurprisingly, the priority of performing for their idol unit than simply practicing for the move. Oh and also perfect transparency in-between her training sessions and skill acquisitions. Rizumu really did make Mion worry a lot her after all, even if she tried her very best to hide and deny it.

Pretty Rhythm: Aurora Dream (プリティーリズムオーロラドリーム) is an item-franchise based show that is basically aimed for very young teens. A kind of combined genre show mainly featuring idol elements, sprinkled with "fantasy" figure skating and slice of life.

Aira Harune was supposedly the main protagonist as a new character to the franchise. However, the show eventually put her a bit aside to give somewhat more room to a previous (non-anime) series character Rizumu Amamiya, who arguably has the more main protagonist-like character conflict compared to her.

Despite being an overall balanced~ish series, it could be quite difficult to appreciate for viewers who are outside the show's target product demographic. At the very least though, we can definitely appreciate that the fashion themes of the show eventually included wearing kigurumi, albeit informally as expected.