Episode 10 - Yume's Start Line!

Yume's Start Line! (ゆめのスタートライン！) is the tenth episode of the Aikatsu Stars! Anime Series. It aired on June 9, 2016.

Summary
One day, Yume is suddenly issued to do the school's office. Since Hime's originally planned live was cancelled, Yume is told to perform her first live instead. Yume is ecstatic but not all of the tickets were sold out. In these severe circumstances, Yume wonders if she will succeed on the big stage...

Plot
One late stormy evening, Headmaster Hikaru is chatting with someone. He asks them for a favor and brings up the oncoming performance this Saturday. He observes a photograph of Yume.

Word of Hime's performance has been spreading recently, and the following morning Yume and Koharu are admiring some posters when Anna spots them and tells Yume that the Headmaster wanted to see her. Yume worries she may be in trouble and quickly heads over, where he brings up Hime's performance. She eagerly brings up having already bought tickets, but when he suddenly informs her that she will be performing in her place -and he's already made a poster for it- she appears shocked.

In class, Anna has already informed the class of the change, and everyone seems confused over how someone like Yume would be chosen. Anna decides to have her speak to the class and Yume admits that while she is nervous she plans on doing her best to make sure everything goes well. Everyone applauds and Anna decides that right now personal lessons are in order for Yume, she also asks the class to help set everything up.

During lunch, Yume, Koharu, and Laura continue to try to determine why Yume of all people was picked. They observe the grade-up glitter she got from her last performance, with Yume deciding to use it for her special performance and make a wonderful new coord. The trio head to the dress make room and Yuri congratulates Yume for obtaining such a special glitter. She explains how they work and states its intended use of making Rare Dresses. All that she has to do is overlay the Grade-Up Glitter on top of a normal Dress to transform it into a Rare. She then leaves the girls to work, and quickly a new coord appears. Laura compliments it and Yume explains that it's from Hime's brand, My Little Heart.

Later that day, Koharu finds Yume checking out a song sheet and she recognizes it as "Start Line!", the same song Hime performs, the one they saw before they joined Four Star Academy. Yume brings up speaking to Anna about it and how they agreed on this song for her to perform, and she happily decides to invite her parents to the special event after Koharu brings up that her dream of joining S4 has become even closer.

Meanwhile, Hime asks the Headmaster of his plans. She doesn't think forcing a solo live on Yume right now is the best thing he could have done, causing him to accuse her for not thinking Yume can handle this. Hime admits seeing potential in Yume, but she is unhappy as he explains his plans of expelling her should she fail.

The following day, Yume sits by herself in the training room, thinking over the various aspects she needs to look over and tries to determine if she can reserve a lot of tickets for everyone she wishes to come. She's shocked after discovering that not a single ticket has sold yet, and she approaches Anna to ask what she should do about this. Anna suggests she try to go out and sell tickets herself, and she sends Yume out while wondering what Hikaru was thinking when he made this decision.

As Yume worriedly glances at the suitcase full of the tickets she must sell, she is spotted by the director her class worked with some time back. She greets him and asks what he is doing there, and after he brings up the recording work they were doing, she asks if he would like to see her performance on Saturday. Unfortunately, he has too much work so he can't make it. Yume goes on to ask another Director but gets the same answer.

Back at the cafeteria Yume continues to try to contact various people. It seems that everyone is too busy for Saturday and she continues to go through her lists- growing more depressed until deciding that this can't be helped. She can't do it if nobody will show up. She decides to make one last desperate attempt to offer the tickets free to people in town, but she is very sad when nobody shows interest. She returns to school to hear some girls speaking about her again, stating that it would be hard for anyone new to do a solo live. Especially when she doesn't even have any fans yet.

Yume's mood dampens until Laura shows up to reveal she managed to sell three tickets earlier. It ended up being to her fans, but they promised to come and see Yume anyway. Yume feels momentarily joy until realizing something, and she runs off to observe her poster Hikaru made. She wonders who this performance is really for and decides to focus on preparing for it. She gets to work training but can't focus, sadly deciding to take a walk around school grounds. Along the way she finds some disappointed girls who speak with Hime about not seeing her perform now and she apologizes, promising to make it up to them soon. She sees how saddened Yume is as she walks away.

That evening Yume has a dream of her performance, but nobody has shown up. She sadly calls out but nobody responds, with Laura appearing just as she realizes something. This stage was originally Hime's, and just because they both stand on it doesn't mean they see the same things from it. Yume asks what she should do and Laura tells her that she was the one who decided to do this, then she walks off while telling her not to disappoint everyone. Yume awakens at her desk and takes out the paper she wrote at her old school prior to joining, about her aspirations of joining S4. She begins to cry.

Yume heads outside distraught and she bumps into Subaru, who she sits down to chat with. He suggests she just quit if she isn't confident but Yume claims that it's too late to consider this. Seeing her stubbornness and unwilling to listen, Subaru bluntly tells her to shut up and heads her out to see Koharu and Laura, who are both hard at work in town trying to sell tickets for her sake. Seeing their efforts, Yume feels relieved to know that at least two people are supporting her. To make her feel better, Subaru points out that his first real performance only sold one ticket- but he goes on to remind Yume that it's not important to get a lot of people to like her so quickly, but that she works hard to please the ones she has before her now. The numbers will grow over time. In saying this, they observe a pair of children happily bringing up wanting to see Yume perform, and Subaru goes on to say that even if Yume can't see them now, she does have fans. With new resolve, Yume takes off. He's revealed to have bought a ticket.

Locating her teacher, Yume asks Anna to train her and she agrees seeing her dedication for improvement. They spend the evening training and as this is going on, some students take notice of her pushing herself late into the night. Laura comes by to ask the girls if they could do the same thing knowing everything Yume has been dealing with up until now.

The day of the concert arrives and Yume impatiently waits in another room when her parents approach to give her a snack. She thanks them to find a decorative cake in the box as Koharu arrives, along with Laura, who also came to exchange some words with Yume. Her dad mentions that he didn't see many people in the lobby on their way in, but Yume isn't disappointed anymore. She'll work hard to put on a great performance for the fans who did come. Suddenly, the two girls from earlier show up to ask Yume if they can watch her perform as they finished work for Hime to hurry up and come. She agrees and observes the rain pouring outside. The Directors, along with Kaoru show up as she goes to the changing area to put on her brand new coord. She appears on stage and puts on a performance.

Afterwards, the audience compliment and cheer for Yume. They take note of how different she seems to be on stage as Laura recalls her first time stepping out on stage. As this is going on, Hikaru has been observing Yume from backstage, and he turns to leave as Hime runs past him to find Yume waving to everyone. She expresses relief to see things went fine.

Hikaru observes the night sky and comments that unless Yume is able to conquer her idols potential and power, her career will be ending soon.

Characters

 * Yume Nijino
 * Hime Shiratori
 * Laura Sakuraba
 * Koharu Nanakura
 * Hikaru Moroboshi
 * Subaru Yūki
 * Anna Hibiki
 * Yuri Ashida
 * Kaoru Koumoto
 * Nico
 * Coco
 * Dai Nijino
 * Keiko Nijino

Trivia

 * Like Episode 01, the word Dream (ゆめ) from the episode title implies both a person's dream and the character Yume Nijino.
 * The Citrus Tea Time Coord makes its debut in this episode.