I've been a fan of the Aikatsu! franchise for a very long time and unfortunately Friends is the weakest series when compared to OG and Stars. It's funny because I really like some of the characters (I really adored Aine, and I liked Hibiki a lot in this season) but the story just isn't executed well, there is nothing interesting going on a lot of the time. The first season had the typical competition (also executed not that well) but this season as a whole just felt like there wasn't much going on. Some of the stages are really beautiful and I like the music,but the plot and character development outside of Alicia (who is just one character in a whole ensemble cast) is quite lacking. There was so much potential that they could have used - looking a lot at Ema and Maika - but they didn't. I just didn't feel very invested and that's probably why it took me a few years to finish this season (I kept taking breaks). Some standalone episodes are fun to watch, but I would say to only watch this if you have some time to spare.