What will grab most people’s intention immediately when checking out Lapis Re:LiGHTs is the original plot, which is understandable, seeing how unique it is. However, Lapis Re:LiGHTs fails more often than not to really make that plot stand out. While Episode 6 was pretty interesting—several of the girls explore a creepy mansion—the plot never seems to have a focus on anything. We think Lapis Re:LiGHTs could have won over its audience if more magical battles took place that also incorporated the idol themes.

We will say that while Lapis Re:LiGHTs does a solid job with producing some cool magical effects and several catchy idol tunes, the story just overall feels underdeveloped. There are still several more episodes—as of writing this article—that could change our mind but until then we still feel this show isn’t doing enough with its ideas.

As we discover early on, the main plot is that our main group of magical girls is placed at the lowest level of their school. The main issue with such a low rank is that if their scores don’t improve, they face expulsion in the coming year! This idea led our girls to make some hasty moves as they tried to become more popular at the academy—and begin to take their magical training classes a bit more seriously. This idea for plot works initially but by episode 7, it seems almost pointless due to one of the group members’ blunders.

Lavie—the one dubbed a silly rabbit for her airheaded nature—steals a map without permission to help the group during a class project. After having received news that they gained 10 points for their admirable efforts, they then lose 70 points for Lavie’s actions. Though this folly does cause the group to finally try their hands at being idols—yes it takes 8 episodes before LiGHTs is actually formed—it feels as if their past efforts were pointless overall. We’d be happier seeing our girls decide right away to become idols to avoid the plodding plot from earlier. Plus, the ending of episode 8 alone was just irritating as it once again put our girls’ efforts in a questionable light…

Again, let’s mention that it takes 8 episodes, almost the entirety of the show, before the girls don their stage name and sing their song! LiGHTs’ introduction was the highlight of the show—at least as it felt emotional and cute—but why did Lapis Re:LiGHTs take so long to get to the series main point!? In our honest opinion, if Lapis Re:LiGHTs started off with episode 8—or at least by episode three would have gone this route—we’d think this show could have been incredible. You could have had the girls balance idol practice with magical training and made the show entirely more enjoyable in this venue!