AKB49 Maya arc
Things picked up after focusing on the three main girls and dropping the random jumps between the dozens of AKB members.
Story finally gained a cleared focus and manage to give immediate goals to the main cast.
The "failing record company but ACTUALLY AMAZING" troop was a bit unneeded, but thankfully they didn't focus too much on it and moved into the actual characters quite fast.
Okabe looking for love was a nice little change of pace, even if her falling for the main character could had been seen from miles away.
Maya rivalry came out of nowhere, I felt it was well built up after it started, but the start was extremely abrupt, she essentially was introduced in the story talking about wanting to crush them for no apparent reason. And the Okabe rivalry seemed to have been tackled on later on to justify it.
And in that subject, how the hell did they manage to hire a stalker that did failed to find out that Mimori is a male cross-dresser? He's going into bathroom to change clothes every other scene!
I'd suggest asking for a refund on this hire.
The face-offs (contests and concerts) were extremely entertaining, between the main character unbreakable will, the underdog angle and accompanying twists during the confrontations, even trying to reform the rivals, they felt very much like the idol equivalent of a shounen fight.
They did try to give a sad backstory to Maya later on, but she just came off even worst off, and while Okabe was a bit cold to her, she hardly stole that much from Maya.
if this series was something more serious I would be wondering about Mimori sexual identity at this point, it could be an interesting aspect to explore considering how absorbed by the idol life he has become, but I don't think the series will ever touch that.
Now onto a new arc, a significant change in AKB involving Maeda seems to be waiting ahead, if that isn't a fake-out it could be a sign of interesting things to come.
I want the MC to struggle more and not just get the band back together by begging with the power friendship.
Poorly constructed as I said, but it still had a point!