Dances are undermined by poor music and even worse story. The dances are good, they are, but only if you can get past the fact that the music does not really match them most of the time. What makes a good dance (at last in my eyes) is not just the moves, but also how they sync with the music, and how music and the moves "enhance" or "extend" each other. Dance is supposed to be expression of someone's feelings, same as music, but to me it looked like the music and dances were talking about different feelings, not same ones. Not always, but even Noa Aoi's dance, which I find the most "in sync" (and the best in general in my mind), had some hiccups. Not as much as the story, though.
The original premise, that started with "saving planetarium", that right away shifted to "let's do pole-dance to save planetarium" just did not make sense. It was supposed to be closed because of lack of funds, and then more funds are spent on learning pole-dance, which has no connection to what planetariums are used. Yes, the space can be used to host a show, and yes, that did attract people, but those people will not keep coming to the planetarium in the future, since they came for the show. Not to mention, that the studio closing this "suddenly" is bonkers: so it was surviving just with 1 student for a long time, and then suddenly it needed 4 of them? And the owner was not realizing that until she lost that 1 student? Ridiculous.
The movie was much better in that regard, and switching for 2D for everything besides the dances was a good choice, since it improved quality perception greatly. But it still did not have that much "punch" to it, I think. I think it should have had some more "specialization" for the characters (may even be a bit supernatural, like World Dai Star), sense of the girls building something together, maybe "the renown of pole-dancing as a sport", or at least in general building something as a group (similar to Girls Band Cry, ideally with similar dynamics and banter, but that's too much to ask), and maybe just a little bit more appreciation of human body, expression and general passion for the art (like Dance Dance Danseur). Then it probably would be perfect or really close to it.
As is... Yes, it's great that they are at last trying to showcase the sport (and it is a sport), and it's cool that they seemed to have used motion capture for the dances, but I do not think that's enough to "inspire" people to try it. I mentioned "Dance Dance Danseur": I never liked ballet in any capacity, but if I watched the show as a kid, I can imagine myself thinking, that I want to try it (or any dance in general). Why? Because it was telling a good story while showing some nuances of the art, both good sides and the bad. "Pole Princess" felt more like "this is a hobby", even though it had competition and actual performance (where the girls were expressing some characters, but not really their own, IMHO).
So not a bad try, but needs more. Since they did find money for a movie after the shorts, maybe there is potential for a proper TV show?
