It's time to talk about the queen. Yes, the queen of ridiculous faces. For those of you still around the Magical Girl fandom in tumblr, Erika seems to be getting more and more hate, coming with likes like her having the personality of cardboard.
I admit I wasn't too thrilled with Erika at first. Her voice was rather grating and she was pretty obnoxious. She tried to pull Tsubomi into the fashion club with little regard for the latter's feelings. But the thing about this is, not only did the show acknowledge it, but she also expressed remorse for it.
In episode 4, Tsubomi is convinced that she's holding Erika back, and that Erika would be better off with anyone else. During the fight, Marine finds out about this moment of insecurity and reassures Blossom that she's not only fine with having her as a partner, but WANTS her as her partner.
This scene makes it all the more upsetting when late into the series Tsubomi is the only one who hasn't yet passed the test against her shadow self, and Erika proclaims what basically amounts to "Tsubomi is an unreliable weakling. She's useless without us!"
Erika can be obnoxious and overbearing, but she's always been supportive of Tsubomi, so for her to say something like that is rather jarring, especially so late in the series.
Tsubomi has such supporting friends.
At least we got some supportive friendship in the movie.
One point of character development for Erika comes in the form of jealousy and insecurity when it comes to her sister, Momoka. It ends up being interesting in both cases because Momoka is actually jealous of Erika having such a fun, normal life surrounded by wonderful friends.
I will say though, I do feel that Erika's quirky faces come off kind of forced when they appear in the All-Stars movies. Like there's no actual reason for them, and they just happen because it's what the fans like.
All in all I think Erika is a nice character who isn't by any means perfect, but is nowhere near the awful character the tumblr fandom makes her out to be.