The iDOLM@STER is the second TV series based on the video game series of the same name. It is produced by A-1 Pictures and it aired through the the summer and Fall of 2011.The anime follow the story of the game more closely, leaving unaltered several of the girls backgrounds, carrying them over directly from the game. Several items and songs that were introduced in the anime were later made available as Downloadable Content for the game.For the original video game and history of the franchise, see The Idolmaster.For the first anime, see Idolmaster Xenoglossia.
The anime provides examples of:
A Day in the Limelight: Each of the idols gets their own episode that focuses on them and their issues.
Adaptation Distillation: The anime combines story elements from all of the game routes, and Miki, Takane, and Hibiki are already part of 765 Pro from the start instead of eventually defecting from 961 Pro.
Mujin Gattai Kisaragi can be taken as an Ascended Meme as a whole. In there we have Black Haruka, The Washboard on Kisaragi, and Yukiho's hole-digging antics is referred to in Takane's (Yukidrill's pilot) catchphrase.
A Friend in Need - Centric part of the plot for the whole show, more visible during some characters' Heroic BSOD's
All There in the Manual: Some events in the anime series make a lot more sense if you've played through the game and unlocked the backstories for the idols.
An Aesop - The second episode teaches Ami, Mami, Yayoi, and Iori about individuality.
The seventh deals with running away, although it's not any of the idols who runs away*
And even then, the one who did run away was just hiding.
Really, each episode gives a lesson to at least one character. In Episode 6, the Producer learns to trust his idol's abilities.
And the Adventure Continues: The characters keep stressing that even though 765 Pro is a huge success, this is only the beginning for them. Plus, they're financially back at square zero after getting scammed by Kuroi.
Animation Bump - The majority of the dance numbers flow quite nicely. Especially in Episode 13.
An Odd Place To Sleep - Miki can sleep most anywhere, this includes the trunk of a van, two or three foldable chairs, and even while Haruka is piggybacking her in the Live For You OVA.
Aren't You Forgetting Someone? - The Producer repeated this word-by-word when the girls forgot him buried in a sand castle.
Big Damn Heroes - On the "Live For You OVA". Iori sends a helicopter to pick the girls that are stranded somewhere in the middle of Japan, so they can make it in time for their live.
Bland Name Product - Miki's headphones are a Somy, Chihaya lives near a Burger Queen, the camera Yoshizawa uses is a Qanon, the bilboard announces a Tricster, there's a PSB in the office in episode 17, etc.
Blank White Eyes - Haruka gets this when the Futami twins are trying to discover who stole the pudding.
Breaking the Fourth Wall - Subverted/Played with in a In-Universe example, during episode 15, with Haruka mention of the script (lampshaded by Miki) and Ami and Mami commenting about the report during the Ramen segment with Takane.
Clingy Jealous Girl - Miki's reaction on the final episode when the Producer reveal a wallet he received as a get-well present from Haruka. It was actually to be a christmas gift.
Dancing Theme - Both openings. At least the first ending (The World Is All One) counts as well.
Darker and Edgier: While the first half of the series was very lighthearted, the second half progressively began to take on darker tones, culminating in 765 Pro's rivalry with 961, Chihaya's dead little brother plot, and the Producer getting into a life threatening accident and Haruka's subsequent breakdown.
Date Crepe - The Producer with Makoto on their date to the amusement park.
Dragged By The Collar - Well, by the arm, but otherwise fits during Makoto and the Producer's date.
Eating the Eye Candy - The audience in episode 15, particularly towards Azusa's outfit.
Ending Theme - Subverted. Each episode has a different song sung by the idols.
Epic Fail - Episode 15, Makoto tried to wear a cute Magical Girl-style dress and 'cutefy' herself (call herself 'Mako-rin' and make up cute sounds). The audience is not amused. (At least until Yukiho fixes her to a more boyish outfit and the audience instead Squees like crazy)
Even the Girls Want Her: Makoto is not only popular with teenage girls but housewives as well!
The Everyman - The Producer so very much. Even his description is nondescript.
Everything's Worse with Bears - Subverted and lampshaded by the girls in episode 15, when Hibiki is shown being in front of a "Beware of the Bears" sign.
Evidence Scavenger Hunt: It's played with when the Futami twins are trying to discover who stole Iori's pudding from the fridge. Complete with summation in the end.
Another one from the same episode, earlier they are shooting a drama episode where this happens to the three sisters that are the played by the three girls from the Ryuugu Komachi.
Evolving Credits: The ending credits always change depending on which idol was the focus of the episode.
Executive Meddling: An in-universe example occurs when the variety show "Are We Live?", which stars a number of the idols as hosts, is canceled despite good ratings. The main reason for the cancellation is to free up the Sunday timeslots for other shows.
Festival Episode - The girls make their first stage as a group on Ep 3 during an Festival. Episode 19 shows the girls visiting one, and Chihaya's remembers her dead brother when they where both on a Festival.
Freeze Frame Bonus: - In episode 11, Haruka and Chihaya have a sleepover in an apartment building named "Mber". Haruka, Chihaya, and Imber were in a robomantic love triangle in Idolmaster Xenoglossia.
Friend or Idol Decision - Played literally with Miki in episode 24 when she has a chance to become the solo MC of the show to be aired in the timeslot that would succeed the "Are We Live?" show.
Girls are Really Scared of Horror Movies - Yukiho naturally, and, unusually, Makoto, gets freaked out by Iori's scary stories and the haunted house at an amusement park.
The Glomp - Episode 10. Makoto receives one, initially by Yayoi, Ami and Mami.
Go Out with a Smile - Parodied in episode 9 by Ami when she has to leave for an interview and left Mami to investigate the disappearance of Iori's pudding.
Gonk - Played for laughs on episode 2 with Iori, Ami, Mami and Yayoi trying to look more... erm... "adult".
Gullible Lemmings: Touma believes in Kuroi's lies that 765Pro are cheats and cowards but is unaware that Kuroi regularly uses these tactics.
Later, they started to get aware and Touma was clearly pissed, but Kuroi still shut him down until he called it quits.
Hands On Approach - Ritsuko showing the RGKM what they were doing wrong on the dance routine they were rehearsing. (Ends up backfiring on her later).
Head Pet - Hamuzou enjoys being on Hibiki's shoulder or head.
Heroic BSOD - Chihaya goes through one in Episode 20. It's so severe, she loses her voice.
Heroic Sacrifice - The Producer in two instances. Saving Haruka from falling in the stage pit on episode 23.
Tough not as much as in Haruka's case, he takes a punch from a thug who was aiming for Makoto on episode 17.
He's Back - Chihaya tries to invoke this on her own, but [[Tearjerker fails miserably... until the rest of 765PRO come onstage and sing with her, giving her the final push for her comeback.
And a more concrete example comes in the next episode when she's starts singing in "a capella" while the audience looks in disbelief.
Hidden Depths: Episode 21 shows that Kotori isn't just a simple Sexy Secretary. She has the skills and the voice talent to rival any of the current idols. She was in fact an idol herself in her younger days, under the tutelage of Takagi and Kuroi before the falling-out of the two executives.
Hidden Eyes - Chihaya gets this during the bath scene in episode 5. Kuroi's face is normally hidden, but the only time we see his face he's actually like this too in episode 25.
Hypocritical Humor - Ritsuko tells the girls to overcome the heat with their minds... while she's with both her feet in a bucket of iced water. Also a shoutout to a near-identical scene in You're Under Arrest.
Hoist by His Own Petard - PresidentKuroi convinces the audio technician from the Idol Jam to conveniently forget where he put the CD with the 765PRO idols songs. This comes to bites him in the rear, when Chihaya starts to sing Nemuri Hime in a cappella, making the tech (and the crowd) be so moved by the scene that he restarts the audio in the next chorus, effectively creating a greater effect on the public than it would be if she had just started singing normally.
Also, this little stunt was the last drop for his own group of Idols who didn't want to keep up with his crap anymore and quit his company before the song Chihaya was singing even ended.
Idol Singer - Quite obviously a whole bunch of them, not only the girls on the 765PRO.
Indecisive Medium - Part of the Red Herring on the first episode, with the Producer's lines not spoken but subtitled, as in the game.
Limited Social Circle - The girls aren't shown to have many friends outside their 765PRO ones. The only one with a named friend is Azusa, and even then, Tomomi is never shown (or voiced for that matter). To be fair, at least Haruka was shown in episode 11 eating lunch with her classmates in the ending sequence, but they never appear in the main show.
Luminescent Blush - Played for laughs. Chihaya blushes when Miki enters the bath with her and Haruka on the Live For You OVA, though it isn't as much an embarassed blush and more aenviousone.
Magic Skirt - Despite all the dance routines, there's not a single Panty Shot during the whole show. Maybe justified since the stage outfits are, well stage outfits and therefore made to be this way. The only time this is almost averted is with Azusa in episode 15 when she's wearing the same clothes as the workers from the daycare center they're filming at.
Male Gaze: The cameraman on Ribbit Ribbit Kitchen certainly knows where he's aiming.
Megaton Punch - The Futami twins apply one of these on the Producer on ep 6, lampshaded even.
Meet Cute - 14 of them in the first episode, each with their own little quirk.
Mockumentary - The premise of episode 1 and the Producer's introduction.
Mood Whiplash - Episode 19 ends with quite a predicament for Chihaya, but the ending theme sung by Takane is strangely cheerfull. Only justified in that this episode, the character focus was Takane but even then...
Named By The Adaptation - Chihaya's younger brother, previously unnamed in the games, is now given the name "Yuu".
Never Live It Down - In-Universe, Makoto's will NEVER get out of her fame as The Prince. When she tried 'cutefying' herself, she ends up making an Epic Fail instead.
Once per Episode: The frontal shot of the 765 Pro office building.
Except for the 13th episode, when they're doing their first large-scale concert and were nowhere near their office.
One-Girl Army - Makoto beat the relay race pratically by herself, since that (no thanks to Yayoi) Iori passed the batton to her in second-to-last place. And with an injured knee.
One Steve Limit - Played almost too close for comfort with Ami and Mami, and lampshaded in the introduction of the movie Majin Gattai Kisaragi. Ami plus Mami equals Amami. (Granted their written names are sufficiently different).
Pinky Swear - The Producer to Yukiho (ep 3) and Miki (ep 12).
Plot Tumor: Chihaya's issues concerning her dead little brother keep popping up in various episodes, even when the focus isn't on her, and are constantly foreshadowed throughout the series, before it eventually blows open in episode 20 when the series does focus on her.
Poor Communication Kills - The Producer to Miki on episode 6, setting the chain of events that almost made her quit for good on episode 12.
The Producer Is Useless - Mostly through the second quarter of the anime and in the Live For You OVA. When Azusa disappears, he started running around without doing much of anything while Makoto is beating up thughs. When Chousuke (Yayoi's brother) run away from home, again he just runs around without stopping to think about it.
Put on a Bus - The Producer on the Live For You OVA
Red Herring - The Producer's lines in the first episode aren't voiced, leading to believe that the adaptation of the game would be a literal adaptation.
Refusal of The Call - Ritsuko really doesn't want to be a pinchhitter for Azusa when she gets the mumps. The thing is, she doesn't have a choice.
Ship Tease - A good portion of the second half of the anime has this with several of the girls, particularly when the girl is the focus ofthe episode.
Shout Out: There's probably some staff from Sora No Woto working on the series, given Sister Yumina's appearance as a minor background character (the photographer's assistant) in Episode two. Wait, why does Chihaya in the anime look like Rio??
In episode 6, Miki is wearing a Mr. Driller T-shirt in one scene.
The Oil Baron's henchmen who fought in the epic kung-fu fight with Makoto atop the ladder in episode 8 looks very much like one of the Bakusa brothers from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Hint: both shows share the same character designer!
In episode 10, a possible reference to Perfume is made with the "three member technopop unit Barium." One of the members is even named Necchi.
There is a Taiko no Tatsujin arcade booth in episode 12, and also a logo of Mr. Driller is been seen.
Episode 24 showed a preschooler had an uncanny resemblance to Kanata. Likely intentional since the character designer for Sora No Woto was involved in the production of the episode.
The twins complain that they were so hot they melt to the slime monster Hedoran. Most likely a nickname to the actual Kaiju.
Blink and you miss it, but in episode 2, one of the old promo photos of the idols has Azusa dress up in MarilynMonroe's famous white dress, complete with the up-skirt wind blow.
Staring Kid - Episode 5, the kids are amazed by Yukiho digging a hole on the sand... for the sake of dig a hole in the sand.
Stealth Pun: In episode 5, there's a scene where Azusa and The Producer are drinking, while Ritsuko is there too but doesn't drink. As The Producer and Ritsuko converse, one can hear the tipsy Azusa going "Neko neko nyan nyan~ Neko nyan nyan~" in the background. Doesn't that make her Azunyan?
Stock Footage - The final episode has this in spades.
Stock Footage Failure - How can Azusa and Takane be dancing on the floor in front of the stairs and in the next take they're still descending said stairs?
10-Minute Retirement: Miki stops showing up when she finds out she's not going to get into Ryuuguu Komachi. The Producer does make sure to get her back, though.
Later, Chihaya stops coming after her tragic past is revealed by Kuroi, causing her to lose her voice. It takes the whole crew at 765 Studios to finally help her out.
Then later still, Haruka taking several days off as a result of her Heroic BSOD after the producer gets injured saving her life. Like Chihaya, the rest of 765 Studios help her out, however she also gets "help" from her subconsious self.
Theme Music Power-Up - The relay race in episode 10 with L.O.B.M. playing. A few of the events of the race played exactly timed with the changes in the song rhythm to added effect, such as Hibiki's initial burst, Iori encouraging Yayoi to keep running, Makoto's overtakes and Yayoi cheering/begging Makoto to win. Interesting enough is that L.O.B.M. means Love OrganizedBoostMusic.
There Are No Therapists: Let alone a family one which Chihaya and her parents really needed after Chihaya's brother's death. And it probably saved her parents divorce and her break down when its made public.
True Companions: Notably everyone in 765 Studios. This especially becomes a major plot point by episodes 23 and 24, but it shows throughout the whole series, like during Chihaya's crisis.
Wham Episode: Episode 19; marks the point at which the show stops subtly flirting with drama and decides to go for the kill.The preview for episode 20 makes it very clear that the tone of the story has changed completely.
Episode 23 shows the Producer getting in an accident trying to save Haruka. To make matters worst, there is no character ending theme. Nothing. Just a sad piano playing during the credits. There's even a shot of Miki, Kotori, Ritsuko, and the president at the hospital. This entire sequence makes it the darkest moment in the entire show. The preview to the next episode is even more unsettling.
Fortunately, despite Haruka falling into a Heroic BSOD in episode 24, the whole situation eventually gets resolved within the episode in a two-pronged way: the power of True Companions when the rest of the 765 girls realize what Haruka was feeling, and Haruka's subconsious younger self getting her back on her feet.
Wing Ding Eyes - Ritsuko and Kotori thinking about the next auditions after the girls retook their promo pictures.
Woman in White - Yukiho during the photoshoot on episode 2. Justified since it's her theme color.
Workaholic - The Producer doesn't seem to have a personal life... or any at all outside his job.
You Are Not Alone - Haruka's pledge to Chihaya on episode 20 when she's remembering her Darkest Hour and all the other girls calling for Haruka on episode 24 during their commercial for their next live.
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