Trivia / The iDOLM@STER

• Actor Allusion:
  • Azusa has one in the anime, though not to her seiyuu's previous roles but her previous job as a gravure idol. Azusa was asked to do a gravure idol audition and was asked to pose. Cue Male Gaze. On boobs.
  • In the anime, Haruka smacked herself in the face with a box lid on national TV. Her seiyuu had done the exact same thing on an online web show several years ago.
  • Iori will sometimes cry out "Urusai urusai urusai!" ^translation"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" That's Shana from Shakugan no Shana's catchphrase, which is commonly quoted by other characters of the same general archetype. Especially if they share the same voice actor - which in this case they do.
  • During Live!? On Sunday, Asami Imai's Yayoi-fangirl tendencies somehow got projected onto Chihaya for a few brief moments. She's obviously suppressing the urge to Squee at Yayoi's weather report.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Both Miki and Takane's Trademark Favorite Foods are the same as their voice actors' favorite foods.
• Bad Export for You: The American iOS release of the Shiny Festa games. The initial release price for each version was $55, totaling to $165 when bought together; even compared to other full paid games for iOS at the time, the price was determined to be steep. The games themselves were badly localized, featuring song names that were left untranslated unless they were already Romanized, jokes that were translated literally into English, dialogue text that goes beyond the confines of the dialogue box, and several obvious typos such as "Hoobies" instead of "Hobbies". As of March 2016, the games are no longer available on the iOS App Store. By contrast, the 2017 localization of Cinderella Girls Viewing Revolution was exported faithfully.
• Bonus Episode: The Live For You and Shiny Fiesta OVAs came bundled with their respective games.
• Blooper: In the Live For You! OVA, near the beginning when all the idols walk away, there are two Mamis instead of an Ami and a Mami.
• Crossdressing Voices: Ryo Akizuki being a case of Recursive Crossdressing Voices. Averted everywhere else in SideM though, even Mofumofuen and Saki.
• The Danza: Reporter Yoshizawa has Mitsuaki◊ as his first name, given a flash-by appearance of his name on a business card in the SideM anime.^note He's voiced by Mitsuaki Hoshino.
• Defictionalization:
  • Or at least something between this and Fake–Real Turn, regarding the live concerts. Though seiyuu idols, in the form of voice actors doubling as singers, have pretty much been around as long as the anime industry itself, only recently has the idolization of the industry ramped up. When iM@S began, its earliest concert was a small concert done to promote the game. Yumi Hara had mentioned in an interview that even when she started out as a seiyuu (in 2008), seiyuu idols were still a rarity. Since then, iM@S has continually focused its efforts on giving better live performances each year. Especially with Cinderella Girls, Million Live, and SideM coming on board, the line continues to blur between idols and seiyuu. From a live performance that numbered in a few dozen, to a concert of 30,000 fans, not bad for an arcade game.
  • Mujin Gattai Kisaragi from the 2011 anime received a voice novel for Bandai Namco's VoiNov mobile app, which was later converted into a print novel, and is featured in an event in Super Robot Wars X-Ω. It also eventually got a single-volume manga.
• Dueling Shows: The anime aired in the same season with the first couple seasons of Uta No Prince-sama. Moreover:
  • The protagonist of UtaPri is named Haruka Nanami. The girl considered as the main character of iM@S is named Haruka Amami.
  • Both shows feature twins, although Shou's twin brother Kaoru does not appear in the anime.
  • Tokiya and Chihaya are quite alike in demeanor and looks.
  • Both shows are centered on music and showbiz, with iM@S on the more realistic side of the scale compared to the loftier fantastical UtaPri side of the scale.
• Dueling Games: Played straight, it would be Dream C Club. However within the franchise itself Cinderella Girls and Million Live are fueling a small rivalry. Some gamers are greater fans of one over the other, and upset Bandai Namco Entertainment divides attention between the two properties for equal exposure... it is claimed both lack a dedicated anime or console game because of this. Those who enjoy the original 765 Pro characters and care nothing for the spinoffs, make the same claim for CG and ML taking away attention from the original series. On the brightside all three properties are massive successes and the Bandai Namco Entertainment attention division only delays things.Cinderella Girls has its own anime, and several Million Live idols are in the iM@S movie as guest characters.
• Fan Translation:
  • As of November 2012, The Idolm@ster SP Perfect Sun is fully playable in English, and as of February 2024, after being stuck in limbo for years and changing translation teams, so is Wandering Star. Chihaya's route from Missing Moon is also released.
  • As of October 29, 2023, The Idolm@ster: One for All's main story and the DLC routes are fully playable in English. IM@S OFA Translation Project is currently working on the mail lines.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The DLC for SP has long been taken off the Playstation store, and unlike the other games no one has bothered uploading all of it to the internet so it can't even be obtained illegally.
• Killer App: The first game and Live for You!, for the Xbox 360 in Japan at least.
• No Export for You: While the console games at least require the Japan region consoles, THE iDOLM@STER Mobile i takes it to the next level. Unless you have your iPhone "modified", you have to live in Japan in order to play it.
  • Finally averted with the Puchim@s anime and the Shiny Festa games. The former was simulcast by Funimation and the latter received translated ports on the iOS App Store.
  • However, the Shiny Festa games are no longer on the iOS App Store and can no longer be played on updated iOS devices even if they were brought in the past.
  • While Starlit Season marks the series' debut on PC via Steam, it unfortunately cannot be purchased outside of Asia.
• Signature Style: It only really became obvious after Kill la Kill aired, but Episode 17 was done by Trigger, and their style shines through at a couple of key moments. See for yourself.◊
• The Other Darrin:
  • From iM@S2 onward, Yukiho's original seiyuu, Yurika Ochiai, was replaced by Azumi Asakura.
  • The Producer gets a few. For the Drama CDs, Yuuki Tai (Cobray Gordon); for the anime, Kenji Akabane (the new Kouji Kabuto and Xiahou Ba); for Puchim@s, Junji Majima.
• Portmanteau Series Nickname: iM@S.
• Promoted Fanboy: Prior to being cast as Shika, Rie Takahashi was a self-confessed fan of the series and even shipped some of the characters in a post on her blog. This photo of her posing with Kenji Akabane makes said blog post Hilarious in Hindsight as she shipped her Producer persona with the anime's Producer, whom Akabane voices.
• Troubled Production: Starlit Season was conceived in May-June 2017 and began development towards the end of the year. Originally slated for a late 2020 release date, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic shortly after it was revealed in January 2020, first to May 2021, and ultimately to October 2021.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Hibiki and Takane were among the idols originally designed for the "Idol Game" prototype, but were cut during the development of the arcade game. At that time Hibiki originated from Osaka instead of Okinawa, while Takane was blonde and part-European.
  • According to an Otomedia interview about the groups of SideM, Jupiter at one point was supposed to be a Five-Man Band. Very little has been elaborated on that point.
  • An early build of 2 leaked in 2020 revealed several cut contents
    • Julia, Momoko Suou and Reika Kitakami were going to be included into the main cast and act as the Replacement Goldfishes for Ritsuko, Iori and Azusa due to real-life circumstances. All three got recorded versions of the main theme song The world is all one!!. The former two even got finished character models, bedrooms, and several recorded commus, whilst the latter never went beyond a PS3 save icon graphic.
    • Reika was originally from Hong Kong. Little Match Girl was originally intended to be her Image Song before being repurposed as a preorder bonus for the Xbox 360 release, and later a standard song in the PS3 release.
    • Momoko was originally 12 years old, 142 cm tall, and given the first name "Rinko" (Japanese: 凛子 Rinko). Visionary was originally intended to be her Image Song before being repurposed for Shiny Festa Funky Note.
    • Julia was originally supposed to be 15 years old and 155 cm tall. Vault That Borderline! was originally intended to be her Image Song before being repurposed for Shiny Festa Honey Sound.
    • The song We Have A Dream was originally intended to make its debut in this game before being repurposed for LIVE in SLOT!

---