Video Game / IDOLiSH7

IDOLiSH7 is a combination Rhythm Game and Visual Novel mobile app released by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game launched on August 20, 2015, and has surpassed 3 million downloads. It has since spread into other media, including multiple manga adaptations and a novelization. The character designs were provided by Arina Tanemura.

The story starts with Part 1, which follows the seven rookie idols of IDOLiSH7 and their manager (the player character) as they gain experience in the entertainment world and grow from the many challenges they face. Part 1 also introduces TRIGGER, their darker and sexier rivals, who are not without their own challenges. In 2016 the game updated with Part 2 of the story, which introduced the senpai idol group Re:vale and dug a little deeper into the mystery of legendary idol Zero. Further updates followed, with Part 3 over 2017-2018, Part 4 in 2019, Part 5 over 2021-2022 and Part 6 towards the end of 2022.

An anime adaptation by TROYCA premiered in the Winter 2018 anime season, with the 17-episode first season adapting Part 1 of the story. Part 2 was adapted into the 15-episode second season IDOLiSH7: Second Beat!, premiering in April 2020 but soon going on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually resuming broadcast from October to December. The third season IDOLiSH7: Third Beat! adapted Part 3 into 30 episodes altogether, the first 13 episodes airing from July to September 2021 and the remaining episodes airing from October 2022 to February 2023.

Meanwhile, a series of eight short episodes titled IDOLiSH7: Vibrato was released as a YouTube Original, depicting side stories set during the first season. The first short, which featured flashbacks to TRIGGER's formation, was released in February 2018. The remaining seven shorts were released from January to March 2019.

A game for the Play Station Vita, IDOLiSH7 Twelve Fantasia!, was released in 2018. Its story takes place between Parts 2 and 3.

An animated concert film, Gekijōban IDOLiSH 7 LIVE 4bit BEYOND THE PERiOD, premiered on May 20, 2023.

The game (and the project in general) has gained much popularity and praise due to its fun songs, simple mechanics, complex characters, and engaging story. In particular, many have praised the game for showing the difficulties and darker side to the idol industry, while still having many fun and lighthearted moments interspersed with that.

NOTE: As the game is currently only available in East Asian regions, please be careful with spoilers.

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This game provides examples of:

• Achievement System: The player is given several rewards upon achieving certain goals such as meeting a combo requirement, getting a certain rank, or playing a song a certain number of times. There are also the bonus-giving badges which are also awarded to players upon reaching specific milestones.
• Adaptation Distillation: The anime had to cut a number of finer details to make the story work within 17 episodes, but everything important is still present.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Paradoxically, the anime also incorporated a number of events both large and small from extra material (chiefly side stories).
• Affectionate Nickname: Tamaki and Yamato, to a lesser extent, are fond of giving nicknames to everyone. The specific nicknames can be seen on the character page.
• Allegedly Free Game: Yeah, you can play for free, but good luck getting a decent rank (or getting all the Rabbit Chats).
• All There in the Manual: A frankly ridiculous amount of character exposition and even foreshadowing can be found in the manga, novel, and Rabbit Chats.
• Animal Motifs: Rabbits. There’s Kinako, the mascot of Takanashi Productions; the player character, who is stated to be designed with a rabbit in mind; the Rabbit Chats; and the Rabbit Hoodie card set.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The rhythm game portion has slowly been adding in new skills and abilities to make higher difficulties easier to play, especially for newer or lower-leveled players.
  • Exiting out of a live does not deplete your LP (regular lives) or tokens (event lives). Thus, the only thing you waste by retrying a live is your time.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: In Part 2, Ten reveals that he thinks of Gaku and Ryuunosuke as his friends now.
• The Beautiful Elite: Gaku, Nagi, and Sougo are examples of this.
• Berserk Button: A couple of characters seem to have one.
  • Ryuunosuke's seems to involve disrespecting family. He cursed out Sousuke (his boss!) in Okinawan when he threatened to disown Gaku.
  • Tamaki will blow a fuse if anything gets between him and King Pudding.
• Big Brother Worship: Both Iori and Riku adore their elder brothers Mitsuki and Ten to the point that they accuse each other of being a "brocon".
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: A remarkable number of characters are part of one.
• Blatant Lies: Yuki tries to pass the finger marks left by Yamato on his neck as his neck feeling 'constricted', but it's obvious the staff doesn't believe him.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: The player can use gold, one of the in-game currencies, to purchase Live Assists which can raise a player’s score, change note types and enable a “Perfect Mode” where all notes are counted as a perfect hit.
  • Stella stones are the in-game currency, akin to Loveca Stones in Love Live! School idol festival. They help you refill your LP, increase your member capacity, and most importantly, let you use the Rare Audition boxes. Stella stones are given out through daily login, completing live challenges, 5-day birthday bonuses, events and more. You can also use real money to buy stones.
• Broken Base: Happens In-Universe in Part 2, Chapter 6. With Iori as center starting to set in, fans of Riku started to argue with the Iori fans, causing tension in the fanbase.
• Call-Back: In part 3, Sousuke curses out Tsukumo in Okinawan, using the same words Ryuu yelled at him ONCE in Part 1.
• Call-Forward: The side stories, which only start unlocking after completing all of Part 1 and chronicle extra events from the beginning of the story, have many of these to future events.
• Camping Episode
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys
• Character Blog: A rare example of an official Twitter taking on this role. The official IDOLiSH7 Twitter is run by Banri, a member of Takanashi Productions.
• Chekhov's Gun: During an early chapter of Part 3, Ryu asks Nagi if he wants to try to learn Uchinaguchi which is the local language/dialect of Okinawa. It's initially played as a joke with Nagi struggling to speak it but during the kidnapping situation it turns out Nagi actually did learn it and uses it as a code to communicate with Ryu to take out the kidnappers.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The most extreme example is Banri, who is one of the first people you meet but turns out to be the long-lost partner Yuki is searching for.
  • Near the beginning of Part 2, Tsumugi and Nagi meet a kind older gentleman who gives Tsumugi advice. Turns out he's not only Kujou, who had been mentioned multiple times in Part 1, but also one of Zero's former partners
• Cock Fight: In the past, Otoharu and Sousuke fought over winning Musubi's affection. Ultimately, Musubi chose Otoharu and had a daughter with him (Tsumugi), and Sousuke is still bitter about it.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Nagi and Riku to a degree, though for slightly different reasons. Momo seems to be one as well, but it's also apparent he's playing it up for his Boke and Tsukkomi Routine with Yuki.
• Color-Coded Characters: IDOLiSH7 in particular uses a Rainbow Motif, though almost all the prominent characters have a color associated with them.
  • IDOLiSH7:
    • Iori, black and indigo
    • Yamato, green
    • Mitsuki, orange
    • Tamaki, cyan
    • Sougo, purple
    • Nagi, yellow
    • Riku, red
  • TRIGGER:
    • Gaku, gray
    • Ten, pink
    • Ryuunosuke, blue
  • Re:vale:
    • Momo, hot pink
    • Yuki, lime green
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In addition to the characters, the gameplay also uses color coding. Cards are split into three attributes: Shout (red), Melody (blue), and Beat (green). Each song uses all three of these attributes in different proportions.
• Com Mons: There are a lot of cards that players end up seeing a lot, namely the Summer Memories set and the cadets.
• Comically Missing the Point: When the members of IDOLiSH7 go to a festival together in the manga, Yamato starts lamenting the food doesn't taste good in an all-guy group... to which Tamaki replies that he should ask for some salt.
• Coming of Age Story: For many of the characters in IDOLiSH7, it is their first time living away from home, but for the sake of their dreams, they're willing to go the distance.
• Continuity Nod: The anime has a number of nods both minor and major to rabbit chats, as well as some blink-and-you'll-miss-it nods to the accompanying manga and to promotional material like magazine interviews.
• Contrived Coincidence: The number of people that are directly connected to or only one degree separated from Kujou just keeps increasing.
• Cover Version: Re:vale decide to cover one of Zero's songs for their fifth anniversary.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Most of the characters are this in addition to being Color-Coded Characters.
  • Iori (black or indigo)
  • Yamato (green)
  • Mitsuki (orange)
  • Tamaki (cyan)
  • Riku (red)
  • Gaku (gray)
  • Tenn (pink)
• Darker and Edgier: In comparison to most idol games, IDOLISH7 isn't afraid of showing the darker aspects of the industry as well as showing how difficult it is to debut in an oversaturated industry. On top of that, its cast is a massive Dysfunction Junction, with many of them having dark backstories and closely-guarded secrets that slowly get revealed throughout the course of the story. The game still has plenty of lighthearted and moments however.
• Dark Secret: Many characters hold them, though Yamato may take the cake for just how closely he's guarded it so far.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After IDOLiSH7 win against TRIGGER in Black or White, they become akin to a Friendly Rival.
• Determinator: Otoharu discusses the trope in the anime, and decides that simply being that isn't enough to reach the top. After all, if it was, "everyone would be stars by now".
• Denser and Wackier: The story is mostly pretty grounded, but there are plenty of moments in the plot that come up out of nowhere, such as the bomb threat in Part 1, TRIGGER being kidnapped in Part 3, and the plot line with Haruki being imprisoned in Northmare by Nagi's older brother.
• Did I Mention It's Christmas?: IDOLiSH7's opening act at Douglass's concert wouldn't have even registered as Christmas if it hadn't been mentioned.
• Don't Split Us Up: Aya and Tamaki and Riku and Tenn both face this instance once in their lifetimes (twice for Tamaki when Kujou-san cuts his reunion short with Aya).
• Dramatic Ellipsis: Par for the course with a visual novel.
• Dysfunction Junction: It would be easier to count the people who do not have a tragic past.
  • Gaku's parents are divorced.
  • The members of IDOLiSH7 are Nagi's first friends, and he and his older brother do not get along.
  • Iori and Mitsuki had a fight before joining IDOLiSH7 in which Mitsuki yelled at Iori to find his own dream and stop interfering with his.
  • Riku and Ten were separated by Kujou in middle school. The Nanase's were also racked with severe debt because of their family's failing business and Riku's frequent and vital hospital visits.
  • Ryuunosuke's father isn't his biological father. His biological father is a humble fisherman who went into debt after his boat broke while his stepfather is known as the "Hotel King".
  • Sougo's uncle's death further reinforced his family's hate for music and was subsequently disowned by his family after he chose to pursue music.
  • Tsumugi's mother died when she was young.
  • Yamato seeks revenge on somebody in show business, namely the people who visited the Chiba Salon and his father, Chiba Shizuo, who he has a rather strained relationship with due to Yamato being his bastard son.
  • Tamaki and Aya's mom collapsed and then passed away, their alcoholic father all but abandoned them, they were left to grow up in child home until Aya was adopted, but then a few years into that Tamaki lost all contact with Aya because her adoptive family went into bankruptcy and they ran, so now he's trying to find her.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: All the characters, especially the members of IDOLiSH7, really go through a lot in order to achieve their dreams.
• Economy Cast: Sometimes it feels like IDOLISH7, TRIGGER, and Re:vale are the only idols around. Not to mention, Mister Shimooka sure does host a lot of programs.
• Everyone Can See It: Tenn and Yamato never miss the chance to tease Gaku about his feelings for Tsumugi.
• Everyone Is Related: What the character background of I7 Police turned into once Nagi realized he was the only one without a secret sibling.
• Evolving Credits: The anime's opening, "Wish Voyage", has the sequence end with IDOLiSH7 high-fiving each other. In episode 15, however, it ends with no one high-fiving and Riku looking crestfallen, foreshadowing how the group is on the verge of breaking apart in that episode.
• Evolving Title Screen: Clearing specific parts of the story unlocks new title screens.
• Fairytale Motifs: The Marchen Dream card set.
• Famed In-Story: IDOLiSH7 are remembered in Part 2 for beating TRIGGER in Black or White.
• Fan Boy: Mitsuki, Banri, and Momo are self-proclaimed idol fans; Sougo is a general music fan, with a focus on bands; and Nagi will practically preach at you about Kokona.
  • Fangirl: Tsumugi was also a fan of idols before she became a manager.
• Fictional Country: Nagi's home country of Northmare, which is said to be somewhere in Northern Europe.
• First-Person Perspective: Most of the story is told from Tsumugi's point of view, though it switches to third-person when she isn't present.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Riku being sick and being Tenn's younger twin brother.
• Flawless Victory: Perfect Combo, achieved by clearing a song with no good, bad or miss hits.
• Foil: Takanashi Otoharu and Yaotome Sousuke are this to each other. Both of them are presidents of their own companies and parent to one of the main characters (Tsumugi and Gaku respectively). But that's where the similarities end. Otoharu is a honest man and serves as a parental figure to IDOLiSH7, Sousuke is a Corrupt Corporate Executive and have a completely professional relationship with TRIGGER. Otoharu and Tsumugi are very close, while Sousuke and Gaku's relationship is strained, to put it lightly. Their reaction to Musubi's death also differ. Otoharu moves on and instead, felt grateful to meet her and for giving birth to Tsumugi, whom he regards as the greatest gift she could give to him. Sousuke, meanwhile, grows to have an Irrational Hatred at Otoharu as a result.
• For Want Of A Nail: This story would be very different (nonexistent, even!) had Zero not disappeared 15 years ago.
• Foreshadowing: The main scenario is full of it.
  • Yamato's disdain for acting, his less-than-enthused reaction to Nagi bringing up actor Chiba Shizuo, and Nagi recognizing something about Yamato's expressions in his first drama eventually lead up to the reveal that Chiba Shizuo is Yamato's father.
  • Tamaki's fervent desire to be on TV and be noticed foreshadow his younger sister Aya, and his attempt to search for her.
  • Nagi's sheer anger at Natsu's theft makes much more sense when you know he was the one that sent the music to Takanashi Productions. There are also many hints dropped in multiple media that he's actually royalty, but that foreshadowing hasn't quite paid off yet. At least, until Part 4 that is.
  • Banri mentioning near the end of Part 1 that he was previously involved in music connects to the Part 2 reveal that he was previously a member of Re:vale.
• Friendly Enemy: What IDOLiSH7 and TRIGGER eventually develop into.
• Full-Name Basis: Tenn tends to refer to everyone in IDOLiSH7 except Riku by their full name, always.
• Funny Background Event: A few of the card sets, notably New Years, have other characters in the backgrounds roughly acting out their own card.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • Natsu☆Shiyou ze is stolen by Akihito to be a song for TRIGGER when it's originally IDOLiSH7's debut song in Part 1 of the main story. The game has the song categorized as a TRIGGER song when unlocked. You are only able to unlock IDOLiSH7's version of Natsu☆Shiyou ze after clearing part 2, where you can gain access to the Natsu☆Shiyou ze special episode in which IDOLiSH7 are able to sing their own version of Natsu☆Shiyou ze on their own, and in the finale of the special episode, together with TRIGGER.
  • In Part 3, Ryuu is forced to sing 'Negai wa Shine On The Sea' by himself because he's the only one of the trio that arrived to the venue while Gaku and Tenn are still being rescued due to Tsukumo's kidnapping plot to stop TRIGGER's concert. As a result, you unlock Ryuu's solo version of the song before you can get access to TRIGGER's version (with Tenn and Gaku's vocals). Notably, when the movie is enabled during the live of Ryuu's version, a careful eye will see Tenn and Gaku's symbols shattering in the background, symbolizing that in this version of the song, Ryuu is truly by himself.
  • During Part 4 Sougo decides to take up composing and write a song for Mezzo. Since Sougo is a known rock fan, the resulting song leans a lot more on the rock genre with the lyrics expressing his feelings on music and his family. The song is playable as "Monologue Note" and only includes Sougo's vocals with the MV only using various images of Mezzo" with Tamaki cut out. The finished version is only later added as Forever Note, with the lyrics and instrumentals changed and softened to better fit Mezzo"s image.
• Gameplay Grading: The rhythm game is scored from C (lowest) to SS (highest).
• Graceful Loser: TRIGGER take their loss at Black Or White Music Fantasia surprisingly well.
• Harder Than Hard: Some of the 8* event maps can be this, requiring some dexterous fingers score high. In the rare chance an event has them, 9*/10* maps can be maddening to clear.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Iori and Riku seemed to have developed into this. Momo and Yuki are basically introduced like this.
• Hidden Depths: Most of the cast to some degree.
• Idol Singer: IDOLiSH7, Re:vale, TRIGGER, and Zero.
• Incredibly Long Note: Ten's final line in the chorus for Last Dimension lasts for 10 seconds.
  Tenn: ♪ SAA DOCCHI DAAAAAAAAAA-A-A-A-A ♪
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Sougo finds out Douglass invited them to be his opening act, he insists on holding a lecture on how great they are. This leads to everyone coming up with excuses to leave one by one, each flimsier than the last, until only Riku is left to suffer through the lecture alone.
• Intercourse with You: SECRET NIGHT. Even the title sounds sexual.
• It Runs in the Family: Sougo was able to tell that Tamaki and Aya were related because of their similarly extreme behavior.
• I Will Find You: Tamaki's reasoning for wanting to appear on TV as soon as possible is so he can be reunited with his younger sister, Aya, whom he was separated from.
  • Though not quite missing, Riku also becomes an idol to get closer to Ten and find out why he left.
  • Yuki is also trying to find his old partner, Banri before Re:vale reaches their fifth anniversary.
• Last-Name Basis: Iori refers to just about everyone (bar Tsumugi, sometimes) as their last name with an honorific. Gaku refers to everyone in IDOLiSH7 (bar Tsumugi, always) by their last name.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Ten and Riku being twins was spoiled in official material (mostly magazines) only a few months after the game was launched.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In addition to the official Twitter mentioned above, everyone involved with the game is very careful to call new album and magazine covers as if they were new photos instead of new illustrations. The deluxe/limited/standard editions of the first album also mimic real life idol releases, strengthening the perception.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Gaku and Ten's and Iori and Riku's relationships have both been described like this.
• Living a Double Life: It is believed that Gaku in his free time works at his maternal family's soba shop under the name "Yamamura".
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Banri, and then Yuki later on.
• Lucky Seven: There are 7 members of IDOLiSH7.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: What Yuki believes the falling stage light that scarred Banri was.
• Mood Whiplash: Everyone gathering at IDOLiSH7's dorm in Part 2 starts out hilarious, if chaotic, and Mitsuki even hangs a Lampshade on it. When Ten starts trying to tell Riku about why he left the Nanase family, there's a rapid back-and-forth between comedy and tragedy until it all comes crashing down.
• Motifs: In addition to numbers and colors, the members of IDOLiSH7, TRIGGER, and Re:vale all have associated music symbols.
  • IDOLiSH7 uses accidentals and dynamics
    • Iori, double flat
    • Yamato, sharp
    • Mitsuki, flat
    • Tamaki, mezzo piano
    • Sougo, mezzo forte
    • Nagi, natural
    • Riku, double sharp
  • TRIGGER uses clefs
    • Gaku, treble clef
    • Ten, alto clef
    • Ryuunosuke, bass clef
  • Re:vale uses repeat signs
    • Momo, starting repeat
    • Yuki, ending repeat
• Music Is Politics: The story has a lot of focus on the behind-the-scenes and nitty-gritty details of the music and entertainment industry, as well the intricacies and complications of an idol’s job.
• My Hero, Zero: Legendary idol Zero hasn't made an appearance (public or otherwise) in 15 years, yet he and his songs are still beloved by countless people. In Part 2, this becomes a problem for both IDOLiSH7 and Re:vale; the former have been performing songs originally made by Zero's composer, and the latter planned to sing a cover of one of Zero's songs. The backlash started in the form of anonymous graffiti but escalated to threats and even violence.
  • Zero was the person who gave Mitsuki the dream of becoming an idol in the first place. Mitsuki is 21. That would mean that Mitsuki would have been, at most, six years old when Zero made such a strong impression.
• Myth Arc: What happened to Zero seems to be making up one of these.
• Numerical Theme Naming: All of the IDOLiSH7 and TRIGGER members incorporate 1-7 and 8-10 in their names, respectively, while Re:vale uses kanji for 100 and 1000. Legendary idol Zero also follows this trend, as does Banri with the kanji for 10000 in his name.
• Ode to Youth: In Part 2, Iori, Riku, and Ten sing a song called "Fure! Fure! Seishun Sanka" literally translating to "Hooray! Hooray! Youth Hymn".
• Or Was It a Dream?: Yamato thinks he dreamt "The Reason You Suck" Speech Yuki gave him (as well as him choking Yuki and crying in front of him as a result) as part of a nightmare, but Yuki's coughing, as well as the finger-shaped marks on his neck, indicates that it did happen.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: The bomb threat story involving Nagi, Yamato, and Tamaki turned out to be very, very real, shifting the story to a hardcore action/crime thriller at a moment's notice. The others don't really pay any attention to it afterwards.
• Play Every Day: The game gives out a log-in bonus every day, and there are special daily lessons as well.
• Pirate: The Joker Flag card set.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Ten and Riku, to the point that even their hair is flipped.
• Power Trio
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Pythagoras trio.
  • Freudian Trio: TRIGGER
• Pun-Based Title: IDOLiSH7's web program キミと愛ドリッシュナイト, or "kimi to (Ai)DOLiSH night". It uses the initial pronunciation of IDOLiSH7 (ai) and the pronunciation for love (ai)
  • Their later permanent talk/variety show "キミと愛なNight" or "kimi to ai na night" is also a similar, but more complicated, pun. The Japanese abbreviation for IDOLiSH7 is "Ainana", with "ai" being the pronunciation for the English letter "I" and "nana" being how you pronounce 7. However, "ai" is also how you pronounce "love", the first "na" is a modifying particle, and the Japanese pronunciation of "night" is "naito", together making up "ainana".
• Rainbow Speak: Normal text is in black, while thoughts are in blue.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech
  • Calling the Old Man Out: In Part 1, TRIGGER confront Gaku's father, Yaotome Sousuke, about Natsu☆Shiyou ze being stolen and lock him in a room until he promises to stop using dirty tactics.
  • In Part 2, Iori, Riku, Tamaki, and Yuki provide various reasons why Kujou is awful.
  • In Part 3, we have Yuki, early on, confronting Yamato about how harmful his secretive nature is to himself and his bandmates to the point where Yamato breaks down in tears.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Most prominently, Iori and Riku have this type of relationship, but so do Gaku and Ten.
• Remember That You Trust Me: Sougo was used to worrying about things on his own, but after the FSC reveal it generally just takes some occasional prodding from Yamato to remind him that it's okay to rely on others, though he's still learning.
• Rhythm Game
• Rule of Seven: The main idol group has seven members, who also have the kanji for the numbers 1 through 7 incorporated into their names.
• Running Gag: Riku calling Iori a crybaby, Mitsuki calling Yamato "old man", and everyone completely disregarding Nagi's more outlandish claims regarding his background have all become this. Even if that last one might be a case of Cassandra Truth.
• Sadistic Choice: In Part 3, Ryou Tsukumo gives a hard one to Momo. Tsukumo threatens to work Yuki to death once Tsukumo Productions gets ahold of Re:vale in the aftermath of his plot to take down Hoshikage if Momo doesn't bring him proof of the Chiba Salon scandal from Yamato himself (since Yamato is the illegitimate son of Chiba Shizuo), which could potentially ruin IDOLiSH7's career.
• Sequel Hook: All three parts of the story have so far ended this way.
  • Part 1 ends with Ten going off stage to find Kujou back in Japan, and Re:vale being introduced as the overall winners of Black or White.
  • Part 2 ends with Ten and Riku talking after Kujou and Aya have left Japan again, Riku reaffirming that he's here to stay as an idol, and a teaser image featuring TRIGGER.
  • Part 3 ends with Ryo still scheming to take down everyone and not answering for everything he has done, tensions with ZOOL still high, and the possibility of Nagi leaving to deal with things back home.
• Series Mascot: Kinako and King Pudding.
• Shed the Family Name: Kujou Ten originally went by Nanase Ten. Similarly, Kujou Aya originally went by Yotsuba Aya. It's possible Yamato falls under this or Nom de Mom, given Chiba Shizuo is his father.
• Ship Tease: There's quite a bit here and there, but the most stand-out example is probably between Tsumugi and Gaku. Given their jobs working with idols at separate companies, however, whether anything comes of it will be anyone's guess.
• Show Within a Show: "Mahou Shoujo Magical Kokona" is a Type 2, but may now technically be a Type 1 after Mitsuki was cast to play Kokona's new love interest.
  • Re:vale and TRIGGER and eventually IDOLISH7 also have their own Talk/Variety shows, while IDOLiSH7 hosted a web program for a while.
  • Outside of the main scenario, the rabbit chats give us I7 Academy and I7 Police, variety dramas that the cast actually star in (and Nagi actually wrote), making these a Type 1.
• The Smurfette Principle: Tsumugi is the only female character in the all-male cast until Aya is introduced in Part 2.
• Spell My Name With An S: Kujo vs Kujou. Nikaido vs Nikaidou. Ogami vs Oogami. Osaka vs Ousaka. Ryunosuke vs Ryuunosuke. Sogo vs Sougo. Ten vs Tenn.
• Spin-Off: IDOLiSH7 Vibrato is this to the main anime series.
• Stage Names: Zero is likely a stage name. "Momo" and "Yuki" are shortened from their real names, as was Banri's "Ban" during his time in Re:vale.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Gaku and Tsumugi come from feuding families and work at different companies in the idol industry, but that doesn't stop Gaku from trying to romantically pursue Tsumugi. The feeling, however, is not mutual (yet).
• Take Our Word for It: For someone praised to the moon and back for being the perfect idol by just about everyone, Zero never physically makes an appearance in the game.
• Thanking the Viewer: The last track in IDOLISH7's first album, i7, is called "THANK YOU FOR YOUR EVERYTHING" which is a song that has them singing thank you to the fans.
  IDOLISH7: ♪ Thank you for your everyday! Thank you for your everything! ♪
  • The most recent special manga chapter also does this, and actually brings the reader directly into the story.
• Theme Table: Given all the corresponding numbers, colors, and symbols listed above, it's possible to construct one of these for the idols.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. When Momo loses the ability to sing and it turns out there's nothing physically wrong, Yuki suggests going to a therapist.
• They Stole Our Act: When it came time for IDOLISH7 to debut, they were going to use Natsu☆Shiyou ze, but were only able to perform it once before TRIGGER debuted with the same song after it was stolen by Akihito.
• To Be Continued: All of the story segments end with this.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The most weirdly plot-relevant one is Gaku's fondness for soba, but you also have Tamaki's love for King Pudding and Riku and Ten's mutual love of omurice.
• Twin Desynch: Ten's decision to leave the Nanase family with Kujou shaped both his and Riku's personalities into what they are in the present.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Beneath the constant arguing Ryuunosuke is subjected to (and usually has to mediate), Gaku and Ten care deeply about each other, producing amazing reactions when they work together.
• "We're Live" Realization: The first season of the anime shows IDOLISH7 very embarrassed to discover their floundering on their web show with their fans was live and couldn't be edited.
• Wham Line: A lot, and most of them deal with character backstory.
• When It All Began: Zero's rise to fame and then disappearance 15 years ago has had both direct and indirect effects on almost everyone in the cast.
• Worthy Opponent: TRIGGER and IDOLiSH7 consider each other this.