Now Viewing: idolmasterTag type: Copyright A highly successful music-themed raising simulation game first released for Japanese arcades, and re-released on the Xbox 360. As of 2013, the franchise has earned over 10 billion yen. It is one of the most successful games on said console, which is conspicuously less popular in Japan than it is in other countries. The XBOX port made use of XBOX Live and is considered to be responsible for making Japan's ratio of XBOX Live signups compared to number of consoles sold the highest in the world. You play as a music producer at 765 Pro (which is pronounced the same way as the company that creates the games, Namco) who grooms a cute female idol singer of your choice to become a big star. The original game was released on July 26, 2005. The game was inspired by the emergence, during the early 2000s, of arcade games that allowed players to save their progress on magnetic stripe cards, allowing them to pick up where they left off. Namco designer and Idolmaster creator Ishihara Akihiro was inspired to create a game that made extensive use of this technology. He also wanted to ensure that the players will develop an emotional attachment to the game and its characters which will motivate the player to continue playing. To that end, Ishihara settled on the game's final concept. The game turned out to be a massive surprise success in spite of concerns that players may feel embarrassed to play such a game in public. Because of its uniqueness in being a popular moe game on an American-made video game console, it's not uncommon to see it teamed up with popular American video game series (Halo, Modern Warfare, etc) The series has a predominantly female cast, but the DS game and Idolmaster 2 introduce male singers. Idolmaster has also spawned a spinoff called Idolmaster SideM that features a cast of handsome male singers in contrast to the rest of the franchise. All the voice actors for the characters do their own singing as well voicing their lines. The voice actresses have even performed in real life Idolmaster concerts singing the songs their characters sang. It has been adapted into an anime multiple times. The first anime Idolmaster_Xenoglossia is very different from the games and transplants the girls into a mecha action show setting and has virtually nothing to do with singing. The characters are also played by different voice actresses. It premiered in 2007. The second anime TV series animated by A-1 Pictures and directed by Nishigori_Atsushi is much more faithful to the games and retains the same voice actresses as the games. It premiered in 2011. This anime series mixes elements of the various Idolmaster games into its story. There is also a short OVA called Live For You. In 2013, an anime film will be released and will also be directed by Nishigori Atsushi who also does the character designs. It has also received a Korean live action TV adaptation. However, the drama is not a straight adaptation of the games and the games' characters do not appear. Instead, the drama transplants the basic premise to South Korea and features an entirely new Korean cast. Along with songs composed specifically for this series, the voice actresses/characters have performed cover versions of other anime songs on their character CDs. Cast: Idols: Amami_Haruka Kisaragi_Chihaya Hagiwara_Yukiho Takatsuku_Yayoi Akizuki_Ritsuko Miura_Azusa Minase_Iori Kikuchi_Makoto Futami_Ami Futami_Mami Hoshii_Miki/ Awakened_Miki Ganaha_Hibiki Shijou_Takane Project Jupiter: Amagase_Touma Mitarai_Shouta Iijuuin_Hokuto Staff: Producer_(Idolmaster) Takagi_Junichiro Takagi_Junjiro Ishikawa_Minori Okamoto_Manami Kuroi_Takao Otonashi_Kotori Memes: Nonowa Home_Haruka Related: Mujin_Gattai_Kisaragi Nightmare_Blood Vocaloid Tales_of_Xillia Spinoffs: Idolmaster_Xenoglossia Puchimasu! Idolmaster_Dearly_Stars Idolmaster_Cinderella_Girls Idolmaster_SideM Other Wiki Information Last updated: 04/16/16 3:34 AM by jojosstand This entry is not locked and you can edit it as you see fit. |
     
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