The M@ster Plan Introduction and Information

Idolm@ster Series Overview:

The Idolm@ster is a multimedia anime idol series that started as an arcade game published in 2005 by Namco. The original game had 9 idols to “produce”, which meant the player took the role of a producer for a fictional talent agency, 765Pro, and manged the idols of the company into star hood. Most of the following Idolmaster games and media follow a similar style: work with the fictional idols, learn their stories, and support them in chasing after their dreams. The idols in the games are all voiced by real singers who often release music and hold concerts in-character.

The Idolm@ster consists of several franchises that, for the most part, run concurrently and independently from each other. Each major series created under the label of “Idolmaster” are called “branches” and have their own set of characters, voice actors, story lines and music. There are occasional crossovers between these branches to encourage fans of one particular branch to explore and enjoy what the other series have to offer. At the moment, there are 6 major branch of Idolmaster; following the original series, often now called All Stars, the subsequent series are, in chronological order: Cinderella Girls, Million Live, SideM, Shiny Colors and Hatsuboshi Gakuen. Some significant side projects that have come out under the Idolmaster label are Xenoglossia. Dearly Stars, .KR, and Va-liv.

The Idolmaster started with its “First Vision” in 2005, the early years in which the 765Pro All Stars were the only idols in the series. The release of Dearly Stars in 2009 marked the beginning of the “Second Vision” era, bringing new designs to the All Star idols, and “branching” out the series into many new sub-series. The end of the Masters of Idol World concert in 2023 closed off this significant time in Idolmaster history, leading us now to the current day’s “3.0 Vision”.

The very first album released was The Idolm@ster Masterpiece 01 on September 28th, 2005; albums 02 and 03 were release in the weeks after. Since then, over 2000 albums (and counting) have been released under various music labels. And so that leads me to...

The M@ster Plan:

Listen to the entire Idolmaster series discography (chronologically by release date). I will track my progress on this site as I do so by writing reviews of each song along the way. Here are some ground rules for what songs are reviewed, and how the review process goes for each song. All these rules are mine to break, but the general outline of things is:

There are several categories of songs that will not be included/prioritized in this project, most prominently being songs and albums that are related to the radio shows. Basically, if a song is credited to a seiyuu (voice actor) alone, and not the seiyuu performing as a specific character from the series itself, I will not be covering it. I will also generally not be covering game/anime BGM tracks. Also no drama tracks. Songs sung in-character are my priority here.

One thing that Idolmaster as a series loves to do is release several versions of a song, usually sung by different idols or units of idols. Generally, these solo tracks will not be reviewed individually, unless there is something particularly special about it. It’s hard to put into words what exactly counts as special, but here are some case examples: Haruka’s cover of Onegai! Cinderella will get a review, but its unlikely all separate versions of Onegai! Cinderella will be individually covered. Dramatic Star’s cover of Sayonara Summer Holiday will also get a review, but it is unlikely that I would cover every unit’s version of Drive A Live. Hopefully you can see a pattern lol

However, if a song is rerelease with a remixed arrangment, such as the REMASTER-A and Bs or all the different versions of Koi Kaze, it will 100% get its own review.

What I will always consider in my reviews: musical arrangement, vocals and lyrics (from english translations)

What I may often consider in my reviews: the performing idol(s), game MVs and choreo, game card art, fan culture, story/plot significance

What I would only occasionally consider in my reviews: live performances, promotional materials, anything else I’ve forgotten about~

The Final W@rning:

These are all just my opinions! I am only someone who likes to listen to a bunch of anime music and write very niche things. I am not an actual music expert (I, uh, can read sheet music but thats about it, don’t ask me what a chord is) nor am I an expert reviewer of any kind. My street-cred is that this is the kind of music I listen to 24/7.

The music is what I enjoy most from the series, things like games and character stories I enjoy as well, just not as much, so I will probably not be the best source for Imas history, official information, or news. Most of what I know is from fan-translations and fan-run wikis/databases. I do not know enough Japanese to be doing much translating for myself. I will try to link to any sources I use when appropriate (there’s even some at the bottom of this page), so please give all credit to whoever I mention. The most first-hand knowledge I can provide is, like, what funny memes from 2017-2022 imas-twitter I liked lol

While I have my personal goal of listening to all the music, my secondary goal is to just provide some fun reading material for fellow fans of the series and maybe encourage others to listen to music they hadn’t known about before. I know I love to read other people talking about their interests, so hopefully this interests you as well ^^

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