News

The Idolm@ster SideM Growing Stars Game Gets Stage Play in June

The official website for The Idolm@ster franchise announced on Tuesday that the franchise's The Idolm@ster SideM project will have a stage play that will debut in The Galaxy Theatre in Tokyo in June. The play will be based on The Idolm@ster SideM Growing Stars smartphone game.

Actor Hirofumi Araki (Touken Ranbu) is directing the play, with a script by fellow actor Mizuki Sano (1995 live-action Kindaichi Case Files).

The first game to be called The Idolm@sterSideM launched in 2014, and is still being supported. Like other games in The Idolm@ster franchise, SideM is built on the concept of "idols you can produce." The app focuses on the male idols at the agency 315 Production (pronounced "Saikō Production" or "Ultimate Production"). The Idolm@ster SideM Live on St@ge! smartphone game launched in 2017, but it began winding down service in January 2021, and ended service in August 2021. The Idolm@ster SideM Growing Stars, the latest game in the project, launched in October 2021.

The first game's anime adaptation premiered in October 2017, after a prologue special about the three Jupiter idol unit members aired in September 2017. Crunchyroll streamed both anime as they aired.

Sumeragi launched The Idolm@ster SideM Wake Atte Mini! manga in 2016 and ended it in January 2018. Sumeragi's The Idolm@ster SideM Wake Atte Mini! Returns sequel manga then launched in Dengeki Maoh in September 2018 and ended in January 2019. The sequel manga's one compiled volume shipped in March 2019, and bundled an anime episode. The first manga inspired a 12-episode television anime series of shorts that premiered in October 2018. Crunchyroll streamed the show as it aired.

Sources: The Idolm@ster franchise's website, Animate Times