THE iDOLM@STER

***THE iDOLM@STER***
	"THE IDOLM@STER Series 15th Anniversary Commemoration Song "Nandodemo Waraou"" cover art.
Source	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Era	Season 1 (GiIvaSunner channel)
First appearance	As a rip: "GO MY WAY!! - THE iDOLM@STER (GiIvaSunner)" (March 5, 2016); As a joke: "KORIBALL2" (May 17, 2016)

THE iDOLM@STER is a Japanese multimedia idol franchise. It is also a meme on the SiIvaGunner channel.

History

THE iDOLM@STER started as a series of rhythmic video games developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly known as Namco before the merger. Its first instalment, named simply THE iDOLM@STER, was released on July 26, 2005 in arcades and later ported to Xbox 360 on January 25, 2007. Since 2010 onwards, the franchise have been releasing games on various platforms and eventually expanded through other types of media such as songs, anime, manga, and real-life concerts. This development project is known as Project iM@S.

The games are typically centered around a group of idols and their Producer with the goal of becoming famous. The player, taking the role of the Producer, can choose one of the idols and accompany them in their training.

The franchise spans a variety of brands, each with different idols, characters, songs, and themes. As of date, there are six of them: the main brand, simply titled THE iDOLM@STER; Cinderella Girls; Million Live!; SideM; Shiny Colors; and Gakuen iDOLM@STER. There is also Project va-liv, which is not technically its own brand but rather a developmental project within Project iM@S that mixes THE iDOLM@STER with Virtual YouTuber culture.

There are two ways of rendering the name of the franchise: "THE iDOLM@STER" (with a lowercase "i") is used on logos; while "THE IDOLM@STER" (with a capitaized "I") is used on the titles across any medium such as albums, units, etc. On the SiIvaGunner channel, the former is used for naming rips and playlists.

Rips

On the SiIvaGunner channel, the songs "GO MY WAY!!" and "Kyun! Vampire Girl" are both major memes, with the former playing a large part in the SilvaGunner: Rebooted story arc and the latter being a reoccurring joke during Halloween events. Other songs have also been featured in a few rips, particularly during Season 1, although to a lesser extent; some examples includes "Kiramekirari" by Yayoi Takatsuki, "Agent Yoru o Yuku" by Makoto Kikuchi and "Binetsu S.O.S.!!" from Idolmaster: Xenoglossia. Another notable example of the franchise's presence on the channel was the RIAMU YUMEMI NUMBER ONE SUPER IDOL TAKEOVER, an event in which Riamu Yumemi from the Cinderella Girls brand took over the channel on her birthday, leading to her image song, "OTAHEN Anthem", being featured as a joke in several later rips.

In addition to this, the characters Haruka Amami and Takane Shijou have also been featured in various rips, often being used as the respective personifications of "GO MY WAY!!" and "Kyun! Vampire Girl". Haruka is a major character in The SilvaGunner Christmas Comeback Crisis and for her birthday in April of 2017 the channel would host an event in which various rips of or featuring GO MY WAY!! and other songs related to Haruka would be uploaded. Takane has appeared as a main character in every Halloween event to date, notably taking on the role of lead protagonist in Curse of the Fallen Angel and The Cult of Proto.

Other characters from the franchise have only made very scarce appearances, with most of them being from the original brand like Makoto Kikuchi or Yukiho Hagiwara. The character Yayoi Takatsuki is also notable for being one of the "mascots" of the channel Flustered Fernando, appearing on the channel's banner and in some of its uploads.

External links

"Rips featuring THE iDOLM@STER". YouTube playlist by Aidan Zamboni.
"THE iDOLM@STER (franchise)" on project-imas.wiki.