B-Project
B-PROJECT is a Japanese cross-media project by MAGES. about a group of virtual idols that began in 2015. The project was first announced via Twitter on August 9, 2015, with the first production presentation and song previews being released on September 4, 2015, via nico live. As of January 2018 the project features an anime series, a manga adaptation, a rhythm game, a stage play, multiple music CDs, and a range of related merchandise.
Overview
B-PROJECT follows four Japanese idol groups that perform both as separate units and as a whole group. When the project first began the units were: Kitakore, THRIVE and MooNs, but on December 4, 2015, a fourth group known as KiLLER KiNG was added. The first single for the series, "Eikyuu Paradise", was released digitally on September 11, 2015, alongside a promo video for the series and a teaser of a new single, "dreaming time", from THRIVE. It was later revealed that in addition to "dreaming time" from THRIVE, MooNs & Kitakore would also be releasing singles on November 25, 2015, "Glory Upper" and "Koiseyo Otome" respectively.Shortly after the introduction of KiLLER KiNG the next round of singles was announced on January 24, 2016. KiLLER KiNG's debut single would be "Kira Kira Smile", THRIVE's new single would be "Maybe Love", Kitakore's new single would be "Mysterious Kiss", and MooNs' new single would be "Brand New Star". Unlike the first round of singles the release dates were split into two batches; "Kira Kira Smile" and "Maybe Love" were released on March 23, 2016, while "Mysterious Kiss" and "Brand New Star" weren't released until April 6, 2016.
On September 9, 2016, it was announced that from December 2016 to March 2017 there would be six consecutive releases, with at least one single from each unit. The releases began on December 21, 2016, with the release of "Muteki*Dangerous" by B-Project as a whole, and "Hungry Wolf" by KiLLER KiNG. The next single, "Summer Mermaid" by MooNs, was released January 18, 2017. "Needle No.6" by THRIVE was released on February 22, 2017, while "Wonder☆Future" by Kitakore was set to be released on February 8, 2017, but was pushed back to March 15, 2017, the same release day as KiLLER KiNG's next single, Break it down, for unspecified reasons.
On March 19, 2017, alongside the announcement of the stage play production it was announced that B-Project would be releasing its first album. Two versions were released with different tracklists: S-Kyuu Paradise BLACK & S-Kyuu Paradise WHITE, both albums were released on July 19, 2017. The first song on both albums, "S-Kyuu Paradise", is a new song sung by all 14 members, and each unit also released a new song: THRIVE and KiLLER KiNG on BLACK, and Kitakore and MooNs on WHITE. On June 9, 2017, the album covers were revealed and the titles for the four new songs were announced; "the one& only" by THRIVE, "Blooming Festa!" by KiLLER KiNG, "Jikū no Rasen" by Kitakore, and "PRAY FOR..." by MooNs, along with previews for the THRIVE and Kitakore songs.
On September 30, 2017, at the second anniversary event, DARK in the HALLOWEEEEN, it was announced that the anime series would be receiving a second season at some point in the future, as well as announcing the fourth round of singles for each unit alongside new solo songs from all 14 members. On January 28, 2018, at the WINTER of FANTASIA event at Universal Studios Japan it was announced that there would be a new live show in July 2018, B-PROJECT SUMMER LIVE2018, as well as announcing the names and release dates of the fourth round of singles. The first singles released were "Phantom・of・Love" by KiLLER KiNG and "Ultra-sensitive Destiny" by THRIVE which both released on March 18, 2018, followed by "GO AROUND" by MooNS which was released on May 16, 2018. "Crank In" by Kitakore and "Kaikan Everyday" by B-Project which was released on July 16, 2018.
On November 28, 2018, a compilation album containing all the opening, ending and character songs from the first season of the anime, titled B-PROJECT～Kodō＊Ambitious～Compilation Album was released. On the same day, it was revealed the opening and ending themes for the second season of the anime were revealed, Zecchō Emotion and Hikari to Kage no Toki Musubu respectively.
In total, the series has seen the release of 21 singles, and three albums, with another single slated for release in 2019. In addition to musical releases B-Project also features an anime produced by MAGES that ran during the Summer of 2016 for a total of 12 episodes, a manga written by Morino Mizu that ran for 6 chapters in late 2016 in the monthly magazine Cheese!, an ongoing web-radio series, a mobile musical game, and stage play. The anime was later released in 6 DVD & Blu-ray volumes; volumes 2-6 came packaged with 2 character songs each, 1 song for each unit member who made an appearance in the anime. The series has also seen a variety of special events, all of which have taken place in Japan and usually feature several of the voice actors from the series. These events have usually been to announce upcoming singles or projects, however two have been to celebrate the anniversary of the series. So far the series has seen the following special events: Happy Summer Eastar, KING of CASTE, Brilliant＊Party, LOVE & ART FAMILY MTG 2017, DARK in the HALLOWEEEEN, and WINTER of FANTASIA. For April Fools in 2017 there was an announcement on the official Twitter saying that the B in B-Project stood for baby, this was accompanied by a voting poll for who the fans most wanted to see become an adult again which lasted until April 9. The top 3 ranked characters, Kento Aizome, Goshi Kaneshiro, and Ryuji Korekuni, had limited edition life-sized body pillow covers made as a result of the voting poll. For 2018 April Fools the official Twitter revealed a continuation of last year's Baby-Project, known as Kids-Project, which showed the characters as pre-school children.
Characters
Idol Groups and Members
MooNs
;Hikaru Osari;Tatsuhiro Nome
;Kazuna Masunaga
;Momotaro Onzai
;Mikado Sekimura
Kitakore (キタコレ)
;Ryūji Korekuni;Tomohisa Kitakado
THRIVE
;Goshi Kaneshiro;Kento Aizome
;Yuta Ashu
KiLLER KiNG
;Yuduki Teramitsu;Haruhi Teramitsu
;Akane Fudo
;Miroku Shingari
Anime-only characters
;Tsubasa Sumisora;Sakurato Yashamaru
;Atsushi Daikoku
;Shūji Daikoku
Media
Manga
On April 8, 2016, shortly after the announcement of the anime series it was revealed that a manga series known as "B-Project: Mousou＊Scandal" would begin serialization in the magazine "Cheese!" the following month. The series began on May 24, 2016, and concluded on October 24, 2016, after 6 chapters, the series focused largely on the units of THRIVE and KiLLER KNG.Video games
On August 6, 2016, it was announced that in addition to the anime and manga the series had just begun development on a rhythm game app for smartphones known as B-PROJECT～Muteki＊Dangerous～. Pre-registration has opened on the game's website and will remain open until the game's release, with users receiving bonuses for collectively clearing certain "stages" of pre-registration, the most recent stage to be cleared was 700,000+ users. At the LOVE & ART FAMILY MTG 2017 event in March a small preview of the game and how to play it was available for attendees to play. The game involves putting on performances to B-Project songs with the characters you have obtained, it also has a story mode including some chapters in a visual novel game style. In a live broadcast on nicovideo on June 9, 2017, it was announced that the game would finally be released in the second half of June. It was then announced on June 27 via Twitter that the game would be released the next day, on June 28, 2017. Owing to an unexpected number of users, the game was largely in maintenance for its first week so that the servers could be upgraded to handle the increased amount of activity.At the 2018 live, B-PROJECT SUMMER LIVE 2018 ETERNAL PACIFIC, it was announced that the game would be receiving a renewal including a major overhaul to the interface and certain features, including significant changes to the rhythm section of the game. Few details were initially released other than the fact it was slated for an early 2019 release, though later updates revealed that the game would receive a new name along with the renewal now being labelled B-PROJECT Kaikan＊Everyday. The renewal eventually went live on May 20, 2019, after several days of maintenance; to celebrate the release players received a weeks worth of free 10-card pulls in the games photo feature.
At the B-PROJECT Thrive Live 2020 -Music Drugger- event, a console game developed for the Nintendo Switch titled B-PROJECT Ryūsei*Fantasia was announced. On July 1, 2021, it was announced that the game will be released in Japan on September 30, 2021, for Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.