Idolish7
Idolish7 is a Japanese rhythm game developed by G2Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment with music collaboration by Lantis for Android and iOS platforms, which first released in Japan on August 20, 2015. The project features character design by Arina Tanemura. Idolish7 has spawned several manga adaptations and novelizations. An anime television series adaptation by Troyca aired from January to May 2018, and a second season aired from April to December 2020. A third season aired from July 2021 to February 2023. A fourth season has been announced. The album Regality connected to the series became the first album credited to a male in-story character group to top the weekly Oricon Albums Chart.
Plot
The player assumes the role of Tsumugi Takanashi, an inexperienced manager for a new idol group under her father's small agency. The idol group is named "Idolish7," and consists of seven male members, each with their own unique personality and background. She must train and turn all of them into famous idols, all while struggling against the hardships of the entertainment industry.Characters
Idolish7
A new idol group belonging to Takanashi Production Company. Their names contain the numbers 1 through 7 in kanji. Their music symbols mainly consist of accidentals and dynamics.;Iori Izumi
;Yamato Nikaidō
;Mitsuki Izumi
;Tamaki Yotsuba
;Sōgo Ōsaka
;Nagi Rokuya
;Riku Nanase
Trigger
The rival group of Idolish7 that belongs to the Yaotome Production Company. Their names contain numbers 8 to 10 in kanji. Their music symbols mainly consist of clefs;Gaku Yaotome
;Tenn Kujō
;Ryūnosuke Tsunashi
Re:vale
An idol group that introduced in the second chapter of the game. Their names contain numbers 100 and 1000 in kanji. Their music symbols mainly consist of repeat signs.;Momose Sunohara
Mostly known by his stage name of Momo, he is the energetic and easygoing member of Re:vale. He has a bit of a mischievous side and is shown to be very observant of his surroundings. According to Yuki, Momose is the kind of person who can make others happy just by being around. He wishes to protect the people dear to him in any way he can, often ignoring, however, the care and attention he needs himself. He is secretly insecure about his abilities, believing he is not worthy to be part of Re:vale, as he is not an original member. He is the boke of the pair, constantly making off the wall comments. His music symbol is the left repeat sign and he represents the number one hundred.
;Yukito Orikasa
Mostly known by his stage name of Yuki, he is the co-founder of Re:vale as well as their songwriter. He has a cool and collected personality, but is often blunt which causes others to believe that he does not care. This is untrue as he is actually quite easygoing and looks after the younger groups, often giving them advice as well. Yuki is revealed to have been searching for his first partner for the past 5 years after he took a hit meant for Yuki and disappeared afterwards. Yuki is the tsukkomi of the pair, and follows through with interjecting Momo's Boke jokes. His music symbol is the right repeat sign and he represents the number one thousand.
Zool
An idol group introduced in the third chapter of the game. Their names contain kanji of animals from the Japanese zodiac—boar, dog, snake and tiger. Their music symbols mainly consist of musical notes with the theme of repetition and silence.;Haruka Isumi
;Tōma Inumaru
;Minami Natsume
;Torao Midō
Takanashi Productions
;Tsumugi Takanashi;Otoharu Takanashi
;Banri Ōgami
;Kinako
;Haruki Sakura
Others
;Sōsuke Yaotome;Kaoru Anesagi
;Akihito Hyūga
;Rinto Okazaki
;Ryo Tsukumo
;Mr. Shimooka
;Takamasa Kujō
;Zero
Development
, the game's character designer, created the characters based on information provided about their names, personalities, and theme colors. The first character she drafted was Yamato Nikaidō due to his glasses being the most distinguishable character trait and gave him short sleeves to reflect his cheerful personality. In contrast, Iori Izumi was given long sleeves because of his cool personality. Tanemura had initially drawn Iori and Mitsuki with the same hair color due to them being siblings, but a representative from Bandai Namco Entertainment had allowed her to make an exception. Bandai Namco Entertainment had also envisioned Mitsuki to be a youthful-looking character. Tanemura had misread that Tamaki was intended to be the shortest and most youthful character, instead submitting a more mature design; this resulted in Bandai Namco Entertainment accepting the draft and revising his personality to fit the design. Sōgō was intended as the group's yandere character, and while Tanemura had difficulty incorporating that into the design, she later drew him with a thin physique to reflect a "sickly" nature. Nagi was drawn with a "pretty physique" due to his half-Scandinavian ancestry. Riku was originally drawn with black hair before Tanemura revised his hair color to be lighter, and his costume was the most revealing because he was the center of the group. Whereas Idolish7 was designed with a white color theme, Trigger was designed with a black color theme for contrast.Discography
Studio albums
Singles
Other charted songs
Other media
Printed media
The project has released several manga and novel adaptations. A manga adaptation is drawn by Nokoshi Yamada and is serialized in Hakusensha's Hana LaLa Online since 2015. The first volume was released on December 4, 2015. Another manga that focuses on idol group rival of Idolish7, Trigger, is titled Idolish7: Trigger: Before The Radiant Glory. It is written by Bunta Tsushimi with illustrations by Arina Tanemura and was released on December 19, 2016. On October 12, 2017, it was announced that a new manga adaptation by Arina Tanemura titled Re:member, which centered around on the past of the group Re:vale. The manga launched on December 9.A novel titled Idolish7: Ryūsei ni Inoru is written by Bunta Tsushimi with illustrations by Arina Tanemura. It was released on December 4, 2015. The novel received a manga adaptation of the same name, whose first volume released on August 4, 2017.
An official fanbook was released on June 30, 2016. The second fanbook was released on August 19, 2016.
Video games
Bandai Namco Entertainment released a tie-in console video game titled Idolish7 Twelve Fantasia! for the PlayStation Vita on February 15, 2018. The game's story takes place between the second and third story parts of the smartphone game, focusing on the Idolish7, Trigger, and Re:vale groups on a combined tour across Japan. The video game's final destination is a concert at Zero Arena.Music videos
The music video for Trigger's third single, Crescent rise, was produced by Studio Trigger and released on January 27, 2020. It is part of a "Trigger × Trigger" collaboration project that was announced in September 2018.Anime
An anime adaptation was first announced during a Niconico livestream event on August 19, 2016. The 17-episode anime premiered on January 7, 2018, and ended on May 19. Makoto Bessho is directing the anime at Troyca while Ayumi Sekine is supervising the anime's scripts. Kazumi Fukagawa is adapting Arina Tanemura's original designs for animation. Ei Aoki is credited as supervisor. Crunchyroll streamed the series as the anime simultaneously airs in Japan.On July 7, 2018, Idolish7 was green-lit for a second season. The second season, titled Idolish7: Second Beat! aired from April 5 to December 27, 2020, with the cast and staff returning to reprise their roles. On April 13, 2020, it was announced that after the fourth episode, the remaining episodes of the season had been delayed due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 20, 2020, it was announced that the season will resume with the third episode on October 4, 2020.
On December 27, 2020, after the second season's finale, it was announced the series would be receiving a third season titled Idolish7: Third Beat!. The cast and staff are reprising their roles. The third season is a split-cour series, with the first half airing from July 4 to September 26, 2021. The second half aired from October 2, 2022, to February 26, 2023.
A fourth season of the series was announced during the 10th anniversary event for the franchise on January 25, 2025.
Film
A concert film titled Idolish The Movie Live 4bit Beyond the Pariod produced by Orange was announced on January 6, 2023. The film features two separate versions with different song lists, split into Day 1 and Day 2. The film premiered on May 20, 2023. In 2023, the film grossed 2.92 billion yen in Japan, ranking 10th in the highest grossing domestic films in Japan for the year. The separate Blu-ray discs for Day 1 and Day 2 were sold at theaters along with the movie release among other limited merchandise. Later, a box set with Blu-ray and DVD versions was released on December 22, 2023. However, the release of the "Nanairo Store Limited Edition Blu-ray BOX" was delayed until March 15, 2024, due to an unexpectedly high number of pre-orders.The film was held during a special screening event on June 8 and 9, 2024, to commemorate the first anniversary of its release.
Reception
In 2016, IDOLiSH7 was accused of plagiarizing artwork from several other idol-related mobile game series, more specifically The Idolmaster and Uta no Prince-sama, citing that several poses were traced or copied. Bandai Namco Online released a statement on September 9 through Idolish7's official website, stating a lawyer examined the images and concluded that there was no plagiarism involved. In addition, Bandai Namco Online also denied allegations that the character Tsumugi was a self-insert for the character designer, Arina Tanemura.The anime won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award for best anime in the 2017 poll. IDOLiSH7: Second BEAT! won the fan-voted "Animation of the Year: Anime Fan Award" in the 2020 Tokyo Anime Award Festival. The first half of IDOLiSH7: Third BEAT! won the same award in the 2021 Tokyo Anime Award Festival. The Japanese review and survey firm Filmarks placed the first half of IDOLiSH7: Third BEAT! as #1 on the satisfaction ranking of summer 2021 anime, with an average rating of 4.52 out of 5.
The concert film's box office ranked at #5 for its first week and #6 for its second. The film earned over ¥409 million within its first nine days of release. The film ranked in the top ten weekend box office for twelve consecutive weeks and its final domestic box office grossed ¥3.26 billion. As of November 2, 2023, it is the fifth top-grossing Japanese anime film of 2023. The film won the fan-voted "Animation of the Year: Anime Fan Award" in the 2024 Tokyo Anime Award Festival.