is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

series of ''

The Idolmaster is a Japanese media franchise that began in 2005 with a Life simulation game, raising simulation and Rhythm game, rhythm video game series created by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The series primarily centers on the career of a pr ...

'', starting with the game of the same name. The series follows a new group of idols working alongside the idols of 765 Production with a producer at the 765 Live Theater. The original game is a

Japanese idol An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese popular culture, Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in other performance skills such as acting, dancing, and modeling. Idol ...

raising

simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

developed and managed by

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game video game publisher, publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to Namco's home and arcade video game ...

released on the GREE social network platform February 27, 2013 for Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

platforms and for feature phones. A

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

titled ''Idolmaster Million Live! Theater Days'' was released on June 29, 2017. The original game ended service on March 18, 2018, leaving ''Theater Days'' as the main game centered on ''Million Live''. An

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series adaptation by

Shirogumi is a company centralized in the production of animated series and feature films, as well as the making and adjusting of visual effects. It is also a member of The Association of Japanese Animations. History In 1973, Tatsuo Shimamura established ...

aired in October 2023.

Overview

''Million Live!'' introduces 37 idols, working alongside the 13 idols of 765 Production; Theater Days adds two more idols and a secretary. Compared to other spin-offs in the Idolmaster series, the new idols work with and interact with the idols of 765. The general design and much of the visual elements are done by

A-1 Pictures is a Japanese animation studio and production company founded by ex- Sunrise producer Mikihiro Iwata. It is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan's anime production firm Aniplex. History The company was established by SMEJ's animat ...

, the same animation studio responsible for animating several of the Idolmaster anime series.

Gameplay

GREE game

The game was a

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

idol raising simulator in which the player, as the producer, trained idols and sent them to work in various locations while also making the idols 765 Production Theater bigger. The idols were obtained through collecting cards ranked by rarity and divided into three categories, Vocal, Dance, and Visual, with a fourth category, Ex, reserved for special cards. Leveling up the cards made the idols stronger, with the higher rarities being able to reach higher levels. The feature phone version was discontinued on February 2, 2016; a desktop client was released within the same month. The GREE game was shut down on March 19, 2018.

Theater Days

A second game titled ''Idolmaster Million Live! Theater Days'' was released June 29, 2017 for Android and

platforms. It is a

and

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

game, with 3D models, periodically released story missions, and multiple choice 'communication' events with the idols in the vein of the original Idolmaster games. Many of the cards from the original game are reused in ''Theater Days''.

Media

Animations

Seven of the idols from Million Live are featured in the anime film '' The Idolmaster Movie: Beyond the Brilliant Future!''. Special animation videos for Million Live have been created as anniversary celebrations. The first animation, a video featuring Mirai Kasuga, was created for the first anniversary and streamed in-game. A 10-minute animation was created for its fourth anniversary. Both were animated by

TV Anime

television series adaptation of ''Million Live!'' was announced during the ''Theater Days'' 3rd anniversary livestream in July 2020. It is animated by

and directed by Shinya Watada, with series composition and script by Yōichi Katō, and character designs for animation by Tetsuya Ishii and Kaori Tsuta. The series premiered on October 8, 2023,

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

streamed the series.

Episodes

Comics

Aside from comics available alongside the games themselves, ''Million Live!'' has several published

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

. A manga adaptation titled ''The Idolmaster Million Live!'' was published in ''

Monthly Shōnen Sunday , alternately known as (a portmanteau of "Gekkan" and "Sandē" from its full Japanese title), is a monthly manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since May 12, 2009 (the June 2009 issue). The magazine was announced in February 2009, wi ...

'' from August 2014 to October 2016, created by author Yuki Monji under the supervision of Bandai Namco Entertainment. The collected volume editions came with original CDs. Another manga series titled ''The Idolmaster Million Live! Blooming Clover'' was published in ''

Dengeki Maoh is a Japanese seinen magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks (publisher), MediaWorks). It first went on sale on October 27, 2005, and is sold every month on the twenty-seventh. The magazine features information on video games ...

'' from February 2017 to October 2023, created by Kakuya Inayama.

Music

''Million Live'' has

image song In Japan, an image song or character song is a song on a tie-in single or album (often called an image album or character album) for an anime, video game, drama, manga, or other commercial product that is sometimes sung by the voice actor or a ...

s published by Lantis (later a label for Bandai Namco's

Bandai Namco Arts formerly Bandai Namco Arts, is a Japanese company formed by the merger of Bandai Visual was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution company, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainl ...

). The music was integrated into the gameplay of ''Theater Days''. Sales of the CDs and concert Blu-rays had surpassed a combined one million units by 2017; the CD ''The@ter Generation 01 Brand New Theater!'' received a Gold certification from the

RIAJ The is an industry trade group composed of Japanese corporations involved in the music industry. It was founded in 1942 as the Japan Phonogram Record Cultural Association, and adopted its current name in 1969. The RIAJ's activities include prom ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Idolmaster Million Live!, The 2013 video games 2014 manga 2017 manga A-1 Pictures Android (operating system) games ASCII Media Works manga Bandai Namco games Crunchyroll anime Digital collectible card games Free-to-play video games IOS games Japanese idols in anime and manga Music in anime and manga Seinen manga Shirogumi Shogakukan manga Shōnen manga Million Live TV Tokyo original programming Video games developed in Japan