First starting as a simple rhythm game franchise in Japanese arcades with barely more than a dozen characters to its name in the early 2000s, Bandai Namco’s The Idolm@ster franchise now spans several hundred idols across multiple franchises. The one with the most characters, totalling 190, is The Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls, which I have written about more than a few times on this site, with its rhythm game from CyGames easily one of my favourite mobile games. But with 190 characters, not all receive the attention they deserve in the mainline games, so spin-off media such as manga franchises gives these characters the attention they deserve. One of these, is The Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls U149 from author Kyow No (廾之).
U149 is a manga focusing on the younger idols in the franchise, with its namesake focusing on characters who are 149cm in height or smaller – with essentially all the little idols being in elementary school or the lower grades of middle school. Owning and having read several volumes of the manga, it is a downright adorable and heartwarming series which gives each character ample chance to shine.
【シンデレラ】「アイドルマスター シンデレラガールズ U149」TVアニメ化プロジェクト始動！！
— アイドルマスター公式ツイッター (@imas_official) April 3, 2022
シンデレラガールズ10周年記念ツアーファイナルにて公開した特報PVを公開しました！
いっぱい期待して待っててくださいね！#シンデレラ10周年_ファイナルday2 #U149 #idolmaster pic.twitter.com/zf51dNtNzO
The Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls U149 has today been confirmed to be receiving an anime adaptation in the near future. While details on release date are a bit foggy, we do know that this will be the first manga spin-off in The Idolm@ster franchise to receive a dedicated anime adaptation, and that it will be produced by Cygames Pictures. This should hopefully mean that many unvoiced characters will also be voiced for the first time in this anime (KoharuP’s rejoice!)
While I am not liking the chances of the manga ever being picked up by a western publisher (sadly), here’s hoping a company does license the show for international release.
