Leaving it very much to the last minute to announce their acquisition of the anime series for their Spring 2023 anime season, given the first episode has already aired in Japan, CrunchyRoll has today confirmed they will be streaming The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls U149 on their platform. This will be a subbed only release, meaning that they have no plans to offer an English dubbed version at this time. While this announcement has been made, Episode 1 is currently unavailable to watch, with its airtime being simply listed as “April 2023”. Keep an eye out for more information in the near future.
Featuring animation by CyGames Pictures, The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls U149 follows an original storyline first created by Kyow No, with direction by Manabu Okamoto, art direction by Kazuhiro Inoue, series composition by Oki Murayama and character designs by Norie Ikawa. The anime’s Japanese voice cast includes Amina Satou as Arisu Tachibana, Makoto Koichi as Haru Yuuki, Tomoyo Kuroawa as Miria Akagi, Misaki Kuno as Nina Ichihara, Hana Tamegai as Risa Matoba, Natsumi Haruse as Kaoru Ryuuzaki, Haruka Terui as Momoka Sakurai, Asaka Imai as Chie sasaki, Yuki Yonai as the Producer and introduces Yuri Komori as the new voice actor for Koharu Koga.
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 heart-warming series which gives each character ample chance to shine. Plus for those who have played Cinderella Girls, this will be the series that gives Koharu Koga her voice actor!
