While The Idolm@ster gaming franchise from Namco Bandai wouldn't truly make its mark in the world of anime until A-1 Pictures  full-length series in 2011, two previous attempts at bringing the girls to television screens were made prior to that. Although 2008's The Idolm@ster Live for You! was only a 17-minute short bundled with the game of the same name, 2007's Idom@ster: Xenglossia was a very different story. Produced by prolific studio Sunrise and directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai (who would later go on to direct AnoHana ), Idolmaster: Xenglossia discards the original premise of a production studio and in favour of exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from Sunrise: giant robots.

Idols feel very much an Asian concept. Sure the West has pop stars and the like, but Japan's huge idol culture takes things to a whole different level.  The Idolm@ster is a 25 (plus one recently released OVA) episode series based on the Namco game series of the same name, which sees you raise prospective idols to the height of fame. It's not the first Idolm@ster anime to be produced, but one that's far more faithful to the games (the first series, Idolmaster: Xenoglossia , was about mecha pilots...something I may need to investigate in the future!) and includes their original voice cast. It was made by A-1 pictures (responsible for the likes of Black Butler , Fairy Tail and AnoHana ) and aired between July and December 2011. The Idolm@ster main cast The Idolm@ster follows the day to day life of production company 765 Pro and their twelve wannabe idols. With a brand new Producer in tow and the help of former-idol-turned producer Ritsuko, office clerk Kotori and ...