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When people mention the words “Idol Anime”, instantly 2 names will come into mind. THE iDOLM@STER and Love Live!. Both franchises are insanely popular, have huge followings and you may have caught a glance of them at last year’s Anime Festival Asia Singapore 2014. So which of these two are you a fan of? Perhaps both?
The iDOLM@STER
THE iDOLM@STER (iM@S) started out as a game where you act as a producer who helps prospective idols become top idols. From the first arcade game released in 2005, iM@S already has many years to grow and branch out, with new idols from Cinderella Girls to Million Live. So even before the iM@S anime was aired, the franchise was nearing its peak.
The anime features the original 13 main idols and how they aspire to be the next top idol. Many of the episodes focus on a single idol and how she matures and improves in becoming a better idol and person. The anime deals with more serious issues of becoming an idol and how the producer does his best to help them.
Throughout its long and eventful history, iM@S has maintained its popularity as well as expanding the iM@S universe, currently now consisting of more than 200 idols (the bulk being from Cinderella Girls). What makes iM@S so good is the variety available. Spoilt for choice by the wide range of idols, you will definitely find someone matching your tastes. Attesting to their immense popularity, the anniversary concerts are always sold out with people fighting just to watch it live!
Because of how it is designed, iM@S is catered towards quality over quantity when it comes to fans. As said by General Manager Yohzo Sakagami, “Rather than targeting large numbers of members of the general public, we focus actively on core fans.” Hence the fans for iM@S are generally very passionate towards the franchise and would actively follow all releases and the producers of the game would do their best to cater to their wants.
Love Live!
Love Live! started out in 2010 as a music CD series with 5 singles being released before the anime was even aired. However unlike iM@S, Love Live! was relatively unheard of until a few months after the anime aired when its popularity shot up rapidly. Love Live! also features a voting system where fans will get to vote for which character you will like to be the center for the song. Hence polls, both fan made and official, are a commonplace for Love Live!.
The main story of the anime is how the 9 girls got together to form a School Idol Group to save their school from closing down due to a lack of admissions. By taking part in the idol competition Love Live!, they hope to generate more interest in their school to boost admissions.
Love Live!’s strength is how accessible it is to everyone. With the main content being the anime and smartphone game, newcomers do not need to learn much to get absolutely involved in Love Live!. Just watching both seasons of the anime will easily bring you up to speed on almost all aspects of the franchise. It is also easy for you to get your hands on Love Live! material. The smartphone game has an English-localised version which can be downloaded for playing directly from both iTunes and Google Play stores.
Love Live! is more focused on the music and visual production as opposed to the game. With new singles being released constantly, and consistently garnering respectable positions on the Oricon charts, Love Live! has managed to sustain their massive growth since its debut, and shows no signs of slowing down. Even now, fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the upcoming movie and the 5th Anniversary Live early this year.
Differences
In iM@S, players generally focus on the few characters they like as opposed to the whole group. Hence the idols of iM@S have a lot more standalone potential than that of Love Live!’s. However for Love Live!, with just 9 girls, you can feel the close relationships between the girls and μ’s can no longer be μ’s without all 9 girls. If even one were to be missing, the feeling would not just be the same anymore.
And as mentioned earlier, iM@S is catered to fans who are there to enjoy and dive into the large amount of content while Love Live! is more for everyone and anyone. Hence Love Live! will be more newcomer friendly for those who are curious while iM@S will be for those who really want to go into the whole franchise to enjoy every last drop of it.
However one similarity that you have to take note is that both Love Live! and THE iDOLM@STER are both under the same company, Bandai Namco. So, did you have the luck of catching the seiyuu from both series live at AFASG 2014?
Verdict
And finally, which is the better one? Well, click on this image below to find out!
I’m just pulling you leg, no matter which fandom you hail from, let’s all love our idols and spread that love!
The post [ANIME] IDOL ANIME AND WHY THEY ARE AWESOME! appeared first on AFA Channel!.