The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: アイドルマスターシンデレラガールズ U149

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 6, 2023 to Jun 29, 2023

Premiered: Spring 2023

Broadcast: Thursdays at 00:00 (JST)

Producers: Nippon Columbia, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Cygames

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: CygamesPictures

Source: Web manga

Themes: Idols (Female), Music

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.73¹ (scored by 6,155 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1177²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #5428

Members: 14,928

Favorites: 152

Available At

Official Site

@u149_anime

Resources

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ANN

Streaming Platforms

Crunchyroll

7.73

Ranked #1177Popularity #5428Members 14,928

Spring 2023TVCygamesPictures

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Episodes: /12

Teaser PV

Synopsis

Mature grade school student Arisu Tachibana is an aspiring idol who receives an invitation from her company president to participate in the Third Entertainment Section—a new idol project. Arisu and eight other young girls soon meet their producer before beginning idol-related activities.

To the girls' surprise, their producer appears to be a childlike adult and nothing like what they had imagined. The producer, who is taking on the position for the first time, also had no idea that he would be meeting a group of short, young idols. The awkward situation leaves Arisu disappointed, and she wishes for a producer change.

However, the producer, with his genuine love for idols and his desire to see them shine, will not let this opportunity pass and expresses that he is serious about working with the girls. Thankfully, the young idols accept the producer after seeing his unwavering passion for idols, serving as the start of their journey to the stage of dreams.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 was released on Blu-ray in four volumes from July 26, 2023, to October 25, 2023.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149
Alternative setting:	The iDOLM@STER, The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls
Summary:	The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 Recap
Side story:	The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 Special

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Tachibana, Arisu

Main

Satou, Amina
Japanese

Sakurai, Momoka

Main

Terui, Haruka
Japanese

Akagi, Miria

Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo
Japanese

Ichihara, Nina

Main

Kuno, Misaki
Japanese

Yuuki, Haru

Main

Koichi, Makoto
Japanese

Matoba, Risa

Main

Tamegai, Hana
Japanese

Sasaki, Chie

Main

Imai, Asaka
Japanese

Ryuuzaki, Kaoru

Main

Haruse, Natsumi
Japanese

Koga, Koharu

Main

Komori, Yuri
Japanese

Producer

Main

Yonai, Yuki
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kashiwaya, Tomohiro

Producer, Executive Producer

Akita, Minoru

Producer

Kawaguchi, Ryouta

Producer

Ueuchi, Kenta

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Shine In The Sky☆" by U149

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Ending Theme

	1: "Yorimichi Little Star" (よりみちリトルスター) by U149 (ep 1)
	2: "Minna no Kimochi" (みんなのきもち) by Misaki Kuno (久野美咲) (ep 2)
	3: "Romantic Now" by Tomoyo Kurosawa (黒沢ともよ) (eps 3)
	4: "Ai no Sanka" (愛の讃歌) by Haruka Terui (照井春佳) (ep 4)
	5: "GEMSTONE" by Hana Tamegai (集貝はな) (eps 5)
	6: "ACE" by Makoto Koichi (小市眞琴) (eps 6)
	7: "Onegai! Cinderella" (お願い！シンデレラ) by Yuri Komori (小森結梨) (ep 7)
	8: "Akogare Stitch" (あこがれステッチ) by Asaka Imai (今井麻夏) (ep 8)
	9: "Himawari Mark wo Sagase!" (ひまわりマークをさがせ！) by Natsumi Haruse (春瀬なつみ) (ep 9)
	10: "Good day Good night" (グッデイ・グッナイ) by U149 (eps 10, 12)
	11: "to you for me" by Amina Satou (佐藤亜美菜) (eps 11)

More theme songs

Reviews

Mar 18, 2024

Asuken

Recommended

If you got to know this anime through the memes, I beseech you to look a little deeper, because this is one of the best directed shows in the past year. And if you're an idol anime or im@s fan, there's plenty of cute girls to root for to warrant a watch.

But firstly, the animation is really good. Considering it's done by Cygames Pictures, whose parent company is a mobile game producer, it was a pleasant surprise. Honestly, it looks better than what A-1 did in the other im@s installments. However, the dance scenes specifically, of which there are only 3, are done with a ... bit of CG. It doesn't look horrible, but I wished they took a page out of A-1's book and did it completely hand-drawn.

The anime enhances its already great animation with excellent shot compositions. Episode 1 is a good example. The scene with Arisu and the Producer deserves a complete in-depth analysis, but essentially what the show does is play with position and the space each character takes up in shots. It uses a staircase as a metaphor for one's passion for a dream. The Producer is higher up initially and after a typical speech on hopes and aspirations or whatever, Arisu climbs the stairs to join him. She had been inspired by the Producer to pursue her dreams, made clear by the rising motion. This isn't just a one-off thing. The metaphor returns with the same context in a later episode and with a twist. It's beautiful storytelling.

It's not just themes that get emphasized though. Through clever visual language, characters feel more real and relatable. The anime is episodic and character-driven; there's no overarching plot or villain. The structure is similar to the other im@s animes, showcasing one main idol per episode, though other girls do get to share the spotlight. I would say the success of the show depends on how well it presents its characters. Unfortunately, with only 12 episodes, it's doubtful anyone would feel attached to every single idol, without first being familiar with them from the games/manga. However, there are definitely a few stand-out characters who you will love. I find the better crafted episodes correlate to the more memorable characters.

And a quick word on the girls: Yes, they're middle-schoolers. Yes, they're cute. But it's actually plot-relevant! It's not an anime featuring 'lolis' for no reason other than to appeal to lolicons. The central theme is the idea of growing up and it can only work because the idols are so young. But if you were attracted to the show because of lolis, you'd still be satisfied I think.

The music is nothing to write home about. The songs aren't as impactful as the main CG songs, much less the 765 ones. I did like the opening and Momoka's song though. To add on, I noticed a little motif in the score with a ticking clock that would play during stressful or pivotal moments that I thought was interesting. Apparently it's from the main CG series, but it just disappears from later episodes, so...

Anyhow, U149 is a fantastic anime. I think it's a good gateway to the idol genre if you're new to it (you don't need to watch the other im@s animes before this one, though if you watched CG you might enjoy it better). However, it also works as an excellent standalone piece with great direction, art and characters.

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Apr 29, 2023

i-like-this

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Preliminary (4/12 eps)

Love Live FBI Open Up!

In a season so clearly divided between great anime and complete garbage, The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 stands out as the definition of mid.

An up-and-coming producer takes on the challenge of turning literal children into popular idols, and when I say literal children, the eldest of the group of nine is twelve. This anime does feel like a bit of a yikes-burger, especially when one of the girls comments on wanting to look "sexy" during a photoshoot, but the show leans towards a wholesome vibe even if it feels a bit forced. I've read comments online by fans suggesting that ...

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Jul 1, 2023

Firechick12012

Not Recommended

Funny

The IdolM@ster series needs no introduction...if you live in Japan. Basically, for the uninitiated, it's a series of video games where you raise and train idols to become famous. It's now a multimedia franchise that continues to rake in money to this very day. If you want for information on the franchise as a whole, I recommend the Project Im@s wiki, as it pretty much has everything you could ever need, from game info to translations of all the songs and their lyrics. I haven't seen any of the anime that were made for it...except for this one, The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls U149, which was ... touted to be focusing only on the youngest members of the franchise. Mainly because two other Idolmaster anime that are coming out later are going to be made in all CGI for some reason, and I have no interest in the other two that came before, the original 2011 anime and Cinderella Girls. I'm not really sure why I decided to put myself through watching U149, which is what I'll be calling this iteration, but I kinda regret doing so. There's really no denying it, U149 is just another corporate vehicle to bring in more money for a multimedia franchise.

The story itself is pretty barebones. A young producer is put in charge of the Third Entertainment Division, where he tries to help a bunch of elementary school girls debut as idols, mainly because nobody else wants to deal with them. The producer, who goes completely unnamed, as is the case for other Idolmaster properties, does what he can to help them, get to know them, and bring out their strengths and talents. If you're expecting this to be a Toddlers & Tiaras or Honey Boo Boo style show, don't worry, it doesn't stoop that low...though even in its present state, U149 doesn't really go beyond being just another generic and mediocre idol anime with cheesy, saccharine songs about making your dreams come true and twinkling and so on. A lot of its episodes are just barebones "idol girl of the week" that try to flesh out the characters to varying degrees of success. I don't know how the previous Idolmaster anime did it, but the creators' attempts at writing characters here quite plainly suck.

Seriously, I found myself much more annoyed with the idol girls than endeared, and not just because of their shrill, ear-bleeding voices screeching every single line in the most overacted ways possible. Hi again, Misaki Kuno and your nails on a chalkboard chipmunk voice. Though ironically, Kuno's character isn't even the worst one in this show. The kids constantly complain about the producer treating them like kids, with Arisu and Risa being the biggest offenders, but they continually act like selfish brats, so what right do they have to demand to be waited on hand and foot? The writers for this anime cannot write kids, because they either act too mature for their age or way too childish to the point where they behave more like toddlers than school-aged kids. The worst offenders of this are Risa and Koharu, with Risa in particular being absolutely repugnant in that not only does she threaten to accuse the producer of being a pedo at one point for an extremely petty reason, the creators decided to make her have a really, really creepy obsession with her father. And by that I mean Yuri Briar levels of obsession. Like, Risa flat-out says that she wants to become Prime Minister for the sole reason of changing the laws so kids can marry their fathers, which is what she wants to do with her own father. The fuck?! I'm not the only one who sees what's wrong with this whole thing, right? Koharu isn't anywhere near as bratty, but her problem is that in her focus episode, the whole conflict starts because she wandered away from her job and got lost...all because she let her imagination get away from her, like a toddler who saw a butterfly and wandered away from her parents. Seriously, Koharu is so annoyingly, cloyingly saccharine and sweet, her songs included, that she acts like a toddler who hasn't gotten over her Disney princess phase. She may as well have come straight out of the G3 My Little Pony Newborn Cuties specials. None of the other characters develop beyond their main archetype because the creators think having cute girls be moe is better than actually making them three-dimensional and relatable human beings.

The writing in and of itself also doesn't really make an effort to do the characters or the story justice, and often times, the show never seemed to know what it wanted to do with itself. In one episode, Momoka is called in to do a segment on bungee jumping, and everyone expects her to be scared when doing said bungee jumping, thinking that's her true self, but Momoka goes through with the bungee jump in her usual prim and proper manner...and for some reason, at the end, she goes on a diatribe about now realizing what love is. The hell?! Where did that come from?! It was completely out of nowhere, didn't fit with the rest of the episode, and I had to question just what the writers for that episode were even going for. There are also several conflicts that are unnecessarily dragged out to fill out the episode when they could have easily been resolved in five minutes if the characters just...y'know, talked things out. The show's attempts at writing drama come off as extremely shallow because it wants us to care about these kids, but what little they show of their backgrounds and motivations don't do anything to really make them anything more than, yet again, rote moe archetypes. Considering the anime juggles a large cast in 12 episodes, it doesn't have the wiggle room to really flesh out the characters as much as it could have if it had 24-26 episodes, like previous Idolmaster series had. Though...it kinda says a lot that my two favorite characters, and the ones who wound up having the best episodes, are Haru and Chie. And I gotta say, I am SO happy that Haru's episode didn't pull a 22/7 and force her to wear a skirt when she's stated she really doesn't like doing so and offered a solution that respected her autonomy. Seriously, if that episode tried to pull the whole "Tomboys have to wear skirts and be more feminine if they want to be accepted" moral, I would have thrown a shit-fit on the level of Soraya Montenegro.

I don't have as much to say about the soundtrack, as its your typical stock idol fare, with saccharine songs with shrill voices that have the same cookie-cutter lyrics. Honestly, the only characters whose insert songs didn't make me want to claw my ears out were Momoka, Chie, and Arisu. Even the background music was just completely unmemorable to me whatsoever. I mean, it's not like I could really pay attention to it over the girls' shrill, squeaky voices. The only thing about this anime I can really praise is the animation, as it's pretty good and fluid and whatever bad CGI models they use are used pretty sparingly. Though I honestly have to question why they'd use CGI models at all, as there are plenty of scenes with the girls dancing drawn in 2D, and those look way better than the 3D CGI dancing they use for some concert scenes. But the mostly good animation cannot save a terribly executed premise.

So I honestly have to ask...was this spin-off entirely necessary? What is it even supposed to accomplish? What's the point of making an anime about the youngest members of the franchise if you don't even give a damn about doing anything with it? A lot of the series is just the producer trying to find work for the girls, resulting in a lot of putzing around. Which makes me realize that U149 was basically made just to rake in more money for the franchise. Yes, I know U149 started off as a manga, but the manga itself is another facet of the multimedia franchise as a whole, and U149 is just a cynical corporate product meant to both garner more brand synergy and pander to people who want to see insufferable lolis. So yeah, Idolmaster U149 is insufferable, lazy, has no idea what it wants to do with itself, and thinks shilling cutesy-poo moe girls is a good replacement for actual substance. If you're into watching this kind of stuff, you do you, but if you can't stand watching little kids screaming about how awesome idols are and the overall saccharineness of trying to shill the idol industry as being nicer than it actually is, give it a miss. You're not missing much.

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Recent Forum Discussion

Which U149 fanbase is equally insane, Japan or the West? IssyBoy - Mar 26	3 replies	by AugustoMamilo »» Apr 6, 12:02 PM
Poll: The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 Episode 7 Discussion BonBonToro - May 17, 2023	26 replies	by AW_Flister »» Apr 3, 4:53 AM
Poll: The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 Episode 5 Discussion BonBonToro - May 3, 2023	27 replies	by AW_Flister »» Mar 30, 6:36 AM
Poll: The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 Episode 4 Discussion BonBonToro - Apr 26, 2023	32 replies	by AW_Flister »» Mar 26, 4:40 AM
Which U149 fanbase is equally insane, Japan or the West? IssyBoy - Mar 26	0 replies	by IssyBoy »» Mar 26, 4:27 AM

The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149

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Characters & Voice Actors

Tachibana, Arisu

Sakurai, Momoka

Akagi, Miria

Ichihara, Nina

Yuuki, Haru

Matoba, Risa

Sasaki, Chie

Ryuuzaki, Kaoru

Koga, Koharu

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The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

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