The iDOLM@STER Shiny Colors

Watching Shiny Colors is like eating a sandwich you hastily put together, forgetting to put any substance in it. That's not to say there's nothing here - there definitely is, it's just incredibly bland. The main problem with this show is it tries to deviate from the tried and tested formula of the IDOLM@STER anime series. The magic of the industry: the drama, perils, laughter, and sorrow, is swapped for a slice-of-life story featuring a new cast preparing for an event. There are no stakes here, as this production agency seems to be rather prosperous (much like Bandai Namco after releasing this). Now, a slice of life has the opportunity to be something new and different, but the staff have managed to fumble it. Instead of focusing on a small group of characters; it showcases multiple units of them at once. Being only 12 episodes long, and having far more than 12 characters, they can't flesh the characters out sufficiently. This results in a lot of flat characters and boring interactions. Each episode consists of jumpcuts to various groups, throwing you out of the immersion. No girl is properly introduced, and the constant need to show their name cards in the corner of the screen hints at how forgettable they are. A mediocre scenario isn't helped by the studio blatantly insulting you for your time by offering a "climax" in the form of 48 minutes of performances. I hope you enjoy "Tsubasa Gravity", as you'll be hearing that almost enough to make you mute it. If you're at all familiar with the music channels, you'll feel right at home with Shiny Colors. You'd be better off using it as background music while you do something else (perhaps making a better sandwich). On the topic of background music, the actual soundtrack of the anime is forgettable. I can't even remember it as I'm writing this. There's an opening which sounds quite good, but the studio forgot to animate any endings. In later episodes, they completely forgot to put an ending song in, which results in you getting depressing piano tracks accompanied by low-budget default credit effects. It feels incredibly lazy and that a lot of corners were cut in producing it. In the animation department, not much was cooked up. The majority of character designs are unappealing and the background environments are generic. It looked incredibly disappointing compared to the previous 3DCG IM@S anime with vibrant movements. A lot of scenes in Shiny Colors were replaced with montages consisting of static shots or reused animation. This may seem all doom and gloom, but if you note my rating there isn't all bad with this show. After all, an idol anime enjoyer is here for the idols and their music, right? Rest assured you will have your fill of IDOLM@STER idolness. The songs are as good as ever, and if you're a fan of the characters (I sadly only recognised 2-3 of them), you'll be more at home with it. However if you're not a fan, I can't possibly recommend this to you. I believe that, much like myself, you'll be bored to tears.

In my attempts to stave off sleep while watching the final episode to this wretched blandness Scamco calls an "anime", my attention is suddenly piqued by a strange man, who looks to be twice as old as the girls he is stalking. Who could this mysterious man be, and why is he eyeing our heroines with such interest? The idols are in danger! Someone call the police! Oh... ... It's some guy they call "Producer"... .. Oh....... Scamco has made Imas shows for over a decade now. They vary wildly in quality, but they were characters starring in an anime. I don't know what the fuck Shiny Colors was. Perhaps it's some borderline experimental approach to make a series of moving pictures with the blandest cardboard cutouts I've ever seen, and I've watched some shitty Isekai in my lifetime. Everyone is overly nice in the "corporate approved" sort of way. No one has any personality, any conflicts, any story, or any motivation to begin with. They are merely 3D models who exist, ostensibly part of the Idolmaster franchise, though frankly they could be some knock-off Best Value brand idols for all I care. I can't tell you who's who at the very end of the show. Maybe Houkago School Girls has some semblance of a personality, but even then it's not much. There is a man they call "Producer" who creeps around like a stalker but does nothing at all. And after not being in the spotlight for however many episodes, Mana or Mano or whatever her name is, suddenly is the center of their idol production and everyone's going to the main stage and I stopped caring at this point. If Scamco isn't putting in any effort in making this entertaining, I'm not putting in any effort trying to piece whatever semblance of narrative is in this garbage. I'm not even watching this for any plot or arcs, I just want to see Cute Girls being Cute, and they can't even succeed at even that. And the music? Imas' bread and butter? Shockingly generic and forgettable. Gone are the days of CG and even Milimas, Shinymas' songs are as boring as they come.It is what you'd get if you'd ask an AI to generate music. It is aggressively bland. Normally I wouldn't have cared so much if this was any other show, or if this was Scamco's very first attempt. But it's 2024. Imas has been around for almost 20 years at this point. And it's not like there isn't any competition from this season. Girls Band Cry is doing a demonstrably better job at every single aspect. I can't even call Imas "One of the Anime of All Time", because it even fails at being an anime. The biggest sin any piece of media can commit is to be bland. Bad shows have a good talking point, but blandness is a special kind of experience. It involves sucking out your soul until you could no longer feel anything. For all its faults, I'd rather see AIDORU YAMERU a million times over this. The only good thing about this is that it is a cheaper alternative to Ambien. 3/10

Despite my undying love for THE iDOLM@STER, I don't know if I can sugar coat this one.... this show was rough. Its been very disappointing to see the iDOLM@STER anime series become progressively lower and lower in quality. The 765Pro anime is near perfection and I'll always stand by that. But as time went on, the shows became shorter and more rushed and the other branches are just too big to get any actual screen time or character development. And this one was by far the worst offender of that. I was a bit hopeful since this branch is rather small in comparison to the others, but it was honestly SO unbelievably rushed. So much time just felt wasted. I felt like I was watching the same episode 4 different times, 12 times in a row, because they'd just have everyone in their own respective units having the same conversations on the exact same topic, only in different locations. They spent almost no time together or with characters outside of their units and that was incredibly disappointing. The song choices were very underwhelming, as every single one of them was one that was used for the debut of Song For Prism. Which, I know, this show is meant to be a big advertisement for that game. But iM@S anime series used to be MORE than that and could stand on their own, so its frustrating to see them backpedal so badly, all for the sake of saving money. I wasn't crazy about the Million Live anime using 3D animation, and somehow this show looks even worse than that. The art cards of Shiny Colors have some of the most unbelievably breathtaking illustrations I've ever seen in my life. Which only makes it that much more apparent how bad this show looks, in comparison. This branch deserved SO much better. Everything about this show just screams "cheap". From the constant montage shots of every single character for the sake of filling the time slot, to the fact that the credits of every episode have no new songs or illustrations like all the other shows did. It was just... rough... They did announce a second season for this one, which is shocking. And odd, considering how it doesn't seem like it'll be adding ALL of the missing idols from this branch. Will there be a third season, afterwards!? Why would they spend so much time on this anime when they very clearly didn't care about putting any effort into the first season? I don't have much hope for it, but of course I'll be tuning in. I love these characters and liked getting to spend time with them, as I always do. But Shiny Colors is one of the richest branches in terms of story and visuals. And this show just absolutely failed in both of those departments. I absolutely can't recommend it as your gateway to Shiny Colors or to iM@S as a whole. 5/10, and thats being incredibly generous.

This is probably the first iDOLM@STER series I did not like whatsoever. Up until now every iM@S anime had some kind of dramatic element - whether a competitor with a grudge and without ethics, a firm director who wants to disband everyone and start over, or sometimes just the slice of life elements like the hardships and emotional relationships between the idols. This show has absolutely NOTHING. There is nothing I can write about the plot because, frankly, there is none. It's as generic as you can get - a bunch of teenage girls doing some practice, making their debut, becoming idols and making it to a live show. That's the entire plot of the anime in a single sentence. Maybe the only people who would want to watch it are those who seriously played the game it's based on and maybe some hardcore moe fans - and even then I wouldn't be too sure. My recommendation - Just skip this. Hopefully the next one would be better.

The iDOLM@STER anime franchise has been improving with each series that has come out and I would say Shiny Colors is the best yet. The past series have struggled to properly introduce characters with enough screen time before jumping around constantly. Shiny Colors improved greatly on this by feeling more like a standalone story that can be started and understood without previous knowledge of the series. Each subunit in Shiny Colors was given dedicated time to understand what they are about and how each of the idols relate to each other. By the end of the season you feel like you really understand each of the girls and want to cheer them on. During the first few minutes of watching I was a bit disappointed with them using a CG animation style, but after some time it grew on me and the quality particularly shines during the live music scenes. I was very impressed with how many live MVs this series had, whereas in the previous iDOLM@STER series they seemed to skip over the actual music performances most of the time. The final episode of this season was very impressive with multiple full songs animated like an actual live idol performance. The quality and variety of songs in Shiny Colors has also been my favorite of any iDOLM@STER series. I am very much looking forward to the 2nd season! Pros: - Characters and seiyuus - Many live song performances - Good pacing and screen time for characters and subunits - Amazing songs Cons: - The story can be slow if you aren't a fan of slice of life - If you aren't a big idol fan, or dislike the typical "love, hope, and dreams" plot, you probably won't like it

The anime adaptation of Shiny Colors is, to put, a glorified advertisement for their rhythm game spinoff Song for Prism. Except, it's pretty much nothing when it comes to story pacing and progression, their choice of music, and so forth. The primary gripe of this anime is how they rely heavily on Song for Prism's NOMAKE commus. For each IDOLM@STER anime there is at least a supplementary nomake commu which can be found in respective games (mainly mobile game ones). They are usually extras, adding additonal (and somehow optional) story elements that enhance each main episode's storyline. Shiny Colors? The audacity to make plotlines confusing and incomplete, yet they put PIVOTAL, IMPORTANT story elements in a REGION-LOCKED rhythm game is baffling; wanna know Mano's motivation to join the production? Go read the commu, Episode 1 doesn't even explain anything about it. They should really have been part of the anime in the first place. The slideshows in each ending? Those became an entire commu in the game. Bamco's decision to pivot im@s anime into 3d takes a further downward spiral, the CGI is somewhat worse than Million Live's. Some cutscenes are also laughable like one in illumination STARS' recording of their song "Hikari no Destination" while L'Antica is watching them; the later's members have this freeze frame with dull facial expressions for uncomfortable seconds LOL Instead of making dedicated new songs for this season (bar its OP), they thought it's a good idea to rehash already released songs before the anime's inception (being BRILLI@NT WING songs). And they have the ball to repeat them all over again across the episodes. It hurts to see that each ending is either instrumental versions of respective BRILLI@NT WING songs, or that one borring ahh piano tune that is so out of place for an anime based on the game that champions good storywriting. In short, even a ShinyP is doubtful about this one. This new era of ANiM@S is a tragedy; we got an amazing retelling of U149, a somehow average Million Live, and then this. Shiny Colors as a brand right now is struggling with Bandai Namco attempting to push them into the number 1 im@s brand (by baiting people to play their badly received Song for Prism game, only to be overthown by gakuen im@s), and this anime is an insult to injury to bamco's nepo baby. Go watch any other im@s anime instead, hell even gundam-laden Xenoglossia too.

Shiny colors, probably the least known of idolmaster but actually the best one with the most fleshed out characters. Developed as a browser idol sim game and released in 2018. Yet thanks to the community it's one of the few iM@S games to be able to play in english via it's fan patched web version. The series is a stand alone and doesn't need any knowledge of previous iM@S series and can be a good starting point for the franchise. It takes all the aspects of the game and puts them nicely into motion. As an early fan of shiny, I can tell that it's a faithful adaptation of the game. While the previous iM@S entries are more similar to each other and be bright, lively and even dramatic, shiny colors takes quite a different approach and is more laid back, slow and plays like a slice of life series. The presented agency is smaller and less strict and tries to build newcomer idols. We have a laid back president who basically is kaiba by voice, us as producer and the cute easy-going secretary hazuki. Unlike million live with 39 idols, we only have 16 idols, which makes it easier to remember the idols by face, voice and personality. The focus here is more on the units and their interaction between each other and overall more on the daily lives of the idols. This always was the biggest appeal of shiny and combined with the slow progression, the idols are the most fleshed out of the entire franchise. It may be a 3D CGI animation but the graphics are actually really nice, soft and clean and very faithful to the original design. It still retains a good 2D look. The characters look beautiful and they show unusually lots of small details in their expressions like eye movements, which is nice to see. Environments look good and the lighting often is very beautiful too, especially during sunset scenes or similar ones. Animation can be sometimes slow with low fps, but with the slow tone, it's fitting and after a while you get used to it. Even with the fps in mind, the concert scenes still look amazing and well done. Here the 3D animation plays out it's pros too with nice close ups, fancy camera movements and good dance mocap, making the entire thing more lively and realistic as watching a real concert. Overall shiny colors looks even better than million live too, as the film grain in ML was often too heavy, visuals too blurry and it somehow even had visible aliasing around the hair too unlike in shiny. Story in shiny progresses slowly and it takes some time for things to develop. It's basically a slice of life series with idol as a theme. But it's cute and relaxing and sets up a nice atmosphere and mood in exchange for being slow, giving time for development. Scenes are often deep and thoughtful by the way it's presented, especially if you already know the idols. It sometimes plays out as a drama series as it focuses on the idols emotion. Yet it has less forced drama than the other entries and less annoying characters too, making it more enjoyable and easier to follow and pick a favorite character. Sound is also good and has a beautiful calm and relaxing ost with slow tones and many piano sounds, fitting for it's slice of life style. Tracks may not be that recognizable and iconic, but they add much emotion and are a good accompany to the scenes and visuals. As for the idol songs, we have different genre for each unit. Ranging from classic idol pop, to more high energy music and even metal. An overall good range, which the game even expands on more. All the unit songs are actually from the game. While the series has a sweet original opening, it actually lacks on an ending song and mostly uses the various unit songs as off vocal track or a piano outro. This could be because the series originally got a cinema release and rather has a more cinematic tone too. I personally liked the off vocal and piano outros as it gave more meaning and chance of reflecting to the watched scenes while the credits roll. A unique and nice change from the usual setup. As a fan of iM@S and slice of life, shiny colors was really enjoyable thanks to it's deviation from the usual idol series formular, making it more unique and fresh. It's more calm and laid back, making it easier to jump in and follow and it has a nice touch of other healing series. Visuals are beautiful and sound is a nice accompany. The characters are cute, individual, recognizable and there are no annoying characters either. While the game may go more in depth with the characters, the anime still represents them how they are in the game and even had various easter eggs from the game. Overall it may be more of a treat for the already existing fans, but it's still worth for newcomers too, especially if you like slice of life and idols. The series ratings honestly are unusually low in comparison to the other iM@S entries. It definitely deserves better than that. It could be because of the different setting and expectations though and especially the very different visuals, namely the 3D CGI. Yet shiny sure is a great example of very good 3D CGI animation. Even with that in mind, shiny deserves a watch and I enjoyed every aspect of it, especially as a fan of idolmaster and slice of life series.