Future of iM@S DS

[Chance4U]

And with the other idols of Dearly Stars, Cineria, Mai and Yumeko, would you think they have a chance at a playable/producable role?

I would hope so... They do have "official CVs" so I guess it's possible.
What worries me is how the story would change... If you did have units (which is what a lot of fans seem to want and what the iM@S 2 is now promoting), Ai and Mai's/Eri and Cineria's stories would change drastically...
Pair any of those girls (or boy) with any other girl (or boy), and the story could be interesting... Maybe even Reiko and Satomi would come back... It'd be very interesting to see units in Dearly Stars. Maybe you could even play as an 876 idol in a unit with 765 PRO girls. or 961 boys.

I kinda want to see Jupiter join 876 after quitting 961. Then the roster could be Ai, Eri, Cineria, Yumeko, Ryo, Touma, Hokuto, and Shouta... four boys and four girls...

[zeda12123]

it'd be really interesting to see and idolm@ser game with mixed genders. I think it could end up working really well.

[ninjamitsuki]

Well a lot of people would love producable male idols ('sides Ryo), but I never thought of the idea of mixed gender units. That could potentially be really interesting.

[Maka]

I'd love a mixed cast of genders in a new idolmaster game, but I'm concerned about the extreme side of the Japanese fandom that like destroyed their games and sent death threats when Jupiter was announced. Yeah, it's a small slice of the fandom but idk how they'd react.

[Daverost]

I imagine that if Namco were at all concerned with them, they'd have kept Jupiter out of the anime and Shiny Festa.

[ninjamitsuki]

Though, if the cast were of mixed genders and you could put them all together, the songs would have to be gender neutral, wouldn't they? I guess Relations, Dazzling World and Meisou Mind and stuff like that might fit the bill but most of the songs in the series are from a female perspective and it would be weird to hear say, Touma singing something like Do-Dai XD. The same could be said for Ai singing Alice or Guilty. XD

I'm actually thinking Namco is testing the waters with male idols. I think they just need to attract the right audience, which is why they're making shojo manga spinoffs. And rabid fans that overreact to trivial things in an almost offensive manner are in EVERY fandom of a large scale. iDOLM@STER not being an exception. We just have to live with them, unfortunately.

[Chance4U]

... but most of the songs in the series are from a female perspective and it would be weird to hear say, Touma singing something like Do-Dai XD. The same could be said for Ai singing Alice or Guilty. XD

Meh, I could see it. The songs could just have the regular music, but guys or girls could have different choreography and lyrics depending on where they stand in group dances... Besides, if mixed groups could be available, gender neutral songs would be very likely. Even Koi wo Hajimeyou would work!

... I want to see Ai do a backflip now...

[ninjamitsuki]

That would take a lot of extra effort, I imagine, but who knows, it could work.

[RisingStar]

I'm actually thinking Namco is testing the waters with male idols. I think they just need to attract the right audience, which is why they're making shojo manga spinoffs. And rabid fans that overreact to trivial things in an almost offensive manner are in EVERY fandom of a large scale. iDOLM@STER not being an exception. We just have to live with them, unfortunately.

But UtaPri is pretty popular, so I don't believe it completely unusual.

Meh, I could see it. The songs could just have the regular music, but guys or girls could have different choreography and lyrics depending on where they stand in group dances... Besides, if mixed groups could be available, gender neutral songs would be very likely. Even Koi wo Hajimeyou would work!

That would take a lot of time to craft choreography for different genders while still being similar.

[ninjamitsuki]

Well yeah there is a market for male idol games, and Utapri is popular, and the new Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side mobile game is about idols, but they'd just need to get that audience to play iDOLM@STER in particular. iM@S has a lot more to offer with its ingenuity, mass, and customization aspect. The kind of sheer awesomeness iM@S has is something otome and BL games desperately need.

Also, maybe make some shojo manga about the 765 and 876 girls (and boy) instead of Jupiter. Since you can actually play as them, it'll probably get more of the manga readers to play the games.

[Chance4U]

Also, maybe make some shojo manga about the 765 and 876 girls (and boy) instead of Jupiter. Since you can actually play as them, it'll probably get more of the manga readers to play the games.

I thought they already made mangas... Dearly Stars even got mangas for each of the 876 idols: SPLASH RED, INNOCENT BLUE, and NEUE GREEN...
Only Chihaya and Miki have done this from 765 PRO right?

Umm... If a new DS game follows the regular iM@S format (you are the producer), what will happen to Reiko and Manami? They are Eri and Ai's producers, so would they just... not exist?

[Neko-P]

Well, the player COULD be in a position similar to the position taken in the Extra episode with RK; i.e., they are Reiko/Manami's assitant. In the case of Manami (who was the producer for both Ai and Ryo, though she focused more on Ai as Ryo was better at taking care of himself) the player might take over production responsibilities if she leaves as she did in DS. Another way this could work: add Cineria as an 876 idol and have either her or Eri be Reiko's idol, depending on which one the player's producing. (Neither leads to both...?) Manami could then be Mai's producer from the start.

Personally, I'm going with the "player is an assistant" theory. Maybe they/"we"(?) are an intern, like what Ritsuko was in the original games before she became an idol due to lack of idols. Plus, it would make for a cool "taking the reins" sorta plot thing. As for if you produce Eri instead... Perhaps Reiko leaves as Eri's producer once someone (coughcoughKuroicough) leaks that Eri's producer was a member of riola, mentioning the scandal. She would leave to prevent the rumor from ruining Eri's career as it had her own. (Or something...?) Now, as to why someone would want to leak something like that...

(Also, something kinda nitpicky: Manami is technically a manager, not a producer. Not sure what the difference is, but it's there.)

[ninjamitsuki]

I thought they already made mangas... Dearly Stars even got mangas for each of the 876 idols: SPLASH RED, INNOCENT BLUE, and NEUE GREEN...
Only Chihaya and Miki have done this from 765 PRO right?

Umm... If a new DS game follows the regular iM@S format (you are the producer), what will happen to Reiko and Manami? They are Eri and Ai's producers, so would they just... not exist?

There are manga, but most of them are shonen and the only shojo manga focus on Jupiter. It seems Namco is trying to expand the demographic of iM@S. I think that if they really want to attract a female audience to buy the games through shojo manga, they'd probably need to use the producable idols as the main cast and a story that represents the games, since you can actually play as them and would make more girls interested in the games to hear the songs and learn more about these characters. I think iM@S could easily work in a shojo setting, it could focus on the daily lives of the idols and how their career affects their lifestyle or something like that.

Back on the subject of Dearly Stars, I would be interested in seeing the non main idols be expanded into the main cast. Though I've yet to play Dearly Stars, some of the minor characters could potentially be good idols if they were expanded upon a bit. It would be amazing if Reiko somehow miraculously became an idol again, or at least give character songs to them despite them not being idols like Kotori I believe even Producer, because Yuu Asakawa would be such a great voice for iM@S. Well ya never know, in iM@S 2 Takane and Hibiki were with 765 from the beginning unlike SP so maybe they could do another role switching AU thing. I mean some of the non voiced characters have some awesome designs and potential.

[animagic4u]

I'll just leave this here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quLJz34SOjo&feature=youtu.be

Note that this game literally has nothing to do with iDOLM@STER it's just one of $camco's tricks.

[JNiles]

That was the longest 3 minutes of my life ever.   

Seriously, that bear's voice is like a drill in the ear.  It totally destroyed my concentration in the game I was playing while I listened to the video.