The iDOLM@STER SideM

I've been a huge fan of the SideM series since 2016. Of course, I was very excited when this anime was announced, even though my favorite characters from the game weren't featured in it. However, I wouldn't recommend this anime to anyone who is 1) unfamilar with SideM already, or 2) hasn't watched THE iDOLM@STER (2011) and its film. This review will consider Episode of Jupiter as part of this anime.

Story (6/10) - Fair
There's two points I'd like to focus on. First, I think it's important to watch THE iDOLM@STER (2011) and its film prior to watch Episode of Jupiter and the SideM anime. EoJ ... explicitly has a scene from the movie and while it's not really considered a spoiler, new watchers would probably feel nothing for EoJ if they hadn't yet experienced Jupiter's story through the original anime. Although I'm a big Jupiter fan and EoJ was my favorite episode, I've already met multiple people who disliked Jupiter because of the 'suddenness' of their story in EoJ; they don't really get a good introduction in comparison to the others.

Secondly, the episodes themselves. There was an overarching plot... I think? But it's not memorable to me, so I don't think it was anything significant. SideM has a pretty lax and chill atmosphere, it's just a bunch of dudes trying to become idols. It almost has a slice-of-life feel in that it's mainly made of self-contained episodes. One of the latter episodes has some drama, but it gets cleared up quite quickly. Most episodes focus on one or two idol units. The episodes themselves are fine for what they are, cute and short stories. However, there ARE 19 characters in a 13 episode anime, so while they do a good job at introducing the characters on a base level, they aren't able to go into the characters very deeply (even for aspects that may be a major part of their character in the games). More on this later.

Basically, it's fine if you like more light-hearted stories that don't have much of a serious plot. Usually, I'd like this sort of story, but I also feel like SideM doesn't handle it the best what with all of the characters.

Art (8/10) - Very Good
Art and animation is very nice, appealing and easy on the eyes. Heaps of wonderfully hand-animated dance scenes with just a little bit of CG that's barely noticeable. My only con is that some character design features were softened in order to fit the art style, but I don't really mind that either. Might make characters look a bit same-facey.

Sound (10/10) - Outstanding
Nothing to complain about here! As usual, the voice actors suit their characters perfectly and are all distinguishable except maybe the twins, but they ARE twins, even if they're voiced by different people. Many new songs were created especially for the anime and they all sound great!

Character (7/10) - Good
I'm biased, having read a lot of the in-game material, so I think all of these characters are already great. The units chosen for the anime are definitely the less gimmicky and niche ones, so they should be able to appeal to more people in general. However, due to the units only having one or two episodes to themselves, more interesting aspects of their character easily get overlooked. This makes them seem boring in comparison to their portrayal in-game. For example, the anime does not mention Minori's ex-delinquent or dead uncle past at all despite it being a large part of his character. Sure, there was one minor reference to this in a gag, but without mentioning it directly he simply seems like a normal soft anime boy. For that reason, I think that the cast should've been cut down further, perhaps to just Jupiter and DRAMATIC STARS. Not only would it allow them to dive deeper into their characters, but a more serious plot could also work with a smaller cast.

Enjoyment (4/10) - Decent
Not going to lie, after EoJ it was kinda a slog to get through the rest. I don't enjoy watching anime in general, so there's that. But I also felt like it was pretty boring. Not just because my favorite characters were only shown for 5 seconds. Maybe it is the lack of strong overarching plot afterall; iM@S 2011 had a similar episodic format yet I still found it enjoyable because there were clear storylines running throughout it. This could be because of what the anime was adapted from, though-- there's no 'main story' in the SideM games for the anime to follow. Maybe if it were longer, they could go deeper into the characters and have some interesting plot lines.

Overall (7/10) - Good
Ultimately, SideM is good, maybe even great if you enjoy soft and light-hearted anime with good music. I would treat it as a sequel and watch iM@S 2011 first for full enjoyment of EoJ. It's OK as an introduction for these six units from SideM, but don't expect to learn a lot about them and anything about the others. If you want to know more about the characters, I would suggest looking at the dozens of translated SideM game content (just google "SideM English TL Archive"). A lot of the characters have a ton of translated manga that talk about their backstory and personality, which is how I'd personally recommend one 'gets into' SideM. But if you prefer anime, this show isn't bad either.

First review on MAL!

I may clarify that I have watched a lot of male idols anime's, and not even the ones from my favorites franchises (Uta no prince-sama and Ensemble Stars!) are even half enjoyable as Im@s SideM.

One thing that really catch my attention was the fact that most of them (12/19 if I'm correct) were 18 or over. Seeing adults in this kind of animes is really something fresh! I loved this!

The animation is, really, amazing.

I'm not a big fan of The Idolm@ster franchise since I dislike the producer-idol relationship it portrays. Just personal taste. But from the clips from the 2011 anime ... and Deresute I saw, Im@s SideM animation is just as good as them.

The standars of animation in idols' animes are really low. And worse yet, when the staff decides to mess around with cg. It usually ends bad. But this is not the case, i'm glad to say.
- The animation is stunning. Go watch the opening (Reasons!!) on Youtube. I swear it stays in that level.
- The character desing is just on point, not to simple, not to complex.

The characters are super likeable!
They are not that edgy/tragic past/war criminal/class traitor we tend to see in idol anime. They are just lads having fun!
Yes, there are some characters with trauma they need to overcome (like Tsubasa "idol Makoto Tachibana", my favorite), but is just a part of them growing up.

Another thing I *really* aprecciated was the lack of unnecessary drama. Only in the 12th episode. And it wasn't even unnecessary drama.

So yeah! I would highly recommend this show if you like Idolish7, Tsukiuta, or Marginal#4, slices of life without romance (or a little, if you count i7 as romance).

Am I biased? yes.
But after watching so trashy idol animes, let me have my moment.

wowee my first mal review!
i've watched the original idolm@ster anime as well as cinderella girls, and played a lot of the mobile games. it's my first time actually diving deep into the sidem series though.
i didn't really know much about the series besides the dirty looking science guy whos really hot (lol) but this series was ok if a bit weirdly paced at times!

theres not a lot of dancing performances, i want to say theres like 5 when in the other series like cinderella girls there were way more even in just one season. most of the group specific episodes ended up getting montages instead, ... which was pretty disappointing. one of my favorite groups, S.E.M got a nice dance for their episode which made me really happy.

the transition from 3d to 2d in the dance scenes was also really jarring especially since OG idolmaster and cinderella girls used 2d for all the dances. i don't think it was necessary to switch between them especially from behind. i did think the usage of 3d for the light sticks in the audience was very smart though.

a lot of characters could have had their backstory touched upon, but they'd probably need for the anime to be a 2-cour instead of just 13 episodes. theres the same if not more amount of idols in sidem like OG idolmaster, so i don't think 13 episodes is fitting for it. though i guess it was because of budgeting?
the story was also pretty typical, if a bit boring at times because they didn't go for bonker twists and falling outs like cinderella girls and OG idolmaster.

i feel bad for comparing sidem to the other series, but at the end of the day it's all a part of the same universe so it's hard not to see what makes the other series better than sidem at least anime wise. i hope if there is a season 2 they make up for its shortcomings! also please at least watch to see jiro animated i love him so much