By now, the word “idol” has breached past the niches of Internet culture and into mainstream media.
This can be attributed to the recent popularity of idols seen in Kpop fandoms as kpop idol fan cams on TikTok or Twitter, performances on a global stage- like the NewJeans 2024 New Year’s Eve performance– have integrated themselves into society.
While the influence of Asian derivative idol culture is still a fairly new concept in American society, it’s a rapidly growing one thanks to media like the Japanese idol gacha game “Ensemble Stars!! Music,” which currently reaps influence amongst idol aficionados worldwide as of January 2023 with its featured song climax event, “Reverb★Stella Maris Crossing The Horizon,” that includes newly featured character gacha, missions, and storyline.
“Ensemble Stars” first debuted on the Japanese app store in 2015 with its launch of “Ensemble Stars! Basic,” a game that revolved around the player producing idols of various archetypes as they go through the highs and lows of idol school Yumenosaki Private Academy. Things like dance and vocal lessons combined with the occasional hijinks of war, execution, grief, vampirism, cannibalism, an occasional monologue that rivals classical Russian literature, and the gambling system the game runs on, all contained within the smiling app icon of an orange-haired anime boy.
While the first installment contains a gacha system where the player gambles in-game currency from completing missions or stories in banners that potentially promise high-quality art of said characters behind drop rates, it’s the second installment “Ensemble Stars!! Music” that truly struck an influence despite its unavailability on the English app store.
Up until June 16, 2022, the series remained region-locked to Japan and other Asian servers, but the release of the English server allowed the game to debut globally, pushing the presence of idol-centered media to global audiences.
To mark the global release, the game developer, Happy Elements, decided to launch full-scale advertisements for the game in Times Square in which pedestrians would be subjected to game clips on the centermost billboard in Times Square.
To coincide with the music in its name, “Ensemble Stars!! Music” introduces a rhythm game gimmick that allows the player to play beat maps of songs fully performed by voice actors for the idol characters. The characters themselves had undergone heavy character development since the main story line although it comes at the cost of the jarring story plot lines it’s been known to have.
OH senior Arleth Antunez accredits “Ensemble Stars!! Music” collaboration with Sanrio as the reason behind her induction.
“I highly recommend “Ensemble Stars” to anime fans that want to try something new, the cute character designs and outfits for the Sanrio collab drew me in,” said Antunez, “but the music, simple rhythm game mechanics, and regularly updated event storylines that drop new character cards to collect, keep me engrossed in the game!”
While idol culture remains a niche, “Ensemble Stars” with its immersive storyline and rhythm game feature has earned its notoriety amongst the recent rise of idol culture overseas, ultimately proving itself to be one of the most successful gateways into Idol gacha game hell, successfully accentuating the mark of idol influence on a global audience.
42Fiftys very own post-niche internet micro-ecelebrity (mid geoguesser player) that lived through a chronic gas leak that was going on in their house for a little over a year without their knowledge. Their only qualification is that they bring a silly goose vibe to the geese party.
