The Complete iDOLM@STER Franchise Timeline, in order
“Six idol brands, one timeline, in the order they actually aired.”
THE iDOLM@STER started in 2005 as a Namco arcade machine and has since split into five separate idol-management games, each with its own cast, its own TV anime, and its own stretch of side content. This page tracks all of it in one place, grouped by which idol brand each release belongs to and ordered by air date within that brand.
The original 765 Production cast got the earliest anime treatment: a mecha reimagining called Xenoglossia in 2007 that shares nothing but names with the rest of the franchise, followed by the mainline 2011 TV series, a run of OVAs and specials, a 2014 movie, and the long-running Puchimas chibi-comedy spinoff, which runs alongside all of it without touching the plot.
Cinderella Girls, the game that introduced the franchise's largest cast, gets a two-season TV series, four years of three-minute Theater comedy shorts, a 2023 spinoff called U149, and a 2021 anniversary film. SideM brought the franchise's first all-male idol unit to anime in 2017. Million Live! waited a decade between its earliest promotional PVs and an actual TV series in 2023. Shiny Colors, the newest of the five games, has run two TV seasons since 2024 alongside a steady stream of short PVs for individual character songs.
A handful of pure advertising is left off entirely: mobile-game commercials, a live-tour etiquette video, a curry-brand tie-in commercial, and an anniversary campaign bumper. None of it is story or music content, and counting it as anime would pad this page without helping anyone find the actual shows.
Xenoglossia (An Alternate Timeline)
A 2007 mecha series that recasts the idols as pilots defending Earth from an alien threat, sharing only names and designs with the rest of the franchise.
The earliest anime carrying the iDOLM@STER name, made four years before the mainline TV series and telling an unrelated science fiction story. It's grouped here because the franchise and MyAnimeList both count it as part of the family, not because anything later depends on it.
Nine short DVD bonus episodes released alongside the TV series' home video volumes in 2007 and 2008.
765 Pro: The Original Story
A 2008 concert-style OVA featuring the original 765 Production idols, three years before their own TV series existed.
Structured as a live concert rather than a story episode, and made years before the 2011 TV series. Watch it for the earliest animated appearance of the original cast; skip it if you're here for plot.
765 Production's idols, including new arrival Haruka Amami, train and perform together across 25 episodes as the agency works to make them a top act.
A 2012 special revisiting the 765 Production cast about six months after the TV series wrapped.
A four-part 2012 OVA splitting the 765 Production idols across parallel storylines, adapting the Shiny Festa game releases.
Haruka Amami leads a group of rookie dancers, including Kana Yabuki, toward an arena concert in this 2014 theatrical film.
A pilot chibi-comedy short from 2011 spinning the 765 Production cast into a parody format, released as a home-video bonus.
Puchimas is a chibi-art comedy spinoff running parallel to the mainline story rather than continuing it. Every entry labeled Puchimas short through the 2018-2019 OVA bundle follows the same pattern: quick, self-contained gag episodes, not required for anything else on this page.
The main run of Puchimas chibi shorts, released as a web series across 2012 and 2013.
A single bonus Puchimas short released as a home-video extra.
A winter-themed OVA continuing the chibi format under the Puchimas 2 banner.
A final cluster of Puchimas OVAs released in 2018 and 2019, closing out the chibi spinoff.
Before the Anime
A two-minute anniversary music video for the mobile game, animated over a year before any TV series existed.
This predates the TV anime by over a year and carries no story. It's here because it's the actual first piece of Cinderella Girls animation ever produced, not because anything after it depends on it.
The Cinderella Project
A new producer at 346 Production recruits Uzuki, Rin, and Mio into the Cinderella Project and builds an idol unit from nothing.
A ten-minute TV special that aired partway through Season 1's run.
The Cinderella Project expands past its first three idols as the unit takes on bigger performances and a larger cast.
Broadcast as episode 26, continuing straight on from where Season 2's twelfth episode left off.
Numbered as a direct continuation of the TV series rather than released as a standalone extra: this is where the Season 1-2 story actually finishes, a year after Season 2 aired.
Theater
A three-minute anniversary short marking five years of the mobile game.
Three-minute comedy shorts adapting the Cinderella Girls 4-koma manga, structured as vignettes rather than a continuing plot.
A tonal departure from the TV series: broader jokes, thinner animation, a much wider slice of the roster getting screen time. Worth it for more of the cast, skippable if you're only here for the main story.
One-minute web-only companion episodes airing the same weeks as Theater Season 1, adapting different 4-koma strips.
Extra bonus material rather than a continuation of the TV Theater episodes. Every later web-companion season on this page follows the same pattern.
Two brief specials closing out Theater Season 1's run.
Same format and purpose as the season itself, just shorter. Every later Theater specials entry on this page follows the same pattern.
A second run of three-minute 4-koma shorts, airing the same season as its own web companion.
The one-minute web companion to Theater Season 2.
Three short specials extending Theater Season 2 into the new year.
A third run of Theater shorts, continuing the same 4-koma adaptation format.
The web companion to Theater Season 3, running seven episodes instead of the usual thirteen.
Three specials capping off Theater Season 3.
Branded Climax Season, the fourth and final numbered run of Theater shorts.
The last Theater season to get a proper TV broadcast before the format shifts to the web-only Extra Stage.
The web companion to Climax Season, airing the same three months.
Three one-minute specials closing out Climax Season.
A single six-minute short released outside any numbered Theater season.
A one-off bonus episode rather than the start or continuation of anything. It sits here chronologically, between Climax Season and Extra Stage, without connecting to either.
Forty-eight one-minute shorts continuing the Theater format under a new name, running for over a year.
Effectively a fifth Theater season without the numbering, and the last of the 4-koma shorts before the franchise's anime output goes quiet for over a year.
A two-minute anniversary PV for the mobile rhythm spinoff Starlight Stage, marking five years since that game's launch.
Ten Years In
A forty-nine-minute anniversary film marking ten years of the mobile game, the longest piece of Cinderella Girls animation outside the two TV seasons.
Runs long enough and was produced deliberately enough to treat as more than a bumper, even though it sits outside the continuity of both the TV series and Theater.
U149
A spinoff following the Cinderella Project idols too young for certain kinds of work, including the swimsuit and gravure gigs the older members take for granted.
Its own contained twelve-episode story. You don't need the TV seasons or Theater to follow it, but it draws on the same roster, so having met these characters already helps.
A recap special covering U149's first half, broadcast partway through the show's original run.
Built for viewers catching up mid-broadcast. If you're watching U149 straight through, there's nothing here you haven't already seen.
A follow-up special released four months after U149's finale.
Comes after the season proper rather than during it, and unlike the recap, this one was produced as new bonus content rather than a clip compilation.
SideM
A 34-minute special centered on the unit Jupiter, released a week before the SideM TV series began broadcasting.
Built and released as a lead-in to the TV series rather than a standalone extra. Watch it first if you want a fuller introduction to Jupiter; the TV series works without it.
315 Production's roster of male idol units debuts across 13 episodes in the franchise's first anime built around a male cast.
A variety-show style special built around the SideM cast rather than a story episode.
Wake Atte Mini!, a short-form comedy spinoff running parallel to the mainline SideM story.
An OVA continuing the Wake Atte Mini! comedy format.
Further short specials closing out the Wake Atte Mini! spinoff.
Million Live!
A 2013 first-anniversary PV for the Million Live! mobile game, released a full decade before its TV series.
Million Live! got promotional PVs for years before ever getting a TV series. This one and the two after it are early game marketing, not a lead-in to the 2023 show, which stands on its own.
A PV animated for the game's "Dreaming!" theme song.
A fourth-anniversary PV released in 2017, still six years before the TV series.
Twelve episodes following select idols from the Million Live! roster as they build toward a concert of their own, a decade after the game's launch.
A behind-the-scenes style special released about a year after the TV series.
A 2026 OVA continuing the Million Live! cast's story.
Shiny Colors
A prologue episode introducing 283 Production's idols before the TV series proper.
Functions as episode zero for the Shiny Colors story. Watch it right before Season 1 for the full on-screen introduction to the cast; the TV series recaps enough that skipping it isn't a problem.
A character image-song PV tied to the mobile game's ongoing music releases.
The Shiny Colors game regularly gets short animated PVs for individual character songs. None of them continue a story; they're grouped here so the page reflects everything released under the Shiny Colors name.
283 Production's three new idol units, Alstroemeria, CoMET, and Straylight, each find their footing across 12 episodes.
A character-song PV released in the months after Season 1 aired.
A second season continuing 283 Production's idols, broadcast four months after Season 1 concluded.
A special centered on the unit SHHis, released about three months after Season 2 wrapped.
A character-song PV with an unusually long title, part of the same ongoing series.
The most recent character-song PV in the run as of this writing.
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