History VideoGame / A3

* {{Expy}}: The characters in the play for ''SK∞ the Infinity × A3!'' event are this rather than the the characters from [=Sk8=], wearing the PaletteSwap outfits of the characters and sharing some similarities or none at all personality-wise.

''Act! Addict! Actors!'', or commonly referred and shortened as ''A3!'', is a mobile game created by Liber Entertainment, the creator of the rhythm game ''VideoGame/IChu''.

* DoItYourselfThemeTune: The opening movie's songs, "MANKAI☆Kaika Sengen" and "Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu☆Blooming!", and the anime theme "Act! Addict! Actors!", are done by the [=A3ders=] (the troupe leaders-- Sakuya, Tenma, Banri, and Tsumugi).

** [[spoiler:Winter Troupe is [[MakingASplash Water]]. [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Winter Troupe's display of magic features them manifesting in the hall from a magic circle.]]]]

** A few early SSR cards can make teambuilding and clearing event shows easy due to their versatility for link skills, and thus make important team leaders. Initial SSR Muku and Azuma in particular, which you can pull from as early as the tutorial pull, can be in most Co and Dr team builds respectively.
** The Dr link skill Shogi Club consists of Itaru, Misumi, Taichi, Azami, and Guy, four of them are available as early as the tutorial pull. It can also be built along with Tsumugi, who is also available as early as the tutorial pull, to activate another Dr link skill Talented Tutors. With the JP version guaranteeing three [=SSRs=] during the tutorial pull, it is possible to get a beefy roster for the Shogi build right off the bat.

* UnreliableIllustrator: The card arts and sprites do not particularly render muscle definition, despite some characters having been described as muscular in the narrative. [Stray Devil Blues] Guy is a blatant example of this, in which he lacks muscle mass and definition despite having been described to be very fit and built. His muscles are clearer in his [Sparkling Beach Ball] card however.

* ChekhovsGag:
** In Act 1, in order to get Itaru to stay in the Spring Troupe, Sakuya, Masumi, Tsuzuru and Citron devised an improvised play of a family with Sakuya, Masumi and Tsuzuru as the children, Itaru as the father, and Citron as the mother. [[spoiler:In act 5, after accidentally making Chikage mad by adding much more spice than necessary on his food, they bring this act back as a form of apology... with Chikage as the grandpa to Sakuya, Masumi and Tsuzuru's role, father to Itaru, and Father-in-law to Citron]].
** Early in Act 7, the Autumn Troupe had to perform to a group of kindergarten students at Taichi's request because the original group that is supposed to perform are unable to make it in time and the troupe accepts... while wearing animal costumes throughout the performance. [[spoiler: When Azami is kidnapped by a vengeful high school student with a grown ego because his father is in the Yakuza hours before the final performance, the rest of the Autumn troupe rescues him... ''using the head of the animal costumes to cover their faces'']].

** In "Tales Of Chivalry: Ginji The Wanderer", [[spoiler: Sakyo originally had some money saved up to get a house for his mother, stepfather, and stepsister but saved it up for Mankai Company to use since his mother decided to not buy the house. In Act 8, Those savings are used to get both the spring troupe and winter troupe a group flight to Zahra to get Citron back]].

* ChekhovsGunman:
** Masumi's grandmother was mentioned off-hand in the Midsummer Sparkle Memory event. She makes an appearance in Act 5.
** At the end of Act 4, Hisoka received a fan letter that is signed by a person named April. [[spoiler: April is later revealed to be Chikage, the eventual sixth member of the Spring Troupe. It's his code name in the agency Hisoka used to be a part of]].
** Near the end of Act 3, Juza mentions he has a little brother. Said brother would become the sixth member of the Summer Troupe in Part 2.
** Sakyo mentions his boss has a son during the events of the Autumn Troupe's third play. Said son would start hiding out at MANKAI Company during act 6 before becoming the Autumn Troupe's sixth member.

''Act, Addict, Actors!'', or commonly referred and shortened as ''A3!'', is a mobile game created by Liber Entertainment, the creator of the rhythm game ''VideoGame/IChu''.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: According to ''Moment of Winter'' magazine, Homare never aspired to be a poet back then, but he just happened to become a poet. Why did he become one then? Because of the zealous support from an editor. Said editor only appears in backstage and does not even have a name. Without him, Homare would never have been the renowned poet everyone knows.

* {{Expy}}: The characters in the play for ''SK∞ the Infinity × A3!'' event are this rather than the the characters from [=Sk8=], wearing the PaletteSwap outfits of the characters and sharing some similarities or none at all personality-wise.
* FourElementEnsemble: The A9 April Fools features a magic school, which features four dorms based on the four elements. Each troupe belongs to a different dorm.

Amusingly enough, ''A3!'' also received its own stage adaptation starting in 2018, titled ''[[Theatre/MANKAISTAGEA3 MANKAI STAGE]]''. The Spring and Summer Troupes were the focus of the first production that ran from July to October 2018, while the Autumn and Winter troupes got the second production in December 2018 to March 2019. The Spring and Summer Troupes would later get individual productions the same year. These adaptations would themselves be adapted to film, with the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter plays having separate movies released in 2022 and 2023.

An English port of the game was announced in 2018 and released by Cybird on 23 October 2019. A Chinese port was released late August 2018 under Komoe Game.

In 2019, the franchise announced an animated adaptation produced by Creator/PAWorks and Studio 3Hz, and began airing in the Winter 2020 season. Much like the stage play series, the first half focuses on the Spring and Summer troupes, while the second half of the show focuses on the Autumn and Winter troupes. The first half was later delayed until Spring 2020 due to production issues and the {{UsefulNotes/COVID19|Pandemic}} outbreak.

!!! ''A3!'' contains examples of:

* TheAce: The Winter Troupe in general, at least when compared to the previous troupes who had troubles with acting. Mostly because The Winter Troupe has two members with stage experience, as opposed to none (Spring), one with another type of acting experience (Summer), and one with amateur level of experience (Autumn), and also overall higher maturity of the group. Even Azuma, Hisoka, and Homare, who had no experience of acting before, are able to adapt and learn faster than the previous troupes.
* ADayInTheLimelight: The backstage in general, but especially troupe events. The latter focuses on the character who is playing the lead and expands on their back story.
* AdaptationalBadass: Multiple times in the stage play.
** ''My Master's Mesmerized by Mystery'': In the game, Sagishima merely helps Shiki solve a murder mystery. In the stage, Sagishima wrestles a knife out of Keiichi's hand and incapacitates him.
** ''Nocturnality'': In the game, Ryohei simply flees after dodging Franz's knife. In the stage, Ryohei wields a rapier and fights Franz, who dual wields daggers. Ryohei puts up a serious fight before fleeing.
* AdaptationDistillation: Due to both the first and second season of the Anime having only 12 episodes total, several scenes didn't get adapted into the anime proper. Some examples include Izumi telling Masumi's high school classmates that she scouted Masumi for his talent rather than appearances as they accused her of doing. The Unopening Door Mystery for both Azuma and Hisoka also didn't make it to the anime.
* AllThereInTheManual: The magazines contain a good chunk of in-depth information of the story and characters, and even short stories. The game sometimes makes a reference to them. An example is Azuma's Glitter backstage, which refers to the sledding short story found in Girl's Berry 2017 magazine.

* AprilFoolsDay: 2017's April Fool's celebration has the cast from all troupes including Izumi and Matsukawa in a high school AU with some of the cast being teachers. 2018's celebration turned the Mankai players into host club members. There was also a fair amount of characters switching personalities.
* ArcWords: "The Show Must Go On!"
* ArrangedMarriage: In ''The Luminous Circus'', Homare said that his grandfather Sakae had this, [[MarryForLove but Sakae was in love with Miyako, so much that he ended up marrying her instead of going through the arranged marriage.]]

* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Summer Troupe's members are younger than the other troupes', with the group having an average age of 16.
** In Year 2, 14-year old Azami becomes this to the rest of Autumn Troupe; the second-youngest member of the group is Taichi, who is in his last year of high school.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: [[spoiler:Why Taichi couldn't bring himself to follow through in his role as TheMole. Kamikizaka, Haruto, and many of the other members of God Troupe treat him dismissively at best, more like a hanger-on than a talented actor. Meanwhile, despite the early friction within the Autumn Troupe, Izumi and the rest of MANKAI Company welcome him as a valued member and encourage him to grow, leading him quickly into a crisis of conscience]].

* BlandNameProduct: Kazu often uses Instablam.
** In ''The Stranger'' event [=SSR=] card, Omi holds a Canno camera.
** In ''High Spirits at the Hot Spring'' event [=SSR=], Banri wears Galvin Klein.
** In the JP version and the anime, everyone sends messages via [=LIME=].
** Banri walks past [=WcDonald's=] in the anime.

* BreakTheCutie: Either as part of their backstories or their main storylines, pretty much everybody in the Mankai cast undergoes this.
* CallBack: Some things in events are mentioned and often become the ChekhovsGun in the main scenario starting from Act 5, such as the mention of Masumi's grandmother.
* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: The majority of the main cast are {{Bishounen}}.
* CastHerd: All of the troupes have their own interpersonal politics going on, and plenty of group members knew each other beforehand. Also, for each group, they have 3 ensemble members, bringing the herd to a total of 8 each. Now 9 with the addition of Chikage, Kumon, Azami and Guy respectively in Part 2 of the main story.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: The events all take place after Part 1 ends and there is a lot of CharacterDevelopment involved in them. Part 2 of the main story also had the cast retain the CharacterDevelopment they had in the events.

** The Seven Mysteries. [[spoiler: One ends up being Misumi, and three of them play a role in keeping the Winter Troupe together in the main scenario]].

* DealWithTheDevil: The play ''Stray Devil Blues'' revolves around this. Those who have made a contract with a devil is called a contractor, and to break free from the contract, a contractor must hunt the soul of another contractor.
* DisappearedDad: Izumi's father is missing for eight years before the start of the story.

* DownerEnding: Winter Troupe's plays are particularly fond of this, even in their mixed troupe play.
** ''Sympathy for the Angel'': [[spoiler:Michael died saving the woman he loved and [[KilledOffForReal faded away]]. Raphael mourned as he cradled the fading Michael in his arms.]]
** ''Nocturnality'': [[spoiler:Despite Kota's pleas, Reo left him behind and returned to his life as a solitary vampire. [[RayOfHopeEnding However, the ending also implies that Kota hadn't given up on Reo yet.]]]]
** ''[[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera Le Fantôme de l'Opéra]]'': [[spoiler:Erik disappeared into the flames at the end, leaving Chris behind.]]
** ''Die by the Sword'': [[spoiler:[[DeathSeeker Musashi]] thought Kojiro would finally be the one who could beat him in a duel and kill him, but Kojiro lost and died. Musashi resumed his journey as a solitary samurai searching for a place to die.]]
** ''Stray Devil Blues'' (Winter-Autumn): [[spoiler:[[TakingTheBullet Mark died protecting the injured Lucifer from Satan's attack.]] Mark's soul retained God's divine protection, and once again, Lucifer failed to get the soul.]]
* DysfunctionJunction: Most of the Mankai Company cast members aren't even trained actors, but total amateurs who either needed a place to stay or wanted to see if they could discover something about themselves through theater. Whether it's difficult family situations or past traumas and misdeeds, everyone has baggage to work through.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Several characters who are part of other troupes appear before they are officially introduced to be joining as part of a troupe in the main scenario. Mostly concerning characters who are part of the troupe after the Spring troupe.
** All sixth members of the troupes also appeared in events before officially joining during the events of Part 2.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Izumi is always referred to as "Director" by the characters.
* EveryoneHasStandards: [[spoiler: What drove Tasuku out of the GOD-ZA company is seeing how much Reni wants the Tachibanas out of the picture to the point of sending Taichi with the purpose of sabotaging their performance. Deciding that he's not going to follow someone who is willing to use sabotage against another company, he strikes out.]]
* EvolvingCredits:
** The title screen changes to the page's image above once you cleared all the main scenarios of act 1.
** The Anime adaptation switches verses according to the troupe featured. Starting episode 7, Tenma sings the opening verses of the opening theme instead of Sakuya.
* ExcitedShowTitle: Both in full form and in abbreviated.

* FamilyOfChoice: The Mankai Company to Sakuya. Having lost his parents at a young age and shuffled from one family to another who just handled the necessities of his living and no nurturing, the actors and staff in Mankai Company are the closest thing that he has to an actual family. The company eventually becomes one big family over time in the course of the story to at least some of the troupe members. [[spoiler:Azuma comes to find the company as a place to call home after years of living a lonely life after the death of his family. Both Chikage and Hisoka both came to see the company as a home with people to call a family as well]].
* FamilyThemeNaming: Several of them.
** The Ikaruga family names are shapes: Hakkaku (octagon), Kusumi (nonagon), Misumi (can be read as triangle), Madoka (can be read as circle).
** The Zahran royal family names are various citrus fruits: Citron, Tangerine, Navel, and Orange.
** The Arisugawa family names revolve around honor and splendor: Sakae uses the kanji for "glory," Homare uses the kanji for "honor;" both kanji can be combined into 栄誉 (eiyo) which means "honor." Miyako uses the kanji for "capital;" when combined with Sakae's, it becomes 栄都 (Sakae-to) which means "imperial capital."

* FlowerMotifs: Everything gets a flower motif in this story. Each actor has a flower linked to them (for example, Sakuya is linked to the Japanese cherry blossoms), but places also get floral theme naming (e.g. '''Hana'''saki and Ouka (bulb) High School, St. Flora, etc.).
** The director's last name, Tachibana, contains the kanji for flower.
** Also, the most prestigious award for plays, which is the company's next goal after paying off the debt, is named Fleur Award. Fleur means flower.
** Mankai itself means full bloom.
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: [[spoiler: Later chapters in the main scenario reveals that Sakyo, the Yakuza whom the acting company was indebted to earlier had met Izumi before as a child, but Izumi doesn't recognize him]].
* FunnyForeigner: Citron. Oddly enough, when it comes to gaming terms, he gets surprisingly fluent.
* FuroScene: Taichi suggests that Autumn Troupe take a bath together after Banri comes back in Act 3, Chapter 23, as a way of making the troupe [[ThatCameOutWrong "an open relationship"]]. As everyone in [[TheBigGuy Autumn Troupe]] (except for Taichi) is ''giant'', the bathtub gets cramped pretty quickly.
* GenderFlip: Several of Tsuzuru's plays that are adaptations of other plays tend to swap the gender of at least one of the main characters.
** The Spring Troupe likes to do this.
*** Their first play, ''[[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Romeo and Julius]]'', is played out much like its inspiration with the major change being the titular duo's [[HeterosexualLifePartners unbreakable bond]] since they're both men.
*** Their second play is a retelling of ''Franchise/AliceInWonderland'', but with a boy "Alice" they call Alex.
*** Their fourth play acts as a prologue to ''Literature/TheWizardOfOz'', with the four witches becoming wizards.
** The Winter Troupe's fourth play [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera ''Le Fantôme de l'Opéra'']] plays out just the same as its inspiration with the story being a tragic friendship between [[GenderFlip Chris]] and the phantom.

* HelloInsertNameHere: The heroine's default name is Izumi, but like many mobile games, you can name her however you please.
* HomoeroticSubtext: [[ChildhoodFriends Tsumugi and Tasuku]] have a lot of it.
** In the title screen after clearing the first part of the main story, whereas everybody looks at the audience/camera, Tsumugi and Tasuku don't. They are looking at each other while holding hands at the back.
** In the play ''Sympathy for the Angel'', where Tsumugi and Tasuku are Michael and Raphael respectively, [[spoiler:Michael pulls off a HeroicSacrifice for the woman he loves. Michael dies, and Raphael cradles his body and mourns.]]
--> [[spoiler:'''Raphael''']]: "Now I've lost not only my love, but my dearest friend."
** Tsumugi [Sympathy for the Angel]: Tasuku admitted that he was caught off-guard when Kazu and Izumi announced that they think Tsumugi has a high-schooler for a girlfriend, so he decided to keep Tsumugi's job as a PrivateTutor secret from everybody to cause a bit of a fuss instead of clearing things up. His reason? Because he was afraid this "girlfriend" would take away time Tsumugi would otherwise have for acting with Tasuku, and wanted to get back at Tsumugi for the surprise.
** When Tsumugi tells Tasuku that he's getting married as an April Fool's joke, Tasuku goes into a state of shock and disbelief rather than anything congratulatory.
** Tsumugi [Sunny Garden]: When Tsumugi fell sick, Tasuku gave Tsumugi a BridalCarry and said that he's used to it.
** Homare [Poetic Afternoon]: Kazu asks if Tsumugi and Tasuku are Winter Troupe's [[TeamMom mom]] and [[TeamDad dad]]. Neither Tsumugi nor Tasuku refutes it; instead, Tasuku just goes on to say that he doesn't recall having a son like Homare.
** Masumi's birthday line for Tsumugi. He doesn't even say happy birthday, he just immediately says that [[ShipperOnDeck Tsumugi has Tasuku, while he only has Izumi.]]
** In Tsumugi's [Mankai Encore] backstage, Tsumugi and Tasuku are trapped in the island because the low tide is over, covering the entire Angel Road in water. They try to walk back despite the high tide, but Tsumugi slips, so Tasuku tells Tsumugi to hold onto him. [[https://www.japan.travel/en/spot/219/ Angel Road is a popular spot for couples in real life.]]
** Act 9 has Azuma saying that both Tsumugi and Tasuku seem to have an intense unrequited love and that they are cute when they show it. [[spoiler:Azuma means acting but it takes some time for Tsumugi to figure it out.]]
** In the anime, Tsumugi ran off after changing up his acting style and hurting their show quality. Tasuku tried to find him so that they could talk, but Tsumugi wasn't in the dorm. Tasuku picked up an umbrella and went out to find him in the snowy night. When he finally found Tsumugi, who was partially covered in snow, he held the umbrella over his head and began saying about how much he loved his acting, something Tasuku wanted but never managed to say after Tsumugi failed the God Troupe audition.

* TheMafia: The Autumn Troupe's debut play, ''The Roman Episode'', has this as a theme, with the leads being family members that don't get along and need to work together to get out of their situation.

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Taichi was originally an actor who worked for the God Troupe. Reni, the God Troupe's director, had a vendetta against Izumi's father and hired Taichi to sabotage the Autumn Troupe's play by joining as one of their members. [[BecomingTheMask But in the end, Taichi couldn't bring himself to destroy the company as he had grown to like the members]].]]
* MoodWhiplash: As dark as ''Stray Devil Blues'' play is, there is once Mark asks Lucifer to help clean his house.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Reni, the director of the God Troupe, attempted several times in Act 1 to sabotage the Mankai Company's revival, which all failed and ended up ultimately benefiting the company:
** His plan to sabotage the Autumn Troupe's debut play by sending in [[spoiler:Taichi]], a two-bit actor from the God Troupe, to be TheMole backfired massively when [[spoiler:Taichi]] [[BecomingTheMask grew to genuinely like working for the Mankai Company and switch allegiances to them]] and Tasuku, the God Troupe's biggest star, [[DefectorFromDecadence left the God Troupe in disgust]] after learning about Reni's plan and ended up working for the Mankai Company too due to it being the only local acting company that was willing to take him after the God Troupe got him blacklisted everywhere else. Basically, Reni's scheme to destroy the Autumn Troupe only caused his God Troupe to lose ''two'' of its best actors to the Mankai Company.
** His act-off challenge to the Winter Troupe. To get the Winter Troupe to agree to the challenge's (clearly unfair) terms that the Mankai Company must disband if they lose the act-off against the God Troupe, he promised to give the Mankai Company all the revenue from the God Troupe's last show if they won instead. Thing is, if Reni had just stayed put and done nothing, the Mankai Company would almost certainly have been forced to disband at the end of the year no matter how well the Winter Troupe's play performed due to the company having a nigh-impossible-to-pay-off ten-million yen debt. His challenge essentially handed them a golden opportunity to get all that debt paid off in one fell swoop and avoid disbanding.

* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Surprisingly Averted. Part 2 of the Main Story had some of the cast in their last year of high school graduate, within it mentioned that Banri and Juza are university students.

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: A whole lot of this trope.
** Banri, Sakuya, Masumi, and Iku all go to the Hanasaki Academy
** Juza, Tenma, and Taichi all go to Ouka High School.
** Muku, Yuki, and Miki attend St. Flora Middle School. Homare is also an alumnus to St. Flora Academy.
** Tsuzuru and Omi attend Yosei University along with ensemble cast members Takuya, Arata, and Kengo. Juza joins them in year 2.
** Juza and Kumon are cousins with Muku.

* PunBasedTitle: Kumon and Juza's duet for the ''Scarlet Mirror'' mixed-troupe play is titled "Q to Ju" (Qと銃, lit. "Q and Gun"). "Q" in Japanese is pronounced "kyuu": an alternate pronunciation of the 九 kanji in Kumon's name. "Ju" is pronounced the same as the 十 kanji in Juza's name.
* PunnyName: The kanji for Misumi's name can be read as "sankaku," the Japanese for "triangle." [[spoiler:His brother Madoka can be read as "round" or "circle."]]
** The kanji for Veludo of Veludo Way is read as Biroudo. Veludo Way sounds like Broadway.
** "Tsuzuru" means to spell or write, and considering that he's a playwright...
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: As of part 2 of the main story, the main cast in Mankai company includes some normal students, a {{Yakuza}} member and [[YakuzaPrincess his boss' son]], [[spoiler:a runaway prince]], some former delinquents, and [[spoiler:ex-spy agents]] amongst them.
** The entire Spring Troupe cast deserves special mention for being hastily cobbled together in less than a day with the first people Izumi could find on the street who were willing to join the company for free board. Unlike the other troupes which all have at least one member who was already experienced in acting before joining, none of the Spring members had any real acting experience starting out and had to work the hardest out of all the troupes at getting their acting skills up to par.
* RayOfHopeEnding: The play ''A Clockwork Heart'' ends with [[spoiler:S having to be deactivated, but Luke is hopeful that someday he can reactivate S again.]]
** The ending of ''Nocturnality'' implies that [[spoiler:although Reo left, Kota hadn't given up on Reo yet.]]
* RuleOfThree: In the game's title. There are three words, all starting with A and shortened as A3.

* TheSevenMysteries: Matsukawa has revealed four of Mankai's Seven Mysteries, one of which ended up being [[spoiler:a future member of Summer Troupe]] and the other three appear in the Winter Troupe's main scenario.
** A mysterious voice can be heard from room 203 of the Mankai dorms when no one's in it. [[spoiler:It turns out Misumi has been living in room 203 for weeks]].
** The Torment Doll is said to appear before two people who fell out and subjects them to eternal torment until they fix their relationship. [[spoiler: Tsumugi finds the doll, and for three chapters of the Winter story, Tsumugi, Tasuku, and [[WildCard Misumi]] are trapped in a time-loop until Tsumugi and Tasuku reconcile. In Act 3 of the main story, it was revealed that Reni and Yukio were once trapped in the loop.]]
** The Unopening Door is a... [[ExactlywhatItSaysOnTheTin door that won't open]]. This mystery shows up twice in the Winter story. The first time, [[spoiler:Azuma and Izumi get trapped inside together. The second time, Hisoka gets trapped inside alone, and Izumi ends up also getting locked in when she goes searching for him]].
** The Loupe[[note]]A small magnifier used especially by jewelers and watchmakers[[/note]] of Sincerity allows the user to see exactly what others are thinking. [[spoiler: Homare finds the Loupe and uses it to patch things up with the troupe after his mistake]].
* ShoutOut:
** The first play you obtain performed by the Spring Troupe, [[{{Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet}} Romeo And Julius]]. Except it's a story of friendship instead of romance.
** Water Me! is an in-universe AffectionateParody of the ''Literature/ArabianNights''.
** In act 3, the chapter Jailhouse Lock doubled as a StealthPun for [[{{Music/ElvisPresley}} Jailhouse Rock]].
** The Spring Troupe's 2nd play is based on [[{{Literature/AliceInWonderland}} Alice In Wonderland]] with Alice GenderFlipped.
** The Spring Troupe's 4th play is called [[{{Literature/TheWizardOfOz}} The Wonderful Charlatan Of Oz]] but takes place before Dorothy arrives in the land of Oz.
** Winter Troupe's 4th play is [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera ''Le Fantôme de l'Opéra'']], but with Christine GenderFlipped as a man.
** The 6th Mixed Troupe play is based on ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes''.

* ShowWithinAShow: Knights Of Round, which served as the basis of the Spring Troupe's 5th play, is an in-universe serial video game. And there's a couple of the games that Itaru played such as Brawo and Ultimate Weapon 4.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: According to ''Moment of Winter'' magazine, Homare never aspired to be a poet back then, but he just happened to become a poet. Why did he become one then? Because of the zealous support from an editor. Said editor only appears in backstage and does not even have a name. Without him, Homare would never have been the renowned poet everyone knows.
* StalkerWithACrush: Masumi, big time. Though in a downplayed case, he isn't much of a stalker to start with, [[SingleTargetSexuality just very attracted to the player]].
* SuicideAsComedy: ''Hotel Compass'' play features Minami trying to kill himself because he can't get any ideas to write. His suicide attempts include trying to drown himself in a bowl of soup, crushing his head between elevator doors, and crushing himself under a couch.
* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Happens between Banri and Juza. Banri has a natural gift for acting but is initially indifferent to it and half-asses his practices because he's so used to coasting by on his talent alone, whereas Juza starts out with virtually no acting ability but is incredibly passionate about acting and works hard to improve his skills. When Banri realizes that Juza's hard work and dedication to the craft is causing him to improve faster than him, it's a wake-up call to him about how raw talent alone isn't good enough on its own.
* TemporarilyExaggeratedTrait: Play roles, inside or outside major plays, may sometimes feature this as they always have at least some resemblance to the actors themselves.
** Spider and Ryuga from ''Midnight Chinatown'' and ''SK∞ the Infinity × A3!'' respectively are Homare's ChallengeSeeker and ThrillSeeker nature taken to BloodKnight levels. Both also prefer fighting a WorthyOpponent.
*** Homare also has a philosophy of "never be afraid of failing tough challenges because there is the experience to be gained," which Ryuga twists into "be proud of the scars left by a WorthyOpponent."
* ThemeNaming: The characters are divided into four groups each with five members (six after Part 2 of the Main story). All named after the four seasons and the characters too correspond with the flower leitmotifs they have.
* WorkOffTheDebt: The premise of Part 1 starts as Izumi sees how her father's acting company is left in shambles and in so much debt. To keep her father's work and legacy alive, she gathers actors for the four troupes to pay off the debt and return the theater to its former glory. The debt is all paid by the end of part 1, but they still have a long way to go to bring back Mankai theater to its former glory.
* {{Yakuza}}: Sakyo is part of one. And this is also a theme for the Autumn troupe's third play, "Tales Of Chivalry: Ginji The Wanderer".

Amusingly enough, ''A3!'' also received its own stage adaptation starting in 2018, titled ''MANKAI Stage!''. The Spring and Summer Troupes were the focus of the first production that ran from July to October 2018, while the Autumn and Winter troupes got the second production in December 2018 to March 2019. The Spring and Summer Troupes would later get individual productions the same year. These adaptations would themselves be adapted to film, with the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter plays having separate movies released in 2022 and 2023.

** The Arisugawa family names revolve around honor: Sakae uses the kanji for "glory," Homare uses the kanji for "honor;" both kanji can be combined into 栄誉 (eiyo) which means "honor."

* FamilyThemeNaming: The Ikaruga family's names are shapes: Hakkaku (octagon), Kusumi (nonagon), Misumi (can be read as triangle), Madoka (can be read as circle).

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The number of the cast in-game is growing to be over 30 at this point. Including the supporting characters.

** The Dr link skill Shogi Club consists of Itaru, Misumi, Taichi, Azami, and Guy, four of them are available as early as the tutorial pull. [[UpToEleven It can also be built along with Tsumugi, who is also available as early as the tutorial pull, to activate another Dr link skill Talented Tutors.]] With the JP version guaranteeing three [=SSRs=] during the tutorial pull, it is possible to get a beefy roster for the Shogi build right off the bat.