Trivia / THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls

• Ascended Fanon: Kirari is frequently portrayed in fanworks with a special attachment to Anzu due to their tiny slothful girl/huge hyperactive girl juxtaposition. This has since become canon in official supplementary comics. They even duet "Onegai Cinderella" in a CD that is otherwise separated by same-type trios and are frequently pictured together in the "Onegai Cinderella" PV. They also have cards that, when placed side-by-side, reveal they are two halves of a greater illustration. And in the anime, the two are seen together even if they belong in separate units.
• Crossdressing Voices: With Shiki Aoki coming out as a trans man in 2020, this makes his role of Asuka Ninomiya one of the first cases of a female iM@S idol to have a man voice her.
• Defictionalization: The individual CDs that each unit records for their respective debuts which are seen for sale at various points in the anime have been released in Real Life under THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS ANIMATION PROJECT series.
  • In particular, "ØωØver!!", a song whose lyrics were written in the series by Miku and Riina, was in actuality written by Natsumi Takamori and Ruriko Aoki, the respective seiyuus for those characters.
• Follow the Leader: Following the success of Starlight Stage, the next two subseries in the franchise, Million Live and SideM, got Rhythm Game spinoffs of their own (Theater Days and Live on St@ge!, respectively).
  • Post its release in 2015, Starlight Stage has become a blueprint for many of the Idol Rhythm Games that followed from a gameplay mechanics and Animated Music Video standpoint.
• Meaningful Release Date: Probably unintentional, but Episode 24, which features Uzuki regaining the ability to smile again naturally after her emotional turmoil, and has her performing her image song, "S(mile)ing", first aired on October 2nd, 2015, which was World Smile Day for that year.
• No Export for You: None of the games were localized for the English-speaking countries. You can still play both the Mobamas and Deresute regardless of your country origin however, with the language barrier as the main obstacle.
  • Though you also had to follow several steps to keep your progress or unlocking most of the game features, including linking the game with a Japanese-registered Bandai Namco ID account. Alternatively, you can just use an account with registered BANAPASS ID regardless of the region. That's only for Starlight Stage, you require a Japanese phone number to use most of the features in Mobamas. If you don't have a Japanese SIM card or a friend in Japan to register for you you're out of luck.
  • This is unexpectedly averted with the virtual reality game.
• The Other Darrin: Due to the fact that Ayumi Fujimura has been on indefinite hiatus since 1 April 2019 and with future projects such as the U149 anime adaptation requiring new lines, Ayane Sakura took up the role of the Trainers starting in 28 November 2022.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Nao Tōyama as Mizuki Kawashima plays with this. It's no secret that she has voiced idol singers and has made a career out of character CD songs, but no one expected her to voice a mature, even-tempered older character, all of which are polar opposites of the type of characters she's typecast as.
  • Haruka Yoshimura, who plays the flirty Mika Jougasaki, commonly plays shy and soft-spoken characters, such as Ema Yasuhara from Shirobako, Nono from Urara Meirochou and Koharu Shiihara from Celestial Method. However, Mika herself is actually really shy, despite her flirty personality, so it's not entirely out of her field.
• The Red Stapler: The appearance of a car resembling the Daihatsu Wake in a Cinderalla Girls Theater issue featuring Miyo Harada◊ led to an increased interest in the car by her "producers." An official Daihatsu Twitter account even retweeted a post where a player bought a Daihatsu Wake because of the issue.
• Promoted Fangirl:
  • Kyouno, creator of the U149 spinoff manga, was a fan of the franchise with fan art dating back to the first anime's era, being a particular fan of some of the idols in her manga such as Arisu Tachibana and Haru Yuuki.
  • Haru Yuuki's voice actress, Koichi Makoto, was a fan of Starlight Stage and of the character herself for years prior to being cast, to the point that she occasionally posts fan art of Haru made by herself.
• Star-Making Role: Bandai Namco will splurge on a high profile VA every now and then, but many of the Cinderella Girls are voiced by complete unknowns and rookies. Depending on the viewer, this can be thought of as embodying the spirit of Cinderella Girls by giving newbie voice actors a chance to shine, or hiring the cheapest actors they can find.
  • For Shunsuke Takeuchi, the Producer was his first huge hit part.
• What Could Have Been: Kiyono Yasuno auditioned for Chie Sasaki and Nao Kamiya, ultimately losing out on both characters. It wouldn't be until the anime series that she finally lands a role with Natsuki Kimura.
• During the 8th popularity election back in 2019, someone hired Snake's voice actor through Cameo to garner votes for Natalia, speaking in-character as Liquid Snake. This has led to:
  1. David Hayter becoming known in Japan;
  2. Japanese fans jokingly claiming Snake's Japanese voice actor Akio Ōtsuka is Natalia's voice actor;
  3. And, finally, the game developers asking fans not to do something like this again.
  • The same person also hired Otakon's voice actor to do the same thing.
  • Brick Joke: years later, a similar joke surfaced when Layla and veteran voice actor Akira Ishida trended on the same day on Japanese twitter (specifically, April 21, 2023).
• The actual voice actresses cast for Natalia also led to some jokes and references, with Natalia's also being Futaba Isurugi and Layla's being Suletta, which has led to Layla being labelled both "The Witch from Dubai" and "Shaddiq's little sister".

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