Feature: 2015 - The Year in Hindsight

With yet another 365 days-long circle coming to a close, it that time of the year for us to take a look at what has been of the Taiko no Tatsujin series in this ending year, both in its darkest shades and its shining hours.

Sit back and enjoy this recap read, as we venture once again into Taiko memory lane for the year 2015!

Im@s Corner: Miscellaneous Origins Songs

On this page, we are listing all the Idolm@ster-related songs which have been originated from titles and events which are not directly tied with a specific Idolm@ster game in particular.

There have been two instances of this phenomenon in 2015, and in both occasions it directly affected the song selection of the current generation of Taiko no Tatsujin gaming. The first one was a direct collaboration event between the Taiko and Idolm@ster series, both of which scored important milestone anniversaries in 2015 (15th for Taiko and 10th for Im@s). The event is mainly remembered for delivering a new Idolm@ster song to Murasaki Version arcades per week for 7 weeks between April and June 2015, featuring some never-heard-before tracks in the process.

Another source of Idolm@ster songs spawn in media not primarily related to the main Im@s series/spin-off/merchandise is the couple of Idolm@ster Must Songs games, which brought back the Taiko x Im@s collaboration songs with the addition of a few tracks grouped under the "Album EXTRA" genre.

	-Miscellaneous Origins songs-

	Kamisama no Birthday We Have A Dream Machuike Prince Majide...!? IDOL POWER RAINBOW Ai MUST GO! Town ～Must Mix～ Thinking ～Must Mix～

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Im@s Corner: Tv/Movie Anime Series

The 2nd Vision generation has seen the rise of several Anime series and OVA/movies about the idols featured in the Idolm@ster games between 2010 and 2015. Among these, Taiko games hold songs coming from three sources in particular: THE iDOLM@STER (July 2011-October 2012), THE IDOLM@STER MOVIE Kagayaki no Mukougawa e! (THE IDOLM@STER MOVIE 輝きの向こう側へ!; January 25, 2014), THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls (January 2015-February 2016) and THE iDOLM@STER: SideM (February 2017). All the shows are made in order to put the focus on the idols as a whole, instead of focusing on only one of them at a time like in the games.

The first show is an Anime series transposition of the world described in the Idolm@ster 2 videogame, consisting of 2 regular seasons of 13 episodes each, a special episode split in 3 parts among the Idolm@ster SHINY FESTA games and the movie Kagayaki no Mukougawa e! (lit. 'Beyond the Brilliant Future!'). While the 765 Pro studio idols are the main stars, the later Cinderella Girls Anime's two 13-episode seasons are about the idols who made their debut in the titular mobile game. The series was made with most of the voiced idols from the game (including some poll fan-favorites in the mix),

Most of the songs from the Anime series and movies on Taiko have been categorized as Anime tracks at first, until the genre global unification occurred on the White Version Taiko arcade firmware which grouped all the songs in the Game Music genre. Save for the Cinderella Girls songs, all the songs have been featured in Must Songs Blue Album.

	-Tv/Movie Anime songs-

	READY!! CHANGE!!!! Jibun REST@RT Promise M@STERPIECE Nijiiro Miracle Reason!!

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Im@s Corner: MASTER ARTIST 2 Albums

The MASTER ARTIST 2 album series is to the 2nd Vision universe as the former MA collection was to the first generation of Idolm@ster games, as this collection's albums are mainly made of solo/talk tracks for each of 765 Production studio's idols.

Unlike the former MASTER ARTIST series, its sequel collection had its album releases split in two parts, with the first 10 albums (released between September and December 2010) being part of the -FIRST SEASON- sub-series, while the remaining four were categorized as -SECOND SEASON- albums and published between May and June the following year. Like for the previous MA album cycle, one album (Prologue) was made of group-performed songs.

This album collection is also made of tracks from both regular Idolm@ster series artists and external faces, both from other NAMCO SOUNDS big names (such as Go Shiina) and -for the first time- from independent external musicians like Tatsh.

Of all the Idolm@ster-related songs in Taiko games, the MA 2 tracks are the only ones (so far) to have made their debut all on a single console release (Im@s Must Songs Blue Album), being featured as said game's unlockable tracks.

	-MASTER ARTIST 2 songs-

	START!! TRIAL DANCE Day of the future Nemurihime Kazahana Nando mo Ieru yo Gemmy Smile Taisou DIAMOND YOUou MYshin! LO♥VE♥LY♥ LOVE Order Maid

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Im@s Corner: Mobile iDOLM@STER Games

Among all the Idolm@ster-related mobile applications, the Taiko no Tatsujin series has received songs from the three most recent social mobile games: THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls (November 28, 2011), THE iDOLM@STER: Live For You! (February 27, 2013) and THE iDOLM@STER: SideM (July 17, 2014).

From 2017 onwards, the series also started to receive tunes from the spin-off rhythm games THE iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage (September 3, 2015) and THE iDOLM@STER Million Live!: Theater Days (June 29, 2017).

All the three social games share the same core aspect/gameplay that is nowadays common to most of the always-online iOS/Android games: idols are collectible as cards/sprites and the player has to spend stamina in order to play/interact with the idols through the three games' modes. For DeNA's Cinderella Girls and SideM, this means train the idols for concert/stage events and interact to the player, while in GREE's Live For You! the idols are used to be part of a 60-deck card to battle other players in Rival Event performances to establish whose unit is the best one.

The Million Live! titles and Starlight Stage, on the other hand, are music games for Android and iOS, following the trail of the SHINY FESTA games for PSP. In Starlight Stage, the player is called to clear songs with a unit of 5 idols by tapping many different kinds of markers on screen; according to the chosen idols and their rarity, many positive effects can trigger in order to have positive effects during the performance and other perks. A similar formula is applied to the Million Live! titles, where both the GREE-app exclusive Million Live from 2013 and the iOS/Android-available Theater Days from 2017 share a similar play style and gacha-related idol recruit mechanics to Starlight Stage, only with a different story setting as one of 765 Productions's many idol producers.

The five games feature full voiced performances of the returning idols from the arcade/home console games, with Cinderella Girls and SideM boasting the introduction of a high number of idols from 341 Production's "Project Cinderella" (CG) and 315 Production's ranks of male talents (SideM). Aside from the 'special events' made to increase the drop chances of particularly rare/exclusive idol cards, the DeNA games have also boasted a number of popularity polls in order to add voice acting to the most popular idols in both games, which in turn will lead to future projects with the winning idols, including cameos in other Idolm@ster media and the formation of special units with their signature song.

Considering all the Idolm@ster media, the mobile-spawn Idolm@ster songs are the only ones which are not featured in any of the Idolm@ster Must Songs twin games (up until the games' release), although if other Taiko console titles claimed some of the following tracks subsequently after their console debut.

For the sake of grouping the mobile games media all in one page, the Cinderella Girls and Starlight Stage songs are all listed on this page as made by performers/idols from the CG apps, despite the fact of some of the songs actually making their debut either on albums as exclusive tracks or as part of the Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Anime series.

	-Im@s Cinderella Girls songs-

	Onegai! Cinderella Star!! GOIN'!!! Shine!!

	-Im@s Million Live! songs-

	Thank You!

	-Im@s SideM songs-

	DRIVE A LIVE

	-Im@s Starlight Stage songs-

	S(mile)ING! Never say never Mitsuboshi☆☆★ Anzu no Uta Tsubomi Yumemiru Rapsodia ~Alma no Michibiki~ TOKIMEKI Escalate Tulip

	-Im@s Million Live!: Theater Days songs-

	Brand New Theater!

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