I have been a fan of THE IDOLM@STER since 2006 and have been cosplaying Chihaya and performing IDOLM@STER dances since 2007. When I first found out about THE IDOLM@STER, I was blown away by the quality of music and dance routines used in the game. It used to be that anime and game music could hardly compare to real J-pop, but these days there are a lot more crossovers and the boundaries are becoming blurred. In fact, I like IDOLM@STER music better than a lot of J-pop, and for a while it was practically the only thing I listened to.
THE IDOLM@STER is great because of the wide variety of music and styles, and the fact that any character can perform any position in any song. They also made it easy to learn the dances with the “Long Camera” view. There are now 70+ in-game group songs, with a new song released as DLC every month. There are also dozens of extra songs for solos, rivals, and DLC idols. I would have a hard time ranking my top picks, but I definitely have some favorites from throughout the series. I’ll have to list them in a series of posts because there are so many good songs!
Part one is my favorite songs+dances from 1st Vision (IDOLM@STER arcade through SP):
Positive!
Of the original 10 songs, Positive! was my favorite song+dance. It’s so energetic and upbeat! It was Ami & Mami’s first image song.
THE IDOLM@STER
The original theme song! I’ve always liked the original version of both the song and the dance better than 2nd-mix. This was the first IDOLM@STER song Angel Hearts performed, in January 2007. We actually learned the arcade version of the dance, which is slightly different from the Xbox version.
Watashi wa Idol ♥
Watashi wa Idol ♥ was another one of the first IDOLM@STER songs I ever learned… but Angel Hearts never performed it because I wanted to make Cosmic & Funny costumes to go with it! We hardly ever do one-song performances any more so I’ve dropped the idea of making costumes to go with songs, but somehow we still never got around to performing this song. It’s totally adorable though.
Do-Dai
Speaking of adorable, it doesn’t get much more adorable than this. Do-Dai was definitely an instant favorite. I always thought it would be cute to perform this song in the Marching Band outfits.
Kiramekirari
Another hyper-cute song! Kiramekirari is still one of my favorite songs to perform. It’s pretty exhausting, though. Yayoi has the best songs! ♥
Me ga au toki
I was so excited when Chihaya got a cool, dancey song as her second image song. I wish she would get more songs like this. Even so, the dance is a little boring in some parts, especially for the center. It’s a good song though.
Meisou Mind
Meisou Mind is SO cool. It may be one of my favorite songs as well as dances. I was I little surprised I would like one of Makoto’s songs so much, because I’m not generally a fan of Makoto. I actually wish I had more chances to perform this one, because I feel like it gets overlooked a lot.
Kosmos, Cosmos
Kosmos, Cosmos was my overall favorite of the second round of image songs. Actually, I think it was a lot of people’s favorite. I love the futuristic feel of it. I’m not sure why it was given to Yukiho though.
Overmaster
Overmaster is one of my top favorite IDOLM@STER songs EVER. My friends can tell you, I sing it every time at karaoke. I fell in love with this song the moment I heard the first little clip of it in IDOLM@STER SP, and you can just imagine how excited I was when it was added as DLC, and then how infinitely more excited I was when it got a 3-person version, and later a 5-person version! I love these fiery kinds of songs even more than I love hyper, cutesy songs.
L・O・B・M
L・O・B・M is my favorite song to end a show with because of the long intro (from the M@STER VERSION), the heavy beat, and the fact that it can easily accommodate any number of dancers (there is a solo version that’s different from center). Plus it’s really catchy and upbeat. I never get tired of this song!
Part two will be my favorite songs from THE IDOLM@STER: 2nd Vision!