ensemble stars is a japanese mobile game produced by happy elements and cacalia studio. the game first came out in 2015, as a spinoff of ensemble girls (2012), titled ensemble stars!, also known as ensemble stars basic. basic, however, is only an idol raising game, and originally portrayed the old (!) era of the game. in 2020, it rebranded as an idol rhythm game, ensemble stars!!, or ensemble stars music. both games now focus on the current era, which takes a place a year after ensemble stars!.
there have been various different adaptions of the game, such as the stageplays detailing the events during the canon story, dramatica plays (which are plays that are supposedly orchestrated by the in-game theatre troupe/circle dramatica), an anime, and an english version which was released in 2022.
i first started playing ensemble stars when the english version released, and it was the biggest mistake of my life. no joke. it's been over two years deep into this hellish franchise and i don't see myself getting out of it any time soon. i've read a lot of stories from this game, including but not limited to crossroads, saga, and obbligato, plus watched the anime multiple times over. it's a wormhole. my favourite character has been mayoi since the start, but over time i have opened my heart to other units like deadmanz (disbanded) or exfine (disabanded), so i do consider myself pretty well-rounded in terms of opinion. but either way, enough yap from me; below are my favourite characters and units from this godforsaken franchise.
I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO ONLY MAKE 6 BUT APPARENTLY NOT. i love too many characters in this stupid game evidently
i was on literally makotools just to find the theme colours for the other shrines but nooo i have to go find MORE characters to make MORE content for smh
these are all dead links though they don't go anywhere yet
as of 3/1/25 i will no longer be playing this game and the whole cast are my ocs. happy elements is a shitty company and should die lowkey but this is mainly regarding the concept of ibuki being in akatsuki considering the use of akatsuki as a scapegoat for happyele's racism and this being a continuous theme. if or when this gets resolved i'll be more normal about it but considering matrix and the way keito's character was stretched to make such a deaf decision i will not be playing for the forseeable future. i will however still be updating these now and then, it just sucks that i have to go down with what was such a good franchise.
