The Million Live! anime sure is taking its sweet time.

Oh my God, The Million Live! anime really happening.

I recognize this pose from clips I've seen of the game.

As part of the iM@S franchise, Million Live! has been around for more than 10 years. Considering how (relatively) quickly Cinderella Girls received an anime, I had been wondering when an adaptation for Million Live! might drop. There was a PV featuring the characters as superheroes, but that was more than six years ago now. Well, the anime-anime is finally here!

Despite what fan art may lead you to believe, Takane has a lower BMI than Hibiki.

I am, at best, only a secondary or tertiary fan of the franchise. Meaning, I don't really know anything about the characters or the game, so I can't claim to be particularly invested it. Nevertheless, learning that the anime was going to use 3DCG animation didn't exactly inspire a lot of optimism. True, there have already been quite a few shows I've been okay with even though they were entirely 3DCG, but being "okay" with them isn't the same thing as "preferring." Thankfully, the 3D animation used in the Million Live! anime doesn't look bad at all. Well, I do think Takane's face looks odd, but that has more to do with how her character design changed than it does the animation format. Besides, she's not one of the leads here.

I didn't need a name thingy for Miki. I recognized her from the couch.

Speaking of which, THERE ARE SO MANY IDOLS. I knew this going in, but it's especially apparent since the series is really trying to give everyone some screen time. In fact, the anime provides onscreen name placards as characters appear, and it seems it will continue to do so for the entire show. [Update: They stopped appearing for established characters after episode four.] Even I already knew the characters well enough to recognize them on sight and not get them confused with each other, but displaying the names is still probably the right decision. I could do without the constant emphasis about each idol's characteristic quirks, though. I feel like those sorts of cues are generally unhelpful. Rather than flushing out their personalities, I think it's reductive.

These are the four main characters.

Still, the Million Live! anime is not off to bad start. However, I do hope it gets more than one cours, if only to provide more time to better realize the characters who are most critical to the anime's plot. Both the original iM@S anime and main Cinderella Girls adaptation ran for two cours, so it would be a shame if Million Live! joined U149 in only getting one, particularly with such a large cast. Maybe it should have adopted the Love Live! Superstar!! approach by starting with only a core group and expanding during subsequent seasons. Or maybe I'm just being greedy now.