Crunchyroll announced that it will add three new anime series to its Spring 2023 streaming lineup. The new additions include Stella of the Theater: World Dai Star, The Marginal Service, and The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls U149.
Stella of the Theater: World Dai Star is an 12-episode original anime series that will air in Japan on April 9, 2023. The series is also inspiring a mobile game titled World Dai Star: Yume no Stellarium that will be released later this summer.
The anime voice cast includes Manaka Iwami as Kokona Ootori, Ikumi Hasegawa as Shizuka, Maria Naganawa as Yae Niizuma, Naomi Oozora as Panda Yanagiba, Rico Sasaki as Chisa Sasuga, Sally Amaki as Kathrina Griebel, and Nanako Mori as Noa Hiiragi.
World Dai Star takes place in a world where the theater scene is experiencing a worldwide boom, due to the popularity of performers called Dai Stars. The story follows 16-year-old Kokona, who joins the world class Sirius Troupe in order to become a top World Dai Star.
The Marginal Service will premiere in Japan on April 11, 2023 and will include an ensemble voice cast consisting of Mamoru Miyano as Brian Nightraider, Toshiyuki Morikawa as Zeno Stokes, Tomokazu Sugita as Bolts Dexter, Yuuichi Nakamura as Robin Timbert, Kaori Nazuka as Lyra Candeyheart, Hiro Shimono as Cyrus. N.Kuga, Shinichirou Miki as Theodore Thompson, Kouki Uchiyama as Peck Desmont.
The anime takes place several years after Earth was saved from an alien invasion by a “legendary creature” with the face of a human, The Marginal Service follows the titular organization of public safety workers as they deal with cases involving “Marginal Men” — beings that were discovered to have secretly co-existed with humans on Earth.
The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls U149 will premiere in Japan on April 5, 2023, based on the manga series by Kyowno, which is a spin-off of The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls. The story follows a group of under-149cm idols and their new short and young producer.
The manga began in 2016 and has 10 tankoubon volumes as of April 2022. It is serialized on Cygames’ Cycomi app and published by Kodansha under the Cycomi label.
The main voice cast includes Amina Satou as Arisu Tachibana, Haruka Terui as Momoka Sakurai, Tomoyo Kurosawa as Miria Akagi, Hana Tamegai as Risa Matoba, Makoto Koichi as Haru Yuuki, Asaka Imai as Chie Sasaki, Natsumi Haruse as Kaoru Ryuzaki, Misaki Kuno as Nina Ichihara, and Yuuki Yonai as Producer.
The anime is part of Bandai Namco Entertainment’s long-running THE iDOLM@STER multimedia franchise, beginning with a 2005 arcade game that was ported to the Xbox 360 in 2007. It has inspired several games and anime series, with the latter including series like 2007’s Idolmaster: Xenoglossia, 2011’s THE iDOLM@STER, 2015’s THE iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, 2017’s THE iDOLM@STER SideM, and the upcoming THE iDOLM@STER Million Live!, which is also set to premiere in Japan in 2023. The franchise has also inspired radio shows, drama CDs, soundtrack releases, and print media.
