Introduction
Yumenosaki Academy has been home to the best boy idols of different generations. Holding immense influence over the school, its student council maintains the status quo by enforcing old traditions with an iron fist. Transfer student Anzu winds up attending as the very first member in the production course, making her the sole female student in the entire school. There, she meets Subaru Akehoshi, Hokuto Hidaka, Mao Isara, and Makoto Yuuki—her classmates and members of the idol unit "Trickstar."
The academy holds Dream Idol Festivals—stage battles that put its students' singing and dancing skills against each other, with the audience voting on the winner. Winning these "DreFes" guarantees the members of the idol unit various privileges and prestige. However, with the student council intervening and punishing everyone involved in an unsanctioned DreFes, the members of Trickstar find that they can no longer sit around and let it continue. Alongside Anzu as their producer, they plot to become the revolutionaries of the academy.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
13 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
BlackLeopard15
TL;DR: If the entire series had a similar style to what it was like from ep 13 onwards, it would have rated a 6. Getting to that point was pretty bad though, and the reward is minimal. I can see why many would drop it early.
Episodes 1-12
As someone who has no prior experience with the franchise and never played the game, episodes 1-12 was kind of painful to watch. The series starts off from the pov of who you would assume is one of the MC's based on the synopsis, however she quickly fades into the background with little to no dialogue or agency and becomes an observer who happens to be present. The constant references to her being a central part of the narrative felt abrupt and confusing. It was only then that I learned this series is based on a game franchise, and the fact you needed th…
Read at the sourceMonamiBotany
I am a fan of the actual mobile game, I can only recommend this to people who do genuinely already like the characters or the franchise and at the very least want a very quick summary of the first game given how much of a pain it is to get up to speed in 2026. That’s the reason I personally watched it and it’s accurate enough from the stories I’ve read, however, naturally, the anime bites off more than it can chew by actually trying to highlight every character in its relatively short run-time. As a Leo Tsukinaga fan I did certainly frown that he only truly gets ONE episode and maybe a total 3 minutes of screen time after his episode if we’re being generous. Overall my fanaticism did allow me to enjoy the anime.
Also I’d say I’m starved for the underrepresented genre of “cute boys doing…
Read at the sourceChadpea
Holy peak.
Its everything you ask for; cringe, quick, dumb, gay. What more do you need from an anime about some highschool idols that have big ambitions like military take over. No seriously, this anime is a good abridged version of the main story from the game, but you should still read the stories bc brother that shit is insane.
I would not recommend watching this anime if you are not a fan of the game, it is not a properly flushed anime and there are too many characters to flesh out and its impossible in the 24 episodes the anime has. Its still satisfying and I do believe that the mc (who is a self insert as mcs tend to be) is done properly in the anime. She may be a bland character but she is not clueless and unlikeable.
It centers on the main story of the first game, and personally…
Read at the sourceavianzz
Ensemble Stars is fine as an anime adaptation, but the experience will be screwed up depending on if you've read any of the stories before the anime. The anime is more like it's for fans rather than to bring in newcomers.
If you're a fan of Ensemble Stars previously, this is a great anime, and you'll enjoy seeing who you produce sing and dance. If you're new to the franchise, this is a terrible entry into it, as it poorly represents the characters in the franchise. You will probably misunderstand the character's motives and personalities.
If you want to get into Enstars, here's the deal - Don't start with the anime. *That is a major mistake.* I started with the anime and I still have major misconceptions about some of the characters, and I have been a fan since 2019. Read the story tran…
Read at the sourceeairotome
Before I start anything, I will need to warn you that you wouldn't like Ensemble stars if you are not used to watching anime that has so many male characters with few (or no) female characters, like Touken Ranbu or Hakuouki. But if you don't mind it, welcome! This is the right place for you. And I would like to assure you that Ensemble Stars is s not some cheesy reverse harem anime like Diabolik Lovers (I am not criticizing DiaLovers, I have played it and I actually enjoyed it.)
I have only known Ensemble Stars (ES) only when the game was released in English ver. And I came running to the anime because I can't catch up anything they were saying in the game. I did not even know who Akehoshi (the main character of ES anime) was.
To be honest, I did not have much expectation for the anime sin…
Read at the sourcemidotetoshino
As a long time fan of the Ensemble Stars franchise, I enjoyed this anime a lot. Simply getting to see the characters I love moving around in anime format was great, and it was very fun sharing in the hype with my fellow fans. HOWEVER. The anime as a whole when looking past my love for the franchise was very poorly done. I understand that they were trying to give every character from the game screen time but considering that they were trying to showcase the main story of the original game- which is extremely meaty- it just didn't work out very well. The main plotline is nowhere near as compelling as it is in the game- and maybe I only felt that way because I was experiencing it for a second time- but I think it really missed the mark. As for the tiny portion of the giant pool of in-game eve…
Read at the sourceRena1Circulati0n
As a fan of the hit-game Ensemble Stars. I gotta say this anime's story is so rushed, and I feel those who don't know about the game might think Enstars is bad after this anime because the game makes the ensemble cast more than one-dimensional characters, subverting your expectations from the tropes they fall in to. It also has very interesting struggles with each one as well as developing relationships that will surprise you. But the anime is so jam-packed with stories that it hurts the pacing of the story. But it's pretty fun, after all, it's Ensemble Stars. Seeing the boys animated is still pretty wholesome.
Read at the sourceZoraAegis
This is the very first idol anime i had ever watch, Until the end of the series i did not notice that this was a game and i did not care. I enjoyed the plot, and watch every detail carefully. The music is insane , the characters are good and overall it has a lot of conflicts and a lot of back stories and they're all good. Honestly i was pretty disappointed how low this anime was, however i do realize that every time they sing the character animation is not like the anime graphic rather, it was the game's graphic. That for me was the only down side of the anime and other than that it was very enjoyable and very relaxing. I had fun watching the anime.
Read at the sourcemangotheotaku
i love this anime its really entertaining if you like idol anime and music anime all of the characters are really likeable and cute to watch its pretty wholesome and cute in my opination but the only down side to this is that the end looked like it was really rushed and at the end of the season you still have alot of questions and it makes it seem like there is a season 2 but when i look if there will be one or if there already is one it does not come up but other than that it is a really enjoyable series :D
Read at the sourceponceypony
This is a pretty generic male idol TV show. It's fine if you enjoy the genre but you can do better.
The main problem that I had with it was that it (mainly) felt like a musical without the songs. It would try, and occasionally succeed, to build up to some kind of emotional peak by creating some sort of small drama via dialogue. This would usually coincide with a performance which one of the various boybands is going to put on. Then when you're expecting someone to express their emotions by producing a nice ditty you're instead given a couple of characters having another brief conversation. If you're lucky you get a song played in the background.
When you are given an actual performance it's forgettable. Any large amount of movement is done in 3D that doesn't look much better than a PS2 c…
Read at the sourceKangsangie
as i long time fan of this franchise i enjoyed this thoroughly, but having read all the story content from the game and manga i know that the anime should have had more episodes, i love the pacing and the adaptation was done well for the episodes but for a game with 5 years of writing behind it 24 episodes was not enough to capture the depth of the true plot, it made it through the main plot and a few of the slightly darker plots, but id love to have seen more time for the event plots that give you a true grasp on why everyone acts how they do, the subtle and not so subtle hints at the mental health struggles in the idol community, so many of them have a dark past and id love for more to have been done with the first war arc, so much truly went down, this anime is a perfect start to get pe…
Read at the sourcethelibero
The difficult part about reviewing this anime?
Depending on whether or not you're already a fan of the games and are familiar with the story and characters, your enjoyment of this anime is likely going to be extremely skewed.
This is already a huge red flag; the anime struggles to stand on its own two feet and functions better as a supplement to the game experience. For people who aren't into mobage, I think the series is going to be pretty forgettable and, unfortunately, fails as a gateway into the franchise.
(To be fair, the anime had 24 episodes to convey what the game had over 2 years to flesh out).
As a long time player and fan myself, I can attest: I had a much better experience with this anime than my boyfriend, who knew nothing about the series and came out of the first seas…
Read at the sourceKeadow
I honestly loved Ensemble Stars. I loved all the characters and ALL of the songs in the show. I never knew it came from a game until finishing the anime and looking more into it. I'll be honest the ending was completely rushed but I'm hoping for there to be more in another season (hopefully) if there is more story in the game.
The show left you with some questions of like Who? What? Where? When? and Why? and they are possibly answered in the game but the game is only available in Japan so it is hard to translate without a guide that doesn't have all of the stories from the game up.
I'm honestly shocked it has such a low rating for the show because I always dive into shows not knowing anything and I hate predicting stuff.
Predicting everything ruins the show (imo) and that's why every…
Read at the source