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The Idolm@ster: Shiny Colors Smartphone Browser Game Casts Hibiku Yamamura

The official Twitter account for The IDOLM@STER: Shiny Colors browser game for smartphones announced on Friday that Hibiku Yamamura will voice Hazuki Nanakusa, a 283 Production employee who may seem always sleepy but is multi-talented as she helps the idols with voice training, dance lessons, and makeup. The staff made the cast announcement to celebrate reaching 100,000 preregistrations on the game.

The new main idol unit, Illumination Stars, is part of the agency 283 Production. ("283" is pronounced "Tsubasa," a wordplay on the Japanese word for "wings.") The unit's tagline is, "Twinkling in the eyes, unlimited possibilities."

Three of the new voice actresses and the Illumination Stars idols they play — all in their first year of high school — are (in the order they appear in the promotional video above):

Hitomi Sekine as Mano Sakuragi, a kind-hearted girl who makes people happy just by being around her

Reina Kondō as Hiori Kazano, a cool beauty with a stoic personality

Mayu Mineta as Meguru Hachimiya, a naive, friendly girl with a Japanese father and American mother

The president of 283 Production is Tsutomu Amai, who may act like a "dandy" in his 40s, but has a no-nonsense personality.

In addition to the new main idol unit, the producers teased 13 more idols in three more units whom they will reveal later.

The overall theme song for the game (as heard in the promotional video) is "Spread the Wings!!" by lyricist Saori Kodama and composer/arranger Akihiko Yamaguchi. Illumination Stars' "Hikari no destination" song will debut shortly. Yōichi Sekine serves as the game's music producer at Lantis.

A tie-in four-panel manga also launched on the game's official website.

The game will be available on smartphones via what Bandai Namco Entertainment tentatively calls the "HTML5 New Platform."

[Via Otakomu]