My fan art of Himesaki Rinami just got frontpaged! Thank you, Newgrounds! Thank you, everyone!

Incidentally, I’d love to ask you all something: have you ever heard of Gakuen Idolmaster (学園アイドルマスター; 学マス)? Unfortunately, there’s no English release yet, but I really hope that someday we’ll get to see these girls speak and sing in English too!

For those who aren’t familiar, Gakuen Idolmaster is a type of visual novel set in a fictional Japanese school called Hatsuboshi Gakuen, an academy for training aspiring idols. At the start of the game, you choose one girl to train as your idol (kind of like picking your starter Pokémon), and then help her grow into a top idol throughout the game.

Of course, it’s fun to play just as a game, but for me personally, it’s also a huge source of inspiration. The character illustrations help me study art, and each girl’s character song — created by some amazing musicians — is a great way for me to learn about music. On top of that, the deep personalities, backstories, philosophies, and beliefs each character carries have taught me a lot about storytelling too. That’s one of the reasons why I love this game so much.

If you ever have some free time, or if you find yourself curious about the game, check out the official site and see which girl you’d choose first — and feel free to let me know in the comments!

Official Site:

https://gakuen.idolmaster-official.jp/idol/hiro/

Shino Hirosawa's Character song:

As for me, my personal favorite is Hiro Shinosawa — a 15-year-old genius idol who skipped grades and graduated from an American university. I absolutely love both her character and her character song, Koukei (光景)!