Ensemble Stars! Franchise Gets 3rd Stage Play in September

The official Twitter account Happy Elements K.K's Ensemble Stars!franchise announced on Monday that the franchise will get a third stage play titled Ensemble Stars Extra Stage: Judge of Knights. The play will run at Tokyo's Theater 1010 from September 7 to 18, and then at Kobe's Shin Kobe Oriental Theater from September 22 to 24.

The website announced the cast for the members of the idol unit Knights:

• Naoya Kitagawa as Tsukasa Suō
• Ryō Kitamura as Arashi Narukami
• Shōhei Hashimoto as Reo Tsukinaga
• Shōta Takasaki as Izumi Sena
• Yoshihiko Aramaki as Ritsu Sakuma

Happy Elements K.K's original "idol-training produce game" takes place at a private boys' idol-training school with a history of turning out many great talents in show business. The protagonist is the school's lone female student who transfers to the school because of a special situation, and enters the school's producer department. Novelist Akira (Sasami-san@Ganbaranai) wrote the original scenario for the game. The game features eight different idol units and has a cast of more than 30 male voice actors.

A television anime was planned to premiere this year, but the staff have postponed it due to "various circumstances."

The game inspired a stage play that ran in Tokyo in June 2016, and then inspired a second stage play that ran in Tokyo and Osaka in January. The first stage play received VR software for the PlayStation VR last October. The software runs for 18 minutes and features the songs "ONLY YOUR STARS!" and "Singin'☆Shine!," as well as footage from the in-story idol group Trickstar's dressing room.

The franchise also includes a manga, novels, and CDs.