i*Ris Idols Star in Brand-New Pretty Rhythm TV Anime in July

The anime song unit i☆Ris will sing and star in Puri-Para, a brand-new Pretty Rhythm idol television anime series which will premiere on July 5. Takara Tomy Arts made the announcement at the new amusement machine unveiling for kids on Thursday.

The new anime is set in the Puri-Para world, filled with girls' dreams and yearnings for fashion, dance, and music. Seemingly every day, there are auditions that send top idols to worldwide fame on television and online. Laala and her friends are all fascinated with this world. However, Laala's school prohibits Puri-Para for elementary school children. An unexpected chance leads Laala to make her first entrance into the world of Puri-Para, where she just might make her debut.

The idol unit i☆Ris is performing the opening theme song for the new anime. Voice actress Himika Akaneya will star as the heroine Laala along with the rest of the six members of i☆Ris in the main cast. The group i☆Ris also contributed the ending theme song "§ (Section) Rainbow" for the ongoing television anime Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live. Member Yū Serizawa stars as Ann Fukuhara in Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live.

Akaneya is already playing Laala in Pretty Rhythm All Star Selection: Prism Show☆Best Ten, the compilation film now playing in theaters. She will also appear as Laala in the compilation series Pretty Rhythm All Star Selection. In this intermediate series, Laala is training to become an idol, and the three idols from the previous anime will show her Prism Shows from the past to show her ways to shine. Pretty Rhythm All Star Selection will premiere in Japan on April 5 and run until PuriPara premieres in July.

Toy maker Takara Tomy and game developer syn Sophia have been running the franchise continuously since the 2010 arcade game Pretty Rhythm Mini-Skirt. The arcade games are targeted towards elementary school girls. The stories center around aspiring idols who compete in Prism Shows, a new kind of event that combines skating, dancing, singing, and fashion.

The first Pretty Rhythm television anime, Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, premiered in 2011. Two more television anime, Pretty Rhythm Dear My Future and Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live, have since followed in 2012 and 2013, respectively.