Season one

Every girl finds a mysterious PriTicket which grants them entrance to the world of PriPara, where aspiring, up-and-coming idols perform to pass an audition. At the Paprika Private Academy, PriPara activity is prohibited for elementary school students. Fifth-grader Laala Manaka finds a lost PriTicket bag belonging to an idol, Mirei Minami, leading her to PriPara, a virtual world where people transform into their idol alter ego. There, she makes her idol debut with Mirei.

Laala forms SoLaMi Smile, a 3-person idol unit, with Mirei and Sophy Hojo (an idol with a weak body who relies on pickled plums for energy). This unit is managed by Kuma, a bear-like character who was formerly Mirei's manager. Eventually, Sion Todo (a world-renowned Go player) and Canadian-Japanese twins Dorothy and Reona West, form Dressing Pafe, a rival idol unit managed by Sophie's former manager Usagi. Both units had the goal of earning the Paradise Coord.

Later on in the season, Laala encounters Falulu, a robotic vocal doll born from the desire of many girls to go to PriPara. SoLaMi Dressing competes against Falulu for the Paradise Coord in several idol competitions. SoLaMi Dressing wins and Laala exchanges PriTickets with Falulu, who falls into a coma. After performing a concert in their Paradise Coords, SoLaMi Dressing revives Falulu, who becomes more emotional, expressive, and human-like. Falulu goes to PriPari in France, and SoLaMi Dressing disbands back into SoLaMi Smile and Dressing Pafe.

Season two

In PriPara, the Dream Theater has opened and the PriPara Dream Parade is being held. The idols compete in the four seasonal Dream Idol Grand Prix in five-person teams for a Dream Parade Coord. While reforming SoLaMi Smile and Dressing Pafé, the six idols encounter Aromageddon, an angel-devil idol duo consisting of Mikan Shiratama and Aroma Kurosu. After some tension, they become friends.

Another girl, Fuwari Midorikaze, is sent to Parajuku from The Palps in EuroPara by the mysterious Hibiki Shikyoin to join PriPara. Fuwari forms Dressing Flower, a team with Laala and Dressing Pafe, and wins the Summer Dream Idol Grand Prix; however, their Summer Dream Idol Coords are taken away by the Masked Genius.

Ajimi Kiki, from EuroPara, debuts in PriPara but she is later revealed as Paprika Academy's art teacher. She and Cosmo form a dream team with the PriPara Police (Laala, Dorothy, and Mikan) and win the Autumn Dream Idol Grand Prix, but their Autumn Dream Idol Coords are taken by the Masked Genius.

During the Winter Dream Idol Grand Prix, the Masked Genius is revealed to be Hibiki Shikyoin, who gives a concert, becomes a rival to Meganii Akai, and reveals herself as a female. She enforces a law that only certain idols can perform, and the other girls form an underground PriPara in an old theater. A spoiled, mischievous vocal doll, Gaaruru joins Aromageddon, which is renamed Gaarmageddon. The FriendAll team (Laala, Dorothy, Mirei, Mikan, and Aroma) won the Spring Dream Idol Grand Prix and restored PriPara and Hibiki, Fuwari, and Falulu return.

Season three

The Divine Idol Grand Prix is announced, and each idol receives a jewel that upgrades their microphones. During the announcement, Meganii realizes that the Goddess, Jewlie, who is the special judge of the Divine Idol Grand Prix, has gone missing. After giving a tour to newcomer Chili Tsukigawa, Laala finds a mysterious baby named Jululu who thinks she is her mother. Laala raises Jewlulu with the help of her younger sister, Non.

As the Grand Prix continues, Laala encounters Triangle (Junon, Pinon, and Kanon), a new extremely talented idol group managed by Usagi's sister Usacha. Laala shows Jewlulu to her friends, and Meganii reveals that the baby is Jewlie. In the first Divine Idol Grand Prix, SoLaMi SMILE and Dressing Pafè are both the winners due to a tie. Not having expected to lose, Triangle reveals they are all one person using holograms, Laala's little sister Non.

The second Divine Idol Grand Prix almost doesn't happen because of PriPari's Meganii demanding Jewlulu come with him. However, they manage to keep her away from him and Gaarmageddon performs, winning by default. TriColore (Hibiki, Fuwari, and Falulu) comes back from PriPari. They fail many times but manage to formally unite as a team right in the nick of time, taking the win for the third Divine Idol Grand Prix.

Shortly after, Jewlulu temporarily transforms into Jewlie and performs. However, her sister Janice then takes them all to the Divine Idol Grand Prix Stage to take over PriPara. She reveals the reason Jewlie has turned into a baby was due to her dream of growing up and becoming an idol, something which is forbidden for goddesses. They can not talk for long, however, before returning to being babies, Janice is revealed as being in Chili's care.

Meanwhile, Non is looking for new teammates for her team. She meets Chili and Pepper, an idol from Sapanna who has come to Parajuku to compete. They form NonSugar and win the fourth Divine Idol Grand Prix, where Jewlie announces all the idols who lost up until then still have a chance to get in by winning a new tournament, which is won by Ucchari Big Bang (Hojo Cosmo, Ajimi, and Chanko). After performing again, Jewlie reveals that once the Divine Idol Grand Prix is complete she will disappear. Laala swears she will become a Divine Idol to stop that from happening.

The Divine Idol Grand Prix Final starts. Gaarmageddon loses to Dressing Pafé in the first round, while Ucchari Big Bang loses to TriColore. SoLaMi SMILE defeats both NonSugar and TriColore and manages to narrowly win against Dressing Pafé. The goddesses then reveal that SoLaMi SMILE's last opponents are them. SoLaMi SMILE triumphs once more and manages to become Divine Idols. Jewlie disappears anyway, along with Janice who was trying to rescue her. Their disappearance causes the Divine Idol Grand Prix Stage to start falling. SoLaMi SMILE tries to fix everything, but they are unsuccessful at first until all their friends start singing along, giving them the power to save everyone to restore PriPara once and for all.

Anime series and films

An anime television-series adaptation by Tatsunoko and DongWoo A&E aired on TV Tokyo and other TXN stations from July 5, 2014 to March 28, 2017.^[6] It was succeeded by Idol Time Pripara on April 4, 2017. In the second quarter of 2015, the series could also be seen on three JAITS stations in Nara (TVN), Shiga (BBC) and Wakayama (WTV). During the first season's second story arc, the series began airing on FNN affiliate Sendai Television. On July 5, 2015, PriPara began airing on ANN affiliate SATV. In 2015, the animation for one of the endings was changed after the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization lodged a complaint for depicting the characters in swimsuits. While the images of the characters in swimsuits were not changed, the ending was edited to remove an image of Sophy Hojo wearing black lingerie, to which appeared to be an homage to Marilyn Monroe.^[7]

An animated theatrical film, PriPara the Movie: Everyone, Assemble! Prism Tours, was released in March 2015.^[8] A second film (Fly Out, PriPara: Aim for it with Everyone! Idol☆Grand Prix) was released on October 24 of that year,^[9] and a third film (PriPara: Everyone's Yearning Let's Go☆PriPari) was released on March 12, 2016.^[10] An English-dubbed pilot was produced by William Winckler Productions in 2017.^[11]

PriPara: All Idol Perfect Stage!

PriPara: All Idol Perfect Stage! (プリパラ オールアイドルパーフェクトステージ！) is a rhythm video game developed by Syn Sophia for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on March 22, 2018. Players create a custom character to dance to songs from the PriPara anime as well as to songs exclusive to the game. Gameplay consists of timing button presses to on-screen prompts. The game also includes a harder difficulty called Gold Mode to add additional green and blue prompts that utilize different buttons. By performing well in the rhythm sections of the game, currency is gained that players can spend to customize their avatar with additional accessories and outfits. The game contains a Story Mode and Free Play Mode. Story Mode briefly summarizes the first three seasons of the anime and also tells an original story focusing on the player character. Free Play Mode lets the player choose either one of the characters from the anime or a custom character to dance to one of the game's songs. A custom character can have two characters from the show as background dances if they possess a necessary "Friend Ticket".

Idol Land PriPara

Idol Land PriPara (アイドルランドプリパラ) is the title for a mobile game app by Syn Sophia and an anime streamed from the app. In the app, players create and customize characters who can become idols. Produced by Tatsunoko, the anime is directed by Makoto Moriwaki, Michihiro Tsuchiya is supervising the scripts and Avex Pictures is producing the music.^[12] Originally set to be released in Q2 2021, the game was delayed five times to August 17, 2023. Soon after launch, however, the game undergone a maintenance until August 23 because its servers were overwhelmed by the number of users. The anime was postponed together with the game, during which period four episodes were previewed.^[3]