Isn’t it sad that despite the fame of American Idol, the money and resources Bandai Namco have, Microsoft’s need to find more “killer games” for the XBox 360 in the US, and the interest (or at least curiosity) that the title generates when non-import gamers see it:
THE IDOLM@STER still gets ZERO attention for translation. 
I really really like the game but as it is I don’t see how it’ll be brought over. My guess would be the audience for this game doesn’t justify the licensing cost for all the songs? Of course this is all guessing so who knows.
I my knowledge, the songs in game belong to Bandai Namco, so there wouldn’t be a fee they have to pay to keep them. However if the songs were to be replaced by American hits - although I can’t imagine why - it would probably cost more money. They would just translate the songs in my imagination - like how Working Designs translated the songs in the Lunar series and whatnot.
For the record, THE IDOLM@STER is also the name to the “perfect ending” song in the game.
Anime was ok. It reminded of Dual, and light hearted Neon Genesis Evangelion. Its animation was much same as Mai Hime/Otome.
I’ve never seen the anime myself but it apparently included mecha which is absent in the game. 
The anime has the game characters, but they’re mecha pilots instead of idol singers… or something.
SuperDeadite would know more about it than me, seeing as how he rants about every new episode the second he sees it.
Yeah I’m quite hooked on the show, but its mainly cause after playing the game through 5 times I wanted a new experience for the characters.
Really the show and game have nothing in common except for the characters, and some of them (like Azusa) have had their ages and personalities compleatly changed from the game. Some of the truly hardcore might not like the changes, but as a “re-imagining” of iDOLM@STER, it works quite well.
As for the game itself, its really fun, I reviewed it here a while ago on this very forum.
I’ve actually had to force myself from playing it for awhile simply because Namco keeps sucking away my cash by releasing cool new outfits over Xbox Live for obscene amounts. The school girl uniforms and gym class bloomers are 1000 microsoft points each… by Japanese MSP prices thats about $15 for ONE outfit, Namco is really raking in the dough with this one.
I’m pretty annoyed by microtransactions myself but I guess it makes good money. =X