Wuxian Shaonu 48 (also known as Wuxian Shaonu 48 Infinite), a Chinese anime series inspired by the idol group SNH48: A thread!

#无限少女48

Wuxian Shaonu 48 takes place in the year 2047, and revolves around a group of girls from different dimensions all aiming to be idols together within an idol project called Project 48.

The series was produced in 2019, but did not see airtime until April 2020 on the Chinese online streaming service Tencent. It concluded in June 2020 with 12 eps total, and efforts by @LnlyHikikomori and @OHaiiBuzzle have the first two eps fansubbed as of writing this!

As I mentioned, each girl comes from a different dimension, and I’ll be introducing them now! I apologize for any spelling or transcribing errors when translating voice actress names from Chinese, as there are no English-language resources for this series yet!

This is Huai Si! She’s an ancient princess who has the power of time travel! She is voiced by Xiao DaXi (小達系)!

This is E.T.! She’s a professional esports player, and she’s an alien! She is voiced by Ji Guanlin (季冠霖)!

This is Anna Lina! She’s a magical girl who specializes in dark magic! She is voiced by Shan Xin (山新)! She’s my favorite so far!

And this is Liu Xingyu! She’s an ordinary girl from earth, and her specialty has yet to be revealed as of what has been subbed. She is voiced by Zhiqiu Ye (叶知秋)!

You might think this sounds vaguely similar to the AKB48-inspired anime AKB0048 (AKB48 and SNH48 used to be sister groups, but SNH48 broke their contract). Having seen AKB0048, there are very few similarities outside of both being about idols in the future —

— This might have to do with the plot of AKB0048 being idols battling a totalitarian government that censors entertainment. I feel like an anti-gov plot wouldn’t fly in China, but that’s a subject for a paper I’m writing. Though i don’t doubt this was loosely inspired by AKB0048!

Members of SNH48 have a hand in performing the theme song for Wuxian Shaonu 48; Wang XiaoJia, Zhang Yi, and Yuan YiQi! I cannot say for sure if members of the group provide voices for other characters that we haven’t gotten to know yet (like in AKB0048), but we will see!

For more information, check out the Wuxian Shaonu 48 Weibo account - that’s where I got a lot of this info and a lot of these photos from!
https://m.weibo.cn/u/7091499119?uid=7091499119&luicode=10000011&lfid=1076037091499119#&gid=1&pid=1

For now I leave you with the series trailer. The first two eps of Wuxian Shaonu 48 are subbed on YouTube, and most anywhere where you can find fansubbed anime, and more eps will come with time. Will update this thread when necessary!