The game was highly acclaimed at Enterbrain-held Contest Park, in which a reviewer described its game design as "stress-free," mainly due to the prevention of lengthy cutscenes.
Lovely Idol was first serialized in Enterbrain's Magical Cute Premium magazine, beginning with the inaugural spring 2001 issue (released April 27, 2001), featuring the story by Kohki Kanoh and character designs/illustrations by Aoi Nishimata.
A manga adaptation by Rize Shinba started serialization in 2007 and was published by Enterbrain under their B’s LOG Comics imprint.
Enterbrain published two volumes of a light novel series titled Photo Kano: Pentaprism Memories, written by Fumihiko Shimo and illustrated by Natsume Shimano, between March and June 2012.