Wake Up, Girls!

The gateway to Idol stardom might have opened for the newly formed singing group Wake Up, Girls, but the path to fame is full of perils and pitfalls. And for Mayu, Airi, Minami, Yoshino, Nanami, Kaya and Miyu, it's going to be especially difficult knowing who to trust, as their manager Matsuda's lack of experience could give other, less scrupulous, individuals a chance to take advantage.

That's a situation that quickly comes to a head when Green Leaves' president suddenly disappears with most of the money, and things only get worse when the replacement producer seems more interested in getting the girls into revealing swimsuits than promoting their music.

As malicious gossip begins to surface regarding Mayu's past membership in a rival group, and internal tensions begin to tear the team apart, they'll need more than just ambition to survive. Singing may be a business, but friendship and a love of music is what will keep everything together.

(Source: Sentai Filmworks)

Shimada, Mayu Main

Yoshioka, Mayu Japanese

Okamoto, Miyu Main

Takagi, Miyu Japanese

Katayama, Minami Main

Tanaka, Minami Japanese

Nanase, Yoshino Main

Aoyama, Yoshino Japanese

Kikuma, Kaya Main

Okuno, Kaya Japanese

Hisami, Nanami Main

Yamashita, Nanami Japanese

Hayashida, Airi Main

Eino, Airi Japanese

Tange, Junko Supporting

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Oota, Kuniyoshi Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Suzuki, Rena Supporting

Akesaka, Satomi Japanese

Fujio, Tsutomu Producer

Kikuchi, Hitoshi Producer

Yamamoto, Yutaka Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics, Original Creator

Kikuta, Hiromi Sound Director

Reviews

Sep 8, 2024

lycoping

Recommended

Based on the numerical reviews of this anime, I almost passed. But then I saw someone compare it to "Hibike! Euphonium", and that was enough for me to at least give it a shot. Let me say, the comparison, while incomplete, is apt. This was a *great* anime.

Let me be clear - I'm not really a fan of idols and idol music, but this isn't about idols or idol music, even though it's, well, about idols and idol music. This story is about seven girls thrown together into an idol group who had never known each other before joining the group, ... a capricious and irresponsible president that somehow manages to pull the group together and is there when it counts, and a feckless manager that, well, somehow manages to be feckful by the end. Is that a word? I have no idea.

Anyway, taken at face value, there's nothing really special about this anime. It's much like Hibike! Euphonium in that it's kind of a sports anime for idols, but where Hibike! Euphonium is like a sports anime for concert band. Unlike Love! Live or Idolmaster, Cinderella girls, this anime is not really focused on the music, and it is not (at least primarily) a venue for selling CDs (though I'm sure they couldn't resist the call of that sweet, sweet yen and did some of that). Underneath, It's a story, primarily a story, and a damn good one as well.

And that's what makes this special.

Believe it or not, I'm going to say this: there was fanservice, and I didn't mind. I didn't mind because it wasn't gratuitous - it was absolutely necessary to the story and no more than was absolutely necessary. So I understand why they did it, and I don't mind. I've been very hard on anime for fanservice, but that's because it was gratuitous or prurient. the story could not have proceeded properly without it, so it is what it is.

Now here's where I was actually impressed - I think for I-1 they took real idol groups for inspiration, specially the AKB group, and didn't hold back on saying exactly what they thought of them. The general manager of I-1, who may or may not have been a loose analogue of Akimoto Yasushi, was a completely heartless jerk, who from the very beginning was treating his group as basically a bunch of slaves to be tossed away at will. I have no idea if AKB48 or Akimoto are actually like that, but there's clearly a message being sent there, and I picked up on it. Green Leaves was clearly designed to be the exact opposite of that group in every way, and I get the feeling that this story was a stinging indictment of corporate idols and idol culture. I haven't yet watched season 2, so I don't know if that will hold out, but it's a strong impression I got.

The story was excellent. I definitely got "Hibike!" vibes, though I can't really compare one on one - there were similarities, there were differences, but I enjoyed this anime almost as much as Hibike!, and for much the same reason, and therefore I really have no choice to rank this a 10. I honestly have no idea why it's rated so low, I mean, there are definitely some technical criticisms to be leveled against it, but the story makes up for all that and more besides.

The ED is really pretty, by the way.

Strong recommend from me, and I wish I knew why people seem to hate it, at least based on the scores. Is it because it looks like a basic idol anime that just wants to sell a lot of music? It's not. It's anything but. I liked love! live and cinderella girls, but story wise, this is so much better it's not even funny.

In short, don't let this being an "idol anime" turn you off. It's more than that, and if you like thoughtful stories and well-done drama, you'll love this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 22, 2019

Tringapore_98

Recommended

Every now and then, I decide to take a break from watching seasonal anime to watch non-seasonals instead. The non-seasonal anime that I decided to watch this time was Wake Up, Girls! because of a certain voice actress called Tanaka Minami. However, even though I did decide to watch this anime mainly because of her, the anime proved to be quite enjoyable to watch. Seeing the main characters growing to become a semi-professional idol unit from their very small beginnings did make me warm inside.

Story:
The story has good pacing. Even though most of the episodes showcases a story of a different girl, it also ... has its own story development. The group, Wake Up Girls(WUG) starts off almost as a dysfunctional unit and has many difficulties initially, but as the anime progresses, WUG gains more popularity and becomes more cohesive unit. However, they also faced countless difficulties along the way, including clashes within the group, members facing the grueling task of coming to terms with their past and the group struggling to get the hang of the songs that they were given. In the end, they overcame the obstacles and emerged as a fascinating and exciting idol group. One great aspect of the show is the way it manages to create suspense at the end of every episode. It keeps the viewer glued to his seat wanting to know what will happen in the next episode. However, the show can also be dull at times which may bore the viewer watching it.
Rating: 7/10

Animation:
I was quite impressed with the way the choreography was animated but at the same time, I was quite put off with the mediocre character animations which look like they've been butchered at times.
Rating: 6/10

Music:
Catchy opening, especially the first opening Tachiagare. In addition, the various songs that the group sang were also groovy to listen to.
Rating: 8/10

Character
The anime has great character development as each character has different personalities. In addition, the anime gave great backstory coverage of the main girls.
Each girl has her own struggle to overcome, with the main girl Mayu having to come with terms with her past with her old agency I-1, while Airi had to overcome her lack of talent with pure hard work and perseverance. I was especially impressed by how Mayu was able to come to terms with her past, overcome it and become the idol that she wanted to become. If I were to share my favorite character of the anime, it's a hard decision, because I love both Mayu and Minami. Initially, Minami caught my eyes because of her bubbly personality and cute voice but as the series progressed, I became impressed with Mayu's determination to prevail over her past and become the idol that she wished to become in the beginning. For that, I have to say that Mayu is my favorite character of the series.
Rating: 7.5/10

Overall, Wake Up, Girls! is a quality idol anime. Not only does it have an interesting and suspenseful story, it also has quality character development and excellent music! If you're not put off by the sometimes sub-par animation, Wake Up, Girls! is a stellar idol anime to watch!

Final rating: 7/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 17, 2017

jeikobu11

Mixed Feelings

Some say watch the movie before the series but didn't and I'm glad. Going into this series was really hard, the main reason is because it was always cringe for me from episode 1-12. The wake Up Girls try to get popular and work them selfs to the top. This is the part that annoyed me. Every time they go on stage or do something idol related, they always fail in some way leading to cringe. I feel the need to skip scenes all the time because of this. At the first stage performance of the anime, it was horrible and couldn't be anymore disapointed. ... Especially when they used bikini's... it was not fan service or a good performance in my eyes, it was entirely cringe... just looking at them thinking they were doing good was even more cringe.

The flaw in this anime in my eyes is the lack of balance. The balance of going through bad and good times. That goes with success and failure too. Not going to name individual music anime but balancing that out could of improved my rating and thoughts of the anime. Honestly though, who would always want to see failures and depressed faces ( if u watched idol Jihen then u would know what I mean even more). Anyway this is the area that made me cringe every episode, no great moments on stage until the last few episodes and just absolutely embarrassing themselves. I mean this quite seriously, they were annoying AF.

Moving away from the bad sides of the anime, I will dedicate this paragraph to the good points (thank me). First, From only being local unknown idols they went through some god-like development to get into the finals in episode 12. They didn't get as much training as their opponents but that was without a doubt inevitable, you will understand when if you watch it. Improving after failures is supposedly a good point but there's also a point for how much a watcher can handle these fails. Moving fowards towards their dreams when they hit slumps and get into fights, that was probably difficult for them but they didn't ever give up ( looked like some nearly did though) so I give them credit for dedication and motivation.

The characters in this were sometimes just "no good", like for instance crap directors who look like they are just trying to show the idols bad sides. The art was nothing special but a few face designs made me think for a few moments thinking stuff like,"what's up with that chin outline but we all get that like for Occultic Nine. The sound was the best thing I enjoyed about the anime, the lives and the music in general is good.

With that all said, no anime can be perfect so if your going to watch this then prepare for the things I said. This is all my thoughts so it may differ with your views. Allow me to take some more of your time to give you a review based on how the anime is in general not based on my likes and what not.

Its not a garbage anime at all, if anything it has high potential. It improved and did a great job with making the watchers emotion go wild. Its definitely worth the watch but its not a steady ship with no waves, it's a rocky ship at night during a storm. Either way you end up at the destination of your desire. So we are going to take the route of hardships and watching over the troubled idols but it's still entertaining in the end.

I'm ending this review here, please keep my review in mind if your planning to watch it. Hope I helped.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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