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The anime was better than the manga. The author generates great ideas, but implements them in a hell of a way.
And not to get distracted, let's get straight to the spoilers.

I would like to point out that the review will contain spoilers, scene retellings, character criticism, author criticism, industry criticism and my personal opinion, which as you know, can't be challenged. Let's start in chronological order.

The beginning is normal: a girl (Yuzuki) likes a boy (Ordinary High-School Student Haruto), the boy (Haruto) likes another girl (Nanami), the boy confesses to the girl (Nanami), which is already rare, and gets ... rejected. Then somehow (crumpled and incomprehensible) falls in love with another girl (Yuzuki). Followed by dance around the fire at the festival, happy ending, Yuzuki leaves for Tokyo. This was normal, banal and ordinary. In general, it is very correct that in the adaptation these 60 (sixty!) chapters were simply skipped and retold superficially. It was the story arc one.

Then fillers, Nanami for some reason falls in love with Haruto, then a mini-arc with a trip to Tokyo, on which the OVA was made. The OVA ends with a happy ending, but according to the manga the happiness was short-lived and on the way back for the hero Yuzuki’s first love story ends, she disconnects her phone, which she was warned about in a note placed in the gift bag given to him.

Two months pass, the boy was already ready to hang out with Nanami, and now they meet so that he decides to confess to her and then the package falls, the note falls out, the truth opens, the confession is canceled, the boy decides to go to Tokyo, Nanami supports him and will wait if he comes back. It was the story arc 2.

The fillers continue until the start of the third arc, which is the origin for the TV season. The third arc with a move to Tokyo and a dying competitor (I don't remember his name, but it's not important, so I'll call it Kyoto). New friends (means another girl Asaka) are found, life is settling in, the competitor successfully leaves the stage. For the reason of no reason, Yuzuki abandons our hero. In the anime, this scene is implemented somewhat more clearly, although strictly according to the source, in the manga it is generally difficult to realize what happened.

In general, for all the absurdity of the story, the main scene that I wanted to see, and which was pretty funny in the anime, was the trip with the generic girl character to Yuzuki's school. We won't even discuss how it happened that knowing Yuzuki's home address and school, our protagonist had to wait for a miracle in the form of tickets to the school festival. Well, this is how the author's fantasy works. Perhaps the plot with the dying boyfriend (Kyoto) of the girl (Yuzuki) looks a little far-fetched, but in general it is suitable for creating difficulties for the heroes to overcome. I am ready to believe that a girl (Yuzuki) is ready to hang out with a boy dying within a year (Kyoto), especially considering that her true love (Haruto) is somewhere in Nagasaki, but why the explanation of the reasons for breaking up with all the love life so crumpled? The only explanation I can imagine is the difficulty in putting such an emotionally heavy story into the tight schedule a weekly magazine issue. The author certainly knows how to make such scenes better.

Through the fillers where the hero hangs out with Asuka, and the sudden passing of a girl in romance mode from porn, we move on to the fourth arc. It's the return of Yuzuki, which is actually what this manga is all about. With Asuka alive, by some coincidence the hero goes on a group date. A few delightful scenes, the hero dumps Asuka, returns to Yuzuki, happy ending. That's where the anime ends. But we're desperate, so the story-arc five: all the friends have turned their backs on Haruto and the fillers have begun.

Unfortunately the storytellings get very sloppy here: friends leave but then come back, Yuzuki's parents could have arranged problems and started to make them go away, but it all ends with our couple living together. More and more new girls hang around the hero's neck, more and more the hero's mere presence in the room leads to clothing collisions, and finally the hero hero heroically leaves the love of his life because of circumstances and then marries her. Slice of Life as it is, if the characters are interesting, and they can be interesting enough, then their lives can be curious to watch before you get bored.

Overall, I have a lot of complaints about the author. Take the OVA of two episodes: in it they forget about the existence of phones, the hero forgets the gift and forgets that he got the gift, only to remember it later at the most inopportune moment. In a busy schedule where there is no free minute to meet the girl you love, there are three hours to go as a fake boyfriend with his ex to meet her friend, all for Yuzuka to see you holding hands and it goes nowhere, everyone realizes it's an accident . What's the point? And it happens all the time, you could even put up with it. But worse than that, the author just copies the Nanami girl from Nagasaki to Tokyo, where she continues to exist in exactly the same form with the new name Asuka, but in the same drawings, with the same character and with the same relationship with the gg as she had before. They even somehow inexplicably meet each other.

I don't mind circumstances when they are due to something: to hell with the fact that a classmate calls him to a different and coincidentally the right school, to hell with the fact that he ends up in a class with Kyoto, who is Asuka's best friend and part-time boyfriend Yuzuki. And to hell with Asuka, Haruto and Kyoto, who are friends but don't know each other's important things. No, how so: the hero tells his sad story of how a girl came to their countryside, they love each other, but she goes to Tokyo and has a different boyfriend now and it's very unlike her. To this Kyoto says that 'you have to take her back'. What the hell that he himself has a girl in the same school, she rejected him since junior high, then went off to the countryside and then when it turned out he was dying agreed to go out with him.

In general, a lot of shortcomings were corrected in the anime, some of the random events were brought back to normal simply due to the wider role of the character, who already existed in the story, but was not mentioned in the review. Of course, having a ready-made story is easier to fix bugs than on the fly, but this character has been around almost from the very beginning of the story.

In general, why did I pay so much attention to this work? The story itself had awesome potential, as did everything else I've read from Seo Koji. He has a rather unusual view of events, sometimes it turns out very fresh. The characters, although not deeply written, are very realistic and predictable in their actions, and even though he depends too much on coincidences, he has no problems with mumbles. Plus, sometimes he still shoots Chekhov's guns and very poignant scenes turn out. But there are flaws that are directly the essence of the author: any girl who communicates with the hero is in love with him or at least wants sex. This is observed from history to history, apparently the author does not see other options. To sum up, I do not recommend reading this manga, simply because I do not recommend anything to anyone at all. At the same time, I recommend this manga because I checked the corresponding box in the review. But in general, you can do whatever you want.

People ask me very often: what is your favorite idols anime.
OK, I’d like to live in peace with myself, so I’m going to answer to my imaginary friends.
Firstly, I’m not familiar with the idols culture, I don’t understand it, but I really like idols-anime, it’s a piece of sterilized happiness, straightforward success with songs and dances. Suddenly Wake Up Girls is not an idol anime. It’s an anime about everything, about friendship, about success and failure, even about idols, they’re shown as antagonists and, of course, it’s about weird potatoes, y’know.
But the fact is this is the best, so let’s begin.
1. Plot. Score: Canonical.
A small ... agency in the small village named Sendai is looted by a big corporation of enterprising idols i-1. The agency director decided to hire seven idols to defend their village. They recruit one experienced idol, four average idols and one half-idol, eventually they succeed in hiring an pro-level idol and are ready to protect their village. Oops, I think I made a detour, everyone knows this tale, we don’t need to spend time on it.
1. Story. Score: Magnificent.
The story in WUG isn’t straight, but easy to follow. It explains the problems, it doesn’t have dead ends and avoids inconsistency. It doesn’t spend your time to focus on unnecessary things or details that have no further development. The good things is that they not only tell you a story, but also show it. Every word has a proof, so if someone doesn’t have enough skill we can see it in a dance, but without comic situation when someone is so clumsy that he can’t use the stairs without risk (sorry Haruka, sad but true). WUG narrates the story very well, we can see how character skills are growing, as they train, they have a problems, they can literally bump into each other in a dance, take wrong position, but they work on it day to day.
WUG’s story moves characters up, then drops down for the sake of rising again. It has some standard idolmovies thingies like person who doesn’t give up, person with another goal in life and so on. But it’s appropriate and, to be honest, sometimes it’s unexpected. On the other hand, the world around is more realistic, it means they don’t have to explain how this world works, but they have to show how these girls solve their problems. It’s not so easy without common useful tricks like a rich member in the band or completely filled performance schedule without any reasons or the magic from Love Live that makes everything they imagine appear. It isn’t good or bad, these are the different ways to show character development. Thus it allows us to better understand the actions of every character.
2. Characters. Score: Amazing.
Foremost, they don’t have Nico Nico Nee. (It doesn’t mean I hate Nico. I don’t hate anyone, even Honda Mio). They don’t have a green eye`d noone, a noone from another world, a noone who has a talkative hamsters (you know).
And again. Seven different personalities from the real world. But creating different characters isn’t enough. A character shouldn’t be static, only development of a character makes it real, only relations between them makes us believe in them. From the beginning someone is shy, someone is funny, someone doesn’t fit the level and ready to give up, someone has a different goal in life, someone has a bad story in a past. What is the real pleasure is how all of them communicate to each other. Of course Yoppi is a leader, Mayu is the first star of the band, Airi simply is Airi, it looks like these trio has a little bit more time than other, but it doesn’t mean the other characters are merely playing the supporting roles only. It’s a real pleasure watching their interactions between the team members. It’s very important, nobody has a favorite, however Mayu and Airi are friends, but Nanami helps Airi with trainings after her day off, Kaya has a private talk with Mayu, consequently it causes a response action later, because every step is has reasons.
However, a couple of words about each person in chaotic order.
Airi. The weakest, the person who wants to be an idol not because it’s her real feeling, but only because her relations with Mayu. She can’t imagine anything different by herself because of her uncertainty. She’s not talented, she’s uncertain, she doubts herself. She’s hardworking, but it’s not enough to be in the same level with the others. But the main reason of her having a part in the movie isn’t her personality, but her relations with other band members. In these relations she’s a kinda conscience. At the end she believes in all other girls more than everyone else and, unfortunately, much more than in herself. Her animation is truly unbelievable, i.e. during their debut gig she misses the beat frequently, at least twice. It’s not so obvious, it’s not at focus, the movie doesn’t make your your eyes linger on it, but it works through subconsciousness, proving the words they’re talking about as a fact.
Mayu, the star, the center of common admiration, she raises awareness to the band. She’s kind, responsive, but because of her problems in the past she doesn’t want to get close with anyone, except Airi at the beginning. She’s really talented, but somehow she lost her target, so her main goal is to find herself and understand what the idols world means specially for her.
Yoshino, officially she’s a leader of this band, but she avoids making decision, because she’s not sure of her own solution. Her first resolution proving her a true captain happens only when she understands, it's not only her demands, but the whole band answer. Her skills are really high, so she envies Mayu occasionally, they have a confrontation until they understand they have the same goal.
Kaya sometimes looks impulsive and even silly, especially after her first introduction, but the reason of her behavior is her sense of justice. She’s crazy in her own little way, it’s true, but she knows what responsibility is, she’s really like the band, so she could make more than expected and could put up with accidents she has never allowed before, her attitude to WUG is clear from her words: “if this were one of my jobs I’d have quit a long time ago”. It’s absolutely clear only she could pull out all fears from Mayu’s mind and resolve understatements.
Next two persons don’t have a good story arc, world isn’t perfect, even the world of Wake Up Girls universe. They show the current air in a band via reaction, so if they’re tired we can see if it is OK or not.
Miyu. Twin tailed and incompetent, it’s her own explanation of herself and it’s partially true. Not in the case of incompetence, but in the case of honesty. Sometimes she’s the first person who’s ready to react, while others in a reflection. She can switch attention with a joke or some unimportant sentences, what allows to relax if it requires. She’s responsible for quick changes in others' mood.
Minami is the same character, may be she’s more stable than Miyu who’s really prone to crying. But she’s ready to share the most valuable thing if she thinks it can help.
Kouhei Matsuda. Initially he’s looks like an anonymous manager-san from The Idolmaster, but his explanation is such funny, it’s started from a daydreamer lying on the bench and thinking about … simply thinking. His faults are totally embarrassing for the band members, but they support him anyway. He isn’t the best manager, but he’s a member of the band after all.
Nanami. Oh boy, my adorable Nanami. What an amazing character she is. She trained hard with everyone, she helped Airi, and after that in private talks with Kouhei announced her departure from the band and went to a cafe with everybody as if nothing had happened. And when the decision is made, her next step is “the hell with it, I’m staying here”. She’s clever, skillful and canny and she is impulsive and sensitive. She’s really self-confident, she knows her own worth and somehow she’s kind and tender.
Digressing from the subject, I want to mention: returning of Nanami one day is the most unexpected expected scene for me and it shows the real development of characters.
It is worth paying attention to visual introduction of every person as a new band member. Airi tells tells Mayu about it and apologized. Kaya opens the letter in the small closed storeroom, Nanami has taken the pass for granted and starts to picking up her outfit, Minami and Miyu are celebrated with supporters and I’m not sure Yoppi had seen her offer before her photo session was started. Different behavior almost without words. Is this one minute of a different short actions add much more extra capacity to a a person rather than explaining their behavior through personal story? The same things in audition: someone preparing (fyi Nanami), someone is relaxing, someone is nervous (guess who).

3. Music. Score: Fascinating
I’m afraid all songs in this genre are similar, sometime it’s a little bit better, sometime worse. I beg your pardon, but my favorite song from the all idols songs is “Baby!” from AoButa. All other songs sounds similar for me. WUG’s songs is not so pathetical like Love Live’s ones, but not as naïve as the Idolmaster’s. It’s important that this is the songs girls can sing and dance on a stage. Anyway it’s very difficult to be objective in estimating the songs' value here, when I listen to it, I associate it with the universe and get pleasure from it.
Background music is well, not boring, not distracting and very appropriate. It provides you with a real mood in a key moments. It’s perfect.

4. Art. Score: Inimitable
For me the worst dance in idol movies is any dance from Love Live Sunshine. They say there are some good graphics there, but I see only chaotic movement with shaped model against the static background from random angles. It’s suxx. To be honest I’m not familiar with art estimating, but I’m very meticulous about the small tricks. In the first movie they show Mayu in the past shining in the colorful stage with sparkling eyes and later in the next frame she’s sitting in the monochrome class with her hair casting a shadow on her eyes. It’s a perfect work. It really makes a difference. It’s not the only one moment, there are lots of them, I like the moment, when the band members are going home after the first training with Hayasaka-san, everyone is really tired, they stoop as they walk, Mayu is following them without any problems. It explains the situation better than thousand words. It’s a real art for me, not the frame per second race or quantity of leaves on the tree in the background. Frankly graphics is cheap, but the animation is perfect.
WUG’s dances is near the first Love Live, just for me it’s the best quality I’ve waited for. Herewith, Tachiagare in the ending of the first movie is the best dance I’ve ever seen. It’s a fact that technically Chika dance is better, but I’m not talking about technical details, cute movements and some other tricks without context. It’s all in one, the mood, the graphics, the music. This dance is the real show of themselves, their faith and confidence. This dance means “All is lost save honour”.
Summary. Score: Outstanding
I don’t know why this series is estimated so low, it might be the wrong targeting. I found it while looking up for idols anime, but this is not the idol movie, I think it’s less idol-anime than Zombieland Saga. If I had to find something similar, I could mention “Sora yori mo Tooi Basho” or “Hibike Euphonium”, these stories have much more in common, than, probably, any other names from the review. But the difference is too big too, these two story I have mentioned are optimistic and full of happiness, this story is melancholic and kinda sad, but it gives hope.
My opinion is very subjective, it looks like this world touched my heart. It’s up to you to decide, if you should spend time on it or not. The first movie is about one hour, it follows three episode rule.  In the best case you find something to watch, in the worst case you don’t. Anyway, if you are reading this you are already interested in it, aren’t you?

Ps dedicated to Wake Up Girls band disbanding in the March of 2019