Reviews Wake Up, Girls!

Currently, WUG has a single season of 12 episodes and 2 films, with a 3rd on the way shortly (it's been released in Japan already but not subbed). There are also specials and ONAs that are only worth checking out if you really enjoy the main series. Before I lose you, lemme throw everything out in the open to start.

Yes this is an idol anime.
Yes it has cute girls doing cute things and singing and dancing.
No it is not similar to Love Live or Idolm@ster or AKB48 or Pretty Cure or White Album or Macross' recent incarnations.

I believe part of the bias and stigma against idolshit anime is because of things like Love Live with its mindlessly cheerful happenings with very little development of any kind, and existing as an excuse to sell merchandise like figures and CDs. This series and others similar to it put a focus on its potential as a product over a story, which is evident by just looking up how many songs have been written for LL, and the many different cute outfits designed for the characters.

Do you need ANY proof of this besides knowing Love Live and the first Idolmaster anime were produced by Sunrise? The studio that has been pumping out anime after anime with the intent of selling merchandise attached to it since 1979?

In the case of Wake Up, Girls!, it was produced by Tatsunoko Productions, who are owned dby the impressive and respectable Production I.G., as well as Ordet and Millepensee, mostly known for shorter anime like Senyuu, Teekyuu, and Black Rock Shooter. Just from watching the first movie, Shichinin no Idol, it becomes apparent this franchise was designed right from the start as a more realistic depiction to the idol industry in Japan.



There isn't a new song to sing every episode, not everything is fun and games, and mansqueal-inducing moeshit fanservice is scarce. The characters are real people, not walking tropes (well, except one of them). They have emotions and experiences and motives and ambitions and wishes, they aren't gimmicks with a mouth and 2 legs. We're shown how the characters interact with their families, friends, and colleagues (because in THIS idol anime, they actually have existences outside of the group).

"But wait a sec Amber! I googled 'wake up girls fanservice' and found this! A little hypocritical dontcha think?"


Oh, you mean the episode where they were just starting out, had no credibility or popularity, and in order to get their name even remotely into the open, they had to do some uncomfortable and shady shit while the audience was meant to feel embarrassed with the girls? Context, my friend. The same goes for the scene in the prequel movie when they deliberately show their underwear as they jump around on stage. In case you were unaware, idols wear something called "show panties", which are meant to be flashed briefly to the audience. The idol industry is a hungry and bloodthirsty machine, and WUG is intent on letting us know this.


"Don't rest, don't complain, don't think!"

Don't perform to the label staff's standards, and you're gone. Don't sell enough CDs and you're gone. You bring great shame to your family. Seppuku right this instant. You're worthless. We gave you the opportunity for fame so you better produce.

This is the reality for the in-series idol group I-1 Club, and is a dramatized but not all that inaccurate portrayal to how things work in glorious Nihon. You don't sense any sort of fulfillment or cheer from these girls when they aren't on stage, and their open hostilities behind the curtain are put on full display. The members of WUG get a taste of this during their first idol competition and when they relocate to Tokyo. They become discouraged, fail, are ridiculed on the internet, and their hard work and general good attitude are threatened with being reduced to a short-lived 15 minutes of fame.

But alongside the dreary and ugly goings-on, we see genuine progress and growth within the characters and their abilities as performers, and new opportunities are presented. They are burdened with obstacles and are challenged to overcome. To me this is less of an idol anime and more a dramatic and fictional biography of a young idol group that undoubtedly hits close to home for many of Japan's musical idols, who are real people before objects of admiration and entertainment.