(CR) Wake Up, Girls !

[Kanon]

This anime was a failure as far as I'm concerned. The animation was terrible, the characters were superficially developed, the songs weren't very good, and the dark side of the industry was only scratched. Yamakan didn't take any risks. Not that I expected him to, he's all bark and no bite. 5/10 because I liked the girls.

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by Kanon

This anime was a failure as far as I'm concerned. The animation was terrible, the characters were superficially developed, the songs weren't very good, and the dark side of the industry was only scratched. Yamakan didn't take any risks. Not that I expected him to, he's all bark and no bite. 5/10 because I liked the girls.

Wait a moment. If the characters were superficially developed, how did you end up liking the girls?

[Haak]

^ Likeable personalities.

I think I'll be a bit more generous here and give it a 6.6/10. This isn't including the film which I rate significantly higher. Overall the episode count simply isn't enough to develop all the girls to a decent level, there were far too many questionable moments from Matsuda and Tange (some of which undermined the criticisms levelled at the idol industry), it was ultimately too soft on the idol industry and the animation was down right atrocious throughout most of its run.

Ultimately I also still liked the girls, and despite everything I could at least see the sincerity in the storytelling (unlike the AKB0048 anime). When it comes down to it, it would usually be the first thing I watched when the subs were available and that's got to mean something.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by novalysis

Wait a moment. If the characters were superficially developed, how did you end up liking the girls?

A character can be likable even if he's underdeveloped. Personalities, looks, voices, ... every little things contributes. It's precisely because I liked them that I would have liked to know more about them. The only character that received enough focus was Mayu. Some like Nanami were pretty much ignored.

[Flower]

For me this is one of the few cases where the animation did interfere with my appreciation of the series.

I do not mind more risks not being taken, but I would have liked to see a little more chara development too.

I guess I would give it a 6/10, but kinda wish it could have been more than it was. Or maybe I wanted to like it more than I did?

[Dr. Casey]

Yeah, I also find it disappointing that the "seedy underside of the idol industry" element was so vaguely explored. It was the focal point of the second episode, and then more or less forgotten for the rest of the series.

The second half of 7 Girls' War is a lot better than the first, I think (by 'second half,' I mean everything starting around the 15:42 mark, where they start singing again after a brief lyric-free interlude), to the point of basically being on the same level as Stand Up and First-Rate Smile. The first half that's used as the main opening theme is fun and silly and all, but it definitely wouldn't be my first choice to use as a performance (which I guess matches up with the fact that it wasn't Wake Up Girls' first choice).

[MeisterBabylon]

All I can say is, what, its over?

It NEEDS a bloody sequel. Or more investment. Or SOMETHING. Because the anime had good material but the delivery has been left wanting.

I feel more for the poor girls behind the characters. Its like the animation have curtailed their already short idol careers.

And unlike Infinite Stratos, I have ZERO idea how to fix this mess!

[Red Cheese]

Yeah...I did hope they would show us more about the industry and how the idol group's talents got regconized rather than just individual's story. Plus the songs are rather uninteresting for me... I mean, I have no idea how they could climb that high the ladder when 3/4 of the show only ever showed their failures...

[cyth]

There is a bright side to this anime, and that's that the show stayed focused on portraying a healthy idol group environment. Contrast that to I-1, seems like WUG is a much nicer group to be in, then again I believe that I-1's harsh reality, hidden underneath "more beautiful, intense and precise than anyone else" is just I-1's way of doing things, and that's just the kind of group they are.

Idol industry criticism, as I suspected, wasn't Yamakan's main dish. Perhaps I-1 isn't the best group to do this with in the first place. Some idol groups cannot afford to just drop their members, like I-1 does, just because they were dating boys or whatever. Some groups force members to stay, but this is nothing new in Japanese music business. Shiraki has been a gentler beast, as predicted. I'm sure he's responsible WUG lost the competition though. Also, in his intro speech he mentions 9/11, but that was just Yamakan effectively using it to mask 3/11. He basically borrowed Shiraki to channel his feelings on the issue of entertainment in harsh political times, rocking Shiraki's consistency as a character. Not sure how I feel about that!

Of course, the animation was fucking terrible. I'm convinced that the only reason moe anime still outsells everything else is because people animating them know the fans will crucify them if they don't do a good job, so they consistently get better animation, and that's what people still primarily buy anime for. This wasn't a moe show, it felt more like a documentary, and I'm willing to bet money that the sometimes questionable pacing and obvious plot devices would be considered minor issues if only the animation was good.

Seriously, why do all Yamakan shows after Kannagi look like complete garbage? And to think people complained about Kannagi's animation ...

[Esclair]

7/10 For me. Loved the drama and the characters, but the animation was just too terrible, especially during the dances, which should have been the highlight. Also, i definitely felt like they needed a new song for the finale. If it had more budget this could easily have been an 8 or even a 9 anime.

[Marcus H.]

Seriously, why do all Yamakan shows after Kannagi look like complete garbage? And to think people complained about Kannagi's animation ...

Nobody wants to work with a drama queen that may drag the financiers along for the ride when he goes on a fit, I guess.

[Gohan78]

I think it was a good finale and overall I give the show a 7/10. I wish I could give it more because I liked the story and the characters but the animation was just too horrible to ignore.

About the competition, I could see it going both ways but it doesn't really matter. What is important is that the girls performed well and received a huge cheer from the audience. They were all crying for joy after the performance, even if they didn't win. I actually think it's more realistic this way because WUG is a newly formed group with a bunch of amateurs plus Mayu. There was also that small blunder when Yoppi tried to jump and almost fell.

As for Shiraki and I-1, it would have been overkill to have WUG triumph over them at this stage. I think that there was still a small victory when Shiraki was shown walking down a corridor while remembering of his younger days.
I also liked the fact that Shiho helped Yoppi. She is extremely competitive but she wants a fair fight.

The issue of the dark side of the idol industry was explored enough for me. More than that and it would have become a documentary. We had lecherous fans, scumbag producers, shameless paparazzi and the quasi-militaristic regime called I-1 Club. It's certainly more than what we saw in shows such as Love Live and Idolmaster (barring Chihaya's situation), where the idol world is portrayed mostly as wine and roses.

[Infinite Zenith]

Originally Posted by Gohan78

TL;DR…

For brevity

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

This aligns with my thoughts; far from being a cliché ending, Wake Up, Girls remained reasonable by showing that sometimes, things happen that preclude a storybook ending. It was quite realistic of them to show that despite hard work, sometimes, the victory one seeks doesn't come, and in spite of this, other opportunities will definitely arise. For me, that was more than enough to make the ending satisfactory. In fact, it would have been cliché to allow WUG a perfect run from such a shaky beginning.

As for the nastier side of the entertainment business, the portrayal in Wake Up, Girls is again, satisfactory. It shows just enough of the hazards without stepping into territory that can't be shown on screen. I enjoyed this series, although probably not enough to openly recommend it. I note that the post I'm commenting is one of the fairest assessments I've seen since the show ended

[Red Cheese]

Originally Posted by Gohan78

I think it was a good finale and overall I give the show a 7/10. I wish I could give it more because I liked the story and the characters but the animation was just too horrible to ignore.

About the competition, I could see it going both ways but it doesn't really matter. What is important is that the girls performed well and received a huge cheer from the audience. They were all crying for joy after the performance, even if they didn't win. I actually think it's more realistic this way because WUG is a newly formed group with a bunch of amateurs plus Mayu. There was also that small blunder when Yoppi tried to jump and almost fell.

As for Shiraki and I-1, it would have been overkill to have WUG triumph over them at this stage. I think that there was still a small victory when Shiraki was shown walking down a corridor while remembering of his younger days.
I also liked the fact that Shiho helped Yoppi. She is extremely competitive but she wants a fair fight.

The issue of the dark side of the idol industry was explored enough for me. More than that and it would have become a documentary. We had lecherous fans, scumbag producers, shameless paparazzi and the quasi-militaristic regime called I-1 Club. It's certainly more than what we saw in shows such as Love Live and Idolmaster (barring Chihaya's situation), where the idol world is portrayed mostly as wine and roses.

Well.. I have to disagree about the Love Live! and Idolm@ster. Love Live! focuses on a different direction, which is the more personal struggle rather than the big behind the screen issues. Why? Because Idol group in Love live! is but a very small school idol, more about aspiring than having to deal with all the complicated adult matters. That's why it gives you the impression that Love Live! is a lot more cheerful.

The closest with WUG is probably Idolm@ster, in which it also shows the dark side of the idol, portrayed by president of 961, with all his backalley deals, bribing, paparazzi and stuff. The difference is Idolm@ster tries to view them in a more positive light.

In my opinion, WUG has done almost the same thing as Idolm@ster, except the insight to a different idol group operating method.

Overall, what I'm most unsatisfied with this show is not its animation, but its terrible pacing, probably due to its nature as a one cour show. The show keeps piling problems after problems, but never gave some real progress until the very last episodes. Most of the time, they focused on individual's problems, their failures without actual progress. Did they change since ep 1? Yes. Did they become much more popular since ep 1? No, not really. Not until after they joined the competition that things start to head forward.

Well, I suppose it can't be helped since it's only one cour, but I had hoped it could have turned out better. One last thing is the very cliche "ankle sprained" and "lost at the last minute". The ankle sprained is very very forced and unnatural, to the point that I question "What's that for?". On the other hand, "lost at the last minute" is, by itself, logical, but at the same time, overused and predictable and worse is, they lost to some random group, but I can let it slide. This is a show about idol and stuff, but before that, it's a movie, so what it needs to be done is to be creative. Predictability is not bad by itself, but not good either. For me, it's a somewhat disappointing decision.

[frodonk]

Well, that's about as good as one could get from a charity anime I guess.

The writer for this was the same guy who wrote from Idolm@ster I think, so any similarity is expected, but yes, it was lacking in many aspects so all in all I consider this as an average series.

This is the first time I watched any idol series, and what made me watch this was that movie, so I guess I need to rate that movie and the series differently.

I still can't read their faces until the end though, there were many times when I didn't know whether they were smiling or frowning.

[cyth]

Originally Posted by Red Cheese

In my opinion, WUG has done almost the same thing as Idolm@ster, except the insight to a different idol group operating method.

I really don't think so.

Spoiler for earlier parts of Idolmaster:

Idolmaster's girls were raised in fashion of hard work and winning over fans will eventually pay off. But when the incident happened with 876PRO, what was the Producer's response? He was on the verge of retiring the group from the competition, but Iori's family's influence saved the day in the end. What have we learned from this? That the only way to fight a backroom deal is to make a better, more threatening backroom deal. The Producer didn't have the guts to go against "the darkness" afterall. The way the whole thing went down was actually kind of like an endorsement of the way things are, and I just can't forgive Idolmaster for that.

I guess Tange had a much easier opponent to deal with, as he was just another scumbag pimp, but the difference here is because of poor management and fickle idol culture the girls actually went through a horrible ordeal, apart from IM@S girls. Not sure having your makeup stolen can compare to your ass being groped by sleazy old men.

[MeisterBabylon]

A lot of iM@S' older "canon" was overwritten by the anime adaptation, and rightly so; there were a LOT of confusing (in terms of the idols' personalities occasionally changing without warning) and potentially disturbing actions in there, like cyth rightly pointed out. Some might even argue that the old one had more sleeze because of now-departed voice actresses (well, I don't), but I believe the production team saw fit to paper those miscalls over and so leaving us with effectively two versions of iM@S.

The original iM@S had a lot of flaws now "fixed" or papered over or simply ignored in the anime. Now with more people are familiar with the anime's retelling, you will notice that the idols had more "hard work" and more "hard work makes things better" as befitting of a light-hearted anime and less of the contradictions the old iM@S gave us. cyth's example was completely missing from the anime, as it was RGK's use of a helicopter to escape killer traffic (they just drove through in the anime, more in keeping with Iori's stance of wanting to become an idol by her own strength).

Many other abuses or weirdness from the original were also missing. Like, would you call the current Haruka "Kurohime"? I could do that for the older one; the current one only exists as a Harustein parody.

And since so many more people are more familiar with that version of iM@S, the new iM@S has now become the "true" iM@S. And the new iM@S "follows the rules" in terms of moe girls achieving greatness through teamwork, friendship, borderline magical powers and ridiculous layers of plot armor. But I don't find that a problem. Why? Because it was fun, the anime made sure the audience knew it was taking things lightly and the anime stuck to it right to the very end, opting for a full blown casuality loop powered by POSITIVE-NI (which is pretty much Spiral Power without World of Ham) to end the Haruka arc instead of Love Live! over-melodramatization. And made it work.

WUG! while prided for its "grittiness" however decides to just invert plot armor into plot torture. Not very clever in my books. But that's not the really big problem here. Unfortunately, in reality, most idols just disappear, without fame or fortune or even fucking anything. Not even getting groped by sleezy old men. That sort of realism is boring television so I can't blame Yamada for that.

The problem is that Yamada couldn't find his balance early and later just couldn't find his direction, leading to an anime that's in a way all over the place and finally still had to go for chobham plot armor at the very end to conclude the anime within 12 episodes.

[kagami77]

http://imgur.com/lQ7JWB9

Get excited for first WUG concert!
There will only ever be one first, I shall treasure this memory so much ^^

http://wakeupgirls.jp/special/

[Miraluka]

There is a good amount of improvement in the BD's.

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Miraluka

There is a good amount of improvement in the BD's.

Now that is excellent news. Will help some of the better aspects of the series to shine hopefully. Really deserved a better treatment, in my opinion. ^^