Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol (Wake Up, Girls! The Movie)

In Wake Up, Girls! Green Leaves Entertainment is in the worst situation any Talent Management Agency can be in... they have NO talent! Desperate for an act, President Junko Tange targets the idol singer market and gives her flunky Matsuda his marching orders: get a girl group to manage, even if it means building one from scratch!

Since complete singing groups rarely appear out of thin air, Matsuda's now in the difficult position of having to find girls with the right skills who don't already have contracts with Japan's music industry. That girl at the Maid Café? Good enough! A lead singer who's been fired from another group? Sure, why not? How about one who's only 13 years old? What could possibly go wrong there?

They may not be on the A-list, the B-List, or even the C-list to start, but with a little love and a whole lot of hard work, it's possible that all Japan may someday wake up to the music of WAKE UP, GIRLS!

(Source: Sentai Filmworks)

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Episode Videos

Episode 1

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Gekijouban Wake Up, Girls!: Shichinin no Idol
Sequel:	Wake Up, Girls!
Side story:	Wake Up, Girls! Deai no Kiroku: A Brief Recording

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Characters & Voice Actors

Shimada, Mayu

Main

Yoshioka, Mayu
Japanese

Nanase, Yoshino

Main

Aoyama, Yoshino
Japanese

Okamoto, Miyu

Main

Takagi, Miyu
Japanese

Katayama, Minami

Main

Tanaka, Minami
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

More staff

Staff

Katsumata, Hideo

Producer

Yoshizawa, Takashi

Producer

Takashino, Shuuichi

Producer

Tanaka, Hiroyuki

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Tachiagare! (タチアガレ！)" by Wake Up, Girls!

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Reviews

Jan 10, 2014

Stark700

Recommended

Get a group of girls together with dreams, give them your business card, and ask them if you want to be an idol. What do you get? Wake Up, Girls! It’s no mystery that the movie is about a group of girls performing music as an inspiration. Although they each have their own different reasons for becoming an idol, the girls of this group stands together in unity to perform music for the audience and hoping to earn themselves a name in the music industry.

Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol serves a prequel to the anime series of the same name. I highly recommend watching ... the movie first because it introduces initial concepts to grasp before venturing into the official anime series. The movie runs initially less than a full hour and offers some basic concepts of the show’s aesthetics.

The concept of music idols is hardly an original idea. It’s been done many times in series such as The Idolmaster, Love Live! School Idol Project, and the AKB0048 franchise. The series takes place in a city environment. By this standard, it’s proven itself that the show relates to people trying to discover themselves and open doors to dreams especially since cities are a welcoming billboard to opportunities. But for Green Leaves Entertainment, it’s running low on talents and not enough opportunities to shine like it once had before. Seeking out opportunities, we meet a normal man by the name of Kouhei Matsuda asking an abnormal question: Do you want to become an idol?

The girls he meets initially gives the cold shoulder and it should be no surprise. Shows with idols often have high expectations with the characters being gifted with talent. As an underdog group, Wake Up, Girls doesn’t start off well in terms performance. Most of the girls has big dreams but the group itself have little hope both mentally and financially. One particular girl named Mayu also becomes a topic of discussion on the web after an event that triggered her resignation from another idol group. Because of that, it’s suspicious what may have happened in the past. Unfortunately in this movie, we never find out why so hold those theories tight for the TV series. Perhaps the length of this movie is an obstacle to prevent this revelation but it’s a flaw that comes to play for other factors as well. Such factors includes characterization as hardly any of the other idols gets their own spotlights but instead collectively tries to radiant themselves as a group.

Wake Up, Girls does build itself well in terms of storytelling from the get-go. It’s straight forward and doesn’t bounce off from its premise. It gets right to the point and doesn’t neglect the fact that the girls all have dreams where each of them does get a little insight on based on their reasons. While the main male protagonist lacks a personality, Matsuda does hold some respect for going through with his work and not giving up. It’s like what people say sometimes, ‘you can do anything if you try’. This applies to the idols as well. The girls do put their efforts in despite running into various troubles. Perhaps the result isn’t exactly what they had hoped for, it still earned themselves a way of self-satisfaction knowing they put their efforts through. On the other hand is the strange comedy and almost monotonous dialogues thrown in various conversations. Matsuda is also a character hard to relate to and seems to lack talent himself.

The animation is fresh but not stellar by any standards. Some of the girls looks similar while none of them particularly stand out. Even Mayu, the prominent idol of the series lack any distinctive features besides her noticeable past. Speaking of which, the idols shown in the past has a more fancy style of artistic make up. The present ones lacks that thanks to a technical storyline point that drives the idols to go by what they have now. It also throws in surprising distractions in the forms of brief fan service to add some flavor. Background colors are natural on most terms and defines some form of realism. The snow falling down the sky near the end of the movie could symbolize a transformation especially for Mayu after her breathtaking confession.

Music is a critical theme of this movie as the idols themselves sing to entertain the audience while following their dreams. By most standards, the songs holds themselves together but the performance lacks any groundbreaking impact. The movements flow well but nothing unique or special comes out of the lyrics. One important factor to note though is that the idols’ voice actresses are fresh to the business. Most of them stars in this movie with their debuting roles and is a welcoming sight to embrace. At many points, it feels like the VA themselves embrace their roles such as Miyuu Okamoto with her enthusiasm.

This movie can feel a bit lacking if you are looking for an engaging plot or character development. The pacing and connection with the girls just doesn’t seem to fit together. On the other hand, it’s gratifying to see their efforts and brief progression. While not at a level of stardom, the music group Wake Up Girls is on its way as they take the first step to success. Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol serves a babyface so hopefully will mature itself in the TV series. After all, every journey begins with the very first step.

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Jan 10, 2014

Jupiterbae

Recommended

Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol works as an intro into the show, think of it as a 52 minute long first episode. It's simple enough, a talent company runs out of talent and tries to scramble together some girls to start an idol group. The characters are cute and the music is great and it even made me laugh a few times, it's enough to make me start watching the Wake Up, Girls! as it airs.

8/10

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Mar 16, 2014

yngtadpole

Recommended

I wasn't expecting such a great movie especially with the slow start this one has. But there's definitely a sincerity and theme of what idols are being all about that makes this anime really moving. The art's quite unique but the two reasons I enjoyed this anime so much was because the compelling stories and themes and the characters. It's a movie about Girls trying to become idols- the movie moves fast but the great thing about that is there isn't any downtime at all. Once the plot starts to accelerate it just piles on the enjoyment from the dilemmas and struggles, the individuality of ...

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Poll: Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jan 10, 2014	98 replies	by Serafos »» Jun 12, 2021 2:10 PM
Movie CMs Stark700 - Jan 7, 2014	0 replies	by Stark700 »» Jan 7, 2014 9:44 AM
Beginning Part of the Movie on Nico Nico Douga tsubasalover - Dec 27, 2013	0 replies	by tsubasalover »» Dec 27, 2013 3:14 AM

Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol

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Shimada, Mayu

Nanase, Yoshino

Okamoto, Miyu

Katayama, Minami

Kikuma, Kaya

Hisami, Nanami

Hayashida, Airi

Tange, Junko

Oota, Kuniyoshi

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Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol

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