Friday 14 March 2014

Wake Up, Girls! - Episode 10

After all of the recent tensions, it seems that everything has been resolved between the various members of Wake Up Girls, and not a moment too soon with the Idol Festival organised by I-1 Club's head honcho looming.

As a result, much of this week's episode deals with the preparation for the Tohoku region's preliminary round of the contest, as the group practice doggedly, organise their outfit for the big day, and fret over exactly what it is that makes them appealing to fans, while of course, the fans themselves also have preparations to make.  In the midst of all this, Mayu decides that it's time to sit down and try and explain things to her mother, even inviting her to the concert in the hope that she can finally understand why she left I-1 Club.


Away from all of this, the group also have to worry about their rivals for this round, perhaps the most eye-catching of which are the Demons of Oga, who seemingly mix their song and dance routine with comedy.  Oh, and big demon masks too... maybe they just want to be Super Sonico's manager?  Anyway, Yoppi isn't one to be cowed by this rival group's beligerence, and come the event itself everything goes surprisingly well for the Wake Up Girls - heck, even Mayu's mother turns up to watch her daughter perform.  The stage is all set for the group to head to the grand final in Tokyo, but before all of that there's another fly in the ointment to sour any positivity in the group's mood...

Ignoring some really ropy moments of animation, this was an okay but unspectacular episode of Wake Up, Girls that seems to have decided to do away with any real hardships for the group and suddenly turn them into a sufficiently accomplished unit to fend off their local rivals and look like pros at the festival - a decision that frankly isn't all that interesting and feels dangerously close to being a jarring shift in the group's abilities.  Beyond that, this sudden bout of success just doesn't feel all that interesting, but again this is probably down to my lack of investment in the characters at this point which I'm not sure the show can do anything to resolve.  Well, apart from creating a spin-off that follows the Demons of Oga, perhaps...

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