Wake Up, Girls! - Episode 12 (Completed)

Where there's blame there's a claim, but no amount of compensation is going to help Yoppi overcome the ankle injury which looks all set to ruin both her and her group's chance in the Idol Festival final.

Naturally, Yoppi herself tries to put on a brave face and hide her injury from her colleagues, but it quickly becomes clear that something is wrong during the group's rehearsal, and there's nothing for it but to reveal the truth to them as they're about to cotton onto the problem anyhow.  The only question from there seems to be whether the group should pull out entirely or soldier on without Yoppi, but of all people it's a member of I-1 Club that comes to the rescue, bringing with her members of the group's medical staff to patch up and strap up Yoppi so that she might at least be able to survive her performance.

So, the day is saved, and with a little tweaking to their routine it's time for the Wake Up Girls to strut their stuff... something which they find themselves doing in front of a decidedly hostile audience filled with disapproving murmurs based mostly upon Mayu's appearance as part of their unit.  This soon starts to dissolve as their performance goes on however, winning over the crowd to an unbelievable extent to leave them with a standing ovation come the end of their routine, even if standing seems to be beyond Yoppi at this point.  It isn't enough to lift the Idol Festival trophy, but in the eyes of some at least it's an utter victory, and a performance that looks set to propel them on to greater things.

Given its starting point as a demonstration of everything that's wrong with the idol industry, it's been decidedly odd to watch Wake Up Girls morph into what it initially seemed determined to avoid, and come this final episode the show was effectively just another idol series geared to provide a feel-good ending and a drive to buy copious amounts of merchandise.  This isn't a terrible thing in itself - a good idol anime can be a lot of fun to watch - but between its rickety animation, lack of any defining characters and inability to follow up on some of its initial promise the result is a forgettable one.  For a show that seemed dead set on being anything but forgettable, that's the biggest disappointment of all.