First Impression: Wake Up, Girls! Shin Shou

Synopsis

After facing different kinds of challenges, “Wake up Girls!” are slowly making their way to having their name known. But with the idol recession that goal won’t be easy for the group as they continue to face new struggles in their rise to true idol status. But while the girls face their own issues, there is another group of girls who also want to make their entrance into the world of idols.

The Good

The main thing to note with the episode is how smooth the CG scenes work itself out. Especially mixed with the strength of both music and dancing from the girls. On the note of the girls, the new designs of the costumes gives a refreshing look for the series. For the most part, the general art and style for the girls looks rather good in the first episode. The continuity of their story is rather nice and the way they don’t make use of the usual flashbacks but imagery instead is a nice touch.

The episode set up a rather simple plot and introduction to the story for the series. As fot the buildup towards the drama, it worked out rather well. Generally the first episode gave a rather solid intro without being too heavy on the drama but showing that there will be challenges that the girls will still have to face, so no too bad for the most part.

The Bad

The first thing to notice is that a lot of the scenes are rather bright in terms of lighting. While the concept of it may be understood, it can be a little much for the eyes after certain scenes. For the most part, there are a lot of rather standard moments of the idol anime, and if you look at the big picture of the episode, there is not much that is different. There is the usual idol drama, the rivalry and then the friendship tropes to be found.

On another note, while there is much attention given to the details of the girls, it would be nice if the designs of the males were done even slightly better though it is partially understandable given the characters. Then there is also the animation outside of the performances, it would be nice if in certain scenes did away with the still shots

Conclusion

For the most part the episode holds up to par with most idol anime but at the same time is also rather generic as most of them as well. While the new designs are good and the CG animation much smoother, the lighting of the scenes could have worked out better and lesser still shots would have worked out better as well. But so far the episode is rather standard and not all the at bad for the new series of the franchise.

Rating: 6/10