An overnight trip relaxes the girls, and finally brings up the secrets that have been bothering them.
What They Say:
“Living Here”
Content: (please note that the content portion of a review may contain spoilers)
In an attempt to fix themselves after the fighting they had last episode, Wake Up, Girls! (and their managers) decide to take an overnight trip to Kaya’s aunt’s inn. Thanks to the location, Kaya, the oldest one in the group, finally gets some focus as she reveals to Mayu her reasons for joining the group, and why she left her hometown. Oddly, the show is a little vague about the details: a fishing village that’s rebuilding, her town was obviously hit by the tsunami, but they never directly say that, and though Kaya mentions that she “ran away” from the town, she never specifies what she was running from. But, we see that she has a similar reason to Mayu for joining the group — she wanted to make herself happy.
After revealing all of this to Mayu, Kaya then prompts her to reveal her own secret, and we finally see why she was forced out of I-1. Like Wake Up, Girls!, she joined this first group when it was first beginning. They also started out small, and handing out flyers and working hard to get their first CDs printed. But, I-1 was a much stricter environment, and when a girl broke the rules she was immediately kicked out. Such a thing happened to one of Mayu’s friends despite how well she did in the group, because an idol can only have love for her fans. When Mayu confronted their boss about this, he decided to put her in her place, forcing her into a center battle with the promise that she would be cut if she lost. When she inevitably did lose, they went even further and ruined her reputation with the fans, making it seem like she had a boyfriend so they wouldn’t love her anymore. This also caused problems with her family: her mother, living vicariously through Mayu, took personal offense to her failure, and the stress caused her parents to divorce. So, no wonder she took so long to get back into the idol game.
Since everyone eavesdropped on the conversation, the rest of the group hears this confession, too, which spurs on a warm and fuzzy moment where people apologize and say they’ll do better. This is too much for Nanami, who told Matsuda last episode that she wanted to quit, to dramatically rip up her music school application and say she’s sticking with the group through the idol contest (which means Airi will have to do a better job!). This is s little funny, but also makes her potentially problem-making decision, which none of the other girls knew about, seem like a pointless part of the plot.
In Summary
Mayu’s big secret about leaving I-1, which had been hinted to be over a boyfriend or a single fan, turns out to be more intense than I thought, and her weird feelings about idols — avoiding it even though she enjoys singing and dancing, and actively disliking idols in general — make complete sense now. I-1, or at least their boss, is much more clearly a scary enemy to have, upping the anxiety and excitement for the eventual idol competition. The problems within the group are wrapped up a little easily, as there seems to be no lingering anxiety, resentment, or doubt between the girls, and while this simplifies the story — now we can focus on their fight with I-1 — it simplifies the characters too much as well. But, that’s been a problem since the beginning, and it seems unlikely that Wake Up, Girls! will fix it at this point. Instead, we can keep focusing on the good: a close look at the problems idols face, including the scary stress placed on young and hopeful girls.
Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 13″ Apple Macbook set to 720p