Tag: Wake Up Girls

Arrival and Rehearsal

After my previous trip to Japan to see WUG in October, I told myself that I had made my peace with Wake Up, Girls! and I was alright with Osaka being my last experience with WUG. But when they actually announced a final live in back in December, it was simply too hard to resist. A grand climactic final live? In Saitama Super Arena?? I had no choice. I was going for sure.

Nobue (@VVVSnow) and I arrived Thursday night and settled in WUGner Penthouse 2.0. It’s a less impressive setup this time, but it was still a convenient headquarters for operations. We caught the BanG Dream! anime on TV and put enough alcohol in ourselves to mentally prepare for watching the last time WUG will perform. It was going to a be a full, busy day tomorrow.

Continue reading “Event Report: Wake Up, Girls! FINAL LIVE 想い出のパレード”

Day 1 Event Report can be found here

Day 2 (October 7)

Since we didn’t get to get up for buppan, we slept in a little bit before heading over to Kishiwada for Day 2.

During the afternoon session, I was with Punster (@Punsster). Some of you might be familiar with his YouTube channel where he subs Minami-related content. I am really glad to have sat next to Punster, because he is responsible for so much of the subbed WUG content I consume. I can understand Japanese given some time, but it’s definitely easier thanks to him. Punster is also just a really chill guy in general. He got a bunch of pictures with various individual Japanese WUGners as well, so I guess they like him on both sides of the ocean.

This is the session where I had the best seats the whole weekend — row 12!

I was dead center aligned with position zero. The section I sat in is right around eye-level for the performers, so every time WUG turned to the crowd, I was making eye contact. Every time Mayu pointed out to the crowd, she was pointing straight at me.

Continue reading “Event Report: Wake Up, Girls Final Tour Part II ~Fantasia~ Osaka (Day 2)”

Out of the seemingly infinite constellations of seiyuu, idols, singers, and bands that populate the sky of the Japanese music industry, the group that I follow the most closely is Wake Up, Girls!. I first got into 2.5D/seiyuu idols/whatever it’s called almost eight years ago with Idolmaster, and since then I have been on adventures that had me driving five hours both ways to see a delayed viewing of Aqours, bought me face to face with Nakamura Eriko, and took me to Japan for a weekend to see Walkure. But of all the franchises I have been into, none of them have ever made me feel the  passion and love that I feel towards Wake Up, Girls!. So when they announced in June that they were disbanding next March,  I knew I had to go see them.

Before I knew it, I was on a plane going from Chicago to my second trip to Japan this year. Don’t get into eventing, kids. Your wallet will thank you.

This adventure was mostly organized as a meetup of the WUG Discord server. Eight of us booked a really nice and spacious penthouse in downtown Osaka. MEM (@MEMgrizzlies7), Vestro, and I flew out from Chicago Wednesday night and finally arrived in Osaka on Friday morning, where we met up with fellow Chicagoan Nobue (@VVVSnow) before dropping our stuff in the penthouse.

Continue reading “Event Report: Wake Up, Girls Final Tour Part II ~Fantasia~ Osaka (Day 1)”