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Exactly, who cares about the panties. The interviewer should have tied that into how the first series decided to portray the more seedier aspects of the idol industry and how the girls felt about that, since that's one of the facets of WUG that separates it from other idol franchises along with there being an actual WUG idol unit of course.

TBH it seems I'm in the minority here. I mean, not talking about Yamakan at all, if the guy's an unlikeable creator, so be it. But I did see the first season of WUG and to me it was quite engaging and much more realistic in many regards than the celebrated Love Live! (which granted, had a good first season too...but it clearly didn't take place in the real world).

I'm curious to check out the new series and the movies but I'm hesitant to do so because I don't want to watch a toned-down, innocuous and very SAFE rendition of what's like to be in an idol group in Japan. I don't care about the panty shots, they were uncomfortable to me as well. I'm talking about characterization and plot. Even WUG was of course sugar-coated to an extent, but that's to be expected because it's not pretending to be a drama after all.

Has anyone here been following the franchise? Are the sequel movies and the new series done in the same tone?

Beyond the Bottom was pretty much the exact same tone as the TV series. I can't speak for Shadow of Youth because I have not seen it, but I imagine it's pretty much the same as well.

Last edited by zrnzle500 on Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt on exactly who decided on showing the panty shots (though given some of his previous comments , not much) but I reread the transcript he quoted, and I couldn’t figure out where they implied Yamakan himself put that in there. It just seemed they were glad that their characters wouldn’t be as sexualized and didn’t think most if any fans would be mad. Unless they were referring to a comment he made, it seems like he is protesting too much. Regardless, I’m glad this bitter, washed up troll is off the project.

@kiminobokuwa We’ll see what happens with his Twilight project, but for the most part the answer is nobody.WUG was his only series in the last few years.

fathomlessblue wrote:

However, I will say kudos to Okuno & Yoshioka for publicly calling out the constant panty shots during the performances, even if they did it in a fairly light-hearted way. I tried checking out the original series in preparation for the sequels, and couldn’t get over how blatant the fanservice was.

Frankly, that's proof positive that you didn't actually check out the original series - you found what you wanted to find, and stopped after the second episode. In both the first and second episodes, yes - there was fanservice. However, what you seem to have missed in your rush to judgement was context. In the first ep, it's plainly described as being due to circumstances - and the girls go along with it because it's going to be a one time thing.

There are no further performance panty shots in the entire series. That ten or fifteen seconds in one episode are all there is.

Megiddo covers the context of the second episode quite well.

Megiddo wrote:

fathomlessblue wrote:

but when the second episode focused on a sleazy producer who makes the girls perform in skimpy outfits, while also ogling at them the entire time, I had to bail. I just couldn’t get over cognitive dissonance between publicly damning something, yet privately (via camera shots) utterly indulging in it. Then I checked out the main staff and everything suddenly made complete horrifying sense.

There's no cognitive dissonance there. That's simply portraying the darker side of the idol industry. There are producers who have up-and-coming idols do gravure photo shoots or perform in lewd outfits on variety shows. That's something that happens. Wake up Girls acknowledges that it happens. It did so in an extremely uncomfortable manner in a way that shows how idols can be exploited. None of the other big idol franchises touch on this in any way whatsoever.

Not to mention, most of the other idol shows still have the fanservice. WUG called it out and was not really indulging in it at all. Most everything else is nothing but fanservice, in its various forms, including the ecchi type, without any of the decency that WUG had to actually criticize it.

ryanvamp wrote:

Has anyone here been following the franchise? Are the sequel movies and the new series done in the same tone?

Yes, I have. The movies are good. The TV series that just started is also good based on the first episode, but it remains to be seen what it will actually be like, or if there is any more industry criticism to be had. It was just an endearing reintroduction to the characters so far.

omoikane wrote:

The joke is not funny anymore when it has to be explained to an audience (ANN readers) in order for them to understand it, so why report it...

Meh, I know virtually nothing about Wake Up Girls, and I still find it amusing that he quoted Devilman. I guess this whole thing would mean more to me if I was a fan of, or more knowledgeable about, the franchise, though?

Oh, I didn't know Yamakan wasn't directing the new series. I guess that explains why he was retweeting tons of tweets about how awful the CG in the new series is. I initially thought it was just Yamakan being weird again. I haven't started it, so I don't know how true the CG being bad is, though.

Megiddo wrote:

Beyond the Bottom was pretty much the exact same tone as the TV series. I can't speak for Shadow of Youth because I have not seen it, but I imagine it's pretty much the same as well.

Are you mixing them up or did you not watch the prequel before the sequel?
In any case, both movies are very good. Even if Yamakan is a jerk, at least he did good with WUG. I hope the new series lives up to it...

relyat08 wrote:

Not to mention, most of the other idol shows still have the fanservice. WUG called it out and was not really indulging in it at all. Most everything else is nothing but fanservice, in its various forms, including the ecchi type, without any of the decency that WUG had to actually criticize it.

I take it you don't actually watch any idol shows?

Megiddo wrote:

There's no cognitive dissonance there. That's simply portraying the darker side of the idol industry. There are producers who have up-and-coming idols do gravure photo shoots or perform in lewd outfits on variety shows. That's something that happens. Wake up Girls acknowledges that it happens. It did so in an extremely uncomfortable manner in a way that shows how idols can be exploited. None of the other big idol franchises touch on this in any way whatsoever.

I thought I was being clear enough, but in case I wasn't, the cognitive dissonance I'm referring to was the complete disconnect between what the show was saying as what it was prioritising. I think most people are generally aware with the seedy underbelly of the idol industry by now and it was refreshing to be see WUG acknowledge it. The problem was it was more than happy to do long shots and slow cams on the girls while it was at it. Obviously matter-of-fact near nudity would be a given during such instances, but I definitely felt that the show seemed to be enjoying getting the most out of these scenes while it was at it. There may not have been anything as explicit as cheese cake shots but it went beyond merely focusing on their discomfort, & as a result undercut the message the show was supposed to be portraying

Obviously you disagree regarding the framing of that scene, but I went into that show with an open mind, honestly expecting to enjoy it, but couldn't get past the mixed signals I was seeing. I can take fanservice as a given in shows, but placement is important to me, and in the case of episode two it made the tone feel completely off within the context of the scene. I couldn't tell whether it was incompetence or sly indulgence from the director, until I found out it was Yamakan, & realised it could possibly be both. I'm sure there's a good show in Wake Up Girls, but I just couldn't trust him behind the wheels of the property. Judging from what's occurred since, clearly his bosses thought the same.

But hey, there's a new season out now so hopefully I'll have better luck with that.

DerekL1963 wrote:

Frankly, that's proof positive that you didn't actually check out the original series - you found what you wanted to find, and stopped after the second episode. In both the first and second episodes, yes - there was fanservice. However, what you seem to have missed in your rush to judgement was context.

Well, yes, I stopped after the second episode; I said so clearly in my post. Perhaps you missed that in your rush to judgement to make aspersions as to why I didn't take to it?

As unlikeable as everyone else finds yamakan, I wished he continued working on WUG. Im a huge WUG fan, but the new season just breaks my heart by how much it has dropped in quality.

The animation for the most part looks like they are cardboard cut outs just being moved.
The character expressions look stiff, generic, forced; take your pick. Even WUG Zoo character designs had more expression.
Forced drama, and I mean more forced than usual, like they didn't even try to hide it.
Dont get me started on the CG.

Im going to carry on watching it because its WUG, but its going to be painful, really painful.

I hoped that this article would be about yamakan ripping into the new season. I want to know what the original director has to say about it.

The route to getting blacklisted from an industry for no good reason 101. However, the new season suffers from bad CG in performances and okish art (also due to CG) which shouldn't have been changed at all.

Hehehe, well deserved. The guy got what was coming to him. You know what they say about what goes around, comes around.

Well this is the same guy who said people who watch Anime beyond a certain age have disabilities.

and the sky is still sadly blue

Quote:

However, I will say kudos to Okuno & Yoshioka for publicly calling out the constant panty shots during the performances, even if they did it in a fairly light-hearted way. I tried checking out the original series in preparation for the sequels, and couldn’t get over how blatant the fanservice was. It was gross enough to discover some of the idols were 12/13 years old, but when the second episode focused on a sleazy producer who makes the girls perform in skimpy outfits, while also ogling at them the entire time, I had to bail.

Yeah. Agreed. Never did watch Wake Up Girls for that very reason. I can't tolerate anything like that, nor will I ever watch any anime that shamelessly shows fan service-y panty shots and random boob-grabbing. It's the reason I can't bring myself to watch Love Live.

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