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Wake Up, Girls! Anime's 2nd Sequel Film Adds 4 New Cast Members
posted on by Kyle Hallmark
The official website for the two-film sequel to the Wake Up, Girls! television anime announced four new cast members on Friday for the second film, Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom. The second film will open on December 11.
Reina Ueda will play the role of Rika Takashina, a member of the rival idol unit I-1 Club who works under Shiho Iwasaki. Although she has not appeared in the anime series yet, Rika is featured as the protagonist of the spinoff manga Little Challenger: Wake Up, Girls! -side I-1 Club -.
A new idol unit called Next Storm, derived from I-1 Club, will also make their debut in the film. The voice actresses for the characters pictured above from left to right are: Chika Anzai, Marika Kōno, and Mao Amatsuka. (Note: The official romanization for the names of the band members have not yet been revealed.)
The voice actresses of the four new cast members will also appear at the live event "Wake Up, Girls! Festa. 2015 Beyond the Bottom Extend" at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba city on December 12.
The first sequel film, Wake Up, Girls! Seishun no Kage (Shadow of Youth), opened on September 25.
The films feature the return of the TV anime's staff, with Yutaka Yamamoto directing the film at his studio Ordet. Touko Machida is writing the scripts, and Sunao Chikaoka is serving as both the character designer and animation director. Satoru Kousaki from MONACA is composing the music, and DIVE II Entertainment is producing the sound. The cast of the seven main girls is also returning to reprise their roles.
In the story of the original anime and film, Green Leaves Entertainment is a tiny production company on the verge of going out of business in Sendai, the biggest city in Japan's northeastern Tohoku region. The agency once managed the careers of magicians, photo idols, fortune-tellers, and other entertainers, but its last remaining client finally quit. In danger of having zero talent (literally), the president Tange hatches an idea of producing an idol group. On the brash president's orders, the dissatisfied manager Matsuda heads out to scout raw talent. Matsuda makes a fateful encounter with a certain girl…
The television anime and first film premiered in Japan in January 2014. Crunchyroll streamed the series outside of Japan alongside the Chinese media services Tudou and Youku.
Source: MoCa News
