I just came home from Wake Up, Girls! Shin Shou Minilive at Venus Fort, and as an idol otaku, that was an experience I will never forget. I don’t think a crowd can be any more amazing as it was today.

I stood in line from 7 to 10 AM for this ticket and it was still three digits despite being the 30th person in line. Fuck me.



The minilive was simple. Just a rehearsal for sound checking (where they performed Bokura no Frontier), and then four songs, followed by announcements that we already know about. What made it so different from any other live I’ve been to though, is that calls and jumps were banned completely, and while it does say so in the ticket, the last time during the One in a Billion release event, people did it anyway, so this time the seiyuu (namely Mayushii) did a pre-live MC where she told everyone not to do so, and the others as well told us to clap with all our hearts. Everyone, being WUG oshis, obviously listened and made do with just clapping, and that’s what made this such a unique experience.

Despite my shitty three digit number, I was really close to the stage, so I got to see Yoppi’s raw legs. Absolute perfection.



They opened with Tachiagare. As any WUGner knows, this is a song that has quite a lot of calls and even has a loud “Wake Up Girls!” call in the beginning and “Tachiagare” towards the end. Since we weren’t allowed to shout, we clapped to the syllables of the calls. Everyone knew exactly how it should be done and it was so well synchronised I was shocked.

Then came 7 Senses. While this is a new song and doesn’t really have calls around it yet, shouting the names of the seiyuu as they sing their lines is what everyone agrees on so far at least, as it’s a borrowed trait from their previous OP 7 Girls War. But of course, we couldn’t do that. So what we did was point at the seiyuu singing and clap the syllables of their name. It was actually amazing.

The next song, Shizuku no Kanmuri, is a slow song so there was ｎo clapping or waving of penlights at all. It’s a beautiful song by the way. I’m really glad WUGners know how to respect the singers by keeping quiet and just listening to their beautiful voices. A lot of them were doing furicopy which seemed really fun but alas I did not know the steps.

Gokujou Smile, the closing song, was what made it such an amazing experience. If you don’t already know, Gokujou Smile is a very call heavy song. The whole enjoyment of the song during lives comes from doing the calls for it. How are we supposed to make by with just clapping? We gave it a go without thinking too much about it, and I have to say, I really appreciate how synchronised the crowd was. Unlike the other songs, we didn’t clap to the syllables of the calls, but rather we clapped to how we wave the penlight as we usually do the calls, and it worked perfectly. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. There are certain calls like 「なんだか違う！」 where half the people made X signs with their hands as the other half clapped to the usual penlight wave, and the call 「豊作！豊作！」 where everyone copied the seiyuus hand signs and again clapped to the usual penlight wave.

This is an experience I will never forget. Who would’ve thought banning calls and jumps could make it this much of a unique experience? I definitely want to do this again.

Just a bonus because I want to talk about it, but after the minilive there was an omiokurikai, where we basically get to walk past the seiyuu and say goodbye to them standing within a metre of us. I told Yoppi 「名前は n̵a̛̕m̨̀͘e です！覚えてください！」 (My name is ǹà̛҉mé! Please remember me!) since she wrote in her blog that if you tell her your name she will most likely remember it the next time you meet, and she replied back 「n̷a̸m͏̴̀e̷̛ ね！おｋ！」 ( n̵̸á̢̛m̸͏e right! Ok!) and I was so happy my heart was beating so hard I actually had to sit down and get my breath back. It’s been hours and I am still so happy I could cry at any moment right now. This is how it feels meeting your oshi? The adrenaline rush is insane and I love it. I’m gunna try so hard to meet her as much as possible!

認知厨だぜ。