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Animate.tv: Crunchyroll to Stream Wake Up, Girls! Anime

The Animate.tv website reported on Friday that the American media service Crunchyroll and the Chinese media services Tudou and Youku will stream the Wake Up, Girls! movie and television anime series. The television anime series will premiere in Japan on January 10. The film Wake Up, Girls! Shichi-nin no Idol (Wake Up, Girls! The Seven Idols) will also open in Japan that same day, and the niconico service will stream the beginning of the film and the television episodes in Japan.

According to Animate.tv, the film will be streamed in its entirety in 108 countries (including China, the United States, and countries throughout Europe) at the same time that the film opens in Japan. The site adds that Crunchyroll, Tudou, and Youku will stream the Wake Up, Girls! television series worldwide immediately after TV Tokyo airs the anime. In Japan, the Bandai Channel and many other services will begin streaming the television anime episodes for a fee on January 19.

In the story, 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 cast includes:

Mayu Yoshioka as Mayu Shimada
15-year-old first-year high school girl unrivaled in her talent for singing and dancing

Airi Eino as Airi Hayashida
15-year-old first-year high school girl who is not particularly talented, but has a lot of drive

Minami Tanaka as Minami Katayama
14-year-old third-year middle school girl who is the "little sister" of the group and sets the mood

Yoshino Aoyama as Yoshino Nanase
16-year-old first-year high school girl who already has experience in the business as a local commercial actor and model. A cool beauty with the most sense of responsibility in the group

Nanami Yamashita as Nanami Hisami
13-year-old second-year middle school girl who adores "Hikarizuka Revue" (a nod to Takarazuka Revue). She has been training in singing and dancing since she was very young, and is very prideful

Kaya Okuno as Kaya Kikuma
18-year-old third-year high school girl who is responsible for the group's sex appeal and fashion

Miyu Takagi as Miyu Okamoto
17-year-old third-year high school girl who is indecisive and prone to crying. She is an idol otaku who works part-time at a maid café

Yuka Ōtsubo (Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos's Tamao) as Shiho Iwasaki. Shiho competed with Mayu for the center position of I-1 Club when they first started. After Mayu left I-1 Club for Wake Up, Girls, Shiho became the second center of I-1 Club.

Emiri Katō (Lucky Star's Kagami) as Mai Kondō, the captain of I-1 Club

Minami Tsuda (Pretty Rhythm Dear My Future's Karin) as Megumi Yoshikawa, one of Mayu's few friends when Mayu was in I-1 Club. She still keeps in touch with Mayu via email after Mayu left the group.

Kaori Fukuhara (Lucky Star's Tsukasa as Nanoka Aizawa, a second-generation I-1 Club member

Nozomi Yamamoto (Tsuritama's Erika) as Moka Suzuki, a fourth-generation I-1 Club member and part of the "W Suzuki" duo

Satomi Akesaka (Pretty Rhythm Dear My Future's Kanon) as Reina Suzuki, part of the "W Suzuki" duo. (She and Moka aren't really sisters.)

Kiyono Yasuno (Aikatsu!'s Sakura) as Tina Kobayakawa, the half-English third-generation I-1 Club member

Shintarō Asanuma as Kōhei Matsuda
The manager of Green Entertainment. He went to college in Tokyo to become a recording artist, but suffered a setback and came back home to Sendai

Noriko Hidaka as Junko Tange
The president of Green Entertainment. Born in Kumamoto Prefecture in southern Japan, she lived in Tokyo and Osaka before finding herself in Sendai far from her birthplace

Haruka Tomatsu and Kana Hanazawa are also joining the cast as the musical unit Anna & Karina.

Director Yutaka Yamamoto (Kannagi, Fractale, episodes of Lucky Star) is helming the project at his studio Ordet and Tatsunoko Productions. The staff also includes scriptwriter Touko Machida (Lucky Star, Battle Girls - Time Paradox, The IDOLM@STER), composer Satoru Kousaki (Lucky Star, Battle Girls - Time Paradox, The IDOLM@STER, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), and character designer Sunao Chikaoka (blossom, Abnormal Physiology Seminar, Kyo no Gononi). The production company Avex (Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, AAA, Super Girls) and the voice talent agency 81 Produce (Kana Asumi, Emiri Kato, Megumi Toyoguchi) held open auditions with over 2,000 female candidates last fall. The winners not only star as the main characters of the new anime, but also sing the anime's theme song.

The anime's setting of Tohoku is an area that was heavily affected by the earthquake of March 11, 2011. Yamamoto (also known as "Yamakan") has been visiting the Tohoku region frequently, particularly the damaged hometown of Kannagi manga creator Eri Takenashi, and he already made blossom, a charity anime for the region.

Thanks to ultimatemegax for the news tip

Images © Green Leaves/Wake Up, Girls Production Committee