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Wake Up, Girls! Franchise Gets New Browser Game Slated for this Summer

Rakuten Games announced on Friday that it will launch Wake Up, Girls! Shinsei no Tenshi, a new browser game in the Wake Up, Girls! franchise, this summer.

The game will feature an original story, and will feature character backstories that were not portrayed in the recent television anime. Players are tasked with training the idol characters, as well as playing through their concerts featuring music by the Wake Up, Girls! group. Players can also interact with the girls in conversations.

The official website for the game also began streaming a character video on Friday to introduce Miyu Okamoto (voiced by Miyu Takagi).

Altplus recently canceled its development of the Wake Up, Girls! Puzzle no Tenshi smartphone game last August. The puzzle game was slated to launch in late 2015, and a playable demo briefly launched for Android devices via the Rakuten App Marketplace. The Rakuen App Marketplace had just launched in August 2015, and it suspended service in December 2016.

The franchise received an earlier smartphone game adaptation titled Wake Up, Girls! Stage no Tenshi. That game launched in December 2013, and ended service in December 2014. The company gloops developed the game.

The Wake Up, Girls! franchise received a new television anime series titled Wake Up, Girls! Shin Shō (Wake Up, Girls! New Chapter) last October. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan.

In the story of the original anime, 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 first television anime premiered in Japan in January 2014 along with a limited theatrical run. Crunchyroll streamed the series outside of Japan. Two sequel films, Wake Up, Girls! Seishun no Kage and Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom, opened in 2015. Sentai Filmworks released Wake Up, Girls!: The Movie and the television series on home video in 2016.

Additionally, an original net anime spinoff titled Wake Up, Girl Zoo! premiered in 2014. Crunchyroll also streamed that spinoff series. The voice actresses from the show also reprised their roles in a stage play that ran in January 2017. The real-life idol group has also performed theme songs for anime.

Source: Mainchi Shimbun's Mantan Web