The WUG Life Chose Me: WUGners’ Valkyries and the DD

Intro

In the opera house, the Ride, which takes around eight minutes, begins in the prelude to the Act, building up successive layers of accompaniment until the curtain rises to reveal a mountain peak where four of the eight Valkyrie sisters of Brünnhilde have gathered in preparation for the transportation of fallen heroes to Valhalla. As they are joined by the other four, the familiar tune is carried by the orchestra, while, above it, the Valkyries greet each other and sing their battle-cry. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ride_of_the_Valkyries

The WUG and WUGners

The Wake Up, Girls! are formed in 2013. The anime and related activities went into full swing late 2013-early 2014. In September of 2013, Yamakan and company coined the term for what WUG fans are. The intent to call the seven-girl idol team WUG was also pretty clear cut early on.

It’s not clear why Yamakan called them WUGners. It’s also not clear why WUG was named after a love hotel in the anime.

The flight

The WUG are coming to America, visiting Chicago’s (and the US Midwest’s) premiere anime convention, Anime Central. ACEN 2014 will also host 15 WUGners from Japan, if not more. The Japanese fans are somewhat organized. For me, it’s almost adorable to see oversea folks do logistics like how we did logistics for the trip we pulled earlier this year. Thankfully Chicago is a well-connected US city from Narita. Thanks to the internet, you can track them down on Twitter, and on various online locations. There are no lotteries for tickets, no proxy really necessary. You can sign up for Crunchyroll even if you are in Japan.

In usual fashion, Japanese WUGners will bring their cheer and some green glowsticks to spread said cheer.

On arrival, the Japanese WUGners will face the usual hurdles one faces at a large anime convention. From the registration line to the apathetic concert crowd at the usual con concert, how will they handle the adversity? The difficulty communicating in a foreign language? Trying to do their best in the context of a foreign culture? Will WUG themselves be enough of a unifying force? Will others, WUGners or not, lend their hands?

The life of a DD

And here lies the rub.

Let me flash my hand real quick: it’s almost like a proof to a existential question. What I want to know is why can I write what I just did. Do I even like Wake Up, Girls? I am going to say yes. After all, one of the WUGners (the one that posted in Acen forums, actually) is also a fan of Yamakan. What a coincidence! Glad to see I am not alone out there. While I admit I don’t always agree with Yamakan or his methods, and surely I can see where he would likewise disagree with my beliefs, I think on the whole he’s on the right track. So it’s not just a superficial cute-girls-from-Japan-that’s-also-from-an-anime kind of thing that is getting me all excited about ACEN or flying out there to see WUG. Maybe.

It isn’t that I am prone to liking idol stuff–I think my tastes for media entertainment developed contrary to mainstream hooks for such things. With proliferation of the cute girls variety show that passes for the independent or underground idol scene, it’s not a surprise to see someone who consumes so much media to find something he likes. I think that’s just the way it works. The problem is that pureed mix of what passes for chic critical thinking and what passes for merely jadedness as a form of self-selection or self-protection. That’s bullocks.

How do you make of the people who enjoyed Yamakan’s works? Or just anime with a splash of spice and flair? How about the people who post videos of themselves dancing to anime themes on Youtube or Nico, or the cosplayers that chase the year’s hottest character trends? Friends, this is the life of a “daredemo daisuki” (DD) scenester. It’s not like just because I call myself a MakotoP, I like only Makoto. Just because I put her in the front of a series of greater-than signs doesn’t mean I don’t care about anyone else. And it’s with the realization that even among those who are considered “hardcore” you have people who does it with some sort of perspective, a bit like a cross between spring fever and someone who can play a bunch of different MMORPGs and still get his homework done.

You take those two concepts and you get what is clearly the next step: defining the Live Lover.

Outro

In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one in a group of female figures who decide which soldiers die in battle and which live. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Walk%C3%BCre

Instead of idol wars, let’s check out the most excellent way.

PS. “Love live” is as bible as it gets.


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