Wake Up, Girls! The Movie builds a group from nothing and makes you believe in every person doing it. The pacing never wastes a moment once it commits to the story, and every girl gets a genuine reason to be there instead of a manufactured idol origin. It's sincere about what it costs to chase this dream without pretending the industry isn't broken. The fanservice is distracting and unnecessary. What carries you through is watching ordinary people decide they matter enough to try.

Green Leaves Entertainment is drowning. The small Sendai talent agency once handled magicians, photo idols and fortune-tellers, but its last client has walked out, leaving it with nobody to represent. President Junko Tange decides the way out is to put together a brand new idol group. She hands the job to Matsuda, a disgruntled manager who has to find singers with real ability who are not already signed elsewhere in the music business. His recruits are an unlikely mix: a girl from a maid café, a lead vocalist who was dismissed from another group, and a 13-year-old. The film is a music and slice of life story about the start of a homegrown idol act.