Toru Shiraki

Toru Shiraki
2nd term
Statistics
Japanese Name	白木徹
Rōmaji Name	Shiraki Tōru
English Name	Toru Shiraki
Gender	Male
Character Voice
Mitsuru Miyamoto (宮本充, Miyamoto Mitsuru?)

Toru Shiraki (白木 徹, Shiraki Tōru^?) is the I-1club's General Manager, Producer, Company President. His goal is to push the I-1club to be the most popular Entertainment Group in Japan.

Personality

He shows little to no emotion and does not change his stern expression even when publicly giving a speech. Because of his ambitions, he imposes strict guidelines towards the group, in which among those guidelines was that members are forbidden to have any personal relationships and would frequently remove any member of the I-1club that does not meet his expectations during training drills, citing that it would tarnish the group's reputation. These led to tensions between him and former center idol Mayu Shimada, which led to her firing when Mayu's next single did not beat rival Shiho in sales records.

Plot

The Shadow of Youth and Beyond the Bottom films reveal that Junko herself was once an idol singer as a member of the group Saint 40, along with Katsuko, who she winds up aiding with the funds she "borrowed" from her agency in the prequel movie. Shiraki is revealed to have been Saint 40's producer, and following the group's disbandment, is implied to have created I-1club out of a love for idols. He is also revealed to have personally blamed himself for what happened to the group, and it is implied that his authoritarian style in handling I-1 was borne out of a desire to ensure that they do not meet the same fate as Saint 40. The break-up of Saint 40 was described by Shiraki as "anticlimatic".

Shiraki not only just refers to its members by their numbers, but is quick to fire any idol in his group that either screws up even once, or becomes a liability to him. In response to Mayu appealing to him to reconsider the dismissal of her friend for having a relationship, he sets up a center battle between her and Shiho, and forces her to resign when she loses. He later does the same thing to Shiho herself, pitting her in a center battle against Moka in the Shadow of Youth movie. When Shiho loses, he shunts her off to NEXT STORM in the Beyond the Bottom movie.

Media Appearances

Anime

• Wake Up, Girls! Seven Idols
• Wake Up, Girls!
• Wake Up, Girls! Shadow of Youth
• Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom
• Wake Up, Girls! New Chapter

Etymology

• The name Toru means "pierce, penetrate" (徹).
• Toru's surname Shiraki means "white" (白) (shira) and "tree, wood" (木) (ki).

Trivia

• Toru's belief of forbidding the members to have personal relationships are based on real life instances where idols who are known or even suggested to have such relationships are either demoted or removed from their respective groups.

Gallery

For more information see Toru/Image Gallery