BanG Dream!

Man, where do I even begin with this anime. I was honestly looking forward to this anime (with all the love live jokes about this being the new sub for it). The first episode is extremely boring. You don't really care for our main character Kasumi. Her first impression is just generic AF. Happy, just discovered her new passion, dream seeking, klutz, wants to give it her all, etc. You care much more for her new friend Arisa who wont go to school for stupid reasons that aren't explored. You forget that she is there after Kasumi is looking for other members. The only character ... who actually has development is Kasumi's childhood friend Saaya. Sadly the way they shoe horned her story is honestly terrible and really dumb. They also make a lot of effort to show Kasumi's younger sister Asuka who is planning on quitting the swim club. THEY NEVER EVER explain why, yet she's in the anime quite a bit.

pre-END note:
This is not a K-ON rip off. It had potential to be a good anime, but the story is lacking so much. The art is bad when they are full body and from a slight distance, the CG looks like they have flat heads, the sound is...average, the singing voices of PopiPa are MEh( But that's fine because they are supposed to be novices). All main characters are forgettable, you are left wanting to know about the other bands. (WHICH YOU CAN. This has a very good rhythm game for the JP appstores)

But I guess if you like watching girls play instruments and have a ruff time trying to reach their goal... I guess you can watch it.
Don't expect anything near a K-ON or even a LL.
Honestly don't even bother unless you want more
"""Character Development""" for the JP app game.
(side note: in the game atm gitter green just has 1 song and no actual characters in game as of the writing of this review)

FINAL Opinions:
After just watching ep 13 of this series you can definitely tell where all the budget went towards. Background characters are actually there, full body shots look good. Their faces don't derp(except maybe otae, I still don't like her CG face). You can see a few other characters from the game's other bands and some interaction from Ako and Rinko from Roselia(posibly one of the best bands in game).
In the game "SPACE" in not in the map, but instead another place called "Circle". Probably hinting for a 2nd season, which I will probably watch because I'm a sucker for music anime. In the end I still stand on my review.

"Why does it exist" is really the only way I can think to describe this anime. For a simplistic slice of life anime about a group of friends trying to start their own band, it's perfectly fine. Not anything special, and incredibly inoffensive. But fine. You can sit down, watch it, and you don't feel like it's a chore to do so. But at the same time, it's not going to blow you away. It's obvious that this anime's primary purpose is to be one element in a multimedia project, spawning an idol group, the game, ect, and that's really all it is. It does ... everything you expect, and it does it in a decent enough way, but it's all stuff you'd be expecting. It has heart behind it, but that heart is cliched in itself.

I may seem like a broken record here, but that's really because I can't think of much else to say. If you enjoy the BanG Dream! game, or the songs by the real life groups that spawned from the project, then you'll likely like the anime. It's the characters you like from one of the bands, doing band like stuff, and becoming friends. If you're planning to just watch the anime, do yourself a favor, and don't make it a "drop everything and look forward to watching this" thing. The best way to watch it would be casually, in between the things that have your complete focus. In that sense the anime is enjoyable, but don't expect anything more out of it.

BanG Dream! didn't go out like a BanG!, more like a small dull thud.

For an anime like this within it's genre it very typical in this anime climate but even then this kind of anime just can't be in the same pedigree of it's contemporaries..why?...well...

Let's start with our main cast Poppin' Party. Kasumi Toyama voiced by Aimi Terakawa our genki leader...check. Arisa Ichigaya voiced by Ayasa Itou our resident tsundere and main focus of quips and teasing within the group and the keyboardist of the group...check. Rimi Ushigome voiced by Rimi Nishimoto the bassist of the group, the shy one...check. Tae Hanazono voiced by Sae ... Otsuka the aloof cloudcuckoolander one and the guitarist of the group...check and finally Saaya Yamabuki voiced by Ayaka Ohashi the drummer of the band and probably the only decent character in the anime. Yeah, if you blatantly haven't noticed, besides Saaya, the other characters are as stock and cliche as they already are. Saaya is the exception all due to her backstory and why she doesn't want to be in the band and once her DOES join the band...she becomes bland as every other character. The rest of the Poppin' Party?...they essentially had Kasumi by coincidence gathered these characters together to form Poppin' Party...check. The minor supporting characters are also there and some are supports...again typical but there are other bands in this anime and LA is more intrigued by the colorfully exotic bands other than Poppin' Party...and they are designated to be only cameos and other characters Poppin' Party just interacts with.

The plot is your typical "form a band" and "be the best" as LA said, typical of the genre, however this anime just has ever plot beats of its contemporaries. From K-On! on how the coincidences lead down to forming the band, the band competition, Kasumi's later character dilemma reflects something similar to Love Live's Honoka in the first season and finally the multiple bands in competition have both shades of Love Live and The iDOLM@STER. The characters are no better with their stereotypical archetypes that any idol fan or "cute girls in a band or idol group" has seen.

The animation from Xebec and Issen are well pun intended but the animation has a rather poppy feel to it, from it's characters to it's backgrounding. The animation is decent especially with it's character designs having a moe touch with some bolded outlines making the designs rather unique which is rather wasted on many of the main cast characters being stock and bland as they are. The "Lives" use of the CG however is probably the worst aspect of the animation, as in the CG integrated with the bright and poppy traditional animation just clash SOOOO heavily and the CG use is rampant in the almost every Live concerning Poppin' Party, LA gets it Love Live did that too but even they integrated the CG better and used it in conjunction with it's traditional animation as the seasons and Sunshine passed and BanG Dream! on the other hand has this blatantly apparent CG in full and used for the majority of it's Lives (sure BanG Dream! doesn't have another season or anything but they never deviate from using CG in their Lives, it's just a mark of laziness AND consistency). Overall, Xebec's character designs are all great and all, LA just wished it blended to it's Lives as well.

The voice acting is artificial moeness in a ways. From Aimi Terakawa who yes, is annoyingly genki to Rimi Nishimoto as Rimi- ohhh LA saw what you did there- Ushigome...as the squeakily shy vocals and Ayasa Itou as the tsundere and her vocals became rather annoying especially after her thousandth tsundere quip. The only two voice actors LA seemed to like were Sae Otsuka due to her nice tsukommi quips and her general cloudcuckooness and Ayaka Ohashi was moe but a decent one and she got bit more range due to her "backstory" bringing in her dramatic vocals into play.

In the soundtrack department, the OST is ok enough though with Kasumi's singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" over and over again you'd WANT Kasumi to shut it. The rest of the OST is just "ok" but not to the point of being "catchy"...just "ok", but it's like every other generic Japanese anime pop music you've heard. You know for an anime that has music as one of it's core focus (you know..forming the band and playing songs etc.), the music should be one of the things you kinda had to excel at.

LA will point out that it's themes of being a "star" or stars in general is hamfistingly inserted into the characters and plot which also seeps into the writing as well, sure something like Love Live also had their themes front and center yet they were subtle in their execution but they weren't as obnoxiously blatant as what BanG Dream! did with their theming of "stars" (Poppin' Party's guitars are star shaped, the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, looking out to the stars when there aren't any, Kasumi herself being one of the main driving forces for this theme), in it's defense, LA gets it, Poppin' Party and by extent BanG Dream! is trying to have it's own personality by using this theme, sure it CAN do that...LA just wished it wasn't as blatantly eye-rollingly obvious what it's trying to get across.

The finale arc as LA aforementioned to Kasumi's "dilemma" is, it DOES make it interesting BUT the other plotline being the place where the bands all play at "Space" is gonna get closed...LA to say the least kinda thought it clashed heavily with Kasumi's plotline (or forgotten until the final episode). Before LA goes into more detail...CHECK on Space being closed (See Love Live's first season entire goal for Honoka). One is that yeah...it's something LA has seen before just in a MUCH smaller scale, second is the fact that what does Space closing has to do with Kasumi changing herself into training herself to the point of losing her voice?...their still gonna have their band, the band isn't gonna dissolve if Space is gone as they can ohhh LA doesn't know...still make a CLUB at school and still sing songs at school and lastly, HOW can Poppin' Party resolve Space from stop being closed down, it seemed more in the grunchy owner's own personal reasoning than a "financial" problem as to why it's closing (and the finale?...NEVER tells WHY but it's still closing so yeah...feels like an almost total non-conflict)...it just feels forced and checking the boxes for forced manipulation into trying to like the already stock and annoyingly bland characters. Two Steps forward...5 steps back...

BanG Dream! is like every other idol or cute girls in a band anime you have seen only done with little effort (not completely though), from the too similar plot and character beats to it's just "ok" OST songs. BanG Dream! is by all means a run of the mill, checked boxes of its genre and expended as little effort to get this franchise off it's feet.

It's no wonder BanG Dream! reception has been radio silent in terms of popularity. Yes, this anime based off a manga has turned into a franchise, from a mobile rhythm game to their merchandise not selling (no seriously) to only a little to no DOUJIN circles doing anything about this franchise. Wow...that's depressing...

LA says all this about BanG Dream! even outside of the anime itself as the anime/franchise is artificial and desperate to go with the trend and be popular but like LA said about the anime, the anime is a stock, cliched with none of the flair that it's contemporaries has done better with it's elements and even better than BanG Dream! has done.

From a seasonal point of view, BanG Dream! was a pretty mediocre to almost boring ride, it had a "bit" of effort in it's characters but it was a slog to get through at times. But nonetheless, BanG Dream! is definitely one of those animes from Winter 2017 you can quite easily ignore and not miss out on anything. BanG Dream! is mediocre and cliched being played straight without a hint of flair to it, not horrible or appalling per say...but on par of nothing much to offer in which you can find better animes from it's genre (be it idol, music, drama or all three).

One last note but this is just LA, but LA would of thought that changing the focus from Poppin' Party to ANY of the other bands could have made this anime a bit better...

If you're anything like me, you enjoyed the tap hell that is Bandori. Perhaps you thought to yourself, "maybe the source anime was good!" If that's the case, be warned, because if you're anything like me, you won't come out the other side as optimistic as you were going in. It wasn't too good. I've broken down my review into the core parts.

Story: 4/10

It wasn't terrible. But it wasn't good either. Most, if not all, of the paper thin plot was shoehorned in, in an artificial attempt to create drama. Hardly any of it flowed naturally; it felt like one needless hurdle after another. This ... is, of course, in a show which requires little to no plot in the first place. Look at K-On!, for example, a band anime where girls get together and have fun. Bandori, on the other hand, doesn't exactly attempt to be revolutionary, but it does fall back to the same tropes that almost every mediocre show is guilty of. And then immediately forgets about said plot tropes. It was a rough ride from start to finish, but I will say that it ended on a good note. There were perhaps two good episodes throughout the series.

Art: 3/10

Good lord, what a mess the art was. I'm not exactly an anime art style connoisseur, if it's presentable, it's fine by me. That's what this anime wasn't: presentable. Right from the get-go the amount of derp-frames are absurd; more often than not you'll stare at a face and question whether or not that's even anatomically possible. And when they cut to 3D CGI for the music scenes (this happens often, so be wary of that) it's not any better. I will say, however, that what we've seen from their 3D CGI recently as music videos from other bands (HHW, Afterglow, etc) look leaps and bounds better, so I'm hopeful for season 2's CGI. (Which, by the way, S2 will be only 3D CGI. We'll see how that goes.)

Character: 6/10

Kinda trope-y, kinda fun. A lot of the personalities of the cast are those which you've seen time and time again, but that's not to say it was that bad. There are times you'll think to yourself, "Of course, because that's what that stereotypical archetype would do", but it flows kinda nicely. It certainly makes for some humorous interactions. Some.

Sound: 8/10

This is a huge hit or a miss, and not everyone would agree with me. For one thing, I didn't like the singles. They didn't resonate with me, as I found myself enjoying maybe 2, 3 songs tops. The background music, however, was great at conveying whatever emotion the studio wanted you to feel. It built tension, opened relief, conveyed when a time was goofy, or whatever else music is supposed to do. It was good, it sounded good, it worked well, not much else to say here.

Enjoyment: 6/10

Even with everything I've said above, I didn't hate it. It wasn't a masterpiece by any means, but it wasn't as if it was some show written, produced, and aired in less than a day. When I wasn't reeling in the artificial drama or awkwardly staring at a poorly drawn key frame for more than what felt like was normal, I enjoyed the wacky antics of these characters. As I've said, there were a few good moments buried in a mountain of mediocrity.

Overall / Conclusion:

If my flip-flopping stance hasn't been drilled through enough, I'll reiterate it one last time. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great. It was somewhere between "just okay" and "good", which I suppose warrants a 6. It wasn't what I was expecting from the Garupa mobile game's Band Stories (which were pretty good), but those alone give me hope for season 2.

I enjoyed the Garupa Pico mini-show series more than this. If you came from the mobile game and want to watch something Bandori related, watch that. Otherwise, your hopes may be a bit too high from what this show delivered.

Bang Dream! is a pretty okay tier. I played their game and watched their anime. For someone wanted to watch this series. I guess it's not that bad to watch.

Plot 5/10:
So the plot, nothing is so much that standout. A group of girls were making the band and pretty much that it's should to. I found nothing interesting or outstanding but just some cliches jokes around. Nothing to worry about.

Story 5/10
The story are okay. Good.

Art 3/10
It's sad to see the arts that were poorly made. I can't argue much better that the art are very bad not that precious just a bunch of poorly animated ... stuffs.

Background Music 7/10
Decent enjoyable musics. Mating well with the scenes.

Soundtrack 8/10
A nicely seasoned musics. I think it's a one of pretty good one so far.

Songs (Extra) 8/10
Meaningful and their dreams' song are straightforward. This is one of my favorite songs in the entertain industry from pop anime songs.

Character 6/10
Each character has a unique character and should be but nothing standout that much. Pretty great to see.

Enjoyment 6/10
I don't find it just must watch more like okay to watch. Which means it's no special.

There was a time when I had no standard and could watch any show and enjoy it. That was the time I watched this show and rated it a 7.

It's been a while but now that I've seen many other shows I feel like I can rate shows more accurately based on my own preferences and tastes.

If I'm being honest the story really is predictable, the art is good but maybe lacks a bit of frames every now and then and the idea of cute girls doing cute things isn't for me, at least in this format anymore.

But this is a music show after all ... and that is the are which this show excels at. I think there is any other reason to watch this show all the way to the most recent third season. Unless you enjoy this show of course. Just speaking from analytic point of view and reviewing the story, art and characters it's not worth it. However all of us have something they like and others don't. I think the first episode can determine whether or not you will like the show.

SPOILER-FREE!
There is just no predicting the life of a franchise. Seemingly for no reason whatsoever, a certain property can catch on like wildfire and take the anime community, or the larger media-consuming public, by storm. Other franchises peter out into oblivion before getting their chance to shine, and yet still there are some where their very existence is a jumbled mass of “What on Earth is going on?” Especially given the sometimes-erratic nature of anime production, there are some buses that keep starting and stopping.

"BanG Dream!" is one such show that falls into that category. Originally released in Winter 2017 to complement the video game, ... the animated franchise effectively underwent a period of dormancy for a few years before its second season was released in Winter 2019. The second season itself was more a functional reboot and re-writing of the rules, as it ultimately continued the series in a new kind of direction both tonally and character-wise. In the meanwhile, it’s worth taking a look at this first season since it stands apart as though it resides in its own universe, somewhat divorced from the whole that eventually formed from it.

New high school student Toyama Kasumi is looking for something that will cause her heart to beat like it did when she gazed at the starry sky as a child. After following a trail of starry stickers to her classmate Ichigaya Arisa’s warehouse and fawning over the star-shaped guitar there, she and Arisa both attend a Glitter-Green girl band performance at the SPACE club. The performance ignites the fire that Kasumi has been looking for, and together with Arisa, a baking family’s daughter named Saya, the younger sister of a Glitter-Green member named Rimi, and SPACE club staff member Tae, they form their own girl band – Poppin’Party.

Despite the rather conventional setup, "BanG Dream!" early on demonstrates a narrative awareness of the genre and actively works to try and subvert it. Under normal circumstances, a show like this about making a group (be it for a sports club or an idol troupe) would introduce the various members one at a time, usually the result of being swept up by the main character’s charisma or presence. The series doesn’t completely divorce itself from those standards, but here though, all five Poppin’Party members are introduced and interact with one another early. The sense of familiarity with the various members is allowed to germinate sooner than most other shows would, so by the time the group begins to form, enough time has been taken to establish the dynamic. This holds true even though they are not all brought into the group at the same time. It makes the overall sense of character camaraderie tighter than it would be otherwise.

Though as far as the individual characters personality-wise are concerned, there is definitely a wide disparity between which ones resonate as far as an enjoyable presence. Two characters best exemplify this, with one being Arisa. She’s the group’s curmudgeonly character, and easily became one of my favorites to see. Her reactions and quasi-tsundere tendencies are thankfully over-the-top enough to get their comedic value without crossing the boundary into nauseating, and the fact that all of the group members seem to know exactly how to push her buttons makes poking fun at her fair game at any moment. The story also gives her enough moments to show that, despite all of that, she still has fun and will go those extra steps for her friends.

Kasumi’s character is unfortunately at the opposite end of that spectrum, at least at first. As could be expected from an overly-enthusiastic character which comes dangerously close to being a nuisance, she doesn’t necessarily have the greatest sense of personal space, and already wants to be on given-name bases with nearly everyone that she meets. Her presence produces the rather strange effect of both wanting to see her dream of Poppin’Party realized, while also seriously wishing that she would, at times, dial it back, and not just a little bit. It never got to the point where I didn’t want to see her on-screen, however the writing seemed to channel her energy in a hundred different directions that took too long to find its way. This does partially get rectified in the second half of the season when she faces a shift and can demonstrate restraint and unease.

Part of this shift is due to being at the mercy of the shift in narrative tone – at first, "BanG Dream!" tries to straddle the line between wanting to and not wanting to take itself seriously. Kasumi roping in the other members of Poppin’Party reads as light-hearted, yet cannot quite coalesce since the show’s anchor is teetering on the edge of being a frustration. Halfway through the season we come across the first genuine conflict of the show, but it does have the problem of being almost too serious in contrast with more or less everything else that came before. It’s one of those circumstances where juxtaposition works in theory, yet the actual impact feels more ham-fisted and artificial since the dissonance is so stark.

The end of the season, however, manages to settle into its proper rhythm – if the previous arc went a little bit far with its gravitas, the final few episodes manage to find a decent middle ground between them. The problem facing the group is serious to be sure, but feels more akin to an actual problem that a real band would be facing if they were trying to become known. By getting a cold dose of reality splashed in their faces, it allows the group to show their true mettle and tackle their challenge head-on. It therefore makes the season’s climax read as deserved.

The look of the show itself is not terrible, but it does leave something to be desired. Despite coming out in 2017, "BanG Dream!" season one feels as though it came out of the late-2000s with its character designs. The compositing however is its weakest element – there is an awful lot of sunshine in the course of the series, which unfortunately gives too many scenes a bit of a glare and whitish hue. Quite a few locations are recycled, which is perfectly fine, although certain things like the warehouse rehearsal space are rather blank.

Gratefully, if the visuals were lacking in some respect, the music does help to make up for a lot of these shortcomings. Though, given the Poppin’Party songs that were available at the time of the anime’s release, I do have to wonder why they chose “Tokimeki Experience” as the OP song. The track itself is not bad as a standalone piece of music, though it lacks the kind of exuberance that the story seemed to be striving for. That said, all the choices for insert songs within the thirteen episodes themselves were good picks, and the rare occasions where there was original material contributed to an earnestness that was pleasant.

And “earnest” more or less is what defines the first season. In the midst of its heavy-handedness and occasional times where it wasn’t that funny, this did feel like a group of five girls who cared about what they did and about each other. There’s a kindness in the series that made it seem like this band was worth following. Did I like this season? I can’t say that I did, but I was intrigued by it, which is more than I can say for a lot of other things I’ve seen in the course of my anime life.

"BanG Dream!" season one is an odd duck. It seems to keep itself tied up when it wants to let loose, and when it does indeed let loose, it gets a little bit crazy. It manages to find some semblance of balance in the second half by introducing some rather practical conflicts and allowing the group as a whole to combine in a way that feels strong. It may be at times rather uneven, but it was fun when I wasn’t necessarily buying it or laughing with it. It’s kind of in its own quirky little corner of the anime music world…