BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico

If there is one word that are fit to describe this short it will be "Wild".

Garupa Pico is telling the story of five band + one extra character. If you play the game Girls Band Party(and I suggest you do it) then you might be familiar with all of the character here but even if you are not then rest easy since character are easily identified and you can gasp their general personality soon. There are Poppin Party which some of you might familiar if you already watch series first season, Afterglow a band of tight knit childhood friend, Pastel*Palette which is idol band born ... from agency, Roselia as the band that always aim for the highest and lastly Hello Happy World which just do whatever they want to make people smile.

The charm with this series is that anything goes. The ride is wild and never boring. In one episode you can find character done a gigantic miss mash costume but on another episode you will find the terror of one character turning into their favorite food. There is horror, mystery, thriller, and anything you name it then Pico will deliver it for you. All is wild and unexpected and that's what make this series special. It's not often that you can find a roller coaster of emotion packed tightly into three minute so well.

STOP KILLING MARINA
BABANBO-SAMA
MOCA-CHAN'S WARM MILK

A lighthearted gag-filled (cough and well made) mini series was exactly what this franchise needed. YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT. A well made Bang Dream original animation. Unlike the franchise's first anime season that struggled to be thematically serious this one just throws cornets at you, makes your characters switch bodies, and quite literally kills off your favourite characters. Multiple times.

There are 2 types of episodes, first one's focused on individual characters. Sounds dull, but unlike the first season where really it's just a retelling of Kasumi's grossly overplayed kira kira doki doki story, this one gets a lot of space ... to visit the different characters of the series. Ok look maybe I'm just getting excited because previously all the canon milkable characterization had been in the game's Live2D format but hey would you have expected a 3 min episode of Ran and Moca talking while queueing up for ramen to be this damn interesting? If you found the in-game stories interesting, then imagine that augmented with glorious top quality chibi.

The second type, well. It's a fiesta with each character exemplifying their full blown character trope. Kokoro and Kasumi twice as dumb, Kaoru twice as fleeting, Aya twice as lovable. It's hard to review at this point. It's an episodic clown fiesta and it has convinced me to stop questioning reality and just embrace every minute of this show.

A must watch for fans of the franchise.

have you got a bad day in the office? need something to light you up? but crunchyroll or kissanime blocked by your company?

Garupa pico is the answer..

its light, nonsense and short to keep you alive from the office stress.. Just open youtube, find bang dream official portal and you will find, 26 absurd episodes that gonna lighten your mood. in garupa pico you will see, the awakening of serial killers, human sacrifice, hypothermia deaths, crushed by the building deaths, death by a bread (Yes your ordinary bread can kills you) and kidnapping due to the girls is very much look alike a cat.

if you have ... some stress now, open youtube and search garupa pico now!

garupa pico, remember always to praise one and only babambo-sama

BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico is the anime short equivalent of the Cinderella Girls Gekijou as it looks at the daily lives of the extended main cast of idols in their respective series in chibi form.

Here's the thing, BanG Dream!'s first season for LA wasn't the best jumping board for showing the series off and it's 1st season OVA did show a glimmer of much more potential. BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico on the other hand actually gives it in the comedic sense as well as us getting to know the extended main cast band members throughout the anime short.

BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico's comedy does rely on the main ... cast going through some comedy hijinks, some of which does take itself to the extremely funny cases, in many cases of Marina dying multiple times as well as some hilarious ways some of the bands' "fate" ends up in several episodes and finally some meta-jokes towards it's mobile game that made it's way to BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico, which by all means, LA actually enjoyed all the way through.

BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico does get a major plot focusing on CiRCLE being shut down through....circumstances and the main cast wanting to help Marina Tsukishima voiced by Aya Suzaki the owner of CiRCLE to support and rebuild it any way possible...much like the original first season but again, in a comedic sense and the end result was actually pretty decent of an ending.

Character-wise, due to the huge cast, there is ALOT of characters but throughout the anime, LA did like several characters, like Ran Mitake voiced by Ayane Sakura of Afterglow, Kokoro Tsurumaki voiced by Miku Ito of Hello, Happy World and Ako Udagawa voiced by Megu Sakuragawa of Roselia as they had ALOT of funny moments throughout the anime short.

In terms of animation done by SANZIGEN and DMM.works, the animation has the aforementioned chibi versions of the entire main cast and minimal backgrounding work, akin to BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! mobile game aesthetics to it which actually works it it's advantage actually.

In terms of voice work, well they all reprised their roles from the mobile game as well as the original anime season as well. Some notable voice actors would be Miku Ito as Kokoro, Tomoyo Kurosawa as Michelle, Sawako Hata as Eve Wakamiya and Aimi Terakawa as Kasumi. The voice cast was pretty great all things considered what with a huge cast of both new and veteran voice actors who can sing and the such.

BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico for LA is the second step and more proof of LA in showing off that BanG Dream! does have potential in it's anime department, ONLY if they look at bands besides Poppin' Party and sure LA is looking at BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico in a comedic sense while the original season was more plot and character focused but BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico quite honestly showed LA that there is much more potential and interest in the extended cast than just looking at Poppin' Party, sorry Poppin' Party fans!, and with BanG Dream! slated to have it's second season AND third season, LA just hopes that BanG Dream! will go into detail into the rest of the bands much like how BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico did before it, here's hoping!

Nonetheless BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico is a greatly done comedic anime short looking at the extended main cast and their comedic hijinks that they go through and it was enjoyably funny through the entire anime short and for fans of BanG Dream!, yeah this is a no brainer, watch this anime short, it's hilarious in many ways in seeing your favorite characters go through comedic hijinks...

Well cept Rimi turning into a chocolate cornet...that some Junji Ito s**t right there!.

If you had to watch one anime adaptation of the Bang Dream series, this would be the one. Even though the character list is jam packed with girls, in the first episode, each band is quickly introduced in a silly and fun manner. There also isn't Raise A Suilen, a band that felt forced in 2nd Season, still isn't in the game as of writing this, and was probably made to farm Cardfight Vangaurd songs, leaving for more development of the main cast.

It is jam packed with wild skits that can brighten up a day with their charm and wacky characters. It is not ... serious at all (unlike the horrible 2nd Season) and doesn't need 22, or even 10 minutes to tell a story as each episode is 2:30 without the ED. Even though a small plot is intertwined between episodes, it is not the main focus. If you have time, go to the Bang Dream youtube channel and watch it.

Newbie review's don't consider it too much
If you're looking to kill time but not in the mood to ruin your fingers with the Girls band party. This is your answer fun, Compact and full of laughs.
Story-wise most things done here are (PROBABLY and Hopefully) not cannon so not much character development could be said. It is tho full of jokes laughs and references that we often do not understand! But when we do it's funny as heck!
Art is in chibi that said other things are well-detailed, props to the animators
The sound is very good being that BanG dream is a music anime the ending was ... a banger and the VAs did a great job.
The cast was inherited from the main series and the story did a good job of linking the members with each other.
I watched it in my free time of boredom and it helped (Hell I even did a school project on this). Defo on my recommended lists check it out the only bad thing about this is that it's short and only lets us into heaven for a certain amount of time.

A super super silly series of shorts featuring the main cast of Bang Dream! Girls Band Party. On days where I feel low, this show cheers me up with it's short but entertaining and quirky episodes. Garupa Pico is an anthology, so there is little to no ongoing story throughout. Each episode is like a new wild surprise! Overall, I love Garupa Pico, and with it's unrealistic bizarre episodes, it can be a breath of fresh air for those who are stressed. it's an amazing recommendation for Bandori GBP fans who are looking for more content, or just someone looking for a sweet, lighthearted anime ... to watch in their free time.