Girls Band Cry

Everyone yearns to find their true purpose in life. This is also true for Nina Iseri, a 17-year-old girl looking to enroll in a good university, but the world always seems to work against her. On her very first day in Tokyo, she gets lost, ignored, and locked out of her new apartment. However, an unexpected opportunity arises when Nina meets Momoka Kawaragi, one of her favorite guitarists.

After Nina joins Momoka for a street performance, Momoka decides they should start a band together. While Nina initially hesitates, her determination grows as they start acquiring more bandmates—the beautiful drummer Subaru Awa, the aloof keyboardist Tomo Ebizuka, and the intelligent bassist Rupa. The five girls face challenges both in the music industry and within themselves, but their shared passion for music never lets them give up on their dreams.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Iseri, Nina Main

Rina Japanese

Awa, Subaru Main

Mirei Japanese

Kawaragi, Momoka Main

Yuuri Japanese

Rupa Main

Shuri Japanese

Ebizuka, Tomo Main

Natsu Japanese

Hina Supporting

Kondou, Reina Japanese

Nakata Supporting

Kanuka, Mitsuaki Japanese

Rin Supporting

Urushiyama, Yuuki Japanese

Ai Supporting

Miyashiro, Momoko Japanese

Nana Supporting

Matsuoka, Misato Japanese

Hirayama, Tadashi Producer

Sakai, Kazuo Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Miyoshi, Keiichirou Sound Director

Imura, Kenji Episode Director

Reviews

Jun 28, 2024

Marinate1016

Recommended

It’s no exaggeration to say the Spring 2024 anime season changed my life. Girls Band Cry was a big part of that. One of the best band anime I’ve ever seen, full of life lessons and encouraging me to continue pursuing my dreams, no matter how difficult the road is. For me, this is what people thought Bocchi the Rock was. A simple yet poignant story about a group of girls struggling with personal issues stepping outside of their comfort zones and coming together to form a band and chase their dreams, even as the world doubts them. And in the process learning more about ... themselves than ever before and growing into better people. That’s selling it a bit short though. GBC is also a really ambitious multimedia project that uses groundbreaking 3D animation and brought together a group of talented newcomer seiyuu to form a band in real life who make amazing music too. This was truly the experience of a lifetime and it’s absolutely criminal that more people didn’t get to watch it due to licensing issues.

I was very hesitant to watch GBC because of my aversion to 3D animation, but after being convinced by some friends I watched the first few episodes about halfway into the season and was blown away by the quality of both the story and anime. Nina, Momoka and the other girls just gave off such a sense of authenticity and it felt like I was watching real girls transition into the next phase of their lives. The angst, the drama, the insecurities, doubts, they just hit in a way that few shows in the medium can. I think that’s due in no small part to the amazing 3D animation used in this.
Normally I’d separate the technical aspects of an anime into a separate category, but in the case of GBC, I’m keeping them together because of how the animation style allows for a more expressive style of storytelling. The 3D animation in GBC looks amazing thanks in large part to the frame rate. If you’ve seen other 3D anime I.e Beastars or Bocchan, you’ll notice that while the 3D art may look cool, there’s a stiffness to the characters that reminds you it’s 3D or takes you out of the immersion. That’s usually due to the framerate being capped too low. What the production staff did GBC realised is that by making the frame-rate higher, it creates a smoother animation that feels almost lifelike. So when characters have disagreements, or breakdown in tears, which happens a lot in GBC, we as the audience are able to feel that with a weight that you can’t normally feel in anime. It basically mixes that cute girl anime aesthetic with the body language of real life actors and it does have a big impact on the story. It’s already a very grounded story that a lot of people will be able to empathise with, but when you combine that with the visuals and the raw emotion the seiyuu are able to bring.. that’s when you get something special.

If it seems like there’s similarities in my descriptions of GBC and Yorukura, also from this season, it’s because well.. they’re pretty damn similar and address a lot of the same themes. The main difference being GBC is a rock band and Yorukura is about the girls forming a multimedia collective. Same concept applies, Yuri undertones with girls from drastically different walks of life meeting by chance and realising how much they have in common, forming a band, MC having a crush on the older member whose work motivated them in the past, etc. When listing everything out, it’s actually wild how similar both were, but that’s not an issue. They’re both great and I’d respect any order with the two of them. I think GBC has better music since A: I’m a massive J-rock stan and B: the girls who became the seiyuu for the characters were actually brought in to form a band first, and an anime second. But I liked Yorukura’s story better. I’m just glad we got blessed with both of these in the same season!

From a technical perspective as I’ve said GBC looks amazing. The uncapped framerates are a big reason, but the use of shadow and lighting also makes the show look better than most seasonal 3D anime. You can tell the entire project was planned meticulously and even backgrounds and minor details were designed with the 3D in mind. This makes for a much better looking show than normal. The musical performances especially were just mind blowing. The level of fluidity and emotion that the studio were able to pull off.. I have no words, especially the last few eps. I touched on it earlier but the seiyuu as well are a big part of this. Them being new to voice acting means there’s a level of rawness and sincerity in their voices that you don’t get with career seiyuu. It makes angsty characters like Nina and Momoka even better and you can’t help but get emotional during a lot of their scenes.

Overall GBC was one of the best anime of the season, and while I’m taking Yorukura over it as AOTS, I’m totally fine with someone doing the opposite. The story was full of emotional twists and turns, the drama was well done, there were the Yuri undertone, the music, performances.. it had it all. Most importantly though, it reminded me that it’s not about how many times you fail when chasing your dreams, only about how many times you get up and keep rocking.

Girls Band Cry gets a very easy 10, out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 27, 2024

Nu-Metal_Logical

Mixed Feelings

Many people praise Girls Band Cry and compare it to Bocchi The Rock, but I disagree and here's why.

Plot (6/10): It's an anime about girls, rock and decisions, it's simple and that's fine, this is not the kind of show that needs something too elaborate, but it ended up being too overdramatic, overshadowing the comedy and fun moments of the anime sometimes.

Characters (6/10): Nina wasn't that bad, but she was the most overdramatic character in the anime. The other characters were less dramatic, and had a fun dynamic.

Visuals (8/10): The 3D animation was very good, even though the anime ended up having a few 2D ... scenes that broke the immersion a bit.

Soundtrack (7/10): the band's songs were kind of generic, but that's not what I'm talking about, but rather the background music and sounds, those were interesting and cool to have throughout the anime.

Enjoyment (6/10): It was an decent anime to watch, with some fun moments and some cheesy ones.

My conclusion is that this work was not that amazing, but not bad either, just better than average. And do I recommend it? If you like CGDCT, maybe, why not? But if you don't, or can't stand overdramatic things, I wouldn't recommend it at all.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 6, 2024

Zlotnik

Not Recommended

Funny

Starting with the positives. Shows of such musical themes usually have a strong accompanying soundtrack. The songs featured in this series is quite good. Bocchi's songs were better IMO.

CGI takes a bit of getting used to. Not great but bearable. Not a deal breaker for me.
Story is typical of a small town girl going to the big city to attend college and accidentally joins a band and their route to becoming pro.

Now the bad. I absolutely could not stand the MC. She is the dumb, insecure, extremely selfish and also very insensitive to the feelings of her friends, family and bandmates. As the MC she ... emotionally arm twists everyone else to follow her own selfish agenda.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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