Where is the light novel? Where is the manga?

This GBC shill sure is persistent.

Interesting post here I guess, but I think you’re missing the point of this anime. Music! How can a novel or manga convey original songs? Or emulate in any way the fluidly animated swooping spinning camera effects? Taking an anime which ends episodes or story arcs with live shows and reducing these cathartic moments to a few picture panels or pages of prose would be removing the 6th main character. But yes, I rewatch episodes regularly and they don’t get old, and am also waiting for the last 4 1:7 scale figures at $230 each with postage. So some of us are supporting the franchise in some way.

You must be new to anime or naive, many anime that are well received don't get sequels. It's just how it is sadly, no matter how much merch sells. It all boils down to guys in suits at the studios.

Maybe it just wasn't that well received.

That's a lot of absolutism, man.

The real question is where are Mirei and Natsu? If they were to recast them for a season 2, I don’t think I’d be very happy.

Well, i just tried the anime, and after pausing it several times, i ended up dropping it. After 8 minutes. In episode 1. I have only identified two of the reasons why i hated it so much from the get go. 1st was indeed the crappy CGI. Not that i hate CGI as a principle, since i did praise the CGI use in other series (where it actually made sense to use CGI). But here, for some reason, the CGI seems to prevent me from considering characters as relatable entities. None of the writing stereotypes that pervade these 6 minutes (there is the OP) and that should work with me to some extent worked at all this time around. And i grew so detached with the whole thing that watching it rapidly became a torture.

The second reason for it is the music: the one she listens to in the train, as well as the OP, which i both hated fiercely. This is meant to be an anime about Rock music, and the OP looked like a promo clip for their band, showcasing their music. Rock is about actual instrumentations, not computed piles of garbage, after all (which is why i like metal and hate electro music). But in this case, the utter slaughtering of the instrumental parts was unforgiveable to me. Infuriated me in an anime meant to be about rock music. The guitar was pitilessly murdered, in particular. And the mixing uped the volume of the already omnipresent vocals to the absolute detriment of all the other parts (the ones that actually interest me), while none of them even had any solo. The lyrics put me to sleep, too. I thought if this was the music they were going to serve me in this anime, that would serve as a punishment for my ears rather than a reward. So the opposite compared to "Rock is a lady's modesty" where i watched live house scenes again and again and again, every time.

Now, considering the high rating for that, i am sure my comment here will be unpopular (not that i care though). But... Did this thing really sell, for real? This is Toei after all, so i guess that milking money with minimal investment, mainstream pandering and shallow entries in inoffensive trends is their thing, and has been for almost 50 years now. But frankly, just after "Rock is a lady's Modesty", this "Girls Band Cry" immediately turned me off in more ways than just one, nad in a mere 8 minutes. So, i am curious while reading this forum. Is that kind of thing really that popular? If so, i seriousy need to be even more careful of MAL scores... But on the other hand, i dropped it so fast that i can't even rate it or review it myself.

If this sold as much as you people say, then, this is probably what we will get in the future, too.

> i ended up dropping it. After 8 minutes. In episode 1.

People usually watch 3 or more episodes of an anime before leaving a review or otherwise voicing their opinion. It's common courtesy not to speak about things you haven't seen. Anyhow, you miss out a lot by not watching.

> Did this thing really sell, for real? This is Toei after all, so i guess that milking money with minimal investment

To the contrary: TOEI Studio is well known to be a world class anti-talent in marketing and sales! Nobody understands their PR logic, provided there is such a thing. They made Girls Band Cry through 5 years with huge fiscal and labor investment, then aired it on free-to-view japanese TV channels and a single foreign streaming site, the french-only ADN. Thus GBC earned near zero revenue during its season. Director then sent a tweet asking japanese fans to buy if they liked GBC anime, except there was barely anything available to buy. The supposed "mixed-media franchise" tie-in mobile gacha game is still nowhere to be seen.

Most of early western viewers saw the 5 girls rock through "One Piece" method, first with french-to-english machine translated and hideous "Le Meme" captions and later via warring competing fansubs. It took GBC 6 full months to arrive on official Crunchy, after a weird and half-arsed attempt at non-streaming digital sales in the Microsoft Store and Hoopla (the library card system almost noone knows about). Fans were tearing out their hair in desperation over such a messed up global distribution. Reddit's posse worked 7/24 shifts to do Toei's job and memed GBC all over /r/anime. (Note: GBC has as much slapstick comedy as drama and so is highly memeable.)

Yet, the sole reason GBC / Togenashi Togeari merch exists is the lasting, huge grassroots fan response from Japan, Korea, China and throughout Asia. Concert ticket, BD/DVD sets, collabs, figurines, acrylics are all sold out momentarily, lads go to their high school final exam wearing Nina's "Truancy" t-shirt from the ep5 concert scene, lots of doujin manga and illustrations are released, etc. All in all, GBC was a big revelation for the asian youth.
Nina's personality, however is incompatible with general western audiences, even many seasoned weebs find her antics grating and unbearable. If you watch you'll realize she's polar opposite of a stereotypical Mary Sue, more like a were-hedgehog. The long black hair drummer Awa Subaru (who enters in ep.2) is also an interesting and funny character. Momoka, Nina's muse is essentially a female version of
> the OP, which i both hated fiercely. This is meant to be an anime about Rock music, and the OP looked like a promo clip for their band

The OP depicts an event which takes place years after the anime's story ends:
Another thing to consider is that GBC script chose not to take the path of Bang Dream MyGo / Ave Mujica and Lady's Modesty Thus the rock aspect of GBC / TogeToge is tending more towards melodic rock than grinding metal (*). Anyhow, sung japanese is invariably melodic, owing to the language's innate character. (*) Interestingly, recent GBC merch has monster-rock visuals, RPG game / demon themes, which fans apparently demanded.

@Tacsk0 Well, there are only a very few animes that i simply couldn't watch at all. When you watch 8 minutes of something, have to pause it 10 times and end up taking 30 minutes to go through it, with a feeling a extreme boredom, it is necessary to acknowledge it: these 8 minutes were enough to bring about a strong dislike. I don't like to throw empty assertions, and so, i tried to understand why i felt like that. I am pretty sure i have only identified a few reasons. As for missing something... maybe i do, indeed. But maybe not. There are many high rated animes on MAL that i rated 5 or below and seriously hated ("Love Live the film", "Girls Und Panzers the film", or "Hibike Euphonium season 3"). These, i watched in their entirely, and i actually regret it.

We don't know the same Toei. To understand what i mean, watch all these terrible adaptations like Dragon ball Z, Ranma 1/ or One Piece. Even if you manage to like those (i liked DBZ back in the day, as a kid), you should be able to understand easily what i mean when i say 'milking', and 'low investment for maximum profits'. I have yet to see anything from Toei that is worth it by my standards. Quite frankly, it is very easy to see that even this "Girl Band Cry" thing is a bland, inoffensive product that bet on everything mainstream and unrisky. I said why it was already. Frankly, even these 8 minutes felt like an obvious rip-off of the first minutes of a much better work called "Carole & Tueday". In these minutes, i saw many things. I can actually write an essay about it. Don't go and think that my dropping it was a whimsical decision. It wasn't. I may try again when i am in a different mindset, but as of now, i know why i dropped it, and they are all solid reasons by my book. As a note: i didn't reach the point where Nina became annoying to me. It was the storyboard, the CGI, the music (including the OP), the artistic direction, the C&T rip-off, and the overall uninspiring and bland everything. And then, there is probably the fact that i don't have much interest anymore in kids shows (although i presently manage to somehow slog through "Bocchi the rock", which is even more geared towards kids, so... this can't be the sole reason). It may be the first time that an anime ever puts me off that badly and so fast in 2 decades and watching animes.

'french to english machine translation'. I actually smiled. Monolinguals always struggle, deservedly so. I recently read a manga only available in spanish, too. So, i always smile when i see monolinguals complain that the world didn't cater to their needs. Those who, like me, know french, spanish and english rarely struggle like that. And despite being french myself, i didn't even know this anime was a french exclusivity. I am somewhat far removed from animeland these days (too old i guess).

I find it dangerous that japanese may actually try to make 'female versions of Kurt Cobain'. I am generally not a fan of japanese music (except traditional music, i loved dearly 'Kono oto tomare !", about koto), like at all. Their J-whatevers are always easily accessible shits immediately forgotten, and 95% of the time, the lyrics are unsufferable, pure idle sophisms trying to sound smart. Maybe one of the few i remember for being good is the OP for "Suzuka", which was absolutely stunning at speaking of the girl MC, and actually gave me goosebumps at the time. On the other hand, i have exemples (like with Marilyn Manson) of musics that actually inspired me the actual lyrics, despite not knowing them. The music birthed in me the precise images and feelings that the lyrics described, and this shocked me. The relation between the music and the lyrics and the message that tied them both in a single entity is something that NEVER exist with J-whatevers. For simple and obvious reasons, but this would need me to write a novel here...

Yeah but i don't quite care when the OP takes place in the story. That's not the point. The point is that this OP is meant to illustrate the band's music, and hence, is a good example of the musical aeesthetics the show means to push during its airtime. That's the purpose of an OP when it comes to music animes. And it is a horrendous disaster. The instrumentations are murdered, slaughtered, raped... and this is nothing short of a heresy when it comes to rock. They can sabotage their J-whatevers all they want, but don't call this disgraceful piece of garbage rock. This AI-made sounding, formated garbage is destined to teenagers with little to no musical education, used to over-consume taylorised, chain produced pre-formated checklists they call 'music'. This is how i truly feel. This is a disgrace. Recent "Bocchi" and "Rock is a lady's modesty" both do it right, independently of tastes, but this GBC is an atrocity i have no intention to redeem. Yet again, if i try it again later, maybe my stance will soften, but considering how my opinion is based on objective facts (again, how the instru sounds) rather than subjective tastes, it is unlikely. Just stretching my ear during the OP and listening to it 5 or 6 times in a row convinced me that i hadn't misheard the first time, and that this is musically irredeemable for a rock track.

Lady's modesty is not about conflict. Like, at all. There is very little to no conflict there. The opposition is more social status and society's expectations. Even the manga post anime has little of these shallow conflicts you tend to find all over shounens/shoujos stuff (to be perfetly honest, i reached a point where i can generally more or less guess accurately most things in too many animes, because the crushing majority of shounens use the exact same so-tired-that-it-is-a-zombie writing logic. You know, it is like all those shitty Hollywood garbage films, when you just KNOW that this one character will do this, and then utter one of these pre-made 'murican corny lines you can't stand anymore. Except that in japanese shounens (shounens more than any other category), the same thing applies to 70 to 90% of the actual meat of the manga, which makes the whole thing absolutely intolerable for me. Again, Lady's modesty is a seinen, so the author is logically going to know that he can't fool those like me that easily. We look less for one or bi-dimensional artificial 'archetypes' or those oh-so-dreaded 'character arcs', and more for characters that live and develop organically, so that we may get to know them the same way we build things in real life.

GBC does not tend towards rock AT ALL. This is idoly garbage. If only they had actually tried to make some rock-sounding music, i could have respected the OP's melody and lyrics, because at their core, they are NOT bad. But since it ended up sounding like auditory vomit instead, i won't even try. And i have no hope that the rest of the anime's music takes the opposite approach compared to the OP, beause that would make no sense.

@Tacsk0 Well, there are only a very few animes that i simply couldn't watch at all. When you watch 8 minutes of something, have to pause it 10 times and end up taking 30 minutes to go through it, with a feeling a extreme boredom, it is necessary to acknowledge it: these 8 minutes were enough to bring about a strong dislike. I don't like to throw empty assertions, and so, i tried to understand why i felt like that. I am pretty sure i have only identified a few reasons. As for missing something... maybe i do, indeed. But maybe not. There are many high rated animes on MAL that i rated 5 or below and seriously hated ("Love Live the film", "Girls Und Panzers the film", or "Hibike Euphonium season 3"). These, i watched in their entirely, and i actually regret it.

We don't know the same Toei. To understand what i mean, watch all these terrible adaptations like Dragon ball Z, Ranma 1/ or One Piece. Even if you manage to like those (i liked DBZ back in the day, as a kid), you should be able to understand easily what i mean when i say 'milking', and 'low investment for maximum profits'. I have yet to see anything from Toei that is worth it by my standards. Quite frankly, it is very easy to see that even this "Girl Band Cry" thing is a bland, inoffensive product that bet on everything mainstream and unrisky. I said why it was already. Frankly, even these 8 minutes felt like an obvious rip-off of the first minutes of a much better work called "Carole & Tueday". In these minutes, i saw many things. I can actually write an essay about it. Don't go and think that my dropping it was a whimsical decision. It wasn't. I may try again when i am in a different mindset, but as of now, i know why i dropped it, and they are all solid reasons by my book. As a note: i didn't reach the point where Nina became annoying to me. It was the storyboard, the CGI, the music (including the OP), the artistic direction, the C&T rip-off, and the overall uninspiring and bland everything. And then, there is probably the fact that i don't have much interest anymore in kids shows (although i presently manage to somehow slog through "Bocchi the rock", which is even more geared towards kids, so... this can't be the sole reason). It may be the first time that an anime ever puts me off that badly and so fast in 2 decades and watching animes.

'french to english machine translation'. I actually smiled. Monolinguals always struggle, deservedly so. I recently read a manga only available in spanish, too. So, i always smile when i see monolinguals complain that the world didn't cater to their needs. Those who, like me, know french, spanish and english rarely struggle like that. And despite being french myself, i didn't even know this anime was a french exclusivity. I am somewhat far removed from animeland these days (too old i guess).

I find it dangerous that japanese may actually try to make 'female versions of Kurt Cobain'. I am generally not a fan of japanese music (except traditional music, i loved dearly 'Kono oto tomare !", about koto), like at all. Their J-whatevers are always easily accessible shits immediately forgotten, and 95% of the time, the lyrics are unsufferable, pure idle sophisms trying to sound smart. Maybe one of the few i remember for being good is the OP for "Suzuka", which was absolutely stunning at speaking of the girl MC, and actually gave me goosebumps at the time. On the other hand, i have exemples (like with Marilyn Manson) of musics that actually inspired me the actual lyrics, despite not knowing them. The music birthed in me the precise images and feelings that the lyrics described, and this shocked me. The relation between the music and the lyrics and the message that tied them both in a single entity is something that NEVER exist with J-whatevers. For simple and obvious reasons, but this would need me to write a novel here...

Yeah but i don't quite care when the OP takes place in the story. That's not the point. The point is that this OP is meant to illustrate the band's music, and hence, is a good example of the musical aeesthetics the show means to push during its airtime. That's the purpose of an OP when it comes to music animes. And it is a horrendous disaster. The instrumentations are murdered, slaughtered, raped... and this is nothing short of a heresy when it comes to rock. They can sabotage their J-whatevers all they want, but don't call this disgraceful piece of garbage rock. This AI-made sounding, formated garbage is destined to teenagers with little to no musical education, used to over-consume taylorised, chain produced pre-formated checklists they call 'music'. This is how i truly feel. This is a disgrace. Recent "Bocchi" and "Rock is a lady's modesty" both do it right, independently of tastes, but this GBC is an atrocity i have no intention to redeem. Yet again, if i try it again later, maybe my stance will soften, but considering how my opinion is based on objective facts (again, how the instru sounds) rather than subjective tastes, it is unlikely. Just stretching my ear during the OP and listening to it 5 or 6 times in a row convinced me that i hadn't misheard the first time, and that this is musically irredeemable for a rock track.

Lady's modesty is not about conflict. Like, at all. There is very little to no conflict there. The opposition is more social status and society's expectations. Even the manga post anime has little of these shallow conflicts you tend to find all over shounens/shoujos stuff (to be perfetly honest, i reached a point where i can generally more or less guess accurately most things in too many animes, because the crushing majority of shounens use the exact same so-tired-that-it-is-a-zombie writing logic. You know, it is like all those shitty Hollywood garbage films, when you just KNOW that this one character will do this, and then utter one of these pre-made 'murican corny lines you can't stand anymore. Except that in japanese shounens (shounens more than any other category), the same thing applies to 70 to 90% of the actual meat of the manga, which makes the whole thing absolutely intolerable for me. Again, Lady's modesty is a seinen, so the author is logically going to know that he can't fool those like me that easily. We look less for one or bi-dimensional artificial 'archetypes' or those oh-so-dreaded 'character arcs', and more for characters that live and develop organically, so that we may get to know them the same way we build things in real life.

GBC does not tend towards rock AT ALL. This is idoly garbage. If only they had actually tried to make some rock-sounding music, i could have respected the OP's melody and lyrics, because at their core, they are NOT bad. But since it ended up sounding like auditory vomit instead, i won't even try. And i have no hope that the rest of the anime's music takes the opposite approach compared to the OP, beause that would make no sense.

@Nox--- I think you could approach GBC in a different way. The in-anime band Togenashi Togeari (TogeToge) exists in real life, the musician girls even voiced the characters. TogeToge regularly hold live concerts and have 15+ songs already. Maybe listen to one of their shows from stream, BD or other less than honorable venues and judge based on whole music repertoire, whether to watch the anime or the soon debuting two-part recap movie?

• 2024.03.16., 1st ONE-MAN LIVE: Hakumei no Josou (note: only one to feature the original drummer and synth girls)
  
• 2024.09.13., 2nd ONE-MAN LIVE: Rinne no Kotowari
  
• 2024.11.02., 3rd ONE-MAN LIVE: Houkou no Kanade
  
• 2024.12.20., 4th ONE-MAN LIVE: Kyousou no Hibiki
  
• 2025.01.12., TogeToge vs Bandori MyGo band battle: Avoid Note
  
• 2025.02.07., 5th ONE-MAN LIVE: Meidou no Toki
  
• 2025.04.27., GBC project announcement's 2nd anniversary concert
  
• 2025.05.15. TogeToge vs She's Legend band battle: Soul Cry (note: S'sL is a band from the Angel Beats derived game Heaven Burns Red)
  
• TogeToge also had two concerts in mainland China, one in Taiwan and another in South Korea, which may all be up on Bilibili. In July 2025, TT also got half an hour at L.A. Expo's Anison Matsuri, cramming 8 songs into that little time, with frenzied reception.