Only to be disappointed. It's a good series overall, but as a game fan it let me down several times. The AU plot was okay, but my god, did they rush it. 12 episodes was not enough time to give all the characters the development they needed, and many plot points were rushed. Chuchu's in particular comes to mind, I had been looking forward to that drama for the entire series, and not only did they wait to introduce it until episode 10, but then it was solved that very episode.
With this AU storyline, 24 episodes would have been more ideal, more time for the characters to grow, and more time so that the plot isn't rushed.
Now onto the part of the review that only game fans will understand.
The next issue I have with SB69A is the lack of the majority of characters. Only five out of the game's twenty (well, 21 now, but 20 when it started) bands were important, and even then, only Plasmagica and Shingan got a decent amount of screen time. Three other bands, Uwasanopetals, Shizuku Secretmind, and Shinimonogurui also appeared, but very briefly.
Uwasanopetals were fine in this, I had no issues with their appearances. Shizuku Secretmind and Shinimonogurui on the other hand.... yeah...
When episode 5 aired, the episode with Shizuku, I had assumed Shabobon and Turtle BIG were unable to make actual appearances because they currently lack human forms in the game, they haven't gotten their UR cards yet (UR cards are the only appearance of human forms in the game, everyone's in myumon form the majority of the time). I figured Bones decided to make them not there because it would have been strange having Wendy and Corriente in human form, and Shabobon and Turtle in myumon form. With this episode, I was annoyed by them not being there, but it made sense.
Until episode 7. Episode 7 had Shinimonogurui appear... and two of them were in human form and the other three were in myumon form. So what was the real reason for Shabobon and Turtle not being in epiosde 5 then? Anyway, Marimari was in human form, as was Tsugihagi. Why was Tsugihagi in human form? He doesn't even have a UR yet, why was he in human form?
Duradura, Monmon, and Gashigashi were in myumon form. Out of those three, the only one with any real dialogue was Duradura, who had one line. Monmon spoke a little, just his name (for some reason? I don't think he does this in the game?), and Gashigashi had no dialogue. All three of them only appeared for a couple seconds, and didn't appear again when Marimari and Tsughagi reappeared in episodes 11 and 12 (why not?).
And Marimari... oh, Marimari. After episode 6, when the preview for episode 7 was shown, I was insanely hyped. Shinimonogurui are one of Show By Rock's tie-up bands, meaning they're based on an actual Japanese musician. In their case, they're based on singer/guitarist/songwriter Marie Ueda, who, thanks to the game, has become one of my favorite musicians, with her amazing singing voice and very catchy songs. I was so excited to see her voicing Marimari, the character based on her! Except Marimari was instead voiced by some seiyuu who apparently only had one role before this one.
I understand that it's hard to get musicians to do things like this due to contracts, I understand completely. With the fact that they were unable to get Marie Ueda to voice Marimari, why have Shinimonogurui appear in the anime AT ALL? Why hype us Marie Ueda fans only to disappoint us? Don't have a tie-up band appear if you can't get the real musician to provide voice work.
So, with all this human and myumon form talk I've been doing, what exactly is the explanation for the forms in the anime? In the game, everyone is a myumon most of the time, but becomes a human when excited (according to a video from 2013 made to promote the game). But how did it work here? The main characters were in human form most of the time, with background characters in myumon form. The main characters went into myumon form only when performing and battling the bosses. And Maple was in myumon form the entire time, but seemed to change into human form at will in the final episode. What do the forms mean in anime canon? They didn't explain it. Why were they human forms most of the time? Can everyone just change form when they want to?
And the final problem, which is the most minor of all of them, GOONEYS (the studio who did the GCI) clearly chose bosses at random. They didn't bother actually matching the bands and bosses. This was annoying. The skeleton boss? That's the one you fight when playing Shingan CrimsonZ songs. The one Tsugihagi turned into? That was the boss you fight playing Dropout Sensei songs. The moth Criticrista were? The Demons Venom boss. GOONEYS made it very clear that they didn't give a crap what bosses they used and just chose them at random.
/the part only game fans with understand
Story: 6/10
The plot itself was fine (although the whole Cyan is a human who was sucked into the game thing was kind of unnecessary), but it was way too rushed, several times.
Art: 10/10
Very good, both Bones and GOONEYS did a great job animating. Both the traditional animation and the CG looked very nice. The CG is probably among the best CG in anime. Very fluid and beautiful to look at.
Sound: 9/10
Would have been 10/10 if it wasn't for Shuu-zo's singing. Mamoru sounded very exhausted singing that song, they should have used a better take. Doing some more takes of that song wouldn't have done any harm. If he sounded better in that song, this would be a 10. The rest of the songs were great, however.
Character: 7/10
They could have used some more development, but the anime being 12 episodes didn't allow that to happen. However, they were in character. Well, aside from Cyan but that's because of the anime's AU plot. Everyone else was fine, they just needed more development.
Enjoyment: 7/10
Due to the reasons stated above, as a game fan it was hard for me to enjoy it completely, but I guess that's what I get for expecting that much out of an adaption.
Overall: 7/10
An okay adaption, but I would have preferred an anime with a lot of episodes, with every band, and no ongoing story. An anime similar to the game would have been better.
