Anime / BanG Dream!

"This is the Girls Band Era!"

BanG Dream! is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Bushiroad in conjunction with OLM Incorporated, focusing on the fictional band Poppin' Party. The first manga began in January 2015, followed by two more in 2016, and in January 2017, an anime adaptation produced by Xebec began airing, with additional 2 seasons produced by Sanzigen Animation Studio aired in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime for an English release, and Crunchyroll is simulcasting the series. The name comes from taking the "G" of "Girl" and putting it in place of the "d" in "Band". Therefore the title is basically a stylized form of "Girl Band Dream!".

Kasumi Toyama is a high school girl who wants to find something she can be passionate about. When she attends a music performance at a Live House, she finally realizes that's the "star beat" she's been seeking and decides to form a band.

Additionally, five bands are introduced, each with their own background stories, with additional 2 bands made their debut later on in the franchise, these are:

• Poppin'Party - The protagonist group. A J-Pop Rock band formed by students at Hanasakigawa Girls Academy.
• Afterglow — An alternative Hard Rock band formed by Childhood Friends from Haneoka Girls Academy.
• Pastel*Palettes — A Lighter and Softer idol-inspired band formed by a talent agency, initially marred by a lip-sync concert disaster before reforming and becoming a legitimate and successful band while maintaining their Idol Singer ideals.
• Roselia — A highly-acclaimed and exceptionally-talented gothic Visual Kei rock band with a serious approach to music, aiming to be the best band in the world.
• Hello, Happy World! — A cheery, poppy band with some very eccentric personalities.
• Morfonica — An all-girls violin rock band formed by first-year students from the prestigious and rich school Tsukinomori Girls' Academy.
• RAISE A SUILEN — A Darker and Edgier electronic rock band formed by four high school students and a middle school student.

A tie-in game, BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!, was launched in March 2017 in Japan and one year later worldwide, developed by CraftEgg and published by Bushiroad. In addition to Poppin'Party, it features four other bands: Afterglow, Pastel*Palettes, Roselia, and Hello Happy World!.

The success of the franchise has led to the anime being renewed for two additional seasons and a series of spinoff animated shorts, Pastel Life, that focuses on the daily lives of Pastel*Palettes' members. Another series of shorts, BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO aired for 26 episodes from July 5th, 2018 to December 27th, 2018.

An anime spin-off Sequel Series based on the new side project served as the 4th season overall called BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! was premiered on June 29, 2023, followed by an upcoming follow-up season BanG Dream! Ave Mujica, which was announced after the final episode of It's MyGO!!!!! and it will premiere on January 2025.

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For tropes specific to the mobile game, go here.

For its former Spear Counterpart, see from ARGONAVIS.

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The franchise and the original anime contains examples of:

• Aborted Arc: CHU2 attempting to snatch Tae from Poppin'Party was a major arc in Season 2, but it's not discussed at all in Season 3 despite the emotional strain it put on the band. It doesn't help that CHU2 barely receives any punishment for this and is Easily Forgiven by Poppin'Party.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: In the anime, Saya greets Tae by name in the first episode, before Tae is properly introduced, and nearly all the bands from the game show up in the backgrounds and get very brief cameos, with implications that they'll feature more prominently in later seasons.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In the anime, as part of her Cuteness Proximity tendencies, Hinako did this to Rimi and Saya in Episode 9. In the same episode, Rii does this to Hinako to prevent her from subjecting Roselia to that behavior.
• Angry Cheek Puff: In one of the 4koma strips, Himari is angrily stomping and puffing her cheeks when Ran doesn't reply to a series of text messages, as Ran has a bad habit of keeping her friends "On Read" or giving only one-word replies.
  Ran: I got here on time, didn't I? What's the big deal?
  Himari: [angrily] That doesn't excuse you for ignoring my texts!
  Ran: [genuinely confused] It doesn't?
  Himari: No it does not!
• Art-Shifted Sequel: From 2D animation with CG band sequences in Season 1 to an All-CGI Cartoon for Season 2 onward.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: There are quite a few quiet characters who could fool the viewer.
  • In Roselia, both Sayo and Yukina are a lot quieter and less outgoing than both Lisa and Ako, but still generally more talkative than Rinko. But when they do speak, they tend to say exactly what they think, even when they know it might hurt another person's feelings. In-anime examples include Yukina telling Poppin' Party bluntly that they simply are not ready to put on a self-sponsored show (which is true at that point) and Sayo saying "Guess I have no choice", after Hina offers to let Sayo borrow her guitar at the School Collaboration Culture Festival. Despite just seeing Rokka play guitar before their eyes.
  • Rokka might be the newest Shrinking Violet in the anime, but after her spontaneous performance at the School Collaboration Culture Festival, there's not a shadow of doubt that her guitar skills far outrank her social skills. In less than 60 seconds, she manages to amaze all of the other girls present. Including Roselia. Sayo is no longer the best guitar player in the franchise.
• Big Bad:
  • Season 1 has Shifune Tsuzuki. She is the blunt and no-nonsense owner of SPACE, who attempts to drive Poppin' Party's reputation to the ground through her high standards of music. Even if she's not as prominent as Tamade, Tsuzuki's habitual, if not outright obsession for high standards drove Kasumi to a slump during Episodes 10 and 11, which almost put Poppin' Party's reputation in shambles.
  • Season 2 and 3 has Chiyu Tamade/CHU2, who is the DJ for Raise A Suilen who wants to get back at Roselia for rejecting her offer to become their music producer. In season 2, she tries to make Tae from Poppin' Party join her, and tries to forcibly take her away. In season 3, she's back and out for revenge both on Roselia and Poppin' Party, planning to make RAS eclipse their fame and humiliate them.
• Big Eater: Kasumi, much to the delight of Arisa's grandmother. Moca adds to this in Season 2, and when she's not performing, she's either eating chocolate coronettes or sleeping.
• Bland-Name Product: During the first season of the anime, most of the equipment aside from the ESP guitars and Arisa's Roland keyboard has different names, although it is easy to see what it's supposed to be. Examples include the Marshall JCM800-style "Marshmallow" amps or Rimi's Ampeg-style "Snail" amp. In Season 2, there are quite a few more real brands involved, and the "Marshmallow" is replaced with "Marshall". Rimi's amp still has the "Snail" logo, though.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: At the start of Chapter 5 of the manga, Lisa meets up with Hina after class. Hina mentions that Lisa is in a band with Hina's sister, and after Lisa mentions that Hina is a twin, Hina states that her older twin sister is Sayo Hikawa. In the localization, Hina instead says, "Sayo Hikawa is your older sister," which makes no sense and contradicts what readers already know.
• Breather Episode: Episode 8 of Season 3, which deals with the girls taking a break from the BanG Dream competition and relaxing and hanging out at a bathhouse.
• Brush-Off Walk-Off: In season 2, CHU2 shows up to invite Yukina to the debut concert for RAISE-A-SUILEN, her intent rub her success in Yukina's face for refusing to cooperate with her. Yukina returns CHU2's card, saying, "I have a culture fest on both these days", and returns to her band practice in Circle, ignoring the egotistical producer.
• Bunnies for Cuteness: Tae has a pet rabbit "boyfriend," who is, rather unusually for a rabbit, completely chill during the band's loud performance in episode 5.
  • Tae’s voice actor also owns many rabbits, which was inspiration for Tae herself.
• Canon Foreigner: Glitter*Green was created for the anime and isn't one of the five main bands, but they end up showing up in the game. On the flip side, Marina and the live house she runs were exclusive to the game, but show up in the anime later on.
• Casting Gag: The members of Glitter*Green are voiced by Suzuko Mimori, Sora Tokui, Izumi Kitta, and Mikoi Sasaki, who voiced the four protagonists from Tantei Opera Milky Holmes. Additionally, the four voice actors have also performed together under the unit name Milky Holmes.
• Chromosome Casting: Like another idol franchise, this series has almost no male characters in any role: main, supporting or minor. The PASTEL LIFE shorts showed a few of them, complete with voice acting, and a few dads and younger brothers pop up here and there, so men exist — they just only show up when they matter to the story.
• Clark Kenting: A downplayed example in the anime, as Kasumi, Saya, and Arisa couldn't tell that their school's Student Council President and Glitter*Green's keyboardist were the same person until Nanana took off her glasses in front of them. This is also played up with Misaki and her "Michelle" identity. Even though she actively tries to get the other members of Hello, Happy World! to understand that it's her inside the Michelle costume, everyone besides Kanon is enough of a Cloudcuckoolander to continue to think that she's just Michelle's friend and that Michelle is an actual humanoid, talking, DJ bear. This includes her actively taking her Michelle costume off in front of them, at which point Kaoru, Kokoro, and Hagumi all assume that Michelle warped into the shape of a girl and that Michelle herself somehow ran away while they weren't looking.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The series is rife with them — Kokoro, Kaoru and Hagumi especially. Kokoro's primary goal in life is "to see the smile of the world," Kaoru acts twenty-four-seven and is obsessed with Shakespeare and ideas like "transient," "destiny," and princes and princesses to the point some characters think she speaks another language (and shockingly enough, despite all this is very popular as a prince-like figure among girls in and outside her school), and Hagumi is...well, the most hyper of the cast. Outside of Hello Happy World!, the running contenders are Moca, Eve, Kasumi and Tae.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Any time she appears throughout the series, Misaki acts as this to more than half of the entire band of Hello Happy World. She and Kanon are basically the only ones who can run the ship smoothly, so to speak, though even Kanon has her moments of spaciness, such as her tendency to get lost and daydream about jellyfish. Anyone who Moca's particularly friendly with can be one for her, such as Afterglow, Lisa and Saaya. Among Pasupare, Aya's particularly baffled by Eve and tries to make sense of her. In the anime Rii seems to play this role for Hinako, reining in the latter's behavior. The "suits-people" can be this to Kokoro, but they're also her biggest enablers.
• Cold Touch Surprise: In one 4koma strip, #261, "Forbidden Warmth", Lisa is blowing on her cold hands trying to warm them, when she spots Himari and tries to warm her hands on poor Himari's face. Ran and Tomoe scold Lisa (though both also state they completely understand) while Moca and Tsugumi try to deal with a startled Himari.
• Colour-Coded Characters: All bands have their own set of colours associated with them. For Popipa, it's bright and flashy colors, for Afterglow, it's different shades of red (associated with the sunset), for Roselia, it's black, dark purple and blue, for Hello, Happy World!, it's bright colours, primarily red, white and yellow. And for Pastel*Palettes, it's pastel colours. Raise A Suilen follows this trend by primarily wearing black and white on-stage during their performances.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Sort of, anyway. Tae, Sayo, Hina, Moca and Rokka all play exclusively on blue guitars, and are all considered their respective bands' lead guitarist. Similarly, Kasumi and Ran are both rhythm guitarists and vocalists in Popipa and Afterglow respectively, and both play red guitars.
• Conveniently Seated: Rimi sits next to the window, but at the front of the row, and Kasumi is at the front of the middle row.
• Cool Big Sis: Tomoe is this to her sister Ako, to the point she calls herself the "second best" drummer in the world compared to her. Rimi also frequently gushes over her sister Yuri, the lead singer for the band Glitter*Green.
  • Hina also sees her older twin sister, Sayo, this way, saying outright that Sayo is the reason Hina picked up the guitar to begin with. Sayo doesn't share that sentiment, though, once she sees how fast Hina is learning and improving on the instrument, despite her careless attitude, leading to Sayo's inferiority complex getting worse.
  • Most of Popipa, as well as Hagumi, see Saaya this way. Her default card in the mobile-game lampshades this by simply calling her "Everyone's Big Sis".
  • Lisa does double duty, serving as a cool big sis not only to Roselia, but to most of the other bands, particularly those who attend Hanaeoka.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Afterglow, Pastel*Palettes, and Hello, Happy World suffer this in Season 3, as they don’t enter the BanG Dream! competition while Poppin’Party, Roselia, and RAISE A SUILEN do.
  • Strangely, Roselia also gets this treatment for the Poppin'Dream! film, as they're put aside from the promotional material, with the recently-introduced band Morfonica appearing in place as part of the main cast along with Poppin' Party and RAISE A SUILEN.
• Devastating Remark:
  • The owner of Space tells Kasumi that she is the worst member of Poppin' Party, which leaves the girl devastated and unable to speak for a time.
  • In Season 3, in a fit of rage at seeing that despite her best efforts, RAS is slipping in the rankings for the BanG Dream contest, CHU2 snaps at PAREO, telling her most ardent supporter that she's useless. PAREO is so hurt by the vitriol from the person she admired most that she returns to her hometown and starts going by her given name of Reona Nyubara again.
• Diegetic Switch: In the season 2 finale, when the audience screams for an encore, Poppin'Party oblige by announcing they'll be playing "Kizuna Music", the show's opening theme. It then cuts directly to the end credits.^note  Many anime use the opening theme as the ending for the finale.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Both the opening and the ending are performed by the in-series band Poppin' Party in season 1 and most episodes of 2 and 3. However, sometimes the other bands' songs replace the OP and/or ED.
• Dragged by the Collar: Glitter*Green's Rii does this to Hinako in Episode 9 after the latter suffered Cuteness Proximity towards Saya.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Nothing seems to go as planned for any of the bands, and they usually end up having to work hard to get what they want. Both Popipa, Afterglow and Roselia had to go through quite a lot of struggles to get to where they are.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: While there are a plenty of examples in this franchise, some examples of these stand out:
  • Kasumi, a cheerful and extrovertic girl, can pretty much serve as this to anyone else who isn't anywhere as energetic as her, but most notably plays this with two of her bandmates, Arisa (who generally has a low voice when being snarky, if she isn't yelling at Kasumi due to her Tsundere tendecies) and Rimi (a more straighter Shrinking Violet as she's moreso shy and reserved).
  • Ako and Rinko. The former is a cheerful Chuunibyou, and the latter is so shy and withdrawn that she's stammers when speaking. They're friends that bonded through playing games together. Ako calls Rinko with the "Rin-rin" nickname, and likewise, Rinko calls her "Ako-chan" whereas she usually refers to others by their last name with the "-san" honorific.
  • Hagumi and Kanon fits both this and Orange/Blue Contrast through their image colors and personalities. Hagumi is an energetic and has orange hair to match, while Kanon is a straight-out Shy Blue-Haired Girl.
• Evil Is Petty: Raise A Suilen’s producer, Chiyu Tamade/Chu2, is the Big Bad of seasons 2 and 3, who behaves exactly the way she looks: like a spoiled brat. Her entire motivation for wanting to bring about the end of the Girls Band Era can be summarized as "Yukina turned down her offer" and, later, "Popipa wouldn't let her steal Tae".
• Evolving Credits: Season 2's opening animation is this. In Episode 1, it only shows Poppin' Party (and Afterglow's silhouettes standing inside a small star Kasumi is looking at). After the other bands (Pastel Palettes, Afterglow, Roselia and Hello, Happy World!), are introduced in Season 2, the animation changes from Episode 3 and onward to show those as well (even though Roselia were already introduced in Season 1, they don't actually become important at all until Season 2).
• Familial Chiding: Afterglow is a band of five childhood friends who are basically a Family of Choice. Tomoe, of Afterglow, is also the older sister of Roselia's Ako. And Roselia's Sayo is the twin sister of Pastel Palettes's Hina. There's a lot of family feeling between the other bands, as well.
  • In one of the manga panels, Moca says that her bandmate Himari is like a mother.
    Himari: I... I am?
    Moca: Really nosy, lots of scolding, and you always seem to pull snacks out of nowhere.
    Tomoe: You always take it too far, Moca!
  • When Himari suggests she'd like to be as cool and reliable as Roselia's Lisa, Moca says she'd have to be able to do all the things Lisa does, like bring cookies ("I already do that. Sometimes."), sew a button that's coming loose, ("Lisa's so cool."), or offer Moca headphones and a blanket when she lies down to take a nap.
    Himari: Aren't you being pampered!? Someone needs to cut you off!
  • In Season 2, as the girls gather for the big concert at Galaxy, Moca is recording and spots Ran eating a croquette from Hagumi's shop. Lisa cheerfully responds, "Look at you two Afterglow buddies." Moca cheerfully launches herself onto the sofa beside Ran, embracing her, saying, "You mean Best Buddies!" Ran, who likes to play it cool, chides Moca.
    Ran: Moca! It's hot!
  • In Season 3, after Sayo collapses from a cold and pushing herself too hard after a loss to Raise-A-Suilen, her twin sister Hina comes into her room to check on her. Sayo shows that She's Back by gently chiding Hina for entering without knocking, but it's done without malice, and Hina smiles to see her sister back to normal.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Hina is much more lax than the very stiff and sharp Sayo, and although Tomoe's a kind and relaxed older sibling, she's much less whimsical than her Chuunibyou younger sister, Ako. Kasumi seems to be the sillier one compared to her responsible younger sister Asuka.
• Foil:
  • While not something that's immediately apparent, the "Hello, My Happy World" event nudges at how Ran and Misaki are foils of each other via Misaki's use of Ran's catchphrase, "Same as always" — both are aloof-seeming girls who secretly have a lot of passion, with Ran hotheaded and Misaki straightforward. Though while Ran mainly comes off indifferent, Misaki's a Deadpan Snarker.
  • Moca's easygoing nature, tendency to say anything that pops to mind, especially if she gets a chuckle out of it, and ability to do whatever she wants without mind of the consequences helps her stand in stark contrast with Ran, who's emotionally reserved, very particular about her words, and suffers under the pressure of her family history to act against what she wants. Moca also has the well-acknowledged ability to "handle" Ran whenever she's being difficult, which helps draw out the emotions Ran tries to keep under wraps.
  • LAYER and CHU2. Both are members of RAISE A SUILEN who are heavily affiliated with Tae (LAYER is her childhood friend, CHU2 scouted her as a support guitarist). However, LAYER is a mature Nice Girl who, while fond of the idea of being in a band with Tae, ultimately allows Tae to go back to Poppin’Party instead of being a support guitarist because she knows about how much Tae treasures their friendship. CHU2, on the other hand, is an immature Jerkass who refuses to let Tae retire from her position as support guitarist, tries to force her to join the band out of selfishness, and believes Tae’s friendship with Poppin’Party is akin to “playing band like a bunch of kids.”
• Free-Handed Performer
  • Yukina Minato of Roselia is the band's vocalist, but does not play an instrument.
  • Hello Happy World's Kokoro also provides vocals for her band without playing any instrument.
• Friendly Rivalry: While Yukina can be oblivious to it due to how aloof Ran can come off, Ran seems to wants to make closer friends with her.
  • It can also be said that Afterglow and Roselia as bands share this, as both bands aim to surpass each other.
  • Sayo seems to think she and Hina have this going, when it comes to playing guitar. Of course, much of it can be attributed to Sayo’s inferiority complex, since Hina doesn’t see them as rivals or even competitors.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: One of Himari's many fruitless endeavors in making Afterglow... er, glow more, was to make a "cute" stuffed mascot character for each of them — which every one of her friends are promptly embarrassed over (as they either follow more "cool" trends or find the mascot too weird-looking), but immediately attach with a keychain to their personal belongings.
  • In the anime, Glitter*Green's Rii is often seen with a plush demon she names Debeko, which she occasionally uses as a puppet.
• The Glasses Come Off:
  • In the game, Maya is insistently recruited by Chisato to Pastel*Palettes immediately after she takes hers off. In the anime, Nanana removes her glasses when she performs with Glitter*Green, and it wasn't until she did that everyone in Popipa aside from Rimi and Otae realized she was Glitter*Green's keyboardist. Rokka also takes off her glasses in season 2 episode 9, before she starts shredding at the festival.
  • Rokka removes her glasses and her hairband in Episode 9, practically turning into a completely different person, before pulling off a completely spontaneous Van Halen-style guitar solo, in an attempt to buy time for Poppin' Party. Even Roselia is impressed by her performance, which says quite a bit.
• Group Picture Ending: The ending of Season 3 shows all the winners of Girls Band Challenge (PoPiPa, Roselia and RAS) together in one photo.
• Hidden Depths: RAISE A SUILEN is a perfect example of this trope applied to people. LAYER dresses like a rock star pretty much all the time and MASKING, also known as the Wild Dog, looks like a typical delinquent, down to the blond hair, which is a common sign of delinquency in anime. One would not expect either of these to be supportive of a shy kid from the countryside at all, but they both do everything they can to help Rokka join the band. MASKING even drops whatever she was doing, just to drive Rokka over to CHU2's studio when Rokka misses the train. On the other hand, PAREO looks more friendly than the first two, but when CHU2 declines Rokka after the first audition, she takes CHU2's side. It doesn't help that PAREO assists CHU2 in hunting down and chasing after Rokka to the point where she's screaming and terrified out of her mind.
  • And then there is Rokka herself. Nothing about her appearance says that she's a competent musician at all. But once she gets started playing guitar, she turns out to be much more skilled than any of the other, older girls.
• Holding in Laughter: In one of the single panel comics, Yukina and Sayo have been prohibited from discussing anything band or music related. Cue the two of them stiffly asking each other about school, and Lisa, behind them, stifling her laughter.
• Hope Spot: In episode 9 of Season 2, Tae and Kasumi manage to arrive at Haneoka's gates after running as fast as they could in the hopes of being able to make it in time for Poppin' Party's anniversary performance... only for an empty auditorium to greet them once they get there with Arisa, Saaya, Rimi, and Rokka cleaning up after everything was done without having been able to perform at all.
• Identical Stranger: Nicolina, the princess of Happinell looks exactly like Kanon.
• Informed Flaw: Mid-season 1, as Poppin'Party are preparing for the cultural festival, Kasumi is told point-blank that they're nowhere near good enough to play Space. You wouldn't know it from their slick-sounding, album-quality concert at the cultural festival mere days later. When they actually do audition for Space in the next episode, they suddenly become Hollywood Tone-Deaf for dramatic reasons.
• Japanese Ranguage: In episode "You only live once" (Season 2, episode 4) there is a poster occurring multiple times, which advertizes a local market festival. Afterglow is participating this festival. But their name had been written "Aftergrow" on this poster.
• Jokers Love Junk Food: Afterglow has two members who love junk food, Himari, and Moca. Moca, who tends to eat and sleep, never gains weight, and jokes that she sends the extra calories to Himari. And in one episode of Garupa Pico, Himari, after partying with her friends, can only scream when she steps on the scale.
• Konami Code: In Season 2, the code is how Misaki activates Michelle's flight mode!
• Lampshade Hanging: Poppin'Party's band story in the game involves them "fighting" against the realistically minded town officials who are scrapping the town's annual festival for budget reasons. They're told multiple times by the adults that that they're just kids who don't understand how the world works. The dialogue references how stereotypical the scenario is, and how it's basically exactly the sort of thing you'd see in an anime. Chapter 8, where the city official first puts Poppin'Party down for being idealistic kids, is also called "Typical Villain".
• Improbably Female Cast: The franchise features numerous girl bands.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Poppin'Party's band story, they're fighting against the stereotypical cynical adults that are making the tough-but-realistic decision to scrap the city festival, and believe that their idealism is childish. Poppin'Party make reference to how the city officials are like the stereotypical bad guys in an anime.
• Lighter and Softer:
  • The general tone of the franchise as it mostly deals with the growing friendship between girl bands.
  • The current setting which the current BanG Dream! media, is this to the original story's setting from the manga BanG_Dream!: Star Beat (as well as it's Light Novel adaptation), has a gloomier setting overall, deals with themes like bullying and depression, which caused the original setting's Kasumi to be more of a Shrinking Violet, especially contrasts with the today's version of Kasumi, who is an excitable, idealistic Genki Girl.
• Mischievous Body Language: Moca Aoba often sports a mischievous grin on her face, alerting her band members that she might be up to something. Usually, Moca will settle for playful teasing or Romantic Ribbing, but it is not uncommon for the other members of Afterglow to wonder what she's up to when she starts grinning. A good example is when the band went to the school at night to retrieve Himari's homework and Moca decided it was the perfect time to tell ghost stories.
• The "Mom" Voice: Lisa is THE Team Mom, the one other Team Moms turn to. She tends to be on the milder end of the spectrum, preferring to use gentle reminders and encouragement rather than stern lectures. On one occasion while helping Ako fix her hair she gently reminds her to practice good time management.
• The Nicknamer:
  • Kasumi calls Rimi "Rimi-rin" and Tae "Otae." The rest of Poppin' Party also adopt the latter nickname as well.
  • Moca has nicknames for all of her bandmates besides Ran: "Hii-chan" for Himari, "Tomo-chin" for Tomoe, and "Tsugu" for Tsugumi.
  • Hagumi also calls Kokoro as "Kokoron". Kasumi also calls Kokoro in that way as well, and calls Hagumi, as they're Childhood Friends as "Hagu", who in return calls her as "Kaa-kun". Hagumi also calls Kanon as "Kanon-chan-senpai" and Misaki as "Mii-kun".
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When Kokoro goes to recruit Kaoru for Hello, Happy World! in HHW's band story, Misaki notes at the end how she's impressed that neither of the two actually listened to each other, yet it still went as planned.
• One-Gender School: Two (technically three) all-girls' schools, Hanasakigawa and Haneoka (and its middle school, in which Ako is from), are the origin of five bands: Poppin' Party, Afterglow, Pastel Palettes, Roselia and Hello Happy World. All of Popipa's girls attend Hanasakigawa, and all of Afterglow's girls attend Haneoka, but Pastel Palettes, Roselia and Hello Happy World have girls who go to both. Ako's an odd one out, in that she's in her last year in Haneoka's middle school section until season 2 of the anime.
• Origins Episode:
  • Pastel*Palettes', Roselia's, and Hello, Happy World!'s Band Stories show how they were formed.
  • The "As Evening Clears" event is this for Afterglow.
  • Poppin'Party has a Season 0 band story, which covers the events of the anime and their formation.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Moca Aoba tends to make up words using the names of her various friends. "Tsugurific" seems to have found a permanent place in lexicon of her band, Afterglow. Tsugumi, for whom it was coined, in one strip◊, suggests Moca is taking it a bit far.
  Moca: I'm Tsugurific. I'm Mocatastic, too, baby~.
• Product Placement:
  • There's quite a large number of ESP instruments used in the anime, which is strangely realistic, considering the popularity of ESP Japan instruments. Poppin' Party and Roselia exclusively use ESP, and Ako even has a set of custom cymbals. Additionally, the two bands use custom ESP guitar straps, which can also be bought. Arisa's keyboard also displays the Roland JUNO logo quite prominently.
  • Season 2 has some more real-life productrs on display, such as Marshall and Hughes&Kettner amplifiers, and Lock and and Layer playing a Strandberg guitar and a Spector bass respectively.
• The Quiet One: Rinko of Roselia is the biggest case, as she's very, very shy and introverted, doesn't do well in crowds, and often has Ako speak on her behalf — however, she has a bit of a spark in her, considering that it's her who insists on joining Roselia in the first place. In the same band, Yukina tends to be reserved, and Sayo often speaks ahead of her or very pointedly asks for her opinion. In Afterglow, Ran's basically a girl of few words, but when she speaks more, there's a lot of meaning behind it. And in contrast to the extroverted nature of the majority of Hello Happy World, Misaki also tends to think to herself more than speak, though when she speaks, she's very blunt and open about her thoughts.
  • In the anime, Hinako was thought by Tae to be this for Glitter*Green because she doesn't speak at their concerts. It's averted when it's revealed that she's actually a Cloudcuckoolander who was told not to talk during the concerts by Rii, not wanting her to ruin the group's image with her manic behavior.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Three of the bands have this dynamic. Interestingly enough, it is always shown in their instruments.
  • In Poppin' Party, Kasumi is the Red Oni and Tae is the Blue Oni. Fittingly, their respective guitars have the respective colours (Kasumi's red ESP Random Star and Tae's blue ESP Snapper).
  • In Afterglow, Ran is the Red Oni while Moca is the Blue Oni. While Ran is generally stoic, she has a Hot-Blooded streak and is easily flustered, while Moca is more laidback and easygoing. Again, their instruments have the same colours (Ran plays a red Les Paul, while Moca plays a blue superstrat).
  • In Roselia, Lisa is the Red Oni while Sayo is the Blue Oni. Lisa plays a red bass, while Sayo plays a blue guitar. Interesting enough, this also fits their respective in-band colors (Lisa's ribbons being red and Sayo's being light-blue/teal), as well as their hair colors (Lisa being a Fiery Redhead and Sayo having teal hair).
  • As bands as a whole, Afterglow can be considered the Red Oni to Roselia's Blue Oni, fitting their respective bands' color-themes.
  • On a lesser scale, the fellow fast-food store part-time workers Aya and Kanon has this dynamic that matches with their image and hair colors. Aya is the more outgoing and cheerful between the two, while Kanon is reserved and shy.
• Resort to Pouting: Season 2, during the "joint culture fest" between the two schools, an impromptu band was formed called the "Part Timers". During their performance, Ran can be seen with her arms crossed, a small pout on her face, as the temporary band has two of her own band's regulars, Tsugumi and Moca, performing. The other two members of Afterglow, Tomoe and Himari, are fine with it, cheering from the audience.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Kokoro. She has enough money to buy anything she could ever want, and a group of secret service agent-looking suits working for her, even though she doesn't know who they are.
• Romantic Ribbing: For Afterglow, we have Moca Aoba and Ran Mitake. Moca is constantly teasing Ran in a very flirtatious way (Moca will tease anyone, but Ran is the only one who it seems to be flirtatious with). In the 4koma, when Ran shows up at the convenience store Moca works at, Moca hands her a slip of paper with her phone number and says, "I get off at 5. Call me." Ran points out that she already has Moca's number. In an episode of Garupa Pico, Tsugumi relates a story of how, when Ran and Moca were at her cafe, Moca asked for a bite of Ran's dessert, and when Ran slid the plate over, Moca makes it clear she wants Ran to feed her, prompting a Luminescent Blush from Ran and a reply of "Moca, you're embarrassing me." And in The Movie, BanG Dream! FILM LIVE, Moca gives Ran a flirtatious "Woo Woo!" twice on stage, causing Ran to blush profusely in front of the audience.
• Rule of Cool: Hello, Happy World!'s concerts seem to be planned with this in mind, combined with Rule of Funny. At their first concert, Kokoro even stage-dives before a single note is played, despite stage-diving being banned at the venue. Of course, this being Kokoro, the suits would just have bought the venue if anyone were to complain.
• Schoolgirl Series: The storylines across the franchise revolve around girls who go to three all-girls' schools.
• Ship Tease: Has its own page.
• Shout-Out:
  • Season 2, episode 4 opens with Misaku dreaming that she's Tony Stark in freefall from the Iron Man film, only with Michelle instead of the Iron Man suit. At the episode's end, it happens again in real life, with an additional shout-out to the Konami Code.
  • The ED credits of "Girls Band Party! PICO! Fever" has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it one to Fist of the North Star where Yukina and Ran reenact the Kenshiro vs. Shin double flying kick.
• Show Within a Show: Or rather, game within a game with Neo Fantasy Online, an MMORPG that Ako and Rinko play and talk about from time to time. It is focused on during the Neo Fantasy Online-Journey event, where Ako and Rinko ask the other Roselia members to play the game with them so they obtain a reward that requires new players.
• Shrinking Violet: Rinko and Rimi are two out of five of the most timid among the entire in-game cast. Rimi is mostly meek and and can be quite nervous to perform on-stage, while Rinko is a socially awkward who is initially too frightened to speak in front of others, let alone perform before them, as shown in Season 2 of the anime when she speaks her speech as the Student Council President of Hanasakigawa Girls' High School. In addition to those two, the other three significantly shy girls (Kanon, Rokka, and Mashiro) are also blue-haired and overlap with Shy Blue-Haired Girl (see below).
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl:
  • Kanon is a shy girl who can be really easily flustered, and gets dragged on by Kokoro into the band that would be known as Hello, Happy World!. It doesn't help that she has a hard time turning down requests, even after she manages to grow into more confident and cheerful starting from Season 2 in-game.
  • Rokka, first appearing in Season 2 of the anime. While she wants to get back on stage again, is quiet and has trouble making friends (plus she's a huge fangirl of Poppin' Party, making her extremely nervous around them).
  • Mashiro's hair is more of closer to white, but it also has blue shades and she counts as one. Not only she's just very easily anxious like Kanon, but she's also such a worrywart and pessimist with low self-esteem, making her look even more of a shy girl than Kanon already is.
• Shown Their Work: The anime, and the mobile game to a lesser extent, is pretty much gear-porn in anime-format.
  • All of the instruments and amplifiers used in the show exist in real life. Aside from the Signature models, the following instruments have been identified so far:
    • Arisa's Roland JUNO-DS61 keyboard
    • Ran's Gibson Les Paul Tribute
    • Himari's Fender Jazz Bass
    • Moca's Schecter Deep Blue (DBL)
    • Tsugumi's Nord Stage EX 88 keyboard
    • Rinko’s Roland FA-08
    • Kaoru's Gibson ES-335 and Gretsch White Falcon
    • Hagumi's Rickenbacker 4003 bass
    • Hina's Tom Anderson Drop Top T guitar
    • Eve’s Korg RK100S2 keytar
    • Chisato's Fender Duff McKagan P-Bass
    • Rokka's Strandberg Boden-6 Standard
    • Layer's Spector EURO 4 LX Bass

• Spoiler Opening: The first season's opening makes it abundantly clear that Poppin' Party is going to consist of Kasumi (guitar and vocal), Tae (guitar), Rimi (bass guitar), Arisa (keys) and Saaya (drums), even though all of them, except Kasumi, are initially strongly against it.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Sayo and Hina as they are twins, and in the anime, there's no mistaking Rimi and Yuri for anything but sisters.
  • On the other hand, Tomoe and Ako look nothing alike, despite supposedly only being a year apart in age. Of course, with Ako's obsession with becoming her idea of "cool", and her Chuunibyou tendencies, it's not sure how much of Ako's appearance aside from her height (or lack thereof) is actually real. Light purple hair-dye and red eye contact lenses do exist, after all.
• Team Kids: With seven bands of young women, there are multiple teams, multiple Team Moms, and lots and lots of kids.
  • Lisa Imai is THE Team Mom, the one even other Team Moms turn to, making almost everyone other than Yukina the kids, but in her own band, Roselia, there's Ako, Rinko, and Sayo. She also tends to look out for Afterglow's members, as they all attend her school, she works with Moca, and Afterglow doesn't actually have a Team Mom, with Tsugumi, The Reliable One, also serving as The Baby of the Bunch, though Tomoe does serve as a Cool Big Sis to her band.
  • Poppin' Party's drummer, Saaya Yamabuki, has her hands full with Tae, Kasumi, and Rimi. She also looks out for Moca of Afterglow, who's probably the best customer Yamabuki Bakery has.
  • Misaki/Michelle is less Team Mom and more Badly Battered Babysitter to an entire band of Kids, from Kokoro to Shakespeare obsessed Bifauxnen Kaoru, timid Kanon, or boisterous Hagumi. There are several scenes in Garupa Pico where they realistically should not have survived, even from the viewpoint of the story itself, but are back for more antics later.
• Technicolor Eyes: Some of the characters have unnatural eye colors (while some others do), making it easier to distinguish who's who from otherwise similar-looking.
  • For example, Aya has pink eyes that also matches her hair color, while Himari, who has a similar hair color, has more natural-looking green eyes instead.
  • Another example can be observed on PAREO: while she does sometimes uses color contacts, her "regular" eye colors are light red, which are also unnatural in real-life.
• Time Skip: Season 2 of the anime starts 9 months after season 1 ends. In this time, Popipa has become close enough with the other bands (who they barely noticed in season 1) that they're on a first-name basis already. The anime doesn't reference how, so you'll have to play the mobile game.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: A two-way street for Hina and Sayo—Hina's more of a tomboy in looks and preferred hobbies, with Sayo seeming to prefer more refined things, and Sayo's more of a tomboy in personality, with Hina being the more easygoing, cheery sibling. Many other pairs among the game's girls can be said to have such a dynamic, too, such as:
  • Tomoe and Himari. Tomoe speaks casually, can be Hot-Blooded at times, often wears pants with her band outfits, plays the taiko drums, and enjoys action manga. Himari is cheerful, easygoing, and something of a romantic, swoons over Kaoru, mostly wears skirts and dresses, eats a lot of sweets, is Prone to Tears, and is associated with the color pink.
  • Maya and Aya. Maya doesn't care much for her appearance, mostly wears pants offstage, is insecure about wearing frilly dresses, and is Pasupare's sound engineer and has an obsession with sound equipment to boot. Aya is among the girliest characters in the franchise: she wears a lot of frilly dresses, has a pink Color Motif, cries a lot, and has dreamed of being an idol since she was young.
• The Troublemaker: Seven bands at five members each, there's a few troublemakers to be found.
  • Moca Aoba of Afterglow is a downplayed example…usually. She is mostly looking for ways to get the others to help her fill out her point cards to get more free food, pokes at Himari's Weight Woe, or engages in Romantic Ribbing with Ran.
  • Kokoro of Hello Happy World is Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense, and also Spoiled Sweet. She just wants to make the whole world smile. And the lengths she'll go to for that know no bounds, such as transforming Misaki's Michelle costume into a fully functional flight suit that Tony Stark would be proud of.
  • Hina is a verifiable genius. Give her any problem, she WILL find a solution. The practicality of that solution, however, is less important to her as how "fun" it is. Like when she showed up unexpectedly at Hanasakagawa Girl's School proposing a joint culture fest with her own Haneoka Girl's School just so she could spend time with her sister, Sayo.
  • One time, the girls were planning a trip to China Town for Lisa. Moca roped in Kokoro and Hina in order to figure out the logistics and finance it. Her bandmates in Afterglow compare her to an evil chancellor.
• Universal Group Reaction: Shows up from time to time in the 4koma.
  • In the very second strip, inspired by Hello Happy World's Michelle, Himari decided that Afterglow needed a mascot, and stitched together little toy bears(?) for the group. Tomoe, Tsugumi, and Moca are all shown with blank faces and sweat drops in reaction.
  • In another strip, members of Pastel Palettes are taking turn wearing Maya's glasses to see how they look in them. When Chisato puts them on, everyone thinks at once "She looks exactly the same!"
• Unspoken Retort: Frequently in the 4koma.
  • In one instance, Lisa sees Sayo in her role as head of the Discipline Committee, citing infractions about skirt length and such. Lisa thinks, "I'm always getting in trouble for stuff like that. I'm glad my school is different from hers."
  • In another strip, Lisa goes to a restaurant with Rimi and Arisa, and the younger girls bend over backwards to be polite and courteous to Lisa. Lisa thinks to herself that it's obvious that Sayo is on their disciplinary committee.
  • In another, Lisa has to miss practice, so Ako tries to fill in for her with "handling" Yukina. Yukina protests that Lisa doesn't do the things Ako is doing, to which Sayo thinks, "She doesn't?" And Rinko thinks, "I think she does."
• Wham Episode:
  • S2E9. Poppin'Party is unable to play during the school festival due to Tae being forced to stay behind for RAISE A SUILEN’s first concert. It makes worse that both Arisa and Yukina felt dissapointment from what it transpires.
  • S2E10. CHU2 threatens to steal Tae from Poppin'Party as a means to dismantle the band.
  • S3E9. After finding out that RAS dropped to 2nd place and Roselia rose to 1st in the BanG Dream! competition, CHU2 snaps and adopts a dictatorial attitude, which results in an argument with MASKING that tears the band apart. The worst part is when PAREO tries to calm down CHU2 from her tantrum, only for CHU2 to lash out at PAREO by calling her "useless", causing PAREO to regress back to her old persona in the following episode.
• World of Technicolor Hair: It would be easier to list the hair colors that don't appear on the various girls of BanG Dream! But a sampling: Ako: purple, twins Sayo and Hina: mint green, Yukina: silver, Aya: hot pink, Kaouru: purple, Kanon: blue, Eve: white, Ran: black w/red stripe, Himari: pink, Moca: white.
• You All Look Familiar: In season 2, the majority of girls either wear palette-swapped band uniforms or school uniforms, since it's much cheaper to reuse 3D models with different hair and minor adjustments for height, eye color, and bust size. This also seems to be the deciding factor in who gets a 3D update and who doesn't—when Umino (who wears a school uniform) reappears she's 3D, but when Glitter Green (college students who wear regular clothes) reappear they're animated traditionally.

BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! contains examples of:

• Big Bad: Sakiko Togawa is the main source of the drama in the anime. She was the former band mate of Tomori who created her band before she disbanded it after their first live for reasons unknown.
• Darker and Edgier: This spin-off adds a lot more drama compared to the original anime and even compared to from ARGONAVIS, as this show deals with heavy subject matter such as depression, past trauma, divorce, and even betrayal.
• Downer Beginning: In stark contrast the the hopeful and uplifting opening scenes of the main anime, the MyGO anime begins with Sakiko Togawa quitting and disbanding CRYCHIC without explanation, soaking wet from the rain, and Soyo and Taki fail to convince her to stay. To twist the knife further, the guitarist, Mutsumi Wakaba, outright states that she never enjoyed playing in the band when questioned, and it's all topped off with a Gray Rain of Depression in the background. This event leaves Tomori traumatized in the present day.
• Sequel Series: The show takes place about a year after the events of the anime's 3rd season.
• Wham Episode:
  • Ep. 7 . While MyGO!!!!!'s first gig is a success, Soyo suddenly snaps and lashes out at her bandmates for playing CRYCHIC's song "Haruhikage" despite not intending to do so.
    Soyo: "Why did we play "Haruhikage"!?"
  • Ep. 9 . Having failed to convince Sakiko and Mutsumi to reform CRYCHIC with her, Soyo betrays MyGO!!!!!, revealing that she lied about her promise to Tomori in order to ensure that she and Taki would stay with her and that she didn't actually want Anon and Rāna in the band, only tolerating Anon in particular because she saw her as leverage to achieve her goal. Anon is not happy upon learning Soyo saw her as unneeded and expendable, and at the end of the episode she quits the band, leaving Tomori and Taki as the only remaining members. With her past trauma reawakened, Tomori is left in tears and undergoes a Heroic BSoD the following episode.
  • The last scene of the final Episode is this in spades. It's revealed that Sakiko used to be rich and is currently living in poverty due to her alcoholic father's actions, which is the crux of her bitter attitude during the series' proper.
    Sakiko: "Im home... Useless father."
• Whole Episode Flashback: Episode 3 is told from Tomori's point-of-view and revolves around her childhood as well as the events of CRYCHIC's formation and their eventual disbandment.

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