Anime / BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO

The entire main cast of Bang Dream! as shown in Garupa Pico! FEVER!. Not pictured: Marina. ^note Morfonica and RAISE A SUILEN do not appear in the original, and are not featured in early images and credits of Garupa Pico! ~Ohmori~.

BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO (also known as GARUPA☆PICO) is a spinoff animation series in the BanG Dream! multimedia franchise, based on the mobile game BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!. Much like Pastel Life, the series consists of short 3-minute animations, although the series is now extended into featuring comical scenarios that involve Poppin'Party, Roselia, Afterglow, Pastel*Palettes and Hello, Happy World!

The original series was first aired in July 5, 2018, until December 27, 2018, and can be found here on the official BanG Dream! Youtube channel, along with English subtitles in captions.

The second season and follow-up to the original series, BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO ~Ohmori~, was first officially broadcasted in July 2020 worldwide. Notably, unlike the first season, English subtitles are now included along with the video. The second season's episodes can be watched here.

The third season, BanG Dream! GARUPA☆PICO Fever! started broadcasting on October 7, 2021, and also now directly features the two additional bands, Morfonica and RAISE A SUILEN. It can be watched here.

The following list may contain unmarked spoilers from the series itself, or any media related to the BanG Dream! franchise. You have been warned.

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This series contains examples of:

#-E

• A Day in the Limelight: A majority of the episodes in the anime focus on a band, or at least one character. The original series and Ohmori follow a pattern of giving the limelight to each of the 5 original bands in this order: Poppin' Party, Roselia, Afterglow, Pastel*Palettes, and Hello, Happy World!.
• Affectionate Parody: Garupa PICO has a lot of these! Some including:
  • The fifth episode of the original series is an affectionate parody to television-broadcasted game shows.
  • The 20th episode of original series is one to the detective movies (with slasher movie elements).
  • The 9th episode of OHMORI is an entire parody of the Falling Blocks puzzle game genre. It's "gameplay" involves matching five members of the same band touching each another (they don't have to be all piled up in a row or column) before they fill up the entire screen, and has some occasional nuisances (in forms of food and beverage) dropped into the playing field.
  • The 17th episode and 18th episode of OHMORI are these to popular Japanese anime genres: Pastel*Palettes in the former reference and mix both the Magical Girl Warrior Genre with Sentai, while Hello, Happy World! parodies Mecha Show.
  • The 23th episode of OHMORI has Aya showing various stunts in her video channel (not unlike real-life YouTubers).
  • The first episode of Garupa PICO FEVER! casts the main cast in a Jidaigeki scenario, fighting for the supremacy of CiRCLE.
  • The main plot concept of the 7th episode of FEVER! makes use of a social media based on Twitter.
  • FEVER! Episode 14 has the band group Roselia training camp at a mansion which turns out to be haunted, complete with a power outage
  • Episode 15 of FEVER! parodies horror movies, especially from the sequences of Friday the 13th and The Ring.
  • And the 17th Episode of FEVER! itself references Ace Attorney, complete with a Judge (Rui), a Prosecutor (Arisa), an Attorney (Kasumi), a Victim (Rimi), and a Defendant (Mashiro). It also features the word "Objection!", which gets used a lot by Kasumi. Oh, and turns out the real perpetrator of the case was none other than Marina.
  • Episode 19 is itself a reference to Cinderella, but with Tae as the main character, CHU2 playing role of the stepmother, MASKING and PAREO filling up for the step-sisters, LAYER as the Prince, and ROKKA as the fairy godmother. And the title of the Show Within a Show is appopriately named as "Taederella".
• A God Am I: The resident Chuunibyou Ako declares herself as this after finding a book that earlier she claims as a treasure bestowed upon her by "God". Also inverted at the end of the episode by Ako, as she instead sees Mashiro as a god while giving back the book which originally belongs to Mashiro.
• All for Nothing: In Episode 7 of FEVER!, Himari attempts to try outdo Touko as an influencer, only to turn out to lose to the latter despite copying the topic idea in number of likes and shares, while Aya constantly trails behind them with her social media posts from her improvised attempts. Eventually, after finding the trend of scary things drawing people after Touko posts about a wooly bear that she's scared of, that got 583 shares and 2359 likes; Himari does a selfie bungee jump that manages to beat the previous post. Her post got at least 59 comments, 728 shares and 4311 likes... only to be overshadowed by Aya, who makes a horror video clip, and attracts 182 comments, and at least 16000 shares and 42000 likes. And let's not forget that Himari basically risked her life to do a such post!
• All Just a Dream: Happens at the end of some Nightmare Sequences that involve apparently terrifying turn of events, turns out to be a dream that one of the girls is having, such as in episode 9 of the original series, and episode 5 of OHMORI.
• Always Someone Better: As already mentioned above in Episode 7 of FEVER!, Touko is this to Himari in terms of their SNS post popularity until near the end of the episode.
• Answer to Prayers: When Ran gets sick, the other members of her band, Afterglow, are desperate to make her well again. They look up numerous folk remedies on their phones, with Moca saying that prayers to a south Pacific deity known as Babanbo-sama, worshipped by the Ungalohoganga tribe, will bring good health. Cue Ran tied to a stake with burning incense. The next day, she's feeling much better, but has no memory of anything (though later it's revealed that she's possessed by Babanbo-sama)
• Beach Episode: Happens in Episode 16 of FEVER!, also a dedicated episode to Hello, Happy World!. The episode begins with Kokoro commenting on Michelle's swimsuit, Kanon being notably worried about Kaoru not wearing sandals despite it being hot, and then they play beach volleyball. After that, Kanon drags Michelle/Misaki to "make shaved ice" (an excuse for the former to drag off the latter from Kokoro's sight), though later it's actually so that Kanon gets Misaki to take off the Michelle costume and swim. Cut to a view of several seashell-shaped plates and spoons, after a snack, Hagumi suggests a free diving contest, which Kokoro agrees to the idea and says that whoever finds the prettiest shell wins. At the end of the episode, Michelle is seen drifting away afar from the shore, causing Misaki and Kanon to panic (with the latter flustering with a "fuee"). Everyone (except for Kanon) then is seen swimming, chasing the adrift Michelle.
• Big Eater: If according to Garupa PICO Episode 17 is any indication, Hina can handle eating much more than her bandmates in Pastel*Palettes. After eating at the second shop, Aya, Chisato, Maya and Eve shows some stripe marks on their faces indicating that they're stuffed, but Hina doesn't have these on her face. Though also possibly downplayed, as she also says that she would bring some of the leftovers back for her sister, and at the end of the episode, she actually starts getting worried (while the other members have Oh, Crap! faces) when Hagumi provides much more croquets than the Pasu*Pare members can handle eating.
• Big "WHAT?!": Frequently used with surprise revelations in through some of the episodes, but perhaps the biggest one happens in the Series Finale of FEVER!, to the point of launching Livehouse CiRCLE itself into space!
• Bluff Worked Too Well: In Episode 23, after Eve gets scared as Maya tells about a ghost story and Aya asks if Eve is okay with scary stories, she tries to bluff and hide the fact she is scared, saying that she's reminded of Yotsuya Kaidan, a traditional Japanese ghost story. Unfortunately for her, Hina decides to tell another ghost story, resulting in a chain of ghost stories that scares off Eve even more. At the end, it goes so horribly right that Eve responds to a prank related to one of the ghost stories played on her by swinging a katana at her bandmates!
• Body Wipe: A brief one in the original's Episode 17 during the part where Pastel*Palettes take a visit to Yamabuki Bakery. Kasumi notices the camera and, being the cheerful airhead she is, she takes the opportunity to get attention in front of the camera, ending with most of her face covering the presumably camera screen and her hand touching it. It ends with Maya dragging Kasumi off the camera, and Aya has a particularly confused look after that.
• Book Ends:
  • In episode 4 of the original, Tsugumi tries to look up for a style that she could use as a reference to look cool in the next live show. Eventually, she comes back watching another band's performance video at the end of the episode, just like before.
  • In episode 4 of OHMORI, Himari checks out her body weight, lets out a Big "NO!" due to her weight sensitivity, and is later shown distressed at an Afterglow training performance. At the end of the episode, she also lets out another Big "NO!" after checking her body weight, after the episode's worth of eating and exercises.
  • In episode 5 of OHMORI, Maya witnesses Aya fainting from exahustion in the middle of a desert they're travelling past. Near the end of the episode, Maya herself faints after exhausting herself from trying to jump into both a mirage of an oasis and a set of drums, and gets a similar reaction from the other members of Pastel*Palettes similarly to how she reacts to Aya fainting earlier. After Hina splashes her with a bucket full of water, turns out the scene was All Just a Dream.
  • Likewise, episode 6 of OHMORI has Michelle evacuated out from Livehouse CiRCLE at the start of the episode due to a back burn from the fireworks, and again after getting electrocuted by the plug of an equipment's wire during a live show.
• Breaking Old Trends: Unlike the original and OHMORI, FEVER! does not continue with the pattern of dedicated band episodes at episode 3 following Poppin'Party's episode, instead featuring an assortment of characters, including Kasumi, who appears for the third consecutive episode in the thumbnail of the video, in the series.
• Breather Episode: Episode 15 of the first season has Moca and Lisa discussing to each another about events that happened in the previous episodes, while the two are working part-time on a mart store. It comes right between Episode 14 (which has a Downer Ending) and Episode 16 (which has drama conflict caused by Poppin' Party members switching bodies).
• Butt-Monkey: Misaki/Michelle and Marina are the biggest ones in this series, even more so than their overall reputation in the franchise. Arisa, Himari, and Aya don't have it much better, either.
  • In the first season, the former is implied to have "died" in her second, third, and her fifth appearances in episode 6 (possibly lost in the theme park), 11 (fell to her apparent doom), and 14 (froze to death) respectively, and the latter had CiRCLE's rooftop fell on top of her, twice (episode 19 and 25) while also being one of the victims of the detective movie's scene. And this is not yet getting into the moments they get in both OHMORI and FEVER!.
  • Additionally, Arisa is still subject to the shenanigans of her bandmates, as early as episode 2, has her dignity ruined by Kasumi all the whole time while she is in her body in episode 16, and implied to end up lost with other Poppin' Party members at the end of episode 18. If that wasn't enough, she, along with Aya (see below), and Rimi (who just happens to be with them two) are chased by a mammoth later in episode 23 of FEVER!
  • Season 2 (OHMORI) also makes Aya's Butt-Monkey status based on the events in in-game events come back to bite her, as she is seen fainting out of exhaustion in episode 5, is the only member of Pastel*Rangers to remain to the end answering to the emergency call after all of her friends had to leave due to busy work, and even has some unfortunate moments while making her streaming videos in Episode 23 such as her back hitting her bed while she's dancing with a horse face mask covering her head, causing her to fall over her bed.
  • Himari didn't had any specifically unfortunate moments happening to her in the original either, but in OHMORI's episode 4, she's subject to her Weight Woe and her bandmates end up responding to keep feeding her more and despite the diet plan they're agreeing to, she ends up overweight at the end of the episode. She also was dropped in a way that her head bumps with Tsugumi in episode 9; bumps her head while in the dark inside the Tsurumaki family's submarine in episode 11; and then subjected into witness what she has went through in episode 4 in the headline of a newspaper in episode 12. In Episode 7 of FEVER!, Himari lost every single time in a competition of trying to be the most popular and trending in each category of the post until she beats Touko at trying to post a "scary thing", only to be outdone by Aya herself who had less share and likes than those two all the time before her horror movie trailer post. She also gets left behind while being distracted while talking back to Tomoe during the marathon in Episode 9 of the third season.
  • On a lesser scale, Mashiro doesn't appear as much due to being one of the later-introduced characters, but seems to have trouble pressed on her in most of her appearances. In Episode 7 of OHMORI (where she first appears) doesn't have much aside from her thinking her epithet is embarassing, but in Episode 19 of OHMORI, she actually gets lost in a mysterious train station and isn't seen or heard from again (for a while). In FEVER Episode 10, she lost her notebook, which was picked up by Ako, who didn't return it until she have to recite a verse from "The Black La Vie en Rose" and Ako later declares her as "God", which embarrasses her, In Episode 11, she suspects her bandmates are hiding something (and one of them, Nanami, actually ignores her while she's about to ask something). In the end the something that her bandmates are hiding a surprise party to celebrate her good performance in their live show from yesterday. And in Episode 17, She's cast as the defendant, accused of eating Rimi's chocolate cornet.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Used briefly in Episode 11 of OHMORI, to distinguish between the girls while the lights are out.
• Call-Back:
  • In Episode 13 of the original season, the Pastel*Palettes would hang onto steel bars while doing their performance, much like how they tried to do so in Episode 5 as part of an idol show they're participating. Unlike the other bands, this wasn't even by any means attempted to be foreshadowed in the origin episode.
  • The first episode of Ohmori has Poppin'Party relaxing on what seems to be a hot spring, with Tae even saying that she wishes that CiRCLE could turn into a hot spring resort. Technically, that's actually what exactly happened at the end of the final episode of the first season, but for some reason CiRCLE has reverted back into it's original appearance just like how it always been in-game and originally what it looked like at the start of the first season.
  • Episode 7 of Ohmori has similarities with the very first episode of the original: uses the same setting of CiRCLE in a stormy day, introduces a band (complete with them shattering the windows of the livehouse and someone dramatically narrating), and several people slowly stepping up from downstairs, and the lights being turned on near the end of the episode.
  • Episode 12 of Ohmori has newspapers contionously crashing into Livehouse CiRCLE's window(s), and (with the exception of the last one), the header in each newspaper corresponds to events happening episodes 2 to 6 of the same season, with each band reacting to their corresponding episodes, with a respective focused member in each of these episodes in holding and reacting towards the newspaper (Saaya, Himari, Maya, Lisa and Misaki).
  • In Episode 13 of Ohmori has two of these: First, the members of Poppin'Party, Afterglow, Pastel*Palettes, Roselia and Hello, Happy World! gather up for another CiRCLE conference, using a similar model (the only difference is Kanon is missing because she got lost in the middle of many buildlings). Secondly, Kasumi once again complains about the missing audience after Poppin'Party has done their live show. Only this time, it's not a problem just for Poppin'Party themselves.
  • Episode 1 of FEVER! reuses the overly-dramatic introduction of the bands (now with Morfonica and RAISE A SUILEN), but this time with the setting of CiRCLE presented as the capital that the seven bands are fighting for surpremacy, in Sengoku Jidaigeki style.
  • The very unusually-shape animal that is similar to Chisato's drawing in Episode 5 reappears as part of a mobile media news in Episode 6, and then again (with Pastel*Palettes) in Episode 13.
  • Episode 13 of FEVER! re-uses concepts from the earlier episodes, including: Poppin'Party referencing the first episode in the season (with fires in the background Kasumi wearing the warlord helmet), Hello, Happy World! has Michelle in a karate suit similar to the appearance in Episode 2, Pastel*Palettes having farmer headband and outfits similarly to their appearance in episode 8, RAISE A SUILEN wearing mascot bunny costumes that they used to attract attention to Galaxy Ramen that Masuki suggested in Episode 6, and Mashiro recites the "Bloody la vie en rose!" line that she recited in Episode 10.
  • Episode 18 of FEVER! has an almost identical scene of Yukina's encounter with a cat similarly to the original season's Episode 21, with the only difference being her voice when speaking, and Yukina wearing the third-year winter uniform of Haneoka Girls' High School (brown tie and skirt), rather than the second-year winter uniform (blue tie and skirt). This is due to Yukina, like most of the cast, have moved up a grade, compared to the original series.
• Catapult Nightmare: In episode 9 of the original series, this is used as a cut to a Nightmare Sequence that Rimi wakes up from.
• Company Cross References: The "duel" scene ensuing during the argument between Asuka and Ako debating over their older sisters references to Cardfight!! Vanguard.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Mashiro is very afraid of her friends abandoning her, as noted in Episode 11 of FEVER!. After attempting to talk out to her bandmates about how do they think of her performance in that live, they ignored Mashiro's attempt to question about how she did in the performance. She then thinks that they're conspiring about possibly replacing her because of the bad perforrmance. Turns out Mashiro's fears are not true, in fact the next day, her bandmates put in a surprise party to celebrate her awesome performance from before.
• Cranial Eruption:
  • The girls who are knocked out unconscious in the house in the first season's Episode 20 (in order: Tomoe, Eve, Marina, Himari, Kasumi, and Ako) have bumps on their heads.
  • All of the girls appearing in Episode 11 of OHMORI (Maya, Rimi, Yukina, Himari, Kokoro, Hina and Masuki/MASKING) have these on their heads. It is implied that they bumped their heads while there aren't any lights.
• Cultural Translation: The tongue twister that Aya attempts to recite (before failing due to biting her tongue, and have to drink an entire bottle of green smoothie as a self-inflicted punishment) in Episode 23 of Ohmori is 生麦生米生卵 (namamugi namagome namatamago), dub-spoken in Japanese language. But in the English version, the subtitles instead has the tongue twister "She Sells Sea Shells By The [Sea Shore]".
• Darker and Edgier: Several of the episodes are darker indeed, especially given that they have deaths or surprising dramatic events.
  • While at first Episode 9 of the original starts light-hearted, it gradually gets darker due to Rimi's obsession of chocolate cornets gets out of control taken to the point of Rimi literally turning into a chocolate cornet herself, which turns out to be in a dream sequence, until the reveal of what she seems to be eating a choco cornet at the end is not what it is actually.
  • Episode 14 of the first season is easily the darkest episode so far in the first season. Especially due to the implied Downer Ending that ensues due to the Hello, Happy World! band members freezing to death on top of the mountain. Not helping the case is that the usual ending music not playing at all in this episode.
  • The original season's Episode 20 also come up as this, as it starts with Tomoe being knocked out unconscious. The phone line in the cabin is non-functional, and then while Ako is trying to solve the "crime scene". At first it seems she manage to solve it, but one by one, more and more girls are knocked out similarly as the first victim, with Ako herself becoming the last victim of the true culprit: her otherwise trusted friend, Rinko.
  • Episode 19 of Ohmori: Mashiro ends up in an abandoned station and the rest of Morfonica contacts her with a phone call. Turns out it was part of an urban legend that someone who would try to get off the abandoned station would go missing. And Mashiro is implied to have gone missing, just like the urban legend itself (indicated by her last words heard by the rest of her band before the call connection is lost).
  • Episode 14 of FEVER! is notably the only episode that is quite dark enough in that season, that has several horror elements due to being set in a spooky mansion. The episode also features a "FIN" screen seemingly in blood (it's actually tomato sauce) with a screaming sound at the end, although it still plays the season's usual ending theme at the end (unlike Episode 14 of the first season).
  • Episode 15 of FEVER! has horror elements as well, although it's downplayed because the episode is mostly about a parody of horror story clichés being discussed by Rimi and Nanami.
• Dark Horse Victory:
  • Guess who wins at the final set of SNS posts between Himari, Aya, and Touko, in episode 7 of the third season? It's Aya, who placed the last between those three in all of her earlier posts, and she manages to beat Himari's post of her doing a bungee jump... by posting a horror movie trailer clip video with a likely real ghost.
  • Also in FEVER! on episode 20, Tomoe and MASKING compete in a taiko arcade game. Turns out they both are tied for second-place, and the first place is none other than Maya.
• Death as Comedy: Frequently, on almost all of the important cast. And whoever 'dies' during or at the end of the episode will inexplicably appear again somewhere on a later episode.
• Denser and Wackier: Despite the series having some dark moments that can be described as above, the show's overall tone and most episodes of this series are even more wackier than the event stories in Girls Band Party!.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In episode 10 of OHMORI, Tae is joined by LAYER, Sayo, and Rinko in her street performers and is just a drummer short of a well-rounded band, the rest of the episode is her getting increasingly disappointed when more girls join her performance but not the one she wants... until Tomoe shows up after everyone has left for the night.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Each season has its own Ending Theme song that appears at the credits at the ending of most (if not all) episodes, involving the vocalists of all bands.
  • The original / Season 1 has "Picotto! Papitto!! GARUPA☆PICO!!!", sung by Kasumi, Ran, Aya, Yukina and Kokoro.
  • Garupa PICO! OHMORI / Season 2 has "Ohmori Icchou! Garupa☆Pico", sung by all of the above vocalists.
  • Garupa PICO! FEVER! / Season 3 has "PICO tarumono, FEVER!", sung by all of the above plus Mashiro and LAYER.
• Et Tu, Brute?: At the end of S1 Ep. 20, Ako is knocked out unconscious by none other than her best friend Rinko (complete with her NFO outfit and staff), who turns out to be the true culprit, all while apologizing to Ako.

F-L

• Formula-Breaking Episode:
  • The first episode of the original series and FEVER! do not start with their opening cutscenes, as their episode's purpose is to introduce the bands and their members. Oddly enough, the first episode of Ohmori does not follow suit with the above, instead having the opening title card like most of the episodes in the series.
  • Episode 14 lacks the usual ending music, replaced by a sad piano theme because four out of five of Hello, Happy World! members are implied to have froze to death on a mountain.
  • On a minor extent, usually the episode's title appears at the start of the episode (or at the end in case of the last episodes of each season), but Episode 11 of OHMORI has its episode title appearing right in the middle of the 3-minute short.
  • Episode 8 of FEVER! does not use it's series' ending song either, but rather replaces it with "SURVIVOR Never Give Up!", a song by Pastel*Palettes.
  • Episode 23 of FEVER does not use the usual opening title screen. It's also one of the episodes that lack any coherent dialogue, though this is because the girls who are present in the episode are casted as cave(wo)men.
• Foregone Conclusion: If you are already particularly familiar with the background stories of the girls, you'll likely have expected the ending of Episode 19 of FEVER!: Tae doesn't return back to LAYER's band (RAISE A SUILEN), because she is now a member of Poppin'Party.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the second episode of the first season, Most of Poppin'Party (except for the Deadpan Snarker Arisa) try to propose ideas for their next live show. Come episode 13 (still in the first season), Kasumi would wear a literal star-shaped costume, Rimi tosses chocolate cornets towards the audience, Tae wears rabbit ears headband and a rabbit nose and mouth mask, and Saaya is holding one of her drumsticks by clenching it with her mouth.
  • Likewise, in episode 3 of the first season, Roselia discuss and came up with an unusual idea for a later performance involving making a fallen angel-like figure, inside the practice room with lights out. Not only they would do said performance idea at the end of the episode itself, but they also pull the same idea again in Episode 13.
  • Also, in Episode 4 of the first season, after Tsugumi tries to put on a punk rocker style in order to stand out and fail, she watches a video clip of Pastel*Palettes. She later would actually wear a similar idol-like outfit style in episode 13 at the live show concert at the party.
  • On a lesser note, the thumbnail of OHMORI episode 9 has Himari and Tsugumi bumping heads, as well as Ako and Yukina. Both of these occur during the episode: The former is due to Himari's panicking, and the latter due to falling down as a chain reaction after Pastel*Palettes members have formed up, and disappeared.
  • The final episode of OHMORI has a certain cave leading to where the ancient relic, which actually first appeared in episode 23 (where Aya briefly takes a walk there at night time before she gets scared and pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here).
• Fountain of Youth: In Episode 22 of FEVER!, "CiRCLE Kindergarten", with the exception of Marina (who plays the role of the kindergarten teacher), all of the girls who show up in this episode (Sayo, Hina, Himari, Tsugumi, Chisato, Kaoru, Tomoe, Hagumi, Moca, and Ran) are de-aged into kindergarteners. Unfortunately for Marina, the kids still had the musical ideas and thoughts mixed into their otherwise child-ish minds, and their recital singing... let's just say that, and the ideas they propose managed to stress out Marina. Although, at the end of the episode, they're seen sleeping, and Marina says they're cute when they're sleeping.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip:
  • Episode 16 of the original, "Poppin' Shuffle", has Poppin' Party members ended up switching bodies when falling down stairs. ^{Who's who?} Kasumi is in Arisa's body, Arisa is in Rimi's body, Rimi is in Saaya's body, Saaya is in Tae's body, and Tae is in Kasumi's body. Fortunately, they do get better, but unfortunately for Arisa, at the end of the video it is revealed Kasumi had ruined her reputation while being in her body.
  • Episode 15 of Ohmori, "Roselia Online" has an unconventional example, in which Roselia members play using each another's Neo Fantasy Online avatars. ^{Who's who?} Yukina is in Ako's account and vice-versa, Sayo plays as Rinko's in-game avatar, Rinko controls Lisa's character, and Lisa plays as Sayo's avatar. It didn't work too well for them, especially with three out of five members being clueless about what they're supposed to do.
  • Episode 18 of FEVER!, "Kitty Kitty Time", has Yukina switches bodies with a cat, which causes troubles such as her bandmates unable to recognize the cat is Yukina herself, and Hina brought out Yukina's actual body with the cat that she switched bodies with in it, acting very weirdly.
  • In Episode 21 of FEVER!, the members of Hello, Happy World! switches bodies due to a teleporter incident. ^{Who's who?} Kokoro and Misaki swapped bodies with each other, Kaoru is in Kanon's body, Kanon is in Hagumi's body, and Hagumi is in Kaoru's body. Unlike the earlier examples, it's more obvious to know who is who due to their gimmicks, and there's no sign of them returning back to normal at the end of the episode.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Towards the end of episode 9 of the original season, There is a brief second after where Rimi wakes up from a dream, her older sister Yuri can be seen sleeping in the upper bed of their room's double-decker bed.
• Funny Background Event: In the original Garupa PICO episode 17, Michelle can be seen giving a balloon to a very young girl, and at the end of the episode, Misaki can be seen taking off her Michelle costume.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: What that happens to Tsukushi in Episode 15 of FEVER!, as she plays the role of the ghost/spirit in the scene reenactment of The Ring, and that was as a result of Rui shutting down the television halfway through she's coming out of the television, resulting in only the upper half of her body (arms and hands included) being out of the television. Tsukushi also cries for help later on. She stays that way in the scene after that for the rest of the episode.
• Here We Go Again!: The ending of the first season. After all the hard work that all of the girls have rebuilt CiRCLE, the girls end up breaking the live house again because their jump and landing at the end of the joint performance caused an underground hot spring to burst out and send the live house flying, causing it in the end to be rebuilt both as a combination of a live house and a hot spring facility.
• Heroic RRoD: At the end of episode 9, Ran and Yukina, due to their rivalry perception towards each another, results in both of them trying to run as fast as possible to the finish before the other does. At the end of the episode, Lisa lampshades this, saying that they went too hard at the start. They also get Exhausted Eye Bags on a close-up of their face, and at the end, they both clutched on each another's arms... and not long after they both collapse into the ground.
• Hidden Depths: Mashiro has one in Episode 10 of FEVER!: Her inner Chuunibyou side. Not only her notebook that she lost contains some rather interesting notes that Ako (who found the book before Mashiro finds it back) herself is interested in, and when she refuses to give back the book to Mashiro and dares her to recite a verse from "The Black La Vie en Rose", she actually recites it, complete with the unusually creepy voice and the "evil eye" flashing. Unlike Ako, Mashiro remains embarrassed of her inner chuunibyou side.
• I Just Want to Be Special: In Episode 4 of the original series, this is what kickstarted Tsugumi's attempt to change her style, because the fans of Afterglow didn't comment anything particular over her, unlike her fellow bandmates. She then tries to get into Punk Rock style after watching a video of a band of that style on her phone, in her room. Unfortunately, it quite surprised her childhood friends, and Ran declares that wasn't anything like the Tsugumi she knows and runs off with tears, while Tomoe mentions that style wasn't working. At the end of the episode, she returns back to her room and watches a live show Pastel*Palettes on her phone. If anything implied by Episode 13, she then proceeds to imitate that style at a later live show.
• Interrupted by the End: Much to the dismay after Pastel*Palettes have gone through in Episode 5 (original series), Aya tries to say her intermission line for Pastel*Palettes in the commercial at the end of the episode, only to be cut by the television show's title card dropping down as the episode ends, most likely due to reserving the last 30 seconds of the video for the usual ending theme and credits.
• Lighter and Softer: Garupa PICO! FEVER!, compared to both of the previous seasons, features less deaths and dramatic moments, aside from episode 14, and the drama-filled final two episodes.

M-R

• Madness Mantra: Rimi, in Episode 9 of the first season. After a few days of constantly eating chocolate cornets, she says "Cornet... Cornet..." while eating a chocolate cornet, with a gloomy face to match with. She also mistakes a cone snail for a chocolate cornet, and as soon as she starts munching it, she continues to say "cornet... cornet...".
• Mind-Control Eyes: Rimi gets these in OHMORI Episode 22 because the of the spinning chocolate cornet that hypnotized her, just before the hypnosis ends with her meowing, thinking like a cat while also turning into a Cat Girl, literally.
• My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: The whole premise of Episode 8 of Ohmori has Asuka and Ako's talking of their respective big sisters' qualities. Eventually, it devolved into a form of a Big Sister Worship fight, with poor Rokka begging the two to calm down and cut it off. Near the end of the episode, Hina shows up out of nowhere and dramatically shills about her sister's qualities that she loves about her the much, so dramatic that it ends with an Earth-Shattering Kaboom effect for drama effects, figuratively.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The trail of star stickers that are placed in Episode 18 by Arisa in order to avoid getting lost in the maze she coincidentally created after tidying up the basement with a lot of boxes, was actually a reference to the original BanG Dream! manga, because Arisa also puts a trail of star stickers so that a customer could find the Random Star guitar and buy it, also referencing to how Kasumi and Arisa first met.
  • Likewise, at the end of Episode 7 of FEVER, a SNS post posted by Aya is called "The Sixth Pastel*Palettes", which is a deliberate reference to "The Sixth Afterglow" event in Girls Band Party!.
  • The model for the kindergartener version of the girls that appear in Episode 22 of FEVER! are similar to their "kid" models from Girls Band Party! in the events they appear in. Not only that, they also retain some of their past selves' traits, such as Sayo looking more similar to her twin sister Hina, and Chisato and Kaoru calling each another with their childhood nicknames (Chi-chan and Kao-chan, respectively).
• Never the Obvious Suspect: In Episode 17 of FEVER!, Mashiro was accused for eating Rimi's chocolate cornet while at CiRCLE, with the prosecutor Arisa pointing various evidence that seems likely coincidental. The situation of the court case was chaotic enough that it actually got the attention of Marina, who asked what are the girls up to. Turns out she's also the one who ate the chocolate cornet as revealed at the end of the episode.
• No-Dialogue Episode: Episode 23 in FEVER has none of the girls present in the episode speaking any coherent words. Justified since they are parodying prehistory and are roleplaying as cave(wo)men.
• Once a Season:
  • Each season has at least one "Freaky Friday" Flip episode (FEVER! gets two instead).
  • Each season has one episode that has a cutscene where Kasumi glomps Arisa affectionately. Specifically, the Original's Episode 18, Ohmori Episode 22, and FEVER! Episode 15.
  • Likewise, at the ending of each of the Series Finale episodes, Kasumi lets out a "Yay!" and then giggles while making a wink at the screen. Kasumi also let's a "Yay!" early in the second episode of the original, the first and the 13th episode of Ohmori as well, but without the wink.
• Out of Focus:
  • Even though RAISE A SUILEN finally made their appearance in Ohmori, they don't get a dedicated episode in that season (aside from a shared one with Morfonica as part of their debut episode). To make up for this, RAS would not get one, nor two, but three episodes dedicated to them in FEVER!.
  • On a lesser scale, Morfonica only got one dedicated episode in OHMORI. They would get more appearances in FEVER! and some episodes are dedicated to their band as well.
• Overly Long Name: The name of the joint concert the girls will have in Episode 13 of FEVER! is "Poppin'AfterPastelRoseHelloMoniRASConcert", which gets lampshaded by Arisa snarking that the girls could've picked a better name.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The CiRCLE Pentagram in Episode 7 of Ohmori are just barely-disguised vocalists of the 5 original bands. Rokka even quickly recognizes Kasumi and says her name.
• Portmantitle:
  • As mentioned above, the "Poppin'AfterPastelRoseHelloMoniRASConcert" is essentially a combination of the name of all 7 bands that appear in Garupa PICO! FEVER!.
  • Also from FEVER!, Episode 15's title name is "Poppin' Moni Movie". Fittingly, only Poppin' Party members and Morfonica members appear in that episode.
• Recurring Element: Several concepts are consistently repeated each season of Garupa PICO:
  • An episode that introduces the bands, along with the show title shown in the format of screen-covering graffiti.
  • Each season has at least one episode where a band's member's have their body and appearances are switched around.
  • At least one Darker and Edgier episode is featured in each season, with implied deaths as well.
  • The 13th episode of each season has all members of the five bands (or seven in case of FEVER!) gather up together and plan to make a live show.
  • The 25th and penultimate episode of each season has a crisis each. In the first season, this is caused because of the announcement of CiRCLE closing down, in Ohmori this is caused because Kasumi apparently disappeared, and in FEVER! has Marina disappear, causing the girls to guess that CiRCLE might close because of Marina deciding to quit. The 26th and final episode of each season has the girls try to resolve the after mentioned crisis, uses an extended version of the usual ending theme, and the title of the episode not shown until the aftermath epilogue of the episode, where CiRCLE is sent bursting into the sky (along with girls falling mid-air near the livehouse. The epilogue reveals that CiRCLE become something more than just a livehouse (see Sequel Escalation for more details).
• Recycled Soundtrack: Like Pastel Life, most of the background music used in the series are also in Girls Band Party!.
• Romantic Ribbing: In episode 4 of Garupa PICO FEVER!, 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."
• Running Gag: In the first season, the implication of CiRCLE closing down, which gets worse and taken to the point of CiRCLE literally collapses, though the livehouse itself gets better and reappears in the later seasons. Although it also hit a reprise again at near the end of FEVER!

S-Z

• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Aya visits a "haunted tunnel" at night-time in Episode 23 of OHMORI while recording a video clip. She says that she's getting scared, and eventually, she wants to go home.
• Sequel Escalation: Notably in the ending of the last episodes of each season that involves CiRCLE:
  • In the final episode of the original season, after the livehouse itself collapsed and everyone rebuilt CiRCLE, the livehouse itself bursts upwards with a massive water spout after everyone jumped and landed back on the stage floor, sending everyone flying. Turns out there was a hidden underground hot spring underground, which leads into CiRCLE to be rebuilt as a combined hot spring facility. At the end, Poppin' Party members are shown wearing Yukata at the end of this episode.
  • The last episode of Ohmori, after finding the tunnel that leads into the stage of CiRCLE, as well as finding Kasumi and the ancient relic. At the end of the episode, all members of the 5 original bands makes a shockwave after jumping together, only this time after they land down, a light fills out the stage they're in, causing the Livehouse CiRCLE to burst out into the sky away from the overcrowded city, becoming the tallest ancient ruins amusement tower in Japan. Oddly enough, this time Kasumi and her friends are only wearing their usual Hanasakigawa Girls' High School uniforms.
  • Finally, in the last episode of FEVER!, Kasumi gathers up everyone and invite Marina back after she's presumed to have gone missing. In a twist, this time, the girls didn't cause anything after jumping. The girls thank Marina for everything that they're done for CiRCLE, then Marina reveals that the whole time she never planned to leave CiRCLE, and that she was helping one of the girls who worked for the cafe because she's moving, resulting in a mass Big "WHAT?!", causing Livehouse CiRCLE itself to be launched into space with literal block of a massively overxtended Big "WHAT?!" coming out of from Japan's location in planet Earth itself! And so, CiRCLE becomes the world's first ever concert hall in space. The ending scene even has the Poppin' Party members wearing astronaut uniforms, and Kasumi's voice shouting "Yay!" echoes through the space.
• Shout-Out:
  • 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.
  • In Pico Fever's Episode 2, Michelle's outfit resembles Ryu from Street Fighter.
  • The notebook in Episode 10 of Fever resembles that of the titular notebook of Death Note.
• Show Within a Show: Pastel*Palettes is particularly fond of this in the episodes their members are featured in, such as, the Idol swimsuits commercial in Season 1 Episode 5, Pastel * Stroll in S1 E17, Magic Morphin' Pastesl * Rangers in S2 E17, Aya's "Maruyama*Channel" in S2 E23, and The Pastel*Palettes Dish in S3 E8. Other examples also include: The detective theater performance in S1 E20, Puzzle*Pico in S2 E9, Neo Fantasy Online/NFO itself in S2 E15 (as it is based on GBP's Neo Fantasy Online events, Hey! Spring of Emotion in S3 E4, and Taederella (Bang Dream's take on Cinderella based on Tae's backstory.)
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer:
  • Morfonica wasn't even existent, and RAISE A SUILEN wasn't considered a part of the game during the original first season. They first appeared in season 2 (Ohmori), however, they do not appear until the seventh episode, and are absent from the animations appearing in the Web CM trailer, and the ending credits (with the exception of the 26th and last episode).
  • Season 3 (FEVER!) averts this, and does in fact not hide the fact that Morfonica and RAISE A SUILEN will appear in the series due to them already joining the main cast in Girls Band Party, even to the point of including them along with the rest of the cast in the series.
• Sky Face: The ending credits of the first season has Kasumi's smiling/happy face appearing in the starry sky to Tae, Rimi, Saaya and Arisa.
• Slumber Party: The Pastel*Palettes have a pajama party in Episode 23 of the original season. While initially it is quite light-hearted as Chisato lampshades why would they do one right before their concert and Aya questioning about Maya's outfit for the sleepover, it eventually devolves into telling scary ghost stories that keeps scares off poor Eve. It ends with a prank that scares Eve so much that she starts mistaking her bandmates for evil spirits.
• Spoiler Opening: Inverted as most of the episodes don't have a repeated opening scene, but a reused ending scene which spoils some of the later episodes' events.
  • The original Garupa PICO has a few of these, not limited to:
    • Rimi throwing chocolate cornets to the audience, Tae biting her guitar and Saaya holding one of the drumsticks with her teeth - are all amongst crazy ideas they proposed in Episode 2 and also reappear in episode 13.
    • There is a silhouette of what would become Roselia's performance idea in Episode 3 and also Episode 13, as well as Rinko and Ako's expressions are later reused in Episode 20.
    • There is an image of Ran being tied up to a pole as part of a ritual. While not the exact thing, something similar later happens in Episode 12.
    • There's an early image of Pastel*Palette girls in swimsuits. They would wear said swimsuits in Episode 5.
    • A brief shot of Misaki taking off the Michelle costume and drinking a bottle of water, while hiding behind a building, can be seen in the credits (before the rest of Hello, Happy World! is about to peek and Misaki puts on the Michelle costume back). There's a brief background event where Misaki is taking off the Michelle costume at the end of Episode 17.
    • While the image of a giant robot version of Michelle holding up Kanon would not appear anywhere in the season, its indirectly referenced in the next season's episode 18.
    • There's the Poppin'Party members relaxing at a hot spring, which eventually happens at some certain point as part of an imagine sequence OHMORI's episode 1.
    • The other bands' vocalists launching Kasumi from a barrel isn't used as an episode's plot point in the first season, but rather a similar concept is used in OHMORI episode 9.
  • Garupa PICO OHMORI's ending clip shows several events that will later happen in the series:
    • Pastel*Palettes travelling through a desert, which is later featured in Episode 5.
    • The 3D-rendered Marina model due to her "haircut", later appears in Episode 14.
    • Roselia members appears in their Neo Fantasy Online outfits, which are later used in Episode 15.
    • Pastel*Palettes's Magical Girl-styled Sentai uniforms, which would later appear in Episode 17.
  • Similarly, Garupa PICO FEVER! has several of the images shown in the ending becomes its own episode later:
    • One of the Michelles has a headband, similar to the one that would appear in Episode 2.
    • Pastel*Palette members as farmers (complete with the headband and the uniform), appearing in episode 8.
    • Rui as a court judge, which later appears in episode 17.
    • Additionally, the spooky halloween-esque outfits that the remaining Morfonica members have is an indirect reference to episode 15.
    • Hello, Happy World! would later have their Beach Episode in episode 16.
    • RAISE A SUILEN with the bunny cosplay outfits, which actually appear in episode 6.
    • The scene between Ran and Yukina reenacting the double flying kick would also similarly inspire the plot in episode 9.
    • Ako is seen holding a book not long after that, which is the same book that later appears in episode 10. Near the end of the credits, Mashiro's unusual eye flash also becomes used in episode 10 as well.
    • Finally, the cavemen-styled outfits that Poppin'Party has in the background would be referenced in episode 23, although Tae and Saaya do not appear at all in that episode.
• Super-Deformed: The animation themselves uses the same super-deformed renders of the characters just like in their map and lounge sprites in Girls Band Party.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Tae says in Episode 9 of the original that if Rimi kept eating chocolate cornets, she would turn into one. She's joking, but she did not expect this really happened to Rimi... in an All Just a Dream sequence.
  • Another example by Tae, in episode 22 of OHMORI, where she says all chocolate cornets would always point to the north according to the Hooke's Law, all while holding a chocolate cornet loosely attached to a string; causing it to eventually spin and hypnotizes Rimi into thinking that she is a cat.
• Title Drop: The first episode in each season uses the series' name at one point in the episode. For Garupa PICO OHMORI, the title drop discounting the initial title card happens near the end of the episode instead (and also again in Episode 7, due to being a Call-Back to the original's first episode).
• Title Scream: For most of the episodes, there are several girls (depending on the episode) who say out the series' simplified name. In the later seasons, the additional word is spoken with a brief pause after "Garupa PICO".
• Unexplained Recovery: While every girl who dies in an episode will come back in later episodes just fine, this is subverted for most of the first season since it is implied that the Omake images explains how the girls survive their apparent "death", or the scene where they "die" turns out to be All Just a Dream. It gets zig-zagged later on though, since later episodes sometimes lack the explanation of how the girls survive their "deaths", but some still have logical explanations.
• Water Wake-up: Happens in Episode 5 of OHMORI as Hina tries to get Maya to wake up by splashing her with water (from a bucket in the dream sequence, while it actually comes from a kettle pot in reality).
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In Episode 7 of FEVER, after several attempts of Himari trying to be a top trend and fails to outdo Touko's posts, she actually does it when it comes to "scary things / moments" posts with her making a (risky!) bungee-jumping selfie. Cue Aya's ghost video trailer, which gets about 10 times the number of likes and more than 20 times the comments, which also doubles as a Throw the Dog a Bone moment for Aya herself. Poor Himari...
• You Are Who You Eat: What that eventually happens to Rimi in Episode 9 of the first season, as she turns into a chocolate cornet, the same chocolate cornets she loves to eat. She gets better, because it's All Just a Dream.