GIRLS BAND CRY

An anime that started airing in Spring 2024 about cute girls starting up a rock band. Not exactly the most original premise, but it's slowly grown on me for two reasons:

• The lead girl and vocalist, Nina, is a massive pain in the neck who's wrestling with a lot of baggage from her family situation and high school experiences. She's insecure, prone to squabbling, and lost about what to do, but it's exactly those flaws that add so much texture to her singing.
• Which leads to the second point: the songs are great. Possibly some of the best punk rock tracks any music-themed anime has ever done.

Some people might get turned off from the show being full CGI, but the animation has been, in my opinion, great. The characters aren't stiff models robotically moving from pose to pose, they bounce and swing and make all sorts of funny faces.

Another interesting thing: the band themselves seem to have been around since 2021! They have some music videos out on Youtube you can check out, and I'm excited to encounter those songs in the show proper.

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Episode 3: It's a good thing Subaru is a tough nut, otherwise she wouldn't be able to drag Nina kicking and screaming into her friend circle. Also late to realize that the two future members of the band were the ones working at the Yoshinoya Nina and crew usually dine at.

I was not impressed by either CGI (Bang Dream looked way better) or songs based on promos but the actual thing looks and sounds pretty good. Also a nice touch that instead of just animating the performances they make it more MV-like with special effects and such.

The only bummer is no official English subs and decent fansubs come out super slow.

Bang Dream is traditionally animated though?

The MV-like performances are indeed spiffin'

Edited by fillerdude on Apr 20th 2024 at 2:43:07 AM

Only the first season, everything else was made in full CGI by different studio.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Apr 20th 2024 at 2:49:51 AM

Ah I never did see anything past the first season. I'll have to look at the CGI for those then.

Personally I liked S2 and S3 way better. Plus you can jusat watch 2 FILM LIVE movies, each is literarly just one big gig.

Nice, the Film Live is on Youtube, so it's easy to watch

It does not have encore songs but you can find them separatelly probably.

This show really is something special. I think it has the best 3D CGI I've seen in an anime - it's super fluid and really well done.

Characters are definitely interesting. I was expecting Nina to be a slightly introverted and inexperienced high-school girl, but I was not expecting her to be a prickly trauma ball who lashes out at people and does before thinking. Also love Momoka's older sister dynamic she has with Nina, especially in ep3 both when Nina quits the band and comes back one second later, and Momoka's pep-speech before the performance at the end of the episode. Subaru grew on me in ep3, and yeah I agree that she pretty much dragged Nina kicking and screaming into the friend group, although her relationship with acting school was also pretty interesting.

The music is a banger. It's fast-paced and exciting, definitely gives that head-bopping vibe. As with most songs like this, the lyrics are pretty depressing - the song Nina sings at the end of ep3 is basically "I'm so desolate that I've stopped believing in God", or so I think.

Super good show. Wish that we didn't have subbing issues, though. Sucks having to man the sails just to watch this.

Side question: do we have a page for GBC yet?

Edited by AirplaneNiner on Apr 21st 2024 at 10:47:33 AM

Clear prop!

Nina would be difficult to hang out with in real life, but she is absolutely an entertaining main character to follow.

And no, I don’t think we have a page yet.

Let me know when the page is up.

CHUGGA CHUGGA CHOO CHOO YOUR FOOD SPONGY BOI Also known by many other names, mainly by Keikonii Izaki

Episode 4: I feel like all this hullabaloo could have been avoided if Subaru had clarified she’d be gone for like a week. Then again Nina has abandonment issues too soooo.

but they did not drag the situation. And I liked the resolution with "screw it, you can pursue both for now".

Ep 4 was great, showing us a bit more to Subaru and her acting. Some highlights were the panicked messaging under the table, and Momoka Giving Up the Ghost after Subaru elbows her. I also love that Subaru and Nina are starting to open up more, and now act like bickering siblings, which is a step up from episodes 2 and 3. I do wish we get to see those two other girls who are meant to be joining, and I hope it's next episode.

I did see a post on Tumblr which suggests that actually, Nina is kind of an ass and pretty hypocritical this episode, mostly around trying to get Subaru to tell her grandmother that acting isn't for her, and then doubling down just as she's about to do it. And yeah, I kind of see it, especially when Nina pesters Momoka about her past and Momoka eventually replies with "If you don't want people bringing up your past, don't bring up theirs". The post also suggests that even though Nina is being a bit of an ass, it's because as stated, she does have abandonment issues, and she's doing it because she cares about Subaru and doesn't want her to leave. Basically, she wants to try and keep the band together in her own way, but that way is a bit messy. And hey, she is a teenager with heavy emotional baggage, so I can understand why.

Clear prop!

Yeah Nina being an ass is entirely consistent with her characterization so far