A withdrawn girl drops out of high school to pursue her career in Tokyo. Having been abandoned by her parents at a young age, she felt that the world was holding her back at having a successful career, or life for that matter. She later meets another girl, who also dropped out of highschool and was also abandoned by her parents, but unlike the withdrawn girl, she all but gives up in her pursuing goal.
However, the more the duo form a bond with each other, the more they realize they have a lot in common. Soon, they found out that they share the same passion: their love for music.
Together with other high school dropouts from varying backgrounds and attributes, the girls form a band where music is their form of escapism from their cruel, bothersome daily lives. All the while, they have to deal with the disadvantages and hardships of being up-and-coming musicians.
Girls Band Cry (ガールズバンドクライ) is a 2024 original anime series. The series is directed by Sunrise regular Kazuo Sakai (Macross Frontier, Love Live!, Gundam Build Fighters), written by Jukki Hanada (Steins;Gate, Sound! Euphonium, Love Live! Superstar!!), and produced by Toei Animation (Dragon Ball, One Piece, Pretty Cure, Sailor Moon). The series premiered on Tokyo MX and other networks on April 6, 2024.
Girls Band Cry provides examples of:
- Bad Job, Worse Uniform: For the band's debut performance as a three-piece, the already-jittery Nina is made to dress up in an utterly ridiculous clown-like outfit. It was a deliberate choice on Momoka's part, as she wanted to make Nina mad so she could pour her anger and frustrations into her singing.
- Color Motif: Each girl in the band has one, which can be typically seen through visuals during perfomances and elsewhere. Nina is red, Momoka is blue, Subaru is green, Rupa is yellow, and Tomo is pink. It's particularly obvious in Nina's case, as she'll start emanating a red-black aura when she's particularly anxious or moody.
- Country Mouse: Nina is from Kumamoto and is generally unequipped for city life in Tokyo. Right in the first episode, she mixes up her train lines, doesn't know that knowing her new apartment was actually in Kanagawa and not Tokyo, and is flabbergasted upon learning Momoka's roommate is a gay man.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Nina was the target of bullying by a popular girl at school for reasons she isn't even sure of, and it got so bad that it caused her to drop out of school and might have even caused her physical harm. She then set off for Tokyo to study and live by herself despite only being 17 years old, with her relationship with her family implied to also be badly strained.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Tomo and Rupa show up as masked employees in a restaurant frequented by Momoka and her band before their proper appearances.
- Flipping the Bird: All over the place in Episode 1 — Momoka flips off some other musicians before fleeing with Nina, Nina flips off the restaurant staff under the mistaken impression that it's a way to say thanks in the city, Nina discreetly flips off the real estate agency after getting her keys for fooling her into getting a place nobody else wanted, and Nina once again sticks out her middle finger when imploring Momoka not to quit music on a microphone. Momoka and Nina both settle for sticking out their pinkies afterwards, as while the gesture is important to them, they don't want to cause any misunderstandings with others.
- Follow in My Footsteps: Subaru's grandmother is a successful actress and pushes Subaru to follow the same path she did, even naming her after the film that made her a star. While Subaru isn't interested and plays music as a way to protest, she can't find the heart to tell her grandmother how she really feels.
- Generation Xerox: Subaru is virtually identical appearance-wise to her grandmother during her youth, as evidenced by the film of her Subaru shows Nina in her apartment.
- Innocent Cohabitation: Nina is shocked to find out Momoka's roommate is a man and immediately thinks he's her boyfriend. Momoka immediately shuts her down, telling her he's just her roommate and that he's actually gay.
- Iron Lady: Downplayed in the case of Subaru's grandmother, Tendo Awa. She's a strong-willed and famed actress who compels Subaru to become an actress like her without giving her much of a say, and can cow the girls into sitting up straight and later joining an acting exercise with nary a word. She's also friendly and polite to Nina and Momoka, and her relationship with her granddaughter is so loving that Subaru can't bring herself to possibly hurt her by telling her she doesn't want to be an actress.
- Medium Blending: While mostly CGI, the series utilizes 2D background art and the occasional hand-drawn element.
- Mood-Swinger: A very Downplayed with Nina since she's just a teenager and isn't in complete control of her emotions. That said, she can still get bent out of shape from her usual shy and kind nature to become moodier, depressed, or angry quite easily, and she's generally very fickle regarding how she can feel or what she might want.
- The Ojou: While she's typically carefree and outgoing, Subaru can become the perfect image of a prim and proper lady when her grandmother enters the picture, and her family is wealthy enough for her to have a huge apartment.
