Anime / Show by Rock!!

"Gonna be a music millionaire!"

Show By Rock!! is a 2015 anime based on the Sanrio iOS and Android game of the same name. It follows Cyan Hijirikawa, a first-year high school student with a passion for music. Cyan wishes to join the music club at her school, but is too shy to do so. One night, after receiving a special guitar called "Strawberry Heart" in a rhythm game, Cyan is sucked into the game world and turned into a Cat Girl with the ability to harness the the power of Strawberry Heart to defeat monsters. Stuck in Midi City, Cyan soon meets the band Plasmagica, and, presented with the opportunity to fulfill her dream, signs onto their label.

Show By Rock!! is notable for being Sanrio's attempt at appealing to a wider demographic, being aimed at older audiences than their traditional fare. Animated by Studio Bones with Studio GOONEYS on CGI, it premiered on April 5, 2015, and can be watched with a subscription on Funimation's website here.

In late 2015, the anime was picked up for a second season, which finally premiered in the summer of 2016. Titled Show by Rock!!#^note pronounced Show by Rock Sharp, the band faces off against the Queen of Darkness and the Victorians, who destroy the world during the Puroland Festival. Ninjin Riot sends one of their members back in time to before the incident, and retrieves Cyan from the human world in order to help them combat her. It also introduces Arcareafact, a Boy Band made up of rich snobs, and Bud Virgin Logic, a metal band working under Dagger Morse.

In 2019, a third and fourth season were announced to premiere in 2020. The new season, Show by Rock!! Mashumairesh!!, Now animated by Kinema Citrus and Polygon Pictures, with ENGI for Stars' CGI, takes the focus away from our original cast of bands and instead introduces three new bands as protagonists: Mashumairesh!!, the eponymous all-girl group, Dokonjofinger, an all-boy group, and Reijingsignal, an all-girl rival trio. Taking some cues from the Fes A Live game, the center of this adaptation turns to Howan, a native Myumon who travels to Midi City in order to make her big break as an artist.

All of this culminates in the fourth season, Show by Rock!! Stars!!, where the main bands from previous seasons get to interact more intimately with each other and have the older bands mentor the younger ones. This series started aired during the Winter 2021 season.

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Tropes relating to the original seasons are:

• Affectionate Nickname: After Season 1, Cyan still calls King "Berry-san/Mr. Berry" out of habit.
• Always Identical Twins: Kai and Riku, the drummer and bassist of Trichronika.

• Ambition Is Evil: Zigzagged in Episode 10: Chuchu's ambitions made her jealous of Cyan and vulnerable to Dagger's crystal manipulation, and we figure out that up to the end of that episode, she was using Plasmagica as a stepping stone. However, it was only a problem when Dagger got involved, and by the end of the episode she realized how important the band is to her, and that despite the ambitions she does care for her bandmates.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Strawberry Heart/Mr. Berry, a pink guitar who is actually an avatar used by Grateful King to warn Cyan about incoming danger.
  • Season 2 briefly introduced Gaugastrikes, whose drummer, Daishizen, is a literal mountain with arms and a face.
• The Anime of the Game: Based off a cellphone game.
• Art Shift: The show changes to 3D CGI during concerts and battles against the monsters.
• Bad Future: How Season 2 starts. And it's DARK.
• Badass Longcoat: Multiple characters in the show, the most notable one being Aion.
• Battle of the Bands: These are held from time to time. The ones between Plasmagica and Criticrista are the focus of 2 episodes.
  • In season 2, Shingan Crimsonz have one against Arcareafact. They lost, by the way. Though many people raised the suggestion that cheating might have been involved...
  • But they managed to win the rematch in episode 8.
• Beach Episode: Season 1 episode 6 and Season 2 episode 4.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Rosia has a rather cutesy demeanor and acts rather affectionate toward her band's fans and Cyan at first, but harbors a rather competitive and mean streak beneath the middle-schooler idol persona. She actually has a change of heart during episode 9, and actually apologizes to Plasmigica after being saved by Cyan during the final episode. She finally grows out of it by season 2.
• Big Bad: Dagger Morse, the CEO of Unicorn Virtual Music, Inc., a record label hell-bent on conquering Sound World.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The Queen of Darkness Victorious and Dagger Morse in the second season. Both of them make a Heel–Face Turn at the end.
• Big Brother Worship: Ailane is this towards Aion.
  • Balt and Nickel toward Titan, as well.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Cyan every time she comes to save the day together with Strawberry Heart. Also Shingan Crimsonz fits to this trope when they defeat a monster without Cyan's help.
  • Grateful King/Mr. Berry after being freed from the studio by Maple and Angelica, frees the captive bands from Dagger with a badass chord.
  • Cyan became an even bigger hero than she already was when she defeated Dagger.
• Book Ends: The first season begins and ends with Cyan, as a human, going to the door of her school's music club and preparing to introduce herself before opening the door. The first time, she procrastinates and leaves ashamed, but she finds her footing the second time.
• Boy Band: Many, as in the game, but the plot important ones are Shingan Crimsonz, Trichronika, and Arcareafact.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Aion in episode 8, Chuchu in episode 10.
  • The Arcareafact members except for Titan were also this but thankfully they were purified in episode 8 of Season 2.
• Broken Ace: Aion is this. Ailane, Aion's little sister, states that he was perfect in everything he did, but the pressures his family put on him proved to be too much for him to handle. He ends up getting kicked out of his house for refusing to give up music.
• Cassandra Truth: After the band finds out Cyan is from another world, Moa eventually decides to confess she is an alien, but the others think she was just making it up to make Cyan feel better. It takes Moa summoning her spaceship for them to believe her.
• Cat Girl: Cyan, Rosia, and Daru Dayu.
• The Chosen One: Cyan is informed that she has been chosen to save Sound World from malicious forces. In actuality, she was chosen by Dagger to be the guitarist for his uber band and part of his plans at world domination, though she ultimately stops said plans.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Retoree gets mad when Rosia hugs Cyan.
• Colour-Coded Characters: Obviously Cyan.
• Conflicting Loyalties:
  • Moa is an alien sent to study earth, but her love of the band is causing her to procrastinate, but even then she is becoming more and more home sick.
    Moa: I wanna go home, but I also want to stay with the band.
  • Cyan is tasked to destroy the dark monsters that are attacking Midi City, but this interferes directly with the band's goals when she has to leave concerts to find monsters.
• Cool Big Bro: Aion to Ailane.
• Coordinated Clothes: Kai and Riku.
• Couch Gag: The ending for Season 2 always cuts to a different CG of the characters involved in that particular episode in their Myumon forms.
• Crazy-Prepared: Against all rational logic, Maple becomes the hero of Season 2 by commissioning a giant robot from space aliens to fight the Queen of Darkness. He WINS. By adding a Melodisian overdrive that can absorb large quantities of spirit energy at once and can be overloaded to perform a light-based kamikaze strike. At no point did Tsuresurenaru Ayatsuri Mugenan explain to Maple that they were going to bring back the heartstone of all Melodisian spirit energy, but he planned for it anyway.
• Didn't Think This Through: When Angelica and Maple go to Unicorn Virtual Music to bust out Grateful King, Angelica's infiltration routine consists of the usual spy back flips, breaking through windows, blowing up doors, and dodging lasers. However, because of all of the noise she's been making entering the building, the security alarm goes off and they're forced to make their mission quick.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Maple orders Shingan Crimsonz to push his stalled van up an incline. After a mighty struggle, they manage to push it, but end up launching it through the air.
• Drives Like Crazy: The girls discover to their horror that Angelica drives this way.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Take a close look at the All-Girl Band that Cyan wants to join in the first episode opening scene. Retoree's distinctive hair is the give-away!
• Evil Laugh:
  • After 9 episodes, Dagger finally indulges in one in episode 10 after he brainwashes Chuchu.
  • The Queen Of Darkness indulges in one, right before causing Midi City to end up in ruins.
• Evil Overlord: The Queen Of Darkness. Who clearly read the Evil Overlord List, since she doesn't negotiate, she doesn't offer them a chance to surrender. She just skips straight to deploying her super weapon...
• Evolving Credits: The first season's ending theme was accompanied by the Myumon version of the bands they'd meet at that point in the story running by as Plasmagica played their song. It starts with Trichronika, but then grows to include Criticrista, Tsurezurenaru Ayatsuri Mugenan, and Shingan Crimsonz.
• Excuse Plot: Cyan coming from the human world isn't brought up much at all, and she never seems to dwell on it for very long anyway. Indeed, it almost feels like she lived in Sound World her whole life at times.
• Farm Boy: Crow's parents are actually dairy farmers.
• Faux Affably Evil: Criticrista is presumably this, given that they act as friendly rivals with Plasmagica and that their leader Rosia smiles in a smug way at times. In Episode 9, before the second Battle of the Bands, Rosia even hugs Cyan and whispers to her that she won't lose.
• Fisher Kingdom: Midi City. When Cyan is brought there by Dagger, she becomes a myumon like the rest of the inhabitants.
• Foil: In Season 2, Arcareafact becomes this to ShingancrimsonZ. Their CG◊ shows how each band member is compared to the opposing bandmember as well; Titan and Crow are the poor lead singers, Argon and Rom are muscular and hard working, Orion and Aion have delusions of grandeur, and Selen and Yaiba are the sharp-tongued members of the group.
• Foreshadowing:
  • One of the best examples is Aion, who calls himself Black Monster. At the end of episode 7 he gets possessed by a dark monster.
  • Look at Cyan's angelic clothes in the opening of episode 1 and compare them to the clothes she wears in the final episode, where she defeats Dagger.
  • In the first episode we see a human Cyan, searching for confidence to join the music club. Take a close look at the members of that certain club.
  • Strawberry Heart's voice temporarily switches to a noticeably different accent at one point in episode 6, cluing in that he and Grateful King are one and the same.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: the "Far East", from which Tsurezurenaru Ayatsuri Mugenan hail, is that for Japan itself; the anime has lots of fun with the style and the "hierarchical" cultural stereotype.
• Former Friends Photo: Yaiba finds one of Rom and Shu☆zo when they were in Amatelast together tucked away in one of their CD's and shows it to the rest of Shingan Crimsonz.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Episode 15 had Arcareafact's bartender shake up a drink on the rocks for Orion. He then proceeds to say that it's actually tea.
• The Gadfly: Shu☆zo to Rom in the first season; even when he's being ostensibly helpful, he deliberately tries to ruffle his feathers.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man:
  • Cyan does an electric guitar variant of this when Retoree is afraid that Plasmagica might lose the battle of the bands against Criticrista and that they might be humiliated for the loss.
  • The same thing happens again during episode 10, when ChuChu's Melodisian crystal becomes corrupted due to jealousy and the band plays a song in order to bring her back to her senses.
• Girl Group: Just like the Boy Bands, we meet a lot of them in the show, but the most important of them are Plasmagica, Criticrista, and Tsurezurenaru Ayatsuri Mugenan.
• Golden Snitch: Episode 16 has a gaggle of girl groups competing in a water-based sports competition in teams of Red and White, like in a sports festival. However, all of the points they accumulated over the course of the games pale in comparison to whichever group won the water chicken competition, instantly setting their team up with upwards of 60,000 points.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Chuchu's jealousy of Cyan causes her Melodisian stone to become dark and causes her to nearly join Unicorn Virtual Music.
• Heavy Metal: Shingan Crimsonz has more darker rock sound and lyrics, much more so then the more Pop sound of Plasmagica and Trichronika.
• Heel–Face Turn: Criticrista (especially Rosia) after Cyan frees them of the fate of being a Dark Monster.
  • Also happens to Arcareafact after their Melodisian stones are purified
  • After losing the battle of the bands to Plasmagica and patching things up with Aion, Ailane became this.
  • At the end of Season 2, both Dagger and the Queen of Darkness.
• The Hermit:
  • In a certain way, Retoree is this, since she had no friends before joining Plasmagica. And she used to sit in her room, alone, behind tons of computer screens.
  • This trope could also fit Aion. As said by his band-mates, he's a shut-in with a communication disorder, that can't talk unless he poses.
• Hidden Depths: Shuu☆zo is a flashy individual who loves taking the spotlight, and Rom usually calls him out on doing things for popularity. However, he's very kind towards his band-mates and Plasmagica, and he wants nothing more than for Trichronika's fans to be satisfied. Furthermore, he can be rather teasing and dickish towards Rom in particular. As it turns out, they used to be in a band together— a Visual Kei band like ShinganchrimsonZ— and they had a falling out.
  • Rosia's reason for being such a Cuddle Bug over Cyan for turn out to be far different than Retoree (and fans of the show) assumed, as revealed in the second season's Beach Episode.
• Humanoid Aliens: Moa, she is secretly an alien studying earth, and her Verbal Tic of Pyuru is actually her native language.
• Idiot Hair: Moa has one. It's an antenna that allows her to communicate with her home planet.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Retoree's true reason for joining the band.
• Impossibly-Low Neckline: Daru Dayu wears her kimono this way. She at least wears a corset or similar garment to cover her breasts.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Titan wants Arcareafact to be successful because they've earned it by creating good music (and so he can provide for his family, who live in poverty), rather than merely wanting to be famous. He's the only member of the band whose melodisian doesn't darken, and is able to talk the others out of it.
• Irony: A little for ChuChu: She had joined Banded Rocking Records and had Cyan do twin vocals as an attempt to help springboard her career as a solo artist, citing those actions as "stepping stones" for her. However, Dagger uses this ambition against her as she starts to become jealous of Cyan's success, planning to use ChuChu as a stepping stone to Cyan's possible career at Unicorn Virtual. Luckily, it didn't take.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Instead of the normal opening sequence for the first episode, we get a Dream Sequence of Cyan playing as part of the music club. Of course... if you look at the members...
• Lethal Chef: Episode 15 reveals that ChuChu is the only member of Plasmagica that knows how to cook or at the very least bake properly. This is especially weird, considering that in the game some of the rarer cards have shown Retoree and Cyan baking before, with the former doing it clumsily.
• Little Bit Beastly: Everyone in Sound World is a creature called a Myumon, who can switch between being Funny Animals and their near-human forms.
• Magic Idol Singer: Everyone in the main cast. It's explained as musicians that have abnormally large potential having the ability to fight against Dark monsters, with Cyan having the most potential out of all of them.
• Manly Tears:
  • Aion, Yaiba and Crow◊ every time Rom says something they consider as smart, impressing or touching.
  • Aion cries a little when Crow gets 'mad' (let's say, in a sweet way) at him for wanting to leave Shingancrimsonz. Crow apologizes and tells Aion he couldn't leave, because the band needed him. After his sort of emotional pep talk, Aion becomes a bit teary◊.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Cyan involuntarily performs cat mannerisms like meowing at times.
• Mr. Imagination: Shingan Crimsonz is an entire group of these. The band (save Rom) generally acts like they're mysterious and powerful both on and off the stage.
• More than Mind Control: Dark shadows invade the Melodisian stone of people with negative feelings and magnify their sense of dissatisfaction and despair, causing them to become irritable, betray their friends, and eventually become Dark Monsters.
• Nightmare Face: Shingancrimsonz (especially Aion, Crow and Yaiba) make◊ a good◊ number of◊ these◊ when they visit Yokai Street, and very fittingly these are homages to Kazuo Umezu and Shigeru Mizuki respectively.
• Nobody Loves the Bassist: Retoree certainly felt this way, as she mentions early on in the anime that she feels like she's not really a part of Plasmagica, and that she's probably not on perfectly friendly terms with any of them. Luckily, Cyan helps her realize how wrong that view was.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Tokiko and her show Tokiko's Rurururoom are based off of well-known actress Tetsuko Kuroyanagi and her talk show Tetsuko's Room.
• The Nudifier: When Cyan is pulled through the portal, all of her clothing is left behind including her glasses. A few seconds after her arrival, her transformation into a Cat Girl comes with clothing.
• Obviously Evil: Dagger. Always in the shadows? Check. Incredibly deep voice? Check. Obsession with the main character? Check. Head of a major label? Check. Wants to stand at the top of the music industry? Check. Ability to turn into a hulking beast with Dark Monster-levels of power? Check, check, and Check.
• Origins Episode: The fourth and six episodes of the Show by Rock short series center around how Tsurezurenaru Ayatsuri Mugenan met each other.
• Photo Doodle Recognition: Yaiba draws a different hair color and stars on a clear plastic sheet over the photo of Amatelast so that Crow and Aion will recognize Shu☆zo. He flips back and forth between it and the original to drive the point home.
• Playboy Bunny: In season 1 episode 4, Chuchu dresses up in one of these outfits to go along with her natural bunny ears and tail.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: What some of the Dark Monsters turned out to be. Tsugihagi was corrupted to become the Tree Dark Monster in episode 7, and all of Criticrista became the bee Dark Monster after Dagger simultaneously corrupted their Melodisian crystals.
• The Power of Rock: How Cyan and the rest of the Myumons are able to fight the various evils they encounter.
• Punch Catch: Shu☆zo does this to Rom on one occasion; however, the punch in question is directed at Orion instead of him. The force of the impact doesn't go ignored, of course.
• Punny Name: Cyan's name is a light pun on "nyan," Japanese for "meow." Retoree, the canine girl, retriever. Chu-Chu is a rabbit girl (chew-chew). Finally, the alien sheep-girl Moa is a "mower."
• Put on a Bus: The Show by Rock Short series explains that Trichronika would be absent for the most part of the second season because of a concert tour in outer space. They're still shown in their tour spaceship on occasion, though, and they return to Midi City proper in Episode 8 when Shu☆zo stops Rom from punching Orion in the face.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • Titan is revealed to be secretly poor and lives in less than pleasant circumstances. While he still seemed to manage in the game since he had a traditional yet worn down Japanese house, in the anime he and his little brothers are living in the sewers, just in case you forgot how hideously poor they are.
  • Shuuzo had a CD and a photo of when he was still in Amatelast with Rom. In the games, Selen had a hold of it, but Yaiba was the one to find it in the show.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: Daru Dayu doesn't wear footwear in her cat form. In her human form, she will wear geta sandals, but prefers to kick off her geta and sit barefoot atop her daruma nesting doll, and culturally removes her shoes in her Eastern-themed house, as do her bandmates.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Aion when he's possessed by a dark monster. This pic◊ says enough.
• Red Herring: The audience is initially led to believe that Ailane is the Queen of Darkness. She isn't.
• The Reveal: Episode 6 hits us with one immediately — Dagger Morse was the one who dragged Cyan into Sound World, intending to force her to use her musical talents to help him conquer Sound World, while his monsters destroy rival bands to eliminate resistance. Strawberry Heart was able to intercept Cyan so she didn't land in his headquarters.
• Rookie Red Ranger: Cyan serves as this for not only Plasmagica, but for everyone else under the Banded Rocking Records label as well. According to Dagger, despite being a newcomer to Midi City and only staying there for a comparatively short time, her Melodisian crystal evolves at a seemingly alarming rate, which is why he wants to steal her away from Plasmagica and put her on the most powerful band in Midi City's history.
• Romantic False Lead: The anime makes it seem like Shu-zo will be Cyan's love interest in the first episode.
• The Runaway: It turns out Aion ran away from home come episode 20, and Ailane's still pretty upset about that.
• Running Gag:
  • Shingan Crimsonz' song, that was repeated with Tonketsu Ramen, a reference to the original video made to promote the game.
  • Crow pissing off people by calling the audience 'his cattle'. Some female fans have gotten attached to it by the series' end.
  • Retoree and her blushing every time Cyan does something cute or says 'nya'.
  • Yaiba, Crow and Aion, being speechless every time Rom says something a real adult would say. Sometimes they even end up crying over him.
  • Shingan Crimsonz, especially Crow, overestimating themselves and their popularity.
  • Several episodes end with a cut to some tired high-schoolers (specifically the members of Uwasanopetals) wanting to go to Midi City. They don't end up playing there, but they are offered tickets to the Grand Rocking Festival by Dagger's underling, and do manage to see Plasmagica play around the first season's end.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The whole point of Ninjin Riot going back in time to retrieve Cyan before Midi City is destroyed.
• Sharing a Body: Criticrista, as a result of Dagger corrupting their crystals and making them become the Bee Dark Monster in episodes 11 and 12.
• Shout-Out:
  • There's a Kill Bill shoutout in one of the episodes.
  • Take a close look at the walls of Dagger's office — some of his contracted musicians are presumably Myumon versions of famous ones.
  • As mentioned above, Shingancrimsonz nightmare faces when they visit Yokai Street are ones to legendary horror mangaka, Kazuo Umezu and Shigeru Mizuki respectively.
  • Season 2 episode 6 has a blink and you miss it one for the dub.
    Moa: How do you want to do this, pyuru?
  • The dub has another, with Strawberry Heart explaining Melodisian Stones and their strengthening process to Cyan.
    "And the winning band wins Melodisian stones and evolve. These ones go to eleven!"
• Shown Their Work: During the CGI segments when the characters play their instruments, closeups of their hands show that they're playing the correct chords in sync with their music.
• Shrinking Violet: Cyan is incredibly shy and can barely ever voice her desires, even if all she wants to do is say "thank you".
• Smoking Is Cool: Daru Dayu
• Smug Smiler: Rosia.
• Spell My Name With An S: Starting a discussion about how a name of a character is spelled isn't really difficult.
  • Is it Darudayu, Daru Tayu or Daru Dayuu?
  • Shu☆uzo, Syuzou, Shuuzou or Shu zo?
  • Crow or Kurou?
  • Logia, Rosia or Roshia?
• Soft Glass: Zigzagged with Angelica and Maple during the finale. When Angelica kicks down a hard glass window, she comes through unscathed, playing the trope straight.... but Maple however takes the brunt of the glass shards and is seen bleeding out, subverting it. Played for Laughs, of course.
• Spoiler Opening: The sequence where Cyan gains wings and dons a white dress is revisited in episode 12 where that form of Cyan turns out to be part of her ultimate attack against Dagger.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad:
  • Trichronika was this to Shingan Crimsonz. Just look at how mad the fangirls were when Shingancrimsonz served as their opening act in episode 2. Rom didn't seem to be keen on the idea either, but we later see that Rom had deeper reasons behind those objections. Season 2 replaces Trichronika with Arcareafact as their show stealers, though.
  • Cyan turns out to be this for Plasmagica, as more and more popular artists are looking to her because of her huge musical potential, and most people only hear about Plasmagica through the incident in episode 1 where Cyan defeated the first Dark Monster. ChuChu does not feel very good about this, as episode 10 shows the audience.
  • In Season 2, after Criticrista joins Banded Rocking Records, the whole band becomes this to Shingan Crimsonz and Plasmagica in Cyan's absence.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: In episode 9, Plasmagica disappears from the room after Shingan Crimsonz looks up and gives a dramatic speech about what really matters in a performance. It then cuts to Plasmagica in the elevator, commenting that they ran out of the room as fast as they could.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Inverted. It's implied that Cyan has been watching a group of three girls who are members of her school's music club, since her imagine spot features them prominently. Girls who happen to closely resemble Retoree, ChuChu and Moa, who are her genuine bandmates!
• Take Over the World: The true goal of Unicorn Virtual Music.
• Talking Weapon: Strawberry Heart, a magical guitar that can be used as a weapon. After Grateful King is busted out of Unicorn Virtual Music, Strawberry Heart stops talking.
• Team Dad:
  • Rom for Shingan Crimsonz.
  • As the manager, Maple is this for all of Banded Rocking Records.
• Team Mom: Daru Dayu serves as this to her fellow band mates. Crosses over into Cool Big Sis sometimes, as well.
  • Angelica serves as this to Banded Rocking Records.
• Those Four Guys: Uwasanopetals, the four school kids that appear sometimes during the anime expressing disappointment over not going to Midi City. They make good on their wish, though.
• Took a Level in Badass: Darudayu was already pretty kick-ass, but when she starts to fight all alone with the black monster in episode 11, she became extremely badass.
• Token Good Teammate: Titan for Arcareafact, though the trope is downplayed because of the fact that the band are decent people, but very pompous. The band as a whole becomes good after Season 2 episode 8, thus averting the trope for Titan.
• Trapped in Another World: Strawberry Heart tells Cyan that she can't return to Earth until all the monsters have been defeated. However, after all the friends she's made, she's not sure if she even wants to go back.
• Tsurime Eyes: Retoree is the most notable example.
• Tsundere: Again, Retoree is the most notable example.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Ailane is this. When her brother was kicked out of the house, she was forced to be groomed to be the next heir, causing her Startof Darkness.
• Verbal Tic: English dubbed-Chuchu tends to end her sentences with southern-sounding terms of endearment when she's talking to people, cupcake.
  • Cyan and Moa tend to end their sentences with "Nya/Meow" and "Pyuru" respectively.
• Villainous Breakdown: Rosia and Criticrista when they lose their second Battle of the Bands against Plasmagica in Episode 9. Dagger as well, as he mercilessly punishes the girls for their loss by converting their Melodiasian Stones into darkness.
• Visual Kei: According to Sanrio's website, Shingancrimsonz is a Visual Kei band. So was Amatelast, which Rom and Shuuzo were also a part of.
• We Used to Be Friends: Implied between Shuu☆zo and Rom, who used to be in a band together before leaving over some differences.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Plasmagica and Shingan Crimsonz criticize Maple when he reveals he knew Cyan's secret all along and didn't tell them. Right before then, Retoree chews Cyan out for keeping the truth from everyone.
• When She Smiles: After Ailane's Heel–Face Turn.
• Workout Fanservice: When Arcareafact is introduced in Season 2's third episode, Argon is seen doing shirtless crunches in the band room. He'll usually be the source of this any other time, though.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Despite living in Midi City and playing as a part of Plasmagica for who knows how long (possibly an untold number of months), Cyan returns to school mostly the same, with no one ever mentioning any absences or any concern for her being gone.
• You Have Failed Me: As punishment for their defeat in the Battle of the Bands at the hands of Plasmagica in Episode 9, a furious Dagger darkens the Criticrista girls' Melodisian Stones.

Tropes relating to Fes A Live seasons (Mashumairesh!! and Stars!!) are:

• Art Shift: Like the previous entries, the music sequences are mostly CGI, this time Cel Shaded.
• Ass Kicks You: Hacchin due to him having a stinger on his head and rear uses said technique against a thug member in episode 3.
• Battle of the Bands: Like the first series, one occurs between the newly formed Mashumairesh against the vastly experienced Reijingsignal. Naturally, Mashumairesh loses but not without being commended for their efforts.
• Birds of a Feather: According to her, Rararin sees a lot of herself in Howan, as they both possess the same passion and initiative towards music. As seen in a flashback involving Reijingsignal in their younger years, she wasn't that far off from the truth. It's part of the reason she's particularly partial towards Howan and is very eager to see the younger girl grow in her career.
• Boy Band: Dokonjofinger is the lone male band featured in the spin-off, though Shingancrimzon also shows up in two episodes as well.
• Book Ends: The first season begins and ends with Mashumairesh performing together out on the streets.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Howan is many things Cyan from the first series is not: unlike Cyan, who was a regular human from Earth who was, against her will, transported into the world of the Myumons in Midi City for a greater or rather, sinister purpose, Howan is an ordinary native Myumon with much humbler and down to earth goals of wanting to go to Midi City, which is a decision of her own volition. While both are nice girls on their own, Cyan was very shy around others while Howan is easily comfortable and quickly gets along with people she just met just fine. Though they're both talented in their own way, Cyan is noted to be extraordinarily skilled in guitar from the get-go and is recognized as such while Howan, despite having her potential recognized by Rararin, is still considered a greenhorn in the world of rock. Even the way they joined their respective bands contrasts greatly with each other: Cyan was quickly recruited early on into Plasmagica by ChuChu after seeing her throw a wicked guitar riff with Strawberry Heart against a Dark Monster in episode 1^note though Cyan only got to join in episode 2, while Howan took the initiative by herself to join Mashumairesh (then unnamed), after realizing she belonged with them while she was with Reijingsignal but only after six episodes in.
• Country Mouse: Howan, who came from the rural Heiya Village to Midi City after qualifying for the Midi City Rock auditions.
• Dark Is Not Evil: While Reijingsignal has an overall dark motif going on about them: being dressed in black, having a more mature Hotter and Sexier image to them, using terms such as "feast", "prey", and saying how Howan "has a nice scent" and how she'll be "even more more delicious" given time, they're actually very nice and supportive girls towards Howan and are genuinely fond of the younger girl when they took her under their wing after their concert in episode 5.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: As she continues to grow closer to Howan, the initially aloof Himeko starts slowly breaking down the walls she puts around herself and grows to be more relaxed around her friends, steadily opening up to them as a result.
• Genre Shift: Mashumairesh completely lacks the actionized elements and "save the world" plot the first series is known for and is simply a Slice of Life series featuring the titular band.
• The Ingenue: The kind, sweet, yet naive Howan fits this trope to a tee.
• Large Ham: Ruhuyu is loud and chews the scenery frequently for dramatic effect. Rararin is a more subdued example, but still counts as she's fond of waxing metaphors and has a penchant for theatrics in her expressions.
• Lighter and Softer: In contrast to the first series, Mashumairesh!! doesn't have any battles against evil or monsters whatsoever and just focuses on lighthearted slice of life adventures between the characters.
• Ms. Exposition: Delmin, usually for Howan whenever she needs something explained to her in relation to Midi City.
• Mythology Gag: The store Howan is shown working part-time at in episode 7 of the anime and in the 4komas is the Sanrio Animestore, an actual, official store in Japan she serves as a mascot of in real life.
• Naïve Newcomer: As someone who's lived in a rural village all her life, Howan is this when she arrives at Midi City and needs to have certain things explained to her as she's unfamiliar with city life.
• Nice Girl: Howan is sweet, kind, and takes great care of the people around her, insisting on doing the housework and cooking for Himeko and later, Reijingsignal, without asking for anything in return afterwards.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Howan and Himeko share a close bond that carries a lot of romantic undertones in it and their friendship only grows stronger throughout the series. Himeko is at least implied to have a crush on Howan, though Howan, being the naive nice girl that she is, is oblivious.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Dokonjofinger is a band fully composed of troublemaking delinquents who were forcibly glued together as a group as part of their punishment for their incredibly destructive fights causing collateral damage everywhere. Unsurprisingly, the members usually don't get along well together even during performances.
• The Rival:
  • Reijingsignal for Mashumairesh. Their leader, Rararin, is especially very eager to see Howan's growth as a Worthy Opponent sometime in the near future.
  • After meeting them themselves, Dokonjofinger considers Shingan Crimsonz as this and hopes to face them head on in the Midi City Rock Festival.
• Running Gag:
  • Howan and her grandmother treating her grandfather as someone who had already passed on only for her still-living grandfather to shout out that no, he's still alive and kicking.
  • Howan innocently keeps getting in trouble with the local Midi City police.
  • Joe constantly coughing up blood whenever he overexerts himself.
• Shipper on Deck: Ruhuyu and Delmin are heavily implied to ship Howan and Himeko together: they were both visibly disappointed when Howan said she and Himeko weren't married after they suggested that she and Himeko were going through some sort of "divorce", and they were both all smiles in an official 4koma when Howan was pulling an embarrassed Himeko to her so they can watch the stars together.
• Shown Their Work: Ruhuyu once is so shocked she performs the "Sheeeh! pose".
• Slice of Life: Unlike the first series, Mashumairesh!! is a comfy, fairly grounded story focusing on Howan going to Midi City simply to make her dreams of becoming a successful performer come true while getting to meet her eventual bandmates along the way. So far, none of the actionized aspects of the original (not counting Dokonjofinger's fights with each other) are present in the spin-off.
• The Speechless: Howan's father never speaks onscreen, but Howan and the rest of her family seem to understand him just fine even if never says a single word.
• The Stoic: Delmin rarely emotes and usually speaks in a monotone voice by default.
• Supporting Protagonist: Howan is Mashumairesh's main character, but the story is more about Himeko learning to open up and trust the others more through her growing friendship with Howan.
• Supreme Chef: Howan. Everyone who gets to eat the food she makes winds up gobbling their entire plates fast because it's just that delicious. She's so good, that even something as simple as scrambled eggs would taste heavenly if she prepared it.
• Tsundere: Himeko is fairly aloof towards nearly everyone around her but develops a soft spot for Howan after meeting her and getting to know her better.

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