BanG Dream! / YMMV

BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! and BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!☆PICO have their own respective YMMV pages: The game's YMMV Page, and Garupa PICO's YMMV Page.

Accidental Innuendo:
- Fans tend to poke jokes at the series name BanG Dream! and the main band's name Poppin' Party. With emphasis on the words, ''bang'' and ''poppin'''.
- One word. Afterglow.
Adorkable: Maya Yamato. While she's clearly a bit socially awkward, her distinct laugh and nerdy flights of fancy about music equipment come off as more endearing than anything. Judging by the comments of some audience members during Pastel*Palettes' second concert, she seems to be seen as this In-Universe as well.
Alternate Character Interpretation:
- In the "Happy Phantom Thief & The Luxury Cruise" event story, did Kokoro, Kanon, and Hagumi really fall for Kaoru's Paper-Thin Disguise? Or were they as in the know as Misaki, and were just playing along for fun? For that matter, while Kokoro really does seem to be that willfully oblivious, do Kaoru and Hagumi actually think that Misaki and Michelle are different people despite a barrage of evidence to the contrary, or, as an actress and the child of a shopping district family, do they just know to keep up the illusion that a mascot performer is a "friend" of the character?
- Is Kokoro just childish, or is she outright Affably Evil? The way she, almost intentionally, refuses to recognize that Misaki is Michelle, and how she forces her will upon others (including Kanon, who was actually on her way to sell her drums when Kokoro stopped her and forced her to join her band), not to mention that in PICO episode 8, she has the band's instruments packed into Michelle's parachute, just so they could jam while skydiving, leading to the implication that Misaki would inevitably die at the end of the episode. And in PICO episode 15, she brings everyone to the top of a mountain, in a blizzard no less, without any way to keep them warm, leading to many fans speculating that Kokoro, Kanon, Kaoru and Hagumi all froze to death at the end of the episode.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: Random Star guitars actually do exist, mostly associated with musician Akira Takasaki, and are really worth a great deal of money.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Ladies' woman Kaoru. Although she's just as popular with the mostly female fanbase as she is with girls in-universe, there's also a significant portion of people who find her to have an overly egotistical or bland character. Some people also have a problem with, and believe that, almost every interaction in the game involving her has to do with bringing up how popular/amazing she is.^note
- Fans either sympathize with Sayo for her inferiority complex when it comes to her twin sister Hina and her desire to stand out from her, or refuse to excuse her verbally abusive behavior (though Hina doesn't seem to mind much, at least) and her efforts to indirectly hinder Hina's career (and subsequent Oh, Crap! moments whenever she realizes she's being helpful to her). Her brutally honest attitude towards her bandmates is a point of contention, as well.
- Conversely, Hina is also a polarizing character in and of herself. Some fans think her Innocently Insensitive tendencies, her Brutal Honesty with a smile, and the way she talks about easily getting the hang of things others struggle with makes her an obnoxious brat who full well deserves Sayo's harsh treatment of her. Others like her because she has such nonstandard morals and thought processes and her sincere interest in the ideas and actions of "other people", raising the possibility that she's autistic or otherwise some form of neurodivergent, something that's rarely represented in media, as well as because, Innocently Insensitive behavior aside, she does love Sayo, despite her sister's poor treatment of her. Still others (including those who like both characters) take a middle ground- that Hina needs to understand how her actions affect her sister, while Sayo needs to let go of her jealousy toward Hina.
- Yukina. While she generally liked because her determination and her soft side, she earned small but dedicated detractors because her being high standards and no-nonsense attitude that she gives her band. Her considering using Roselia as a means to an end just to play in a music festival was rather contentious, although Yukina was considered to be in the wrong and ended up having to apologize to her bandmates.
Bizarro Episode: By and large, the anime is a fairly grounded melodrama about the trials and tribulations of being in a high school band. Then comes season 2 episode 4, where Hello, Happy World!—who are already dumber and wackier than anybody else in the cast—invite Poppin Party aboard their private cruise ship and throw a private concert from a hot air balloon solely to cheer PoPiPa up. Like Jingle All the Way, the climax involves using a fully functional jetpack, something which doesn't even exist. After that episode, the show does right back to being a high school band melodrama.
Broken Base:
- In contrast to other music-oriented series, the large number of cover songs present compared to original ones has led to complaints that the franchise lacks its own musical identity and cannot stand on its own two feet in that regard. On the other hand, some fans argue that the inclusion of cover songs is the franchise's musical identity and enjoy hearing new takes on old favorites, something not commonly done by other musical series.
- While Kokoro as a character is generally beloved on both sides of the Pacific, some fans take issue with her singing voice, especially for cover songs. While her detractors tend to view her upbeat and bouncy vocals as a poor fit for more "serious" songs like "Silhouette" at best and Cute, but Cacophonic at worst; while her fans point out that the upbeat optimism that her voice adds to songs adds a new depth to them and that her voice is surprisingly versatile, letting her get away with more unique songs like "Sugar Song and Bitter Step."
Contested Sequel: In that case, Contested Season: some fans thought that the CG animation for the 2nd season is decent enough to watch, while others believe that the usage of said animation style hurts the franchise's reputation, especially the fans of the traditionally animated first season.
Crack Pairing: Hagumi and Ran are shipped together by some fans despite the two having little, if any, interaction with each other.
Epileptic Trees:
- Asahi Rokka's Motherly Side Plait-ish hairstyle made almost everyone assume that she would die at some point. It barely helped that Girls Band Party!☆PICO also had several Death as Comedy gags on it.
- Since Kidaani's confirmation of not wanting the girls to interact with boys, many fans are crossing their fingers on whether the girls are confirmed to be less ambiguous lesbians as well.
Fandom Rivalry:
- To Love Live! and K-On! to a lesser extent. This is more apparent to the fans of their mobile games.
- Also to it's younger brother franchise from ARGONAVIS, due to having a Darker and Edgier story than it's predecessor.
Fandom-Enraging Misconception: RAN IS NOT HENTAI HAVEN-CHAN! ^explaination
Fan Nickname:
- The franchise has come to be called BanDori.
- Poppin' Party is called PopiPa by fans and Pastel*Palettes is called PasuPare; Hello, Happy World! also gets HaroHapi, but that's used in canon as well. In Japan Afterglow is sometimes called Afuro/Afro, but it isn't common in the English-speaking fandom.
- Kokoro's wide-mouthed smile, large eyes and penchant for dragging her band mates and/or companions into her shenanigans have fans calling her Gudakokoro. No word yet on if she gets the stretchy arm.
- Some songs also have Fan Nicknames as well, such as "Chomama" for "I-I Never Said Love!" and "Guren" for "Guren no Yumiya".
- Kasumeme and Hagumeme for Kasumi and Hagumi, respectively due to their "cat ear" and "I look like Rin Hoshizora" memes.
- Miss(uta) Bushido for Eve due to her Catchphrase.
- Yukinya for Yukina because of her quirky love for cats in spite of her usual demeanor. Likewise, Kasumi is also called either "Catsumi" or "Kasunya" for her cat-eared hairstyle.
- The "Exuberance Fun" band during the Second General Election came to be known as "Arisa’s Hell Band" in the Western fandom due to Arisa’s short-tempered Tsundere nature greatly contrasting with the other members’ energetic and quirky personalities.
- Arisa, Himari, Rinko have been called "The Big Three" for a rather...obvious reason, with Rui's inclusion to the series making it four.
Fan Wank: All of the girls are viewed as queers/lesbians as per norm to several idol series.
Friendly Fandoms:
- Mobile game-wise there's plenty of people who play Bandori with one, several, or all the games listed under Fandom Rivalry, and many people who are into the series for its own merits.
- Many BanG Dream! fans are friends with Jojo fans. As shown in a question regarding potential future collaborations in the Questionnaire 2019 (started by the official English staff), many fans hope Jojo will finally collaborate with the franchise.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While poor Kaoru has consistently been near the bottom of Japanese popularity polls, American fans have taken a shine to her for her over-the-top flamboyance and tendency to spout unintentionally hilarious attempts at philosophy.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Many, many Love Live! fans refuse to acknowledge any possible supporting males (with an exception of the fathers) in the Love Live! series. In 2018, Takaaki Kidani, the president of Bushiroad himself also had a similar mindset.
- Touko Kirigaya turned into this for her voice actress Suguta Hina; her most famous role is that of Kitagawa Marin, who is a dead ringer for Touko, eye color aside.
I Am Not Shazam: Much like its inspirations, the series' name BanG Dream! gets mistaken as the main band's name (which is Poppin' Party) as well.
Incest Yay Shipping: Hina and Sayo are a rather popular pairing, since the sisters' complicated relationship, with Sayo gradually getting over her jealousy and mending her relationship with Hina, and Hina continuing to love Sayo unconditionally, ends up being good shipping material.
Jerkass Woobie:
- Sayo constantly treats her twin sister Hina like shit, and she's very harsh on her bandmates. Yet it's hard not to empathize with her desire to be seen as her own person and a successful guitarist and not simply the sister of someone more successful.
- Yukina, whose high standards and no-nonsense attitude that she gives her band are underscored by her desire to impress her father, who's a former vocalist, with her own successful career. Though she loses a bit of the "Woobie" part briefly when she nearly throws her bandmates in the trash just so she can accomplish her life goal of performing on the main stage of a major music festival.
- Chisato makes excuses to ditch the rest of her band and try to leave it early on, reams Aya out for being naive enough to thinking hard work is the only thing she needs to succeed, and constantly makes it clear that she's looking out for number one. She's been chewed up and spit out by the idol industry, and when the others start to suffer under it as well, they can understand her more. Once they get Chisato to open up and work with them instead of just for herself, she becomes one of the best assets they have for surviving in the industry.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Sayo has been paired with almost every other girl in the cast one way or another, with the most common ships usually including Yukina/Sayo, Sayo/Lisa, Sayo/Tsugumi and Sayo/Hina. And then there are the more uncommon/rare ships such as Sayo/Rinko, Sayo/Aya and Sayo/Chisato just to name a few.
Les Yay:
- The anime has it, and the game is practically fueled with it, as well as Pseudo-Romantic Friendship and girls who very clearly have crushes on one another. In-game, Rimi and Himari are very prominently infatuated with Kaoru, a prince-like senpai with a flair for dramatics (in that she's an actor and won't stop quoting and misquoting Shakespeare), to the point Rimi makes very interesting...noises when around her. Kaoru calls all girls "kittens" (it sincerely seems to be a replacement for "you all" for her, as she'll use the term in friendly conversation without any flirting, no matter the girl) and her Cloudcuckoolander flirtatious nature is actually very popular with the majority of (but not all) girls, as she has a fanclub.
- Considering that the game has twenty-five girls with many of them extensively interacting with one another, ships are abound. Popipa's girls tease each other both in the anime and in-game, and aside from Kaoru and her "kittens"/"little birds", popular ships so far include, not in order, Kasumi/Arisa, Ran/Moca, Tomoe/Himari, Yukina/Lisa, Yukina/Sayo, Aya/Hina, Misaki/Kanon, and many others.
- It doesn't help Ran much that Garupa Pico actually has Moca state bluntly that the thing she likes eating the most, after "Pan" ("Bread" in Japanese) is "Ran".
LGBT Fanbase: Almost in the same level as Love Live!!. Many bi and gay girls are into the mobile game, and find the girls' distinctive personalities and their being allowed to feel comfortable or explore being either cool, cute, or both, refreshing. Kaoru has a female fanbase both in and out of the game as well.
Memetic Badass: Because of Marina being traditionally animated in the second season's second episode, many fans believe that she doesn't need to be animated with cel-shaded CG to be truly perfect by her own.
Memetic Loser: On the other hand, Marina has the unfortunate habit of "dying" in a lot of the sillier animated shorts (in other words, Garupa PICO).
Memetic Mutation:
- Due to the humorous "deaths" in Girls Band Party!☆PICO, many fans believe that the shorts need someone to "die" at the end of the episode. When the 24th episode lacked any "deaths", the fans joked that this show isn't Girls Band Party!☆PICO if one didn't "die" in the shorts, and started the "#NotMyGarupaPico" hashtag in response.
- Since Takaaki Kidani revealed his opinion to the male characters existing in the franchise, many Love Livers called him a "Man of Culture" due to sharing similar views.
- Sweet Home Alabama ^explaination
- Some JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fans often jokingly designate Kokoro as part of Giorno Giovanna/Dio Brando's bloodline, with the former's reputation as the "leader of the gang" and ~~both of~~ their hair being blonde.
Moe: A lot of girls in BanG Dream! are definitely cute in some way, especially for their fans. Pretty much every shy girl with a soft-demeanor in the franchise is likely to come up to this. In particular, some of these stand out:
- Rimi, while is otherwise a deliberately cute and shy girl with appropriately cute voice, is especially cute when she eats chocolate cornets or speaks about her love of chocolate cornets.
- Arisa, the resident Tsundere who blushes brightly whenever she denies her attachment to her friends.
- Tsugumi might have an ordinary-looking appearance and even thinks herself appears to be the most normal of her band, but fortunately for her, she's got at least the normal-looking cute face and is a sweet, hard-working and confident, making her appear Tsugurific indeed.
- Aya, due to her overall cuteness supported by her bubbly personality, her clumsiness, and is a sweet girl overall.
- Rinko. Shy, quiet and absolutely a sweetheart, and even in her otherwise social anxiety, she's just that adorable. It also helps that she's part of Roselia, which is considered the franchise's most favorite band by many fans of the franchise.
- Kanon, due to her constant nervousness and her tendency to say "fuee..." whenever she's having a fit of anxiety. While she does Took a Level in Cheerfulness as of her Character Development, she still has some moments that makes her nervous, and isn't any less cute for the fanbase - in fact, fans might see her as even more adorable than she was before.
- Mashiro, due to her shy demeanor and crying tendencies. It's just saying that she immediately gets a lot of popularity right away since Morfonica's debut.
- Rokka/LOCK. She looks youthful and adorable especially with the glasses, her meek nature, and her cute regular voice and surprisingly good singing voice, and her admiration of Poppin' Party.
- Much like Mashiro before, Tomori counts as well thanks to her shy and reserved demeanor, as well as having a powerful singing voice behind her said personality.
- Even a side character from HHW's event stories, Nicolina, princess of Happinelle Kingdom, also counts as well due to her resemblance to Kanon, especially during her pre-Character Development self.
Narm: A lot of content from the anime, manga, and game can become this. Most of the time it's the "incredibly sappy moment" variety. Can fall under Narm Charm, depending on the person.
Never Live It Down:
- Ran will be remembered as the "Mascot" for Hentai Haven thanks to the said photoshop.
- The Running Gag of several of the girls "dying" in Girls Band Party!☆PICO.
No Yay: While some of the fans are completely against SayoHina as a romantic relationship, The other half gets angry at the detractors and naysayers who think that their relationship isn't "healthy".
One-Scene Wonder: The traditionally-animated Marina in the Second Season's 2nd Episode is somewhat considered as a beautiful sight to some fandom's sore eyes for seeing the main characters being animated in CG.
Periphery Demographic: Despite the franchise obviously being marketed in favor of male otaku, with even the Manga being labeled as Shounen and Seinen respectively, Bang! Dream has a sizable female fanbase due to the the cute character designs and interactions between the female characters.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- While not outright hated, Sayo was considered a very divisive character during the early days of the series due to her Jerkass behavior, especially towards her younger twin sister Hina. However once her character-centric events happened that shed further light on her issues, many fans started up sympathizing with her more. Coupled with her major Character Development in later subsequent events, she's now considered one of the most popular characters in the cast.
- Chiyu Tamade/CHU2 was initially a Hate Sink on her first appearance, due to her Bratty Half-Pint nature, treating her bandmates like trash, and going as far as she made an unscrupulous tactic to steal away Tae from Poppin'Party as a means to dismantle the band. However, during the anime's 3rd season, fans warmed up to her, especially after her Freudian Excuse was revealed. Where her personality so far is her attempt to fulfill her mother's very high expectations of her.
Ships That Pass in the Night: SayoTsugu is ridiculously popular, almost to the point of equalling other fan favourites such as MocaRan or YukiLisa. It probably was aided by the two not really having a pairable partner within their bands, unless you were partial to shipping Sayo with Yukina or Lisa (or both). However the entire ship was born from one event, after which the two never really interacted again outside of granted birthday wishes to each other (Which other non-bandmates or characters with prior relation will already do if two characters have spent an event together).
Shocking Moments: In the second season's 4th episode, Kokoro suddenly jumps out of a 3rd-floor window, and manages to safely land on the ground while doing a cartwheel.
Sweetness Aversion: This complaint is sometimes leveled towards Pastel*Palettes, whose songs are seen as too cheery and sugary to be enjoyable for a number of fans who picked the series up because they wanted something "cooler" than idols. Fans who went into the series looking for something more like Love Live!, however, absolutely eat Pasupare up.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: To a very lesser degree, the introduction of Argonavis could be seen as this. Given how little is known about Yukina's father, aside from the fact that he used to be a musician whom Yukina admired, the introduction of an all-male band was the perfect opportunity to elaborate a little on this. It would also be a sure-fire way to ensure the band wouldn't have any involvement with the main bands without having to resort to an alternate universe, since they would naturally be active years before any of the other bands even existed.
Vindicated by History: The series was initially met with poor reception, to the point where a series-specific doujinshi event only attracted 9 doujin groups out of the expected 400 and stores were begging customers to purchase Bandori merchandise. Come 2018 and that's turned around completely, with not one but two additional seasons of the main anime in the works, a spinoff anime series, an all-male group sub-franchise (which was later became an independent standalone franchise), tons of merchandise being sold, and collaborations with other video game series such as Sega's Rhythm Game Ongeki and even Persona.
Woolseyism:
- Hina often peppers her speech with Japanese ideophones like "るん" ^Translation"run" and "ピピツ," ^Translation"pipitsu" carried over to the English translation as "boppin'" or "zappin'."
- Kaoru quotes Shakespeare a lot, and while she usually mentions him by name in the original, the English translation usually has her refer to him as "the great bard," which actually makes her speech even more grandiose.

YMMV / BanG Dream!

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