Girls Band Cry

I spoiler-free don't recommend watching Girls Band Cry (GBC), for two main reasons: 1. It's the kind of story you'll either hate (because of the 3D-CGI animation or how unreasonably unsufferable the MC is or any misc. reason) or you'll fall for the experience right away and become addicted. If you'd hate it, why watch it? If you become addicted, you'll waste your life by re-re-watching it and searching for or creating fanart and buying merch - in stark contrast to what the series' theme song says! 2., Girls Band Cry is like the cursed apple tree standing in the middle of the Garden of Eden. Eatfrom it, says the snake and your eyes will open, suddenly seeing the whole television anime industry is naked... 99% of seasonal produce are always poorly drawn partial animation at a mere 7-13 fps and giving "hand-made 2D" look a bad name. For bonus, there are uninspired and uninteresting plotlines and pro seiyuu who cater to assumed "high-pitched loli maid" expectations of the otaku, rather than expressing anything meaningful. GBC entered such a market, shining with 30fps of often motion-captured but always expressive and continously fluid 3D-CGI animation. (Nota bene: as much as possible within sub-Hollywood budget allocated to a freely broadcast original TV show lacking LN / manga source support.) Yet script-writing and episode directing are stellar for both comedy and drama, music hits are memorable, non-music hits also... Main characters have personality, strong presence and very real emotion, even though the show uses no seiyuu, per se. All five members of Togenashi Togeari are voiced by teenage rock musician girls, whom Studio Toei and Universal Japan label recruited to form a real-life band and gave them a crash course in voice acting for anime - based on the reasoning talented musicians have good ears so they'll quickly get the hang of it. The producer was right: Nina's and Momoka's VAs are super talented, even star-crossed and Subaru sounds refreshingly realistic, they are easily par for their beautiful visuals. You've found your angels, even if they are fallen ones with just cardboard wings... After you've witnessed all those miracles, you get expelled from Paradise: post-GBC the japanese animation industry still continues to roll out the same garbage as before, this past summer, this autumn, coming winter season. With your newly opened eyes it becomes gruelling labour to watch the poorly drawn partial animation, the mockery of hand-made 2D style and digest the soulless and all-around juvenile and/or cynical plotlines, while listening to seiyuu who try to sound like chipmunks. You may even give up on anime or at least be unable to (re)watch anything you haven't seen and accepted pre-GBC! Is it worth discarding your whole anime baggage for the sake of a singular show projected from Paradise? It's not a trivial decision, but a surprisingly large number of japanese otaku voted YES enthusiastically (and many foreign fans as well, even though GBC wasn't legally available for them until August and not conveniently available until Nov 2024. Fansubs ranged from evil-memed MTL to highly controversial regarding a crucial scene). More than half a year later GBC disc sales are still crazy high and TogeToge live shows are 25x overbooked. Even the famous BanGDream / MyGO franchise went to GBC for a collab, which helped them through difficulties of delayed game development. Maybe, maybe the industry will see the light and begin to change - but in the meanwhile you'd lose 3 to 5 years of anime enjoyment. Decide for yourself whether it's worth it!?

Backed into a corner, the ropes cold against his back and every muscle burning, a boxer has no choice but to fight. He's down, but certainly not out. One of the underdogs of 2024's anime season, 'Girls Band Cry' is a story about a similar battle that hits every emotional weak point throughout its duration. It's a battle to prove your worth, and Nina Iseri has surprised us all by not admitting defeat, even in the fourth quarter. 'Girls Band Cry' is a show coming out of left field. Off the first episode alone, you're blown off your feet, instantly hooked on Nina's character and investedin her relationship to Momoka. It's a wonderful starting point that highlights all of this show's strong points: Beautiful 3D animation that's enhanced by the visuals accompanying it, strong character focused writing, and the spirit of rock. Each and every subsequent episode pushes these to their limits and beyond, highlighting feelings of truth to yourself and strength with others along with new, interesting plotlines to follow. It's almost hard to find the words to describe how almost nobody saw the popularity of this show coming. There are so many risks being taken here that have all paid off with larger returns than anything else this season. What started off with a response of 'What's that?' has now become 'I love that show', 'It's beautiful', and 'It saved me'. That's the mark of something special. This is absolutely the fault of 'Girls Band Cry' and its mass appeal. A story about a girl moving to a new city and starting college is something that almost everyone can see themselves reflected in. Many friends of mine, even those who I'd never expect to watch something like this, have told me that it's a new favorite, and it's clear as to why. Seeing the fans grow with this show was almost an experience in and of itself, each week seeing more acquaintances become invested in the wonderful world created by Kazuo Sakai and Jukki Hanada. It's safe to say they've outdone themselves here (Hanada-sama especially), as expected. We get such a new focus here on a cast and story that evolves what's become the norm for so long, tearing down many cliches of the genre it's apart of while elevating others to new heights. Momoka's struggles especially echo the typical anime band girl and yet manage to be so real and human which makes her character so delicious to dig your teeth into. For as much praise as this show could be showered in for all of time, there are some faults of the story worth mentioning. Some of these will likely be fixed in a subsequent season, but rating this show on its own is a must. The first, most glaring issue is the lack of a dedicated episode to flesh out Rupa. While a more pretentious me would say 'Rupa's character benefits from having most of her story shrouded in mystery', even the show's writers have come out and said they wish they could have done more with her. She's got a lot of moments scattered throughout the show that are amazing, but nothing that you can point to and say 'this was her moment' as the other characters do. Much of the show's writing depends on what you get out of Nina as a character, and for those who struggle to stomach her completely this might put them off. How you'd manage to hate Nina is beyond me, but.. people always manage to surprise. Finally, (mild spoiler warning) there's a few scenes that have describe suicidal ideation which are quite heavy in their emotional scale, so for viewers sensitive to this it's worth making you aware. Nina Iseri and Momoka Kawaragi's bond is something truly special. It's the northern lights above a moonlit sky, the sun setting at dusk; something you only get to observe once. Our main characters are bound by the fates of their lives, many strings pulling them each in different directions, yet always ending up in the same spot. I can't recommend this show enough. Watch it with your friends, watch it alone, watch with everyone you know. You'll understand that these thirteen episodes go by faster than you could ever imagine, and by the end, you'll understand that 'Girls Band Cry' is a show that will move you like no other, throwing in all the anger, joy, and sadness of life. Perfect for anyone, it will teach you to never back down, to fight for what's right, and most importantly, it'll teach you to take all the obstacles in your life and flip 'em off. It's perfection.

This is the first anime I’ve seen that was able to push the medium of animation forward in so long. It’s unbelievable how groundbreaking and innovative it is for not only the girl band sub-genre of anime, but slice of life/drama anime as a whole. Toei animation is a long running legendary studio and boy they showed their experience here. Probably the biggest thing being the 3D animation and expressive character animation and facial expressions. THIS, I LIVE FOR THIS.IT FUELS MY SOUL. THIS is the biggest thing that makes girls band cry special. It’s so UNBELIVEBLED detailed. It makes every scene feel so realand alive. And how each character is animated synergies and reflects each character unique personality so perfectly. The characters man….THEY ARE ALL SO GOATED I LOVE THEM ALLLL. Nina is just the best silly chaotic and naïve gremlin but she grows a lot and learns a lot from everyone else in the band. She’s just so Nina and I love it. Momoka is just the best. I honestly can’t even put to words how incredible she is. She struggles to express her true feelings and seeing her overcome is just incredible. She can be cute and cool and vulnerable and I love every side of her. Then when Nina and Momoka are TOGETHER, ohhh my GOODD MAGIICCCCC. Possibly my favorite thing about this series is the character drama cause IT’S SOO FREAKING GOOD. Nina and Momoka’s fights are THE PINNACLE of that. I love when characters have friction and disagree with each at first so when they do get along more later it feels earned. Also my god, a lot of the time I was like “damn they REALLY like each other” and “they kind of of fight like their married” but at the same time I was like “It’s probably nothing I’m sure they aren’t a thing (they’re just roommates type energy)”. Then they dropped the motherload and I was FLABBERGASTED where they went with that. Anyhoo, I ship them and love them. Subaru is also incredible, acting as the glue that holds the band together and she’s so cute and perceptive. Tomo and Rupa are also such a great duo and I love how emotionally supportive Rupa is for Tomo, they’re just so wholesome together. Also everyone’s fashion and drip is SO FREAKING GOOD AAAAAA. Momoka in red flannel makes my neurons fire like crazy. The performances are also nothing I’ve ever seen before in anime. Hands down the best animated music performances I’ve ever seen. The energy is just SO RAW AND HYPE. You can FEEL the passion in the air and be injected into your eyeballs. The music is also really good too. It’s seriously next level stuff. Another thing I liked is how realistic things are (relatively). It provides some nice insight on the harsh reality of how tough the music world is and I really like that. I could talk for days, but the amount of dopamine this show has given me is absurd. It actually takes me like 1-1.5 hours to watch a single episode cause I keep rewinding to pay attention to every small detail. It's also super funny and has so many great comedic bits. You tell that the team at Toei really just poured their heart and soul into this entire series. My favorite slice of life anime of all time easily and obviously the best band/music anime I’ve seen. I’m telling y'all, k-on crawled so Bochi could walk so Girls Band Cry could sprint so fast it can travel on water.

messy, beautiful i uh, really loved this show anime has a way of being so earnest and, hm, no, what i mean to actually say is i wish i could bare my soul to this extent, just be so earnest and vulnerable that it feels utterly embarrassing to witness. but if i'm being honest i cant. i'm a shadow of a person, turn the light on and i disappear. my every rotted bridge, all neglected away into nothing, even the slightest possibility of intimacy and closeness, no, it petrifies me. i let all my chances of deepening friendships slip by me, left as a glancing, yet fatal blowon any relationship like an iceberg scraping the titanic. alone by choice? weird way to describe fucked brain chemistry and circumstance, but i can't dispute it. if you fail it means you never should have tried. you should see how red my face is right now. fade everyone into a light acquaintance until they move on. never really there, flighty, anxious, too terrified of human connection to really open up to anybody. nothing but lightly pleasant and frustratingly noncommittal to everyone, moving at a coward's pace, unfocus the lens and you won't have to see anything anymore, quicker that way i can't even imagine how it would feel to be so disgustingly free, just all feathers and fire like that. you'd think for an industry bent specifically to manufacturing commodified sincerity to sell to teenagers, that they'd somehow come by it a little less easily. when genuine storytelling is codified in such a way as the way to tell your product's story, what speaks genuine about that? art as genre as mad libs, fill in the blanks, paint by numbers, give me the premise and i can probably tell you how it ends, lets kill god, lets nebulously choose free will and uncertainty over an unfeeling stability. if i melt my skin into yours can we understand each other? if my blood runs through your body will that make us feel any less alone have you read that old sci-fi book yet you probably should its pretty good except for the parts where its comically, outrageously racist and sexist, but its where your favorite show got all their ideas from and its still a surprisingly easy read today if we can make it to the Budokan, maybe the stars will start reflecting in your eyes again, that's what everyone says anyway. turn the music up and let it all come pouring out everything is someone's first time somewhere, that's what makes it so special, its a miracle anything good gets made at all, flowers growing through cracks in the concrete i guess, i can tolerate a little cliché if you smash through my ribs and tear out my heart with it. god bless the people who aren't "well-read" in anything, they get to experience love for the first time again. i was terrified of even resisting one day we'll look back and see the ruin we dragged ourselves out of, and on that day i hope you'd have found someplace you can truly belong and be at peace every time i watch one of these prescriptively life-affirming anime meant to encourage teenagers to follow their hopes and dreams, i always feel encouraged to cultivate and nurture my own relationships in my life, but i almost immediately come to the crashing event horizon that i discarded some of my closest ones willingly, and the rest withered with them. "i abandon here a part of the flesh of my body." over and over again until there's nothing left, just a stain on the wall, when the alternative is nursing increasing masses of necrotic tissue, it almost sounds like the sane thing to do. "you don't understand me at all," i understand you're a disgusting person, and i hope i never see you again in this life or the next fuck you. i still miss you so, so much, you absolute piece of shit. fuck you. eventually the question of whether it was the right or wrong thing to do fades away like everything else and all you're left with is whether you regret it or not. when i crawl out of this pit i threw myself into i can tell you where i eventually ended up at i want to make things, i want to live a life worth living, i want to be a person worth loving, i want to be a person loved, i also just want to lie on the floor forever and feel nothing, i also want to lie on the floor forever and just fucking seethe, wow, multitudes. clench my teeth until they crack open and choke on my own blood, my dentist is going to scold the shit out of me next time i see her Where were you twenty years ago? Ten years ago? Where were you when I was new? the joy of art and others is that they're able to get past the sandblasted wasteland of that emotionally blunted hellscape you call a heart and bring that passion bubbling back to the surface like breaching magma, spikes and valleys. i haven't cried since 2017, but on rare moments i feel close, and i think in those moments, i'm happiest. distant figures on the moon, the bright tone of a butterscotch telecaster, feels nostalgic. the joy of art and others is that the only thing that truly matters is who you are when you bring yourself to them. maybe the best art, the best people, are the kind that can change who you are when you're exposed to them. never forget, you're a canvas too: messy and beautiful.