Warning: Below is a meta-heavy effortpost. It talks about Bang Dream a lot, but it'll be about more than just Bang Dream. If this thread was more active, I might not "go there", but since there's not a lot of discussion here anyway, might as well talk some on Bang Dream/Love Live similarities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by novalysis
I suspect that Idol animes within a school setting will develop that particular cliche where the final recruitment arc will be the most dramatic and angsty of all and would revolve around some particular prior failure.
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You're making a keen observation here of something real. A real plot pattern found in both BanG Dream and at least some of the idol/school club anime shows that came before it (with Love Live probably being the most similar to BanG Dream). And my guess is that this similarity is intentional on the part of BanG Dream's director and writer(s), which in my view is to their credit, as I think they're hitting a very good balance between comfortable familiarity and fresh execution.
But I don't know if I'd call this a cliche. In my view, it's just Good Writing 101. Good Drama 101. I don't want to get overly mechanical here, as differences do matter and this all works largely for emotional resonance reasons. Still, I think there is an element of craftsmanship to this, of utilizing well-proven narrative structures while still putting a distinctive mark on everything.
Let's get to the very basics. You have a protagonist. You have a protagonist that you want readers/viewers to like and cheer on. You want readers/viewers to grow steadily more and more emotionally invested in that protagonist. And should that protagonist come with important friends and/or allies, or gain them over time, you want readers/viewers to feel the same way about those friends/allies. So how do you accomplish this?
Well, one well-proven way is to provided a steady stream of challenges to the protagonist. A stream that starts relatively easy so readers/viewers are given quick gratification of seeing the (hopefully likeable) protagonist gain swift shiny successes. But then the stream of challenges get gradually harder and harder so dramatic intensity increases, and emotions run higher, and suspense might even grip the heart of the reader/viewer! This can work for a Starfleet Captain, a costumed superhero, a war hero, a literal magical girl, a police officer, a video game's player character, or any number of character types. And it can also work for an idol or rock band heroine. And what's probably the smoothest way to take this steadily strengthening stream of challenges and apply it to the world of idol/rock band heroines?
A group recruitment drive.
Love Live made very good use of this. And now Bang Dream is (so far) doing this very well itself. And yes, as part of that steadily strengthening stream of challenges, it is the final recruitment(s) that will prove the most difficult (the
2nd last recruitment should probably also feel more difficult than the
first recruitment). Start small and intimate, grow harder, grow bigger, grow great. That's what Love Live did, in my view. And I'm glad to see Bang Dream doing it as well.
But yes, one key difference is the very practical family aspect of Saya's situation. In Love Live, recruitment challenges were very much ideological or psychological or personality-based. You had to tailor recruitment success to fit strict perfectionists, or colorful chuunibyous, or people still reeling from the hurts of past disappointments. The last of these is also true of Saya, but Saya also has a very practical issue with her mom. Honestly, I deeply sympathize with Saya. This
shouldn't be an easy call for her, in my opinion. From Saya's perspective, it's quite possible that her mother's health issues could undermine Poppin' Party just like those same issues did for Saya's prior band. I mean, that's a bit of a cold way to look at it, but it's still accurate. It
makes sense that Saya is fearful that her family issues could prove a burden to any group Saya joins. I hope Saya joins Poppin' Party of course, but Saya's current position is deeply understandable and sympathetic.
While Saya's mom has classic vague anime disease (
), the problems it poses are practical and does help distinguish Bang Dream from Love Live.
(Note: By "Love Live", I'm talking about original
and Sunshine, unless I explicitly state otherwise).