(L) BanG Dream!

[Sides]

More drama this week. It looks like saya is one of those people who tend to overthink too much and cannot really enjoy life.
However I do like seeing characters like that in anime series, mainly because things like this are quite common now theses days, where some kids have to scale back their childhood to look after there family. Obviously in the real world we are talking about more serious illnesses, but at least these kind of topics are not forgotten.

[Dextro]

So it wasn't just overworking, it was also that mysterious Anime illness that leaves people just weak enough for drama to build up. Saya's mom must have spent some time with the Key crowd to catch it

That was a very nice episode. I completely called the overworking thing but, to be fair, it was like shooting fish in a barrel to actually nail that prediction. But I liked that Saya and Kasumi got into that fight, Saya in particular needed to get those feelings out of her chest so she can admit them to herself and start the path of setting free from her self-imposed restrains. Now we have to wait a week to see how she resolves her dilemma. Given that her mother's illness is apparently chronic it becomes a bit harder to tell how this is going to get solved so I'm curious to see where the show goes with it. I'm guessing that Natsu (I think I got the name of Saya's former band member right) will yet play a part in helping Saya overcome her regrets.

Also can Tae stop being awesome so I can stop sounding like a fanboy every week? I absolutely burst out laughing in that Panda scene at the start of the episode. It's so absurd and yet so perfectly timed that I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud. Also her contribution to the Saya intervention was also pretty badass.

[Triple_R]

Episode 7 was excellent. Saya's arc is bringing great drama to this show. Drama that was probably needed given how pretty smoothly things have been going up until now.

This whole cultural festival is also being handled remarkably well. Bang Dream reminds me of multiple KyoAni shows there.

I also like how wide and vibrant and heavily populated Bang Dream's setting feels. Now, there's nothing necessarily wrong with a much more focused or even cloistered feel to a show, as I can think of some excellent shows that had this. But for the type of show that Bang Dream is, I find it's wide open world with numerous notable characters (of all ages and both sexes!) to be very refreshing. It definitely helps this show and its leading characters stand out.

The Kasumi/Saya dynamic is also very compelling. I love how Kasumi and Saya's family have totally embraced one another. That's very nice, giving the show a truly warm feeling.

Here's looking forward to Poppin' Party's first big performance! And I'm especially looking forward to hearing Saya on the drums.

[Master_Yoma]

So more of Saaya and the trouble with her mom being weak

[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. That's not to say that this cliche is necessarily bad - the last person to join usually would need some reason for her reluctance, and the more compelling, personal and private the reason, the more fuel for drama that brings.

In BanGDream's case, though, the cause of the "failure", the ill health of Saaya's mother preventing Saaya from engaging in outside pursuits still seems to be still present, rather than resolved or irrelevant. I wonder how BanGDream is going to resolve this issue, especially since Saaya already listed all of the potential problems and personal baggage that she joining could bring to the band. We already have an emotional climax in this episode, when Kasumi confronts Saaya. By no means, of course, is this over, and we are probably looking at another emotional conclusion to the arc.

I must say that BangDream is executing the Tae and Saaya recruitment arcs very sharply and giving both very compelling reasons and motives for their actions. The writing for the last two arcs have been much sharper than the Arisa and Rimmi recruitment episodes, and I think it is benefiting from two episodes to focus on each girl. It's a shame BangDream started so late in the season - this one slipped under the radar, and it'd have been interesting to have seen a larger audience discuss the parallels and deviations this show has from its nearest analogies in the genre - especially from Love Live. Infact, we have reached the point with the last two dramatic arcs, that this show has more in common story-structure wise from Love Live (especially Sunshine, which has multiple dramatic arcs, as oppose to SIP's two) than K-On. At this point in K-On, the Light Music club I believe settled into a routine. What BanGDream has done differently from Love Live's final recruitment arc however, has been it's weaving of parental/family issues into the plot of it's final recruitment arc.

Infact, were the BanGDream girls make it to SPACE, I suspect there's an even bigger Love Live esque national Girl Band competition waiting for them, and the large number of other performers we are seeing makes BanGDream, even more, a Sports/Idol/Music mixed genre anime than Love Live has been so far - the missing element being multiple rivals.

With at most five episodes after the conclusion of Saaya's recruitment arc, we'd probably only have enough time for a final closing arc where Kasumi's band qualifies to perform at SPACE. Is this anime a split cour, I wonder?

[Triple_R]

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.

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.

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).

[Jimmy C]

Originally Posted by Triple_R,6045406

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.

But there is a weakness in BanG Dream's storytelling at this phase. After Kasumi has recruited a member, said member practically disappears while she's working on recruiting the next one. They have minimal appearances and are almost uninvolved in the recruitment.

Compare to both LLs and even K-On!, where all current members are involved in convincing the new prospect to join.

BanG Dream is more like '00-era galgame adaptions where the MC works on a girl during her arc, and she promptly disappears while he moves on to the next girl. Under the circumstances, that's not good at all.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Jimmy C

But there is a weakness in BanG Dream's storytelling at this phase. After Kasumi has recruited a member, said member practically disappears while she's working on recruiting the next one. They have minimal appearances and are almost uninvolved in the recruitment.

Compare to both LLs and even K-On!, where all current members are involved in convincing the new prospect to join.

BanG Dream is more like '00-era galgame adaptions where the MC works on a girl during her arc, and she promptly disappears while he moves on to the next girl. Under the circumstances, that's not good at all.

Yes, that is a key difference between Bang Dream and both Love Lives. Yes, Kasumi does more recruitment on her own than Honoka/Chika did. You're right about how there can be a downside to this.

Still, I want to see what Poppin' Party is like as a completed group of 5 before I put a lot of weight on this difference. I'm hoping that in-group interactions will be a little more balanced after the full group is formed (i.e. it won't just be Kasumi and her 4 best friends, it'll be 5 close friends where there's good interactions between either 2 of the 5 or all 5).

[FlareKnight]

In the end it isn't a crazy scenario with Saya. Now anyone I'm familiar with in real life similar to Saya's mother have an identifiable cause for their weak condition (usually accident related), the end result is the same. Actually kind of striking to see the situation that Saya and her mother are in. And while Saya was the focus of the emotional moments in this one, you also have to feel for her mother as well.

It has to plain suck. Not only is her health a constant issue, but it limits her day to day activities. On top of that but the impact on her family is clear as day. Her daughter is suppressing her own interests and enjoyment to basically watch out for her mother. In a sense Saya's mother is treated like a child by her own daughter. That has to be both depressing and frustrating.

And now you have Saya who has utterly punished herself and refuses to let herself do anything. It is a legitimate concern with her mother. But has anyone been made happy in this scenario? Her mother can't possibly be happy about this. Saya herself isn't happy. Her previous band isn't happy. Her friends aren't happy. Literally no one is happy here. Of course it plain sucks to have everyone conscious of your bad situation and feeling like you are the weak link. In that sense Saya and her mother are on the same wavelength.

The biggest scene next week will probably depend on Saya and her mother having a heart to heart.

Anyways it will be nice to have the group assembled. A lot of focus is on Kasumi and each person to be sure. But we get some snippets of interactions between different people along the way. For recruitment the focus is going to be on Kasumi and that's fine. She's the driving force of this group. That kind of main character is going to be the source of assembling the group.

Will be glad to see more moments balanced out after that. And it also makes sense with these personalities. Arisa has a tough time opening up to people she's not used to. Look at the initial awkwardness of her sitting there with Saya when she tried to write up some band names. Rimi can be shy as well and Otae is plain odd . Once they have more time together and people come out of their shells it should be good.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

And now you have Saya who has utterly punished herself and refuses to let herself do anything. It is a legitimate concern with her mother. But has anyone been made happy in this scenario? Her mother can't possibly be happy about this. Saya herself isn't happy. Her previous band isn't happy. Her friends aren't happy. Literally no one is happy here. Of course it plain sucks to have everyone conscious of your bad situation and feeling like you are the weak link. In that sense Saya and her mother are on the same wavelength.

The biggest scene next week will probably depend on Saya and her mother having a heart to heart.

Good observations. I think Saya's mom is already subtly but strongly hinting to Saya that she doesn't want Saya to focus so heavily on taking care of her. Because yes, Saya's own life and friendships are being held back some by this, and I get a strong vibe that Saya's mom doesn't want that.

So while Saya's issues are very practical, I think there's also a possible practical lesson in not letting yourself be held back too much due to difficult circumstances. That taking some risk may well be better than being extra-secure but kinda losing your life (figuratively-speaking) in the process.

It would be nice if this is a point that's raised next episode, possibly by Saya's mom herself yeah.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Good observations. I think Saya's mom is already subtly but strongly hinting to Saya that she doesn't want Saya to focus so heavily on taking care of her. Because yes, Saya's own life and friendships are being held back some by this, and I get a strong vibe that Saya's mom doesn't want that.

So while Saya's issues are very practical, I think there's also a possible practical lesson in not letting yourself be held back too much due to difficult circumstances. That taking some risk may well be better than being extra-secure but kinda losing your life (figuratively-speaking) in the process.

It would be nice if this is a point that's raised next episode, possibly by Saya's mom herself yeah.

I think that's precisely where this show is heading. There really isn't any other option here: Saya's younger brother and sister are still too young to help her it seems so the game plan seems to be passing the message that even if life gives you a difficult hand there are still ways to turn that into something other than a complete loss.

I'm very eager to see what's in store next. Bang Dream is clearly the dark horse of the season for me.

PS: Triple_R, novalysis, et all, I wish I could rep you guys for some of your latest posts. It was interesting read your takes on the show and its storytelling.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Dextro

I think that's precisely where this show is heading. There really isn't any other option here: Saya's younger brother and sister are still too young to help her it seems so the game plan seems to be passing the message that even if life gives you a difficult hand there are still ways to turn that into something other than a complete loss.

I'm very eager to see what's in store next. Bang Dream is clearly the dark horse of the season for me.

PS: Triple_R, novalysis, et all, I wish I could rep you guys for some of your latest posts. It was interesting read your takes on the show and its storytelling.

No doubt we are likely going there. Doesn't seem to be much of a solution besides a magical recovery. The only thing to do is work around the situation. Can't solve the physical health problem, but can tackle Saya's mindset. Everyone around her is ok with her getting involved in the band and finding ways to make it work around the reality of her situation. All that needs to happen is for her to go along with it.

Whether it is the old band or the new one, both were happy to still be with her even if it meant working around issues. It's understandable to be bothered by being in that position. But no more bothered than her family likely is in seeing Saya making herself miserable or her mother especially not being able to do what she wishes she was capable of doing.

Credit to the show. I didn't think they'd manage to tackle a topic like this that well. Have managed to make it a good ride.

[novalysis]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

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.

I greatly appreciate that effort. And I do think it's worthwhile discussion worth having, because comparing BanG Dream with Love Live (I don't think K-on comparisons are really fair, because of BanG Dream and Love Live actively drive towards their goal while K-on doesn't really make that push) tells us something genuinely interesting about the School-Idol club genre. I suspect that any School-Idol club anime where the Idol heroine founds her own club rather than joining a club is going to follow a particular structure that Love Live and BanG Dream is defining. And while this genre emerging convention renders the risk of future Idol-animes being branded a rip-off, I think it is important to appreciate how the same structure can be executed subtly.

To put it briefly, this structure follows a certain predictable pattern.
1. Call to Action where the protagonist receives inspiration and defines some goal and motive.
2. Recruit a Composer
3. Have a debut performance
4. Recruit the rest of the members, preferably in escalating order of difficulty.
5. Have a climatical recruitment drama.
6. Have some group defining experience/drama
7. Have a group training camp
8. Meet a rival
9. Accomplish some preliminary goal.
10.Fail in some other goal.

Note that from 5-10, the order is not necessarily chronological. Aqours had their group defining experience at the Tokyo School Idol World prior to the climatical recruitment drama with the third year arc. Poppin' Party still has not a group defining experience yet, and we are at the climatical recruitment drama with Saya. The nearest thing I can think to a group defining drama for Muse was the Kotori-drama. I don't think K-on had a climatic recruitment drama unless you are willing to claim that Azusa's recruitment is anywhere comparable to Eli's recruitment or Kanan-Dia-Mari's recruitment or Saya's recruitment, and that's one reason why I think K-on is NOT in the same story-genre as BanG Dream.

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.

I agree with you there's a great deal of intentionality in BanG Dream's writing. Kasumi's antics in Epsiode 1 and Episode 2 seems to be a wink to audiences coming over from BanG Dream's nearest anime cousin, Love Live, and the careful expansion of Kasumi's characterization since then seems to be done with a high degree of awareness of the meta of School club founding protagonist.

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.

Perhaps cliche is not the best word to be used. A Trope might be a more neutral and less loaded term to employ to describe what BanG Dream is doing.

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?

Note that this has to be balanced with creating a good first impression for the said protagonist. You don't want him or her to turn off your starting audiences. And I do think Kasumi's hyper behavior with Arisha during the first two episodes in homage to the Honoka archetype was a very risky decision.

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.

The moment an Idol/rock band heroine decides to form a group, a group recruitment drive tends to be inevitable. The decision of "found my own club" locks the narrative into some stations - someone who can compose must be recruited, some debut performance must be made, and several recruitment arcs need to be run. Incidentally, this is also the structure Fuuka employs, though Fuuka does not choose to go through the sorting algorithm of challenging recruitment and mashes recruitment with romance and love triangles as a parallel sub-plot. And the way to make a succession of recruitment arcs compelling is to amp up the difficulty of each recruitment arc, as you've said.

There's a very plausible logical reason of course - characters present at the start of the story who do not join quickly ought to have some compelling reason that prevents them from joining. And the more difficult the final recruitment is, the more emotionally impactful the climax of the final recruitment arc, which usually terminates the first crucial part of a found my own club style story - the formation of the fellowship.

On the other hand BanG Dream and Love Live Sunshine opts for a character competency building sub-plot - for BanG Dream, it's Kasumi learning to master the guitar, for Sunshine, it's Chika actually learning to lead for the first time in her life.

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.

Love Live did go for the short-cut of sweeping several girls into the group in the same episode. Unlike Love Live though, Kasumi is as much an outsider to her new environment as Riko, so she basically get's no freebie initial recruits unlike Honoka or Chika. So that's probably one of the crucial differences that already separates Love Live from BanG Dream right from the start.

I also think that BanG Dream is benefiting from having half the number of characters than Love Live to juggle. Because of that, they can afford to breathe and give O-Tae and Saya their own well paced focus-arcs.

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.

The nearest analogy to Saya's situation from Love Live is basically Ruby joining the club despite Dia's opposition to the club. But Saya's situation by rights should be much harder to resolve since she does have a very valid reason and fear that her mother's ill health prevents her from making the kinds of commitments she believes Poppin Party and Kasumi deserves. Saya's situation is a real physical trade-off. Ruby's situation was basically blow-back from Dia's past as a failed Idol and psychological in nature.

Both arcs are based on family issues, but I'd dare say BanG Dream plays with higher stakes here, since Saya believes the actual physical health of her mother is at stake were she to pursue her wishes.

I'm not sure how BanG Dream is going to satisfactorily solve this conundrum, given we've seen Saya's mother's physical weakness several times and it is presented to us as an ongoing issue that is not going to be solved by something as straightforward as communication.

I will also say that Kasumi's solution offered to Saya is abit rash, concerning that she also has Arisa's loneliness issue to also tackle. The issue here is that Kasumi is offering to cater to the needs of at least two girls at once, and we've seen how bad she has been at juggling two relationship priorities simultaneously with the neglect of Arisa during the O'Tae arc.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Yes, that is a key difference between Bang Dream and both Love Lives. Yes, Kasumi does more recruitment on her own than Honoka/Chika did. You're right about how there can be a downside to this.

Still, I want to see what Poppin' Party is like as a completed group of 5 before I put a lot of weight on this difference. I'm hoping that in-group interactions will be a little more balanced after the full group is formed (i.e. it won't just be Kasumi and her 4 best friends, it'll be 5 close friends where there's good interactions between either 2 of the 5 or all 5).

In reality, ever since O'Tae joined that little lunch time group, Poppin' Party has already begun to actively interact as a de-facto social group of five. We know that Arisa and Rimi has begun to form some kind of relationship off-screen, while Tae and Arisa have a frenemy dynamic and Saya tends to play peacemaker and negotiator.

Originally Posted by Jimmy C

Compare to both LLs and even K-On!, where all current members are involved in convincing the new prospect to join.

This charge might be true for some arcs (Tae's first episode was the worse offenders). But even in LL, some members were far more involved in the recruitment of the new prospect. Riko and You had very little involvement in Yohane's recruitment in Sunshine, and I don't recall the First Years being really core to recruiting Eli and Nozomi. Similarly, the third years in Sunshine were primarily recruited by Chika's intervention (with Yohane and Ruby playing a slightly more significant role). Not every LL character was majorly involved in recruiting the new prospect - usually, some were more central than others.

I'm not sure whether the current members of Poppin Party are exactly completely irrelevant to the recruitment of Saya. We've seen Saya having many crucial conversations with the rest of Poppin Party who is not Kasumi, and Tae sent Saya the music sheet. It's not as if the rest of Poppin' Party are passive actors to recruiting Saya.

Originally Posted by Dextro

I'm very eager to see what's in store next. Bang Dream is clearly the dark horse of the season for me.

PS: Triple_R, novalysis, et all, I wish I could rep you guys for some of your latest posts. It was interesting read your takes on the show and its storytelling.

Thank you very much. It's a shame BanG Dream is getting so little attention internationally and I suspect it's down to it's very late release in the season. The centrality of Kasumi in each recruitment aside, I find it a very competent take on the emerging School-Idol genre.

I do wonder whether anyone knowledgable about the Japanese BD market or Amazon stalker could tell me though: is BanG Dream as unpopular in Japan as it seems to be in the International anime community?

[Jimmy C]

In ep8...

The good news, Kasumi got her drummer.
The better news? Her school isn't closing, so she doesn't need to enter and win any competitions to keep it open!

Spoiler for The bad news?:

Her venue could be closing!

Originally Posted by novalysis

Not every LL character was majorly involved in recruiting the new prospect - usually, some were more central than others.

Consider the scene in LL S1E8 where Honoka holds her hand to Eli and asks her to join while the other 7 members look at her hopefully.
Add in the scene in LLS S1E9 where Chika asks Dia to join while the other 5 members look on and Ruby presents her the new costume.

Every member played a role, they said or did something, to welcome the new prospect, the same way the group leader did. It may or may not have been as much as the leader did, but it was more than just being friendly to a fellow student. Which is what the interactions between the current and to be members of Kasumi's band felt like prior to them joining.

And K-On! outdid LL with every member putting in nearly equal effort in bringing the new member in.

Their pitch to the new members was all of them saying, "join us"
While BanG Dream was more like Kasumi saying, "join me"

Anyway, it was a weakness, not a showstopper, and it's over now. And we move on to the next phase, "how-to-save-the place-we-love"

Speaking of future developments, you guys heard about this?

BanG Dream! Project Reveals 8 More Band Cast Members

Two more bands, with a total of ten new members. I have to ask, what are they planning to do with them? They're not going to be in the anime, not for more than a cameo. Doing anything significant with them would be like if Sunshine had been announced just a year after LL itself. So what's going on?

[Triple_R]

Bravo, Bang Dream. Bravo.

With Episode 8, this show has truly pulled it off. It's truly arrived.

There are certain things I could criticize, particularly when it comes to visuals, but these issues all pale in comparison to everything Bang Dream Episode 8 did right. I found it to be a truly beautiful and moving episode.

I'll leave it at that for now, except to say congrats to all of Poppin' Party! What a nice start for the full group of five.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Bravo, Bang Dream. Bravo.

With Episode 8, this show has truly pulled it off. It's truly arrived.

There are certain things I could criticize, particularly when it comes to visuals, but these issues all pale in comparison to everything Bang Dream Episode 8 did right. I found it to be a truly beautiful and moving episode.

I'll leave it at that for now, except to say congrats to all of Poppin' Party! What a nice start for the full group of five.

Yes, the show may not have the most outstanding 2D animation but what it lacks in that particular technical department it more than makes up in sheer heart. Brilliantly done this episode right down to the teaser after the credits.

I almost broke down in tears with Saya. Very well done. You could tell that Kasumi was struggling to keep herself happy and pull the school festival through all along the episode to avoid giving Saya yet another feeling of guilt to carry.

Even if the song didn't blow me away the way a snow halation or a tenshi ni fureta yo did it still felt very, very powerful and heartfelt in context and that's all that matters (and it wasn't even a bad song ).

Lovely. Absolutely lovely. And the 3D animation is also very good I might add. I had to go back and rewatch because that minor detail of Saya loosing grip on the stick at the start is just way too cute not to point out. If you guys didn't notice it just watch the first few seconds of the song, it's really cute

[Ulin]

The song was normal, but the episode were very good imo. Saya really is my favourite character in the show The drama was not excessive and well done, the only thing I can't let slide is that Saya could play so well having only listened the song once... Gurl, you should just be pro already

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Dextro

Yes, the show may not have the most outstanding 2D animation but what it lacks in that particular technical department it more than makes up in sheer heart. Brilliantly done this episode right down to the teaser after the credits.

That teaser was a very good call by the writers, in my opinion.

Episode 8 ends on a note of total victory, really. And shows like this one and Love Live benefit from having an overarching source of conflict for the full group to rally together for. Without that sort of conflict, shows like this one and Love Live can become a little too much like your everyday lighthearted all-girls anime shows. Much of what helps Love Live and Bang Dream stand out, in my view, is its drama side, which benefits from a practical/meaningful source of conflict.

But fighting to keep a school open has been done a lot in anime in general, and especially in Love Live. But fighting to keep a rock band venue open? Now that's different. And it ties in very directly to Poppin' Party's dreams. I mean, I'm sure there's other venues out there, but these five girls are all very much use to this particular one, and they've built up some emotional attachment to it.

So very clever writing here, in my view. It makes me feel confident in Bang Dream moving forward.

I almost broke down in tears with Saya. Very well done. You could tell that Kasumi was struggling to keep herself happy and pull the school festival through all along the episode to avoid giving Saya yet another feeling of guilt to carry.

There's a great sense of warmth and friendship between Kasumi and Saya. Kasumi is so very, very warm. It's one of the main things I like about her. Kasumi is a little pushy, but she also seems like a very good caring person to me.

In general, Bang Dream simply radiates with woolly warmth. It makes it very easy to cheer on these characters and feel moved by their success.

[Ulin]

By the way, I was surprised by the band's name... I thought that poppin party was going to be a joke and the actual name were going to be BangDream

[novalysis]

I wonder what it would take for BanG Dream to grab the attention of the mainstream international anime watching community. since the anime seems to be an abject failure on that front (though apparently. it is doing well in Japan).