Girls Band Cry

Everyone yearns to find their true purpose in life. This is also true for Nina Iseri, a 17-year-old girl looking to enroll in a good university, but the world always seems to work against her. On her very first day in Tokyo, she gets lost, ignored, and locked out of her new apartment. However, an unexpected opportunity arises when Nina meets Momoka Kawaragi, one of her favorite guitarists.

After Nina joins Momoka for a street performance, Momoka decides they should start a band together. While Nina initially hesitates, her determination grows as they start acquiring more bandmates—the beautiful drummer Subaru Awa, the aloof keyboardist Tomo Ebizuka, and the intelligent bassist Rupa. The five girls face challenges both in the music industry and within themselves, but their shared passion for music never lets them give up on their dreams.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Iseri, Nina Main

Rina Japanese

Awa, Subaru Main

Mirei Japanese

Kawaragi, Momoka Main

Yuuri Japanese

Rupa Main

Shuri Japanese

Ebizuka, Tomo Main

Natsu Japanese

Hina Supporting

Kondou, Reina Japanese

Nakata Supporting

Kanuka, Mitsuaki Japanese

Rin Supporting

Urushiyama, Yuuki Japanese

Ai Supporting

Miyashiro, Momoko Japanese

Nana Supporting

Matsuoka, Misato Japanese

Hirayama, Tadashi Producer

Sakai, Kazuo Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Miyoshi, Keiichirou Sound Director

Imura, Kenji Episode Director

Reviews

Jun 28, 2024

Marinate1016

Recommended

It’s no exaggeration to say the Spring 2024 anime season changed my life. Girls Band Cry was a big part of that. One of the best band anime I’ve ever seen, full of life lessons and encouraging me to continue pursuing my dreams, no matter how difficult the road is. For me, this is what people thought Bocchi the Rock was. A simple yet poignant story about a group of girls struggling with personal issues stepping outside of their comfort zones and coming together to form a band and chase their dreams, even as the world doubts them. And in the process learning more about ... themselves than ever before and growing into better people. That’s selling it a bit short though. GBC is also a really ambitious multimedia project that uses groundbreaking 3D animation and brought together a group of talented newcomer seiyuu to form a band in real life who make amazing music too. This was truly the experience of a lifetime and it’s absolutely criminal that more people didn’t get to watch it due to licensing issues.

I was very hesitant to watch GBC because of my aversion to 3D animation, but after being convinced by some friends I watched the first few episodes about halfway into the season and was blown away by the quality of both the story and anime. Nina, Momoka and the other girls just gave off such a sense of authenticity and it felt like I was watching real girls transition into the next phase of their lives. The angst, the drama, the insecurities, doubts, they just hit in a way that few shows in the medium can. I think that’s due in no small part to the amazing 3D animation used in this.
Normally I’d separate the technical aspects of an anime into a separate category, but in the case of GBC, I’m keeping them together because of how the animation style allows for a more expressive style of storytelling. The 3D animation in GBC looks amazing thanks in large part to the frame rate. If you’ve seen other 3D anime I.e Beastars or Bocchan, you’ll notice that while the 3D art may look cool, there’s a stiffness to the characters that reminds you it’s 3D or takes you out of the immersion. That’s usually due to the framerate being capped too low. What the production staff did GBC realised is that by making the frame-rate higher, it creates a smoother animation that feels almost lifelike. So when characters have disagreements, or breakdown in tears, which happens a lot in GBC, we as the audience are able to feel that with a weight that you can’t normally feel in anime. It basically mixes that cute girl anime aesthetic with the body language of real life actors and it does have a big impact on the story. It’s already a very grounded story that a lot of people will be able to empathise with, but when you combine that with the visuals and the raw emotion the seiyuu are able to bring.. that’s when you get something special.

If it seems like there’s similarities in my descriptions of GBC and Yorukura, also from this season, it’s because well.. they’re pretty damn similar and address a lot of the same themes. The main difference being GBC is a rock band and Yorukura is about the girls forming a multimedia collective. Same concept applies, Yuri undertones with girls from drastically different walks of life meeting by chance and realising how much they have in common, forming a band, MC having a crush on the older member whose work motivated them in the past, etc. When listing everything out, it’s actually wild how similar both were, but that’s not an issue. They’re both great and I’d respect any order with the two of them. I think GBC has better music since A: I’m a massive J-rock stan and B: the girls who became the seiyuu for the characters were actually brought in to form a band first, and an anime second. But I liked Yorukura’s story better. I’m just glad we got blessed with both of these in the same season!

From a technical perspective as I’ve said GBC looks amazing. The uncapped framerates are a big reason, but the use of shadow and lighting also makes the show look better than most seasonal 3D anime. You can tell the entire project was planned meticulously and even backgrounds and minor details were designed with the 3D in mind. This makes for a much better looking show than normal. The musical performances especially were just mind blowing. The level of fluidity and emotion that the studio were able to pull off.. I have no words, especially the last few eps. I touched on it earlier but the seiyuu as well are a big part of this. Them being new to voice acting means there’s a level of rawness and sincerity in their voices that you don’t get with career seiyuu. It makes angsty characters like Nina and Momoka even better and you can’t help but get emotional during a lot of their scenes.

Overall GBC was one of the best anime of the season, and while I’m taking Yorukura over it as AOTS, I’m totally fine with someone doing the opposite. The story was full of emotional twists and turns, the drama was well done, there were the Yuri undertone, the music, performances.. it had it all. Most importantly though, it reminded me that it’s not about how many times you fail when chasing your dreams, only about how many times you get up and keep rocking.

Girls Band Cry gets a very easy 10, out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 3, 2024

SleepingDragon01

Mixed Feelings

In the premise that this is a music anime, this definitely is good as the songs and how they present the song is done well and was made purposely to please the viewers eyes.

Onto the character side, the MC's personality is definitely something that pisses me off, typical DIVA in the making and though I appreciate that somehow there was an improvement somewhere episode 10 onwards, MC already ruined my viewing experience so much so that I can already say that I hate her. If they do plan on making a sequel I do hope that they change her personality or focus more on the ... other bandmates.

Story side, plot is a little cliché, country girl trying to make it in the big city, meets supporting characters and proceed with their goals. One thing that I like is the responses of each character to another. It became a little bit more realistic especially at the end part.

Definitely would have been an easy 9 or 10 if MC was not made to be like that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 7, 2024

Tacsk0

Not Recommended

Creative

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. Eat ... from 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!?

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Spring 2024 season. Anime series licensed for hom...read more

Apr 5, 1:40 PM by Snow | Discuss (29 comments)

	Expelled from Girls Band Cry? Tacsk0 - Nov 22	1 replies	by KillerWaffle50 »» 3 hours ago
	Poll: Girls Band Cry Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) KANLen09 - Jun 28	166 replies	by agunZagun »» Nov 20, 2:31 PM
	Poll: Girls Band Cry Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) IzanaSolos - May 31	57 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Nov 20, 10:41 AM
	Poll: Girls Band Cry Episode 6 Discussion IzanaSolos - May 10	43 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Nov 19, 8:14 AM
	Poll: Girls Band Cry Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) IzanaSolos - Apr 19	72 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Nov 18, 10:12 AM