BanG Dream! Ave Mujica

The day Sakiko Togawa's privileged life crumbled, she painfully broke her vow to CRYCHIC and left the band behind—an act that tore her heart in two. As days fade into nights, she struggles to make ends meet until a certain cherished memory is tainted, pushing her to the edge.

Driven by a fractured sense of purpose and the need to reclaim what she lost, Sakiko forms Ave Mujica, a masked symphonic metal band. Its members are bound not by a shared goal but by the fragile threads of their divergent desires. Together, they weave a haunting masquerade of loss and rebirth, captivating audiences with a gothic musical stage play. But as the girls' ideals collide, the scars of their pasts rear their ugly heads. The brittle facade the girls have built threatens to collapse beneath them, bringing Sakiko to the verge of falling apart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Togawa, Sakiko Main

Takao, Kanon Japanese

Wakaba, Mutsumi Main

Watase, Yuzuki Japanese

Misumi, Uika Main

Sasaki, Rico Japanese

Yahata, Umiri Main

Okada, Mei Japanese

Yuutenji, Nyamu Main

Yonezawa, Akane Japanese

Takamatsu, Tomori Supporting

Youmiya, Hina Japanese

Chihaya, Anon Supporting

Tateishi, Rin Japanese

Nagasaki, Soyo Supporting

Kohinata, Mika Japanese

Kurata, Mashiro Supporting

Shindou, Amane Japanese

Kaname, Raana Supporting

Aoki, Hina Japanese

Matsuura, Hiroaki Producer

Hozumi, Shouta Producer

Kakimoto, Koudai Director, Sound Director

Ayana, Yuniko Script, Series Composition

Reviews

Mar 30, 2025

44mebh

Recommended

Oh thank you Bushiroad for giving us the wonderful Umineko anime adaption that Studio Deen was never capable of creating that we yearned for

(I wanted to just write my first setence of the review but its to short for mal, so some thoughts!)
Episodes 1-10 are a masterpiece, a great drama, each episode left me on the edge wanting for more. The real show stealer though will always be the beautiful representation of Dissociative Identity Disorder displayed in Mutsumi. No anime, no media has ever been able to captivate DID as great as Ave Mujica has. Her mannerisms, her struggles, her ideals, and her conclusion for ... her arc all fit perfectly and accurately. After episode 10, things get a little wishy-washy, but it is never not interesting. 9.5/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 30, 2025

avemujica

Mixed Feelings

i was hoping to love this series even more than mygo, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

for me, the biggest issue was that i had too many expectations. if they could write such an impressive and charming story for a band as seemingly "ordinary" as mygo, i wondered what they could create for a band with a gothic and mysterious aesthetic. unfortunately, i ended up feeling a bit... disappointed.

the story mainly revolves around mutsumi and sakiko. umiri and nyamu barely gets scenes...... ah. we got almost three episodes focused on mutsumi, one episode where umiri gets some attention, and the two episodes are abt *sign* uika. ... honestly, my biggest disappointment was uika. giving her such a background felt completely irrelevant to a band anime. mutsumi’s situation at least created conflicts between avemujica and crychic, adding tension to the story, so it didn’t bother me as much—but uika’s felt completely out of the blue. sorry but... whatever you say, it was literally unnecessary.

the scene transitions, dialogue gaps… they’ve slowly started to get on my nerves. everything in this series felt incredibly rushed. i’m not even sure if the writers read through the script one last time before finalizing it, because there were way too many plot holes. did they write this while high or ????? it's as if they can't cope with the themes they put forward and are trying to escape......

the music... where's the music honestly? where's the passion? i'm not talking about the sudden performances. how and why was saki composing songs like this? how did uika write lyrics like that? the outspokenness found in mygo is completely absent here. i get that their stories are meant to be polar opposites—that’s what the writers were trying to convey—but you can’t do that by treating the audience like stupid asf. if a music anime doesn’t show a single scene of the vocalist and composer actually working on music, that’s... weird. the only moment i remember is uika looking at tomori’s lyrics in ep9 and then this got tied to fear of abandonment. uhm okay? cool, i guess.

ugh. as an ave mujica fan, i ended up facing a lot of disappointment. i wanted a carefully crafted and deep story for my favorite band, but this ended up being one of the most underdeveloped and immature stories among bandori bands. it felt like, "we can write whatever we want, you’ll like it anyway, so we’ll just keep being ridiculous." even hello happy world, which is often seen as the most childish and unserious band, made more sense than ave mujica. sorry. the whole "forget everything and disappear under the moon" concept also felt bland because we only ever heard about it from saki. i mean… you had damn 13 episodes. not a single character showed any real connection with this concept.

it probably seems like i’ve written an extremely negative and hateful review, but really, my only complaints are about the writing. to put it simply, i don’t hate the scenes—i hate the way they were put together. yeah like... they had so many great ideas but in the end they couldn't put them together. i feel so sorry. maybe instead of making a series, they should have just made yt shorts or something /j

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 30, 2025

Cr0ws

Not Recommended

Well-written

I have never had my mind occupied by something that I have arrived upon hating so much.

There's things I do like. Watching episode by episode was fascinating. The BGM and sound design are a marvel. The voice acting is strong. The whole idea is great, and had so much potential. Sakiko's long-awaited (evil?/redemption?) arc! Mutsumi's getting real focus now, with a very interesting psychological angle to play off of! Starting the first episode with such a big play, where do they go from here?

I had hoped. Anytime something that didn't particularly make sense happened, I would brush it off. It's something for the viewer to ... analyze, and we will be rewarded for our attention later, you'd assume. But that continues to pile up. Episode by episode, there seems to be a lot to unpack and think about, but the real problem is how none of that is ever to be expanded upon. Looking back on it, it seems like so much wasted time for both the show and the viewer for these threads to be put out there to ponder only for them to mean nothing but shock value in retrospect.

Not sugarcoating it- a lot of this comes down to a misusage of time. The pacing is staggeringly bad. So many times there'd be a sentiment of "They're rushing into this headfirst into this in the plot, so the episode feeling rushed isn't weird." No, that's not the issue. Things are being left out. Important things. Thirteen episodes can quite easily tell a coherent story. No, it doesn't "get continued in the BanG Dream mobile game" like some people may believe. MyGO!!!!! ended in a way that an anime-only could be satisfied with it, without straight up telling you you need to go and download a mobile game if you want a satisfying conclusion. You can't patch up and ignore plot holes and dredge up discarded plot lines like this with a the promise of some random in-game event down the line.

There's many elephants in the room. Some of the elephants in that room are the members of MyGO!!!!!, and they are particularly quiet elephants, spectating silently for most of the time. Their involvement in the plot is watered down and cut out especially in the back half of the anime, which makes their very focused sections in particular all the more polarizing as the show treats it like they have been key players in the plot the whole time, and not just something for the plot to fall back on and tread over for fan (dis)service. MyGO!!!!!'s hindered involvement makes even less sense to me with the announcement of a sequel, featuring the two bands coming together for... something. Now it makes all those times where their reactions and conversations weren't shown even more frustrating, as that would have been a great way to actually build the dynamic between the two in a natural manner. That excuse I kept wanting to give the show that "It's Ave Mujica's anime, so focus on them, and they will solve the problem themselves" folds much harder hearing this whole setup, and the pacing starts to look even worse for it knowing that episode thirteen is not going to be the conclusion of the story.

By the end of the show, I can't help but hate most of the characters more. Not in a flawed character way, in a non-believable character way. The inconsistent flip-flopping happens so often that it's not a "human thing" anymore. It just means the character is only making the decisions the plot needs at the time. Everyone, except maybe Umiri- despite her still having inconsistencies- has ended the show feeling like flatter characters than they began as and leaving a negative impression on me. But maybe it's because of how much the narrative likes to ignore Umiri's problems and use her only as comic relief in favor of whatever it was we received instead of exploring her many mentioned issues.

Ave Mujica and its characters are a foil to MyGO!!!!!'s. Nearly every episode contrasts one from the previous entry in some way, hitting the same beats purposefully. It's commendable attention to detail, obviously, carefully constructed to be that way - but it honestly feels like they were more concerned with mirroring their praised predecessor and shocking the viewer rather than actually trying to tie this story together cohesively. These contrasts between the two shows and their character relationships are on full display so many times over.

The biggest contrast, however, is the writing quality.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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'BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!' & 'Ave Mujica' Anime Sequel Announced

Following the broadcast of the 13th and final episode of BanG Dream! Ave Mujica (Ave Mujica: The Die is Cast) on Thursday, a sequel to both the anime and it's ...read more

Mar 27, 10:06 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (7 comments)

Winter 2025 Simulcast List [Update 2/23]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Winter 2025 season. Anime series licensed for hom...read more

Jan 1, 1:41 PM by Snow | Discuss (13 comments)

	Poll: BanG Dream! Ave Mujica Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) AkeZZZ - Mar 27	110 replies	by DarK-LaW »» Today, 5:54 AM
	Interesting comments from the director regarding the development of one of the main characters by the end of the show (spoiler warning) RobertBobert - Mar 29	1 replies	by Hormigo »» Today, 3:31 AM
	Music enthusiasts! Will you be adding Ave Mujica's debut album "Completeness" to your Album of the Year contenders? dazedcowcow62 - Mar 27	8 replies	by ddwwss1365 »» Yesterday, 7:09 PM
	MyGO and Ave Mujica Members' Crying mc314159 - Mar 27	2 replies	by Tamunomo »» Mar 28, 11:26 PM
	Poll: Adding Psychological tag to this anime? Yes or No? KeepCalmAndMal - Jan 31	14 replies	by RobertBobert »» Mar 28, 7:28 AM

Behind the Masks: Unveiling the mystery gothic anime Ave Mujica

Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast - Exclusive interview with Director Kodai Kakimoto and Band Producer Hiroki Matsumoto. Explore the symphonic metal band’s gothic beauty, psychological drama, and haunting themes. Step into a dark, exquisite world of duality and tragedy in this gripping series.

by MAL_editing_team

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