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Girls Band Cry is the second unexpected gem of this season, in the same genre as Jellyfish Who Can't Swim at Night. And Gang of Crying Women is an even better anime! Just like in Jellyfish - the plot is typical and already known to a wider audience. Nina Iseri, a 17-year-old whose dream is to start a band and make it a success, moves from her family home to Tokyo, also because of her father, with whom she has a poor relationship, and because of school. She gets to the capital, experiences some unfortunate events (on the first night she leaves his luggage outside ... the house without staying there xD), but most importantly - she meets his idol, former Diamond Dust vocalist, Kawaragi Momoka. The first episode focuses on Nina's little trip around Tokyo, where she gets to know the city, which is sprinkled with gags (such as the discovery that gays really exist xD). This is something completely new for her, because she has spent her whole life in a place other than the huge Tokyo. It's not a special introduction, like in Jellyfish, but there are a lot of similarities, for example - a meeting with an idol, also the capital, a performance at the end of the episode, a lot of gags. We also got the first "glimpse" of its problems here, more on which later. Generally, these initial episodes are not very good, amazing or who knows how good - they are decent, pleasant to watch, but without any major suprises(unlike another production from this season :D). At first we don't learn much about Momoka, only that she was the singer of DD and thanks to Nina and her great singing, she wants to start a band with her (episode 1). The least interesting character of the main five is certainly Subaru. Her issues are quite typical (which doesn't mean they are bad), she has a few moments in the series, but that's probably it. We know that she is enrolled in an acting school, but she prefers to play the drums. The next members of the gang are Rupa and Tomo. They live together and tried to form their own bands much earlier, but something always went wrong. They work in gastronomy to earn money, but they still believe in their success. So one day they go to a performance of the three mentioned above and thanks to it they want to cooperate. This probably happens in episode 6, so we meet both of them quite late. We don't know anything about Tomo, about her past or anything. Her problems are also zero, because there is nothing to base it on. She's a slightly tsundere anime girl who feels a little guilty about destroying her and Rupa's last band because she pointed out to others that they were not very good (Tomo herself plays the piano very well, she even took part in some competitions). And there is an entire episode devoted to this, where at the beginning of her career in Togenashi Togeari (the band of our five) she's afraid to point out anything to the girls, and then, when she saw how Nina was trying or Subaru's perspective, she started clearly pointing out what they were doing wrong and it was recognized as a positive. It's hard to call it a problem for this character, since in one episode they showed her phobias (?) and in the same episode she is no longer have it. Let's continue with a description of what's best in this series - showing the emotions and problems of the our characters (episodes 8 and 10). I really appreciate this aspect of Girls Band Cry because it is done so masterfully. Toei is not good at pacing or anything like that, but when they adapt, they are very good at it. Here the director went astray and the effect is great. Scenes when the heroine for the development of relationships - a masterpiece of emotional outpouring. Maybe my description is crap, but you just have to watch it, I can't convey it in words. Episode 8 is undeniably the best episode of this series, for many reasons. Momoka is going to leave TT, she feel that this is not it, this is not how it should be. Nina is adamantly against it, many times they both argue about it, they pour this bucket of slop on each other, it even comes to the point that Momoka hits Nina. But during the concert of DD (I don't remember how they got there) they meet on backstage and argue again, which will lead to one of the best written scenes I have ever seen. During this argument, Momoka's friends ( ofc DD) come out from behind the scenes and meet her. She is going to escape by car, but Nina gets in her way and almost gets run over, they continue to argue (XD), Momoka finally starts to realize something, she doesn't want to see DD, but she challenges them and she and Nina drive away. Then they play VOID at full volume, Momoka sings and bursts into tears - the director should get a generous bonus for this particular scene. It was incredibly moving, I swear I haven't seen such a good single scene in a long time. Masterpiece. The second best episode is episode 10, which shows Iseri's problems, namely, we have a confrontation with her parents and the past. One day, Nina's mother comes to the restaurant where her daughter works because she is looking for her. Nina, on the other hand, avoids her mother and father (who is also looking for her to talk to her about quitting school to join the band) for the next few days, but eventually she reaches the family home on her own. There is a conversation with the father, where both sides have their reasons. In short, it turns out that the father was not what he was portrayed as, and he was constantly supporting his daughter and trying to deal with the bullying situation at school (btw, I didn't mention it, but Nina was a victim of bullying at school from (look how short this world is) the new singer DD; obviously, the school was shown in a stereotypical light, so when a confrontation occurred in the principal's room, Nina ran away to the radio station, shut herself up and played Momoka's VOID on the entire school - this was one of the main reasons why Nina didn't move her live, thanks to the music of her idol). He didn't turn out to be a heartless father, but he was constantly worried about his daughter since she moved, and there wasn't a day when he didn't talk about it with his wife. We also have a touching scene with her sister in the room or the moment when Nina leaves the house at the end of the episode - you just have to watch it. The next, shorter aspect is CGI animation. CGI THAT IS GOOD, REALLY GOOD. Chapeau bas for all the animators, they took care of everything (those facial expressions yhmmmm). The only downside is the mixing of 2D and 3D, but fortunately it rarely appears. Since it is a music-girl anime, music is a very important element. In Bocchi or Jellyfish, she was quite typical and unremarkable. But here music is a kind of cosmos. The opening is a banger, the best of the season, second only to BlingBangBangBorn this year. VOID is honey to my ears - THIS MUSIC STANDS OUT AND DOESN'T SOUND TYPICAL. Girls Band Cry has about 16 songs (1 or 2 are typical), and I also liked Nameless Name. The seiyuu did their job great. The final plot element is building a team and a brand around it. Here they have combined it well with the emotional sphere and it is compatible with each other. Additionally, each TT performance is accompanied by great animation and the lines that appear while singing are a very little thing, but they perfectly reflect the atmosphere of the series. Overall, there is almost nothing to complain about here, the series is impeccable, very good, original, amazing. Adding to all this, episode 13 without any buts gives a rating of 10/10. He perfectly showed the advantages of this series and put together in 20 minutes - the emotional sphere, the performance at the very end, problems with the team. This episode had all of that and more. Additionally, he touched on the aspect with Hina, what happened at school, the reason for Nina's departure. The confrontation scene in the cafe (?) was very good. She showed the dualism of our "antagonist", that she doesn't really want anything bad for her former friend, despite what she did to her at school and the rivalry between them (the gag with the notes is funny). After the cafe scene, we have another great scene at Momoka's house (isn't there any scene in this anime that was great, solid, perfect, very good? XD), while the four of girls are talking, Iseri gets on the table playing the guitar, singing and crying. Just peak. And finally, we have the last performance of this season. To be honest, it turned out to be average (I was secretly hoping that they would sing the opening theme), but it wasn't bad. I will also add that I love how most of the time the conversation is presented, which does a great job of building the relationships between the characters, their personality and the anime itself - including is Girls Band Cry. Now all we can do is wait for season 2, where we will develop Subaru, Momo and Rupa, who are just waiting for it. There will be nothing better this year, no seasonal product will surpass this gem