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This is the season BanG Dream fans have been waiting for.

I'm a big fan of this series and have been for a couple years now, and for as well written as the mobile game's story was, I (and many other people) were just waiting for the egg to hatch. There was so much potential in this series, and to have it written off as just more shoveled out seasonal garbage was disheartening.

It's unfortunate that the road to get here was littered with rubbish. Season 1 was extraordinarily bad, and season 2 was lukewarm at best and fell flat at worst. For everybody who got that ... far and decided to call it, it's unfortunate that they might not ever have a chance to see what this franchise has to offer.

This season is the pay-off. It's extremely evident that the creators took past criticisms to heart and did their best to deliver a final product worth raving about. The art, animation, storytelling, absolutely everything has peaked this season, and I loved virtually every second. Here's what I have to say about each:

Story: 8/10

The biggest praise I have to give the story this time around is how they managed to finally break free. The story is absolutely not something novel, however, it's done in such a way that feels fresh and invigorating. It's no longer the series of trope after trope that arbitrarily pushes forward some uninteresting plot. I felt like I had reason to care about the story and the struggles each of the characters had to go through, and it is precisely this sort of connection that storytellers want to create. Sure, this season had its drab moments, but ultimately just blemishes on a bigger whole. And the payoff in the grand finale is just worth it.

Art: 8/10

If you watched Season 2, you'll know that the always-on 3D CG takes some getting used to. They sort of dropped the ball in Season 2, where the art took backseat. This time around, they improved the character designs, graphics, and the animations themselves! I remember early on in one of the first concert MV-inserts, my jaw hit the floor with how detailed it was. I really mean it, I had to pause part way through just so I could take it all in! They really put their best effort in the most important moments. On the off scenes, it can feel a little poor due to the triple frame animation, but they hit hard where it counts, and I appreciate it.

Sound: 9/10

I loved the OST. A lot of it is re-used from Season 2, which I liked anyway, but there are some new songs here. I'm eagerly awaiting the OST to release physically so I can snag a copy, I really feel it's worth picking up. A lot of the insert songs were pretty jamming, too. I particularly like the ending theme.

Character: 8/10

Like I said in the Story section, while this is nothing new, I felt there were legitimate reasons to feel attached to these characters. Slightly trope-y, indeed, but the interactions and dynamics between the cast as a whole flows in such a delicate balance that I can only describe as working as intended.

Enjoyment: 10/10

Yes, I'm biased here. Like I've said, this is the season we've all been waiting for. Right from the get-go, from episode 1, this season hit the ground running, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I loved pretty much every moment!

Conclusion: 8/10

While I'd love to say, "if you're not a BanG Dream fan, forget the other two seasons and just watch this", that unfortunately isn't possible. Season 1 could probably be skipped without much value being lost, but Season 2 pretty much directly ties into this. However, I hope my sentiment holds: If you're willing to bear with one bad season and one mediocre season to get to this, I personally promise you that you'll not be disappointed. This season was interesting, funny, sounded great, had lovable characters, and honestly just all-around fun to watch. I'll probably do it again soon!

And if you're a BanG Dream fan like me, I promise you, this is truly where the series belongs. I sincerely hope we'll see more in the future. After all, if the trend of each-season-just-gets-better keeps up, who knows where this could go?

If you'd like to hear why I kept saying I loved "virtually every" moment, please see the spoiler-filled full review as a blog post on my profile.

And finally, if you're an Afterglow fan like I am, prepare to be very thoroughly disappointed.

I began watching this show because I wanted to get into its mobile game counterpart, which requires completion of this show before beginning. If you know anything about the company responsible for this, you may know of BanG Dream!, another anime-turned-mobage. You also may know that the parent anime wasn't exactly a succulent show. I expected the same going into this one; I was ready to receive a sub-par series shoveled out by Bushiroad for their subgroup BUSHIMO to create a mobile game. And unfortunately, what I got was the opposite of what I expected. This show was absolutely fantastic, and I very much cannot ... wait to delve into the mobage.

Story: 9/10

It's not a novel story by any means, but I loved pretty much every second of it, save a bit here or there. The direction is amazing, right from episode one I felt as if this were a new break from every other shoveled out show I've seen. It felt different, original if I may. The sense of mystery, wonder, exposition, all of it felt so new and fresh to me despite being a story I've heard a thousand times.

Art: 8/10

The art is great. Some scenes marvelously blew me away with how detailed they were, others left me amazed with how much detail they could cram in. There were moments where it seemed to degrade a bit, granted, but it in no way left a sour taste in my mouth. I love the character designs, too!

Sound: 9/10

I'm a sucker for orchestrated soundtracks. Aside from the amazing opening and ending themes, the insert songs and background songs were filled with lovely orchestra, big band, jazz, you name it. Each insert song was lovely to listen to, and every down moment was accompanied with a piece that always fit the mood.

Character: 10/10

I LOVED these characters. With most shows of a large(ish) cast, you have your archetypes. The rich girl, genki girl, the airhead, etc. It didn't really feel that way this time around. There were tropes, granted, but each character had motives, ideals, flaws, and a clear goal in mind that progressed the story seamlessly. At no point did I stop and think how unrealistic these fictional characters were, as their writing was phenomenal and I always found myself rooting for whomever was on the screen at the given time. There was one character who unfortunately got the short end of the stick, but I'm still giving character writing a 10 because she just never got her spotlight.... literally. Banana is best, by the way.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Never a dull moment. With such beautiful art and sound, characters that propelled a story from exposition to climax, I loved every step of the journey. So much so, obviously, that I felt compelled to write a revue! Er, review.

Overall / Conclusion:

This is one show I'm glad to say I've completed. I honestly can't wait to see what BUSHIMO has in store for me in the mobile game; if the stories there are just as decent as they are here, that would be an app I know I'll keep for a while.

But as it stands for this show, I loved it. Its mystery continually left me wondering and wanting more, all the way to the climax of the final episode. I didn't always know what was going on, and while I'm still left clueless about some things, that's okay. Show, don't tell, after all.

I highly recommend this show. That's the best way to put it.

If you're anything like me, you enjoyed the tap hell that is Bandori. Perhaps you thought to yourself, "maybe the source anime was good!" If that's the case, be warned, because if you're anything like me, you won't come out the other side as optimistic as you were going in. It wasn't too good. I've broken down my review into the core parts.

Story: 4/10

It wasn't terrible. But it wasn't good either. Most, if not all, of the paper thin plot was shoehorned in, in an artificial attempt to create drama. Hardly any of it flowed naturally; it felt like one needless hurdle after another. This ... is, of course, in a show which requires little to no plot in the first place. Look at K-On!, for example, a band anime where girls get together and have fun. Bandori, on the other hand, doesn't exactly attempt to be revolutionary, but it does fall back to the same tropes that almost every mediocre show is guilty of. And then immediately forgets about said plot tropes. It was a rough ride from start to finish, but I will say that it ended on a good note. There were perhaps two good episodes throughout the series.

Art: 3/10

Good lord, what a mess the art was. I'm not exactly an anime art style connoisseur, if it's presentable, it's fine by me. That's what this anime wasn't: presentable. Right from the get-go the amount of derp-frames are absurd; more often than not you'll stare at a face and question whether or not that's even anatomically possible. And when they cut to 3D CGI for the music scenes (this happens often, so be wary of that) it's not any better. I will say, however, that what we've seen from their 3D CGI recently as music videos from other bands (HHW, Afterglow, etc) look leaps and bounds better, so I'm hopeful for season 2's CGI. (Which, by the way, S2 will be only 3D CGI. We'll see how that goes.)

Character: 6/10

Kinda trope-y, kinda fun. A lot of the personalities of the cast are those which you've seen time and time again, but that's not to say it was that bad. There are times you'll think to yourself, "Of course, because that's what that stereotypical archetype would do", but it flows kinda nicely. It certainly makes for some humorous interactions. Some.

Sound: 8/10

This is a huge hit or a miss, and not everyone would agree with me. For one thing, I didn't like the singles. They didn't resonate with me, as I found myself enjoying maybe 2, 3 songs tops. The background music, however, was great at conveying whatever emotion the studio wanted you to feel. It built tension, opened relief, conveyed when a time was goofy, or whatever else music is supposed to do. It was good, it sounded good, it worked well, not much else to say here.

Enjoyment: 6/10

Even with everything I've said above, I didn't hate it. It wasn't a masterpiece by any means, but it wasn't as if it was some show written, produced, and aired in less than a day. When I wasn't reeling in the artificial drama or awkwardly staring at a poorly drawn key frame for more than what felt like was normal, I enjoyed the wacky antics of these characters. As I've said, there were a few good moments buried in a mountain of mediocrity.

Overall / Conclusion:

If my flip-flopping stance hasn't been drilled through enough, I'll reiterate it one last time. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great. It was somewhere between "just okay" and "good", which I suppose warrants a 6. It wasn't what I was expecting from the Garupa mobile game's Band Stories (which were pretty good), but those alone give me hope for season 2.

I enjoyed the Garupa Pico mini-show series more than this. If you came from the mobile game and want to watch something Bandori related, watch that. Otherwise, your hopes may be a bit too high from what this show delivered.

Let me preface this with a statement: This show is not meant to be taken seriously.

I mean that completely and entirely. You're going to be very disappointed if you expect a show that will take you to the ends of time and space and show you what you've always dreamed of. For a show that, during its time, shook its industry, this may be off-putting.

Lucky☆Star-- the show that you'd recommend to many but can't due to being unable to find the unicode star and just use a space instead (I will be referring to it as Lucky Star because I can't find it either)-- is ... a show that I thoroughly enjoyed in and out. Cute girls doing cute things aside, Lucky Star absolutely changed how I perceive this genre of anime.

While it may be easy to write this off as a show that had minimal effort with its repetitive humor and dull moments, I believe this show both is not to be taken seriously, and at times, doesn't even take itself very seriously-- the only continuation of any plot whatsoever would be obtained from each episode's iconic style of conclusion, which even then is a reference to a past endeavor. Kyoto Animation took a no-holds-barred approach to this show's amount of humor and references.

So, what do I mean when I say not to take this show seriously? Like I mentioned, this is a show that changed how I look at these slices of life, arguably for the better. Coming into Lucky Star with expectations of an overarching plot such as K-On! will leave you somewhat dazed. Instead (and I am by no means the first to look at it this way), consider this show a form of popping by your new friends and seeing how they're doing.

I understand that sounds weird, and those new to anime in general would consider that the hole they don't want to fall into, but I stand firm in my belief that this show was meant to show you the lives of friends living out their time in school in an (arguably) normal way. Normal lives don't consist of making it big early on or meeting a destined partner after years of being separated-- at least, not entirely. Normal lives consist of a few basic ingredients that Lucky Star replicates almost perfectly.

The show's comedy, repetitive as it is, almost exactly resembles that of a group of friends with their inside jokes and running gags. The show's dry moments show you that not every second of life is spent running around doing something important. The show's moments of clarity and entertainment-- going to a beach, a festival, or whatever else have you-- mirror life's peaks, those spent with friends and loved ones.

In conclusion (of a review that went everywhere randomly), this show's perfect adaptation of a real world make it absolutely enjoyable. Lucky Star truly understood what a slice of life is: not a semi-realistic group of people who will occasionally make you think, "wow, that's totally me!", but an entirely realistic group of friends who will constantly and consistently make you feel like they're a real entity. Of course, the colored hair of the protagonists isn't becoming a natural reality anytime soon.

But who knows? Maybe they're out there.

Post statement: There are times when the "realism" card gets tossed away and replaced with a more humorous element, in references to other works of anime or manga. You'll definitely know it when you see it.