Reviews for BanG Dream! 2nd Season

One thing that I want to note is that you DO NOT have to watch Season 1 of the anime, or have to had played the mobile game (BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!) in order to enjoy this series. But, the full derivation of enjoyment will undeniably be obtained only if you've done the aforementioned. It enables you to treasure the characterization/seiyuu references of the main characters that are scattered throughout the episodes — namely Poppin'Party and a few newly introduced characters. The first few episodes serve as an introduction to the viewers who are unfamiliar with the characters from the mobile game, with themain plot coming in after that. It may feel a little awkward, and even filler-ly if you're a hardcore fan of the franchise. But in order to draw in a larger audience/newcomers, I understand the need to devote the screentime for these introductions. Having to juggle a cast of 30 characters (excluding girls from Glitter*Green, CHiSPA) is no small feat, and this season managed to pull it off well.

The CGI used was well drawn and animated, specifically during the live performances. The lighting and movements were amazing and drew me in, replicating the atmosphere of an actual live to a certain extent. Admittedly, I had to watch a few episodes to become fully accustomed to the CGI, and some movements were definitely janky and even robotic. However, they were minor qualms I had, and did not affect my enjoyment of the series whatsoever.

As a fervent fan of the franchise, I was pleasantly surprised to hear so many new songs which were first released through these weekly episodes. Bushiroad's been spoiling us fans with this immeasurable amount of content, and I'm grateful for that. The songs themselves are filled with emotion, specifically those of which are tied to the crux of the story. It allows you to understand the joys, hardship, and emotions these girls have toward life's challenges, and the bonds which are intertwined closely between them. It's a beautiful thing to watch and hear.

However, one minor gripe I had was that in Season 1, most of the songs were unadulterated; they were pure, and drew realistic vibes from the raw voices of the seiyuus. This was a feature I admired greatly about Season 1 — how they didn't always use the studio versions to present the authenticity of the performances. Season 2 only brought this feature over for a single insert song. But this is more of a personal preference than anything.

Here, I would highly recommend everyone to play the mobile game and to watch Season 1 first, before moving on to this. Some actions made by the characters in the series might throw you off, leaving you to wonder why their actions seem illogical/rude at first glance. Getting to know the core of these characters' personalities will boost your appreciation of them, and help you understand the reasons behind their behavior. The characterization runs deep within the cast, but is unfortunately rooted in the other aspects of the franchise. It's up to you to make the effort to unearth and discover more about these lovable characters!

Overall, this has been a fantastic season of music and friendship, and I cannot wait for Season 3 which will air on January 2020!

First, let me get one thing straight: the first season was a goddamn masterpiece. The characters were awesome, the plot was heart-wrenching, and the art/sound design was beautiful in spite of its unfortunately low budget. I love the game too, but I'm only a fan of Popipa after playing for 2 years; the other bands are meh. Biases aside, season 2 is by far one of the worst shows I've ever seen. People who are fans of the franchise tend to say they love it, but I can't. For the most part, it's unoriginal and lazily produced. Let's start with the plot. The show starts offwith some vague exposition that doesn't really go anywhere, and the conflict ends up being dropped for the next 4 episodes or so, where instead the other bands get obligatory (and completely irrelevant) screen time. In the end, Popipa just keeps doing what they've been doing as if there wasn't a problem in the first place. Next arc. Time conflicts happen, questionable choices are made, and then easily avoidable drama occurs. Normally I'd be okay with this, but the motivations behind everything were so lackluster/unsubstantial that I couldn't possibly buy into any of it. Furthermore, the drama is gravely serious (the betrayal, friendship-ruining kind), yet it's grossly undermined when all is forgiven in an instant. It's nonsense.

The characters? Oddly enough, Popipa sort of merged to become a single, incredibly dull character where whenever they have dialogue together, they just blurt out ideas one by one without really responding to each other; there isn't any sense of five unique individuals having a conversation. In fact, the entire cast can be easily described as gimmicky, soulless, and irrelevant, nothing more. PasuPare is an exception; their episode is a good example of what I expected from this season. As for RAS, they're rather uncomfortable to watch: we don't really know how and why its members chose each other to form a band, and they fill some kind of awkward, antagonistic role.

Art-wise? Decent CGI, by anime standards. However, the fact that the show is in full CGI limits its potential for variety. As a result, everyone wears the same crap for every off-day and every performance. I can understand the limitations of creating models, but they could have at least made original costume designs (or even the newer, less exposed designs from the game!). Instead, we'll have to suffer watching everyone wear the same crap they've worn in the game for 2 years. Now, some nitpicking: everyone's eyes shine so bright that they glow in the dark. I'm not kidding, it's very unsettling. Also, RAS looks like a freakshow; they really don't fit with the minimalism that the rest of the designs adhere to.

The sound can't be bad, right? Doesn't everyone like Bandori music? Thing is, most of the songs are copy-pasted from the game and onto the performances, and none of it was re-recorded live in a room. Consequently, everyone sounds like they're faking it; many of the songs aren't plot-relevant, and they feel obligatory. There are also performances of songs they've already performed before; it's ridiculous. The OPs and EDs are okay, nothing too special. The OST is disappointingly generic/nonexistent; it really lacks being emotionally-driven and thematically-consistent, like in season 1.

Season 2 is really just a crappy game advertisement. Most of it isn't new, and the content that is new is simply absurd. I can kind of understand why people like it, but I can't just turn my brain off to something that's part of a franchise that I love (a lot less now).

1/10. Do yourself a favor and don't watch this; give season 1 a chance if you haven't. It's far more genuine, charming, and real than this crap.

With a multimedia franchise like BanG Dream, it can be difficult to figure out where to start. While this may be labeled as the second season, it’s also something of a soft reboot, and intended to be viewable even if you haven’t seen the first season. But at the same time, this season doesn’t include formal character introductions, even for characters who hadn’t been present in the first season, so new viewers may be a bit lost initially. If you want to consume some other material before jumping in, it probably wouldn’t hurt, but at the same time, if you’re interested in the franchise becauseyou saw some 4komas on Twitter or whatever, that’s probably enough.

But if you are going in blind, be prepared to be overwhelmed by the size of the cast. Between the project’s five main bands, there are 25 characters, and this is key to the franchise’s success. At least one of them is likely to resonate with any given viewer, and there isn’t a one of them that isn’t someone’s favorite. Still, it’s a tall order to give each of them sufficient screen time across 13 episodes while still telling a coherent story, and to accomplish this, the first half of the season mostly has the main plot take place in the background while each band receives a dedicated episode. These episodes needed to balance establishing the identity of each band for those in the audience who weren’t familiar with the events of the mobile game with also delivering new content for more experienced viewers, and unfortunately some attempts were not as graceful as others. I think that by the end, every character had gotten at least a few good moments, but depending on your allegiances, you may walk away from this season a bit disappointed.

Once all of the introductions out of the way, the story is able to move the main plot into the spotlight, and this is where the season really shined. The passage of time is glossed over in a lot of anime, but a year has passed in the world of BanG Dream, and the effects of this period are tangible. This means that each group has had sufficient time to settle into a comfortable dynamic and grow as a band, but it also means that the specter of graduation is looming. Some of the bands have members in different years, and while none of them have been separated yet, this threat sets the stage for the main conflict of the season. The time of a high school band is fleeting, and the characters are forced to consider what it means to treasure these bonds.

Anyway, it’s probably worth mentioning that nearly the entirety of the season is animated with CG. A few years ago, this may have been a deal breaker, but by now anime has reached the point where this is a viable production method. If there’s one place where the animation falls short, it’s that facial expressions tend to be a bit stiff. But besides that, the CG is a step above what was featured in the previous season, so I’m considering it a success.

It took me a while to warm up to BanG Dream, but I’m glad I did. I love the sense of community that exists across its cast, and it’s been interesting to see how the dynamics have shifted over time. A third season has already been confirmed for the beginning of next year, and I’m curious to see how the situation with RAS will be resolved, and whether graduation will be explored further. Whatever is on the horizon, I’m looking forward to it.

This review is not made for anybody who does not enjoy the BanG Dream franchise. This is more so for the ones who enjoyed the game. As a fan of the BanG Dream franchise, or more so the game, when I watched the second season, I was very happy to see all the bands in action. And you know, we don't mention the first season, it's a little... who am I kidding, it utterly sucked. Although I have nothing against Poppin'Party, I even love their music in the game, I have to completely admit the first season was trash. Now, onto the 2nd season: Story (5): Thereis no actual story in the second series, per se, but if you're here from the awesome game, I highly suggest watching the second season and just skipping the first. Unless, you're a Poppin'Party fan and just want your opinion of them to suffer, don't watch the first season. But hey, I can't stop you.

Art (7):

As compared to the 1st season, I can completely admit that going for the CGI for everything was certainly better. The studio's CGI is quite nice, although some facial expressions were a little... eh...

Sound (8):

I will completely admit I'm extremely bias when it comes to the music because I'm a huge fan of the tap rhythm game (that you can install for android and apple, it's completely in english!). But even so, hearing Happy Happy Party everytime Poppin'Party performs is very repetitive. I wish they'd use some of Poppin'Party's other original songs, like Teardrops, it's one of my favorite original songs in the game. But the soundtracks and stuff are good nonetheless. Even the voice actors did amazing! Each voice suits their respective characters, I miss Lisa's old voice actress... welp, time to listen to Sunkissed Rhodonite for 100th time... in all seriousness, Lisa's new voice actress is just as good.

Character (8):

Now, for me, the characters are what kept me watching (and reading the story in the game). Every girl is a best girl! For every personality you want to find in an anime girl, it's right there in BanG Dream 2nd Season! Even if it's cliche, it's what people usually like, that's why people come to call it cliche. Every character had their really nice qualities, but also their flaws. Even so, they're all enjoyable to watch, you'll maybe come to ship some of the girls together, if ya know what I mean~

Enjoyment (8):

As I said before, I am VERY bias towards BanG Dream 2nd Season because you get to see all the girls and even a few that weren't from the game. For non-Bandori fans, this series is extreme crap, but for Bandori lovers, it's amazing.

If you know what all this craze is for the game? Install it and find out: BanG Dream Girls Band Party

You won't regret it.

Overall (8):

This is from the perspective of a huge fan of the BanG Dream game. I really enjoyed it because I got to see more of the interactions between the characters and squeal at ships that I happened to make. Whether you watch it or not is your choice, but I highly recommend it if you enjoy the game.

This is a pre-review, after having watched the first five episodes that aired until now. Why a pre-review? Because, for the sake of the peace in the world, for the sake of your brain cells, i ought to put a BIG warning here... For all of you, whether or not you liked the first season, forget about it. This second season is a totally different beast. One that sucks your brain cells... In short, it is basically a compliation of advertisements for multiple virtual bands Bushiroad tries to promote. Don't look for any story, any developement, or any sense. It's just a huge mess. Story 1: What story?7 months has passed since the end of season 1. We learn that girls bands are a big deal now. Glitter Green and Space have disappeared. There is one band that is huge enough to have a TV broadcast. A very "Aikatsu!" like band. An idol unit in fact. With drawings of sweets and pastries all over the stage. Period.

Aside from that... the first 5 episodes are empty. They hardly serve any purpose aside from advertising. Episodes 3 to 5 each feature a new band i don't give a shit about, tell us a shallow story about them to make us grow attached to them (but fail in doing so), and then throw at us their advertisment CGI promo clip, in hope we will buy their crappy CD. They even manage to add other promo clips at the end of the episodes, featuring others bands. Basically that mean that there is no real story, the episodes are almost one-shot promotional OVAs. The 6th episode will be about Afterglow, another band.

Art 3: It is all CGI. Everything in the series that is animated is CGI, and not only onstage. While the CGI is not total crap, the facial expressions and movements still feel sluggish and deformed. It feels unnatural. But it's cheaper to do i guess. All in all, some stages are ok. Actually most of what is related to Roselia is good enough. That's it.

Sound 3: The recordings of Roselia's performances finally make good use of the bass. Their music is something rockin' and not totally uninteresting, their singer don't go into high pitches either. But everything else is just idol crap with crappy lyrics, with nothing else to back them up, unlike almost all other idol animes. "Aikatsu!", or "Love Live !" each had some pretty nice tracks that helped immerse the viewer into the series, even someone who dislike J-Pop as much as i do. This is the power of an OST. The music becomes evocative of something and you may end up loving (maybe even buying) a music style you normally avoid. But "Bang Dream" doesn't even have that. There is not a single track that sticks out for being good.

I tend to feel that the volume of the voices are way too loud compared to the instrumentations, which is a shame since most seiyuu force their voice into a high pitch to look cute. There are inconsistencies in said volume of the voices even outside the stages. Sometimes too loud, sometimes not enough. Oftentimes, they will crush the music under useless dialogues and it even seemingly happens at random, for they had apparently no reason in particular to do so.

Characters 2: Uninteresting. They are just covers for CD sales (or a brand design for a mobile game). Hello Happy Whatever (another lame band name) is probably the most stupid band out there. The characters are even weaker than in your average crappy anime. And i did manage to finish "Infinite Stratos" Season 1 and OVA, that should say a lot.

Enjoyment 1: I'm suffering. Episode 4 was the worst for me so far. I had to pause it many times because of boredom and took 2 hours to finish it... Since they try to make us care for characters that just come up out of the blue with very poor writting, watching this endless filler advertisement is a chore. Only in first and second episodes did i find some parts that, if not exactly interesting, were at least watchable.

Overall 2: Unless you're less than 15 years old and a big fan of shallow advertisement crap, or if you loved the first season and want more that badly, avoid this at all costs. Or hope that the second half of the series will finally try to tell something.

EDIT: in the end, i will drop this. I tried, but i definitely don't have the courage to suffer anymore watching this. I end up with an extremely negative stance towards the whole franchise. I got pretty spicy (to say the least) private messages that tried to explain to me one way or another that one can't appreciate the genius quality of "Bang Dream" if one doesn't play the mobile game. I am sorry but if it is true, i will end up with an even worse opinion on "Bang Dream". An anime series which direction, writing and everything are so unambitious that one can only find worth in it if he is already a fanboy? No way i will answer "Yeah, you are totally right" to this. It is time people question some marketing practices.

Now, if you want actual good music shows, watch, absolutely:

-BECK (Rock)

-Carole and Tuesday (slow paced accoustic i guess?)

Finally, after thinking things through, i will still keep my rating, even though i dropped it. I'm not used to rate animes i have dropped, but this is just how much i believe this will never get better. And from 3/10, i will end up with a 2/10.

Personally, I am a huge fan of BanG Dream and really enjoy what Bushiroad has been pushing out. I am an active player of the game, and also keep up with the seiyuu and the franchise as a whole. So, there may be some HEAVY bias. Just keep that in mind when reading this review. I'd just like to make this clear, this season serves more as a compliment to the game and its story. Instead of a story that develops over time as the anime moves forward, this season is more like a bunch of OVA's. If you don't play the game and youhave only watched the first season, then you probably won't understand what's happening at first.

However, that is not to say that this is a bad thing. I honestly think that this style suits BanG Dream as a whole much better than the (disappointing) first season, which was supposed to bring more people into the game, but failed to do so. With BanG Dream! Second Season, the anime GREATLY compliments the game, bringing in familiar characters and songs from the game.

Now lets talk about the CG. This is honestly the best CG I have ever seen in an anime. While it may not seem natural or awkward at times, you really have to recognize the effort that Sanzigen put in to make sure that the movement seemed as natural as possible. If you are used to the models in the game, you should be fine with the models in the anime.

Overall, if you plan on only watching the anime, you will not enjoy the series. You will find it lacking in story and character development. HOWEVER, if you are an avid fan of the BanG Dream franchise, the game, the seiyuu, and the franchise as a whole, you will greatly enjoy this anime's second season. It serves as a much better compliment to the game than the first season was, and shifts the focus from story to music and visuals. This shift was definitely for the better and makes the anime more enjoyable as a whole.

Roselia is the best by the way.

The first thing i want to say is that its a huge improvement if we compare it to the previous season even the animation is better. STORY/PLOT I actually discovered the game first and ended up loving it to the point where i decided to give the anime a try and im not going to lie, I was pretty disappointed with season 1 because it just wasn't good in any aspect, unless you just want the backstory on poppin party. Since the first season was bad i was pretty hesitant going into the second one but to my surprise it turned out better than i expected.The storyfinally contained more emotion(at least for me) and wasn't half bad. All the bands face their own challenges and they overcome them together. You could skip season 1 and get straight to this but even if it was bad it would help you know the backstory of poppin party.

ART/SOUND

The art was a big step up this season if we compare it to the first season which is a good thing. The CGI wasn't bad, instead it was quite good. As far as the music is concerned i loved it and it would've been better if they would've used more songs that were used in the game.

OVERALL: 8

It was enjoyable and a big improvement, i would recommend watching this. It would be a good pass of time

So, as someone being a big fan of the Bang Dream franchise who plays the game, likes the songs, and somewhat enjoys the characters, I should be the perfect target audience for this anime, should I? Turns out that this wasn't turning out to be true. The story was all over the place and sometimes really dragged, which is surprising considering that this is only a 12-episode anime. You have six bands: Poppin' Party, Hello, Happy World!, Pastel*Palettes, Roselia, Afterglow and Raise A Suilen (RAS). This makes it 30 characters to be placed in a coherent story, which already sounds like a task destinied to fallflat. Sure, every band (except RAS) is introduced with a small gig at ep. 1 but you don't actually learn backstory about the charaters and the band respectively. It is assumed you play the game to learn all these things, which is just... lazy and cheap. The story proceeds with some feature episodes of the band and their drama, which sometimes really felt superficial and annoying to watch. After that the anime producers probably said to themselves "screw every band and made the second half of Bang Dream S2 about Poppin' Party drama (which again, felt superficial and painful to watch, especially when they all act angry at first but suddenly become friends to force story progress.) Overall the story was a 2/10 because some moments could be actually funny.

Truth be told, when it was first announced, the 2nd Season of Bang Dream! already looked weird to me because of the usage of mainly 3DCG. Now this for tiself wouldnt be an issue if they didn't decide to merge the main (3D-rendered) characters with classic 2D-animated side characters. At least for me it was very obnoxious and made me wish the anime actually was full 2D. The low framerate (probably to stick with classic animation speed) also kind of hurts the experience in my book. The only light was the fully 3D-rendered MV scenes which looked actually quite good. 4/10 for artstyle.

This leads me to the soundtrack. Now this is kind of a two-faced medal: On the one hand, the OST was forgettable. It was not particularly bad, but also didn't stand out at all. The full songs however are really really good, but also depend heavily on your taste as we are talking six bands with widely varying music genres. 6/10 for sound.

The characters... quite frankly, they don't even deserve this title in this anime. I'd much rather call them "walking tropes". We have a classic tsundere, the classic genki girl, the classic rival band, the classic shy girl. You could basically multiply it by six and you have the full cast of Bang Dream S2 with very little exceptions such as Ako, the classic chuunibyou. 1/10 for characters.

With that said: I don't hate Bang Dream as a franchise, even thoough this anime felt cheap, one-sided and like a extended advert for the mobile gacha game "Bang Dream! Girls Band Party!". But I am really disappointed on what they did with season 2 and since the third season will be from the same studio I don't have high expectations for the next season. If you want a working story and a less cluttered cast, but don't want to miss out on Bang Dream at all, I recommend watching Season 1 of the series. Otherwise, there are other moe-type idol/band shows like K-On, Love Live! or Idolm@ster which are at least slightly better than this anime.

My overall Rating is 3/10.

PS: This is my first review on MyAnimeList, and actually the first full review I've written in English, so please understand that there might be some typos in the text as my native language is not English. Thank you!

A step up BanG Dream as an franchise for LA was kinda hard especially when the lackluster, "in your face" attempt in trying to say that "idol animes are gone, bands are future" and everything and the first season didn't exactly pan out for LA for several reasons, The 2nd Season makes some redemption towards the failures of it's first season but also brings in new flaws into the mix but overall this 2nd Season is presented in a much more focused light than the first season ever did. BanG Dream!'s 2nd Season starts off with many of the bands working on their latest lives but withRoselia being the first to maker their first self-sponsored show, this enlightens Kasumi of Poppin' Party to make one of their own, so they get ideas from the other bands. That is the first half of the anime as a whole as LA's wish to actually see some focus on the other bands finally be shown and though it's in a sorta episodic format, looking at the nature of each of the bands and their "quirkiness" it checks out to say the least, we get their chemistry from their band members to even interactions between other band members outside their own and it's great seeing the extended cast mingling. Of course Popping party also gets screentime and it helps that they are the narrative focus and develops alongside the rest of the bands, THIS was something LA wanted to see to be perfectly honest.

The second half gets alot more tenser even more compared to the first season as a new band is formed by the name of "Raise the Suilen", where she recruits Tae and there comes the drama and main focal point for the second half, not only for Popping party but the rest of the bands as not only does the recruitment for Tae fractures Popping Party as well as their upcoming self sponsored show, but also the newest band are LEAGUES better than the extended main cast even rivaling Roselia, so in comes the drama of Tae trying to juggle Raise the Suilen and Poppin' Party. To some extent, the focus on Tae and her want to grow and be a better guitarist is actually quite well done and her need for that comes at the cost of her friends and Poppin' Party as a result, in a ways it's a much more dramatic and tenser situation Saaya went through during the first season. To say that LA was impressed that the direction for not only this but the entire season was much more focused is an understatement.

Of course with all the praise LA will need to pick up some flaws that does detriment this season but not compared to the first season to say the least. One is that due to the extended cast, they are rather limited, especially Hello Happy World and Afterglow members especially, this season still has for the majority narrative focus towards Poppin' Party members and that's a given especially during the seocnd half but nonetheless it's a small gripe. Second is a flow on effect from the first flaw and that is the newer characters introduced, from Raise the Suilen's manager and her band that's pretty much the 765 Pro to 961 Pro of Idolmaster, cept the manager isn't a piece of shit. Lastly would be that as much of an improvement LA tout the first half, it's still kinda slog to get through before getting to the more serious stuff.

LA will note the animation studios has changed from Xebec & Issen to SANZIGEN and yes almost everything has implemented 3DCGI, form it's character designs to it's live shows and in LA's opinion, this was an improvement, yes it's looks janky and stiff at first but incorporating the 3DCGI style reflects the mobile game and LA thinks SANGIZEN knew this and implemented it that way, hey at least it helped with the elimination of the jarring traditional 2D to 3D CGI with the lives as a result. ALOT of people dislike the 3DCGI change, LA approves to say the least.

The voice cast returns and LA will be quick due to how huge the cast has become but the MVP's easily became Sae Otsuka as Tae and Aina Aiba as Yukina...hmm add Miku Itou as Kokoro and Ayane Sakura as Ran in there as well.

BanG Dream's 2nd Season was a MARKED improvement from the first season by the sheer amount of focus it had and giving the extended cast some love as well, but even with it's flaws, it didn't outright cripple this second season, it had a foundation, worked as many elements as it could and it did itself well, not amazing but good enough for LA see to some level of improvement from the lackluster, aimless first season. BanG Dream's 3rd Season by all accounts should learn even more from this second season if it'll ever give us something to actually show that girl bands will be the future...

You can't really fully enjoy this anime without playing the game, regardless of whether you've watched season 1 or not. This is the kind of anime where seeing your favorite character get screen time already makes your day. Nevertheless, my hopes for this season was for all 5 bands to interact with one another, with the bonus of RAS joining the fray. Safe to say that the show did this to a certain degree. One interesting move is advancing everyone by a year, with some interesting turn of events. For example, Rinko became the SC president for Hanasakigawa and Hina either ended or saved Haneoka HS bybeing the boppin SC pres there. While the show had its concert-style premiere and finale episodes, along with single-band focus episodes early on, the best part without a doubt was the cultural festival. It was during this part of the series that my hopes came true. The all-star band assembled by Hina, and different interactions spawning from the collab between the two schools were great. Throw in the emergence of RAS plus the resulting Otae drama, and we had ourselves a very entertaining anime. Not everything in life is fine and dandy, so I'd like to thank Yukina, Chu2 and Otae for bringing in even the slightest bit of complexity and negativity to the show.

The animation, which was controversially done in almost full 3D, was a double-edged sword. The consistency of the designs were a step up from the horrifying animation in S1, and at best the CGI was very pleasing to see. At many points however, side characters were animated in 2D or the CGI looked a bit too robotic or flat. This made a lot of scenes feel off or awkward. As for the sound, nothing wrong much here. With all due respect, the BanG Dream franchises puts out really good songs. Maybe just better build up to the songs are needed, as spamming the songs like in episode 1 and 13 made me feel like I was better off watching the live concert.

My overall issue is that by the end of the season, RAS hasn't formed yet (poor Rokka) and the focus was ultimately on Popipa again. Hopefully season 3 addresses this (delayed to 2020 though).

Sure, in the end it's just promotion for the mobile game, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying it if you're already a big fan of the franchise.

So, I'm not one to write reviews very often, and when I did, they were very brief and pretty sarcastic. I don't even write thorough reviews for my absolute favorite shows. But I come today with a heavy heart to announce to the world that just when people thought the first season of BanG Dream!'s anime adaptation didn't do the franchise any justice, the second season made the former look pretty good. The mobile game BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! has had a massive popularity explosion since its release, and the release of the English server in April 2018 made the franchise even more accessible tothe community, and I've seen more and more LLSIF players hopping over to Garupa just to see what all the hype's about, only to end up *staying for good.*

Why did this happen, you ask? I've seen many people comment on this, answers ranging from more interesting song beatmaps, unlimited song play, and better artwork than SIF, but the number one trend I've noticed is that people come thanks to FOMO, but *they stay for the characters and their stories.*

The game has 25 main characters divided up into 5 bands, each with her own story with her bandmates and with other main characters in the other bands. This makes things very complicated, but also allows for a variety of different stories, events and short conversations to appear. You can see angsty drama between ambitious characters as they discover who they are as musicians in Roselia's band story. You can see a hilarious, chaotic yacht performance in the Phantom Thief event story. Through the game, you can see the girls' personalities shine, whether they're in school, in the studio, onstage, at home, engaging in hobbies, doing club activities, window-shopping, working part-time, celebrating holidays, interacting with their families, or even volunteering around town. There's a little something for everyone, and while the character relationship chart is kind of a mess, there's something about Garupa that makes it simple enough for a new player to jump right in without needing too much background. SIF's stories aren't anything worth discussing, and their characterization is definitely more prominent in the anime, making the game's story content unnecessary for full enjoyment.

BanG Dream! Season 2 tried to shove 25 main characters (oh, wait, they threw another band in there, too, so make it 30) into a 13 episode show and make it work.

Well, it didn't.

The first few episodes feature one band per episode, with some little struggle that those girls have to overcome (usually with Poppin' Party being integral to the solution) and every episode ends in a feel-good moment accompanied by a really awkward montage of each member smiling or giggling that lasts 10 seconds and serves no other purpose but to prove how much "moe potential" each girl has through her "hehe" or "nn!" before cutting to the ending. This sort of montage is also common throughout the later episodes, though they generally get placed at the beginning or in some even more awkward spot in the middle.

My first complaint is that these episodes don't really show you the essence of any of the other bands. It's really just another season of The PoPiPa show, except with no clear plot and a thousand times more chaos. Without the PoPiPa girls, the other bands’ episodes would have been completely irrelevant and uninteresting, which frustrates me considering that each band has so much to offer individually as well as when they interact with the other characters. As any Garupa player is aware, the girls in PoPiPa are nowhere near as popular as the likes of characters such as Moca, Kaoru, Lisa, Misaki, etc. The franchise is aware of this. The fanbase wanted to see more of the other girls who hadn’t been animated yet. And despite that, we continue to be lured in by the promise of seeing the others get their time in the spotlight only to have them be completely overshadowed by PoPiPa. In fact, the only characters from the other four in-game bands you really see serving some other purpose later in the story are Rinko (given her status as Hanasakigawa’s StuCo president, assisting many of the later plot events), Aya (who helps PoPiPa with their live), and Yukina (who saves the day at the school festival and is constantly scolding or giving advice). Afterglow and HaroHapi who? Considering I find Afterglow’s story to be the most interesting and heartwarming with just the right amount of tension to lead to great development, I was kind of shocked that I nearly forgot all of them existed in this show. I can count on my fingers the number of times Maya, Hagumi and Tomoe got a single speaking line, which greatly upset me even though I believe Yoshida Yuri’s Hagumi voice to be what greets BanG Dreamers at the gates of hell.

The abundance of characters involved in this mess made the plot nearly nonexistent, and I really didn’t know what was happening until over halfway through the show. It was a perfect example of why “quality over quantity” is so important. Instead of getting a solid storyline and witnessing character development like in S1, we’re left with tiny snippets of characters here and there, never really seeing their personalities or their connection to the franchise, rendering a viewer who doesn’t play the game clueless-- and in a way, this serves as a giant advertisement for the game. “Wow, I thought Hina was adorable! I wish I could have seen more of her. :(“ Well, aren’t you in luck! SayoHina twin drama is one of the most common occurrences in the mobile game, and every player in the universe is gonna pressure that oblivious viewer into downloading the game, where said viewer will become a player after falling in love with the beautiful graphics, lovable girls, intricate storylines, incredible music, and detailed live 2D character models. This marketing scheme has worked; even my best friend decided to give the game a go after her social media blew up with anime screencaps, prompting her to watch it and crave more Kokoro to fuel her kokoro’s love for pure yet stupid genki girls.

I would like to put it out there that I love every band and all the girls. I realize I sound salty at PoPiPa overshadowing the others, but that’s not the issue-- the issue was giving fans false hope for more of the others and then pulling the rug out from under us while also making the show a mess for PoPiPa. I’d argue that each band could very easily have its own show, with other characters playing a supporting role when necessary (i.e. Hina in the Roselia story, Chisato in the HaroHapi story, Ako in the Afterglow story, and so on). I think it would be more than great; it could be brilliant. Sure, it’s ambitious, but wasn’t the concept of this season ambitious as well? At least we’d be more likely to get something quality if we could see more of the characters shine the way they do in-game. Adding in the subplot and conflict with Raise A Suilen and ChuChu just made the goal of a cohesive show even more unlikely, and it’s truly unfortunate for the franchise.

It was utter chaos and I never knew where to place my focus or what to get out of the show. The CGI art wasn’t *terrible* per se, but certainly could have been a lot more fluid and true to what we’d expect from such a show. It felt awkward to watch and the facial expressions didn’t feel super consistent, either. When one of them would make an expression like this (>.<) it looked very out of place with the style and it could have been done differently, though the art was the least of my problems (besides the sound and voice acting, which was incredible, as expected).

As for the sound and voice acting, I have no complaints. Returns is easily one of the best songs in the BanG Dream! franchise and everything about it gives me goosebumps. It’s amazing. Rinko’s new voice actress did throw me off a bit, not because she did a bad job, but simply because it was very different, and I’m sure most people agree that for a first voice acting role, Nonchan did a stellar job.

Okay, the second season of BanG Dream! was pretty bad in terms of an actual storyline, characterization process and animation, but if you’re a fan of the game and want to see all the girls animated even for a few seconds out of the entire season, yeah, it’d be worth it. Otherwise, don’t bother.

This is my first review so I hope it ain't to bad and forgive my grammar. The Bang Dream anime is really meant to appeal to people that also play the phone game. The first season of Bang Dream introduced us to the main band which was fine for people who did not play the mobile game, but the second season is less friendly to people that just watched season 1 and did not play the mobile game. By re-introducing the bands in the game for people that did not play the game. it may seem like a random time skip because of thesenews bands appearing without any context but that is because the context is found in the mobile game, so if you have played the mobile game you already know these are the main 5 bands.

Thus I believe the main target audience for the second season of Bang dream are people that have played the mobile game and enjoy it. Which is why some people enjoy it more then others.

Story 7:

I don't think there really is a concrete main story. Basically just girls who started a band and want to play at Budokan like in K-ON. What is good about the story this season is that it focuses on the other bands stories a bit while still having the main focus on Poppin Party. It appeals to the fans that play the game seeing their favorite band get some spotlight in the anime.

The story of bang dream so far seem pretty simplistic, nothing to outstanding. Bang Dream season 2 like first season 1 mainly focuses on the progression of Poppin Party as a Band in trying to achieve their goals. A long the way they have some troubles and hit some bumps, but that where the other bands come in to help inspire them and help them move on.

Art 7:

CGI art is not for everyone, that is understandable. But I find that the CGI is not to bad for this. I don't believe the CGI is as bad as many people say. I personally don't mind CGI and I think bang dream has done a good job using the CGI. Maybe a slight issue with necks, but overall I don't see an issue.

Sound 8:

The sound is fine. I see no issue with the sound and the music played in Bang Dream is well done. I hope they play more songs in the anime, because although I do like "Happy, Happy Party" hearing it every time Poppipa plays kinda bugs me because they have so many other songs they can use. So I just hope they use more songs as the anime progresses.

Character 9:

I love the characters in Bang Dream. Each have their own personality some that overlap with each other, but overall unique from one another. Sure some fit the standard character stereotypes such as smart shy girl(Rinko), and like the klutz(Kanon). I think I might be bias on this to be honest though, because once again playing the mobile game makes a huge difference on how you enjoy and see each character.

Enjoyment 9

I am probably bias on this, but I have enjoyed season to so far because it gives spotlight to the other bands in the Bang Dream universe as well as doing a good job in displaying the goals of each band and giving some nice backstory. My enjoyment of this is raised even more due to once again playing the mobile game. I know I keep mentioning this but playing the mobile game makes a serious difference in enjoyment.

Overall 9:

In the end I think a person enjoyment of Bang dream depends on if they can get past the CGI art style and their in-depth knowledge of Bang Dream in general. It is clear that Season 2 of Bang Dream takes place after the main story in the Bang Dream mobile game, and for people that do not know that story or play the game in general will have a lower overall enjoyment of Bang Dream season 2

I think this season is kinda like an advertisement. It is indeed a dick to people that have never played the game and have only seen Bang Dream season 1.

Regarding this anime, there are many flaws yet it still can shine. If you haven't played the game, watched the first season only, or even played on the EN server, there's a lot that you will miss in this anime. Nevertheless, don't let my first sentences dissuade you from enjoying this franchise. Talking about the story, there's no other way to cut it. Let me reiterate, if you have absolutely no background whatsoever, you will be very confused watching this. Furthermore, the first few episodes are basically an advertisement for each of the 5 bands that we can see in the game. The story onlypicks up towards the end, and even then, the upcoming third season will probably wrap things up the story.

For the art, before watching this, I've heard many people characterize CGI anime as being bad. After watching this, my perception of CGI anime has improved greatly. The animation is fluid and doesn't seem out of place. In other franchises such as Love Live, the CGI causes the quality of the anime to sink. However, with BanG Dream, the fact that it's fully CGI makes it consistent and beautiful.

The sound is as expected from a music franchise, where, if you've played the game before, you'll recognize most pieces played in this anime. If you haven't, it'll be refreshing depending on your musical taste. For someone who's watched the anime and played the game, I was mainly anticipating new songs, and BanG Dream delivered on that anticipation.

With a not-so-great story, I'd say that the character development in this iteration of BanG Dream was weak. However, it is important to note that most of the character development happens in the game. Also, even though I'd characterize the development as weak, there was some development with regards to Poppin' Party, which was probably the only band that had any character development.

Overall, if you do enjoy music anime, I'd suggest picking up the first season and playing the game. However, if you're not willing to put the time in, you probably won't enjoy this anime as much.

Oh boy, off the bat the animation here went full change and the back stories into last season style...completely boggled but it was rather unique.. Sadly due to this many hated this direction and its completely understandable, but it made the show better at least for me. The first episode you will get ALOT thrown at you so heads up, but what made this season better than the first is how you get not one, or two, but multiple stories of the other bands, music, not to mention really good comedy. By far the better of the 2, and its ideal to watch the firstseason so you'll know the girls and bands better.

I don't know if I can even fully articulate how disappointing of an experience watching this show was for me. This won't be very strictly constructed, but hopefully at least somebody can relate Right off the bat, I can admit that a lot of the characters in Bandori aren't very well written. A lot of them are incredibly weak, one-note and pretty cliche, but in the game it worked because the event stories being told were more about simple fun little short stories about how different combinations of the 25 girls interact in different scenarios. It's not perfect and it's incredibly basic, but it's a funand addictive formula that takes advantage of it's huge cast and keeps you wondering what story and dynamic they'll explore next. In fact it's for that exact reason why PICO is still my favourite adaptation.

When I finished season 1, I left feeling a little bored and disappointed because ignoring all it's awful blatant attempts to outright rip-off K-ON, it's entire story involved trying to inject a lot drama into the personal relationships of characters who honestly just weren't strong or compelling enough to hold it through 12 whole episodes for me. I mean yeah, the PoPiPa girls were characterised that way to sell merch, not to be complex characters, have a strong dynamic or tell a compelling story, so really I don't know why I expected anything. So when I could finally articulate why I didn't like season 1 and I saw posters for season 2 that actually including characters other than the 5 PoPiPa girls, I had such high hopes - and I carried those about as far as episode 6.

My hopes for season 2 were that it'd be a much simpler, episodic slice-of-life show in a similar vein to how the event stories in the game are handled (given that they could all easily fit into a 20 minute episode of anime). At the very least, I did not want to have to sit through season 1's approach of flinging a load of shallow drama at me and desperately beg me to care about them by having them all cry.

What I ended up with was this kinda weird half-assed attempt at both.

Season 2's premise is basically just that once again, Kasumi has absolutely 0 foresight and proceeds to torture her friends by forcing them to organise a self-sponsored show with her just because she thought the idea was cool I guess. This is what basically acts as the "end goal" for the show and the overlooming plot-thread that connects all the episodes. Basically, it's only really there so the final episode has an excuse to end on a big live performance. Not that this is an outright bad thing, but when the show tries to mingle this plot with it's other two major doses of drama, it ends up being totally drowned out and forgotten so when it finally comes back up, you end up feeling like you're watching the show out of order or something. Not that it couldn't have worked, but the accompanying drama took up so much of the spotlight and the final episode was such a clusterfuck that by the end of it, it just fell unbelievably flat.

To put it bluntly, this show has some pretty awful pacing. Not just in the sense that it has no idea how to balance it's drama and end goal, but even in the very few semi-self-contained episodic-type episodes it just feels off. For example, there are way too many performance scenes. Like, there are literally 5 crammed into the very first episode, and even when it totally makes sense for them to be happening, they still manage to feel poorly inserted and totally out of place. It's hard to articulate, but there's just something about the entire show that feels so flat and lethargic, that even when there's a big performance, lights are flashing and Ran is screaming her head off, it doesn't even feel special. Somehow it just doesn't feel important or exciting for me - in fact towards the end I got so bored with them I just starting skimming. Season 2 at least branches out a bit and involves all of the games 25 characters and I do like this a lot, but I still wish we got to see more of the girls outside of PoPiPa. Not that I hate the PoPiPa girls, but out of the entire cast, I find them to be the least entertaining as a group. If this show still absolutely had to have the self-sponsored show plot looming through it, I would've much rather they cut out all the dumb drama with Raise a Suilen and just had the show rotate it's focus throughout the cast to show how they're preparing for the show and maybe have small bits of personal drama arise from that. Basically, I'd much rather have a bunch of somewhat-contained episodic stories about things like Misaki getting into an argument with Kokoro over her unrealistic demands and then they make up by the end of the episode, rather than have to sit through fucking 4 episodes of Tae going through an existential crisis because of some 12-year-old stranger with cat headphones.

Honestly, just by itself, this shows biggest flaws is just that it's boring and has no idea how to structure a satisfying story arc. Really I should just be leaving this in the same place I left season 1 and just say it's just not worth bothering with, but after all the mistakes that were made in season 1, I cannot offer them an excuse this time in a professional production. I understand a lot of this disappointment comes from my own expectations so this is coming from a very personal place, but season 2 just dropped the ball so hard for me that I can't help but have stronger feelings towards it.

What BanG Dream! 2nd Season managed to pull off from a slightly below average first season totally caught me off guard and make me happy a lot. I'm not a big fan of idol anime but I do enjoy a good one, and Bang Dream! 2nd Season is one of those few ones. While still follows the usual path of other shows, its differences lies in those unexpected plot twists with great character developement. Although the side characters are still very one-dimensional, the main ones are great and pleasant to watch. Combining with great songs, I can assure you that Bang Dream 2nd season is one ofthose idol anime you must watch

If you're a fan of Bang dream (like me) you'll enjoy this anime since it has cute moments and decent character interactions but to people new to the franchise I feel this anime isnt going to be for you. It's going to feel like the anime is trying to sell you a brand and there isnt going to be much character development or story to keep you interesting if you're here for that. I think the use of cg is wonderful and the band performances are great. I recommend not to see the first season because the animation and the use of cg there isterrible and super inconsistent and you're not gonna miss out on much anyway. Season 2 definitely improved on what Season 1 lacked/failed.

After the god awful animation from xebec it got transferred to another studio and they did 3d animation so that's a plus The anime is pretty good the art was okay-ish but there are quite a handful of times where the shadow of the 3d model is just all over the place for example look at aya maruyama's 3d model in and off the stage. the in stage model is horrible, then we move on to the story which is a mess like continue where the last season took off directors not everyone plays the game and be like "oh is that poppin party, roselia, afterglow,pastel*pallettes and hello happy world!?" (what i meant to say is give a proper introduction on the bands) the sound is good because it's from the game lol shat did you expect the characters are diverse but other characters are lacking.

In this anime they introduced the remaining 3 Bands faster and messier and *spoiler* a new band

i hate xebec's season 1 but if not for the story of season 2 i would rate this lower

After falling into Gacha hell aka the BanG Dream! Video game, I decided to watch the show. The first season was flawed but enjoyable, but the second season really had me speechless at points. The second season of BanG Dream! is a result that is far greater than the sum of its components. STORY: 7/10 Not spoiling anything, the story has a very typical goal for the main band of girls. I don't think any of the stories were great by any means, and often it felt like stories and characters acted in ways that would heighten drama rather than a story that made sense. The showalso had a flaw of giving each band their own introductory episode, which had various plotlines that felt not very necessary such as the Pastel Palettes episode. But the show came with absolute BANGER episodes like the episode focusing on Hello Happy World. The biggest strength of this show is that nothing ever feels like it overstays it's welcome, the pace is very fast and most episodes are good besides one arc that was dragged on too long.

ART: 6/10

While the 3d animation is good, even great sometimes. The show towards the end had a shit tendency to mix 2d art of side characters talking with 3d main characters. These scenes were super ass to look at and completely took me out of the experience. If you thought 3d background characters were bad, 2d background characters with 3d main characters is like the shittiest thing ive ever seen. The show's animation averages around decent though, with very good expressions of characters overall.

SOUND: 8/10

The show does a great job of mixing music to the themes of the show and conflict. Going so far to change the opening depending on how intense the show is getting. During dramatic moments, the more heavy opening would play and the happy (main) opening would play during more chill episodes. This was also true for the endings. The characters in this show also play music that really represents the conflicts of the story and finds a way to enhance the experience and avoids being cringy. The sound during performances leaves ALOT to be desired as they just play the music with no ambience whatsoever. But regardless, the music in the show is very good. (well it has to be good right?)

CHARACTER: 8/10

I'm biased as I've played the game and know these characters. But if this is your first experience with the franchise, I'm afraid to say that you probably wouldn't like these characters all too much. The show has 25 characters in 5 bands, and while that's really good for variety's sake, I don't think the characters shine much as there are just too many to introduce. More importantly, the main band gets great development through the story and is certainly done justice.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10

This show, while not having the most logical plotlines or believable conflicts, still is able to deliver the core concept of how music feels to me. When the characters perform something that is dear to them, I am able to feel those moments deeply through my own experiences aswell. All the themes of loyalty, self esteem (regarding music), and motivation behind creating music is portrayed so endearingly. I think the amount that I have smiled like a dumbass while watching this show is almost every episode. The emotional moments actually hit as well. It does what anime does best, which is making you feel emotions you didn't think you had. When the show isn't doing too hot in its story or themes, it's still very difficult to get tired of the show at all.

OVERALL 8/10

WATCH IF:

-You like music beyond just listening

-You play the game and are looking for more content

-You want an easy watch and don't mind some technical flaws

Before I go into this one, let me add I am bias toward Bandori in general because of how much I really do enjoy it as a whole. I've played the game a lot and I've watched the first season, so knowing the characters very well already makes it easier to write this review, just makes it a bit more bias because of my love for this franchise. Story: The story to the second season is a step above and beyond the first season, revolving around Popipa yet again but this time actually giving the story something to really get behind and to enjoy.The addition of RAS was something that seemed a little random at first but as the story progressed and I started to get a feel for them, it made everything connect and it connected the story together very nicely.

Art: I'm not the biggest fan behind the CG art styles at all, but saying that I liked this one quite a bit. It was good enough to not be extremely noticeable and I enjoyed it. The only thing that bugged me about it was the "non-important characters" being just regularly animated which made it look a bit awkward during conversations with the main characters.

Sound: The sound quality of this anime is of course amazing, it has to be for the quality and amount of music that is played in this anime. The music is fantastic and enjoyable.

Characters: The focus was primarily on Poppin' Party for this anime for character development, but the first couple episodes did a good job at least introducing the other characters of the other bands and showing important parts of their personalities so you are able to get to know how they're like. I love the fact on how the anime emphasizes the band traits of the separate bands just to show how serious or silly they really are. The addition of new characters and a new band completely comprised of highly talented performers and immediate fame made everything connect and developed a starting place for the new band nicely. There are many characters, but that's part of what makes the entire experience of Bandori fun and entertaining, with the diversity of the personalities of all the individual characters.

Overall, I enjoyed the anime a lot, it made me smile and the music is extremely boppin'. Watching the second season of this series just makes the experience of this franchise even better, adding new bands and new characters, to just showing the trials of friends continuing to do what they love.