Girls Band Cry Review - Immaculate Immaturity
Written by Rei Caldombra 7/17/2024 Video: https://youtu.be/ol5gSYU5bmU
Hello everyone, back to talk about one of the hottest shows of Spring 2024, Girls Band Cry. This show is excellent and deserves all the popularity it has gotten in my opinion. There will not be direct plot spoilers, just general details about the show and characters.
The best of music-focused shows for me do not lean solely on the musical aspects to be entertaining and engaging. I do not have any musical or instrumental background, and I probably like music a bit less than the average person. But I have still thoroughly enjoyed many musically inclined shows like Bocchi the Rock, K-on, and Your Lie in April because of the other strong elements they have that make them a complete package. Girls Band Cry is one of these shows that has plenty of diverse appeal- great visuals, fun characters, a uniquely aggressive tone and energy, and solid music.
First, let’s talk about the visuals. This is by far one of the best-looking CGI anime out there, and as a whole is a great-looking show. If you say this show looks bad, I’m sorry but you are objectively wrong. I think the stigma among anime fans has been waning for years now due to many great CGI anime such as the works from Studio Orange, and this show is definitely playing a part in converting people and quieting the haters.
Movement is one area where CGI animation tends to struggle the most, but here I never felt that it was overly stiff or unexpressive. Everyone’s personalities are portrayed very well through character animation. Someone slumping over while feeling dejected, taking cautious steps while carrying something heavy, and moving faster or slower depending on their mood. It can be dramatic, bouncy, cutesy, goofy etc. CGI models also tend to have very stiff expressions, which is not an issue here either in my opinion. We get lots of great expressions, from the girls crying to making goofy faces. The animation succeeds at letting the show have great physical comedy, which we see a lot in the multitude of arguments and confrontations. Main characters also don’t get stiff when they aren’t the main person talking, the quality is generally very consistent and there are some gags and minor bits of animation you could miss.
We also can’t praise the animation without mentioning the stellar performances. The final one especially is such a highlight of the whole show. There are still some areas where it struggles a little with the usual CGI anime issues, like the mouth movement looking off or unimportant characters looking a bit cheaper. But these minor duds are eclipsed by the good stuff and are few and far between. It used to be that CGI shows mostly looked bad and here and there it has some decent-looking moments. This is the exact opposite, 95% of the time I remember it looking great and not just great “for a CGI anime.”
Example of a cool POV shot
I didn’t know this was coming from Toei at first. They must be investing strongly in CGI anime as they’re continuing to experiment with 3D. We have gotten a decent amount of all CGI anime from them in the last few years between DBS Super Hero, Sandland and now Girls Band Cry. I was pretty happy with DBS Super Hero and this is another great step forward. This is not CGI out of laziness or cheapness to me, which is the usual accusation people make towards anime using CGI. This is truly trying its best to be great, and it succeeds with flying colors.
The anime also looks good in all other areas. The lighting can be a bit much sometimes, but it is generally fine or great. We also get lots of moments with great perspective and angles. The backgrounds can go from normal looking to downright gorgeous. The below image is one of my favorite shots of the whole show.
The character designs are also great, Tomo’s being my favorite. Speaking of favorites, I have to go with Rupa as best girl. She shreds the base while being super sweet and funny in her low-key demeanor. She also helps to balance the higher intensity of the other characters, which I will get to soon. All these great bassists in anime lately are making me want to get into bass guitar…
It has been confirmed that they plan to do more with Girls Band Cry and one of the writers apologized for not being able to do enough with her, so I’m sure we will get the focus on her many of us want eventually. I really loved all of the characters, they are all very fun and endearing with strong personalities. And this is perfect segway into one of the biggest strengths of the show, which is the aggressive energy and banter we get from the main characters.
There’s so much feistiness between the members that is so refreshing and entertaining. Most anime focused on a group of girls doing something focus heavily on wholesomeness and team unity, and as such usually just have a few moments of serious interpersonal conflict that generally don’t last long. Whereas here we have multiple moments of the characters bickering every single episode, and their issues don’t get solved quickly. They are constantly yelling, hurling objects at each other and literally getting in each other’s faces. All of which makes for great physical comedy while also having the characters show their intense emotions in more ways than just talking. I understand if all the bickering could be annoying for some but it isn’t for me. It’s my favorite thing about the show.
Emotions truly run high in this show, the Girls in this Band do be Crying. The emotional beats of the show succeed very well, it has many great moments where you feel for the characters. Both their highss and their lows feel well written.
The biggest aspect of the great emotional energy of the show is Nina. Nina is such a well-done mentally unstable teenager. According to the creatives, she is the reason why they couldn’t do more with the other characters, she just gave the writers so much to work with. Her mood can do a complete emotional 180 on a dime, she’s petty, she’s immature, and doesn’t take no for an answer. Her emotional moments are a big highlight of the show. She brings so much of the aggressive energy of the show, and the other characters have to react to that. We see how all of these characters have their own issues and insecurities, and how that impacts the ways they communicate. We especially see this in the main duo, who have a lot of great stuff between them that I can’t go into detail on. An important but not spoilery example is around Momoka being more experienced in both life and being a musician. This contrasts with Nina’s lack of experience in both those areas, but you learn how Momoka can be just as immature as her.
The aggressive energy is also shown well in the smaller background details. The characters feel well-ingrained in the setting, being seen in a lot of different locations. This keeps the settings varied and helps the world feel more lived in. They’re constantly being public nuisances when they meet up and discuss things over food, which inevitably erupt into arguments. This another aspect of the characters being immature. When the band members argue, the others present don’t feel like they have faded into the background, and in the background you can see people react to them. These arguments feel more real because it doesn’t feel like they’re in a bubble, they’re really people shouting at each other. That intensity is well portrayed. The characters feel very grounded in their world and in their emotions.
The music matches the angsty energy of the show, as it is more aggressive than the songs we typically get from other anime girl bands like Kessoku Band. The music we hear fits with the characters deliberately using music as a means to vent their emotions. You genuinely feel that in the music.
To conclude, Girls Band Cry is hilarious, visually excellent, has an awesome aggressive tone, and has great emotional elements that play into the characters, atmosphere, music and themes. It’d be really smart on their part to get this officially licensed in English ASAP. I loved this anime and highly recommend it, a rare anime that completely lives up to the hype. Thank you for reading!
Spring 2024 shows: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/spring-2024-anime-season-roundup
My Patreon if you’d like to support me and the website: Rei Caldombra | Review + Analysis on anime, manga and other media. | Patreon
