Anime of the Week
It’s been long overdue, but Girls Band Cry is officially coming to Crunchyroll.
Girls Band Cry is an anime original done by Toei Animation. It is part of a multimedia project in collaboration with Agehasprings and Universal Music Japan. A surprise anime in the Spring 2024 season that many fans have been waiting for an official release. It’s one of my personal favorites from Fall.
The entirety of Girls Band Cry will be available to stream on Crunchyroll on November 6, 2024.
Check out last weeks Anime of the Week! An anime classic: Perfect Blue
Synopsis
Nina Iseri is a high school dropout who moves to Tokyo to prove to her parents that she can live by herself and be successful. She then meets Momoka Kawaragi, one of her music idols. The two realize they have more similarities than just a love for music. Together with Subaru Awa, Tomo Ebizuka and Rupa. They form a band as a way to let all their emotions out, as they face hardships with their internal struggles and being new to the music scene.
Girls Band Cry Anime Trailer
Girls Band Cry Review: What I Liked
Characters & Story
The band consists of: Nina Iseri, Momoko Kawaragi, Subaru Awa, Tomo Ebizuka & Rupa.
The voice actors behind the band actually know how to sing and play their instruments. The studio ran an audition called Girls Rock Audition to find the voice actors for the anime, and at the same time the band members.
The characters really felt like high school students to me. The problems and conflict that arose were realistic. All the girls had their own internal conflict, which is why they wanted to join the band to get away from their problems. But throughout the anime their conflict gets ‘solved’ or gets put to rest, and it wasn’t in a rushed way either.
If you have watched Bocchi the Rock!, the band has a similar vibe to that, but a little more serious. There are still a lot of comedic moments like the famous pinky’s up scene from the first couple of episodes.
3D Animation
Usually I don’t like CGI or 3D animation, something I mentioned in my Terminator Zero article. However the CGI in Girls Band Cry is smooth and ‘crisp’. It isn’t clunky and cheap looking as it does in other anime. This could be due to the entire anime being built from CGI from ground up, and not just sprinkled in there like other anime.
The facial expressions, and mouth movement really surprised me. They’re really accurate to the dialogue, and their reactions to what the other characters are saying are in ‘real time’, if that makes sense.
Music
It’s an anime about a band making music. I feel like the music has to be good. I don’t speak or understand any Japanese, but you don’t need to understand a language to like their music.
The band in the anime Togenashi Togeari or TogeToge makes rock / rock punk music, which is a music genre I personally like.
Here are some of my personal favorites from the anime:
Would I Recommend You Watch Girls Band Cry?
It was a surprise anime for a lot of fans. An anime original rarely does well, a 3D / CGI anime original nonetheless. I recommend Girls Band Cry if you’re into the music anime such as Bocchi the Rock! or Kono Oto Tomare! you will love Girls Band Cry as well. It sometimes has a serious tone and vibe to the story but they mix it well with the comedic moments.
