Intro to the World of BanG Dream
The universe started with a BanG…
Actually, it started with a girl named Kasumi sneaking into the home of another girl named Arisa to take her guitar. But before that it started with a concert. But that's getting ahead of ourselves.
For over a decade now, the era of the girls band has kept rocking with BanG Dream!, Bushiroad's premiere franchise featuring…girls bands. With the latest entry in the series, BanG Dream! Yume∞Mita, having just premiered its first three episodes in this summer 2026 season, it's a great time for a look back at the history of the series and how the world grew into what it is now. Not necessarily for catch-up purposes, as YUME∞MITA focuses on a new group of characters in a new story and can be enjoyed by newcoming viewers. But context is fun to have in these situations, and just might help you decide which BanG Dream! stories to go back and catch up on while you wait for the next episode of YUME∞MITA.
In The Beginning…
Conceived around the appeal of girls band performances, BanG Dream! debuted in 2016 with its first group, Poppin' Party. This band would be the face of the franchise for the beginning, and after introductory live shows and music videos, Poppin' Party's story would be told in the first BanG Dream! anime season in 2017. Notable as the only 2D-animated series in the franchise, the anime chronicles the formation of Poppin' Party, starting with Kasumi's chance encounter with Arisa over that aforementioned guitar. Additional members in Rimi, Tae, and Sāya are added over the course of the story, as the group grows in skill and teamwork on their way to earning the right to perform at the SPACE venue. As well as teasing additional characters who would be added in the future including the additional group Roselia, this original anime set the tone for BanG Dream! in the beginning. It was a stage that would only grow in scope as the world expanded…
Get This Party Started
In March 2017, following the conclusion of the first anime season, the mobile game BanG Dream! Girls Band Party launched. Along with a well-received selection of both original and cover songs to play along to, the game properly introduced all of the bands in the BanG Dream! lineup who were performing that music. These included rock group Roselia, the alternative stylings of Afterglow, the pop idols Pastel＊Palettes, and the eccentric Hello, Happy World!. It wasn't just the distinctive sounds of these bands and their personalities that opened up the world of BanG Dream!: new storylines were released, and continue to be released, through Girls Band Party. These detail the connections the characters have, not just in their own bands, but interconnected with each other. Long-running developments have paid off in growth and changes for these characters, from the reconciliation and mutual appreciation between twins Sayo and Hina, to the childhood friends of Afterglow deciding what their band means to them and their future.
The power of spotlighting these various bands and characters would also be shown when the BanG Dream! anime returned in 2019. Now animated in 3D CGI by studio SANZIGEN and reflecting the expanded universe of the Girls Band Party game, the anime's second season featured episodes that touched on each of the additional bands while furthering the overarching story of Poppin' Party's growth as a group. As well, this season seeded the plot of the formation of a new band on the horizon in RAISE A SUILEN, who would be instrumental in the future of the franchise.
It wasn't all dense, dramatic developments in the BanG Dream! universe at this point, however. In between main anime seasons, BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Pico debuted. This short, chibi anime provided delightful mini episodes that also showcased the expanded cast introduced in the mobile game. It proved to be an especially enduring success, running for three total seasons and 78 episodes! It's a delightful little way to drop in and see what the girls of BanG Dream! get up to.
The Era of the Girls Band
The BanG Dream! anime continued apace, with the introduction of RAISE A SUILEN forming a key component of the story through the show's third season. RAISE A SUILEN would be added to the Girls Band Party game as a new band, but they would not be the first. Morfonica, a group of girls from the prestigious Tsukinomori Girls' Academy, debuted in 2020. The techno-rock edge of RAISE A SUILEN and violin-infused sounds of Morfonica brought even more variety to the music of BanG Dream!. And their stories, from the intricate later-season plotting behind RAISE A SUILEN to the inter-character drama that underpinned Morfonica's formation as a new-generation group, informed the directions that the series' style and storytelling would move toward in the future.
With that in mind, BanG Dream! continued to expand its storytelling into additional media. The concert movies FILM LIVE and FILM LIVE 2nd Stage celebrated the musical performances of the bands in animation. The Episode of Roselia movies adapted the story of the titular group from plotlines that had previously been told in Girls Band Party, connecting the game and anime. The two-episode web anime CiRCLE Thanks Party! was released to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Girls Band Party. Morfonica received their own two-episode web anime in Morfonication, and they were included in 2022's Poppin' Dream!—a theatrical movie for BanG Dream! that brought Poppin' Party's anime story full circle. The series had reached for the stars, and it was going to continue reaching for new heights.
The New Wave
In 2023, the newest BanG Dream! band, MyGO!!!!!, made their anime debut in BanG Dream! It's MyGo!!!!!. Focusing on a group formed from the ashes of a band that had previously broken up, this series marked a significant change for the franchise, featuring more heavy, interpersonal drama than had been depicted in the previous anime series. Designed as a bold entry point for new viewers, It's MyGO!!!!!'s distinctive emotional approach and captivating characters attracted a new wave of fans and appreciation. The refreshed success of It's MyGO!!!!! thus seemed to influence the stories of the Girls Band Party game, with many of them taking on more dramatic, serialized nature than ever before. MyGO!!!!! themselves would be added into the game, and a sequel series was set up in Ave Mujica.
Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast -, both a follow-up and parallel story to It's MyGO!!!!!, showed what became of the other members from the band that broke up at the beginning of the previous anime. Designed as a "psychological horror" series, Ave Mujica delved even deeper into the intense emotional interiority that had distinguished It's MyGO!!!!!. This anime ended with an additional season focused on this group of characters announced to follow. With the cast of BanG Dream! now so expanded and proving it could encompass a variety of tones, styles, and emotions, a new mobile game was announced: BanG Dream! Our Notes, which would showcase MyGO!!!!!, Ave Mujica, and other bands, including the newly revealed Mugendai Mewtype.
The Show Goes On
Mugendai Mewtype were added to the BanG Dream! lineup in 2023 as a virtual band. A new virtual frontier for the series, the group originally performed separate from the anime or game entries, and racked up a string of hit songs and videos. The new band now find themselves entering the animation canon with this summer 2026 season's BanG Dream!: YUME∞MITA. This series represents another fresh entry point in the series, where audiences will be able to follow and uncover the mysteries that drive this new virtual band.
This is the world of BanG Dream! that the girls of MewType find themselves in as their story starts. It's the era of the girls band, where performing and playing music together is an enthralling, invigorating experience. But it's also a setting of emotional intensity, where bonds can be tested and success isn't guaranteed. It's a world that's been built up over a rollercoaster of development across these different projects and media. MewType seems to embody the culmination of BanG Dream!'s evolution up to this point, representing both the musical appeal and compelling character work that have been so key to previous successes for the series. Having just premiered, the anime provides a fresh jumping-on point for new audiences interested in the world of BanG Dream!—with a rich history that's always waiting to be rediscovered by those new fans.
