I watched BanG Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!! as a part of my college anime club. There's a lot of avid idol/band fans in the group and one of them suggested this show to us to watch. At the time, episode 13 had yet to air but we previewed the 1st episode anyways and I was shocked by how intriguing it seemed to me. I really wanted the MyGo branch of Bang Dream to be the longer running band franchise that I could finally say I like but as the mountain of flaws grew the more and more I watched, I finished the show more and more confused, conflicted, and shocked at how quickly it fell apart. With that being said, there were quite a few points to It’s MyGO that I really enjoyed and I would be remiss if I didn't praise them. After summing up my enjoyments and disappointments spoiler free, I’ll then have a spoiler section where you can read about my thoughts with a bit more detail.

The Good To start, like I said, there really is a lot to like about MyGO that really helped it stand out amongst band/idol shows, the biggest of which was its premise. To summarize, MyGO follows a girl named Anon Chihaya, who transfers into a new school where being involved with music is extremely popular. After befriending a loner girl named Tomori Takamatsu, Anon learns about Tomori’s involvement in a band previously where the band’s leader, a pianist named Sakiko Togawa, had a sudden change in heart and broke up the band just as they were beginning to gain momentum. They did not break on good terms and many of the band members were left with hurt feelings and damaged relations. MyGo tells the story of the two girls making a new band of their own while working though the pain that was caused by the previous. While it seems somewhat simple, I thought this premise was also extremely interesting. Like I said, I don't watch many shows of this genre, but I can tell that this story is somewhat unique. I think especially if you’re a big idol/band fan, you’ll really get a kick out of this. Especially in its first 4 or 5 episodes, they build up a lot of extremely compelling character drama that left me very interested in watching more. Also, over the course of the story, Tomori’s character arc is very nice and really shows a lot of growth that's very good to see. It made me very happy. I also really enjoyed the production. I for one really do not like 3D CGI animation but MyGO is one of the few I’ve seen that I thought looks good. And I think it looks really good. Apart from a few small weird moments here and there, movement is extremely fluid and the quality is very sharp. The concert scenes look especially good. The movement of the characters look really nice compared to other idol shows I’ve seen and it was really cool to see. Speaking of the concert scenes, I really liked the songs. A lot of the idol/band shows I’ve seen have songs that sound like anime songs to me, but the songs from MyGo felt a lot more like regular songs that I'd actually listen to. Of course this is all just my music taste and my music taste is probably garbage but hey, that's how i feel lol.The Bad Now onto the flaws. Like I said, I'll have a part below this that includes spoilers so I’ll keep it more general for now. MyGo’s biggest problem begins to become clear about half way through the show when I began to realize that a lot of the characters' deeper motives would not be brought up. While some characters receive character arcs, there are others that are extremely flat and are given very little deeper meaning. A lot of these characters are those who are tied to the deeper plot, so by the end of the show, we get to the final scene and realize that very little context for anything was given and much of what had been built up is now extremely vague. There is no clear deeper meaning or connections with quite a bit of the later episode content and there is very little clear deeper cause for anything that occurs in its climax. Starting with the middle point of the show, every episode deeper in that continues to not give context, the show just begins to spiral more and more out of control until it ends with the confused mess that is episode 13. Episode 13 is where I think the show truly went past the point of no return in there it decided to completely ditch the existing cast for establishing an new group made up of numerous nobodies. To be entirely honest, I don't really want to go into much more detail that I have from this point without getting into spoilers so I'll just leave it at that. This section contains spoilers

Spoiler, click to view

To start with the show's lesser but bizarre issues is the show's extremely uneven character development. Tomori, and to a certain degree Soyo, are just about the only characters that are developed. Anon is extremely shallow. She had some goofy backstory about going to school internationally in the UK but she screws up her introduction, feels isolated, and goes back to Japan shortly after. Her entire motivation to be in the band is to fit in and that's where it starts and ends. While it's a valid reason and her backstory makes sense with her motives, I still found it extremely odd how shallow her character is, especially in the fact that she is framed as being the most "main character" of the cast. Additionally, Raana and Taki are given almost zero deeper character. I get it with Raana, as she is kinda just the mysterious character that just shows up from time to time but Taki was extremely bizarre. Given how important her relationship is to Tomori, the character that is developed the most in the story, it's very strange that they did very little to get into the friendship apart from just implying that Taki is protective of Tomori, Like I said, this is a lesser issue to what I think is the shows biggest issue, but still, I had to say something.
This show's biggest problem is the very thing that made the show interesting to me in the first place, the previous band CRYCHIC and most importantly, Sakiko Togawa. When I say that they give absolutely no context for anything when it comes to Sakiko’s actions outside that fact that she was the one who broke up the band, I mean, ABSOLUTELY ZERO reason is given. Why did the band split? I don't know. Why did Sakiko suddenly turn against her bandmates? I don't know. Why does the band’s guitarist Mutsumi always back her up? I don't know. Why does Sakiko want to create a new band after seeing MyGo!!!!!’s promising start? I don’t know. I DON'T KNOW!!! It's extremely baffling to me how little reason is given for Sakiko’s actions. I get that there will be another season after this, but that's no excuse for leaving so many fundamental questions regarding this entry's deeper story and meaning to be left blatantly unanswered. Then I got the mess that is episode 13. Sakiko’s plan to create a new band comes into fruition and she recruits a bunch of side characters from earlier that get more and more baffling. First Mutsumi. Like I said earlier, I have no idea why Mutsumi just follows exactly when Sakiko does like a drone but It atleast makes sense why she would join. Then there's Uika Misumi. This character appears a few times previously who gives Tomori some advice but is also implied to know Sakiko and to be friends with her. While I find it a bit odd that she probably knows about the CHYCHIC break up and doesn't really do anything, It's not really her place to do so, so it's fine. Then there's the Youtuber or whatever. The youtuber, Nyamu Yuutenji, who had only shown up like 2 or 3 times previously as just youtube videos that Anon watches in earlier scenes I guess knows Sakiko? It just feels like such a random inclusion out of left field. Then the final member is Umiri Yahata, Taki’s friend from school. I get that she plays some sort of role where she helps bands fill in spots but I found it extremely weird that Sakiko knows her and that she's involved with it. I don't know. A lot of this can be considered a coincidence maybe, but it's still just extremely weird to me. I don't know why this band exists or how these people know each other or their deeper meanings. Obviously, there is the upcoming season that is purely about this band so we’ll surely get more context later but the fact that they ended this show with an episode pretty much devoted to this plot line that comes out of nowhere, It's very strange. It almost felt like it should have been like the first episode of the upcoming season.
Oh and this new season too. Sakiko is extremely unlikable and toxic and now she's the main character of this entire new season and new band. Where does this come from? They imply some not so good homelife around her in episode 13 but that's no excuse for the way she treats others (especially with how little context is given for her behavior up to now) and I completely fail to understand why she is given the spotlight now.
The last thing I'd like to mention is not really an issue that I think most people have and It lies with Soyo. The midsection of the show reveals Soyo’s deeper desires of wanting to reform CRYCHIC instead of their new band. She couldn't care less about Raana or Anon and at this breaking point after their first performance, she isn't afraid to make it known. In once again breaking up the new band, hurting everyone, and leaving everyone behind just to beg Sakiko to reform CRYCHIC, she basically does exactly what Sakiko did to CRYCHIC. While I know this will be an unpopular opinion, I think the new band, instead of getting upset by her and disbanding, should have cut off Soyo. I thought she proved herself to be nearly as toxic as Sakiko and I think the fact that they refused to move forward properly until she agreed (somewhat reluctantly) to rejoin later on shows that it's almost like they didn't learn anything from the CRYCHIC situation. What happened to the message of all of that? I get that they remake the band and everyone is happy for the most part (now with Soyo being kinda arrogant) and we even get a bit of self awareness from Soyo in episode 13 talking about her hypocrisy. I liked that we got to see her acknowledging that side of her. I'm not saying that she couldn't have rejoined later or something but It just feels like they didn't learn anything from the first time around and I felt like a lot of the meaning was lost because of it. Like I said though, I think most people don't have this issue but it bothered me a little bit so take it as you will.

Literally me watching episodes 7-13Final Thoughts Bang Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!! is a promising band show that fails to answer any of its own questions. In an effort to be unique, MyGo creates an initially compelling character drama but is unable to bring any of its drama and deeper meanings to a conclusion that is satisfying. While it has great animation, great songs, and occasionally good characters and moments, It begins to slowly fall apart at its midpoint and completely dissolves into a completely confused mess at its end as it completely fails to answer most questions I had. Like I said, I don't typically like shows like this all that much. They all just feel the same to me. I thought Bang Dream! It’s MyGo!!!!! was going to be the one that I could say I actually liked. That's what made its eventual collapse hurt all that much more for me. For reference, I consider a 70/100 to be a baseline average for me and the score I gave this show reflects how much I enjoyed the first half and how confused and disappointed I was with its second. I know I went on and on, so idk if anyone even made it this far but thanks for giving this review of Bang Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! Maybe I'll write more in the future? :)

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