Name: This is my first review
Item: BanG Dream!
Rating: 100
Author: CureWink

This is my first review

Bang Dream is one of those anime that, unless you're familiar with its gaccha game, you'll probably have to dig through the bottom of the anilist charts to find and for good reason. This show is at such a massive disconnect with the word "creativity", and it feels like it has no idea what that even means.

No it isn't.

Watching this show felt as if every aspect of this anime had to be approved by some business man so they can get away with the most risk free, inoffensive product possible at the expense of anything innovative (that will also promote their mobile game because that’s all anyone ever cares for from this franchise right?). What they got away with making was an anime that wasn’t going to offend anyone and could technically be for everyone but not for anyone that powerfully.

Let’s start with the main thrust of this anime: the characters
All of them are about as lifeless as the CG performances they partake in. Let me break down the bulk of them:

> Kasumi is the horribly obnoxious genki leader.

> Rimi is the Dandere.

> Arisa is the generic tsundere.

> And Saya and Tae are so loosely defined personality wise that they may as well just be the same character anyway.

The interactions between every character, main or supporting, are soulless. Not a single moment of this anime can be watched without the feeling that it’s been copying and pasting ideas and tropes that have already become far too copied and pasted enough to enjoy for the 56th time.
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Ironically one of the only decent shots in the anime.

Even the structure of the series is typical to any show that follows the same formula:
1) Some character wants to perform in a band.
2) More members need to be recruited.
3) A few will have some issue that needs to be sorted out before they can join.
4) Once the group is assembled, there will be some last challenge they have to overcome before the big performance at the end.

But even if there are other shows like Love Live that essentially follow the same generic nature, at least watching that felt like the people behind it actually tried.

The character designs are hard to not be endeared to, the music & animation (when it's not showing any CG dance sequences) are actually good.

Bang Dream can hardly be said to have any similar appeal or any appeal that would distinguish it apart from the very minimum this sub-genre of anime had to offer. Even the music, which is supposed to be one of the main draws of these shows, is so uninspired; it's like it might as well have just been an afterthought to make sure an episode would properly fill its alloted 22 episode time frame.

And aside from the obvious CG fumbles during some of those music performances, the animation throughout is just as unappealing. The backgrounds are stale and for whatever stupid reason, it isn't even aesthetically pleasing yet there’s this annoying glare effect that persists on basically everything in this anime, which makes everything look 20 times brighter and so much worse than it would be without it.

Shiny.

What’s even more messed up is that no matter how hard you look, somewhere underneath all the fluff, you will only find more of it. Once you read the premise, there is absolutely nothing this show will offer that you can’t already draw out in your mind before you watch it. The entire anime focuses on replicating story beats that have been done to death, with little to add when there's so much that could’ve been done. It would have been possible to just watch the first and last episode and nothing worthwhile would’ve been missed out on unless the staff had actually cared enough to come up with something interesting, but as it is, Bang Dream is an utter embarrassment and ended in a whimper.