What I will probably watch next season:

• Witch Watch: I’ve read the manga, it was written by the same author as sket dance, so its humor sit just right with me.
• Hibi was Sugiredo Meshi Umashi: Another P.A. Works original anime featuring working women like shirobako, sakura quest, and aquatope. I always enjoy their comfy SOL with some light drama.
• GQuuuuuuX: I’ve never watched Gundam before, but the visual and character design pique my interest. I’ll give it an episode or two before deciding if it’s worth the time.

I’ll definitely miss Ave Mujica, there isn’t seem to be another anime that can break me every week.

It felt a bit too rushed for me. The Hatsune/Uika stuff wrapped up a little too nicely. They just pretend like it never happened and hope things will be alright. What happened to the real Uika? Hatsune used her name to attend not just for Sumimi and Ave Mujica. Shouldn’t she have a say in this? Sakiko’s problem with her grandpa was solved just by giving the finger to him and pretending he had no power over her. And he just accepts it??? No interference from now on???

I’m just glad Sakiko finally can be happy, even only for this fleeting “happiness”. She now will take responsibility as the leader and re-debuting Ave Mujica. The only one with somewhat a nice resolution was Nyamu, she decided to face her insecurity head on with Mutsumi. Umiri got sidelined so hard, now she is still seeking validation from her band (thank you Taki, your comment really scared her for life). I don’t know what happened to Mutsu/Mortis situation. Did they merge? Is Mortis finally letting go and giving Mutsumi’s control back? Did Mutsumi stop seeking CRYCHIC? honestly, there were more questions than answers.

I know this was the penultimate episode, so we still have one more, from the preview it looked like they’ll cover band performances of both Ave Mujica and MyGO!!!, so there is little screen time to address the rest.

I was hoping they’d do a much grimmer conclusion for Ave Mujica, considering the moral of the ARG marketing they did was to abandon humanity and accept a doll persona. The psychological horror theme they are building throughout the season would fit nicely with a dark conclusion. But alas, this is Bang Dream, gotta end with a nice “hopeful” ending.

@rikka@ani.social

Wooh, that’s a lot of exposition from Uika (Hatsune). We learnt about her origin story as an illegitimate child of Togawa Sagahara (Sakiko’s grandfather). As an illegitimate child, Uika was kept hidden away by her mother so as not to jeopardize his position in the Togawa family. Because her mother married a fisherman, she also felt left out from her own family. Unfortunately, by fate, Uika (Hatsune) met Sakiko, the first light in her life. She was obsessed with her. She even left her island after a “fight” with her family and used Uika’s name because the Misumi that Sakiko knew was Uika, her little sister. Starting her play as Uika.

I love the usage of a monologue stage play in this episode. Uika (Hatsune) was playing the role of Uika throughout Ave Mujica, as to reflect that, of course, our girl told her backstory as a monologue. She played in an empty theater because there was no one to appease except herself. We also got to see Uika (Hatsune) be a lot more expressive in her play. Such a wonderful performance from her VA.

Now, my problem is only one, how in the world will they wrap everything in just 2 episodes??? If next episode only cover Uika’s resolution, we only have 1 episode to wrap Umiri and Nyamu, while they have to also add a concert in the end! Gah! I really hope there are more episodes.

@rikka@ani.social

What happened in Amagami that made it sore that high?

My reaction to the episode has mellowed a bit after reading others’ reactions and re-watching it several times. My only gripe for the episode was how last week’s emotional build-up was thrown away in the first 5 minutes. I was expecting a more climactic reunion, where everyone throws their problem at each other.

Sakiko’s moving on from Mutsumi’s desire also felt a little too quick, though probably after Mutsumi’s break down last week, her resolves had faltered. On top of that, Nyamu also demanded Sakiko to take responsibility for asking to give their remaining life. Sakiko finally gave up and decided to revive Ave Mujica for the girls’ sake.

This episode is a kind of juxtaposition from MyGO ep. 10. In MyGO’s reunion, every member was dragged one by one after each live performance, building up to an emotional climatic live performance where everyone looked at each other and cried. In Ave Mujica’s, on the other hand, Sakiko was the only member who needed to be dragged by everyone until she finally gave in. We got an unsatisfying reunion, where they were only there for their selfish ideal. Noone was looking at each other.

We got two banger songs out of it though, Uika’s twisted love song to Sakiko and the revival of Ave Mujica

@rikka@ani.social

I don’t know what to say

I lied

There’s a lot to unpack in this episode. There’s one singular theme, though: everyone is on the verge of breaking down because of their exes.

Starting with Uika, who has been on the back burner for the last couple of episodes. Thanks to Soyo posting on CRYCHIC’s account, Uika pried into CRYCHIC through Anon. She didn’t seem too happy learning that CRYCHIC is going back together. On top of that, she learnt Ave Mujica was formed as a rebound from CRYCHIC. Her fantasy of being together with Sakiko had now been shattered. She’d do anything to form Ave Mujica back together. She even thought of throwing Mutsumi in anger.

Sakiko is still filled with guilt of breaking Mutsumi after forming Ave Mujica. She was determined to fulfill her wish to bring back CRYCHIC together, even after having her resolve in episode 7. She wasn’t really keen on getting back together either, but her guilt is what fueled her to grant Mutsumi’s wish of getting CRYCHIC.

CRYCHIC being back together meant death for Mortis. Kinda ironic that her character role was one who not fear death, and she was determined to bring Ave Mujica back to prevent her from dying. Because Ave Mujica was disbanded because of her inability to play a guitar, she had been honing her guitar skills, thanks to Umiri. While Mutsumi is still unhealthily attached to CRYCHIC, because the Mutsumi-chan we knew only exists for the sake of CRYCHIC. In the end, Mortis accidentally “killed” Mutsumi and now pretending to be Mutsumi in order to bring Ave Mujica back.

Umiri’s case was a little unique, she shouldn’t have that much attachment with Ave Mujica. When Ave Mujica disbanded, she was shown to be unaffected. Her resolve was only started after watching CRYCHIC performing together. Either because of jealousy since she couldn’t connect with her other band unlike them or Taki’s comment or it was her impulsive behavior that we explore last episode (her buying beauty product and her only drinking protein shakes as sustenance). She is seen as someone untrustworthy by Taki and Nyamu. To gain back that trust, she even had to quit her 50 other bands. Funny that Umiri only started acting up after Taki commented on her both being emotionally distant from Ave Mujica and untrustworthy (I’m definitely not biased with my UmiTaki goggles).

Umiri also parallels Soyo from last season. Both are bass player trying to bring back their former band member after listening to Haruhikage on episode 7.

Nyamu, on the other hand, didn’t crash that badly. She was still haunted by Mutsumi’s acting and had a hard time auditioning. Umiri also kept bothering her to join Ave Mujica despite her having no interest. Same with Umiri, she didn’t have much attachment to Ave Mujica, so she has no reason to join back. Thanks to that, she is the only sane person to stop Ave Mujica and criticize how stupid they looked.

Gotta give it to the OST in this episode. They enhance an already stressful scene with an anxiety-inducing OST like a ticking time bomb. This was the most intense episode of Ave Mujica yet, and we will probably see the climax next episode! (same with It’s MyGO!!!)

Yes, Raana, they are a bunch of interesting girls.

@rikka@ani.social

Bro, WTF?! I don’t know what to say, this episode is just crazy

The title is a clever pun on 週末 (weekend) both pronunced shuumatsu

Ave Mujica kept giving surprise each episode as someone who avoided watching bang dream franchise. I only discovered it because I have nothing to watch this season beside 100 GF and it was on Muse. Decide to give it a chance and instantly hooked from the first episode, knowing it’s a sequel to it’s MyGO!!! I binged watched it instantly. Both give a different take on traditional band girl anime formula.

it’s MyGO!!! is a group of individuals still haunted by their past trying to make a new band with each member only have their individual interest in mind. It was filled with interpersonal drama and a satisfying climax.

While Ave Mujica was a take on psychological thriller on band girl, because they were formed out of egoistic leader. There were no coherence between the group member as they only have their individual interest in the group. I still have no Idea what’s the end goal of the series. I need more people to watch it!!!

Ughhh!!! Shizuka’s karaoke segment is too cute, I didn’t need Kusuri’s drug to be yamchad to the wall

After a rather happy and hopeful last episode, we returned to the usual Ave Mujica, dysfunctional girls getting worse each episode! Finally, Umiri got the long-overdue characterization she needed.

When everyone already moving on from CRYCHIC in the last episode, it looks like Mutsumi didn’t get the memo that CRYCHIC no longer exists. That’s why we didn’t get her inner monologue during Haruhikage. Unlike everyone else, she still clings to the old CRYCHIC days. Here I thought they’d have their closure 😞

We also weren’t done with Mutsumi it seems. Mutsumi-chan was only one of the many entities(?) of her DID and by disbanding Ave Mujica Mortis is on the chopping block. So Mortis desperately needs Ave Mujica to be back together.

Mori Minami did not beat the allegation, she is even worse then what I imagined. She wasn’t only neglecting her DID issue, she saw her as a competition. She even saw her as a monster, yuck. No wonder, only Mutsumi’s caretaker was seen during couple of last episodes. The worst anime parent in the season.

I love Umiri’s gap moe shown throughout the episode. During the season she was always depicted as stoic and distant from everyone else, keeping herself out of any drama. It was because of trauma she had we her first band, left alone by everyone during audition is suck, that betrayal.

It seems Umiri is brewing something with Mortis! Can’t wait what we’ll happen next episode!

@rikka@ani.social