YMMV / D4DJ

For YMMV tropes pertaining to Groovy Mix, go here.

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• Awesome Ego: While Abyssmare are presented as an antagonistic unit until the final chapter of the side:nova arc, they've have a dedicated fanbase since their introduction in part because of their competitive tendencies and strong (outwardly, anyway) self-image (with the other being their Darker and Edgier image that lends well to a distinct style of Awesome Music not previously seen in the franchise). Indeed, there's many people in-universe and out who refer to unit leader Neo as "Neo-sama".
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Noa Fukushima. Is her obsession with cute things, especially cute girls, endearing lesbian representation? Or is her cute girl obsession a creepy and overdone component that reduces her to a one-note character who's nothing more than a Stalker With Crushes?
  • The Abyssmare unit, while mostly having positive reception, still has a vocal subset that hates them for their less-than-pleasant personalities in their introduction, especially Neo and Weronika for their arrogance and Weronika's somewhat insensitive comments on Japan and the Japanese units in some scenes. However, more fans started to be more open towards them post their Character Development.
  • Merm4id:
    • On the whole, their sexualized image is very polarizing, with some folks loving them for bursting with confidence and bringing Awesome Music that goes beyond what idol music usually sounds like or simply finding them hot, while others can't stand what they consider to be unnecessary Fanservice and what they perceive to be the byproduct of a sexist idol industry.
    • Rika Seto, due to her tendency to be The Fool of the group. She is either liked for being a bubbly and energetic girl who never lets setbacks bring her down too much, or disliked for not always thinking things through (in particular, her actions in the "side : nova -Merm4id-" event cause their debut performance at what was supposed to be the unit's new home venue to end in a disastrous flooding) and dragging her "voice of reason" unitmate Saori into activities without her consent.
  • Lumina Ichihoshi simply by virtue of being an A.I. who produces music. Some folks are put off by this and end up swearing off the franchise as, given the year that her neck of the main story was released and the fact that she's portrayed in a flattering light, it comes off as Bushiroad implicitly siding with A.I.-generated music and other arts, something that has raised a lot of ethical questions in real life due to the potential for A.I. to replace human artists and some AI content generators infamously using human artists' content as training without those artists' permissions. Others feel like those critics are seeing a political statement that doesn't exist and just view Lumina as not much different from the many other Benevolent A.I. characters written over the last several decades. Then there's a third camp who simply feel that Lumina would be a more interesting character as a human than as a program.
• Bizarro Episode: "Daydream". The episode is like a fever dream — Maho fell down the stairs and can only speak English, there are random bits of deja vu where time seems to reset, she has her fortune told (off-screen) and upon learning that Karate will solve her problem gets into a Street Fighter II-style versus match with Dalia, and finally she wakes up and learns it was all All Just a Dream. Except no, because the other members of Happy Around turn into zombies during their performance and start doing "Thriller" dance moves. At the very end, Saki — who is watching their show — asks the viewers (paraphrased), "Was it real, or just a midsummer dream? Who the fuck knows?"
• Broken Base:
  • Particularly with the Haruna and Aoi "My Prince" relations event. Some players really liked the idea of Aoi leaning into her feminine side, especially since it was mentioned in her initial card that she used to dress that way in high school. On the other side, some players did not like that Aoi wanted to dress more feminine, due to the overuse of the 'tomboy wants to be more girly' story in media, as well as the fact that she is one of the only Butch characters in this genre. The amount of detractors lessened slightly after it was revealed that the change was not permanent and Aoi would continue to present as gender non-conforming, on top of the implications that the only reason Aoi ever stopped presenting as feminine was due to peer pressure and bullying.^note She was often told that she looked like a male crossdresser when she wore skirts and had long hair
  • The Summer Festival 2022 card featuring Rika and Saori wearing bikinis with the D4DJ Groovy Mix title written on their breasts, hugging and smiling proudly at the camera. You have people who absolutely eat this illustration up and often use it as a point against other idol games that don't have this kind of content, and there are those who feel that the existence of this card is an embarrassment to the fandom and an example of Sex Sells gone too far.
• Common Knowledge: Some casual fans, as well as a lot of people who are familiar with similar rhythm games but not D4DJ itself, assume that the members of RONDO and Merm4id are high school students, when in reality they are adults in college.
• Dancing Bear: The English dub of First Mix is more notable for the fact that Karin Kagami dubs herself in English than the actual quality of her performance, which is fairly awkward and stilted.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Some fans interpret Rinku's inability to sit still (as listed in her official bio) and tendency to get fixated on random things that interest her in the moment as her having ADHD.
  • Many fans view Saki as autistic, due to her habit of staring, not understanding some social queues and boundaries^note For example, she follows Maho around and spies on her in First Mix because she struggles to approach her. Then in her Anisama collab card, she gets extremely close to Maho when acting out a scene from a romance novel with her, and limited verbal communication comapared to other characters. On top of that, some people view her interest in astronomy as her special interest.
• Fandom Rivalry: There is some between fans of D4DJ and fans of more popular rhythm games, such as Project SEKAI, BanG Dream! and Ensemble Stars. The main causes of this rivalry seem to be differing tastes in music, and the D4DJ art style not being favoured as much as the art style from other games. There's also some rivalry just due to the popularity other games have over D4DJ. Interestingly, a lot of this rivalry is one-sided, and many D4DJ players also play one or more of the other three games.
• Fanfic Fuel: What exactly happened to Sophia in her childhood to push her to try to kill herself? Granted, it's mentioned that she has low self-esteem and grew up in a poor family, but a number of fans feel like there's more to her severe depression than just her family's economic state.
• Fan Nickname:
  • ri4 or リ4 for Lyrical Lily, based on the name repeating リ (ri) four times when written in Katakana.
    • As of All Mix, Lyrical Lily's also referred to as the Litty Committee.
  • RONDOM4id, a pormanteau of RONDO and Merm4id, is used to refer to collaborations between the two units.
  • Muscle Trio for Yuka, Ibuki and Dalia.
  • Merm4id's name is often shortened to M4 or M4d.
  • The song "One's Believing" is sometimes referred to as "1234 Philippines" after a prominent and easily-misheard line in the song.
  • Saori is sometimes referred to by English-speaking fans as "Sorry".
  • The unknown blue-haired, yellow-eyed girl who invades various technology in "XROSS∞BEAT" Episode 1 is often referred to as "Blumina" due to her resemblence to Lumina.
• Friendly Fandoms: Outside of the spaces where there is rivalry, D4DJ fans and Bang Dream! fans often get along, due to both franchises being Bushiroad properties.
  • Within the fandom itself, there is a lot of overlap between the RONDO and Merm4id fanbases, due to the two units being the only two college-aged ones and having a lot of interaction.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "Floor Killer" is the name of Merm4id's debut song, as well as Saori's self-styled title. In the Merm4id chapter of the "side : origin" arc in Groovy Mix, their inaugural performance at their new home venue ends up breaking the floorboards and pipes underneath, flooding the venue and forcing the performance to be cancelled, among other disastrous consequences. In other words, Merm4id became literal "Floor Killers".
• Iron Woobie: The Groovy Mix event story "Tαke Me GЯOOMY!" reveals Marika Mizushima from Merm4id to be this, going into depth about how her nigh-perpetual smile isn't always genuine. When she was in high school, she signed onto a modeling agency, which required her to take time out of her classes. While her teachers were understanding, her classmates were much less so, believing that Marika had become "too good" for them and that their mutual teachers were giving her preferential treatment, and started to develop feelings of contempt and jealousy for her. Upon moving up to Seiho University, Marika figured that it was going to be the same old routine all over again, but she simply smiled to herself and took the whole experience in stride, believing that her social misfortunes are simply something she has to accept, until her classmate-turned-unitmate Rika Seto came up to her randomly during lunch one day and offered to eat with her, helping her break out of her figurative shell and allowing her to open up to others once again. The only time she's able to smile out of genuine happiness is when she's with her newfound friends in Merm4id (including the aforementioned Rika), who she sees as her True Companions. Despite those friends' concerns for her, she still tries to maintain face when confronted by her old envious classmates in the present, and when the rest of Merm4id stick up for her and go on the offensive, calling her classmates out for hurting her over the years, she tells them to stand down and instead extends an olive branch to her old classmates, reassuring them that she has always wanted to stay friends with them and invites them to Merm4id's next live event, which gets them to realize their bad-faith actions and apologize for souring their friendship with her. Always smiling and having that Nice Girl reputation in-universe, it's evident that Marika goes through many hardships in life but just doesn't want to acknowledge her pain or show it to others.
• Jerkass Woobie: Abyssmare may be a bunch of unsportsmanlike divas who openly look down upon other DJ units, but it's hard to not at least feel a bit bad for Neo and Weronika in particular:
  • Neo was disowned by her father because she could not live up to her late mother as a singer, and started busking in public parks in hopes of rising to stardom and proving him wrong. Sho Mitsuhashi contracts with her with the promise of helping her achieve just that, but he ends up abandoning her when Lumina's singing voice at D4FES. USA causes her to have a breakdown that stops her from singing, leaving her lost and without a clear purpose in her life.
  • Weronika grew up in a terribly impoverished neighborhood and couldn't even get a good education, and had to resort to cutthroat singing competitions and earning money off bets to provide for her siblings, which explains why she's so competitive and brash towards others, even Neo who she sees as The Rival more than an ally ever since Neo bested her at one of those competitions.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Viewers of the English Dub of the anime primarily watched it either for Maho being voiced by her original Japanese voice actor or for Muni's VA, LilyPichu.
• Les Yay: In Episode 3 of First Mix, Maho says she wants to "make beautiful music" with Rinku. In response, a flustered Muni states, "If Rinku insists on doing it with me, I might be okay with d-doing it."
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • Similar to other Bushiroad single-gender idol franchies like Love Live! and BanG Dream!, D4DJ attracts a lot of sapphic fans who are in it for the all-female cast and the Les Yay Shipping. This was boosted further when the 2nd anniversary update for Groovy Mix introduced a unit that features a lesbian Official Couple (Hayate and Kokoa).
  • One might think Merm4id's fandom is overwhelmingly male, but there's actually a lot of female fans of them, a fact that the unit producer acknowledges. Many of those female fans are certainly not just enjoying Merm4id for platonic reasons.
  • RONDO is quite big amongst sapphic women, who follow them to ship Aoi and Tsubaki as a butch/femme couple. Or even ship the whole unit together as polyamorous.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • For some reason, a segment of the opening credits gained attention with non-fans of the series on the Western Internet after being captioned with the words "death threats."
  • RIP Floor^Explanation Merm4id's debut song is "Floor Killer", which is also a nickname given to their DJ, Saori, which has led to a lot of jokes about floors being literally killed by her.
    • Literal Floor Killer^{Explanation (spoilers)} In Merm4id's chapter of the "side:origin" story arc in Groovy Mix, their inaugural gig at a new home venue ends up breaking the floorboards and busting the pipes underneath them, resulting in severe damage to the venue and the cancellation of their event. Many (half-)joke that Saori lived up to her nickname, but not in the way she expected.
  • Sus Energy^Explanation A mishearing of a line from RONDO's song [Re]Termination. The correct line is Sasu Erejii.
  • "lovely!!!!" not being a Peaky P-Key song^Explanation "Lovely!" is the Catchphrase of Esora Shimizu, so when a song called "lovely!!!!" was released, but as a Merm4id song as opposed to a PKPK song, many fans couldn't help but giggle, jokingly accusing M4 of borrowing or outright stealing Esora's catchphrase, or how Esora is going to sue M4 or collect royalties from them, most prominently in the song's tags in Groovy Mix.
  • Rinku L.^Explanation The album jacket for D4DJ Groovy Mix Cover Tracks Vol. 8 features a Western comic book-style design with various characters spelling out the title of the album. Rinku's part is her saying the "L." in "VOL.", unintentionally as if calling the listener a "loser".
• Narm Charm: Although Karin Kagami was born in America and is familiar with English, her grasp of the language isn't especially great, either when speaking it or when translating lyrics from Japanese.^note  She's essentially Happy Around's in-house English translator. She's called on to do both in the original Japanese version of All Mix episode 6, and compared to Shuu Uchida's flawless English in the previous episode, she sticks out like a sore thumb. Despite that, Kagami's English dub performance won her fans due to the novelty of a cast member voicing the same character in both Japanese and English, as well as earned her praise from fans who appreciate the effort she put in and feel that she became comfortable in the role as the dub went on.
• One True Pairing: While several popular pairings have come out of the game, Tsubaki/Aoi stands out as the most popular. More recently, Hayate/Kokoa has become very popular both in and out of the fandom, likely due to being a rare instance of a canon couple in a rhythm game, on top of the fact that they're a canon same-sex couple.
• One True Threesome: In the Western fandom, shipping all of Photon Maiden together as a polycule is a fairly popular shipping choice. Poly shipping is also gaining popularity with RONDO and Lyrical Lily.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: By unit:
  • Happy Around!: RinMuni for Rinku/Muni, MahoRin for Maho/Rinku, and MuniRei for Muni/Rei
  • Peaky P-key: KyoShino or ShinoKyo for Kyoko/Shinobu, and EsoYuka for Esora/Yuka
  • Photon Maiden: IbuSaki for Ibuki/Saki, NoaTowa for Noa/Towa
  • Merm4id: DaliMari for Dalia/Marika, SaoRika for Saori/Rika, and SaoDalia for Saori/Dalia
  • RONDO: AoTsuba or TsubAoi for Aoi/Tsubaki, and NagiHiiro for Nagisa/Hiiro
  • Lyrical Lily: HaruMiyu for Haruna/Miyu, and KuruMiiko for Kurumi/Miiko
  • UniChØrd: HayaKoko for Hayate/Kokoa, which is also used in-universe
  • Abyssmare: SophiNeo for Sophia/Neo
  • In terms of cross-unit ships, some notable examples include EsoRei for Esora/Rei, TsubaRika for Tsubaki/Rika, MahoSaki for Maho/Saki, KyoRinku for Kyoko/Rinku, and IbuYuka for Ibuki/Yuka.
• Shocking Moments: The reveal of Hayate and Kokoa as an Official Couple comes off as a surprise to many fans, as the Idol Genre usually has an unspoken ban on putting idol characters in relationships, let alone LGBTQ+ ones, instead preferring to employ hints of charcters being attracted to one another.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The Moog synthesizer in Shinobu's house is very obviously a 2D texture projected in 3D space. Its knobs have absolutely no depth whatsoever, which is especially noticeable when seen from the side.
  • In "Spring Storm", there's a shot of the camera spinning around RONDO and their manager inside ALTER-EGO. However, while RONDO rotate correctly, their manager (who is traditional 2D cel animation) is just a flat image that stays in place and always faces the camera, like a sprite in a mid-'90s first person shooter.
• Spiritual Adaptation: This is pretty much the closest you're going to get to a beatmania IIDX anime. While IIDX does feature characters with anime-style designs and with profiles describing each character, the lore in IIDX takes a backseat to the gameplay, whereas D4DJ's storytelling is very much front-and-center. The various works are even subtitled in the format of "___ Mix", similar to how 5-key beatmania games are numbered as "nth MIX".
• Spoiled by the Format: A tournament arc starts in the very last episode of First Mix, and it's still on the first tier halfway through? This isn't going to last long. Sure enough, once Peaky P-key's performance is done, there's a time skip to Happy Around! consoling themselves later that night for losing the tournament.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Happy Around!'s stage costumes include what look like golden BDSM collars.
• Watched It for the Representation: A fair number of fans are sapphic women who got into the series due to including a canonical lesbian couple, Hayate and Kokoa.
• The Woobie: Abyssmare member Sophia suffers from some sort of deep depression caused by her impoverished upbringing, so bad that when she was younger, she wanted to commit suicide. It was only through hearing Neo's singing during her attempt to plunge off the top of a building that she found a reason to live, which is why she's so devoted to Neo. Her depenence on Neo for her well-being is so bad that during season 7 of the side:nova story, when Neo is called away by Sho to watch UniChØrd's performance, something that likely would not have taken more than an hour, she starts having a meltdown and needs to be calmed down by Weronika and Elsie.

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