GIRLS BAND CRY

Huh, weird. The translation I got was from the GBC discord server - there's a guy there that translates every episode by hand, and he normally releases them about six hours after the MTL comes out. That sub translated it as the cuss words.

Won't complain though, I love both of them. I'm all for Nina screaming whatever obscenities she wants to the world, the poor girl needs it.

Episode 6: The dysfunctional synergy of our main band keeps getting better. Subaru and Nina in particular are bouncing off each other in amazing ways; I love the head-chop moment!

We’re finally joining up with the Yoshinoya girls. Their names are Tomo and Rupa, and their dream is to go to Budokan. Which opens up the discussion about what Momoka’s goals are. What do they want the band to be?

The room erupting with streaks of color was such a powerful visual accompaniment to the added texturing by the bass and keyboard. I can’t wait to see a full performance for that.

Ep 6 Brilliant as always. I'm only starting to really notice now a.) how much of an annoying brat Nina is (which only makes her more endearing and well-written in my eyes), and b.) just how well Subaru and Nina mesh together. They're really like siblings.

Oooooh! Finally, we get to meet Rupa and Tomo! Rupa is exactly the motherly archetype I imagined her to be, but it looks like Tomo is slightly less of a tsundere than I imagined her to be. Although the trailer and ED show that she and Nina bicker a lot, so maybe we just haven't seen enough of her yet.

Storyline was interesting, nice to see them have a tangible goal (Budokan) that they can aim towards, even if it isn't fully formed for some of the members like Nina yet. Looks like everything is falling into place.

I should really listen to more TogeToge, their music is SO GOOD.

Nina and Tomo are bound to clash later on by virtue of Nina being Nina. Rupa seems motherly enough to be safe, though.

Episode 7: Momoka wants to drop out from the band, and in response Nina wants to drop out from school. Now that’s the dysfunction junction we know and love.

Speaking of dysfunctional, Rupa’s parents are dead, and Tomo’s mom is way too into her man? Cheating? Undesirable stepfather? The point is Tomo doesn’t like him and that’s why she struck out on her own.

Subaru might be the funniest member of the cast. Proposing “Dream Girl” as their band name, her neck crack and her trying to lift drunk Momoka were all great background gags. Meanwhile Rupa proves bassists are sexy by having an enthusiastic fanclub haha.

What the heck, they got their band name from a shirt in the audience hahaha. Well, it works. Togenashi Togeari is born!

Another great number from them this episode too. I’ll have to re-listen to all the tracks and try comparing them.

Edited by fillerdude on May 17th 2024 at 10:38:49 AM

There were a lot of funny background events this episode despite all the drama (mainly from Subaru). And also, was it Miyuki Sawashiro voicing Mine? I can recognize her voice anywhere.

Oh, and another thing. If anyone is wondering, Toge Toge girls can play their instruments live (same as most of Bang Dream bands):

Ep 7: TOGENASHI TOGEARI DESU! Great episode all around, full of wonderful character moments, going a bit more into Tomo and Rupa's characters, and some tension. To me Subaru's antics get funnier with each passing episode lol

Next episode preview shows a physical altercation between Nina and Momoka, and what looks to be Nina encountering her old bully with Diamond Dust. I don't think I'm ready for next week to be honest.

Edited by AirplaneNiner on May 19th 2024 at 12:55:43 PM

Man, I'm really glad I'm following both the lesbian band shows this season.

Whisper Me a Love Song kinda counts as a lesbian band show too. Then there's also the lesbian voice actress show.

So I was talking with a friend after today's episode, and I am fascinated by Rupa (Lupa?) as a character. Given what we know about her now and what we've seen from her, I'm convinced she has something like twice as much emotional draft (that is, the amount of emotional turbulence she can take before it starts actually getting to her) as the rest of the band combined. She's pleasant but not spacey, agreeable but not a yes-man. She backs Tomo up when Tomo needs the stability, and doesn't get involved when things aren't actually serious (like Tomo and Nina spatting over the band's name). Everything suggests to me that she's calm and agreeable as a conscious choice, because she's dealt with some Real Actual Shit (especially as a foreign person in Japan, with no family).

I expect we're going to see Rupa get angry exactly once and it's going to be devastating.

Edited by RedSavant on May 19th 2024 at 11:10:21 PM

You and your friend are spot on with Rupa probably having dealt with the real actual shot, which is why she's so chill with these relatively lower-stakes band antics. Do I want to see her genuinely flip though? ... maybe.

I'd definitely want to see Rupa flip. Would be interesting to see what gets her like that.

Episode 8: The most emotionally charged episode yet, and I am dialed in. Nina might be reckless, but she’s not dumb. She’s throwing away school because they have a genuine shot of making it big with their music. She believes they can succeed, because she believes in Momoka.

That spat was just raw, and beautiful for it. Nina slams Momoka with her feelings— that Momoka shouldn’t downplay her music, because even if it didn’t sell, it has genuinely touched people’s hearts, and saved them from their lowest points. It also helps that Momoka was basically forced to talking to her old bandmates again, and thus we get the declaration of war. Hell yeah.

Remember how we were talking about Rupa having gone through real shit? Well, here we have some casual racism levied at her. She’s so strong for smiling through that. Screw those guys.

I think Subaru’s VA has gotten better? Plus she’s still funny, providing some much needed levity in all this drama.

It does not seem that the new DD vocalisat is the girl who actually bullied Nina but I wonder what's the deal between them.

And I still do not get the authors position here: M Cs are pictured as the right side here but their rivals is not pictuired like someone who made the wrong choise either (unlike "Ya Boy Konminmg" for exmple).

It's like a sports manga. No one is wrong.

Though I say that, but obviously the narrative is leaning towards making music you love than making music that sells.

Holy shit, that was one hell of an episode. Probably the best one so far, and if the show keeps up this quality it'll be a shoo-in for anime of the season (I'm putting aside Dungeon Meshi for my own criteria).

I appreciate that the series acknowledges that cutting off your family and throwing yourself, truly, into sink-or-swim mode is a deeply stupid way to do things, but at the same time, it's a road that's open to people like Nina who are willing to truly put everything they have into the music. At the same time, I really can't blame the current members of New Diamond Dust. Momoka is the one who said they should bet everything and leave only one route forward, and then as soon as that route went a way she didn't like she quit. Maybe suffering for your art is only noble if you don't compromise, sure, but the ability to say "I don't want to do it this way, so I'm not doing it at all" is also a form of privilege.

Yeah, I appreciate the nuances in how this anime tackles pursuing a career in music, showing pros and cons on both sides. It's particularly salient for Momoka, who has gotten the short end of the stick before, in terms of staying true to their music. The bandmates she left behind aren't even angry with her, they simply stayed on because they're professionals.

Edited by fillerdude on May 24th 2024 at 10:05:17 AM

I do sort of wish that they'd gone the extra mile and remixed some of Momoka's songs, maybe. It's true that high school-age girls having to bare their midriffs and presumably do a bunch of other idol-type stuff to win fans IS pretty violating and takes the focus away from the music, but (as the comparison to Ya Boy Kongming! reminded me) at least Diamond Dust is still playing their music and not doing lip-sync performances.

I always forget how commonplace lip-sync is in the rest of the world, haha. Definitely would have served as a better contrast, but it could also be argued as being a little too on the nose re: distinguishing between mainstream crowd-pleasers and “true” music.

I heard it is way less popular in Japan because typical audience there tolerates subpar live singing more than lipsync, but I may be mistaken.

Ep 8 Probably the best episode so far. You can really tell how much emotions are running around in this episode. Everything is just done so goddamn well, they've outdone themselves this week. Rina is killing it as Nina's VA, I think she was definitely the right voice for her.

Oh lord, the chaos that unfolded in GBC spaces online following Nina's "confession" to Momoka...time will tell whether she meant it as a fan, as an equal, romantically, what have you, but the discourse has been fun to watch.