BANG DREAM! & D4DJSEAMLESS STYLISTIC SYNTHESIS

MAX R. - Writer, 4th Year, Japanese

"Friendship ended with Love Live!, now BanG Dream! is my best friend."

MINOR SPOILERS FOR BANG DREAM! AND D4DJ

Dreaded CGI, something most anime fans appear to be fatally allergic to, but also that which I’ve come to appreciate increasing ly more over the past year, perhaps because I used to work with it myself. People usually cite titles such as Orange’s Houseki no Kuni as examples of CGI anime done well, which I don’t neces sarily take issue with, but on the other hand, Sanzigen (derived from 三次元 meaning three-dimensional) has been pumping out phenomenal work over the past few years while receiving signifi cantly less recognition. Dare I say it, their output contains some of the most respectable feats I’ve seen among nearly full-CGI television anime.

I originally dropped BanG Dream! due to how off-puttingly lack luster the first season is. I could potentially enjoy it slightly more on a revisit due to now having better familiarized myself with the cast and where they end up, but the initial viewing experience was nothing short of a slog and frankly felt devoid of life. Fortunately, it’s mostly foundational and doesn’t constitute the bulk of the series’ anime anyway, largely serving as an origin story for Poppin’ Party. Certain moments may be subtly circled back to in later sea sons, but otherwise it doesn’t feel nearly as important as what’s to come, a match to jumpstart the flame that is the rest. Tragically, it’s a necessary evil to trudge through.

BanG Dream! 2nd Season is where things really kick off. Sanzi gen takes the reins, and this is where I realized my mistake in dropping the series. Presentation feels like night and day, as the show immediately gains so much personality upon shifting to CGI. Characters are exceedingly expressive, wearing emotions on their faces and interacting in a more engaging manner than ever before. Sanzigen is a 2D/3D hybrid studio, resulting in a distinct aesthetic stemming from traditional 2D art being incorporated in conjunction with CGI. Organic CGI in anime sounds oxymoronic given how low the bar often is, but Sanzigen manages to achieve such and breathe life into characters. BanG Dream! 2nd Season onwards and D4DJ are two works which I feel demonstrate profi ciency in translating 2D anime mannerisms to 3D (Holo no Graffiti too) while avoiding any uncanniness one would anticipate. Tradi tional drawing is seamlessly deployed atop the models’ faces, en abling broader ranges of facial expressions and nuanced gestures than what would otherwise be feasible using said models alone.

Smears are frequently utilized for characters to express them selves just as if they would in a full-2D show while simultaneously retaining the advantages and extra dimensionality provided by being 3D. Converging the two, it’s the best of both worlds.

Camera movements particularly benefit from this. Rather than repeatedly redrawing subjects from different angles to mimic the effects of a rotating camera, the camera can simply physically ro tate. During performances, the camera effortlessly zooms about, highlighting every member onstage from every angle imaginable. CGI allows for greater efficiency in terms of movement as animat ing instruments and coordinated group dance sequences are no toriously challenging, more difficult than fight scenes oftentimes, due to the sheer amount of complex details to keep track of and continuous motion. There are good reasons as to why many idol anime exclusively switch over to CGI for their concerts, unless it’s Idolm@ster who missed the memo. BanG Dream! certainly makes the most of its CGI toolkit as seen with its performances, as they are consistently the most dynamic and impressive I’ve seen in regards to girls music anime, blowing even late Aikatsu! out of the water. Character gestures, lighting, camera angles, and stage effects all cohesively coalesce to deliver pure magic. Given how the show is primarily CGI from the get-go, jarringness that would be present in other shows upon shifting to such for performances alone is also absent. In spite of such, there exists yet a different source of jarringness, as less relevant characters and background extras stick out like a sore thumb. Due to not having as distinct designs, they feel more like video game NPCs in comparison to named characters. The issue is partially mitigated, however, as they’re usually represented by seas of colorful neon glow sticks shrouded in darkness, with bodies of individual crowd members rarely being displayed. 2nd Season’s character models look fan tastic, albeit with room for improvement, but Sanzigen continues to iterate, one-upping themselves every consecutive year. The fol lowing year’s 3rd Season and D4DJ First Mix proved to be notice able steps up from 2nd Season on a visual front, and same goes for the numerous related films released the year after. Meanwhile, Poppin’ Dream, Morfonication, and D4DJ Double Mix, which aired earlier this year, have maintained, if not pushed the envelope even further in regards to quality, boasting some of the most polished CGI I’ve witnessed within the television anime sphere. I can’t wait to see what the studio plans to dish out next.

I do want an opportunity to speak on the series beyond just CGI, as BanG Dream! proves commendable in terms of content as well. Coming from a rhythm game gacha franchise, a massive cast should be a given. As a result, the series prioritizes groups to focus on; all characters end up appearing and regularly interact, but screen time isn’t distributed equally and everyone’s complete arcs aren’t shown. I personally wasn’t bothered as I feel the series chose some of the more interesting bands to focus on, though hardcore fans of other groups may be understandably disappoint ed. However, unequal division of screen time has the silver lining that those that do get emphasized have ample opportunities to develop. Poppin’ Party and Raise A Suilen take center stage for the majority of the 2nd and 3rd seasons, and the series succeeds in terms of providing fulfilling stories for both. I was skeptical as to whether I could grow attached to the former considering how I didn’t care for them throughout the first season, but by the aforementioned Poppin’ Dream film, where they journey to Guam and everything comes full-circle, the opposite couldn’t hold truer. It feels as if Poppin’ Party has come such a long way by the end of it all, and the series is left in a position where it feels complete while also leaving room to still continue if it wished to. Roselia also receives somewhat of a spotlight, but they also have their own film duology that dives deeper into their origin story and bandmates’ motivations. Although the rest aren’t bestowed the same treatment, even the neglected still serve purpose. It’s the minor cross-band interactions between characters that contrib utes to the ‘interwoven community’ feel where many characters will hang around and converse with others outside their own band, giving them lives outside of music and playing into their believability, enough for many to pass as people despite largely embodying anime tropes and one-note gimmicks. At the end of the day, this is why even chibi spin-offs like Garupa☆Pico remain enjoyable as it entirely plays off the cast’s dynamics as a group to create gags.

On the surface, the Film Lives may seem easy to gloss over as they’re simply concerts from beginning to end with no semblance of story whatsoever. Various music anime may attempt some thing similar, but most provide little more than a performance compilation. The same can’t be said for BanG Dream! as I’ve been absolutely flabbergasted by its films. They’re not only well produced, but strangely ambitious. Film Live! was enjoyable in its own right; even so, Film Live! 2nd Stage ended up possibly my fa vorite installment in the franchise’s anime and unquestionably the greatest anime concert film I’ve ever seen. Conceptually, it feels like a genuine attempt to recreate a real concert in anime form given how the audio appears to be an actual concert recording to retain a sense of authenticity, and how the event is shown in its entirety without cutting away to anything else. Most impressive, though, is its sense of scale, or how it conveys both rather. The concert venue is grandiose with multiple stages and a colossal audience that envelops them from all sides. Vocals reverberate and cheers erupt amidst choruses, which fosters enthusiasm and immersion. Visual effects and lighting go crazy as kaleidoscopic lasers shower the floor. Banter is witty and naturally showcases each band’s chemistry as they take turns MCing, to which all seven play to provide decent musical variety. Even crazier is how the film has three separate post-credit encores that serve as alter native endings, which supposedly rotated between screenings in theaters from week to week. It’s so much more than it needed to be and I love it for that.

Dig Delight Direct Drive DJ, or D4DJ for short, is what led me to give BanG Dream! a second chance in the first place. I was initially intrigued by its CGI after seeing clips friends had posted, and coming off of a Revue Starlight rewatch at the time, I figured another Bushiroad project would be relevant to tackle. You know a show is destined for greatness when it unapologetically pulls out the air horns; they are indeed unironically used within the show itself on numerous occasions. Apart from being both a Bushiroad and Sanzigen property as well as sharing some staff,

D4DJ doesn’t have much in the way of direct connections to BanG Dream!, though I like to think of it as a spiritual successor. Rather than bands, it emphasizes DJ activities, remixing and electronic dance music, which is a welcome change of pace. It shares all the same strengths in regards to CGI, with splendid character models and extremely expressive animation. It also retains a few similar issues to BanG Dream! of unbalanced screen time and jar ring background characters that pale in comparison to the more significant ones. Visuals aside, the cast and their chemistry once again carries it, as their shenanigans never tire and characters I don’t care for are few and far between. First Mix has been more on the light-hearted side, following Happy Around’s formation and sprinkling in moments for some of the other units here and there. While some drama leaves its mark, it hasn’t quite hit the same emotional highs that BanG Dream! has. The anime side of the franchise currently consists of the stated First Mix along with a spin-off, Petit Mix, and a recent one-episode special in Double Mix. Being younger and less established, there’s simply less of it and hence I don’t feel it to be fair to compare with BanG Dream! in terms of content just yet. However, there lies latent potential giv en the upwards trend in Sanzigen’s technical improvements and willingness to evolve. On that note, the upcoming second season, All Mix, is on the horizon for early 2023, and I can’t wait for what’s in store and look forward to witnessing the franchise’s growth. Please give me more Merm4id and Photon Maiden.

Lastly, there also exists the rhythm games for both BanG Dream! and D4DJ, which, mechanics aside, supplement their respective anime in providing necessary backstories and character arcs for some of the more forsaken bands. Reading the band stories further assists in filling in blanks as for how each came to be. They resemble visual novels, complimenting dialogue with voice acting, but also employing Live2D for animation. The Live2D is expressive and effectively reflect the fluid emotional states of each given character, and if the first season of BanG Dream!’s anime looked like this, I wouldn’t be nearly as harsh on it. At least for BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!, I may care more for these interactions than the gameplay itself, a testament to how invested I’ve become in the cast by this point. Pastel✽Palettes’s story in particular, consisting of lip-syncing frauds who eventually endeavor to be capable of legitimately singing and playing their instruments themselves, truly helped endear them to me, making them into one of my favorite bands in the franchise alongside Roselia, and lent weight to their presence in the anime despite not being a primary focus. In D4DJ’s case, roughly only half of the units have even had much of an appearance in the anime so far, to which this assists to an even greater extent. Area conversa tions too, which showcase brief interactions between members of all bands, also serve to reinforce character dynamics and build long-term attachment. As an avid D4DJ Groovy Mix player, I can attest to having grown more fond of the series partially through it. Though avaricious in incessantly trying to sell me premium currency, the existence of the games are welcomed as tie-ins that work in favor of strengthening the franchise as a whole.

In short, Sanzigen’s involvement with BanG Dream! and D4DJ causes them to both preserve and capitalize upon the stylistic integrity of their series by synthesizing 2D and CGI to great effect. This decision regarding visuals only elevates already worth while franchises, as in doing this, they receive extra style points and carve out unique identities within the music anime space. I sincerely look forward to the studio’s future prospects as their portfolio has demonstrated major promise and I’m delighted to have given their work a fair chance.