Well darn it, it looks like they killed naming the episodes after song names. At least it makes me more excited not knowing what song will be featured in the next episode. Anyway! Bang Dream season 3 is here after a slight delay when it was supposed to come out Fall of last season, but the Film Live aired instead. Either way, season 3 starts off a few weeks early as the first episode was released along with Popipa’s new single. I know the other episodes will release the same way until episode 5. Then I’m not entirely sure how things are going to work then, but we’ll get there when we get there.
But wow, I’m glad things are getting straight to the point. I did enjoy the first episode of season 2 because of all the fanservice for fans of the game, but that’s what it mostly was: fanservice. We got to see all our girls from the game interacting with each other, watching performances of songs from the game, and all of that good stuff. Thankfully they mostly toned down on the fanservice and just dove straight into the main plot of this season.
We get a cool surprise as we see the owner of Space, the live venue from season 1, talking amongst the live venue owners in the area. They come up with a band competition called the Bang Dream! Girls Band Challenge (hey, a name drop!) where the girl bands can compete in this competition. They decide on the venues, and Marina suggests the Budokan for the finals. Which is pretty insane since this is apparently an unpaid event, but for some reason this is accepted. Popipa and Afterglow are totally in, while Roselia is sitting out due to preparing for the Future World Fes, though I feel like that’s going to change based on the episode’s ending.
The band challenge is huge news, but thankfully in this season it looks like we’re finally going to see Raise a Suilen finally officially be formed. There was a lot of focus on Rokka this episode, as she recounts her time with the girls. It was cute seeing some event stories mentioned, like the Popipa festival one as well as Pastel Palette’s survivor island. That was pretty much the extent of the fanservice we got this time thankfully. It didn’t overstay its welcome or take up the entire episode, just gave us a little fun dose. Rokka has been looking for a band ever since she moved in during the spring, and unfortunately she hasn’t had any luck. She fully supports Poppin Party joining, but it’s obvious that she’s a little upset over the fact that she can’t do the same. She comes across Masking when she comes over to practice on the drums and keeps an eye on her. Ever since that whole drama with RAS and Poppin Party and Roselia, Rokka isn’t exactly the biggest fan of them. But she gets quite the surprise at the end.
RAS is doing pretty well for themselves and they’ve got lots of fans already, even though they’re still a new band and Tae left. Because they still don’t have a guitarist, they’ve been using backing tracks this whole time. And knowing what kind of person Chu2 is, she won’t just pick any guitarist. RAS has been holding auditions for a new guitarist and I’m guessing that it’s been going on for awhile, but no one has really impressed Chu2. She wants to find the most talented, ultimate one so they’ll be good enough to beat both Poppin Party and Roselia to a pulp. I’m still not too sure how I feel about Chuchu. I like that she’s antagonistic, but she acts like a bratty kid. Inviting both bands to their concert, just announce to their faces that she’s going to kick their ass is kinda comical. And calling out Rokka like that, oh my goodness…Chu2 really loves doing things her own way and making a statement, doesn’t she?
It’ll be interesting to see though. The Girls Band Challenge looks like it’ll be a really exciting thing where all the bands will come together, and I’m sure each band will have their time to shine. Roselia is definitely going to have to join after that declaration from RAS. I’m especially excited to get a better look into RAS themselves as characters. Pareo is a very strange girl that kind of creeps me out, her meeting with Rokka gave me total creepy vibes. I’m psyched to learn her relationship with Chu2, I want to see more of Layer, and definitely more of Masking. And seeing all the girls again is just great, Poppin Party’s interactions are always so fun and natural. Arisa’s tsundere moments are adorable as always, and just seeing the rest of the girls in the other bands interacting together is great.
Initial is a fantastic song, and I love it already. I love it when Poppin Party has these more intense and serious songs as they tend to be my favorites from them. The ending song is adorable too though, and the visuals are both pretty and cute. Sadly the visuals for the OP are…disappointing. With such a great song, I expected better visuals to accompany it but it was pretty bland. I’m wondering if the visuals will change again a bit like they did with Kizuna Music. I kind of hope so.
Forgetting the OP, but is it just me or is the animation better this time? I may be imagining it, but I feel the CG to be cleaner and the expressions being better. Even the 2D art looks better too. I know Marina doesn’t have a 3D model but in the first scene, it seemed to me like she did have one until I realized it was just 2D. So that’s a good sign. Anyway, I loved this first episode and I’m really looking forward to this season so much! \^o^/
Possibility of watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of blogging: Guaranteed
