BanG Dream! FILM LIVE

DGFischer May 10, 2020

9.7

Imagine a concert performed by the five main BanG Dream girl bands.  Really, do yourself a favor and place this event between Season Two and Three.  The level of animation devoted to this presentation would explain a lot.  It is nothing like the Budokan concert which ended Season Three with a bang (pun intended, unless you didn’t catch it.  Then … what pun?)  The performing bands were (in order of performance) Poppin’ Party, Afterglow, Pastel Palettes, Hello Happy World, and Roselia.  Poppin’ Party book-ends the concert, and Roselia and Poppin’ Party offer encores.  Members of RAISE A SUILEN are backstage, but not part of the concert.  Rokka Asahi is nervously videotaping the girls as they wind down from the main concert and discussing who will go out for encores.  Chiyu Tamade makes the scornful face and grabs for the camera, displaying her ‘we’re the best, I’ll pulverize the rest’ attitude which will play strongly in Season Three. The film is merely a concert.  No plot.  No character development (other than a collage of scene from Season One showing how Poppin’ Party endured despite the reversals and obstacles seen during Poppin’ Party’s encore).  No conflicts needing resolution.  Just an assortment of old songs and new as the BanG Dream franchise poised to enter its pivotal third go-around. No problem with the music, other than an unfortunate final five minutes where the movie went mute due to a regrettable network (kissanime) error.  The animation was another thing.  It was a maelstrom of snatched scenes.  Guitar riffs.  Keyboardist fingers flying.  Drums and cymbals battered unmercifully.  Skirt hemlines flashing about.  Vocalists’ mouths pausing and gapping (often out of sync with the sounds one would expect).  Often that would have been my main complaint.  The music heard was sometimes not in line with the instrument.  Cymbals strung without clang.  Keyboards played out of rhythm.  Still, I could overlook the effect for the results.  It was a rockin’ good time. Still, the animation limped, particularly the crowd scenes.  File footage effect.  Same array of lights swinging to the beat, or better pulsating to it.  Jagged stabs of changing colors against black.  For my information, please … can these lights change color, or are they using different lights as each band changes up?  I mean, it’s a wild, crazy scene … just not my scene. So, to review.  Sound … good.  Animation … iffy-iffy.  Characters:  Seeing that these characters are transitioning into Season Three, we will not experience the growth that will manifest itself in that set of thirteen episodes.  So, characters: OK, but I would wish to have seen more of the moxie these girls will show in that upcoming span of striving for the Budokan opportunity.