D4DJ All Mix - Reviews

Before going deeper into this review of D4DJ All Mix, a little review of the entire franchise ... to this point.

In 2020, D4DJ First Mix came out from the Sanzigen animation group.  It introduced the adventures of the fledgling group Happy Around as it worked its way into the ranks of established bands as the DJ juggernaut Peaky P-Key and highly choreographed idol group Photon Maiden.  This set of episodes included an OVA that explained the future of the D4DJ empire (of sorts) to include six diverse girls' performance teams.

In 2021, W-Toon Studios offered a set of 26 episodes of the full six-team set ... in chibi versions of short features giving a comic edge to the franchise.  D4DJ Petit Mix was a rapid introduction to 24 girls of six different styles ... in three minute doses.  A great example of ‘zip … zip … got that?’

In 2022, D4DJ Double Mix was an episode-length OVA which introduced two more teams, RONDO and Merm4id.  The premise was the two obviously different styles of the bands which have developed links to each other because of middle school friendships.  So, as these two groups were worried about their impact as they ventured out into the musical world, they could lean on each other.

And with this background ... the review of D4DJ All Mix (drumroll, please).

D4DJ All Mix takes the point-of-view of the sixth D4DJ girls' band, Lyrical Lily.  Four talented girls from a prestigious Catholic private school whose rigorous ways tends to pattern the girls' view of how they must perform.  The local shopping district has given Lyrical Lily an assignment.  A series of concerts in and around the district to promote the shops.  A year-long set of monthly performances.  This would explain the twelve episodes.  Every month, except August (bad typhoons, wrecking a prospective performance), some site will host the girls in concert.  And, the year ends with two close shows on Christmas and New Years.

This project would be too much for Lyrical Lily, so they get the help from Happy Around, Peaky P-Key, Photon Maiden, RONDO, and Merm4id.  On certain months a single group performs.  Then come the confabs.  RONDO and Merm4id proved that two groups with styles miles apart can function together.  Happy Around always wished to match up with Peaky P-Key.  But the most interesting match is with Photon Maiden, an idol group which wants to find a new musical direction and the new to the business Lyrical Lily.  Lyrical Lily is impressed with Photon Maiden's tight-knit powerful choreography and musical stylings.  Photon Maiden is impressed with Lyrical Lily's sense of chant and hymnody.

This makes All Mix a festival of 24 girls (six bands) interacting with each other, learning from each other, adoring each other's sense of priorities ... and having fun doing it.  For example, Rinku of Happy Around would celebrate Christmas dressed in Santa suits.  Kumiri of Lyrical Lily reminds that there is a religious significance to the holiday (which explains the 'Silent Night' selection for that concert).  But it boils down to the final episode.  A confab of all six bands cannot perform on the small stage selected for New Years.  So, each band will select one girl from each band to form a six-girl all-star band.  Who will be picked ... and why?

The music continues to be the driving force of the D4DJ projects.  But the melodies start becoming generic in theme, only diversified through individual style.  Still, sameness is sameness.  But All Mix does a terrific job in showing the individualism of each girl in each group, particularly Lyrical Lily which blends their uptightness (private schools can do this to you) with a sense for enjoyment of displaying their talents.

And so, the franchise ends with the familiar.  Maho of Happy Around dances as she works the mixer-board ... as she did in First Mix.  But then she is replaced by the other DJ's from the other groups, in single screen and then split screen.  All Mix pushes the series forward powerfully, making the leap from understanding three groups to comprehending six.  And the final episode hints that a third season is possible as the bands of D4DJ ponder the brilliant future before them.

A third season?  Oh, I wouldn't mind, but where to go from here?