Finally finished my Winter 2025 list

• Bang Dream! Ave Mujica: My biggest surprise this season. It was a bold move to incorporate psychological horror into a girl band anime, and they have done a great job. They do a great job with the composition, timing, and soundtrack to keep us on the edge each time the band clashes. You wouldn’t know where they will take you each episode. They were brave enough to write a broken band descent into madness and believe they could still garner fans for the real-life counterpart. There were some issues with the pacing, otherwise, it would easily have been a 9/10 for me. I won’t stop glazing it. 8/10
• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 2: They did a great job translating the joke to anime form, same with season 1. The overall animation is rather inconsistent, though, for some scenes they did an amazing job animating it (karaoke eps), others have awkward layouts and inconsistent form. They did a great job making sure the impactful moment still got a great animation. 7/10
• Blue Box: I don’t have much to say. Mostly only follow it because I read the manga. Same with 100 gf, it has the same issues with its animation. The last 3 episodes were amazing 7/10

No, Ave Mujica was great. You can criticize its direction, but please don’t call it AI works because there are real people involved behind it, who took a lot of care in composing, screen write, and animate it. They did a great job experimenting the format, incorporating horror element on a band girl anime. Especially, when there are worse anime out there made by people who know nothing about animation, e.g. Ex-arm.

The animation in half the scenes is like 12 FPS (because they couldn’t be bothered to wait for a full render)

That’s like the standard fps for an anime. Anime was animated in what they called on-2 (a picture holds for 2 frame in 24 fps), so any other anime also animated in 12 fps. They left it as stylistic choice, and I didn’t find the lower frame making the anime feels stiff or awkward

The characters lips move like goldfish eating flakes whenever they speak/sing.

That’s also the standard in anime, they only have mouth animated with 2-3 frame open and closing. Ave Mujica did a great job at making it emotive despite that limitations

They appear to have used stock mocap for the characters playing instruments and couldn’t be bothered to match up their movements to the music.

They actually took their VA performance’s motion capture with actual experience playing their instrument. Like any Bang Dream anime, Ave Mujica has a real band counterpart and you can see their live band performance on bandori channel. I think they did a great job to emote the performance and still keep it in sync.

So, please stop comparing it with AI

So excited for this one. Our journey with these girls isn’t done yet!

I highly recommend everyone to watch both Bang Dream! It’s MyGO!!! and Bang Dream! Ave Mujica, This is the right time to catch up before the sequel airs. It’s MyGO!!! was a soft reboot from the original series, so watching the main series is not needed. You can start right from It’s MyGO!!! then Ave Mujica.

Thank you, Ave Mujica, for filling my Thursday each week with a mind-breaking psychological trauma for the past 3 months.

I have never experienced the same excitement and on edge each week the same way Ave Mujica has given me. I also love reading the community reaction. Watching the community breaking down was part of the experience of Ave Mujica. Fans who come after will miss half of the fun.

Thank you for closing it with an amazing performance-heavy episode. MyGO with their poem in the interim and Ave Mujica with their stage play. What a way to end the series. (Umiri still brings her trustworthiness to the stage 😭)

Nevermind, they announced a sequel for AveMyGO!!! Trauma is back on the menu!

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NO WAY!!! This is getting an anime??? My favorite romance manga is getting an anime! I love their chemistry and how much the manga could show the love between these two without using a single word

What I will probably watch next season:

• Witch Watch: I’ve read the manga, it was written by the same author as sket dance, so its humor sit just right with me.
• Hibi was Sugiredo Meshi Umashi: Another P.A. Works original anime featuring working women like shirobako, sakura quest, and aquatope. I always enjoy their comfy SOL with some light drama.
• GQuuuuuuX: I’ve never watched Gundam before, but the visual and character design pique my interest. I’ll give it an episode or two before deciding if it’s worth the time.

I’ll definitely miss Ave Mujica, there isn’t seem to be another anime that can break me every week.

It felt a bit too rushed for me. The Hatsune/Uika stuff wrapped up a little too nicely. They just pretend like it never happened and hope things will be alright. What happened to the real Uika? Hatsune used her name to attend not just for Sumimi and Ave Mujica. Shouldn’t she have a say in this? Sakiko’s problem with her grandpa was solved just by giving the finger to him and pretending he had no power over her. And he just accepts it??? No interference from now on???

I’m just glad Sakiko finally can be happy, even only for this fleeting “happiness”. She now will take responsibility as the leader and re-debuting Ave Mujica. The only one with somewhat a nice resolution was Nyamu, she decided to face her insecurity head on with Mutsumi. Umiri got sidelined so hard, now she is still seeking validation from her band (thank you Taki, your comment really scared her for life). I don’t know what happened to Mutsu/Mortis situation. Did they merge? Is Mortis finally letting go and giving Mutsumi’s control back? Did Mutsumi stop seeking CRYCHIC? honestly, there were more questions than answers.

I know this was the penultimate episode, so we still have one more, from the preview it looked like they’ll cover band performances of both Ave Mujica and MyGO!!!, so there is little screen time to address the rest.

I was hoping they’d do a much grimmer conclusion for Ave Mujica, considering the moral of the ARG marketing they did was to abandon humanity and accept a doll persona. The psychological horror theme they are building throughout the season would fit nicely with a dark conclusion. But alas, this is Bang Dream, gotta end with a nice “hopeful” ending.

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Wooh, that’s a lot of exposition from Uika (Hatsune). We learnt about her origin story as an illegitimate child of Togawa Sagahara (Sakiko’s grandfather). As an illegitimate child, Uika was kept hidden away by her mother so as not to jeopardize his position in the Togawa family. Because her mother married a fisherman, she also felt left out from her own family. Unfortunately, by fate, Uika (Hatsune) met Sakiko, the first light in her life. She was obsessed with her. She even left her island after a “fight” with her family and used Uika’s name because the Misumi that Sakiko knew was Uika, her little sister. Starting her play as Uika.

I love the usage of a monologue stage play in this episode. Uika (Hatsune) was playing the role of Uika throughout Ave Mujica, as to reflect that, of course, our girl told her backstory as a monologue. She played in an empty theater because there was no one to appease except herself. We also got to see Uika (Hatsune) be a lot more expressive in her play. Such a wonderful performance from her VA.

Now, my problem is only one, how in the world will they wrap everything in just 2 episodes??? If next episode only cover Uika’s resolution, we only have 1 episode to wrap Umiri and Nyamu, while they have to also add a concert in the end! Gah! I really hope there are more episodes.

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What happened in Amagami that made it sore that high?

My reaction to the episode has mellowed a bit after reading others’ reactions and re-watching it several times. My only gripe for the episode was how last week’s emotional build-up was thrown away in the first 5 minutes. I was expecting a more climactic reunion, where everyone throws their problem at each other.

Sakiko’s moving on from Mutsumi’s desire also felt a little too quick, though probably after Mutsumi’s break down last week, her resolves had faltered. On top of that, Nyamu also demanded Sakiko to take responsibility for asking to give their remaining life. Sakiko finally gave up and decided to revive Ave Mujica for the girls’ sake.

This episode is a kind of juxtaposition from MyGO ep. 10. In MyGO’s reunion, every member was dragged one by one after each live performance, building up to an emotional climatic live performance where everyone looked at each other and cried. In Ave Mujica’s, on the other hand, Sakiko was the only member who needed to be dragged by everyone until she finally gave in. We got an unsatisfying reunion, where they were only there for their selfish ideal. Noone was looking at each other.

We got two banger songs out of it though, Uika’s twisted love song to Sakiko and the revival of Ave Mujica

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I don’t know what to say

I lied

There’s a lot to unpack in this episode. There’s one singular theme, though: everyone is on the verge of breaking down because of their exes.

Starting with Uika, who has been on the back burner for the last couple of episodes. Thanks to Soyo posting on CRYCHIC’s account, Uika pried into CRYCHIC through Anon. She didn’t seem too happy learning that CRYCHIC is going back together. On top of that, she learnt Ave Mujica was formed as a rebound from CRYCHIC. Her fantasy of being together with Sakiko had now been shattered. She’d do anything to form Ave Mujica back together. She even thought of throwing Mutsumi in anger.

Sakiko is still filled with guilt of breaking Mutsumi after forming Ave Mujica. She was determined to fulfill her wish to bring back CRYCHIC together, even after having her resolve in episode 7. She wasn’t really keen on getting back together either, but her guilt is what fueled her to grant Mutsumi’s wish of getting CRYCHIC.

CRYCHIC being back together meant death for Mortis. Kinda ironic that her character role was one who not fear death, and she was determined to bring Ave Mujica back to prevent her from dying. Because Ave Mujica was disbanded because of her inability to play a guitar, she had been honing her guitar skills, thanks to Umiri. While Mutsumi is still unhealthily attached to CRYCHIC, because the Mutsumi-chan we knew only exists for the sake of CRYCHIC. In the end, Mortis accidentally “killed” Mutsumi and now pretending to be Mutsumi in order to bring Ave Mujica back.

Umiri’s case was a little unique, she shouldn’t have that much attachment with Ave Mujica. When Ave Mujica disbanded, she was shown to be unaffected. Her resolve was only started after watching CRYCHIC performing together. Either because of jealousy since she couldn’t connect with her other band unlike them or Taki’s comment or it was her impulsive behavior that we explore last episode (her buying beauty product and her only drinking protein shakes as sustenance). She is seen as someone untrustworthy by Taki and Nyamu. To gain back that trust, she even had to quit her 50 other bands. Funny that Umiri only started acting up after Taki commented on her both being emotionally distant from Ave Mujica and untrustworthy (I’m definitely not biased with my UmiTaki goggles).

Umiri also parallels Soyo from last season. Both are bass player trying to bring back their former band member after listening to Haruhikage on episode 7.

Nyamu, on the other hand, didn’t crash that badly. She was still haunted by Mutsumi’s acting and had a hard time auditioning. Umiri also kept bothering her to join Ave Mujica despite her having no interest. Same with Umiri, she didn’t have much attachment to Ave Mujica, so she has no reason to join back. Thanks to that, she is the only sane person to stop Ave Mujica and criticize how stupid they looked.

Gotta give it to the OST in this episode. They enhance an already stressful scene with an anxiety-inducing OST like a ticking time bomb. This was the most intense episode of Ave Mujica yet, and we will probably see the climax next episode! (same with It’s MyGO!!!)

Yes, Raana, they are a bunch of interesting girls.

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Bro, WTF?! I don’t know what to say, this episode is just crazy

The title is a clever pun on 週末 (weekend) both pronunced shuumatsu

Ave Mujica kept giving surprise each episode as someone who avoided watching bang dream franchise. I only discovered it because I have nothing to watch this season beside 100 GF and it was on Muse. Decide to give it a chance and instantly hooked from the first episode, knowing it’s a sequel to it’s MyGO!!! I binged watched it instantly. Both give a different take on traditional band girl anime formula.

it’s MyGO!!! is a group of individuals still haunted by their past trying to make a new band with each member only have their individual interest in mind. It was filled with interpersonal drama and a satisfying climax.

While Ave Mujica was a take on psychological thriller on band girl, because they were formed out of egoistic leader. There were no coherence between the group member as they only have their individual interest in the group. I still have no Idea what’s the end goal of the series. I need more people to watch it!!!

Ughhh!!! Shizuka’s karaoke segment is too cute, I didn’t need Kusuri’s drug to be yamchad to the wall

After a rather happy and hopeful last episode, we returned to the usual Ave Mujica, dysfunctional girls getting worse each episode! Finally, Umiri got the long-overdue characterization she needed.

When everyone already moving on from CRYCHIC in the last episode, it looks like Mutsumi didn’t get the memo that CRYCHIC no longer exists. That’s why we didn’t get her inner monologue during Haruhikage. Unlike everyone else, she still clings to the old CRYCHIC days. Here I thought they’d have their closure 😞

We also weren’t done with Mutsumi it seems. Mutsumi-chan was only one of the many entities(?) of her DID and by disbanding Ave Mujica Mortis is on the chopping block. So Mortis desperately needs Ave Mujica to be back together.

Mori Minami did not beat the allegation, she is even worse then what I imagined. She wasn’t only neglecting her DID issue, she saw her as a competition. She even saw her as a monster, yuck. No wonder, only Mutsumi’s caretaker was seen during couple of last episodes. The worst anime parent in the season.

I love Umiri’s gap moe shown throughout the episode. During the season she was always depicted as stoic and distant from everyone else, keeping herself out of any drama. It was because of trauma she had we her first band, left alone by everyone during audition is suck, that betrayal.

It seems Umiri is brewing something with Mortis! Can’t wait what we’ll happen next episode!

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We got a rather happy episode this week, ex-CRYCHIC members get to play again together and find closure. Thank you Soyo for being such a great girl for last two episode by being there for Mortis and dragging Sakiko to meet Mortis/Mutsumi.

Soyo is so cute bring cucumbers as a gift, probably the same cucumbers Mutsumi grew at school. We know it withered at the start of the season but now it can produce some cucumber thanks to Soyo, though she isn’t as good as Mutsumi in growing one. A reversal from it’s MyGO!!! where Soyo reject Mutsumi’s cucumber.

Are we finally at the turning point? Is Ave Mujica going to get back and finally get a happy ending? Umiri, our stoic queen, seems trying to, though we don’t know about Nyamu or Uika. Nyamu is too much of an outsider to want to get back unless it has merit for her, and Uika probably still delusional.

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This episode focus more on Sakiko and Mutsumi/Mortis side, with Umiri and Nyamu only got some screen while Uika is nowhere to be seen (I truly fear what she’ll bring, clearly she is not okay)

Raana, the stray cat of MyGO, is able to befriend Mortis by just a single night. Compared to Soyo who had been with her 3 days and nights by her side in her house. We got character development for Soyo, from an egoistic manipulator to a blunt caring friend who clearly cares for Mutsumi/Mortis circumstances.

Sakiko finally adopting her Oblivionis (Forget) persona by forgetting about CRYCHIC, Ave Mujica, and even Mutsumi, pretending like everything hadn’t happened. Now I wonder how the other Nyamu with Amoris (love), Umiri with Timoris (fear), and Uika with Doloris (grief)

We got a little glimpse of Umiri’s side of the story. Umiri only started to care after Taki was upset that Umiri didn’t care about her band, especially Mutsumi/Mortis. Unfortunately, this is the only UmiTaki moment we got, no lovely dovely couple 😔

I love Sakiko, but I fully support Soyo to gobsmack Sakiko after saying that! Please save us Soyo!

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We got the aftermath of the disbandment in this episode!

Umiri was still as indifferent as ever, this was not her first nor probably the 100th band she had which disbanded. This makes me really wonder what kind of characterization she will get in Ave Mujica. Sadly we got no UmiTaki moment 😔

Nyamu also seems to be in a nicer place. She got her connection from Minami and now has been invited to reality shows. She got what she wanted after joining Ave Mujica, though Mutsumi’s “acting” still haunts her, and hinders her from pursuing better chances.

Uika didn’t take Sakiko leaving her that well, like girl get yourself together. I know you were down bad for Sakiko, but please stop. Girl still makes coffee for her non-existent girlfriend, hoping that she will be back.

Sakiko having it hard, she didn’t speak the whole episode except for one sentence, “I hate myself”. She finally gave in to her grandpa and left her dad to live with him. Luckily Tomori and Anon were there to fix and give closure to her CRYCHIC disbandment. Hopefully, she could bounce back in the next episode. We believe in you Anon, bring our girl back

Finally, we have Mutsumi/Mortis, who are in complete disarray. Mortis plan to take over Mutsumi had fired back. She was supposed to save Mutsumi and keeping the band together, but now Mutsumi has gone and the band disbanded. She also try so hard to bring back Mutsumi with no avail. Please give justice to our little girl Mutsumi ✊

It seems that MyGo members now will have more involvement in the story to bring Ave Mujica back together. We got Anon singing the jingle for Togawa Group twice 😂, never change Anon, never change. Also rare Raana finally make a comeback, though only slightly off focus.

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Things seem to be moving fast in this episode, Sakiko was so on edge looking at the state of the new Mutsumi. Please be safe Mutsumi 🙏 (or maybe Mortis)

Which dialect/accent was Nyamu speaking? I always love it when non-standard dialects/accents are spoken in media

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