D4DJ First Mix

D4DJ FIRST MIX

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
13
RELEASE
January 29, 2021
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

Having moved back to Japan from abroad, Rinku Aimoto transfers to Yoba Academy where DJing is popular. She is deeply moved by a DJ concert she sees there, and decides to form a unit of her own with Maho Akashi, Muni Ohnaruto, and Rei Togetsu.

While interacting with the other DJ units like Peaky P-key and Photon Maiden, Rinku and her friends aim for the high stage!

(Source: Funimation)

Note: The first episode was released early on the official D4DJ and Funimation YouTube channels on October 23, 2020. The regular TV broadcast started on October 30, 2020.

CAST

Rinku Aimoto
Yuuka Nishio
Muni Oonaruto
Haruka Mimura
Maho Akashi
Karin Kagami
Rei Togetsu
Kanon Shizaki
Kyouko Yamate
Aimi
Saki Izumo
Risa Tsumugi
Shinobu Inuyose
Miyu Takagi
Noa Fukushima
Hinata Satou
Esora Shimizu
Reo Kurachi
Towa Hanamaki
Haruki Iwata
Ibuki Niijima
Ami Maeshima
Yuka Jennifer Sasago
Moeka Koizumi
Airi Amano
Nana Mizuki
Shano Himegami
Raychell
Mana Kase
Arisa Komiya
Touka Takao
Hinako Uemura
Ryuujin Kofune
Tooru Furuya
Misamisa
Shuka Saitou
Kuu Mitsuhashi
Daigo Naito
Dennojou Inuyose
Naoto Takenaka
Haruki Kaibara
Hisanori Yoshida
Aoi Miyake
Tsunko
Rika Seto
Natsumi Hirajima
Tsubaki Aoyagi
Rihona Katou
Kurumi Shiratori
Ruka Fukagawa

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REVIEWS

ThePieGod7
77/100
Just watch Revstar instead
If you watched Love Live and thought to yourself, "Man, I wish this was better," Then you should probably watch Shoujo Kageki: Revue Starlight.

But yeah, D4DJ is pretty good.

Not to rely too heavily on the Love Live comparisons, but D4DJ is basically Love Live but with DJs. A group of music-loving girls with a genki protagonist form a band, sing, dance, meet rival groups, and preform in a big competition at the end of the series. Along the way, they have fun, do cute things, make songs, and meet side characters that don't matter. Typical idol/SOL shmuck.

So, what makes D4DJ better than Love Live?

Well, the first thing I'd like to talk about is probably the thing you first notice upon watching the show: the animation. D4DJ has some of the best cg I've seen in an anime, no joke. The characters all look nice, none of the 3D looks off or stiff in any way. It's very bright and colorful, which fits right in with the general tone and feel this anime goes for. It makes the performance scenes pop a lot more than most, along with the VJ-ing that accompanies them. On top of all this, of the characters are very, for lack of a better word, animated. A lot of movements or expressions are exaggerated and bouncy, and a lot of effects are utilized in tandem with this. The general result is a lot of gif-able moments. You'd think that this wouldn't be something important enough to warrant mentioning, but when you've watched a lot of mediocre SOL anime like I have, _any _deviation from the norm is worth mentioning. The only downside about the good cg is that the 2D sticks out a lot. For the most part, it doesn't really matter. Some of the side characters are exclusively 2D, but it's not like the 2D is awful. Although, there is one scene where a 3D head is plastered on a 2D body, and man, that shot is terrible.

Second is the characters. One advantage D4DJ has over Love Live is that it only has 4 main characters, instead of 9. This makes it easier to juggle between them, but more importantly, that means it's able to dedicate more time to one individual character and flesh them out without taking time away from another. As a result, there aren't really any awful characters, which is more than I can say than any season of Love Live. There's Rinku, who as I mentioned before, was your very typical happy, carefree, genki protagonist. The only thing that makes her differ from someone like Honoka is that she lived in Africa. Also, she works out a couple of times. Maho Akashi, the first DJ that Rinku meets and quickly befriends, is a tomboy and also my favorite character from this series. Her calm, level-headedness sort of clashes with Rinku, creating a pretty fun dynamic between them. Muni is a pretty typical tsundere for the most part, but the evolution of her childhood friendship with Rinku is fun to watch evolve, and it leads to one of my favorite moments in the series. Rei is sort of the generic, shy music girl, but at that, she could be worse. At the very least, these characters all bounce off of each other well, and their differing personalities leads to a fairly decent team dynamic.

Unfortunately, though, none of these characters are super complex or interesting. Across the entire anime, it seems like none of the girls are allowed to feel too sad. I'm not asking this to become Fate:Zero or something like that, but it would be nice if Rinku displayed any emotion besides incessant happiness, Muni wasn't a generic tsundere all the time, etc etc. The main source of conflict in the show is rival teams, who are fine. Peaky P-Key and Photon Maiden both have cool outfits, and Yuka having abs is, quite possibly, the best aspect about this show.

However, there isn't too much conflict within the main 4 themselves, which I feel is to the detriment of this show. In truth, the characters don't really have any believable chemistry. Rinku befriends them without a second thought, and that's that. Despite being completely different characters, they agree on basically anything without a second thought, and everything goes without a hitch. There's a single interpersonal conflict throughout the entire show, which adds heavily to my main complaint:

There aren't a whole lot of gay moments in this show.

This may seem like a very minor qualm, and maybe an unusual one if you're not typically into idol anime. But let's face it, gay bitches are a staple of the all-girls music sub-genre. Or hell, just any anime that only has female main characters. D4DJ doesn't have many intimate or slow moments, no yuri-focused fanservice, no hints, or really any of that. I'm sure there are plenty of fan works for the more relationship-focused individual, but come on man. There are a lot of good ship moments you could come up with just from the cast's main traits alone, and God knows this show could use more one-on-one interactions.

TL;DR: For what it is, D4DJ is pretty good, but holds back in some areas, to its detriment. Just watch Revstar.
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MetaThPr4h
80/100
DJ activities full of good vibes, with a lovely cast and one of the best CGI in anime.
D4DJ is a multimedia project I have been following for a bit less than a year before the TV series started, my excitement towards the anime was huge, and I'm really happy to say that not only it was nice, but it also surpassed my expectations.

This anime follows the cheerful Rinku and her new (and not that new) friends as they form a DJ unit in a school very heavily focused on that activity (the funds spent on that big-ass beautiful building and all the rooms with equipment to do DJ performances must have been crazy). As the episodes pass, they will meet new rivals that will both bring a bigger challenge to overcome, and also become friends that will help out each other to improve even further.

One of the most important things to mention is that this is one of the rare music anime that is not really focused on drama, the characters do have problems and sad moments, but they all get resolved without being dragged out more than needed. I sure love a good drama, but I personally loved how D4DJ managed to have emotional moments while mostly just being an anime focused on sheer fun and good vibes.

Now time to take on a part that is usually very controversial for the anime watchers but that really shouldn't be the case for this anime: CGI animation. SANZIGEN is a studio focused on anime of this type, and as someone who watched how Bang Dream from that same studio drastically improved between the second and third season in terms of CGI quality, I can say that D4DJ now took it not one but three steps further to become one of the best looking works using that style of animation. It makes me so happy to read so many people who are not a fan of CGI say that they found this anime to look great and not feel uncanny as they usually feel. With that said, I have to admit that the background chars suffer from generic face syndrome, but how well the main cast looks and expresses their emotions, and how great the performances are make up for it hard.

Performance from episode 1 if you want to see an example

As a music anime, one has to indeed give a lot of value to the music, and nothing to worry about, because this anime covers that section nicely as well! Nearly every episode has a new song (or two) that make you spam on loop on youtube after watching it due to how nice it sounded, and the normal soundtrack that plays during the series is also very solid and memorable. Not fully related, but since series about DJ performances are close to none, I really liked how D4DJ made sure to show the basics of how it works so one can make an idea about what the characters are doing and not just feel clueless with what the task of a DJ is.

I have to give its own paragraph to the opening song of this anime because it not only sounds fantastic and shows how good the CGI of this anime is, it also fits so well with the theme of DJ performances this work focuses on. Guru Guru DJ TURN!! Really can be seen as three different songs transitioning one after the other, and this (groovy) mix delivers hard to make it one of the best openings from 2020. Make sure to check it out if you haven't yet! Link right below.

Sadly we're now reaching the end of this review, I hope I managed to convince you to give this series a chance! I glossed it over to not go full on detail, but while I really enjoy the music, what makes me truly love D4DJ is its lovable cast full of different personalities that just work greatly together (or become closer after struggling due to their ways to be), I'm sure that if you watch this anime you will end up feeling the same way and will want to see more of them!

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superp2222
90/100
An upgrade from BanG Dream in every way
When I first watched BanG Dream, I found myself extremely confused and frankly very repulsed from the spunky nature of the main characters and how by simply being too sticky, Kasumi can somehow pull together an entire band. Admittedly when I started D4DJ I felt that Rinku embodies many of the similar traits Kasumi showed, however, the overall flow of the anime felt a lot smoother compared to Bandori, and I ended up finding myself even more immersed in it than I thought I would.
D4DJ is a bit of an enigma in terms of what exactly it is. It's not strictly a DJ group, since all they do is just mix and transition music. It's not a band either, since not all of their members play instruments. Nor are they an idol group since their songs aren't pre-made and rather mixed live. It's sorta a bit of everything, an Idol Group that mixes and performs its songs live on stage, and by doing so it seamlessly blends all 3 genres and aspects of music into one seamless transition. It's very refreshing to experience and definitely innovative, and when backed with the right characters and progression of events, the entire anime feels alive and vibrant.

Story
The story of D4DJ is honestly the weakest part about it, and yet even if you're seeing the classic niche events that every Idol/Band anime includes, it doesn't feel as niche as the others. The story follows your classic hotheaded girl who's charisma attracts together a group of people as they attempt to win a title in the local esteemed competition. Along the way the group bonds with a sleepover, some minor conflict happens with at least one member of the group, a study session is held because the spunky ones are always in danger of failing finals, and they persevere with the power of friendship. It's the bread and butter formula of all of these idol groups and this formula has been done to no end. While D4DJ is prone this repetitive formula, the redeeming aspect is not in the main group Happy Around, but rather in its rival groups Peaky P-key and Photon Maiden. The best example I can come up with is sorta like A-Rise in Love Live, a well-established group that serves as formidable rivals to the main group µ's. In D4DJ the extremely well-established and popular group exists in Peaky, but D4DJ also has a ground-up rival in Photon Maiden. This creates a more rough interaction between the groups that leads to them creating a seamless bond that can clearly be seen throughout the anime, one that Love Live's A-Rise failed to create.

Art
D4DJ is one of the few animes to feature CG 3D characters. While they're not the only ones (Argonavis from BanG Dream also uses it), they went way past 11 on it. While their character are basically 3D models, D4DJ still incorporates a lot of cartoony aspects that you normally wouldn't expect. Rinku's reactions are always comically hilarious because they would go nuts with the effects, replacing her eyes with the classic ">.<" face or maybe replacing her eyes with straight up fire emojis when she's fired up. It creates a wonderful comical aspect that you wouldn't otherwise find in animes, especially not animes with 3D CG.

Music
As a music anime, D4DJ's heaviest selling point is in its music, naturally, each group and episode features unique tracks that illustrate the DJ style. The OP itself familiarizes viewers to the concept of DJs, as its comprised of 3 entirely different songs seamlessly blended together in a true DJ fashion. Each group also has its own unique style. Photon Maiden's songs give off a galactic vibe while adhering to their "cool and stylish" mentality. Peaky P-key's songs are powerful and the mixes feel well-made. Happy Around's songs are vibrant and give off a scattered feeling. Apart from that, you can physically hear the aspects each group is gunning for and use the music alone to pre-determine the winner before it is even announced. In the versus round between Photon and Happy, you can tell which song had the most impact on the audience, and in the final showdown the minute you hear the songs it becomes clear what will happen.

Characters
Last but not least, every one of these DJ units has to be supported by a powerful team. The story follows our main 4: Rinku, Maho, Muni, and Rei. The 4 of them create a very distinct and contrasting dynamic ~~that not gonna lie, kinda reminds me of Doki Doki Literature Club~~. Rinku is the spunky and clearly overcaffeinated main vocalist, Rei is the bookish, quiet, yet talented composer; Muni is your Nico-style cutesy yet kinda egotistic Video Jockey/Arts person, and Maho is the rising star and respectable DJ. Their tropes have been done to no end, yet what sets these groups apart is the dynamic the anime gave to them. Rinku has an explanation for being overhyped because she literally is a monke brain, Maho actually puts herself to her limits to better herself instead of just sitting in front of a desk ruminating about some obscure strategy, Rei's rich upbringing makes her a bit distant but she wants to get to know the group better by actively taking the initiative and even leading some events, and Muni's childhood connection, as well as background support, prevent her from being a Nico Nico Nii joke. The other groups receive just as much attention as well. The dynamic established between these groups makes it so that all their characters, no matter how flat or how much of a cardboard cutout they are, appear in some degree to be rounded and well-developed. Photon Maiden is your classic Cars 3 designer-made tactically optimized group with songs that fit their dynamic selected by a professional record label, but their DJ, Saki, struggles with remixing and wants to create a track that has "its own color". (The way they built Saki as a character makes me think she has Synthesia which is why she's so obsessive about the colors and that just makes that entire episode feel way better). Peaky is the frontrunner of the school, but the character dynamic that many members of its team shares with the main cast in Happy Around makes them feel not like cocky assholes but rather upperclassmen who want to introduce this group of clearly passionate girls the real life of living as a DJ group.

Overall, I enjoyed D4DJ far more than I did any other music-related anime. Their characters shone so much brighter, their dynamics were so much better, and they felt like genuine characters that build their music from the ground up instead of characters built around songs.
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