BANG DREAM! AVE MUJICA

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME DramaBanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!
MANGA DramaBanG Dream! Ave Mujica -manuscriptus-
Not Available MusicBanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! / Ave Mujica (Zoku-hen)

REVIEWS

• 

  ZNote

  90/100
  A true KiLLKiSS of melodrama.

  (Video includes audio. Be sure to unmute)

  The end of BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! showed Togawa Saki appearing to move past her memories of CRYCHIC and work behind the scenes to get a new band started with the help of the shy and melancholic Mutsumi. Contrasted with the long performance debut in which the onstage cast are treated like dolls by the edgy script, Saki returned home to a small, dark apartment and a sorry excuse for a father full of beer, often finding himself escorted back from the police station, and going nowhere. The reason for Ave Mujica’s creation therefore seemed less like the whims of a rich girl who was bothered by something as-yet unknown (though that was still quite true) and more as a coping mechanism for a life that was, by all accounts, horrid.

  As if exorcising her own demons in the only way she knew how, Saki’s vision for her new band was defined. Underneath the gothic costuming, stark lighting, and trying-way-too-hard-to-be-metaphorical attitude, Saki seeks an escape. That coping mechanism function the band provides transmogrifies for each member, and it becomes more obvious that as time goes on, not everyone within Ave Mujica’s group sees the band in the same way as Saki. Uika, Umiri, Mutsumi, and Nyamu need the band for their own selfishness, too. It is shortly after they perform for the first time that pushback against Saki’s perception of how the band should function begins to take shape, throwing the band’s idea of secret identities out the window in a gesture that leaves Nyamu smiling and most others shocked. The narrative takes what would on the surface appear to be its main concern, that of maintaining secret identities as stage personae, and throws it out the window. In so doing, it plays its hand early – the personae on stage are at odds(?) with the personae that wear the masks in the first place. It is a clash of dualities on multiple fronts, ego against ego, The Stage against The Real.

  

  (Saki constructs Ave Mujica as a space where she is in absolute control of everything, countering her real life which seems to rob her of agency every chance she gets. It is within that vicegrip that the other members push against, fueling most of the season’s tension and theatricality. Shots like these highlight the duality theme)

  With duality as a binding tether, just about every character in BanG Dream! Ave Mujica is split or tinkering with their own inner convictions. Even here, there is a duality between how the members perceive the band and how they use it accordingly. On one hand is the cold materialistic nature of the music industry and the success that Ave Mujica’s early theatrics bring. Nyamu, evident from her behavior at the end of BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!!, is willing to do just about whatever it takes to become a viral sensation, and it’s her rashness that forces the band to reconcile their first real problems. Her materialistic approach with a “whatever happens, happens” treats the band as a thing to be used for her fame rather than a group to be lived in. How else to explain her enthusiastic adoration of Mutsumi’s famous mother, fawning over her with idolatry that we viewers see as shallow and vain? Umiri fails to recognize the band as anything more than a job, one of the many that she’s involved in (like a true session bass musician) and recognizes the group’s capacity to become a bigger splash. She’s dismayingly oblivious to what transpires around her as the threads come undone, doing what she’s “supposed to do” instead of stepping in proactively. On the opposite are Saki, Uika, and Mutsumi, all three of whom rely on Ave Mujica for some kind of mental grounding, therapy be damned. Either as a retreat from their ails or a putting off of what must be faced, they cling with broken nails to the precipice hoping it doesn’t give way under the weight.

  A crash is inevitable from the very start. The old adage may say that “opposites attract,” but that doesn’t mean they’ll get along. With Ave Mujica’s status as a band that also does short dramatic plays, arguments both onstage and backstage are played out in vivid detail, replicated for audience members who may be none the wiser to the actual venom being laced. It’s all too real, but under the veneer of the theatre. By the time a few episodes are complete, it becomes clear that all potential stage markers have been replaced with metaphorical chalk outlines instead, the world of The Stage and the world of The Real intermixing with, at times, barely any distinctions.

  

  (Nyamu and Umiri regard the band as a brazen capitalist enterprise, seeing the monetary and cultural relevancy potential therein. Saki, Uika, and Mutsumi rely on the band for emotional stability and resonance. The members’ clashing ideologies makes it doomed to fail without reconciliation)

  It’s through these disparate parts coming together and colliding that poses its own duality between this series and its prequel. In my original review of It’s MyGO!!!!!, I stressed that that series separated itself both tonally and in the construction of its band from nearly everything that had come before in a bid to be new. Despite all those changes, it still seemed at least somewhat concerned with the real world rather than masquerading as a particularly heightened version of reality. It seldom opted for abstraction if it could help it. Almost like a counter, Ave Mujica commits the full dive into its melodramatics, often abandoning logic for the most-deranged idol soap opera imaginable. Given the bombast and superpolymegadeathcorehellmaidens quality of its theatrics both in-universe and as representation of character psychology, to expect anything less would be to uphold a standard of BanG Dream! that was cast aside more than a year ago for this newer take. If It’s MyGO!!!!! wandered into the ocean, Ave Mujica deliberately drew in its breath before surfacing, basking in the sensation of water filling its lungs, and loving every second of it.

  As such, BanG Dream! Ave Mujica treats many of its events as earthshaking and monolithic, pulling back layer after layer of defenses for its characters until the only thing left is the empty melancholia and how to deal with it. Every character, often violently, is in a new place from where they started, and even if it cannot give the fullest time and attention to everyone, it rarely misses. Director Kakimoto Koudai, main series writer Ayano Yuniko, and music director Fudanotsugi Taiki knew that in order to sell Ave Mujica’s central ideas, it needed to give every scene a heavy and focused intensity that constantly flirts with toppling over. The result is anxiety within the viewing experience through wondering whether it will fumble, within the text itself through things and imagery only getting more abjectly horrifying, and paratextually through a series made by people loving what they’re doing and abandoning the old standard that tied them down before. By performing as a BanG Dream!, they have moved into a new realm altogether. It is precisely because they love BanG Dream! that they have “killed it.” Lovedeath.

  

  (The imagery and presentational style of theatre is suffused throughout the series, deliberately kicking things into a melodramatic overdrive that is both anxious and hypnotizing. The second picture from episode 11 is a one-woman tour-de-force soliloquy, a grand performance from seiyuu Sasaki Rico)

  We cannot pretend that this series (and the franchise as a whole) is not made for the purposes of making Bushiroad a truckload of money. Most entertainment, especially of gacha properties, acts in this way. BanG Dream! Ave Mujica is a reminder that even if the everlasting hunt for the bottom line looms overhead, you can still create something new and truly distinct within yourself and show that it can succeed after all. Flirting with disaster every step of the way, it dared, it committed, and I adored the ride through and through. With the announcement of a sequel, the ride's not over yet...

  What a welcome it was!
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• 

  MozillaMudkip

  77/100
  While A Massive Improvement From MyGO, Ave Mujica Proves That No Rose Is Without Its Thorns In More Ways Than One

  Ave Mujica as a series entry is a bit hard for me to come to a solid conclusion of. Upon this season's beginning, I was thoroughly prepared for an absolute trainwreck from beginning to end based on my perception of MyGO. I thought MyGO had a very strong beginning but just continued to fall apart more and more until we were left with the unrecognizable mess that was episodes 12 and 13. Where the story was once strong, I felt MyGO began to struggle over time in being able to take advantage of what made it good in the first place. It made the series thematic collapse all the more disappointing to me as a result. Despite this, I was extremely curious about what Ave Mujica would be able to create with this foundation I found to be oh so shaky and I've been eagerly awaiting Ave Mujica for the past year or so. Now that Ave Mujica has concluded, I can say without hesitation that “yes, indeed, this is the sequel to MyGo…” while at the same time, I want to make it plainly clear that Ave Mujica is without a doubt a step up from MyGO in just about every conceivable way. The series is able to strike this balance of being constantly fascinatingly in depth and interesting while sometimes being completely incomprehensible, making me thoroughly question my sanity (ironically very on-brand for Ave Mujica). I think what they have here had quite a lot of the workings to have been something truly next level when it comes to band anime but these issues that seem to constantly popup over the course of its run length proves that regardless of how good the setup and presentation is, its very tough to truly remove all the unpleasant thorny issues that would have allowed this anime to fully flourish. It makes it very challenging to define just how good or bad exactly Ave Mujica truly is, but I can certainly take an objective look at what I believe the show's most critical aspects are and how they form this show I became so addicted to watching for 13 weeks.

  Just like last time, I will discuss what I thought was good and bad with Ave Mujica without spoilers followed up by a section containing spoilers where I'll go into a little more depth with what I think made this show the way it is.

  

  The Good
  Ave Mujica really does have quite a lot to like. To start, the show is always an absolute treat to watch in regards to its visuals. MyGO always looked extremely sharp and visually impressive and Ave Mujica somehow managed to take those same strengths and turn it up to the max. This season's more “performative” scenes involving the Ave Mujica band to the more metaphorical and nonphysical scenes with some of the individual characters, Ave Mujica had some truly impressive visual depictions that was able to separate itself from the majority of anime, especially those in the band genre. I'm typically not a fan of full 3D CGI series but this Bang Dream offshoot is just about the only series that I can expect to consistently raise the bar. On a related note, without going into too much detail, I need to praise just how unique this show is as a band show. I'm not going to claim to be an expert on band shows but even when I compare MyGO and especially Ave Mujica to the few I have seen, it's clear that the team behind this Bang Dream offshoot really wanted to make something drastically unique and unlike anything else and I think we can all agree that they deserve some well-earned praise.

  Moving away from production aspects, Ave Mujica had some seriously impressive character writing that I was not expecting at all after watching MyGO. Again, without going into too many details, Mutsumi stands out as a prime example of a character that completely defied my expectations and became a very interesting character to see develop over the course of the season. Seeing her drastic mental change from how she was in MyGO to how she ended up at the end of Ave Mujica unfold in real time, Mutsumi is almost completely recognizable. While maybe not to the same extent, numerous other characters of the main cast saw similar levels of in depth character development that kept me thoroughly invested. Speaking of keeping me invested, I found the plot to be so much more thoughtful and deep than that of MyGO. They really expanded upon the idea of the fight between the desire for belonging in a group and the joy that can come from playing music together to the the amount of pain and strife the group can experience through the fragile aspects of the human relationships formed within. The road to get here was far from painless, but the accumulation of these difficult moments create such a fantastic product. Putting aside the more thoughtful aspects of the story, the the plot of Ave Mujica is blatantly SUPER juicy. Off rip in episode 1, there was so much absolutely crazy stuff happening that would leave me completely shocked in just about every episode. Finally, of course, I gotta talk about the music. MyGO had some pretty good songs and after the preview into this band in MyGO’s 13th episode, I was a little skeptical about what we would receive here and I couldn't be more happy to be wrong. The opening theme of Ave Mujica is ridiculously catchy and paired with its super exciting visuals, it quickly became one of my favorite music anime opening themes. In regards to its ending theme, like MyGO, Ave Mujica’s ending theme has pretty simple visuals, but the theme’s super dramatic ending song really felt befitting of the show and really worked to tie the episodes together. The insert songs also proved to be interesting. To be honest, in hearing the songs in the episodes themselves, I wasn't that impressed by the songs, but after re listening to some of them, they really are pretty great within the context of the craziness happening in the show. Quite a few of them have really worked their way into my head lately. All this musical prowess accumulated into the awesome experience that was episode 13 where we could actively see MyGO and Ave Mujica’s very different performances side by side with an abundance of excellent songs!

  

  The Bad
  Here's where Ave Mujica went from going to become the unexpected revival from MyGO to something that's a bit hard to place. Just like MyGO, Ave Mujica starts off really strong, to the point where I thought that it was going to redeem the series. Then, at just about the halfway point, something began to irk me and it only grew further and further into Ave Mujica I went. I began to realize that some of the very same flaws that caused the complete collapse of MyGO (in my opinion) were once again going to be completely glazed over, allowing Ave Mujica to partially fall into the same pitfalls MyGO fell victim to.

  To start, just like MyGO, I felt that after the halfway point, some characters began to act in very bizarre ways which acted completely against their defined character up until that point. It led to a couple of scenes that came across as being very blatantly strange to me which led to some very frustrating character interactions. I think the strange disconnect created by these moments began to take away from some of the more important later scenes of the show. I think a prime example of this is Umiri, the band's bass player. For nearly the whole first half of this show, I felt like she was completely indifferent about Ave Mujica then suddenly on a dime, Ave Mujica is now the most important thing to her. Uh??? Hello??? Where did that come from??? Did I skip a page??? That may be a bit of hyperbole but to an extent, it really did kinda feel like her character just completely does a 180 and I found it extremely strange. In addition to Umiri, I noticed similar moments with Nyamu which went on to prove to me at least that this is more of a pattern and not a one off. These very rapid shifts in characters illustrates a pattern of uneven character writing depth that I feel can also be seen in MyGO. While I think its fine that some characters get more development over others, I felt like there were a few episodes in the middle that reserve quite a lot of time for Umiri and Nyamu only to have their character arcs be wrapped up very swiftly as the greater story line reaches its climax. It makes the development of these characters feel very rushed, forced and under developed in comparison to characters like Sakiko, Uika and Mutsumi.

  The second thing I wanted to bring up is a bit more abstract and hard to describe without going into spoilers so bare with me. MyGO definitely had this issue too but I think it got that much worse in Ave Mujica. Simply put, I feel like Ave Mujica at least partially fails to handle the tying together of its thematic elements when it comes to its story and characters. Or, at the very least, I could say that when it came to what they were trying to get across, I atleast was partially not convinced. Ave Mujica follows a similar plot to MyGO in a broad sense. There were numerous interactions and decisions that were made along this bumpy road that to me atleast just felt like they went way too smoothly. Characters make up after episodes with very little resistance. Characters making amends against significant obstacles which seemed far too easy to overcome. Just why this is is hard to exactly pinpoint but one reason that I think could be the issue here is the show's misuse and poor handling of responsibility. Without going into specific moments, there were times where some characters' sense of responsibility was so out of whack it genuinely made my head hurt. Now, of course leading into it, there were many moments where characters, whilst confused and struggling to navigate life struggle with their relationships which I felt were handled pretty well. It's more in the later half of the show where characters upon facing and realizing their flaws exercise this completely warped sense of responsibility. Some of these people make such strange decisions and like I said above, things just somehow magically work, it left me feeling kinda ambivalent about what had been pretty solid earlier moments in the show that lead to us getting here. At its worst, it really made me feel like the show just completely missed the point of its own message in a similar sense to MyGO. Did these characters actually learn anything along this tough journey, or is this all just being tied together to allow the show to end in a happy way? Making such irresponsible decisions to make it out completely without harm at the show's end, it really made me question to a certain extent what was even the point? Like I said, It's very tough to explain what exactly I mean by this without going into specifics so if you haven't watched this show yet and plan to, I urge you to just keep it in mind while you watch and I hope what I've said here will become more clear to see.

  Now, In fully transparency, I wrote a large portion of this review before episode 13 of Ave Mujica aired and by extension, the announcement of what seems to be a sequel 3rd season to tie up not only Ave Mujica but MyGO as well, so maybe this new season will take a harder look at the areas that I took issue with and finally break it down and improve upon it? We can only wait and find out but to a certain extent, similarly to how I feel about MyGO, I feel like a show like Ave Mujica can't just entirely do its own thing while pushing all these larger issues aside to be examined by a future entry. I think it needs to take more time to confront these issues right here and now where the bulk of the actual interactions are taking place. Of course, this is just how I feel though and I know lots of people are fine with this but I felt like it should at least be said.

  ___This Section Contains Spoilers!___

  Before I get into the controversial stuff, I wanted to share some specific moments that I really enjoyed in Ave Mujica. I mentioned it earlier but seeing Mutsumi’s characterization and her transformation into Mortis was extremely interesting to see. I think it was in episode 4, the moment where Mutsumi finally breaks, turns into Mortis and admonishes Sakiko for her manipulative behavior up until that point was the moment that first fully grabbed my interest for this show. It was really great to finally see some direct confrontation between these characters. After everything that went down in MyGO, I was itching for some conversion just like that and it made that moment really stand out as being a major turning point in Ave Mujica’s story. Moving forward from there, while I felt like it might have stretched out for a bit to long, being able to see the ongoing battle between Mutsumi’s split personality was consistently very interesting to see and ended up creating some excellent moments where we could see Mutsumi’s character change in a very powerful way thematically and visually. Similarly, while I thought the whole Uika and Sakiko being related twist was way too out of nowhere for my liking, the way Uika's story portions in the show's later episodes were presented also proved to be quite special. Episode 11 for instance, where Uika performs a solo “performance” about her backstory and her involvement with the Togawa family made what I thought was going to be a painfully generic flashback backstory episode into something that felt so much more powerful and truly unique. I can't think of any other anime that has anything similar to that stage performance scene that is used the way Ave Mujica does. It really became such a great instance of unique and powerful visual story presentation that was able to innovate and really elevate what would have normally been a boring episode into one of the season’s most memorable. I think that episode will remain in my mind as a prime example of visual storytelling that can completely transform a show into something so much more. There were plenty of other moments of this show that I really enjoyed but these were the two things that really stuck out in my mind and I really wanted to share just how much I enjoyed them.

  Ok, now for the meat of this review and the part I feel will get me some disdain again. I can't believe I have to say this but after my MyGO review, I want to make it plainly clear that everything I'm about to say is purely my opinion and how I viewed the show and its characters. I fully recognize that I am in the minority when it comes to the way I see some things, but I find it completely baffling how I seem to have a completely different viewing experience when it comes to some aspects of this show than the majority of other people. So please, just hear me out.

  What ended up being Ave Mujica’s biggest problem, which may be unsurprising to those who have read my MyGO review, is this show's main character, the one and only Sakiko Togawa, though more specifically, the long chain of events that Sakiko played a center role in that led us up to this point. When I was talking about the misuse of responsibility earlier, I mainly meant it in regards to Sakiko. I think it’ll probably be best to illustrate how I feel just by going through the general events of the show. To start off MyGO, Sakiko has a rough life with no shortage of struggles. Evidently shown in MyGO, the collapse of CHRYCHIC is what led this entire story to happen and it all resulted from Sakiko not having time any more for activities given her sudden need to support herself. Later on, Ave Mujica is formed from what I understand in an effort in longing for what was lost with CHRYCHIC. But it's not quite that simple. The members of Ave Mujica are not really friends in the same way the CHRYCHIC group was and it's extremely difficult to form relationships as a group with all of the responsibilities that its members have. It made the collapse of Ave Mujica unavoidable from the start. This is where it gets messy for me though. In both instances, Sakiko is the main reason why both of these groups broke up in the first place and at its root, she was also the reason why they formed in the first place. Upon the collapse of these groups, it leads to a lot of unhealthy behavior from various characters. Whether its Soyo’s toxicity in the second half of MyGO in regards to Raana and Anon’s inclusion to Mutumi’s mental collapse here in Ave Mujica, I feel like in many instances, its Sakiko’s manipulation of these characters to form the bands, these groups of belonging for her, which lead these characters to exhibit as much problematic behavior as they do. As a result, It makes it hard for me then when it feels like nearly every time these relationships are developed and examined that she somehow almost always is able to skirt the majority of the responsibility for her involvement. I feel like throughout MyGO and Ave Mujica, we’ve seen instance after instance of Sakiko being blatantly two-faced when it comes to how she treats her friends with plenty of moments where it seemed to me at least where she was all too willing to throw everything away at the drop of a hat regardless of consequences to be all too willing to patch things up later when it seemed to be convenient for her. This along side her strongly manipulative behaviors creates a perfect storm for her to be very unlikable to me despite this show trying to present her in a sympathetic light. They can make me feel bad for her all they want but if she just continues this behavior like she has up until this point, its going to be very tough for them to make Sakiko a likeable character I could get behind. Maybe this is just how I saw her characterization but it was an aspect that was at the forefront of my mind while many of these events unfolded.

  A good example of the effect this trend seems to have on the series can be said with Mutsumi/Mortis. I think the way Sakiko treated Mutsumi in MyGO and the early parts of Ave Mujica were pretty terrible. In episode 4 when Mortis finally comes out, she forces Sakiko to confront her treatment of Mustumi and how much she and Ave Mujica have broken her so far beyond repair. After this though, moving forward into the season, I frequently found myself asking myself, “did she actually learn anything?”. Back to Mutsumi, given what we saw at least where she questions her on why she isn't just on her side anymore like she had been before unquestioningly, it kinda didn't feel like it. I feel like this feeling is more or less persistent regarding Sakiko’s decisions throughout the series. In the end, she eventually does take responsibility upon Uika’s leaving and it feels like just like that, everyone is happy again and the band is back together. It just felt far too convenient to me. Maybe I'm just too much of a pessimist but I wasn't convinced. While I feel like it made a satisfying and happy reconciliation for Sakiko and her bandmates, it felt like it just all worked out due to it now being the end of the show and that they need to get together in the end. This brings me back to my initial point, responsibility. Now that we've made it to the end, we've seen all these messy relationships between Sakiko and all her bandmates, the formation and breakup and sometimes reunion of numerous of her bands. Have we truly seen Sakiko take responsibility for the “messes” she's made regardless of whether she did it out of malicious intent or not? I don't think the answer is a well defined yes or no. I do feel like Sakiko has been moving in the right direction as of late, but it's still far too early for me to fully believe that she is willing to go the full distance. It is through this view that makes the story of Ave Mujica troubled in regards to its thematic elements. It just felt way too “ideal” in a way that took away from some of the message the show was trying to present.

  Again, this is just how I saw Ave Mujica. I get that most people don't feel this way and that maybe I'm just being too cynical, but this feeling regarding Sakiko that formed and grew in MyGO just didn't really go away for me while watching Ave Mujica. Now that I know there will be a season 3, who knows? Maybe they will take the necessary time to get into this fundamental issue? No one can say for sure and only time will tell.

  __Final Thoughts__

  For the most part, I feel like Ave Mujica was able to separate itself from where MyGO failed and was successfully able to create a potent and very unique band anime. Through means with its production creating brilliant visuals and powerful music or through the shows numerous examples of powerful, genre-defining character writing and extremely captivating scenes, Ave Mujica is able to create a very interesting mix of plot and characters that kept me glued to the TV week after week. With that being said, was it able to pull it off without flaw and without any of the weakness that plagued its predecessor? No, personally I don't think it was able to completely do that. Characters still act out of character from time to time, some smaller plot lines and character arcs are very underdeveloped and I at least feel like in some aspects, the show fails to properly handle its thematic elements and characterization to form a resolution that left me completely satisfied. But hey, what I will say is that when it gets down to it, Ave Mujica is definitely a unique band anime that goes in a direction just about nothing else does. It is overall able to create a viewing experience that will be sure to keep you invested and eagerly awaiting to watch the next episode. And with that, I once again eagerly await whatever they have cooking up next for this franchise! See you then!

  ---

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• 

  NovaPM

  100/100
  An unfathomably deep-cutting, uncharacteristic band anime

  __Not really a review, but more my disjointed thoughts directly after watching. These were originally comments on my completion activity, but I’d like to keep them here for easier viewing. I’m extremely biased due to some topics covered in the story, so I recommend finding a different overview if looking for a more objective outlook on the story.__ __Heavy Spoilers__ --- Speechless. I began MyGO purely to get to this "sequel" after hearing KiLLKiSS for the first time, and it was absolutely more than I could have ever imagined it to be. Before watching MyGO, I was just expecting a simple cute girls doing cute things band anime with a more edgy theme to the band, but after finishing MyGO, I knew that there would definitely be more to Ave Mujica than I had originally thought. Nothing could prepare me for what this anime truly had in store, though. Despite my overall high rating and enjoyment of MyGO, there was this feeling that I couldn't shake after finishing it, one that was hard to describe, but I think the closest thing would be a feeling of vexation. I understood that the over-the-top drama was a part of the appeal, but I felt like in MyGO, everyone equally losing their minds over a band breakup was just too much. I wasn't saying that this response from the characters was necessarily inappropriate, but it was hard for me to get truly devoted to the story because I felt like it simply wasn't a big enough deal for so much drama to subsequently occur as a result, even if every character had their own deep-rooted reasons for being so unstable from the breakup. This feeling of uneasiness was absolutely flipped in Ave Mujica, where I felt like there were many more pressing issues that made the drama seem more appropriate and in line with the severity of the conflicts. Most obviously, one of those conflicts was Saki's relationship with her father and problems with her grandfather. All of the questions about Saki were finally revealed in this "sequel", hopefully dispelling any hate for Saki that anyone might have had while watching MyGO. In episode 1 of Ave Mujica, with the full scene of CRYCHIC's breakup being shown, Saki's crying was such an initial gut punch that really set the tone for the rest of the series. You couldn't feel anything but pity for her while watching her sob in the rain, starkly contrasting her usually happy disposition when in CRYCHIC. Someone trying to do their best to please everyone, yet with no support from anyone but herself. Despite trying her best to be so mature and handle everything on her own, the reality of her just being a high school student with very little power came crashing down on her in the form of endless conflict with almost everyone she made relationships with due to her inability to fully explain her woes from mental instability. I thought most, if not all, of the members of CRYCHIC needed therapy, but Saki's case was truly on another level. I could never have imagined such a character being made for an anime I had previously seen as a throwaway band show. The other biggest conflict in this series was the case of Mutsumi. Where to even begin. A character with dissociative identity disorder in my supposedly cute girls do cute things band anime? Absolutely unimaginable. While watching, it was hard for me to determine whether I was more shocked about the reveal itself or the fact that the writers even chose to dig this deep. When this was first revealed, I knew that I was watching something special. I watched this series fresh off the heels of reading Inside Mari and was in absolute disbelief at my luck in seeing this illness again so soon. Just like with that story, I was thrust into a spiral of past encounters with this illness, and it felt unreal to see it portrayed in such a scarily understandable and relatable way as it was with Mutsumi. Perfectly fitting into the theatrical theming of Ave Mujica, the classic presentation of this illness in the form of watching yourself on a TV screen just worked so well, and it was comforting to see it given such clear representation in such a large franchise. While not a huge "conflict" due to only being given a handful of episodes for her character arc, I would definitely like to touch on my favorite, Uika. It's beyond lame for me to say, "I just like her so much! It's just...a feeling in my heart!" as an explanation for why I’m so fond of her, but unfortunately, that's a big part of it. It's difficult for me to put into words, but I think the closest reason would be because her flavor of mental illness simply resonated with me more. While objectively I may have had more experiences "as a Mutsumi," my feelings regarding this topic felt more in line with Uika's experiences and emotions. I'm being vague about myself, but oh well, it's in the past anyway, and I've already discussed this too much at this point. Regarding Uika herself, though, she wasn't directly as mentally ill as Mutsumi, but the way she felt about herself was what really made me warm up to her. A feeling of disgust with yourself. A feeling of disgust with yourself after doing something wrong, understanding how wrong it was, and being forced to only put yourself down over it even more because you're simply too weak to come out and be honest with yourself. In combination with her extremely dangerous feelings of obsession that were scarily relatable, seeing her play out on her stage was like looking into a mirror at points—an experience that truly frightened me. The fact that I put so much into this series, specifically this character, was something that scared me, and I take that as a testament to how good this series really was. For the other two members of the band, Umiri and Nyamu, I unfortunately can't say much about them because I wasn't a massive fan of them. I always thought Umiri was cool like everyone else ever since MyGO, and it was nice to see a different side of her as she became more vulnerable about Ave Mujica, but unfortunately, this was also a downfall for me. The aura loss was truly off the charts with her switch-up. One moment she was emotionless and cold, and the next she was full of jealousy and was putting it on full display. I understood that this was, for the most part, explained in her episode or two of backstory, but it still seemed so random and without enough build-up that it was hard for me to truly appreciate the change in her character. For Nyamu, I actually just straight-up hated her. It may have been a bit endearing for her to be the quintessential stuck-up attention seeker, but she just took it too far in so many scenes. She lost basically all of my respect when she first tore off everyone's masks, and she was never able to get it back in my eyes. While most of the other characters went through actual growth, I felt like Nyamu just learned to suck it up and submit to the fact that she was a bad actor and that her only chance at success was with Ave Mujica. Mutsumi's mother was admittedly horrible and way too harsh, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't therapeutic to see Nyamu get put down by her. Finally, I'd like to briefly touch on the most obvious part about this show—the band itself. Damn, was it good. The best I've seen in an anime, I think, maybe even dethroning Kessoku and TogeToge for me. I'm an absolute gothic-themed media glazer after growing up with shows like Black Butler, and Ave Mujica just ticked all the right boxes. I would usually find the combination with theater cringe, but I never found myself actually being icked by the acting that occurred in between songs or before they began a performance. I thought it was a creative way to not only make the band unique but also present the themes and character conflicts in new ways. The music itself was just banger after banger, with a heavier lean on metal than standard J-Rock. There's no doubt in my mind that Ave Mujica will become a staple in my shuffle, especially after I already have 66 plays of KiLLKiSS in the past month. Objectively, this show isn't a 10, but I don't rate completely objectively, and I like to make a point that any series that makes me contemplate and feel such strong feelings as this deserves a perfect score in my list. Ave Mujica touched me so much more than I ever imagined, and it was an absolutely exhilarating ride that had me on the edge of my seat every episode. After how much this show affected me, I think it’s fair for me to say that I unwittingly answered the question of _"Will you give me the rest of your life?"_
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