Girls Band Cry

Everyone yearns to find their true purpose in life. This is also true for Nina Iseri, a 17-year-old girl looking to enroll in a good university, but the world always seems to work against her. On her very first day in Tokyo, she gets lost, ignored, and locked out of her new apartment. However, an unexpected opportunity arises when Nina meets Momoka Kawaragi, one of her favorite guitarists.

After Nina joins Momoka for a street performance, Momoka decides they should start a band together. While Nina initially hesitates, her determination grows as they start acquiring more bandmates—the beautiful drummer Subaru Awa, the aloof keyboardist Tomo Ebizuka, and the intelligent bassist Rupa. The five girls face challenges both in the music industry and within themselves, but their shared passion for music never lets them give up on their dreams.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Iseri, Nina Main

Rina Japanese

Awa, Subaru Main

Mirei Japanese

Kawaragi, Momoka Main

Yuuri Japanese

Rupa Main

Shuri Japanese

Ebizuka, Tomo Main

Natsu Japanese

Hina Supporting

Kondou, Reina Japanese

Nakata Supporting

Kanuka, Mitsuaki Japanese

Rin Supporting

Urushiyama, Yuuki Japanese

Ai Supporting

Miyashiro, Momoko Japanese

Nana Supporting

Matsuoka, Misato Japanese

Hirayama, Tadashi Producer

Sakai, Kazuo Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Miyoshi, Keiichirou Sound Director

Imura, Kenji Episode Director

Reviews

Jul 11, 2025

cloggy_emil

Recommended

I really, really enjoyed this! It is an overall good show that has some incredibly powerful moments (the ending of episode 8 and the 3-episode run of 10-12 come to mind), and due to those moments, it never stops being engaging. The dynamic between Nina and Momoka especially was the highlight of the show for me, that, and the insanely stellar music sequences, which I am sure everyone has as their highlights for this show.
The animation was great and very expressive, and the animation in the music numbers work so damn well and make them the major set pieces they deserve to be. Needless to ... say, the songs are fantastic as well.
My only real critique is the show's length: Some plot points and character developments did feel a bit rushed due to the show's short runtime, and it leaves the viewer wanting a lot more, but not quite satisfied (at least in my opinion).

However, I would still say that this is a fantastic watch, especially if you are into shows about music and band/idol culture. Great stuff!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 2, 2025

Followkata

Mixed Feelings

Not great not bad. Somewhere along the lines of slightly better than average is what I felt about this anime

I watched girls band cry right after watching it's Mygo!!!!! And the sequel Ave Mujica. Simply put it was like watching a copy of its Mygo!!!!! but not as good. This review is going to be a direct comparison as I can't think of two animes that are so similar.


They are so similar that the entire time It felt as i was watching the same anime but with different characters, settings, and different problems. Both animes first and foremost fall into the ... category of drama and music. Both animes feature dysfunctional bands which argue amongst each other. Both animes focus on the character dynamics and relationships with each other. Both animes have the girls carry different problems. Both animes aren't the typical happy girls band cgdct anime. They focus on the characters and problems amongst them.

In all honesty if I hadn't watched it's Mygo!!!! And it's sequel Ave, I would have rated Girls Band Cry higher as then I would've thought that there aren't many girls band animes which focus on the characters and the darker tone, and the problems that each individual carries. However this wasn't the case and I had just came off of watching a better version.

To top it all off both animes animation are completely done in CG. Like come on lol. This happens a lot in anime where one studio creates an anime and another studio creates an extremely similar anime. I'm not a fan of CG in fact I used to despise it, however over the years CG with technology has gotten better but if you were to compare the CG of its Mygo!!!!! To Girls Band Cry the former definitely crushes the latter.

Some people may like the CG where it doesn't look like anime where it looks sort of fake. Unfortunately I am not a fan of that that CG. It's Mygo!!!!! produced the CG on a level where at times it looked like anime animation and I could not tell the difference, in fact I did not find out until after watching the show that it was all CG that's how good it was. Girls Band Cry from episode 1 I could tell it was CG, it has cringe worthy CG and I didn't get used to it until almost episode 12. So it definitely falls short in this category for me.

Overall story is good however I just watched an anime that had an extremely similar story. I give equal scores to both stories.


Overall characters are good except I just watched an anime with similar characters. In this regard I would say the characters are equally likeable as well.

Music...this is also the same and what annoyed me the most about this is the fact both MC's create and sing music in the exact same manner. They create music that's about their problems, struggles, and the screams within their hearts. The music they create in both animes is literally created from the truth and hardships, and emotions within each MC. The music in both is incredible.

Conclusion.

The anime felt like I just watched a reskin of its Mygo. Dont make my mistake and watch one after the other or you will end up disappointed. My rating for this anime reflects this. It would be rated higher if not. Now if your going to choose which one to watch take this with a grain of salt

In my opinion characters equally likeable, music equally good, story, Mygo is set in a city with most of the environment being school, studio, someone's house and is about highschool girls that cope with real world problems and internal relationships. Girls Band Cry is set in Tokyo and actually has more variety in settings and is about high school girl dropouts and adults that cope with real world problems. The pacing in Mygo is better for sure. The problems they face are different but similar in severity. The CG hands down goes to Its Mygo. The music is very subjective and both have great music.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 7, 2024

Tacsk0

Not Recommended

Funny

I spoiler-free don't recommend watching Girls Band Cry (GBC), for two main reasons:

1. It's the kind of story you'll either hate (because of the 3D-CGI animation or how unreasonably unsufferable the MC is or any misc. reason) or you'll fall for the experience right away and become addicted. If you'd hate it, why watch it? If you become addicted, you'll waste your life by re-re-watching it and searching for or creating fanart and buying merch - in stark contrast to what the series' theme song says!

2., Girls Band Cry is like the cursed apple tree standing in the middle of the Garden of Eden. Eat ... from it, says the snake and your eyes will open, suddenly seeing the whole television anime industry is naked... 99% of seasonal produce are always poorly drawn partial animation at a mere 7-13 fps and giving "hand-made 2D" look a bad name. For bonus, there are uninspired and uninteresting plotlines and pro seiyuu who cater to assumed "high-pitched loli maid" expectations of the otaku, rather than expressing anything meaningful.

GBC entered such a market, shining with 30fps of often motion-captured but always expressive and continously fluid 3D-CGI animation. (Nota bene: as much as possible within sub-Hollywood budget allocated to a freely broadcast original TV show lacking LN / manga source support.) Yet script-writing and episode directing are stellar for both comedy and drama, music hits are memorable, non-music hits also... Main characters have personality, strong presence and very real emotion, even though the show uses no seiyuu, per se. All five members of Togenashi Togeari are voiced by teenage rock musician girls, whom Studio Toei and Universal Japan label recruited to form a real-life band and gave them a crash course in voice acting for anime - based on the reasoning talented musicians have good ears so they'll quickly get the hang of it. The producer was right: Nina's and Momoka's VAs are super talented, even star-crossed and Subaru sounds refreshingly realistic, they are easily par for their beautiful visuals. You've found your angels, even if they are fallen ones with just cardboard wings...

After you've witnessed all those miracles, you get expelled from Paradise: post-GBC the japanese animation industry still continues to roll out the same garbage as before, this past summer, this autumn, coming winter season. With your newly opened eyes it becomes gruelling labour to watch the poorly drawn partial animation, the mockery of hand-made 2D style and digest the soulless and all-around juvenile and/or cynical plotlines, while listening to seiyuu who try to sound like chipmunks. You may even give up on anime or at least be unable to (re)watch anything you haven't seen and accepted pre-GBC!

Is it worth discarding your whole anime baggage for the sake of a singular show projected from Paradise? It's not a trivial decision, but a surprisingly large number of japanese otaku voted YES enthusiastically (and many foreign fans as well, even though GBC wasn't legally available for them until August and not conveniently available until Nov 2024. Fansubs ranged from evil-memed MTL to highly controversial regarding a crucial scene). More than half a year later GBC disc sales are still crazy high and TogeToge live shows are 25x overbooked. Even the famous BanGDream / MyGO franchise went to GBC for a collab, which helped them through difficulties of delayed game development. Maybe, maybe the industry will see the light and begin to change - but in the meanwhile you'd lose 3 to 5 years of anime enjoyment. Decide for yourself whether it's worth it!?

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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	Final Trailer, KV & info. nirererin - Jul 10	5 replies	by Pablo_Neruda1 »» Jul 10, 4:22 PM
	TOGENASHI TOGEARI's Big Break nirererin - Jul 5	6 replies	by Tacsk0 »» Jul 5, 5:54 AM
	Is Girls Band Cry stalling in the West? Can we jump-start it? Tacsk0 - Nov 13, 2024	24 replies	by Tacsk0 »» Jul 2, 1:49 PM
	Poll: Girls Band Cry Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) KANLen09 - Apr 5, 2024	177 replies	by Xpri »» Jun 30, 9:12 AM
	Where is the light novel? Where is the manga? Tacsk0 - May 31	23 replies	by Tacsk0 »» Jun 29, 1:00 PM