Among all
the premieres of the Spring-2024 (April-June) season, “ Girls Band Cry ”
is definitely one of the most exciting surprises. With a theme reminiscent
of “ K-On! ” and “ Bocchi the Rock! “, this
new series also includes a group of teenagers who form a band and dream big.
The plot is
described as follows:
- The protagonist drops out of
high school in the second year and aspires to enter university while
working alone in Tokyo. A girl is betrayed by her friends and she doesn't
know what to do. Another girl is abandoned by her parents and tries to
survive in the city by doing part-time jobs. This world disappoints us all
the time. Nothing goes as planned. But we want something that we still
like. We believe there is a place where we belong. That's why we sing.
It is
certainly a much deeper story than the two previously mentioned, but the
differences do not end there. Toei Animation studios changed the
paradigm by producing this series in 3DCG animation, quite similar to what
happens with some other idol anime.
Although CGI
animation is not popular among fans, “Girls Band Cry” has definitely been able
to take advantage of its theme with different scenes that went viral on
social networks with each new episode.
En efecto, es Cine ✋😭🤚#ガルクラ #GirlsBandCry pic.twitter.com/yjoZATsnO3
— Abel 🦅✨ (@GokaiKing) May 3, 2024
This Girls Band Cry scene didn’t have to go so hard pic.twitter.com/H9hRhld7cj
— 𝕽𝖊𝖊𝖋𝖒𝖆𝖎𝖉 ❀𓆏(The Celestial) (@Reefmade) May 6, 2024
Something
worth mentioning is that the voice actresses of the protagonists of “Girls Band
Cry” can, in fact, perform their respective musical instruments on stage. That is to say, they are a real
band, as demonstrated by the following video where they perform their first
single titled “Nameless Name”.
Fun fact: The voice actresses of the main cast for Girls Band Cry do indeed play their characters' respective instruments! That's right, they are an ACTUAL band!
— Legendav@Zoltraak Cover!! (@LegendavKang) May 7, 2024
Here's them performing the band's very first single Nameless Name! pic.twitter.com/CbwX3C5XSV
But if this
style of animation is generally frowned upon by fans, why is “Girls Band Cry”
being well received? According to a Nikkei article, this is not only
due to its history proposal, but also because Virtual YouTubers or VTubers have
been mitigating the rejection of 3D models. In an interview, producer
Satoshi Hirayama commented on the matter:
- There are two main trends in
world animation: one is the "real look", represented by Disney
and Pixar. The other is the “cel look,” represented by hand-drawn Japanese
animation. Since there are already many pioneers in these two
areas, we thought we should compete in something else that no one is
doing, and that's how we arrived at the "illustration look."
- When we think about how Japanese
animation will survive in the future, if we continue doing the same as
before, there is a possibility that one day we will be surpassed by other
countries and even end up losing in a battle of economic power. But with
CG animation, there is still room to evolve in expression. As Japanese
animation is at the forefront of the world, we want to do more new things.
- Also, in the past, we used to
get the reaction from otakus that “3DCG models suck!” But with the
popularity of VTubers in recent years, rejection has decreased
drastically, which is one of the reasons we embraced the design aspect. Furthermore, we were able
to realize detailed emotions and movements using 24 full frames in this
work, while normal television animation moves eight frames per second.
Source: Yaraon!