Rejection of CGI decreases thanks to Rejection of CGI decreases thanks to VTubers

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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.


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”.


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!

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