Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d say it’s past time to return to the tortured drama of BanG Dream! It’s MyGO, after a third episode that ripped my heart out and tore it to pieces. After two episodes of watching Anon stumble around the periphery of CRYCHIC’s messy fallout, MyGO’s third episode offered an intimate detailing of not just that particular catastrophe, but also Tomori’s entire life story leading up to it. Literally trapped in her headspace via the episode’s relentless perspective, we got to experience a lonely lifetime of knowing you can’t quite interact on the wavelength of your peers, but still desperately wishing to form meaningful connections. And then came Sakiko, with her promise of understanding and praise for your unmediated confessions, with her offer of a place where you truly belong.

Episode three was a tiny masterpiece of perspective and characterization, and also a welcome explanation for the former CRYCHIC members’ current circumstances. The light Sakiko brought into Tomori’s life, and the subsequent crashing fall when she suddenly decided to leave the band, have more than clarified Tomori’s hesitance to form a similar bond with Anon, as well as Taki’s violent reaction to any such suggestion. Whatever prompted Sakiko to kill the band, it feels difficult to forgive her for exploiting Tomori’s isolation and then thoughtlessly casting her aside; Sakiko is clearly socially savvy enough to understand just how much Tomori invested in her promises, pushing her unilateral separation beyond the realm of selfishness and into outright cruelty. In contrast, Anon’s interest is genuine, but idle; she may want to be in a band, but I’m not sure she’s prepared to take on the weight of the hopes that Sakiko left behind her. Let’s see how this messy crew fumbles forward as we return to MyGO!

Episode 4

“Haru Hikage is a great song. It resonated with me – the feeling of being so happy you’d joined the band really came through.” Anon has been keeping people at a distance in her own way, though obviously without the social issues that make an emotional barrier so essential for Tomori. She mostly just saw a band as a way to make herself look good, but it seems Tomori’s earnest celebration of a personal community actually reached her. I’m all the more curious as to what happened to Anon previously, that she felt this stark personal reinvention was necessary

“It’s my fault CRYCHIC broke up.” “I dunno, sounds more like it was the girl who quit’s fault. She didn’t even say why, right? Sounds kinda selfish.” Love Anon’s bluntly accurate assessment of all this tortured drama

And then Soyo arrives to defend Sakiko, saying “it wasn’t anyone’s fault.” Soyo’s motives also intrigue me – why is she so eager to forgive and reach out to Saki, and why is she so insistent on starting a new band? We’ve seen she’s a master of manipulation, but her true reason for all this effort is unclear – though given her lock screen and occasional admissions of unhappiness, it seems CRYCHIC might have meant more to her than she was willing to admit. Perhaps her motives are similar to Anon’s developing ones – she’s used to idle make-nice socialization, but yearns for something more authentic

“If it’s no one’s fault, then why did we break up?” And if so, how can she trust some new group to not do the same? Soyo’s inauthentic mediation only raises Tomori’s defenses, prompting her to flee again

It’s starting to become clear why Tomori opened up to Anon as well – in spite of her general social acumen, Anon feels comfortable saying what she means with Tomori, and Tomori appreciates that clarity. The games normally attendant in adolescent socialization just make Tomori feel confused and isolated

God, the unity and communal joy of the OP hits so much harder after that last episode. Precisely what Tomori is hoping for: a community of mutual understanding, where she doesn’t feel afraid to shout out in her own voice. No wonder her first prerequisite for a band is that they last forever

“Plus Saki-chan is missing. I have no idea where she is.” Oh Soyo. What calculated framing, to describe Saki as “missing” rather than actively avoiding contact with you specifically

Some lovely color design for this night scenery

And of course, Anon just blurts out that Saki is attending her school

Soyo’s fingers tighten around her cup, echoing her enclosing grip on Saki

At school Tomori is back to polishing her rocks, but still offers a delayed hello to Anon

Sakiko catches Anon after class, smiling as she asks if Anon has found any band members, but tensing and curtly walking away when Anon mentions Soyo. Frankly, for all of Soyo’s manipulations, she hasn’t done anything nearly so contemptible as Saki’s abandonment of Tomori. You can take that haughty attitude and stick it, Sakiko

At the astronomy club, Anon catches Tomori again reminiscing over Haru Hikage. She tenses and attempts to hide when Anon steps in; it seems she’s taught herself to be ashamed of revealing the things she loves, lest she risk more pillbug incidents

“If there’s something you’re thinking about, saying it out loud is the best thing to do.” Anon actually prefers bluntness to social games, making her a more sincerely appropriate companion for Tomori

Sakiko is presented in the reflection of her piano; portraits in reflection seem to be acquiring a general signification of concealed emotions, as when we saw Soyo’s smile through the glass

Soyo ambushes Sakiko after school, who simply walks away

Sakiko claims changing schools had nothing to do with CRYCHIC

Soyo seems in a genuine panic to reconnect with Saki, a far cry from her calculated poise with Anon

Ahaha, I love it. Having heard about all this tempestuous drama, Anon decides she is Sick Of It, and drags Tomori, Soyo, and Taki together to talk it out

“Let me figure out what’s happening here.” Soyo refuses to negotiate until she’s regained her steeple-fingered power stance

Her tensed lip reveals her bitter frustration with Anon’s methods before she shifts to a bright, false smile

“Tomori, did you make it home okay yesterday?” Soyo’s words are clearly aimed at Taki, announcing “see, I can call Tomori to me anytime”

Taki is quick to affirm Anon’s analysis: “It’s Sakiko’s fault. She’s the one who said she was quitting out of nowhere.” As quick and direct as a snare hit

“It’s because I couldn’t sing well at our concert. That’s why she quit.” “Why would you think that?” Perfectly Tomori self-recrimination, and perfectly Anon ‘why? That’s stupid’

“Come on, she’s asking you a question.” Love Anon just treating the three of them like misbehaving kindergartners

“Taki-chan was waiting for you to come to rehearsals, Tomori.” “You’re not angry at me?” “I could never be angry at you! For me, it wasn’t the fight, it was the fact that you stopped coming that hit hardest.” God, this is such good, satisfyingly weighted drama. You can really feel the disconnect in their passions – how Tomori saw Sakiko’s exit as a verdict from all her bandmates, how Taki lacked the facility to earnestly express her fondness for Tomori. Taki could only express herself through anger at Sakiko, which Tomori of course interpreted as misdirected anger at herself

Oh my god, Anon’s smug grin and “hmmmmm” at Taki failing to deny her love for Tomori

“This time we’ll be sure to talk things out. If we do that, I’m sure we’ll be all right.” Soyo’s clenching hands reveal her earnest hope this is true

Anon at last asks if she’s invited to this new band, to which Tomori agrees. I’m more than certain the other two would happily ditch her without Tomori’s approval

A full pan reveals Rana in the background, enjoying the show while munching on desert

“Because I can’t do this anymore.” Not ‘we’ll achieve our shining dreams together,’ but ‘the uncertainty of not being able to rely on you is killing me’

“If it’s with you, Tomori-chan, I wouldn’t mind doing it all my life.” Damn, Taki

Anon, of course, is brimming with stipulations regarding this “whole life” thing

Back at home, Anon indulges in some full gremlin mode as she fantasizes about bragging about the new band

Oh my god Anon. She loudly declares “what should we do about band rehearsals” to Tomori in class, then essentially poses for the camera as her other classmates crowd around

Of course, all the attention is actually on Tomori

Meanwhile, Taki is consulting with her equally no-nonsense classmate Umiri, who is apparently in three bands

Umiri is clearly quite good at reading Taki’s emotional tells, and congratulates her on her band success

And over at Fancy Pants Academy, Soyo assures Mutsumi that she’ll soon be invited in as well, which doesn’t seem to invoke any sort of positive reaction

Anon makes a valiant attempt to claim her destined center position, but Taki is not having it. I appreciate that through all these trials, Anon is still dedicated to the cause of making herself look good

While Anon and Taki bicker about names and positions, Tomori is just happy to have a warm place where she is welcome again, and thus offers Anon an earnest thanks after their meeting. Anon wants a place to shine; Tomori just needs a place where she belongs. You better not fuck this up, Anon!

Some more nice compositions as they walk back from practice. Another clever use of the CG character models – here, the fully modeled characters and foreground allow the lights of passing cars to flow naturally across their legs and the adjacent wall, thereby better evoking the unique atmosphere of a city at night

“What do you think? That’s a C chord.” Oh my god Anon, that’s like the easiest open chord. And I love Tomori’s hushed “sugoi” in response, making it all the more ridiculous

She attempts a barred F and can’t even get a sound out. Goddamnit Anon

And at last Rana stomps in and invites herself to the band. Well, it’s clear enough they’re gonna need a real guitarist

And Done

And so our fledgling band takes flight! It’s so far uncertain what sort of band three-fifths of CRYCHIC, a girl who can’t actually play anything, and a guitarist who just wandered in off the street will become, but I’m certainly eager to find out. Watching Anon force these melancholy loners to actually sit down and sort out their disagreements was an absolute delight, made all the more satisfying by Anon’s clear self-satisfaction over being so good at conflict resolution. And with this show’s singularly excellent dialogue and sturdy, multifaceted characterization to guide them, every conversation in MyGO is a unique pleasure, revealing new facets of their feelings or simply reveling in the fun of charming, convincingly oppositional characters bouncing off each other. It all comes down to fundamentally strong character writing, and MyGO absolutely has the goods; when characters are realized this effectively, satisfying personal drama naturally results. Now we just need to train Anon to actually hold a barre chord!

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