Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the tortured drama of Ave Mujica, as Sakiko continues to either exorcise or embrace her demons through the novel vector of gothic rock music. Our last episode served as something of a companion piece to MyGO’s first episode, demonstrating the calamitous personal events leading up to CRYCHIC’s dissolution from Sakiko’s perspective, and revealing that it was as much a lifeline for her as for Tomori. Just as Tomori found in CRYCHIC a genuine, non-judgmental (well, Soyo aside) community, Sakiko found a slice of normalcy, as well as a lingering connection to her absent mother.
In the wake of that breakup and Tomori’s subsequent reemergence, I suppose we can forgive Sakiko for getting a little melodramatic. Truthfully, it does seem like Ave Mujica is going to be tonally and narratively distinct from its predecessor; while MyGO reveled in subtlety and visual inference, Ave Mujica is all about oversized dramatic gestures and enormous feelings, seeming more like the Dear Brother to MyGO’s Hyouka. The tone matches the band: theatrical rather than confessional, anthemic to the point of emotional generality rather than specific to the point of intimate individuality. Given all that, I see two potential paths ahead: that this is simply the Kakimoto/Ayana team reveling in a different subgenre, and letting Sakiko’s flair for the dramatic color the entirety of her narrative, or that this is as much of a perspective-oriented trick as MyGO’s third episode, and that Sakiko’s unreliable narration will eventually be complimented or challenged. Regardless, it’s still very fun watching these nightmares in action, so let’s charge onward to the trials of Ave Mujica: Unmasked!