Hello friends, and welcome the fuck back to Wrong Every Time. Today the curtain rises on another performance by Ave Mujica, the crowd thundering in applause as our girls curse and spit and tear each other’s hair out. Though that brief CRYCHIC reunion seemed like it might stabilize our wayward quintet, the precise opposite has occurred: with the threat of CRYCHIC fueling their anxieties, Uika, Umiri, and Mortis have all rallied to demand a return of the tormented theatrical and (sometimes, if Mortis isn’t just screaming the whole time) musical extravaganza that is Ave Mujica.

The tables have turned dramatically since this group’s first incarnation. Back then, most of its members primarily joined as a favor to Sakiko – Uika was happy to feel needed by her target of obsession, Mutsumi was too desperate to say no, Umiri never says no to a new band, and Nyamu smelled an opportunity to expand her own profile. For Mutsumi, this was a chance to be with her old friend; for the rest, this seemed like a fine opportunity to pursue their otherwise well-tended personal ambitions.

Since then, all three would-be professional musicians have lost basically everything beyond Ave Mujica; Umiri has abandoned all of her superficial band engagements, Nyamu’s career has stalled, and Uika has grown increasingly dependent on Sakiko’s presence. In spite of its melodramatic trappings, there is an authentic pain expressed by Sakiko’s music, a pain that has shifted from an idly appropriated costume to the guiding star of all her bandmates. Can Sakiko save her allies from this nightmare? I couldn’t possibly say, but I’m eager to hear Nyamu’s thoughts on the matter as we return to Ave Mujica!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the sumptuous nightmare that is Ave Mujica, as Sakiko and her companions seek love and validation in all the worst possible places. When last we’d left off, a reunion performance by CRYCHIC had threatened to actually improve our characters’ mental health, allowing them to venerate and say goodbye to their past passions while charting a new way forward. Well, we clearly couldn’t have that, so Umiri swiftly suggested a reunion for Ave Mujica as well, having recently developed a taste for meaningful, mutually fulfilling group performance.

Umiri picked a heck of a time to propose this plan, and perhaps the least likely group to propose it for; even with her alleged thirty bands, I imagine the least healthy among them is still in better shape than Ave Mujica. Her words sparked a hope of survival in Mortis, who frankly also deserves better than all of this nonsense, and thus we are again off to the races, with Umiri promising to teach Mortis the guitar and make her “real” in the process. And while Umiri’s “dark side” turned out to be no more than the yearning for connection that defines all of these girls, we’ve still got an Uika-shaped time bomb ticking away, undoubtedly prepped to explode into a fresh field of psychological shrapnel. Let’s see who snaps first as we return to Ave Mujica!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am happy to announce we’re returning to the oft-tormented drama of Ave Mujica, as Sakiko and her companions seek community and happiness through the ritual self-flagellation of teen rock bands. Having shattered CRYCHIC and been shown up by MyGO, Sakiko thought to find vindication through Ave Mujica, a melodramatic reimagining of her torment as performance and occult ritual. But casting herself as a doll trapped in a nightmare did little to alleviate her pain; ultimately, Ave Mujica only succeeded in isolating her friend Mutsumi, whose eagerness to please led her to reject even her own personality.

Fortunately, the girls of MyGO were there to bear witness to all this insanity, and eventually lend a helping hand. MyGO’s rescue operation over the last few episodes has served as a charming vindication of their efforts across the first season, as the kindness and urge to connect embodied by Anon and Tomori has been echoed through the growth of Soyo and Taki, each of whom now have the strength to not just forgive, but actively embrace Sakiko and Mutsumi. Thanks to the sanctuary they found in MyGO, they were able to pull CRYCHIC’s remaining members back from isolation and self-hatred, and give the band they all loved a tearful, cathartic sendoff.

Of course, all this growth for the former CRYCHIC members leaves Mujica’s remaining bandmates out in the cold, a situation that has at last pushed Umiri out of her imperious, seemingly indifferent poise. It seems interesting to me that it was not the dissolution of Mujica, but reunion of CRYCHIC that truly offended her; given her prior annoyance at being framed as unfeeling, I’m guessing we’re due for some revelations regarding just how Umiri expresses her carefully guarded emotions. Also Nyamu! CRYCHIC getting closure was great, but their adventures left distressingly little room for Nyamu shenanigans. Let’s see how the rest of Ave Mujica are faring as the next act begins!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to announce we are returning to the three-band pileup that is BanG Dream! Ave Mujica, as the non-MyGO remnants of CRYCHIC continue to flounder and gasp for air like fish dumped on the sidewalk. Both Sakiko and Mutsumi have sunk so deep within themselves that it’s uncertain if they’ll ever reemerge, each devastated by the hurt they caused the other, neither believing they deserve a chance at happiness.

Fortunately, after half a season of Ave Mujica poking each other’s emotional disorders with sharp sticks, MyGO has finally arrived to offer a firm yet compassionate “stop doing that.” Mortis/Mutsumi have found an unlikely friend in literally-a-cat Raana, while it seems Tomori, Anon, and Soyo are all preparing for a group rescue of Sakiko. It’s extremely rewarding to see all the bonding and emotional catharsis of MyGO being put to work, reflected in the confidence and trust shared by our lost girls as they prepare to extract CRYCHIC’s final survivors from the wreckage.

When you are down as low as Sakiko or Mutsumi, you tend to become your own worst enemy – the Mortis-Mutsumi dynamic is an extreme case, but it’s generally true that in the depths of depression and self-hatred, your internal voice will only be affirming your worst impulses. When you can’t believe in yourself, you need someone else to guide you to self-love; Anon helped serve that role for Tomori and Soyo, and with the sanctuary that is MyGO supporting them, they seem poised to do the same for Sakiko. Will a CRYCHIC reunion be the key that saves Ave Mujica’s most forlorn members? And if so, what will that spell for the remaining members of Sakiko’s gothic horror extravaganza? Let’s find out!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I announce with great trepidation that we are returning to BanG Dream! Ave Mujica, as our various forlorn mujicians all wallow in their own forms of mental illness. Well, except for Nyamu, she’s thriving, but you know there’s no keeping a good Nyamu down. And of course, Umiri spent the last episode studiously avoiding giving a shit about anything beyond her twenty-nine remaining bands. But the rest of our girls? Hoo boy.

Having attempted through Ave Mujica to foment a rebellion against a life of dependency and self-hatred, Sakiko has retreated in shame, returning to her grandfather’s home and accepting that she may well always hate herself. She is surrounded by reminders of the mother she lost and father who abandoned her, seeing herself as little different from her treasured porcelain doll. Having abandoned Uika and broken Mutsumi, she now accepts what she sees as her destined punishment, a life of staring through the glass at the vitality embodied by those who are truly free.

Uika is a false smile stretched thin over a shuddering doll, still obsessed with Sakiko, and increasingly incapable of maintaining her professional affectation. And Mutsumi has left the building, having retreated so far inside herself that even Mortis seems worried about her, begging her other self to please come home. With our heroines in such dire straits, it now apparently falls to the MyGO girls to rescue them, as the Anon/Tomori combo interrogates Sakiko and friggin’ Soyo of all people reaches out to Mutsumi. Will this collaboration make Ave Mujica better, or only make MyGO worse? I’m terrified to find out, but here we go!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we drop in on Ave Mujica in a moment of chaos and catastrophe, with our improbable quintet once again on the verge of dissolution. What had seemed like a brief unity of purpose has proven just a mirage – for it was not Mutsumi who was gabbing gracefully with bandmates and interviewers, but the alter ego Mortis herself. Having been shamed and abandoned by everyone she once relied on, Mutsumi has retreated inside herself, leaving the manic, pattern-matching Mortis to face the outside world.

Worse still, in the wake of Mutsumi entirely abdicating control of her own body, Sakiko was the only one who noticed anything was wrong. The other girls were simply happy to have less band drama, with Uika and Umiri favoring whatever created less discord, and Nyamu actually seeing Mortis’ shape-shifting talents as evidence of Mutsumi’s professional genius. A band that is incapable of recognizing when one of its own members is mid-psychotic break couldn’t possibly serve as an emotional sanctuary – but from the start, Ave Mujica has been an act of projection and deflection, a way for Sakiko to abstract her emotions rather than embrace them, to find validation through the public embrace of a theatrical project that means nothing to anyone but her.

Obviously, such an act of performative denial was never going to make her whole. But at this point, Sakiko may no longer be able to stop what she has started, or to rescue Mutsumi from the protective clutches of Mortis. And frankly, I’m quite enjoying Mortis as an addition to the cast – she’s essentially serving as a translator between Sakiko’s melodrama and her bandmates’ professionalism, demonstrating how their various masks all conceal a common urge for unity and understanding. Let’s see how negotiations are fairing as we return to Ave Mujica!

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today it’s looking to be another day, another dissociative episode as we return to BanG Dream! Ave Mujica, with Mutsumi clearly on the verge of some kind of psychotic break. Having been exploited and abandoned by her parents, her former bandmates, and now apparently Sakiko herself, Mutsumi has decided there is only one person she can rely on: her alter ego Mortis, the implacable guitarist of Ave Mujica. Mutsumi is not strong enough to carry the weight of her own pain and Sakiko’s as well, but Mortis is free from such responsibilities, a grim realization of the facile “liberation” Sakiko seeks through this group.

It’s been quite a journey for the girl who was initially defined as “quiet, likes cucumbers,” but I suppose that’s of a piece with Ave Mujica’s general dramatic maximalism. What’s becoming increasingly apparent is that Mutsumi’s complaint of “my sound was drowned out within a band” applies to more than just her; frankly, it seems like not one member of Ave Mujica is seeking the same thing as any other, save for the amusing compatibility of the equally professionally-minded Nyamu and Umiri. So if the only members getting what they want are the ones who are here for a paycheck, and the players who actually share Sakiko’s desire for a community are only suffering more, who exactly is benefitting from this group? For Sakiko, breaking up the band might not just be a tragic inevitability – it might be the only way anyone who cares about her can escape her toxic orbit.

But for now, the show must go on. Take it away, Mortis!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to the tormented saga of Ave Mujica, as Sakiko’s bandmates continue to enable her high-concept exorcism of personal demons. Though really, it doesn’t seem like she’s making emotional progress through any of this; rather, Ave Mujica is merely a vehicle for her to wallow in despair, framing her whole identity as a product of her trauma. By pinning her hopes on this melodramatic act of alleged liberation, she is only demonstrating how she is still defined and bound by her abandoned hopes. She is like Soyo cringing at that first-season performance of Haru Hikage, still too wrapped up in the pain of its associations to enjoy it as a fond memory.

Moreover, while MyGO’s post-CRYCHIC players had the good fortune of encountering Anon Chihaya, a sympathetic figure bearing baggage of her own, Sakiko’s associates seem far less inclined to guide her through this fraught period. Uika’s the only one who seems like a genuinely good influence, while Umiri is indifferent, Nyamu actively hostile, and Mutsumi clearly caught up in her own parental anxieties, clinging to her one friend even as that friend actively provokes her trauma. Is this the night that the doll Mortis cuts her strings, and can she even walk without those strings to guide her? Let’s get to it!

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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!

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Well folks, it’s finally happened. Just a year and change after the conclusion of the fantastic BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!!, we have arrived at the long-awaited/dreaded debut of Ave Mujica, the gothica-drenched followup to the adventures of Tomori and friends. While Tomori took the breakup of her beloved band CRYCHIC as an opportunity for personal growth, and ultimately drew together four fellow “lost girls” into the symbol of persistence that is MyGO, Sakiko has apparently spent the interim dedicating herself to becoming as mentally unwell as possible, and has now resurfaced in a lace mask and corpse paint on a stage that looks suspiciously like a sacrificial altar. You guys here for a good time? Ready to party? Too bad, wrong fucking band. We’re here to have a bad time.

So yes, I am pretty darn excited. With both director Kodai Kakimoto and series composer Yuniko Ayana returning from MyGO, I have every expectation that Ave Mujica will maintain its predecessor’s playful elegance of cinematography and richness of character drama, offering a new tangle of expectations, allegiances, and one-sided grudges to furnish its melodramatic performances. And given the maximalist aesthetic of Ave Mujica itself, I’m confident that constancy of execution will extend as well to MyGO’s just-barely-tongue-in-cheek tone, allowing us in the audience to fully sympathize with its characters while still finding humor in their self-important histrionics. Is the night of Sakiko’s liberation at hand? Let’s find the fuck out.

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