After building up to it for two episodes, the plot finally arrives at the culture festival and with that, the conclusion to Sāya’s arc. Has the arc been as good as I remember? I think so. In retrospect, I realize that Sāya has an unfair advantage over the other characters. At three episodes, she objectively has the longest arc out of anyone so far. It kind of makes sense for the show to give the lion’s share to Sāya. She’s the first person Kasumi befriends and the last person to join Poppin’Party so there’s an obligation to go big for her. But because she has the longest arc, she naturally has the most fleshed out one. In addition to that, this three-parter features the most mature plot in the season. In hindsight, it’s almost a precursor to the kind of writing we’d get in the later series. Not to dismiss the previous arcs, they’re better than I remembered them to be, but there’s certainly a couple reasons why Sāya always stood out the most to me.
Right before the culture festival, Kasumi finishes the lyrics for the new song, “Star Beat! Hoshi no Kodou” and she leaves them at Sāya’s door for her to find. Before Sāya can read them however, her mother’s anemia worsens again, forcing her to take her mother to the hospital instead of going to school. Kasumi learns about what’s going on after Sāya’s father drops by to deliver the food her homeroom orders. Though bummed that Sāya can’t show up, Kasumi realizes that her friend would be just as sad to see the festival go awry so she focuses on making sure the event goes smoothly. I have to hand it to Kasumi. Even after her argument with Sāya, she remains just as empathetic to her friend’s feelings.
Since this is the obligatory culture festival episode, Bang Dream! of course spends a decent chunk of time having the main characters go through the usual motions of checking out the different attractions in the event. I can’t deny that it’s pure fluff but it is admittedly par for the course if you’ve watched plenty of CGDCT anime and it’s somewhat more justified than usual since the stuff going on with Sāya could use some levity running parallel to it. Definitely the highlight of this tour is Kasumi, Rimi, and Tae finding out that Arisa is dressed up as a princess for her homeroom’s interactive theater, much to the tsundere’s embarrassment. I don’t know why Arisa is often the butt of the joke but it works so I ain’t complaining.
As her mother recovers at the hospital, Sāya checks her phone and is convinced to read through Kasumi’s lyrics after the latter leaves a voicemail for her. The lyrics strikes a chord in Sāya and renew her inner conflict about joining Kasumi and the others for the concert. You have to wait until the actual concert scene and insert song to hear the full contents of Kasumi’s writing but the few lyrics shown here are quite relevant to the plot, with Kasumi essentially reaching to Sāya and telling her that she won’t give up on her. Given the title of the song, I get the impression that Kasumi now believes that the star beat is less the band and more her friends. As cheesy as that sounds, I think it still shows some maturity and growth on Kasumi’s part.
Right as Sāya grows emotional over the lyrics, her mother tells her to go to the festival. I suppose it’s obvious this would happen. Considering that her condition is what’s been keeping Sāya back, it definitely had to be the mother to convince Sāya to join her friends. To the show’s credit, it does a good job setting up that this is what Sāya’s mother would tell her in the first place. You could tell from dialogue that even though she appreciates Sāya’s concern, she still wants her daughter to live her life.
On her way to the school, Sāya runs into CHiSPA. Suffice to say, it’s an awkward reunion but to Sāya’s relief, there’s no hard feelings between them and Sāya’s old bandmates are just happy to see her in a band again. I wasn’t sure if Fumika (Madoka Asashina) or Mayu (Rina Honnizumi) would forgive Sāya but considering that Natsuki wanted Sāya to join Poppin’Party, I figured they’d share the same sentiment. Also neat is Sāya’s replacement, Satomi (Saki Minami), giving her drumsticks to the former for Poppin’Party’s concert. It’s a simple but very courteous gesture, not to mention a good use of the character’s incredibly limited screentime.
Sāya joining in and the concert going without a hitch is a little far fetched. Like, Sāya argued that she’s too rusty to perform again, she got the notes one night prior, and she only listened to the song once and that’s while she’s rushing to the gymnasium no less. But as it turns out, you can just wing it and perform a professional sounding anime insert song just fine. I can look the other way, however. After letting her previous band down on their debut performance, the plot naturally wouldn’t have her make the same mistake twice. This concert gives Sāya full closure on the past so I can accept her managing to pull it off. I also don’t mind that the song doesn’t deliberately sound a little rough or outright bad. It’d be good attention to detail but this is Poppin’Party’s first real concert as well as the first time all five members perform together. If anything, it’s more satisfying seeing the characters perform so well.
So at long last, Poppin’Party has been fully formed. I do think Bandori took its sweet time to get here but that’s not too unusual for a music anime and for what it’s worth, it’s largely been a fun time getting to this point. A couple episodes ago, Kasumi mentioned that after the culture festival, she’d like for the band to pass Space’s audition and perform at the venue so naturally, this will serve as the next major event in Season 1. What’s awkward then is that the post-credit scene reveals that the owner is planning on closing Space down, which most likely leaves Poppin’Party with a deadline to perform at the live house.
Xenodude Scribbles 