I’m a little excited to check out Bandori Season 2. Prior to blogging about the original show, I had only ever finished the first one. Season 1 grew on me a bit more on a rewatch but I have seen fans regard Season 2 more positively. Like, this or Season 3 seems to be more where the anime version of Bandori finds its stride. I’ll of course be the judge of that but I hope I at least enjoy this about as much as I did with Season 1.
So with Season 2, we have a change in animation studio. This one is animated by Sanzigen, who would go on to animate almost every mainline Bandori going forward. Their streak will only be broken this upcoming summer with YUME∞MITA. I like XEBEC and ISSEN’s art style in Season 1 just fine but it was never so good that I’d feel I sorely miss it so I’m not too bummed that the hand-drawn aesthetic is no more. I’ve also gotten used to Sanzigen’s art style during MyGO and Ave Mujica so the studio change isn’t that jarring for me. I was thinking that maybe this season’s CGI would look a bit aged but honestly, for a seven year old season, it’s holding up pretty well against MyGO (which came out almost three years ago).
Another change you’ll notice immediately is the much larger roster of characters. In addition to the return of Poppin’Party (PoPiPa for short) and Roselia, you also have three new bands: Pastel✽Palettes (PasuPare), Afterglow, and Hello, Happy World! (HaroHapi). Each band has five members so across all of them, you have a grand total of twenty-five major characters. These three new bands first appeared in the mobile game, Girls Band Party, which released before Season 2 was produced. Knowing that, it makes sense why there’s so many characters added into the anime. Still, twenty five characters in a thirteen episode season? I have to question if there’s enough time to explore any of them. If I had to guess, Poppin’Party will probably get the lion’s share since they’re the main band the show revolves around. I am at least glad to see that Roselia might be getting more screentime. It baffled me so much how limited their appearances in Season 1 were. Speaking of Roselia, it’s worth noting that Rinko and Lisa now have new voice actresses, after Yurika Endō and Satomi Akesaka stepped out due to health issues. I’m only familiar with their brief work for Season 1 but it’s nevertheless unfortunate they had to leave the franchise. Hopefully, retirement has been treating them well.
As for the story itself, Season 2 begins at the start of Poppin’Party’s second year at Hanasakigawa High. On the first day of school, Kasumi (Aimi) helps the student council and the disciplinary committee with directing the first years to the entrance ceremony. Rinko (Kanon Shizaki) and Sayo (Haruka Kudō), who I guess have always been students at Hanasakigawa, are the new leaders of the student council and the disciplinary committee. Arisa also works at the student council now, serving as its secretary. Frankly, I’m a little shocked that Sayo reached out to Kasumi to help her and Rinko. Like dang, I guess Kasumi really did do that good of a job with the culture festival last season if Sayo of all people think she can help. I suppose Kasumi and Sayo have gotten to know each other more in between seasons but that then suggests that Sayo is somehow so convinced Kasumi can be responsible with student committee work. Meanwhile, I’m a little concerned about Rinko and Arisa being part of the student council. Rinko is apparently very shy and unsurprisingly, Arisa joined the council only because it’ll look good on her transcript. Maybe I should count the days before Hanasakigawa burns down by accident.
Since we’ve advanced to a whole new school year, Glitter☆Green is no longer at Hanasakigawa. In particular, Yuri has decided to study abroad, leaving Rimi (Rimi Nishimoto) feeling a bit glum. Glitter☆Green was never intended to be a major project for the franchise and as likable as they were, their prominence in Season 1 compared to Roselia was an odd choice. Them being written out of the plot isn’t too surprising. I am curious if Yuri’s departure might be setting up a new arc for Rimi. Thing is, Rimi has always felt that she’s living in her sister’s shadow so maybe Yuri moving out could be a blessing in disguise.
On their way home after hanging out at Arisa’s house, PoPiPa discuss about the prospect of performing live again. I doubt all they did in the past nine months or so was practice but it is funny to think that the snack bar at the beach in the Season 1 OVA was the last time they held a concert. Fortunately for PoPiPa, their request is seemingly granted by fate, thanks to a chance encounter with Rokka Asashi, a first-year student at Haneoka Girls’ High School. If the name of the school sounds familiar to newer Bandori fans, that’s because Haneoka is more or less the main school in MyGO and Ave Mujica. Anyway, Rokka explains that she works at Galaxy, a recently reopened live house, and she asks PoPiPa to perform at the live show happening that night.
PoPiPa agree to perform and are placed last on the schedule, following performances by Afterglow, HaroHapi, and Roselia. Something that’s a little surprising to me during this episode is that PoPiPa are already acquainted with the other bands. I suppose they would’ve met these bands in the time between the events of Seasons 1 and 2. If you have played Girls Band Party or its mini anime tie-in, then this sort of crossover probably isn’t that jarring anyway. Still, it feels kind of cheap to bank on prior knowledge and jumpstart PoPiPa’s relationship with the other bands, rather than simply introduce them to PoPiPa as you normally would. This isn’t to say their interactions with the other bands isn’t fun, however. There’s some fun moments here and there such as Rimi fawning over HaroHapi’s charismatic guitarist Kaoru (Azusa Tadokoro) and Afterglow’s leader Ran (Ayane Sakura) accepting a compliment from Kasumi while also bickering with Yukina (Aina Aiba) for some reason. Kind of exhausting to think who gets along with who but this is a start.
Regarding the music, there is actually quite a lot of that this time around. Every band this season performs an insert song this episode, with PasuPare performing one at the start of the episode and the remaining four bands performing during the live show at Galaxy. I’m not kidding: with five songs in the first episode alone, Season 2 almost has the same number of insert songs as Season 1. It’s a little overwhelming and I do hope things will slow time after this episode but for the season premiere, I completely get having each of the five bands showing off their music. Having a PasuPare song at the beginning is especially smart since it sets the precedent that you won’t just hear PoPiPa this season. Also, by having each band back to back, you quickly see how they differ in genre or style such as Roselia specializing in Gothic rock and HaroHapi sounding like they make jingles for children’s programming. I don’t know why but I can’t help but think PoPiPa sounds better than they did before. Maybe it’s just a placebo but it does feel like the cast and the producers gained a lot of experience in the two years since Season 1 aired.
After the live show, Roselia announces to the audience that they will host a self-sponsored live show, prompting PoPiPa to announce the same a few seconds later. If I didn’t know any better, this would seem like another one of Kasumi’s silly ideas but it does appear that she and her friends have entertained the idea before (which admittedly could be as recent as a few minutes prior to their concert but still). I suppose that’s one way to satisfy their desire to perform alive. A self-hosted show sounds like quite the best in terms of optics however. It’ll probably become a success by the end of the season but I imagine there’ll be a lot of bumps on the road.
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