BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! – Episode 6

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BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! – Episode 6

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today there’s simply no avoiding a return to the delightfully messy band drama of MyGO, as I absolutely must find out what a genuinely inspired Anon might look like. Having spent half the series attempting to pull a band together for the most superficial of reasons, and ultimately fleeing when Taki called her out on her lack of conviction, we have at last learned of the great defeat that shattered her initial self-confidence. After easily gliding through the trials of middle school, Anon felt basically invincible, but the scholastic challenges and social isolation of England brought her crashing down. Since then, she’s steered clear of anything that’s seemed too difficult or too painful, hoping to construct a comforting high school life with none of the harsh edges of challenge or intimacy.

Unfortunately, the first classmate she established a bond with was Tomori, setting her on a rollercoaster ride of fraught emotions and desperate ambitions. While Anon could almost certainly have lived out a successfully superficial high school life, she instead found herself planted in the smoking ruins of CRYCHIC, with all of her anxieties and self-loathing laid bare. Sincerity might not come naturally to Anon, but having found an unexpected confidant in Tomori, she might just be the exasperated irritant this group needs to truly, honestly come together. Let’s find out!

Episode 6

And we open on a clear demonstration of Anon’s new commitment, as she struggles to follow a chord progression, taking a difficult task face-on without immediately resigning herself to failure. She’s still working on major chords, but holding a B chord is essentially the same as holding a barre, meaning she’s clearly progressed from the unvoiced string noises of the previous episodes

Training your index finger to have the strength for successfully playing barre chords (i.e. the strength to act as a capo, thus allowing the rest of your fingers to form chords anywhere on the guitar neck) is one of the most crucial initial steps for expanding your guitar faculty. Once you’ve achieved that, you can actually play anywhere on the guitar, as opposed to being limited to open chords near the top of the neck or simplistic three string power chords

We literally see the difficulty of that process as she attempts to play an F#, her index finger wavering over the neck as she tries to press down all the strings simultaneously. Until you’re used to exerting a ton of force from the base of your index finger, this will all feel terribly uncomfortable, like you’re bending a joint the wrong way

“This hurts!” Yep, you’re gonna callus your fingertips and fuck up your index finger before you get anywhere

Love the slow-revealed intimacy of this moment, as we pan out to see Tomori is also in the room, writing lyrics. They’re now comfortable enough together to just share time, not talking, simply enjoying each other’s presence

Anon proudly demonstrates her progress at band practice. The band’s responses are all predictable: Tomori staring on in amazed wonder, Soyo politely but insincerely clapping, Taki bluntly asking “well, can you play the song to the end?”

Tomori has such distinct nervous-yet-excited posture as she grabs her lyrics book to reveal her new song. Also love Anon’s surprise at Tomori saying “Anon-chan asked me to” – Anon never takes her own statements as seriously as Tomori does

Also very predictable how possessive Taki acts regarding these lyrics. Taki saw Haru Hikage as a message right to her soul, so she’d of course think any new lyrics from Tomori are for her in particular. And though she can’t keep the lyrics to herself, she immediately asserts that she’ll write the music, further solidifying these words as connected to her

Over at fancy pants academy, Soyo relates the ongoing band escapades to Mutsumi, telling her she’ll invite her to join after their first performance

“I don’t think you have piano lessons today, do you?” God, Soyo. She obviously knows Mutsumi doesn’t have anything planned today, and thus specifically engineered their potential meeting with Sakiko for just such an opportunity

Meanwhile, Taki’s bringing her reliably furious energy to composing alone at home. It can’t be easy to jump from playing drums to composing melodies for lyrics – though I similarly wrote songs based on lyrics back when I just played the drums, it took until I started learning guitar for me to also write musical parts for them, rather than just presenting the lyrics with a sung melody to the rest of the band, and letting them fit that to chords. We had a real mishmash of songs written as melodies first, songs written as lyrics first, and songs where the two emerged together

Sakiko sees a wild Soyo stalking the school gate, and elects to take a different exit route

Soyo is instead discovered by Anon and Tomori, upon which she lies and says she’s there waiting for them

Unsurprisingly, Taki skipped school to spend more time working on the music. Given this chance to reunite with Tomori, the new band has already become her life

And the only critique she cares about is Tomori’s, who says “it’s warm.” Success!

“Can’t it be a bit slower.” “No. It’d lose the feeling of sprinting away.” I like how both Tomori and Taki describe music in terms of the emotional experience it brings to mind, rather than just saying whether they like something or not. Really emphasizes how in tune with music both of them are, and how they each see it as the vehicle through which they can truly express their feelings

“It doesn’t have the things to show where to put your fingers?” “You mean like, tabs?” I think sheet music is still a little advanced for Anon, Taki

And then our stray cat Rana arrives. The camera emphasizes first her dramatic impact through a low-angle shot of her boots stomping in, emphasizing her powerful, all-encompassing presence as if she’s literally stepping on the audience. Then we get a high-angle shot with a dizzying spin to it, underlining how she tends to throw everyone off balance

“I’ll do the band.” “There’s no part for you.” “That’s fine. I’ll do it.” Even Taki cannot handle Rana

“I’ll rewrite it with this added in.” And she can’t deny Rana’s talent, immediately ceding to the clear strength of her lead part

Oh my god. Tomori practices by shouting lyrics into her pillow so her parents won’t hear her. My heart is too weak for this show

After Taki secures their practice space for the same time every day, Rana promptly fails to show up. I can relate to Taki’s frustration – it can be infuriating to feel other collaborators aren’t fully committing to something that’s genuinely important to you, that you’re pouring a lot of yourself into and hoping to make as great as it can possibly be. That’s part of why I like writing fiction: you succeed or fail largely on your own terms, not because someone else didn’t care enough. Tragically, as a dungeon master I’ve sort of ended up back where I started, relying on the enthusiasm of others to make the project work

At home, Taki reflects back on Sakiko, who always made revising musical compositions seem so easy

“Until you can play it, you’ll practice alone.” Taki, of course, takes this demand for perfection to an extreme that’s unhealthy for any group endeavor. The core of any successful band has to be the joy they find in playing together – in contrast, Taki currently sees Anon’s whole presence as a burden she has to put up with in order to share a band with Tomori

“If we don’t all play together, we’re not a band!” Taki essentially thinks she can brute force everyone else into following her wavelength, and even matching her skill level. No surprise that her band behavior matches her general people skills

“I will write a score worthy of Tomori’s lyrics!” Sakiko is clearly part of the reason Taki is so hard on everyone – she’s attempting to live up to Sakiko’s example, and is thus unfairly hard on both herself and her bandmates. She’s chasing an ideal, and demanding all of her companions live up to that fantasy too

“Why now, when it’s too late?” Both her and Soyo are still chasing Sakiko’s shadow, playing parts while waiting for the absent lead actress to return. Strange to think that Tomori is actually the one who’s found a way to move on out of all of them

Having accepted she can’t avoid Soyo forever, Sakiko accepts Mutsumi’s advice to meet her on the day of the concert. Oh god, this is gonna be a disaster

“Please don’t yell at me.” Anon has reached her limit. Taki’s pressuring all of them, and there’s no fun or sense of community in what she’s creating – just a stressful sense of obligation. The character blocking emphasizes how far Anon has been pushed from the group, casting her as far in the corner, her back turned and posture hunched over

“If we work together we can do it, right?” “Does this mean you don’t think you can depend on me?” The others’ offers to help just scan to Taki as a condemnation for her inability to live up to Sakiko’s example

“Taki’s been pushing herself too hard. Of course she has. Without everyone else here…” Soyo clearly believes that only regaining the old band members will fix this situation. And Anon can’t help but read the clear subtext there – that she herself is an outsider, a vestigial band member who will likely be abandoned when the true stars return. Man, what a delightfully messy way to construct a band narrative, with the previous group hanging over both its original members and outsiders alike

Her thoughts are contrasted against Taki’s quiet walk home, as she mulls over her failures silently until she reaches the bridge. “Onee-san or Sakiko could do it. Why can’t I?” So it seems she’s surrounded by bright lights, seeing them as the expected standard of behavior

The next day, Taki doesn’t arrive at all. Spurred onwards by Soyo’s ominous words, Anon decides to go look for her

Man, Taki sure knows how to mope. She spends the whole afternoon head-down on her desk

Outside, Anon and Tomori are still waiting for her. So of course she promptly runs away

Anon and Taki eventually trip and fall over each other, leaving Tomori a perfect opportunity to debut more animal bandaids. And at last, Anon and Taki have something they agree on: how cute Tomori is

And Done

Ah, what a deliciously messy situation. Trust in Taki to mess things up in the course of actually trying to fix them, as she drives the whole band nearly to the breaking point with her demand for perfection and lack of positive reinforcement. By trying to fill in the blank space left by Sakiko, Taki only underlined how this group is not CRYCHIC, and never will be – but the more we learn about their old band, the more that seems like a very good thing. With Anon and Tomori having reached out to her in such a dramatic fashion, Taki will hopefully realize that this group doesn’t demand perfection, only that she shares in an experience they all can treasure together. Which ultimately just leaves us with Soyo – though it was her manipulation that brought this group together, her emotional distance and insistence on truly reviving CRYCHIC could just as easily tear them apart. Regardless of what happens, MyGO continues to offer a buffet of character-rich, emotionally convincing drama, and I’m eager to see what comes next!

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Source: BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! – Episode 6