Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m once again overcome with curiosity regarding the fortunes of our woebegotten bandmates, meaning it’s time for another episode of BanG Dream! It’s MyGO!!!!! Our last episode served as at least a partial reconciliation after the suffering of the previous two, with Tomori’s solo confessions eventually gathering Raana, Taki, Anon, and even Soyo back to her side. Everyone except Raana has at some point tried their hand at leading this band, but ultimately, it was up to their emotional heart to guide them back under the lights. At Tomori’s side, they were reminded of what they actually founded this group for – to claim a place where they belong, where their voice is valued, regardless of whoever else is listening.
That spirit of community was made clear by their ultimate performance, where they were clearly playing for each other more than any external audience. And god, what a show! Their tearful reunion was the goddamn definition of catharsis, each musician baring their heart on stage and finding their feelings treasured and echoed by the girls beside them. Between episodes three, seven, and ten, MyGO is racking up a preposterous slate of all-timers, and I’m eager to see how they formally reconcile in the wake of that shared moment. All right, I’m most eager to see how the other bandmates razz Soyo for her late return, but still! It’s a credit to how well-characterized this show’s cast are that it’s such a pleasure simply watching them interact, letting their complex, thorny, and ultimately sympathetic personalities spark friction and understanding in equal measure. Let’s get to it!
Episode 11
And we end right where we left off, with the whole band in tears and facing each other, the crowd behind them entirely forgotten. Except for Raana, of course, who looks exceedingly proud of herself
The crowd’s actually full this time; it seems their breakup and reconciliation has done wonders for their scene cred
Bands are temperamental things that demand an often fragile unity of intention, requiring a lot of work and rarely yielding any fame or monetary compensation. As such, people in a local band scene are often a lot like Umiri – technically a member of a bunch of bands, but some are on hiatus, some just sort of petered out, some are waiting for their drummer to get back from college, and some are perpetually rescheduling the session that they’re definitely never getting around to
“I used all of you!” Soyo assumes her true self would naturally be rejected by others, and so she’d come to accept she’d always be playing the part that those around her desired, if only to quietly manipulate them towards her own unspoken desires. Confronted by a group who accept the real, uncharitable her, she’s not quite sure what to do
“Even so… we do this our whole lives!” Given how much of herself Tomori throws into each song and performance, I can’t imagine her heart could take anything but a permanent band
“Our whole lives? Only an idiot would say that!” Happy to see Soyo willing to express her true feelings, even if that will inevitably result in a lot of “what the fuck are you talking about” where she would previously just make a polite smile
And of course, Soyo’s tears get them all going again. Meanwhile, Raana’s enjoying a self-satisfied sip of water. Great work Raana, you found a group composed entirely of emotional disasters
Back at school, Tomori is enjoying a well-earned nap. She’s unfortunately missing a very thematically on-point reading from the teacher, a recollection of a man who dreamed he was a butterfly, and awoke unaware if the dream or his real life was reality. For Tomori, who has always envisioned herself as a humble pillbug, this dream of flying freely as a butterfly clearly echoes her hard-earned happiness
Meanwhile, over at Taki’s school, Umiri and Uika are definitely scheming something. Given Uika’s connection with Sakiko, I imagine Umiri has already been recruited into her thirty-first band
“If anything happens, feel free to request my services anytime.” Umiri seems to see Taki as a lost kitten or something, a helpless yet defiant creature that clearly needs her guidance
Raana admits “I was moved” by their last performance, the most personal statement of investment she’s ever made about the band. Tomori and Anon are happily taken aback
Even in her style of argumentation, Raana is absolutely a cat. As Taki lists off reasons they should delay their next performance, Raana simply replies “live!” with increasing insistence. Fortunately, Anon understands how to defeat a cat in an argument: give it food
“Live!” “I don’t have any more candy.” Unfortunately, you can only distract a cat for as long as it’s still actively chewing whatever you fed it
Anon, Taki, and Raana rush off for snacks, leaving just Tomori and Soyo in the room – a pairing that predictably leads to a long, awkward silence. You could practically do the Evangelion elevator sequence with these two; Tomori rarely speaks up unless addressed directly, and Soyo finds Tomori so earnest and awkward that she generally just avoids conversation with her, preferring to engage with people she can fend off through the superficial level of social niceties
“I saw Mutsumi. She said you were lost too, Soyo.” See, this is exactly the sort of unvarnished, earnest conversation Soyo wishes to avoid
“The guitar. You practiced even when you weren’t coming here, right?” “Well, I did play a little when I felt like it.” Ahaha, what a perfect conversation between Taki and Anon. As ever, MyGO is spectacular at articulating how different personalities will fail to arrive at a shared conversational wavelength – in this case, Taki is actually trying to compliment Anon, but Anon sees “you must have been trying hard” as condescending, and thus downplays her own efforts. Anon wants to seem effortlessly awesome, and doesn’t see hard work as commendable in the same way Taki does, so they share almost no common ground in terms of celebrating their accomplishments
“You’re so bad at lying.” And of course, Taki can’t help but snatch the easy bait and turn it into a fight. This band is such a fantastic mess of incompatible personalities, it’s delightful
“Practicing even after hearing something like that was… admirable.” In spite of her stoic nature, Taki finally manages a phrasing of her feelings that Anon can understand
As it turns out, Tomori’s already scheduled for a solo performance in three days, so the band’s back in action
But Anon reminds them they’ve forgotten something important – their band name and costumes! Nice to see she’s recovered enough to once again be focusing primarily on the aesthetics of being in a cool band, her first and true passion
That actually gestures towards another key way MyGO is a superior character drama: it doesn’t frame characters as beset by problems which through their resolutions will “fix” their personalities and disagreements. This group has come to a greater mutual understanding, but that hasn’t come at the expense of their often sharp-edged individual personalities – they’re still the same people, they’ve just come to understand and respect each other a little more. Far too many stories feature characters whose distinctive qualities essentially get “solved” when their emotional arc is concluded; just as MyGO is determined to articulate how people rarely share a common conversational wavelength, so to is it dedicated to revealing how personal growth rarely involves a wholesale transformation of personality, but rather a greater understanding of how your personality can productively coexist with others
Soyo says she’s fine with another show, as “I’ve already embarrassed myself anyway.” She is no longer unwilling to be vulnerable with this group, to reveal her ugly emotions
Anon volunteers to work on costumes. Soyo watches their preparations impassively, still weighing her feelings
As Soyo and Anon walk home, Anon reveals the truth of how hard Tomori fought for Soyo, how she was willing to lose the band altogether if it didn’t have Soyo in it. Soyo presumably thought Tomori was just being childishly stubborn, always wanting things “her way,” but she was actually willing to sacrifice her own happiness to help her fellow lost girl Soyo. Tomori might have known what Soyo needed more than she herself did
Anon announces that Soyo is no longer Soyo-san, she is now Soyorin, and runs away before Soyo can argue. Anon absolutely reveling in their new power dynamic
“I’ve thought of a band name: ANON TOKYO.” Excellent work, Anon
And of course, Soyo is the first to shoot it down
Anon briefly gets distracted by her beloved Nyamu-chi’s video of a new electric drum kit, but this time immediately restrains herself and returns to costume research. Growth!
Also, Nyamu-chi is clearly going to be the drummer of Sakiko’s rival band now
“You don’t have to push yourself.” “Can you make it in time without pushing yourself?” I imagine it’s very freeing for Soyo to be able to finally articulate her blunt, often harsh opinions
Oh my god. Anon just shows Raana’s fully equipped pedal board to the guitar store attendant and says “I want something like this.” That’s like a dozen different pedals all with their own unique effects Anon, and the collection would undoubtedly run you many hundreds of dollars, after which you would still have no idea how to use them
The attendant immediately realizes that Anon is an idiot, and thus frames her followup question in idiot terms, asking “do you want to make a bwa-bwa sound or a chika-chika sound?” The granularity of effects you can create through various pedals is truly remarkable, and that’s before you get to more complex effects like recording and looping samples live, thereby creating a one-person guitar orchestra. The term “shoegaze” even comes from the necessity of pedal effects attendant in the genre, as shoegaze guitarists tend to spend a lot of time, well, gazing at their shoes as they adjust the output via pedals
“Then, want to talk at my place?” Soyo says it casually, but this is a huge step for her, abandoning the isolated safety of her high tower
Love this show’s panning gags – here we get Taki and Tomori’s surprised expressions, then awkwardly pan left to catch Anon’s surprise as well. Reminds me of the pan where they introduced Raana just quietly snooping the girls’ conversation
“What’s wrong? Come over here and have a seat!” Anon is very proud to have been the first one invited into Soyo’s apartment
Speaking of comedy pans, we then immediately pan down to Raana already munching on soba on one of Soyo’s couches
We at last get a touch of explanation for Raana’s circumstances, as she incidentally mentions her grandmother owned a live venue
“Soyorin doesn’t really like this.” Soyo has swiftly accepted her fate
Love Taki’s escalating surprise at “Tomorin” and “Ano-chan.” Anon making nicknames is one thing, but Tomori reciprocating is quite another!
Oh my god, their band photo is perfect
After the others leave, Taki admits that she knew Soyo’s plans regarding CRYCHIC from the start. A gesture of solidarity, framing them both as “horrible” schemers
Oh Taki. The moment the lyrics are complete, she immediately excuses herself from class to work on the music. Clearly got her priorities in order
Raana continues to reveal more of her story, reflecting on how she was left adrift when her grandmother’s live house closed, but that “she said someone else would make somewhere for me to belong.” As our Eevee would attest, cats do not like being forced to move
“A lifetime without getting hurt… is impossible.” A key moment of understanding from Tomori, prompted by Raana’s reflection on her own intolerable loss. Life is a process of investing in things deeply and ultimately losing them, whether people or places or moments in time. You cannot hope to halt that process by holding onto things for your entire life – you must learn to bear loss gracefully, and always look forward to whatever might brighten your life somewhere down the line. Loss is certain, but so is change and renewal, so long as you don’t let the all-encompassing experience of loss consume your future as well
Tomori’s reflections prompt Anon to finally realize they’re the lost girls (maigo, or MyGO)
And in the morning, Soyo for once wakes up in a room surrounded by other people, as stark a contrast as imaginable from her lonely, sterile apartment. For the first time, she allows herself an earnest smile
And Done
We’re doing it, girls! After ten painful episodes of hesitance and regret and subterfuge and suffering, these lost girls are finally communicating honestly, and maybe even realizing they actually enjoy each other’s company. It was delightful to see how each of them made their own distinctive efforts to reconcile here: Taki through her brittle apologies to Anon and Soyo, Anon by forcing her goofy nicknames on each of her self-declared friends, and Soyo by finally revealing both her uncharitable emotions and lonely home life, making herself vulnerable for the first time ever. With the fissures dividing this group having been realized so painfully and convincingly, it’s now all the more satisfying to watch them overcome their differences, and realize it’s much better to be lost together. Onward to the final performance, MyGO!
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