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!
Episode 10
Our title is “Odi et Amo,” meaning “I hate and I love,” perhaps the most Ave Mujica-appropriate title yet. None of these girls possess healthy passions; they all love with a force so intense it becomes its own kind of hatred, a desperation to claim their desire that’s far more likely to choke it in their hands
We open with Mutsumi’s mother on stage, playing a extremely on-the-nose role as she lambasts a young woman for not being skinny enough
Yep, the character she’s addressing is even her in-show daughter
Nyamu’s in the audience, silently hungering for that kind of undeniable talent. The execution of the on-stage daughter matches her violent longing as she voices the “I love it and I hate it” of the title. She wants to destroy Mutsumi, she wants to hate Mutsumi for showing her up, but she also loves that competition, loves the thrill of seeing how far she can push herself
Of course, she’s actually interpreting a psychotic break as the genius of a professional rival, but that’s Nyamu for you. If she wasn’t self-absorbed and prone to interpreting everything through her own perspective, she wouldn’t be such an endearingly human character
This longing contextualizes last episode’s “disgusting” – it’s almost a form of praise, applauding how well Mortis is playing the part of Muuko. To someone as committed to pursuing her desires as Nyamu, I imagine Mutsumi-chan’s affectation parses as false humility, and nothing could be more disgusting than denying your talent and apologizing for your desires
Nyamu has turned out to be one of the most compelling provocateurs in this group; her desires are clear, her blind spots are obvious, and her sheer distance from the mindset of the rest of the group provides frequent, necessary shakeups to their dynamic. In a crew defined by unspoken longing, she’s the one person who speaks plainly, and gets annoyed when others fail to
Sakiko realizes she’s talking to Mortis when Mortis gets stuck in a loop, repeating her rehearsed Mutsumi-chan lines
Mortis breaks down in tears, and Soyo takes her home. Soyo would never admit it, but Anon’s influence has really changed her – both in terms of her lack of reliance on others, and in her willingness to reach out purely because she sees someone hurting. She still holds grudges, of course, and also feels a sort of petty pride in being a nicer person – but that too is a reflection of BanG Dream’s excellent characterization, that characters can experience real, meaningful growth without entirely becoming different people
“Saki-chan, let’s reunite Ave Mujica!” Love Uika’s body language here – like always, she’s essentially forcing herself into the frame, moving herself to where Sakiko is looking if Sakiko refuses to look at her
But Sakiko isn’t interested in her at all. Purposeful lighting choices as Sakiko leaves, walking out into sunlight while Uika cringes in shadow
“In the end, all we did was watch over Wakaba-san at her house.” “That’s how it is.” Watching Taki attempt to teach Umiri how to emotion is just straight-up agonizing. You were supposed to be the cool and collected one, Umiri!
“Is this about Sakiko?” Nyamu asks bluntly, grabbing Uika’s confessional lyrics out of her hand. See, this is exactly what I’m talking about – everyone else is mired in desperate longing, Nyamu’s just like “great, desperate longing, can we sell that?”
“Oops, I sent it” she declares with an absolutely blunt expression. She is one hundred percent the nega-Anon, forcing sincerity out of her bandmates with none of Anon’s patience or compassion
“Let’s ask Sakiko to write the music. Don’t you want to revive Mujica?” For Nyamu, who has had to fight for every single scrap of professional success, the idea that these girls are throwing away Ave Mujica because they’re simply too nervous to express themselves is both ludicrous and tiresome
And just like Anon, she’s dazzled by the scale of Sakiko’s home. If Nyamu had a place like this, she wouldn’t have to hustle on youtube!
She is so over Uika’s hysterics. Love her blank face as she steadily drags Uika inside
“Honestly, with this, people are going to call it a rich girl’s band-playing hobby.” Nyamu has lived too hard to be as soft as the others, and her little snipes demonstrate her persistent pride in that. If this doesn’t succeed, she doesn’t have a luxurious mansion to retreat to
“Did you read that? It’s all about you.” Neither judgmental nor laudatory – just “hey, Uika poured her heart out about you”
“We’ve all given our lives to you.” Nyamu means this more in a “we’ve dedicated precious time to this project” way than a “I bear my soul on the stage for you” way, and that actually makes it hit with all the more impact
“Clearly, the forced soulmate plan was a great success!” Sakiko’s theatrics have actually bound them all together; most of them through genuine emotion, but Nyamu through necessity
“For me, Ave Mujica is all I have left!” Sakiko’s own words are thrown back at her, but with genuine truth behind them. Nyamu doesn’t have a fallback band or fallback life; she committed all her chips to Ave Mujica, and now it falls to Sakiko to honor that trust
All Uika can manage is “please don’t hate me.”
I appreciate Nyamu’s gentle “did you say what you needed to” as Uika exits. Now that she’s expressed her own resentment, she’s feeling steady enough to try and support Uika a bit
Thinking back on her own words, Sakiko cannot deny the hypocrisy Nyamu is describing
“I must have made another mistake. But I don’t know the right answer, so I’ll keep looking for it.” Oh man, so good! Tomori’s clear, direct words from her letters to Sakiko, assuming she wronged her friend in some way she didn’t understand, only trying to make it better. Tomori hadn’t done anything wrong, but her advice in the face of believing so is just as relevant regardless. You can’t give up, Sakiko – you have to keep looking for it
And so she does what Tomori would; she starts to write music to Uika’s lyrics, expressing her commitment through her song
Umiri is keeping Mutsumi company when Sakiko comes to gather them. This is what Taki was trying to teach her – trust isn’t something you earn through dramatic gestures, it is built through practice, through the everyday acts of taking care of each other
“Whether in sickness or in health, we will share our destiny together.” Sakiko promptly band marries them again
“I want to give all of my life to you.” Uika’s still in a pretty bad spot, though. If this were MyGO, I might critique the artificiality of slow-rolling these emotional explosions for the sake of narrative pacing; in Ave Mujica, that kind of indulgent melodrama just sort of comes with the territory
Nyamu confronts Mortis backstage. “Your acting makes me question myself. It’s not fair. I’m jealous. I love you.” “I wish you had told this to Mutsumi-chan.” Ah, they’re so deliciously twisted! Mutsumi-chan is the only one to whom Nyamu can admit her longing, the ache that drives her and makes her sharp. But Mutsumi-chan is gone, and Mortis doesn’t want to hear praise for the girl she blames herself for killing, praise that might have given Mutsumi-chan the strength to let them coexist
Nyamu’s title of “Amoris” is certainly proving its worth
“Even if I love you and love you, I can’t love you enough.” Amoris’ lines speak to the infinite hunger of both her and Uika’s desire; even indulging in their love only seems to make the need grow starker, only makes satisfaction seem further away. But the very intensity with which Nyamu recites these lines demonstrates how this love has changed her – she is no longer just playing a version of Nyamu, she is committing entirely to the performance of Amoris
“I wish you, without wings, just fall.” Uika’s lyrics admit to the selfishness of her love; she doesn’t believe she can soar like Sakiko, so she’d be content if Sakiko fell to her level
“I confine you as you weaken.” Referring to her attempts to shelter Sakiko earlier in the season. Appropriately for Uika, her love song is one extended self-hating apology
And for the second verse, we shift to reflections on Mortis’ difficult relationship with Mutsumi-chan, as she does what she was not brave enough to before – following Mutsumi-chan into the abyss, seeking out her precious other self
Nice touch of the soundboard tech noticing Mutsumi-chan has returned on guitar, and thus boosting the levels on her instrument
“Is your melody, the one that humiliated me, still raging wildly?” A line that could apply to many of this group’s pairings – Nyamu’s feelings towards Mutsumi, Uika’s feelings towards Sakiko, and Umiri’s feelings towards all the rest of them
“Still alive, calling forward, breaking through.” A song of defiant survival
Umiri’s actually smiling on stage now, feeling the flow of the music as much as any of them
Oh my god, is this stinger implying Uika and Sakiko are like secretly half-sisters? THE MELODRAMA MUST FLOW
And Done
Ah, that was a thoroughly satisfying episode! Ave Mujica’s reunion turned out to be even more rewarding than CRYCHIC’s, with basically everyone except Uika reaching some sort of positive emotional revelation. It feels like this band’s stable state is disorder, or at least a kind of lopsided longing that keeps them all hungry, driving Nyamu and Umiri to emotionally commit themselves, and raising Sakiko and Mutsumi to a kind of sonic bliss where they can truly embody their every feeling. Just a rich network of parallels, inspirations, and dependencies uniting all the girls, wreaking havoc on their emotions even as they become more impassioned and synchronized in concert. Ave Mujica sees both art and love as a kind of violence, and the violence they are now committing against themselves and each other is beautiful to behold. Onward to destruction or absolution!
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