Despite what some of its promotion might lead you to believe, Ave Mujica – The Die is Cast – is absolutely not accessible for BanG Dream! newcomers. The preceding series It’s MyGO!!!!! is required reading for kick-off context on this dark group of distressed theater kids and how they came together to form this bizarre fusion of musical performance and stage play. Parts of these first three episodes make clear that the story will continue covering the MyGO!!!!! girls to some degree (much as the Ave Mujica characters figured into the formative MyGO!!!!! band’s story). As it goes on, it becomes clear that Ave Mujica exists in conversation with It’s MyGO!!!!!, so you will almost certainly be lost for context if you just jump into this one.
Ave Mujica does deliver on, however, is the vibes and spectacle promised that would prompt people to want to check out this anime in the first place. “Ave Mujica does not undersell,” declares band leader Sakiko, and she friggin’ means it. If you thought the members of MyGO!!!!! were prone to sometimes-overplayed melodrama, just wait until you get a load of these extremely unhealthy girls! Just in these first few episodes, the Ave Mujica anime makes some bold choices in terms of story direction and presentation that, if not too far apart from It’s MyGO!!!!!, might have been unheard of in prior BanG Dream! entries.
The sometimes sudden shifts in status quo are some thus-far strong ideas underpinning things. Apart from the physical masks that defined their debut performance, it quickly becomes clear that the members of Ave Mujica are wearing masks of the old metaphorical variety as well. Nyamu continues to be the most intriguing to me, mostly because she’s the most entertaining. She’s a shameless mercenary performer willing to use everyone she has even the slightest connection to as a stepping stone to her own success. I’m just waiting for her chipper, trollish mask to slip and show some raw ugliness beneath. Sakiko, for her part, turns out to have a lot she’s been dealing with that set her on this path, and she is now trying her hardest to maintain at least the illusion of control. A huge part of the appeal going into Ave Mujica was the potential to watch Sakiko’s desperate attempts to gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss her demons away. And while that hasn’t been as focused on as I expected, it’s still an element that’s felt in her and her interactions with others.
The real breakout star of these first three episodes is, maybe surprisingly, Mutsumi. The sad little green-haired girl has always been pointedly intrigued by what exactly her issues are. As Sakiko’s real reasons for quitting CRYCHIC are finally detailed in this anime’s opening episode, the next ones focusing on Mutsumi dive into why she claimed never to enjoy being in the band. What’s given isn’t necessarily the most original answer, but it is understandable and arrestingly presented with some of the more overt, illusory visual metaphors I’ve seen this franchise cut loose and deploy. In that aforementioned conversation with It’s MyGO!!!!!, the third episode functions as a twisted mirror of that anime’s third episode, which focused on Tomori’s past, just with the somber, empathetic first-person gimmick swapped out for Mutsumi’s psychologically breaking hallucinations. If you’ve ever wanted to see a traumatically depressed rhythm guitarist imagine a creepy doll talking to her like the Green Goblin mask, well then do I have the mobile game tie-in anime for you!
That ostentatious approach extends to all of Ave Mujica so far, from its shamelessly melodramatic OP and ED to the similarly toned concert scenes. That style and accompanying music are the best assets of the series, lending it its own identity even as it’s necessarily carrying over directly from It’s MyGO!!!!! It’s maybe too much at times. Some of the concert skits in the first episode can feel like they’re toeing the line between dramatic flavor and pure padding—though this levels off by the end of the first episode and into the next two as the skits get more integrated into the story itself. The biggest drawback of the musical numbers thus far is a frustratingly consistent one for this franchise: no subtitles for the songs.
SANZIGEN‘s ability to render facial expressions in their characters hasn’t missed a beat from the dramatic highs they hit in the preceding show, and their CGI character work continues to improve. That’s noticeable in characters carried by some capricious personality shifts like Mutsumi. It works in tandem with the aforementioned visual indulgences to make it feel like the studio is continuing to push what they can do with this franchise and their style. It’s probably not going to win over those audience members for whom It’s MyGO!!!!! already came off too melodramatic, but if this is what you enjoyed about that series, and especially the initial shock of Ave Mujica’s reveal at the end of that season, you’ll find something to like here.
That’s the best praise I can pay Ave Mujica at this stage. Some of the revealed backstories for characters like Sakiko and Mutsumi sand down their edges or ring a bit cliche, but they’re still bookended by some wild and heavy presentation of the story itself and couched in the theater-kid goth-rock the show knows we’re all here for. I’m hoping it can keep this up with some proper escalation involving the other characters; Uika and Umiri haven’t really done anything yet, and I need to see what else Nyamu gets up to. Hopefully, Ave Mujica can match or surpass It’s MyGO!!!!!‘s screaming highs and downward-spiraling lows.
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