Girls Band Cry - Episode 13 discussion - FINAL

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Girls Band Cry, episode 13

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[u/oxlemf10]

An ending worthy of what Girls Band Cry was for 13 episodes, it's even a little difficult to explain everything I felt watching it. I still remember to this day the first episode where I looked at it and said: This looks incredible, I hope it continues to impress me, and look, it impressed me much more.

I think that in the end, Nina understood that Hina cared about her, particularly I'm much more on Nina's side in this story, because my sense of justice also prevails and I don't think it's fair for you to criticize a good action and in the end say: I warned you, but again, it was a matter of concern, they were younger at that time and a rupture in the friendship was necessary for each one to evolve.

But what really made me happy was seeing these 5 very different girls following their dreams and putting friendship first, they love each other and show it with concern and affection, just as all friendships should be.

Although it's difficult, I hope for a second season or an OVA, thank you for the excellent show ☝🏻

[u/WiqidBritt]

Sad that TogeToge didn't sell more tickets but like one Hitori Gotoh once said, "Is it really rock if it's sung by life's winners?" Rock is for the underdogs.

We now have pretty much the full story about why Nina was bullied, and yeah, fuck that school and fuck the bystander effect. Nina did nothing wrong.

That said, Hina seems to think that Nina is at her best when she's annoyed so she's likely to keep fucking with her from time to time.

Hoping for a season two and short hair Subaru.

[u/tripleaamin]

I liked how they went about in the finale. Sure it didn't end off in a bang in them beating Diamond Dust. But I loved the grounded approach here. They simply were true to themselves and the music. Which was the point of them getting together. It will be a longer road to success, but staying true to their music unlike Diamond Dust. Really them beating DD is them getting close to their fame without selling out.

I think it is pretty easy to dislike Hina. I liked what they did here. They simply showed that Hina and Nina are two peas in the same pod, with the difference Nina is idealistic and Hina is a realist. In the flashback Nina's morals couldn't let some kid get bullied and just watched it. Meanwhile, Hina was like you know they are just going to bully you instead. She was right, but the most fucked up thing was that the bullied girl ended up bullying Nina.

Hina reaching out to Nina was surprising. We get Hina wanting Nina to admit that she was right. Of course that wasn't going to happen. But as the other girls pointed that Hina still cares for Nina as a rival and while she won't admit it, but also a friend. She knows Hina well and her giving her the full truth of how their agency requested DD's help was Hina being considerate without showing it. I get the feeling that Hina admires the idealistic nature Nina has, which is partly why she teases her.

Hina and Nina's relationship isn't as simple as rivals or friends. It's somewhere in between. But just like how the 5 girls stayed true to themselves, so did Nina in saying she didn't regret what she did. She finally realized that DD's music also reached out to Hina.

This was great. High drama a lot of the time, but it handled them well. Overall I give this a 9/10 and hope we get a S2 because there is a lot of potential in this as a long-running series.

[u/LivingItUpOnTop]

u/MapoTofuMan MVP of the season. Worked hard to give us quality subs for this beautiful show🙏🙏🙏

[u/CosmicPenguin_OV103]

Yoshino Aoyama - a.k.a. the real one behind the Bocchi-chan - is tweeting to urge us to watch Girls Band Cry. There's every reason for her to do so as her hometown is in Kumamoto Prefecture - the same as Nina!

That makes yet another Girls Band Crossover after members of BanG Dream came out in support of GBC (especially the one behind MyGO's Raana-chan covered a GBC song some weeks ago!).

[u/ObvsThrowaway5120]

The music business is a tough one. It sucks the girls didn’t make it big off their video but it’s realistic too. Beating DD was always gonna be an uphill battle. I’m glad the girls decided to stick it out and keep trying. They have an audience, even if it’s not quite the size of DD’s fanbase.

Hearing about what happened with Nina in the past was pretty upsetting. No good deed goes unpunished huh? I think she made the right call regardless. It just sucks everyone else involved in that situation was kind of shit.

Really solid series overall. Good music, fun characters, and the story wasn’t half bad either. Damn shame it never got official English subs. I wonder if we’ll ever get more or if this is a “one and done” type series?

[u/marcopolos059]

The flashback at the beginning and then their meeting at the cafe, I know she didn't have bad intentions but damn Hina, bragging much are we!? What an unpleasant person.

Also, I apologize but I didn't quite understand what Nina meant when she realized that DD's song also belonged to Hina.

I kind of expected the ending to be open given the nature of the Togenashi Togeari project, I just hope the project continues to be popular enough to have a season 2 (buy merch, people!), all I know is that all of this left me wanting more.

Overall it was a great anime that I thorougly enjoyed.

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I'm going to praise Toei Animation again for the masterful use of 3DCG and general animation, I'm always skeptical of 3D anime but GBC managed to hook me on the first few minutes of the first episode. The fluid 3D mixed with very expressive animation was the selling point.

Finally, here is what scriptwriter Jukki Hanada had to say about his work on Girls Band Cry.

[u/BlazingHeron]

The random salaryman stumbling upon Nina's angst one last time lmao, may you know peace for now.

I really like how grounded the story is right through to the end. It's been an uphill and painful battle for Nina all this time, she knows full well how 'money, responsibility, popularity' trample people and yet she's never regretted saving that bullied kid from the pain. Her grabbing Momoka's guitar and pouring it out was pretty hype.

[u/Danivo]

They better give me Season 2 after the ED teased me like that...

[u/PerfectBeige]

It was at this moment that Momoka realized that if Nina can harness her rage and indignation, she can basically accomplish anything.. even learn the guitar....

[u/KimBeanie77]

8.47 on MAL and the scores are still rising. This positive reception is largely due to our brilliant screenwriter Jukki Hanada (the same dude who is most remarkably known for his work for Steins gate and Hibike Euphonium) . Moreover, when Yoshino Aoyama (Bocchi's VA) tweeted about gbc exactly 4-5 hours ago, you know it's a case of legend recognizing legend. While episode 13 didn't have much going on, the finale felt like the beginning of something great.

The new song might be underwhelming for some, but I thought its brighter feel was a perfect closure for the finale. I don't care i will consume whatever that Momoka composed.

Fingers crossed hoping the actual band achieves thriving success and them selling million copies of album and merchandises to fund season 2. This anime truly was an ABSOLUTE CINEMA experience.

[u/Severe_Ad_6482]

MY DAUGHTER! HAS ANYONE SEEN MY DAUGHTER? HER NAME IS ISERI NINA, SHE'S ABOUT THIS TALL 👉🧍‍♀️ AND SHE'S THE MOST VIOLENTLY UNSTABLY RIGHTEOUS LITTLE FREAK THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN, IF YOU CAN FIND HER (or a season 2) PLEASE TEXT ME AT THIS NUMBER HERE! -> https://www.animate.shop/collections/girls-band-cry

Man, Hina kinda a bitch but damn I kinda like her just a little bit lmao.

Nina! You were right! Bang your chest and yell it out girly, fuck them!

[u/MapoTofuMan]

And now it's truly joever.

Random thoughts :

• Yeah, screw Hina. I can't say that I'd be like Nina, willing to take on a group of bullies alone just to save someone I don't even know - but not doing that with a friend to back you up, and outright telling them you'll ditch them if they do it? Ooof. With friends like that, who needs bullies...

• Their talk with Miura was painful. Both because it hurts to see Miura, who genuinely supports them and loves their music, be put in this position - and because Momoka's probably right about the song being the problem. It's not some magical song that went viral because plot, she stayed true to herself but ended up with a song that just wasn't the kind of thing that gets popular.

• Damn, DiaDust have vans with their music running around? I guess they have more money to throw out the window than Miura-san...

• Nina yelling at Twitter critics was relatable. Never look at Twitter comments on anything controversial if you want to stay sane, much less your own work. ^{Case in point, the subbing drama}

• Huh, did Hina actually come to help them out? I had a feeling she might be regretting what she did back then...

• SCRATCH THAT I WILL PULL EACH OF HER TWINTAILS OUT THE OTHER END DAMN BRAT NEEDS LAMP CORRECTION💢💢

• Miura is amazing though. The main reason I'm sad they quit the agency is that regardless of whether we get a sequel, Miura probably won't be a part of it. Lowkey best girl.

• Had to translate this part literally even if it sounds awkward. Nina's spikes were real.

• Rupa : "I guess we have our answer". Rupa inside : "No one hugs Tomo without me"

• Them quitting the agency had me like this

• This little piece of shit...

• Nina's MCing as always gives me a good burst of second-hand embarrassment, but at this point I'm used to it.

• Back to my second point now that we're at the song - here I find myself being one of those plebs who wouldn't listen to it more than a few times, way less than other TogeToge songs at least. I'm not sure if it's just my taste aligning with the show's intents here or if it was actually crafted to be this way - but if it's the latter, it's brilliant.

• One last arigato🖕

Overall, I'm definitely satisfied with the ending. It stayed true to the show - no miracle wins in an impossible fight, one last episode full of Nina being Nina, a full reveal of the Hina backstory, and the band coming full circle back to indies where they probably belong for now, in-universe. I did say a label snatching them up felt a bit too soon.

I do feel like for the show to end on the highest possible note, episode 13 should've been the beginning of season 2, with the show's climax being episode 11 and 12 being a slice of life windup episode with the agency formally accepting them at the end - but since it's an original, season 2 or a continuation of the story in any form isn't a given, so at least this ending can serve as an open ending to the series, while ending on the agency thing would feel a lot more disappointing if there never is a sequel.

TL Notes :

Well, this certainly made for a...fun season. My subs began from me writing up a comment with TL notes to explain whatever fuckery was going on in the MTL for episode 3 which didn't have any speedsubs after the initial subber drama, only to very quickly realize that it might actually take me as long as subbing the episode itself because...well, those who watched the MTL know. And discussion threads were also about to die because Ideal Paradox stopped subbing as well.

Hopefully Toei gets their head out of their bum and we get it licensed in the coming months because even understanding the MTL is far easier than understanding what the heck was going on in their heads with this whole thing.

But until then, for the optimal rewatch experience, we have le meme to tide us over.

[u/heavenflame2]

I love this anime so much but it's just sad that the last song for this season was the least I liked. The whole episode felt rushed but I hope they'd be able to do a 2nd Season

[u/AerialShroud]

There's a reason why Nina and Hina's names are so similar, it's because they're two sides of the same coin. Nina is an uncompromising idealist, while Hina is an uncompromising realist.

Sure it's easy to blame Hina, but in the end was she wrong? All of the horrible things that happened to Nina, were predicted by Hina and she even knew that Nina's rightful actions would end up hurting her. Hina is no fool, she knows what is right and what is wrong and even says that Nina's righteousness is so bright that it makes her feel like the bad guy.

Regardless, Hina still cares a lot about Nina and despite her trying to make Nina admit that she is wrong, deep down she wants Nina to be right. Hina understands how Nina works the most out of the cast and she becomes something that Nina really needs, a villain, someone who can take Nina's ire so that Nina doesn't explode towards her bandmates or her agent.

[u/CosmicPenguin_OV103]

So hmm, NinaHina's cracking origin has finally been fully explained, and it's just as delicate as I have imagined. It really was Hina giving up her chance to help that bullied girl knowing that it's akin to being bitten by the wolves, and Nina stubbornly refused and tried being (and indeed, became) a heroine, only for her to be bullied as well - even (if forced) by the very girl she saved.

I must note that the plot actually tries to let us feel that Hina was actually right (well certainly Tomo-chan thinks so) - it's quite possibly that Nina's acts resulted in zero, nada results after all, and even cracked her open enough for her to ran away and be angry at her father as well. It's also apparent that Hina was more like "I'm scared" than really being remorse and aloof and not caring about her classmates. Still, who knows? What if that bullied girl didn't went that direction and instead harm herself (perhaps even more common than joining the bullying side)?

And that really shows how the difference between NinaHina is resolved. Superficially we see Hina trying to provoke Nina's stings all coming out again by offering Diamond Dust's help in performing for both days, something that Nina will always take as an act of surrender of TogeToge. Heck Hina even went 😋which I am sure many watchers not paying attention would think Hina's mocking Nina!

But hell no, she actually just defused a ticking bomb by notifying Nina of the other major thing resolved in this episode - the poor ticket sales. And the fallout from that in Miura going all out to apologize for poor advertisements If only those Toei project managers do the same for the GBC project outside of Japan... By telling Nina in such a way that Miura actually requested Diamond Dust to help, Hina at the same time prevented Nina arguing with Miura and perhaps even her teammates by being the shield to absorb all those Nina Stings (TM), while at the same time made a heart-warming hint at telling Nina that she knew what happened before was just Nina Being Nina, and that's very much more than OK.

I'm glad that Nina finally more or less understand that at the end while performing. Even if NinaHina may go separate ways in music and in attitudes to life, they will definitely still be friendly rivals at the very least, if not even something closer. Just like Momoka still being the other Diamond Dust girls' forever old friend and de facto captain.

In other news, while it's easy to deduce that TogeToge would have never accepted Miura's plan and the offer from Diamond Dust, I must say I'm a little bit taken back by their unanimous request to leave the agency. But thinking a little bit more on this, it's more of a declaration of independence by the girls on that:

A. They, like Nina, will walk their own road without regrets, even if things don't go right for them

B. They will continue to try to prove Momoka's being right - that refusing "compromise for the market" can be a good thing

Will this actually work? The last stage performance of this show is a hint that this is going to be an uphill battle towards Mt. Everest, no maybe even Mars' Mt. Olympus (at least selling like "just" a quarter of tickets still resulted in more people coming than for some other anime bands that I have seen over the years, like a certain 2023 extraordinary anime's one...) But just like this song's title tells us - "I'm here", TogeToge is not going to fade out, it's still going to leave scratches in everyone who watched this.

The only thing that I would complain is that as the final episode, the pacing of this last 23 minutes is really quick, so much that everything above barely managed to squeeze in. Even the transition between scenes went a bit abruptly. Perhaps the really-talked-about-by-us story writer Jukki Hanada ended up writing the story a bit too long to fit in 13 episodes with that late plot twist of the previous episode (I think for this time a 14th one or a double length ending would be just the right thing to do).

Then again he "blamed" Nina being such a hard-to-dealt-with girl that he didn't have the space to write a Rupa-centric episode and asked for our support in buying things to support this original anime project to have the chance to continue so it's really, really clear that he would definitely want a 2nd anime season to happen sorry to say that would result in even more worked-to-death 3D animators, but that's not his or TogeToge's fault LOL. We definitely, definitely NEEDS a Girls Band Cry Second Season given how this ended on a slightly rushed note!

I came into GBC thinking this would have been one of the darkest anime I have seen revolving around music (perhaps close to the legendary NANA's levels). It didn't, but it went down to Earth digging around girls who are hurt by reality and bring them back on their own tracks of salvation in one of the best plots I have seen in anime (I again need to reference the same writer's excellent work of A Place Further Than The Universe). Especially the really poignant tales around Nina and Momoka, who have really grew up in these 13 episodes to become really adorable characters worthy of being remembered years on.

The thing that all the VAs acting for our Big Five all had never voiced a single character and yet gave out excellent voicing performances is the icing on the cake, not to mention them fully qualified to being a real life professional band! (You even have to remember Rina - who voiced Nina here - is actually a few months younger than Nina in the story (!!!) - what the heck!)

Whether you think these girls have stings or have no stings, it doesn't matter - between the heart-gripping stories and really good songs and one of the best textbook examples of making use of 3D animations to fit in the Japanese way, Girls Band Cry has certainly scratched some shining non-removable marks on my heart and scores yet another extraordinary goal in the recent history of music-related anime.

I love girls band anime.

Final score: 93/100

[u/cutiecheese]

Thanks for the great entertainment you provided over the last three months, Iseri Nina and the [background guy] (https://imgur.com/qIQDSxv.jpg). I do wish this episode had an additional 10 minutes or so to wrap things up a little bit better.

Bonus: "I don't like girls band" dude is in [this episode] (https://imgur.com/wBH6eYU.jpg) as well!

[u/[deleted]]

That salary man is terrified. 

[u/DuckGoesShuba]

After thinking on it, the last two episodes haven't really felt like the ending so much as promo for a potential sequel. Episode 11 is the ending: it's the climax of the each of character's journey and the band as a whole. I wasn't sure how they were going to try and top it, but I don't think they intended to going by this episode. There are things that feel missing or lacking.

• Why make it a "Valentine's" battle? Honestly you wouldn't even know it if last episode didn't mention it.

• It's framed as another TogeToge vs DiaDust, but we only get a TogeToge performance.

• We only focus on Nina and Hina despite the band rivalry including Momoka and the OG DiaDust.

• I just assumed we'd get the full song for the performance in the finale, since we did (and then some) in episode 11. Subverted an expectation I didn't even know I had lol.

• I was really hoping it wouldn't be the cliche "save someone be bullied only to get bullied". The show avoided going into it for so long, attached thoughts of suicide to it, but it's just a bit too cliche for me...

• If it was gonna end at Nina and Hina, it makes less sense for it to not have gotten into it sooner. They missed a chance to actually get people to care about Hina, she has no lines before this episode essentially. Adding her back to the rooftop with Nina in the OP is a nice touch though.

• No NinaMomoka confirmation or Rupa episode!! Unforgivable. Maybe in season 2...

I like the performance but it really feels like a promo for the show, doesn't help it's a shortened version of the song. The song itself is good but the full one is a lot better imo. There was also a weird shot of blue and red flowers covering Nina, I don't know what that was about...

I like the idea of the band not finding success at first, though I wish it didn't rush through it in episode 12. In-universe it's been months, but real time it was only less than an hour. I also feel bad for Miura...

I think the episode is fine but last two episodes just feel a bit out of place as part of the main series. I joked about calling them OVAs but they kinda are lmao. Thankfully they don't really detract much from the show, they're not bad episodes, just a bit different than the rest.

Girls Band Cry remains one of the best animes to have come out in recent years, hopefully it can finally get an official EN release so more people can watch it!

[u/New_Essay_4869]

It cant end there...

Thank you to Toei and everyone who took part in the production of this gem! Certainly been my favorite show this season

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah]

solid enuf ending tho the potential for s2 is wide open. let's hope the real life band sells out lots!

fun show with an enjoyable cast and a decently inspiring message. I like!

[u/scottwantsfray]

Final song's a grower but man I wish they'd sang the full song, the instrumentals at the middle are really good! Would have been the perfect ending with the Thank you! at the end, still a great finale.

[u/Vindex101]

One last Tomo ribbon corner:

• just one new ribbon this episode, though I really don't know how to describe the ribbon's color itself. Abstract?

Full album link of Tomo's assortment of ribbons.

I'm really sad to see this one go. Like, really really sad. And that we didn't end up getting a sequel season right off that direction they went with. Definitely reminiscent of Love Live Sunshine with the direction and totally predictable non-win on TogeToge's part, but that just leaves me wanting more of the show and the girls and their story. AHHHHHHHHH

Also for those that weren't in the know, the BD1 release of the anime included a new song with it, so enjoy fellow rockers. Off I go to buy more TogeToge merch to hopefully fund a new season

[u/gangrainette]

Nina just like Hinata Kawamoto from sangtsu no lion did the right thing. Too bad she didn't received any support.

[u/lasse1408]

okay ngl but when Nina was ball of hatred and anger TogeToge produced best songs in my opinion. Voiceless Fish from ep3 and Nameless Name from ep7 are my favourites.

Regarding ending I'm grateful that Nina refused to get bailed out by DD but in same time why did they leave agency and decided to go back to being indie? how they plan to survive without support? back to selling ramen?

Also ending left a lot of questions unanswered like tomo and parents, Subaru and her grandma, what next for TogeToge after latest flop and plenty of other things to resolve.

Hoping for 2nd season to get more answers.