Anime: Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai 4334o

After watching two Bang Dream anime and being completely put off by everything about the early episodes of Girls Band Cry and drop it, I tried my luck with the actual title of the girls band/idol-ish subgenre I wanted to watch, which is this. As expected, it is the only one I enjoyed and the only one I thought it was overall decent and worth a watch, but still only so barely.

Despite grouping it into that subgenre, the truth is that the girls here do not actually form a band, but more like an artistic group where just one of the girls writes and sings. The others add illustrations, compose the music and make arrangements, and do the video editing and organize the events they take part of, stuff like that. So it is not an anime just about the musical part of a band, but about the whole artistic process that is more and more important nowadays, and I appreciate that approach as somewhat different and fresh.

This series is also topical and covers different themes through its characters, as the artist doubts her abilities because her art is seen as weird or inferior compared to others that makes fan arts of her creations later on.

The singer and co-protagonist of the show was a former idol so through her we can see some shady aspects of the idol industry, such as groups sabotaging others and any possible incident ruining your public image. She’s also full of mommy issues, as a big part of her character arc is how she was used and tossed apart by her mother within the idol industry, and now tries to get back at her while finding her own artistic vision and expression.

The composer has a more typical backdrop of having to live up to the expectations of others and being mocked because of her looks, while feeling like she has nowhere to belong. Changing from playing piano to compose her own themes with her idol she freakily fangirls over could be seen as a form of expression of artistic freedom but it is honestly not looked into that much nor that well. Her kind of perverted and freaky fangirlism over her new friend makes her the less serious and worse character out of the main ones to be honest.

Then there is the editor, who is also a vtuber, so you know there’s another topical thing in there. She’s primarily a tomboy who, like Anon from It’s MyGO!!!!!, came to realize she’s not that special nor cool (from others’ perspective), and was isolated by the rest and mocked by her back by her fake friends. It’s interesting to see how she became a neet that lies about her life and the repercussions that had once that was found out.

Through these characters, and the group becoming an artistic group that gains popularity online, the series also shows online harassment and cyberbullying on social media, so you know that was a good detail to have in there as another addition.

And like I’ve been implying so far, the characters, both as a group and on their own, essentially go through the same character arcs as the ones from the shows I watched before it. Introspecting about their goals, looking for a personal purpose and objective, trying to find a place and group to belong to along with their friends, and as a form of conflict, different artistic visions and clashes between the for personal reasons later on.

The series also has generally a good pace, as it follows the whole process of the girls while making music and videos, and in turn, they are fleshed out at all times.

I will not call the writing anything amazing however, as it is true that the girls become quite successful quite easily and quite fast, and even when they are harassed and doubt themselves, they don’t have it too hard to face those hardships and controversies and stuff.

Is the themes and character immersion that makes the first half of the show good, more than the actual writing itself, which is still fairly naïve and convenient.

Did I say first half? Is the second half crap and makes the anime not worth watching? Well, not exactly, though it does make it inferior that it could have been.
From episodes 7 to 9 you can notice that the focused is switched to another older idol that has her own struggles, being older and a mother and all. There’s another episode on which the girls are apart doing their own thing and deciding what they want to do with their lives and stuff.

There was still character immersion, so it wasn’t bad, but when you see characters doing things completely different to the main activity of the show, while at the same time introducing another secondary character with just very little screentime, and almost falling into fanservice territory, you can notice that the writing starts to crumble.

Around these episodes, the series decided to have some interactions between the main girls that didn’t mean much to me, but others could see them as romantic. Let me be clear, there’s no development nor payoff to any of them, so it is once again silly yuri bait that would leave you disappointed if you expect something from it.

As episodes 8 and 9 go back to focus on what the show is about, while introducing the main conflict between the main characters, you think that the show is back on track, but unfortunately that is not true at all.

The last three episodes introduce drama, conflicts, cringe and unserious scenes at the most crucial moments of the band, overreactions that are different from the tone thus far, more focus on the vtuber girl with her possible gender dysphoria and not very clear relationship with that woman from episode 6 being barely looked into, more like glossed over, and left ambiguous, and eventually, having a very happy resolution where all the characters that did some very crappy things are forgiven just because and without a proper focus and buildup.

The finale itself isn’t bad, each girl finds what they want to do and everything is resolved, it is just that the last three episodes speedrun through way too much stuff without an organic flow and handling of it to call the resolution good, it’s more like meh.

As for the visuals, I was pleased with them after watching two or three (and a bit of another) anime in CGI, so I liked to see another 2D animated show again. Not that it isn’t anything amazing, as artwork, character designs, motions and effects are all just fine, with perhaps the backgrounds being the best bits. The directing would include several changes in perspectives, as sometimes the girls are filming or watching a video with specific cameras. Also, although it is something present in anime for years by now (Yuru Camp is the first example I can think of this), including phone screens to show the characters talking and going through social media is part of the plot in here, so that was a fine detail.

As for the sound, since there is only one character that sings here, they hired seiyuus this time, so the acting is a lot better than the ones in BanG Dream and Girls Band Cry. No performance stands out that much or is that good, but Rie Takahashi has some of her most unique and most pleasing to hear (thus best as far as performances goes), characters in here, so I wanted to point it out.

The music is just some generic jpop that I don’t like, but is fine for the show and the lyrics reflect the characters well, a pattern that seems to be a part of the subgenre or at least the titles that I’ve been seeing recently. A thing worth pointing out is that the show has four endings, one with two versions, canon songs made by this artistic group, and often the result of all of the work they do throughout the show. So you know, their inclusion is worth mentioning in of writing and directing and as part of the plot, and not just as background decorations to end an episode and roll some credits.

Bottom line, I do think that the show is worth a watch, for a one time experience, but more so for being topical, relevant for our times, the themes it includes, and the character immersion. The writing and presentation are otherwise not that good, and the final course of the show is very mediocre if not straight up bad.