On Jan. 3, 2019, season two of the anime “BanG Dream!” started airing. Differing from the first season, the second season is produced by Sanzigen as opposed to Issen and Xebec. The new season will be done using 3D animation as opposed to the traditional 2D from the original.
Kōdai Kakimoto replaced Atsushi Ōtsuki as the director while the rest of the staff reprised their roles.
The series continues to be produced by Akane Taketsgu, Atsushi Iwazaki, Atsushi Ōta, Naohiko Furuichi, Yashiyuki Shiotani, Yasuhiro Nakajima, and Yuichi Kawakami. The anime is written by Yuniko Ayana with the music done by Junpei Fujita and Noriyasu Agematsu.
There are two different openings and endings for the anime performed by the main two bands Poppin’ Party and Roselia.
“KIZUNA MUSIC ♪” is the opening and “Jumpin’” the ending are by Poppin’ Party while “BRAVE JEWEL” is the opening and “SAFE & SOUND” is the ending by Roselia.
Season two introduces a new band called RAISE A SUILEN. The band has five members, all voiced by the performers of the real life group that shares the name.
They were originally titled “The THIRD” to reference how they were the third band in the franchise to perform live and, as such, performed the music for the other three bands that could not play the instruments their character could.
LAYER is the leader and does vocals and plays bass, voiced by Raychell. MASKING plays the drums and is voiced by Natsume. CHU2 is voiced by Tsumugi Risa and is the DJ. PAREO is the keyboardist and is voiced by Kurachi Reo.
Finally, the first character of the band properly introduced into the season is Rokka Asahi, who has the stage name LOCK. She plays the guitar and is voiced by Kohara Riko.
While any interpersonal relationships between the bands may not be revealed yet, the most that is known is that certain girls within RAISE A SUILEN are fans of the main five groups already introduced. Rokka has been shown to be a big fan of Poppin’ Party thus far with PAREO arriving at a performance for Pastel*Palettes.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side, CHU2 has started off on the wrong foot with Roselia as she was given a stern rejection as a producer by the leader Yukina Minato. None of the other girls within the band have been shown to be a specific fan of the other bands as of yet.
“BanG Dream!” season two starts nine months after the end of the original anime. Season one went over the formation of Poppin’ Party and their journey to perform at an exclusive stage at the live house SPACE.
Towards the end, the girls learn that the live house will be shutting down and strive to get a spot in the final performances before it goes. Succeeding, SPACE is able to close with final performances that grant the owner peace.
Season two introduces the same live house, rebranded to be called GALAXY where the first episode is an introduction to the rest of the bands as they did not exist in season one. Starting off the episode is Pastel*Palettes, an idol band that performs one of their singles and gives us an introduction to Rokka, who is watching the televised show.
The bands performing at GALAXY are Afterglow (a group of childhood friends that play punk rock), Hello, Happy World! (a band with a mix of styles, though several have a jubilant tone), Roselia (a professional-level rock band), and the main band Poppin’ Party.
Season three was confirmed along with season two and will air in Oct. 2019 with the same animation style as the current season.
Erika Brandenburg
Arts and Entertainment Editor