Finally! I’ve been waiting for this and it’s finally here. After Bang Dream having a fantastic third season, I’ve been on a bandori high and was extra pumped for Argonavis and now they’re here. I didn’t expect too much since first episodes are always introductory episodes, and I came out of this pleased. Kind of a generic start, but it was still enjoyable.
Going into this, I could already see that the animation for this is a little…off. Most notably with the background characters looking lifeless. So far it’s plain to see that Argonavis isn’t looking as good as Bang Dream, which is a little sad but I already kind of noticed it in the PVs we got. The actual boys themselves look pretty nice, but their movements are a little stiffer. And like I said, the background characters look bad. Funny enough, the small moments drawn in 2D animation with baby Ren and his classmates actually look on model and nice. Whereas when Bang Dream shifted to 2D animation, it improved but still kind of looked like the art from the first season which was…really bad. So that’s just kind of funny. But anyway, enough about animation!
We get introduced to Ren Nanahoshi, one of the main characters of this story. He dreams, or at least recounts an old memory, of him as a child with his father at a music festival. Ever since then, he’s found this wonderful emotional feeling that he hasn’t felt since then, and he’s looking hard to find that feeling again. In that sense, he’s pretty similar to Kasumi in that they found their “kirakira dokidoki” feeling from something, Kasumi from the stars and Ren from music. But their similarities end there because Kasumi and Ren are complete opposites. While in Bang Dream we get Ms. Genki, Ren is much more reserved and quiet and prefers to be alone. He’s very mild mannered, soft spoken, and pretty nice but a little socially awkward. Which is actually kind of different to how he performs when he sings, where he goes all out and does cool poses. Which he probably learned from that sentai show he loves so much. To find that wonderful feeling again, he rushes off to karaoke alone.
I really like Ren so far. I think he’s pretty adorable with how much he loves sentai and the fact he sings the song over and over just so he can improve. The little sentai sticker on his phone is a cute touch. It’s interesting that he loves singing and joined choir in middle school but left because he couldn’t get along with the others because they fooled around. It seems like he takes singing very seriously and he prefers to be alone because everyone else will just be in his way. And since he wants to reach his goal so badly, he’s kind of pushed everyone away is what I think. Still, there has to be more to it because that “probably” at the end when Wataru told him it’s okay to be optimistic sometimes was a little strange. He always seems unsure of himself, so it’ll be nice to learn even more about him.
And of course we have the other two characters that practically stalk Ren, Yuto and Wataru. They’re a pretty fun pair when together but boy are they persistent, mostly Yuto. The two are recruiting members for their band and they decide to find a vocalist first since they’re a vital part of a band. When they go off to karaoke at the same time as Ren, Yuto overhears Ren singing as he walks to the bathroom. He grabs Wataru to listen and that’s how they met and started their recruitment for Ren to join, who immediately dashed off when they tried. Yuto is very eager to have Ren join since he checks off everything he was looking for, and Wataru agrees but is more chill when it comes to his friend. In that sense I would say that I like Wataru more because, like he said, he’s more realistic. He’s also a bit more mature and takes it easy when Ren continues to turn them down. He’s not as pushy as Yuto, though that doesn’t mean I don’t like Yuto. I like his passion and positivity…and his hat. He’s got a really cool design haha.
The thought of joining a band makes Ren smile as he’s watching a video of Gyroaxia, who I can’t wait until we see later on. So he heads off to Submariner and just like that, the three of them and cool cafe man on drums perform the super sentai song and Ren absolutely kills it. That sentai song is a bop, not gonna lie. It was a fun moment and it was cute how excited and into it Ren was, and they all meshed well together. Still, he doesn’t immediately accept their offer as he hesitates, but they get along well enough so they’ll be patient and wait.
We also get teasers of the other two characters who we know will eventually join, with piano man up next.
The episode was pretty simple but I liked it. The characters are pretty fun so far and I’m already loving the music. I’ve been listening to Argonavis’ music leading up to this and I already love their stuff, Goal Line being my personal favorite. I’m absolutely in love with Ren’s voice and the band just has a really great sound, their cover of FMA’s Melissa is fantastic, so I’m already a fan of them! The OP and ED are great as well.
It’s really cool to see that the characters are older this time as they are college students, with the other AAside bands being even older. I’m excited to see that they are taking a more mature approach, not that I had any problem with Bang Dream’s cast (mostly). I’m wondering where the story is going to go from here, but first the band needs to get members which is pretty standard for music shows that have rock bands. I’m looking forward to when we’ll see Gyroaxia, and maybe the other bands will make very brief cameos? Who knows. Anyway, this was a fun start so you can count me in for Argonavis’ journey~ <3
Possibility of watching: Guaranteed
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The 3D characters in 2D environment reminds me of the cutscenes they use in the upcoming PS4 game Sakura Wars.
The currently airing anime sequel to the game is done in the same manner (apparently anime was made alongside the game).
(And yes, those are Kubo Tite designs.)
And it looks like Sanzigen is animating both Argonavis and Sakura Wars. I noticed the same thing in Beastars, with some of the random secondary characters being drawn in 2D, and that was animated by Orange. I’m guessing to save time from making a bunch of models, they just draw the non-important characters in 2D.
Even though in Bang Dream…all background or secondary characters were drawn, but Argonavis they’re 3D models??? I don’t really get it. Probably recycled background models from their other stuff? Eh…