Whether you would like D4DJ first Mix depends entirely on how much you like the song in this cut from the first episode:
D4DJ first Mix is basically Bang Dream, a computer animed series tied to a mobile rhytmn game, but instead of high school girls in bands it’s high school girls DJ-ing. CG anime can be hit or miss, but this series is one of the better ones. You can see it in the dance scenes.. Idol and idol adjecent series have long used CG for dance sequences of course, in frex Love Live or Aikatsu. what you usually see is that these use stock facial expressions that never quite match the actual dancing. Not here. Rinku, the blonde girl dancing at the end reacts to the music, her expressions matching her dancing. A small detail perhaps, but noticable.
It’s been a long time since I have been as obsessed with a song from anime as I am with this one. It’s been stuck in my head ever since the first episode and all through the second I was anxiously waiting for its return. Turns out WOW WAR Tonight us actually an old pop/house song from 1995, a number one hit in Japan for H Jungle with t, orginally a sort of synthesizer electropop ska beat with an unironic “jungle is massive” shoutout in the middle. Apparantly it has remained popular enough to get a cover version by Korean girl group AOA a few years ago. (That cover is very different from the version used in the anime, but worth watching because AOA sure is pretty.)
D4DJ first Mix‘s plot is simple. Blonde girl Rinku is new to DJ-ing and electronic music but has a natural sense for it and Maho, the girl through which eyes we saw Rinku dance, is the veteran who teaches her the ropes. So we get a bit of DJ 101 as Maho explains various things to Rinku, while the latter’s enthusiasm fires up Maho into taking a chance on her. It’s a well trodden formula but executed well. The series doesn’t pretend Rinku can just pick up DJ-ing and respects the craft that Maho puts in it. A bit of a Pet Shop Boys/Erasure situation: the serious musician supporting the flamboyant lead. They form a good pair, though we know from various clues in these first two episodes they won’t stay a pair for long. In all this has been excellent and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series. My own quibble, and it’s a big one, is that none of the songs used had been subtitled, something that always annoys me with music anime. Get it sorted.
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