With the final episode of Bang Dream! It’s Mygo!!!!! only two days away, let’s look back at episode ten’s epic climax:
From the start Mygo!!!!! has been different from any other Bang Dream series, rougher, darker. Suddenly being in a girl’s band wasn’t all smiles and friendships anymore. Being in a band could hurt you, as it hurt Tomori when Crychic, her first band broke up in the very first scene of the series, leaving her feeling lost and blaming herself for the breakup. Episode three showed exactly how much its breakup messed her up and why she was wary when Anon dragged her into a new band. Yet she did join, as did Taki and Soyo, both also having been hurt by that breakup, both now looking for a new start.
But that was a lie. Anon may have been transparent and open in her desire to use being in a band to get popular, but both Taki and Soyo had ulterior motives too. Taki just wanted to be with Tomori and it didn’t matter how, while Soyo saw the new band as a way to get the old one back together. When that failed Tomori’s worst nightmare happened again. Once again she was alone, once again she failed in keeping her band together.
Episode ten is where she fights back, the only way she can. She books a series of performances at Ring and starts singing her frustrations. First alone, but quickly joined by Raana, the lead guitarist, who is content to be there to provide the background music. Taki too joins quickly, forced to by Raana. Anon is harder to convince but Anon is also the one who gets Soyo to be there, who drags her onto the stage and gets her to play.
It’s hard to understate how different this performance is from any other Bandori performance. The band completely ignores the audience, are purely playing for themselves. Their focus is Soyo who in turn only has eyes for them. The song’s structure too is a far cry from what we’re used to from Bang Dream songs. Just compare with the much more typical Haruhikage from episode seven. Both are good songs but even the slightly more polished official release is so much more interesting. The rawness of Tomori’s singing, the willingness to abandon the usual structure of Bang Dream songs, the emotion, it all makes it the perfect climax to the first ten episodes. The band has come to its lowest point and together they’re climbing back up again. And it’s all thanks to Tomori.
It’s Tomori’s desperation to be understood that drives that performance. From that very first performance, standing along, reading out the song as if it was a poem, the need to connect to her band mates is clear. That it’s Raana who’s drawn in first fits. She may look like she has the least connection to her fellow band members, but she also understand them the best. It’s her that then forces Taki to join, exactly the person Tomori needs to be there before she can even think about getting Anon and Soyo back. It’s also the first time we’ve seen Raana be restrained in her guitar playing, to support Tomori like Taki supports her.
Tomori then recruiting Anon is the mirror image of how Anon got Tomori back into doing music. And it’s only Anon who could’ve brought Soyo back. Anon might have been hurt by her manipulations, but she understands Soyo, she knows how to push her buttons to get her there. Tomori dragging her to the stage and Anon dragging her on it, a cocky grin on her face is the perfect encapsulation of their relationship. The small details of Anon cupping her face and Raana skipping back to her position after handing Soyo her bass are the cherry on the cake.
The performance itself, Tomori facing down Soyo, back to the audience, with Raana and Anon flanking her, Taki providing rock solid support from the back: you can feel the emotions running loose even before the water works start. It’s the sort of performance that you’d never forget if you’d been there; there will be quite a few people wishing they had been there, or will make out they had been, or at Tomori’s earlier gigs. It’s like having been at the first Sex Pistols gig: something new is starting even if you don’t quite know what.
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