We’ve been through four of the big five. And here’s the last of them. It’s Bang Dream time…god help me.

Before we begin, it should be noted that the nature of Bandori and the way it’s run means I’ll be putting more focus on seiyuus in general than the other lot. So, I hope you’re sitting comfortably for a lot of descriptions of them.

Poppin’Party

Kasumi Toyama: Once again, we have here your basic main character. Exactly as she should be. Lovely. Except of course, relatively speaking, her fitting the bill actually makes her a genuinely strong character in Bandori terms. So she can be classed as a proper good girl. Well done, Kasumi.

Also, remember this?

On the first day of the SSA concert, her voice actress (Aimi) actually played the guitar while singing Ryuuseigun. This was extremely well-received on social media, and Bushiroad staff in the audience were so inspired that they approached their CEO with a proposition that later became BanG Dream!, with Aimi playing the main character.

Yeah, that’s how we got here. I piped on about how brilliant Aimi was in my ML post, and I touched on her significance to the whole Bandori project briefly in my first, semi-Bandori-based seiyuu post, but here we can take a slightly deeper look into how she brought it all together.

The whole shebang started in 2015, and in that year, Aimi gathered together the troops – first Rimi and Ayasa, then Sae, and finally Hasshi. Right at the start, they were just covering other’s songs, a fitting start given where they’ve ended up now. But they did eventually release a single in February 2016. Hindsight shows this may not have been the worst time to be making a move as an idol group, considering where Love Live was headed and the opening it was making. Sure enough, when 2017 hit and their anime started that was the cue for everything to take off. GBP came out shortly afterwards: within six days it had a million users. A month after that, it had 2 million. And all this before any of the other bands had a single yet (Roselia’s came out before they hit the 2 mil mark). Pastel Palettes, Hello Happy World and Afterglow all followed in consecutive months, and now, here we are. All that because Aimi had the audacity to play guitar as an iM@s idol.

Bandori remains the ur-example of how to make an idol series from the ground up. All the other idol series on the fringes trying to break in can learn from Bandori’s growth, if not the final result of it all. But let’s not forget who let there be light in the first place. On her fingertips lay the power to change the genre forever. Aimi, you are amazing.

Tae Hanazono: Turns out iM@s isn’t the only one with a license to make characters look a lot like Rin Shibuya. Tae really does come across that way indeed. Of course, making someone look like her is a fine way to make a good character for free, and Tae’s alright. Not particularly exciting, but nowhere near as offensive as most of the cast. Sometimes, with this mob, that’s the best you can hope for.

Mind you, this result in this quiz I took is intriguing.

Maybe there is more to Tae OTae than I realised? Who knows.

This is where I also bring attention to her seiyuu, Sae ‘OSae’ Otsuka, who brings a unique beauty to the table and also manages to be the straight-headed type in amidst PoPiPa’s typical chaos. She’s also got a great radio show with Riko Kohara, which we’ll return to much, much later.

Also, this.

Took it like an absolute champ.

Rimi Ushigome: Rimi! She’s the resident cinnamon roll in the team, and is consequently very cute indeed. Can have no complaints about her, because to do so would be totally and utterly heartless. She also has a seiyuu who shares a literal first name with her, which is either awkward or saves a lot of awkwardness, depending on what perspective you look at it from. She’s also got a lovely smile. Lovely enough to rival her direct peers Aimi and Hasshi. As the below, quite literally, illustrates.

Rimi!

Saaya Yamabuki: It’s a Yamabuk!

I obviously rattled on at considerable length about my origin story with Saaya in my first Bandori post, and rattled on at even considerabler length about her portrayer (for seiyuu is perhaps not the most all-encompassing word when they too play their instrument). I won’t recite those frankly ludicrous tales again here, but I can at least expand on what I’ve found since then.

First of all is Saaya receiving that utterly gorgeous 4* above. I didn’t think I would ever grow into Bandori’s slightly wild art style but they’ve really made it work with stuff like this. Glorious. No, I didn’t roll it when it was going. Bandori has pretty much decreed I am never to get any 4* Saaya for as long as I live. And that’s fine. It means I don’t have to take it up full time.

The other thing with Saaya is getting to know her personality that much more. And I’m delighted to say she really seems to have a lot of the onee-chan about her. Beyond being a literal onee-chan, of course. And this manifests itself very well in amongst PoPiPa’s general sense of chaos. Yes, I know I said this about the actual OSae earlier. That’s how blurred the line is for me with Bandori, at least.

Speaking of. I know I’ve shoehorned Hasshi into literally everything I’ve written this year now, whether by accident or design, but I know you’d rather not see me splooging over her again. So I’ll just move away from the typical description of how she acts with PoPiPa in IRL (basically, Hasshi acts like she’s come in with her brain unplugged) and just show you what I think is still the best she has ever looked.

Right, there you go. That’s that one out of the way. Moving on.

Arisa Ichigaya: And here’s the one I didn’t like at first. Mostly because even her appearance screamed tsundere from the start. Like, how many times have we seen twin-tails like those lead to a moody and argumentative sort? Sure enough, Arisa didn’t disappoint, and that meant I was only too happy to disregard her relative to her other, better band-mates. Some sources remained conservative and called her simply ‘contrary’, but I know a tsundere when I see one. And Arisa is a blatant one. To be honest, I thought she looked like the result of if Railgun’s Misaka actually acknowledged Kuroko’s advances on her. Which makes it even funnier that when Railgun did cross-over with Bandori, Arisa inevitably ended up being Kuroko herself.

(Who knew she was that stacked, by the way?)

Of course, by that point, Arisa was already well on the way to lightening up my view of her. A lot of that had to do with those surrounding her, all of who were obviously so good they’d inevitably make Arisa seem better all along. And second was, once again, her seiyuu. (Whose birthday it is as I write this. Happy 24th, Ayasa.)

Ayasa’s more than just another pretty face, though. She’s also a pretty accurate role-player for Arisa, if her habits with her fellow seiyuus is anything to go by. She’s always got the most hectic responses to everything, and it’s pretty hilarious to watch them. She gels so well with the rest of them that it really serves to make them the absolute perfect bunch. Mind you, Ayasa and Aimi go way back. They formed a unit in another franchise entirely (Milky Holmes), which was her first voice role back in 2013. But still, the chemistry they all have really seems to reflect in Popipa itself. It’s always such a joy to watch them together.

God, I do love them.

Also, Ayasa openly admires Suzuko Mimori. As we all should, really. Good job for her that they seem to appear in absolutely everything together now, then.

No one’s ever gonna look as good when they’re next to Mimorin, but Ayasa makes a pretty good fist of it.

Afterglow

Ran Mitake: Ran sort of looked like she’d be the sort who was right up the street of the general fanbase, especially given she seemed to be plastered over a surprising amount of GBP. Of course, this put the fear of god into me from the start with her. Actually she looks more like a rebellious type, but the sort who rebels by kicking up a fuss rather than being a brooding sort. For some reason, I was imagining something like Mirei Hayasaka’s voice in my head when it came to her. So imagine my surprise when I found she had a deep and gritty voice, the kind totally at odds with what I perceived next to her appearance. Like, seriously. It just made her look more ridiculous, if anything. While she doesn’t seem as highly rated among the fanbase as I anticipated, the amount of presence she gets in the game makes me wonder if Bushiroad haven’t realised that yet. There’s a lot for me not to like about Ran, so I don’t. And the voice thing just grinds my gears even more.

Moca Aoba: Here, meanwhile, is the actual in-series most popular, at least on an international scale. And it’s not hard to see why: a sleepy demeanour with a slow, monotone voice. I’ve already established that I despise the latter and really Moca’s whole appearance makes her come across as something of a social misfit. Which explains her popularity. I actually saw her and assumed ‘shy girl and social misfit’ myself and shunned her immediately, but neither really seems to be true. It’s just her stupid way of going about talking makes it seem that way. Still, that factor really knocks her down hugely in my mind.

Himari Uehara: Here’s an altogether different proposition. And one that looks like she’d be a wild sort. However, while she’s an upbeat kind, she’s not too overdone in that respect, which is cool. Even if she’s got her fair share of flaws aside from that, there’s nothing too serious. But surely the biggest factor with her is her seiyuu. I’m still thoroughly astonished they managed to get anime royalty on the level of Emiri Katou in to voice someone like Himari. Like, we’re not messing here. She’s done some properly serious roles in her time and here she is, just walking in to your bog-standard idol (OK, band) franchise like it’s nothing. Holy crap. Honestly, Himari was only gonna impress me further after that.

Tomoe Udagawa: The most suitable looking of the band members for Afterglow, and also one of the promising looking, I was hoping for quite a bit of excitement from Tomoe. Unfortunately, she simply didn’t deliver. This seems to be a recurring problem with a lot of Bandori’s cast. A lot of them are too nondescript, but another lot are too far over the edge to enjoy. It’s hard to find any real middle ground within, even if some characters can make up for it by acting together in unison (Popipa). But that’s never gonna happen in Afterglow when you’ve got three livewires elsewhere in the band doing their own thing.

Tsugumi Hazawa: Still, at least Tsugumi looks like she’ll be unremarkable. And she is, to a scale like you wouldn’t believe. Even Bushiroad themselves seem to take the piss out of her position, quite literally branding her the “Great Ordinary”. Imagine openly admitting one of your series’ characters is boring as arse… Still, at least Hisako Kanemoto’s a pretty face. She’s also Alice Margatroid. Oh, sorry, Djeeta. (And Ika Musume, and Haruka Kotoura.)

Pastel*Palettes

Aya Maruyama: And here’s someone who looks like our resident in-series fruitloop. And she is. Sort of. In fact, she probably emulates the typical fan closest of all. Cheery and bubbly on the outside. A trainwreck on the inside, filled with a complex stemming from her desire to be noticed. It’s the latter-most of these that is easily the most concerning, but to be fair, they don’t take it much further than this, even if she also happens to be a massive crybaby. Still. It’s all very well saying ‘it could have been worse’, but let’s be honest. This right here clearly ‘could have been worse’, but it was still a bloody wreck. That’s kind of what I’m thinking with Aya, really.

Hina Hikawa: Now here’s someone I find myself getting behind, when on first impressions I least expected it. Hina is a sweet, happy type, and a carefree sort as well. She looks nice and cute as well, but when it comes to her, attentions almost inevitably turn to relations with her twin sister, Sayo. Their relationship has always been one of the most divisive aspects of Bandori, but the facts of it are that their conflicting personalities get them into squabbles, Sayo usually rejects Hina’s ideas and ends up buggering off from most of her hobbies as a result, and they eventually kiss and make up and end up being fine with each other again. All of this is prime for that most Bandori-ish of things, shipping. And let me just speak clearly here: I fully support Sayohina and anyone who wishes to promote it. Admittedly I probably support the Hina side of it more than the Sayo side, but that’s how it goes when you’ve got a positive-looking girl on one end and misery guts on the other.

Chisato Shirasagi: Chisato always looked like the most sane of the Pastel Palettes bunch, and for what it’s worth she pretty much fits that bill. However, deep down, she can be a pretty cold sort. For what it’s worth, I think being a bit of a low-key savage is an excellent trait. It means no one suspects a thing right until you do shoot someone down. Certainly, I think being subtle with your response to bullshit is a great way of dealing with things. Weirdly, it also makes Chisato’s seiyuu so much more fitting.

I can’t believe I haven’t been on about Sumire “Sumipe” Uesaka more than I have, because she’s gorgeous. However, to me, she’s also…a little terrifying.

I don’t know what it is. It’s something in the eyes that have it. I mean, let’s not mistake it, she is absolute fire, but I think she’s also poison as well. As in, the sort who lures you in and then would end up capturing and enslaving you, making you hers…forever. That’s an inviting prospect, I admit. But it’s also a little chilling. Like, seriously. You see her upload something enticing like this one day, and then the next day she’s doing this. Like, holy shit. That scares me. But in a strangely satisfying way. There’s something about Sumzy… She really is intoxicating.

Sorry, where were we? Right, yes. Bandori. Girls. Next please.

Maya Yamato: Actually, come to think of it, I might’ve anticipated this right here was the most sane woman in Pastel Palettes. But Maya isn’t. Not really. In fact, of all places, she ends up being probably the shyest of the lot. On that basis, I’m amazed she isn’t much more popular, especially considering these facts:

Maya … does not take care of her hair and skin … But around musical equipment, she becomes ecstatic and is impossible to stop when talking about her beloved hobby unless she herself realizes she is rambling on.

But I think I know why her popularity is non-existent. It’s because she simply doesn’t look the part. I reckon that they got her and Moca’s personalities the wrong way round. Someone of Moca’s demeanour would work wonders in Pastel Palettes, and Maya’s personality would suit Moca’s appearance to a T. Of course, at the end of the day it isn’t like that and we have the situation we have here.

Eve Wakamiya: Cross-country alert. This one’s from Finland. Which is a fitting country to go for considering the sheer number of flights I’ve tried to check in the past from London to Tokyo that ask me to go via Helsinki. But I digress. Eve looks like one of the most ‘out there’ sorts of the lot and she is suitably enthusiastic and full-throttle about everything. Of course, when Bandori goes for that sort of thing with these sorts of characters they tend to overblow it and that’s sort of what Eve has going on with her. Mostly, I just think it’s those ridiculous looks that don’t help matters. Those eyes look like they could pop out at any moment and she looks like she belongs on a 19th century farm with those twin braids. Mind you, when she drops them, she shows that you can make gold from anything in this sort of thing.

Just a shame she had to share a gacha with Saaya on this one.

Roselia

Yukina Minato: And now, we move on to the defining face of the most beloved, most overblown band of the lot. And Yukina gets a lot of the love from it as a result. There’s no unexpected personality traits leaping out at you here: Yukina is just as cold as she looks. Not that I exactly want anyone like her. So let’s move on.

Sayo Hikawa: Here’s the miserable sod I touched on earlier when talking about Hina. She is, of course, her twin sister Sayo. And of course her overly serious demeanour makes her massively more popular than her actually cheerful sister. Why am I not surprised in the slightest. Sayo’s inferiority complex towards Hina only helps matters for her on that score. This outlook is probably best summed up with this part of her background:

Sayo’s intense dislike for carrots also comes from her childhood: Hina was actually the one who used to dislike them, and Sayo would always eat Hina’s carrots for her, which then resulted in Sayo getting scolded over not eating hers.

There’s pettiness, and then there’s just straight up bitterness. And that’s what Sayo comes across as more than anything. Bitter. I can’t stand that sort of attitude. To all intents and purposes, Sayo is basically Nono with a bit more grit behind her. And Nono’s wildly popular, too. God, the attitudes of some anime fans. I’m still more than willing to give backing to any of those who promote getting her closer to Hina, just as long as they cheer her the hell up. Always look on the bright side of life, people.

Lisa Imai: Here’s who I identified as the most ordinary of the bunch in Roselia, for what that’s worth. To be accurate, though, she’s mostly the biggest juxtaposition in the band, livening things up from the comparative misery of the previous two. On this basis alone, her own popularity is well worth it. She also gets the onee-san image tagged onto her as well, although with her rather ratty looks I don’t exactly see her as terribly inviting. Still, let’s not let those cloud our judgement and instead admire her for what she is; the best girl in Roselia. Let’s admire too, her seiyuu Yuki Nakashima, who actually stepped in for the retiring Yurika Endou to take the role. She’s a right sweetheart and, as expected for one of the live bands in Bandori, a damn good bassist.

Ako Udagawa: Now here’s the most ‘Roselia’ looking of the lot for my money. And as you’d expect of someone with twin-tails like those, she is a chuuni. And everything I said relating to Love Live’s very own in-house chuuni largely stands for Ako too. Weirdly though, such is the nature of Roselia’s pomp and circumstance that, in spite of having the sort of personality much beloved in iM@s and LL, Ako actually might be the least popular of the lot in Roselia. Which is pretty wild. Still, at least her seiyuu, Megu Sakuragawa, is pretty decent.

Rinko Shirokane: Outwardly, Rinko looks like she might be sort of alright. But in fact, she is the super-ultra-mega shy type in the franchise. Naturally, with such a position comes rich veins of popularity. There’s not much to her beyond that, but she does happen to be the second Roselia member to have had an enforced seiyuu change. Her first one, Satomi Akesaka, had to back out for medical reasons, specifically suffering from sudden deafness twice, which you have to admit is not the best thing you can get when you’re in a live band. In her place is a complete rookie in the shape of Kanon Shizaki, who looks like another right cutie and who the fans have taken very much into their hearts. So, good for her.

Hello, Happy World!

Kokoro Tsurumaki: An all-energy band needs an all-energy front and, sure enough, Kokoro is the franchise’s resident livewire. A genki girl through and through, Kokoro’s position has offered her a genuinely surprising amount of huge popularity. That’s good for her, but she doesn’t do an awful lot past the cliche and I think she looks pretty ridiculous doing all of it as well. Her popularity also owes her seiyuu the position to get oversimped, and as I discussed the last time she came up, it’s Miku Itou. Actually the fact she started off so young (in iM@s), as noted in my Shinymas post, probably did her favours as well, but I still have never seen her as some all-conquering Messiah. It’s the unique structure of Bandori that offers her the unusual position of being an oversimped seiyuu, though. There’s nothing she can do about that, but there is something her supposed ‘fans’ (who don’t actually oshi her) can do about it: shut up.

Kaoru Seta: I can’t believe Bandori had room for someone of this kind of personality, but boy am I grateful they managed it. Kaoru is wholly unlike any other in Bandori, being as she is a masculine, mature looking type who also happens to be a huge flirt. To the other girls. We all love a good, proper lesbian, don’t we? Actually, some of the reactions she draws from other girls in the series are hysterical, most of all Rimi, who can’t really make comprehensible sentences around her, and Himari, who, well…this.

Speaking of Shakespeare, he may or may not have said “How fleeting…” After all, Kaoru quotes a lot of him (and other philosophers) but a lot of the time she just seems to be talking bollocks. It’s all pretentious, really, but pretentious done right can be charming in its own sort of car-crash way. And that’s how it goes with Kaoru, really. However, away from all this, she can also be a hearty onee-chan, as well, always looking to make anyone sad feel better. How wholesome. And, on a more professional note, she calls her fans her “little kittens”. Now that’s a term and a half. Even if it has nothing to do with her powerful position and everything to do with her just being a lesbian again. Look up ‘tachi’ and you’ll see what I mean.

Really, Kaoru’s huge personality has to go down as the series’ most impressive. It’s just the sort of bombastic persona so many different series could do with. No wonder she’s been rewarded with a huge popularity across the fanbase. Though that could just be the lesbionics talking again. I’m very much a little kitten of hers. It also helps that she seems to be the only idol generous enough to give me any 4*s of her.

But what helps most of all is her seiyuu. And it’s a mark of her sheer talent that she, the least confident seiyuu in the world, can voice the most confident character in the series.

This is Azusa Tadokoro, a master of always looking a little like she’s cringing.

Whether that’s a side effect of her own occasional propensity to dun goof is open to interpretation.

I should really have talked about her more in the ML post, but I was too busy shaking her direct peers’, Pyon and Machico’s, hands. I mean, I didn’t even give her a shoutout for being the other half of D/zeal! (With the aforementioned Aimi, of course.) I’m gonna give her her dues here and now, though.

She does a damn good job with that deep voice of hers, and it works magnificently with Kaoru too. It’s a shame she can’t apply it any more than she should, because if Kaoru were the frontman it would transform HHW. Hell, it might even make them a properly legit band. Alas, Kokoro is the ideal leader for the actual image they are trying to portray, so I’m not going to deny them that. But that’s how it goes.

In the meantime, feel free to enjoy someone who can’t even hold their own milk tea.

Poor, poor Koro.

Hagumi Kitazawa: When I first clapped eyes on Hagumi, my first thought was ‘Crikey, has Rin Hoshizora escaped Love Live?’ As it turns out, she probably has. Only instead of cats, she seems to apply her love to all sorts of animals. But the sporty aspect is all still there, as is the tomboyish one, and, of course, the unmistakably ginger hair. The problem is, sportiness does not go down well in the anime world. I wish it did, obviously. But it doesn’t and that is an inescapable fact. So Hagumi is probably consigned to the relative bottom of the barrel for popularity (pending the actual popularity of the new blood from Morfonica)…forever.

Kanon Matsubara: Kanon looked like another wild one on first glance, and my judgment was correct on this one. In short, she has this habit to end up being unable to think about anything other than jellyfish. Weird gimmick, I know. And also a warning shot to anyone who anyone thinking of getting Nanami Asari voiced in CG. (Yes, that’s right, all 6 million of you. Who didn’t vote when you had the chance.) Other than this, she’s one of the generally shy and nervous sorts, but rather than the sort who merely gets over it, she tends to collapse in a bundle of tears when she gets overwhelmed. So, not my kind of thing at all, then.

Misaki “Michelle” Okusawa: Now here’s someone who looks like they’d be a gimmick if ever there was one. Basicalle, Michelle is the on-stage persona of Misaki, and she’s a pink bear. She’s also a DJ as opposed to your bog-standard keyboardist, which makes a change. That’s pretty crazy, which makes you wonder what unholy cocktail lies under the skin. As it turns out, it’s not anything bad at all. In fact, while Misaki looks like a somewhat soulless sort, she’s actually just a normal girl. And in fact, there’s a lot I can relate to in her, which always helps. Honestly, I look at this entire description and I see bits of it in me:

Misaki serves as the “normal girl” trope in the group of five … She is a relatively laidback person who is unable to fight against the flow of a conversation or series of events even if she attempts to do so … Her initial personality displayed that she didn’t want any trouble, never wanted it at any point in time, and would have preferred a quieter life if possible. Misaki is kind, reserved and considerate towards others, though she may also reply sarcastically or exasperatedly and sometimes struggle with the other girls in her band with the exception of Kanon, whom she considers the only other reasonable member. She has been forced into the role of the “straight man” of the group thanks to her relative normality as a person compared to the stooges of the band, scolding or commenting on the antics of the other members in immediate response. Most of her comments go unheeded, unheard, or not understood. Despite the exasperation she lives with by being the closest thing to a normal person the band has, Misaki is a diligent individual capable of getting things done when she wants to get them done. Even if she is aware that she is not resisting the flow of events, she books live shows for the band and accommodates Kokoro’s insanity despite the struggle she clearly goes through to do so.

On that basis, Misaki might just be the series’ biggest surprise on a personal level. It’s not often I can relate with characters quite this closely. I don’t necessarily think it makes Misaki the best of the best, but it’s nice to have someone I can see in me like-for-like.

And before we go, I can’t miss a chance to pay tribute to her seiyuu, Tomoyo Kurosawa, a much-beloved VA who’s been acting from early childhood – and she’s still only 24 as well. On this basis, I can see why she was such a suitable choice for CG’s Miria, actually. She’d been doing it at her age, too.

Morfonica

Mashiro Kurata: The new band’s centre (but crucially, not leader) is exactly as shy as she looks. Even without her constant expressions, that kind of look would warrant her personality. Truth be told, she doesn’t seem any real different from any of the other shy, negative types we’ve already seen, other than her getting lost in her thoughts. Not that she can’t attract interest from elsewhere, mind you.

Her seiyuu, upon her announcement, was the youngest ever to join the franchise: Amane Shindou, at just 15 years old. Joining an idol franchise at that young an age is incredibly rare air, and with it comes a need to justify how they’ve made it so early. Sadly for Amane the vocals on Morfonica’s debut song were less than impressive. That should well have been an indictment on the character herself, for it’s probable that Amane’s singing wasn’t as well suited to her as it might have been to somebody else. Not that some fans agreed, mind you. Instead, they took to slagging off a 15-year-old for not being good enough for their new band. I never try to slag seiyuus off if I can help it, but slagging one off that’s starting so young is just a bit shitty, really. Alas, such is the crazed world of idolism and seiyuuism that many of the elite fans in it couldn’t care less. That’s why you disregard twats like those and listen to the more sane men and women who can deconstruct why something like this might have happened and wonder how to fix it. Instead, as it is, Morfonica is known as ‘that band with the shit vocalist’. Pity.

Touko Kirigaya: While Lisa has her gyaru traits about her, Touko is the first in the series to really come close to the typical character of the trope. However, the wild and wacky world of Bandori has never really seemed like a particularly fitting place for a gyaru sort. And so it proves here, for Touko doesn’t really come across as particularly remarkable. Especially given she has nothing beyond the standard colourful and cheery personality every gyaru is contractually obliged to have. She has the social media influencer thing I suppose, but that’s hardly a good quality to have.

Nanami Hiromachi: Here’s a somewhat innovative sort whose personality I reckon could do with being drummed into a number of idols across several branches. In short, Nanami is the sort who worries people will see her as weird, because of her parents. Therefore she only wants to be seen as normal. To be honest, I’m surprised this sort of thing hasn’t been explored with idols more. Then again, as we can all clearly witness, the general idol fan much prefers a wild, completely abnormal sort of character. I, on the other hand, don’t, not unless they’re executed very well indeed. On that note, Nanami is a welcome breath of fresh air and the sort of idol I can actually kind of get behind.

Tsukushi Futaba: The actual leader of the band happens to be their drummer. As you do. Still, Tsukushi hits the marks, based on being an actual class president, with plenty of confidence, and one who even looks quite stern when she wants to. The problem is, beyond this, so far, she has bugger all to go off. At the moment, she really is the blankest of blank slates. Given there’s plenty of innovative different idols you could try and experiment with, it’s disappointing a new band has ended up with someone as lukewarm as this. Good job the band’s still relatively fresh. So there’s still time to turn her into the Bandori equivalent of the real best class president of all time.

Rui Yashio: Now here’s an enticing looking idol. And not least because she’s actually a violinist. Now that really is dramatic. She’s a relatively bland personality, again, which is rather inexcusable, again, but in Bandori terms she looks fantastic. But then that’s not surprising given who they based her off. Her own seiyuu.

Ayasa is a damn good looker in real life, too, but this is her first actual role in an anime. However, she has been a prominent violinist elsewhere, having been playing it since the age of three. It’s quite unlike Bandori to embrace both a character and a seiyuu for the instrument they’re playing, but when it’s a whole new one to the series it’s perhaps understandable. And anyway, it’s not like many other idol series have created characters solely based around their musical merit. Typically they’d probably look to get more bang for their buck, but maybe something like this is worth giving a go elsewhere.

Also, it seems she’s just as incapable of drinking tea as Koro is.

RAISE A SUILEN

Rei “LAYER” Wakana: Now this is what I call a proper lead singer. Though that should perhaps more accurately be ‘looks like a proper lead singer’. For while Rei certainly looks pretty impressive, she’s not the most impressive personality. She’s just your basic calm, and mature sort. With those kinds of looks I would’ve expected a bit more fire and brimstone, to be honest. But then Raise A Suilen was primarily meant as a vehicle for their seiyuus in the first place, given they were all came to Bandori as a means of getting Afterglow, Pastel*Palettes and Hello Happy World out of the small issue that their seiyuus couldn’t actually play their character’s respective instruments. In that respect, Rei is an unqualified success, because her seiyuu Raychell looks absolutely fire, too. So actually, yes, Rei, you’re great.

Rokka “LOCK” Asahi: Another rather impressive looking idol. I think Rokka looks rather cool, and she actually serves as a deuteragonist in the anime’s second series, as she looks to create or join a band. However, the only thing going for her on a personal level seems to be how much she had failed at everything other than playing guitar. That’s unfortunate but not really the strongest basis for a great character. Still, she makes up for it with her secondary purpose. Her real-life likeness is Riko Kohara, a hearty and ordinary sort of soul who just so happened to host a TV corner with Sae OSae herself, Saechi and Rikopin’s Jam Session. And it was bloody ingenious. In short, they shared Bandori announcements through improvised songs. If that sounds as crazy as you think it is, you’re probably right. Because it came up with surely the single greatest thing Bandori has ever produced.

It starts at 33:28 of this video. Though do by all means feel free to watch through the rest of it and behold what a wonderful bunch of seiyuus this series has.

You cannot begin to describe how into that Riko is. Look at Sae’s face!

Let’s just get another taste of those sensational lyrics again:

Pettannn~~~ Pettannn~~~

Kone kone~~ Konekonekone~~~

Butsubutsu~ [bit of a break-up in there somewhere]

Butsubutsuuuuuuuuu~~~ [Chorus]

Pettannnnnn~~~~~~ Pettannnnnnn~~~~~

Konekonekokonekonekonekone~

Butsubusu butsubu tsu~~

Tsubutsutsubutsu~

Mochimochi~~ Fuwa fuwa~~

Occhan mofumofuuuuuu~~~~

Damecha~, dame da yo~

Daaaaame da yoooooooooooo~~~~ [Chorus] (thank you)

A masterpiece. Drake, Kanye, Kendrick, Travis? You ain’t got shit on this.

(tl;dr Rikopin is wonderful. As the much earlier video of Aimi demonstrated right at the start.)

Masuki “MASKING” Satou: Another good-looking idol. Actually strictly speaking she looks like she’d mug you in a dark alley, but that’s a damn sight better than some of the rainbow vomit Bandori has otherwise come up with. Of course, this appearance is a complete misnomer. Masuki actually likes cute stuff, really. So that’s rather amusing, I suppose. Again, she bears a fair likeness to her seiyuu, Natsume. Though she does look rather less shady than Masuki, really.

Reona “PAREO” Nyubara: And after three normal-looking idols, we go back to the rainbow vomit. And Reona really looks like the most ludicrous of them all. Inevitably though, this leads her to have the deepest backstory of any of the Raise A Suilen girls. Unfortunately, most of it is based around her love of Pastel Palettes. So, that makes her a bit of a write-off, then. Still, could have been worse. Could’ve been an Afterglow or Roselia fan… Anyway, with her energetic look comes a predictably energetic personality, channelled into the sort of forced cuteness that really blows up a lot of frocks but takes a lot to get me really going. She dislikes bad words, lies, and insults. And she bucks the band’s trend further by looking nothing like her seiyuu, Reo Kurachi. But then anyone who looked like Reona would be dismissed in real life as a mental. Sorry for the insult, Reona. Reo herself is perfectly alright, though. Shares the exact same birth date as me, too, for what that’s worth.

Chiyu “CHU²” Tamade: I guess Reona was a bit lonely in the looks department among her band. Hence why Chiyu goes around looking like a cat. (Though it’s only just her headphones, actually). However, in a real twist, she is in fact the band’s leader. In another twist, she’s actually a relatively ordinary sort for her appearance. She’s also a DJ equivalent to Misaki, and bloody good at it too. She’s another one of many who seems to stick to her theme of being passionate about her chosen method of music, but Chiyu spices it up a bit by actually picking and choosing rivals, specifically Roselia. Go on, give them the business! I’d back RAS on that one all day. Mind you, she does much the same to PoPiPa and I definitely can’t back her up on that score. They’d kick RAS into the middle of next week. Anyway, her seiyuu equivalent is perhaps the most intriguing given they emulate each other not in appearance, but personality. Risa Tsumugi gets a lot of love, and especially so from the foreign fandom on account of her knowing English. She went to an international school and this background of her own is inserted into Chiyu’s, and they share a tendency to drop English words into their sentences. And they’re both energetic souls as well. Risa also took inspiration for her voice acting career from no less an authority than Aya Hirano, but that bit doesn’t make it into the Bandori canon. Oh well. Either way, Chiyu is rather an intriguing soul, and an intriguing leader as well. Perhaps her idea of bearing a closeness to her seiyuu is the best of them all.