Well folks, it\u2019s finally happened. Just a year and change after the conclusion of the fantastic BanG Dream! It\u2019s MyGO!!!!!, we have arrived at the long-awaited\/dreaded debut of Ave Mujica, the gothica-drenched followup to the adventures of Tomori and friends. While Tomori took the breakup of her beloved band CRYCHIC as an opportunity for personal growth, and ultimately drew together four fellow \u201clost girls\u201d into the symbol of persistence that is MyGO, Sakiko has apparently spent the interim dedicating herself to becoming as mentally unwell as possible, and has now resurfaced in a lace mask and corpse paint on a stage that looks suspiciously like a sacrificial altar. You guys here for a good time? Ready to party? Too bad, wrong fucking band<\/a>. We\u2019re here to have a bad time.<\/span><\/p>\n So yes, I am pretty darn excited. With both director Kodai Kakimoto and series composer Yuniko Ayana returning from MyGO, I have every expectation that Ave Mujica will maintain its predecessor\u2019s playful elegance of cinematography and richness of character drama, offering a new tangle of expectations, allegiances, and one-sided grudges to furnish its melodramatic performances. And given the maximalist aesthetic of Ave Mujica itself, I\u2019m confident that constancy of execution will extend as well to MyGO\u2019s just-barely-tongue-in-cheek tone, allowing us in the audience to fully sympathize with its characters while still finding humor in their self-important histrionics. Is the night of Sakiko\u2019s liberation at hand? Let\u2019s find the fuck out.<\/span><\/p>\n Episode 1<\/b><\/p>\n Oh my god, the episode titles are gonna be in latin too? Sakiko, you are so much. So we\u2019ve got \u201cAve Mujica\u201d to start, a riff on \u201cAve Maria\u201d that instead positions music in the place of the virgin mother. Already plenty to dig into there \u2013 is Sakiko saying that through music, she hopes to achieve a purity akin to Mary Magdalene? That would make sense given what we know of her history and home life, as well as her general psychological tendencies. Sakiko excises to avoid being hurt, cutting away that which is aberrant to her \u2013 she did that with CRYCHIC, and she seems to be doing it with the identity of \u201cSakiko\u201d as well, erasing the daughter of a broken home so she can become purified and \u201cliberated\u201d as a member of Ave Mujica. Of course, running away from your anxieties is basically the worst way of dealing with them, but this is Sakiko we\u2019re talking about \u2013 is anyone surprised she\u2019s making a theatrical production out of avoiding therapy?<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, our first episode title is \u201cSub rosa,\u201d which means \u201cunder the rose,\u201d generally referring to acts performed in secret. So my first inclination would be this episode covers the \u201csecretive\u201d formation process for Ave Mujica, but let\u2019s see!<\/span><\/p>\n We open on stage, with our girls under a projected full moon and chandelier. If anything, Ave Mujica seems to be immediately harkening back to the operatic drama of something like Dear Brother, which I am all for. Animation is a natural medium for embracing visual maximalism, and that in turn lends itself to dramatic maximalism \u2013 the call towards naturalistic framing has been a scourge across film and television, but there\u2019s no need for anime to follow suit<\/span><\/p>\n The girls appear to have gathered around Uika, who sits in a shadowed chair while they stand under spotlights<\/span><\/p>\n Her stage name is Doloris, from the latin \u201cdolor,\u201d meaning grief or anguish<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you force her to wake up, you might break her soul.\u201d Their dialogue offers a direct answer to my earlier proposition \u2013 if Sakiko were forced to truly confront her reality, she might be destroyed by it<\/span><\/p>\n The moon brings the \u201cpoor doll\u201d back to life. Moonlight is frequently used as a motif to signify revelation, from werewolves to Sailor Moon. I wonder if Sakiko is positioning something else as the \u201cmoonlight\u201d in her life; the first guess would obviously be these performances, where she is apparently free to embody a new self<\/span><\/p>\n The cinematography is actually neatly matching the rotating shots of CRYCHIC\u2019s original breakup, here repurposed to add a sense of gravitas to the beginning of Sakiko\u2019s next act<\/span><\/p>\n Also nice to see they\u2019re maintaining their dedication to animating their actual fingerwork on piano and guitar<\/span><\/p>\n Interesting that Uika is framed as the last to awake, and also serves as singer. Does Sakiko see her as their collective avatar?<\/span><\/p>\n Clever use of blurred models in these closeups in order to evoke anime smears, thus creating a much greater sense of frantic motion. One of the awkward things about CG art is how <\/span>precise<\/span><\/i> it is, how lacking in a fluidity we tend to associate with both animation and movement as it is perceived more generally. Blurring these models actually makes their movement seem more natural<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou seem like such a fragile thing. When we fool around beautifully, people begin to fall apart.\u201d Lines that seem to be mythologizing her friendship with Tomori<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy planet yearns to know all about yours, you know.\u201d It\u2019s a funny contrast \u2013 Tomori distills her feelings down to their purest, most direct essence through song, while Sakiko cloaks hers in layers upon layers of grandiosity and metaphor<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cKillKiss Juda\u201d as a chorus also seems appropriately tortured and self-involved \u2013 simultaneously expressing that she loves and hates the song\u2019s subject, as well as seeing them as a betrayer. Sakiko, you\u2019re the one that broke up the band!<\/span><\/p>\n I like that Nyamu maintains her perky smile the whole performance, never dropping her own personal facade<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat you are about to see is her story, with a secret.\u201d Of course Sakiko would editorialize her own season, and of course she\u2019d admit to being an unreliable narrator right from the start. While Anon was an intruder in Tomori\u2019s world, and her perspective resultantly unsaddled with any expectations or baggage, Sakiko is positioning herself as the director of <\/span>her<\/span><\/i> season, meaning everything will likely be saturated with the intent that she wishes to assign to it<\/span><\/p>\n Their backstage banter immediately returns us to MyGO\u2019s naturalistic conversational style, where characters often talk over each other, rather than acting like they\u2019re reading from a collective script. It\u2019s a bit like Robert Altman\u2019s style of handling dialogue<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe would be delighted if you also submerge yourself in the world of Ave Mujica.\u201d Again, the exact opposite of Tomori. Tomori sings because it\u2019s the only way she can earnestly express her feelings \u2013 Sakiko performs so she can conjure a mass illusion, cloaking her feelings in a collective veil of fantasy<\/span><\/p>\n While the others speak confidently at their interview about their upcoming Budokan performance, Mutsumi is extremely shy as Mortis (just \u201cdeath,\u201d no surprise there). She has not reinvented herself for Ave Mujica \u2013 this is simply the only way she can stay close to Sakiko<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSend the stills as soon as they\u2019re out!\u201d Nyamu obviously sees this band as nothing but a self-promotion opportunity adjacent to her solo work. Her willingness to \u201cbreak the illusion\u201d by taking off her mask emphasizes this further, underlining that she has no investment in Sakiko\u2019s larger project<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo does that mean we\u2019re going to wear these masks forever?\u201d A direct echo of Tomori\u2019s \u201ccan you promise to be in this band together,\u201d and similarly mirrored \u2013 being in a band is shorthand for emotional sincerity to Tomori, while it\u2019s clearly a disguise to Sakiko<\/span><\/p>\n Nyamu pushes the point further, emphasizing how their fame would actually increase with their masks removed. These characters are very good at making expressions of absolute contempt, as Soyo was fond of doing last season<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI liked it yesterday, but got bored of it today.\u201d Nyamu emphasizes her fickleness as not just identity, but credo. The modern world revolves around novelty \u2013 as a streamer with an entirely feigned persona, Nyamu is accustomed to following the tide, not charting a defiant path of her own<\/span><\/p>\n And like most people who don\u2019t believe in anything, she finds Sakiko\u2019s commitment to the act suspicious<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am not going to let this band be just a passing fad.\u201d In spite of all the artifice, Sakiko still wishes to make this band a home<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe will take the mask off at the best stage and at the best moment.\u201d So the band itself is a secret, to be revealed at the moment of greatest opportunity. Or perhaps an act of revenge, a triumph over those who, at least in her mind, doubted her<\/span><\/p>\n After practice, Uika expresses her happiness at Sakiko\u2019s dedication to the group. \u201cMy dream of being with you forever came true\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sakiko\u2019s joy is interrupted by a call from the police. Her father was picked up drunk in an alley again<\/span><\/p>\n Quite a literal metaphor as she drags him home, and attempts to close the door of his room. Beer cans block the door\u2019s path, emphasizing how she can\u2019t actually isolate this part of her life<\/span><\/p>\n The music is an escape \u2013 she distracts herself from her father with thoughts of songwriting priorities, burying herself in the work, transforming into something else<\/span><\/p>\n We flash back to a younger Sakiko, the time shift cheekily conveyed through sepia colors and a fuzzy camera filter, as if her youth took place sometime in the 1870s<\/span><\/p>\n A doll on her piano as she plays for her mother. More Dear Brother vibes, raising that general, enduring metaphor of a girl who is framed as a perfect isolated moment, and who cannot successfully grow beyond the doll\u2019s shadow<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI practiced it a lot because it was your favorite song!\u201d Sakiko\u2019s mother was the one who fostered her love of music, clearly. Presumably it was her death that set Sakiko\u2019s father on his current course<\/span><\/p>\n The entrance of her father clarifies a great deal \u2013 Sakiko\u2019s mother is the daughter of a wealthy man, and her husband is set to inherit his company. They live in a gilded palace, but all of it is conditional<\/span><\/p>\n Her mother\u2019s funeral reveals Mutsumi as the only band member who was there to witness this moment<\/span><\/p>\n Mutsumi\u2019s relationship with Sakiko seems much like Tomori\u2019s; both of them are extremely shy and have trouble with communication, and both see in Sakiko a vector for more general engagement with the world. After being abandoned by Sakiko, Tomori was forced to start over, and eventually developed friendships based on mutual respect and honesty. In contrast, Mutsumi is still clinging to Sakiko\u2019s coattails, and still seemingly unable to engage with strangers without Sakiko to act as a mediator<\/span><\/p>\n Sakiko\u2019s memories carry us through a school festival performance, where she saw the hope of community represented by a high school band, and onward to her first meeting with Tomori. Oh damn, are we finally learning why she destroyed CRYCHIC?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry for pushing you, but you mustn\u2019t die!\u201d This played as deadpan comedy from MyGO\u2019s perspective, but feels a lot heavier coming from Sakiko\u2019s side<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat were you writing up until now?\u201d Soyo barely features in this episode, but she still manages to sneak in one offhand snipe regarding Tomori\u2019s lyrics<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s better to mute than block.\u201d Wait, she gets one more line, explicitly revealing her experience with online haters. That\u2019s our Soyo<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sakiko receives a brutal text from her father, saying that they can\u2019t live together anymore<\/span><\/p>\n He took the fall for a failure at her grandfather\u2019s company, and has been dismissed. But her grandfather wants to keep her around, explicitly as a reminder of his own daughter. \u201cYou\u2019re Mizuho\u2019s memento.\u201d That doll imagery immediately put to work<\/span><\/p>\n She keeps her mother\u2019s doll, but bids farewell to her grand piano. The two of them similarly trapped in a moment, a memory, unable to escape their last encounter<\/span><\/p>\n With her father already a wreck, Sakiko begins looking for whatever part-time work she can find. But her family circumstances also work against her in terms of finding employment. This really bitterly contextualizes her obsession with facades \u2013 what she thought was her actual family was a fantasy, and now her inability to maintain the aesthetics of that fantasy are preventing her from holding onto the fragments she has left. No wonder she\u2019s learned to place such a premium on never breaking poise, never relinquishing the mask \u2013 for her, it\u2019s literally become a matter of life and death<\/span><\/p>\n She first loses her private school, but is determined to maintain CRYCHIC. But taking care of her father then begins to overwhelm her practice time as well. Brutal detail in the local police station being an unknown number at this point, but an established contact during her conversation with Uika<\/span><\/p>\n And then we at last see Sakiko in the wake of the breakup, suffering the worst of any of them. No wonder she felt such pain at seeing Tomori move beyond her, and find the community she was so desperate to maintain<\/span><\/p>\n We cut to the MyGO girls, where we can already see that Soyo has adjusted her attitude towards Tomori. Where she previously held nothing but disdain for Tomori\u2019s fascinations, she now offers her own sticky notes to help Tomori\u2019s process<\/span><\/p>\n Anon got Ave Mujica tickets! \u201cWow, good for you\u201d is a pretty good translation of Soyo\u2019s dismissive congratulations<\/span><\/p>\n Anon is of course an avid Nyamuchi follower, and reveals Nyamu has already basically given up the game regarding her secret identity<\/span><\/p>\n Excellent Anon faces as she considers inviting Soyo to the concert. I\u2019m sure Yuniko Ayana understands exactly how strong of an adversarial pairing she\u2019s got in those two<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I see that you are such a fine daughter\u2026 I feel miserable. I beg you, get out of my sight!\u201d God, every moment at home is torture for Sakiko, as she pleads with a man who\u2019s entirely given up to at least keep living for her and her mother\u2019s sake. No wonder she wants to escape this world, to invent a new reality<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat a rotten father! Does he understand how I\u2019ve been feeling!?\u201d Once again, it is only Mutsumi who gets to see the true Sakiko<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCut off the unfulfilled memories and forget all about it.\u201d A survival strategy she has been forced to employ several times, with her mother, father, and CRYCHIC<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat a boring script.\u201d None of this is real to Nyamu; it\u2019s just another facade among many, and not a particularly engaging one. And I\u2019m sure she gets a transgressive thrill out of threatening something that means so little to her, but clearly so much to her band leader<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOblivionis. I do not fear forgetting.\u201d And yet, for all the artifice, her on-stage persona yearns for precisely the same thing as the girl behind the mask<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou must show the best of yourself to the guests.\u201d Her script echoes her personal attempts to brush life with her father under the rug<\/span><\/p>\n Nyamu begins her rebellion, tossing off her mask and mocking Sakiko\u2019s forced smile, then forcing a group reveal<\/span><\/p>\n And Done<\/b><\/p>\n Nyamuchi you absolute bastard! Well, the group wouldn\u2019t be nearly as fun without a toxic irritant, but my lord did Sakiko make a mistake in recruiting that self-absorbed streamer. Our first episode of Ave Mujica proved just as tortured as expected, swiftly revealing the context of Sakiko\u2019s behavior during MyGO, while also promising the path forward is as tangled and treacherous as we could possibly imagine. As parallels to the Tomori and Anon of MyGO, Sakiko and Nyamu demonstrate the profound relative toxicity of Ave Mujica; rather than wanting to express herself honestly, Sakiko wishes only to conceal and redefine herself, while our new agitator Nyamu takes a decidedly un-Anon-like glee in actively torturing her bandmates. Our new group have engineered a perfect vehicle for indulging in all their most unhealthy fixations, and I can\u2019t wait to see what terrible choices they make next.<\/span><\/p>\n This\u00a0article\u00a0was\u00a0mad<\/a><\/em>e possible by reader support<\/a>. Thank you all for\u00a0all that you do.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wrongeverytime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/January24102941.jpg?resize=584%2C329&ssl=1\")
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<\/p>\nLike this:<\/h3>\n