juliko25

I give this fourth season of one of my favorite mobage anime...a 58/100.

I've already gone on at length about Show By Rock is one of my favorite guilty pleasure anime even with its flaws, so I won't belabor the point here. Season 1 was fine, though nothing special, season 2 I feel is a massive improvement, season 3, Mashumairesh, was the weakest season IMHO and made no effort to reach any highs, and season 4...is kind of in the middle. Basically, Show By Rock Stars takes place right after where season 3 left off, having the Mashumairesh girls be invited to Midi City by Banded Rocking Records to join them, and showing them interacting with the other bands, along with a new villain threatening to mess up the big festival everyone is preparing for. That premise, while cliche, is fine on its own, and Stars could have done a lot with it. Unfortunately, having seen Stars now...SBR really deserved better, and I think a lot of this season's flaws come from the change in production companies, from Bones to Kinema Citrus. Stars does reference the first two seasons a lot, making sure to keep the characters in character, replicate the setting, and throw in a lot of details that are sure to make hardcore SBR fans happy. However, I think in the process of the change, nobody from Bones told the Kinema Citrus staff about previous plot threads that had been established at the end of season 2.

One particular plot hole Stars has is...well, Cyan's presence. Specifically, how the hell did she manage to get back to Sound World after being sent back to the human world at the end of season two?! Stars provides absolutely no explanation for this! Did the Kinema Citrus staff just forget that Cyan is a human from Earth?! You can't just throw a character back into a fantasy world without a solid explanation as to how she even got back there in the first place! But this is only one example of the continuity issues that are plaguing this season. Remember in the second season how Ogasawara manipulated Uwasanopetals to come with him to the Unicorn Virtual Music building, setting up a potential plot thread? Not only does Stars completely ignore this, one stinger at the end of episode 11 shows them back at their countryside town, continuing to whine about how they can't go to Midi City...Even though season 2 established them as having been able to go and, I don't know, LAND A FRIGGIN HUGE RECORD DEAL THAT COULD ENSURE THAT THEY COULD GO THERE!!! Oh, and do I even need to mention Ailane suddenly going evil in this season for no reason at all, even though in the second season she was shown to have broken away from Dagger's control?

Of course, continuity issues aren't the only problem plaguing this season. For one, the characters don't really develop much here. A lot of the show is just the Mashumairesh girls interacting with the other bands. Granted, the exceptions to this rule are Delmin, whose backstory gets explored in more depth, and ironically enough, Dokonjofinger, who I absolutely hate, and yet this season actually manages to make them somewhat more tolerable. Granted, they're still cliche and a knock-off of the much better Shingancrimsonz, but I do appreciate that Stars made an effort to flesh them out a little bit, even if it still doesn't make them anything more than bland as white toast. On the other hand, other characters who really could have benefited from having their backstories fleshed out, like Himeko, are still given the shaft, and a lot of the show spends its time on comedic band shenanigans that are completely unnecessary. Say what you will about the first two seasons of Show By Rock, but at least they knew to balance out the comedy with its more serious moments, knowing to use the former as either levity after a particularly grueling moment, or actually flesh out the characters more. Stars' comedy is just...not funny, and the fact that it prefers doing that over fleshing out its characters is one of its biggest detriments as a season. Oh, and the finale is easily the worst SBR has ever had, with a God-awful, piss-poor backstory for this season's villain that really has to be seen to be believed. You really have to TRY to be that bad.

For what it's worth though, the animation and the music are still good, even if the songs in this season aren't as good as the ones in previous SBR seasons. I'll give Kinema Citrus credit for not only keeping the character designs in tact (Save for one of the Uwasanopetals girls, though that's insignificant here), but the setting and the overall look of the show, so kudos to them for that. But seriously, couldn't the writers for the previous seasons have left notes for the Kinema Citrus staff letting them know about those important plot threads that I mentioned above? Consistency shouldn't be this hard, people! Ah, well. Show By Rock Stars tried, but in my opinion, it didn't reach the highs that seasons one and two did, squandering continuity in favor of unfunny comedy. Maybe SBR will get a fifth season down the line, but at this point, I'm not sure, though I'd be happy to watch more SBR should more get made. If only the SBR mobile games came to the US, though. Someone once said online that they feel Show By Rock works better as a comedic slice-of-life anime than a fantastical epic about saving the world from an evil entity, as they feel the former premise does more to make you care about the characters. I don't feel that's true in the case of SBR, because both Stars and Mashumairesh rehash common comedic cliches just for the sake of it, rather than trying something new with them or even using them as a means to flesh out their characters. A more urgent save-the-world plotline, as cliche as it can be at times, works better with this because it forces the characters to grow as people in their journey to ensure that their world and everyone in it is safe. Because Stars preferred to be more of an epic comedic crossover, it ultimately still comes off as a shallow imitation of the first two seasons rather than trying to stand on its own two feet.

So yeah, you're not missing anything by not watching Show By Rock Stars. Even as a big SBR fan, this season fell short of expectations, so don't go into this expecting anything grand.

I give this distant sequel to one of my favorite mobile game franchises...a 54/100.

Full truth: I love Show By Rock. The first two seasons of it, at least. The first season, while objectively nothing to write home about in the public eye, I personally thought was fun, funny, dramatic, silly, awesome, and reveled in its sparkly, musical silliness. The second season, I feel, improved on many of the first seasons flaws, though it itself isn't without its problems, and was still just as fun and entertaining. I own both seasons on Blu-Ray and when I heard that a third season starring an entirely new cast of characters was going to air, I was hyped as hell. I really thought I was going to enjoy this one, and having a new cast of characters can actually be refreshing if done right. Sadly, Mashumairesh had a promising start but ultimately failed to reach beyond mediocre.

So instead of focusing on Cyan and her band Plasmagica, the story focuses on an entirely new character, Howan, a girl living in the snowy countryside who wants to make it big. She decides to go out to Midi City for an audition...only for her to lose her form and be unable to do so. But she finds a band performing on the street and they invite her to join them. Touched by their kindness, Howan decides to join them, proposing that they start a band together and see if they can make it big, just like Howan always dreamed. Yeah, tell me you haven't heard this premise before. Unoriginal as hell, though unlike the original show, there's no evil villain out to destroy the world, so any conflict is scaled down. I've heard someone say Show By Rock would be better as a pure slice of life show rather than have a more urgent save-the-world conflict, and I could see where they were coming from, but with the way Mashumairesh was executed, this shows that going that direction may not have been the best idea.

I'll get the positives out of the way first. For one, the animation is quite good. The original show was made by Bones, but Mashumairesh was animated by a different studio, Kinema Citrus, who you may know worked on shows such as Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Made In Abyss, Rising of the Shield Hero, Is The Order a Rabbit, and other shows. While I do feel the character designs are way too ridiculous and over the top for their own good (Himeko's huge hair curls, anyone?), the show still feels true to the feel of the original, and while the CGI chibi models don't have as much shading and depth to them as the first show did, they're still cute and easy on the eyes, and stay away from looking really creepy and uncanny. I'm kind of mixed on the music, though. Some parts of it are good, such as the opening and ending songs. I wasn't a fan of the opening and ending themes for both the original show and the sequel, and the songs used here are much more pleasant to listen to and less obnoxious. That said, some of the songs sung in-universe are kind of odd. The melodies and beats are fine, but some of the lyrics make no sense, especially for some of Dokonjofinger's songs. Many of them have lyrics that feel like they were just slapped together at the last second.

Speaking of Dokonjofinger...I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty much the biggest dark spot on this show, and pretty much encapsulate the show's biggest problem: Its complete lack of interest in giving its characters any meaningful development whatsoever. All of the characters, even the ones we're supposed to care about and root for, are all really bland and dull, with many of them only having one character trait that's shilled to high heaven and that's it. Ruhuyu's whole adding the world lunatic to literally every word she said and shouting it every chance she had got old really fast. No, show, giving your character an annoying quirk and having them do nothing but said quirk all the time does not make a good, endearing character. Nearly every single character has all the emotional depth of a wet paper bag, and not helping matters is that the characters are implied to have interesting backstories, but they're never explored or fleshed out in any way, except with a throwaway line of dialogue here and there that's never followed up on. Tying back to Dokonjofinger, not only are they the absolute worst characters in the show, because they're all annoying as hell and their plight is completely inconsequential to the story, their whole setup is a complete logical disaster (They've done bad things and are about to get expelled from school...but to avoid that, their principal makes them form a band and forces them to compete with other bands. How can any principal expect problem teens to be able to get along as a band and NOT be scared that they'll just use it as a means to cause even more trouble?! And they do exactly that!!) and they get a crap ton of screen time but no meaningful development that'd make the audience care about them. How little does this show care about its characters? Here's an example: In Dokofin's introductory episode, the narrator explains that Joe's hobbies are, I shit you not...giving blood and receiving IV treatment. SHOW, THOSE ARE NOT HOBBIES!! Nor do they add any kind of depth and nuance to a character whatsoever! Out of all of them, Hachin is the absolute worst, because not only is he an annoying brat who always starts fights, even with his own bandmates, for kicks and giggles, he's got an especially grating voice that makes you want to stick needles in your ears. Think Asta from Black Clover but ten times worse.

The characters all stay the same throughout the series, and as a result, nearly every important moment they have near the end of the series not only feels fake, but completely unearned. It's especially bad because the creators wasted their resources on showing the bands having fun and wasting time on pointless activities, like a curling contest of all things, when they could have used that time and their resources to really flesh out their characters and make the audience care about them. Unfortunately, every character is dull and remains the same, with Dokofin's worst qualities never changing at all. Say what you will about the original show and its second season, it at least recognized its flaws from its first season and tried to rectify them in its second season. I mean, it's no sacred masterpiece, but it at least tried and put effort into making you care about the characters, even if its writing could be all over the place at times. Mashumairesh just feels like a shallow imitation that can't stand on its own two feet.

It's a shame, because as flawed as the original Show By Rock is, I still enjoy watching it, and I wanted this show to be good as well. Overall, while Mashumairesh isn't utter crap, I can't recommend this show, even for Show By Rock fans. It went too far with showing silly band shenanigans and lost sight of what made the original show so good. So I'd give this one a miss.

I give the second season to one of my favorite guilty pleasures ever...a 75/100!

Usually, when a show receives a second or more seasons, one of several things happen: Either the second season improves on the first one, does the exact same things as the first one but with different situations, or suffers a big decline in quality and winds up not grasping the magic that made the first season so good. The first season of Show By Rock was a cute and fun show, but it was held back by adhering to tired cliches and a lack of expanding on its core cast of characters, especially Cyan. But it's rare for a second season of a show to actually improve on the first season and make an effort to fix its flaws. Not all of them, mind you, but I can wholeheartedly say that Show By Rock # really improved on the first season!

Taking place right after the events of the first season, life in Sound World is back to normal, with everyone going about their lives, particularly Plasmagica trying to make it without Cyan. Unfortunately, the peace doesn't last. Dagger has recruited a new band to restart his attempt at world domination, but ironically, his return is dwarfed by the revelation that a mysterious being known as the Queen of Darkness threatens to eliminate music entirely. The people of Sound World receive word from a band coming from the future, Ninjinriot, that the Queen of Darkness successfully took over Sound World, and went back to the past to warn them about it in advance so they can find a way to stop her once and for all. With this new knowledge in mind, there's only one thing to do: Bring Cyan back and have her work her musical magic to save Sound World a second time!

So yeah, the second season still rehashes the usual "save the world from an evil entity" plotline this time around, and Cyan is still shilled as the magical chosen one without any real explanation whatsoever. Those parts of the show haven't changed a bit. But other than those two things, the creators seemed to make an effort to fix at least a good portion of the first season's flaws. For one, while Dagger as a villain is still as cliche and SatAm cartoonish as usual, he doesn't get any focus this time around, as the second season features a new main villain, and some minor ones, with actual, fleshed out backstories that explain their descent into villainy while still managing to make them somewhat sympathetic, even if said backstories don't excuse their actions. Not gonna lie, I like the second season's villain much better than Dagger.

The production values and soundtrack are still top notch as usual, even if the show still goes overboard with its sparkly moe aesthetic. Then again, it wouldn't be Show By Rock without its overdose of sparkle and moe cutesiness, now would it? But more than that, SBR's second season fixed a major flaw that I previously had with the first season: Actually bothering to give the characters focus episodes and development. In the first season, the only characters who ever really got fleshed out were Chuchu and Rom. Season two finally got around to fleshing out a good portion of the main and side characters, many of whom desperately needed it, such as Moa, Aion, Rosia, Shuzo, and a few others. Not all of them got this treatment, mind you, as several other new bands are introduced just to be cameos from the game (Looking at you, Dolly Dolci. I don't like them. They were just really annoying), but the characters that actually matter are finally given the development they deserved. Granted, I've seen other shows do it better, but considering how the first season struggled with it before, I'm willing to give season two a pass here, as it still made the effort. The show also took the time to flesh out the members of the two new bands who appear, Arcareafact and Bud Virgin Logic, all of whom have their share of focus, strengths, weaknesses, and so on.

Another thing that makes season two better than the first season is the fact that it also tried to flesh out its setting a bit more. In the first season, every person in Sound World has what's called a Melodisian Stone, which glows brightly when bands perform awesome music, but the show never bothered to really explain what they were or where they come from. Season two actually provides a solid origin story for the Melodisian Stones, something that honestly blew my mind when I first watched it when it first aired. Most shows of this nature generally don't bother with worldbuilding, or at the very least only put in a barebones effort. The fact that Show By Rock, a franchise made by a company that typically makes products for children, still cared enough about its setting to flesh it out somewhat is admirable, even though I admit I have seen other shows do it better.

However, as much as I want to love SBR season two and lavish it with praise, as you can tell by the rating, it's still not a perfect show, and still has its own problems, barring the ones carried over from season one. First off, one character has a brief backstory established in the first season, only for an episode of this season to completely retcon it and give him a new one out of whole cloth, contradicting what it had established about him earlier. Granted, I like said character's new backstory, as I feel it makes more logical sense than what season one established about him, but it'd be better to commit to just one idea rather than say a character is one thing and then going against it later. You'll know which character I'm talking about if you watch both seasons, and no, it's not Rom. His backstory was actually consistent. Secondly, while I'm happy that Uwasanopetals got less screen time this season and don't spend their time whining all the time, there's a subplot involving them that seems like it'll be the start of something bigger, but it never goes anywhere, nor does it really get any real resolution. Considering SBR has a fourth season coming out, for all I know they might address this in there, but as it stands, maybe SBR would have benefited from just saving that subplot for season four, rather than just hinting at it in this season and not doing anything with it. And in case anyone's wondering, yes, SBR still indulges in having certain characters show off a lot of cleavage and unnecessary close-ups of jiggling boobs. Though thankfully that's as far as any fanservice in this show gets. But does any of this kill my enjoyment of the show in any way? Hell no! I still love SBR and all its kooky, sparkly, musical moeness, and I'm willing to be thankful for the progress its made rather than dwell on what it could have been.

While the sequel still has its own share of issues, Show By Rock season two really tried to fix the first season's flaws admirably while still remaining a fun, entertaining show. And yes, you can bet your ass I'm looking forward to season four.

There's gonna be a Show By Rock theater musical?! AND it stars ShinganCrimsonZ?! *does happy dance*

I kid you not! It was just announced today! Yay! I had been thinking about writing a Show By Rock fan fic that rewrote the first season, expanded on it, and highlight some details it didn't bother to follow up on. Oh well! I'll hold off on it for now! I just hope they actually develop the characters this time and use their time wisely! (AND make Uwasanopetals actually DO something instead of whine all the time!)

Also, ShinganCrimsonZ is best band!!!

(This is my 270th anime!!!)

I give this ambitious musical anime...a 67/100.

Ever since K-On's success, there have been a huge surge in both slice-of-life anime featuring cute girls doing mundane things and anime where boys or girls try to get into the music scene. They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. However, this isn't always a good thing, as there's a lot that can go wrong, such as companies making rip-offs or copies of said show, focusing too much on fanservice and doing what K-On did rather than actually having a decent story, characters, and conflict, or standing out on its own merits. If creators try too hard to copy other works, they won't be appreciated for their own merits, and if a piece of media can't stand on its own merits, then it'll just fade into obscurity. But even shows that stand out and are able to stand on their own merits aren't always good, and sometimes the show that inspired so many rip-offs may not even be that good! Despite its problems, Show By Rock definitely stands out and knows what the heck it wants. Unfortunately, it's being held back by many problems that, if rectified, could have made it so much better, had the creators been given more leeway with it.

A young girl named Cyan (pronounced Shion) Hijirikawa wants to be a rock star and join her school's music club but is too shy to do it. But when she's at home, she gets an app on her phone that suddenly takes her to this magical world called Sound World, particularly one place called Midi City. It's full of half-animal half-human people called Myuumons, and music is par for the course. There are popular bands such as Trichronika, Criticrista, ShingancrimsonZ, and another band she joins called Plasmagica. She receives a sentient heart shaped guitar named Strawberry Heart that tells her she needs to defeat dark monsters that are threatening Midi City. Dark monsters are created when someone's Melodisian Stone is corrupted by negative feelings or outside forces. Cyan joins Plasmagica and gets the chance to fulfill her dream, along with saving Midi City from the dark monsters.

Yeah...as you can tell by the summary, the premise is admittedly very convoluted and cliche. Random kid gets taken to another world by someone or something, is the chosen one and has to defeat evil villain via insert macguffin here, make friends, etc. There's too much to deal with, and it doesn't help that the show is only twelve episodes long. It could have benefited from being a lot longer, like 26 episodes or even 39, for a variety of reasons that I'll get into. Sound World itself doesn't really get expanded upon, nor do we learn all that much about Melodisian Stones, the villain behind the scenes, what made him what he is, why certain people are so important, how and why Midi City is the way it is, etc. I do find it interesting that Sanrio (Yes, this was made by Sanrio, the people behind Hello Kitty. Just go with it) named a city after a midi file. Heck, I remember when midi files were especially popular on places like Neopets, waaay back in like, 2003-2005 or something. However, having an interesting setting doesn't matter if you can't expand upon it or use it to your advantage.

Same goes for the characters. They're not bad, but there's loads and loads of them, and they're all very under developed and bland save for one character, Cyan getting the worst of it, which is actually lampshaded in the final episode. She begins and ends the show being the exact same person. She doesn't do anything, she gets scared, she doesn't do anything by herself, she's shy and insecure, she just gets dragged into things without actively doing anything about it, she's never directly affected by anything that goes on around her...she's just not very interesting as a character. Not only that, she's constantly told that she's the one who absolutely has to defeat the dark monsters, but it's never stated why she of all people has to do it. Others could have very easily been better candidates, and they never state the actual reason why SHE is the one that got picked, which makes the whole chosen one plotline very superficial. Give us a reason, dag nabbit! Sakura from CCS was made to be the cardcaptor because she accidentally released the cards from the Clow Book. Sasami from Sasami Magical Girls Club was born with her powers. Hitomi from Vision of Escaflowne had a pendant from Gaia that she inherited from her grandmother, who received it from a dying man whose son becomes her friend later on. They all start off one way, and end the series having grown and learned from their experiences. Cyan doesn't. Therefore, she's not interesting.

The other characters are no better. True, some of them do get expanded on, but it's all very predictable, and none of their backstories are actively fleshed out save for Chuchu. Retoree is shy, Moa is a cheerful alien who misses her home (and it's quickly forgotten about), Chuchu wants to be the best, etc. I have to admit though, ShingancrimsonZ is the best band in the entire show. The guys in that band are not only hilarious, but charming and are often the comedic relief despite being crazy gothic punk rock bishounen who scream a lot. They're just as bland and underdeveloped as the others, but their antics are funny enough to steal your heart. Criticrista, on the other hand, is the worst of the bunch. We're told that they're best friends who love each other, but we never see them interact much unlike with Plasmagica. It doesn't help that they're all annoyingly cute moe girls with obnoxiously high pitched voices (one of them being voiced by Rina Hidaka, one of my favorite new VAs, and as much as I like her, her work as Rosia really isn't one of her best) who are there to pander to creepy guys, etc. Everyone else is just there for eye candy or doing stuff nobody really cares about. But there are these two animal high schoolers who appear at the end of some episodes who go to school and constantly complain about wanting to go to Midi City, with one of them always saying "Sorrrry!! X is the pits!!" Why are these Myumons here? What purpose do they serve? Nothing! They're never used for anything, so they're just a waste of animation and broadcasting time! The producers should have ditched them and used their budget for, oh, I don't know, actual world building and character exploration? Also, Moa also has an annoying voice actress who tries way to hard most of the time, coming off really shrill in the process.

Animation wise, the show is decent, albeit way too flashy, especially with the way they draw the character's eyes. Too many sparkles and diamonds in them! It's so distracting and completely throws you off. But the character movements are fluid, the character designs are relatively decent, albeit a little too over the top for some (the water band and Criticrista being two such examples), the cosmopolitan look of Midi City is very beautiful and it kinds resembles modern day New York, as the biggest tower in the city kinda looks a lot like the Empire State Building, complete with flashy neon colored lights, etc. Also, the CGI. It is beautiful, and I do not mean that sarcastically. I'm serious. The CGI in this anime is the best I've seen. It's actually fluid, the animators actually put in effort to make it relevant to the story, and since the characters are all rendered into their animal forms during the CGI scenes, they don't fall into uncanny valley territory, and considering how anime CGI is usually REALLY bad a lot of the time, that's saying a lot. I also appreciate that the show likes to parody various animation styles, especially when ShinganCrimsonZ is involved, like having the characters go all buff and beefy a la Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, or giving them girly 70s shoujo faces complete with exaggerated faces and long eye lashes and sparkles a la Rose of Versailles. The way its used for comedy is actually pretty cool.

Since the show's about music, obviously the music has to be the best part of the show, right? Well...yes and no. Pretty much everything by ShinganCrimsonZ, Trichronika, and that other band called Tsurezure is awesome, but all the other songs are mostly just bland, cutesy moe fare that grates on your ears, Criticrista's song obviously being the worst one. The opening and ending songs are no better. It's nice that the show uses a rock and roll music style, since the show is about bands and the music is actually relevant to the story, albeit used in a ridiculous, stupid, and deus ex machina-using way. However, if the songs have cutesy high pitched voices singing them, then all they are is annoying if said voices aren't in tune with the music.

So yeah. Show By Rock isn't great, but it's not bad. Cliched, yes, but not bad. It's pretty fun if you want something good to watch, and the fanservice is pretty mild for the most part. But if you're looking for more serious fare, then give it a miss. Also, ShinganCrimsonZ is awesome. Why couldn't the show be about them?!