BanG Dream! Movie: Episode of Roselia - I: Yakusoku

I'm writing this review as a diehard fan of the Bandori franchise, watching all of the anime, buy merchandise and watching most of the lives. Especially so, Roselia is my favourite band in the series, both the 2D and 3D versions, so I was looking forward to anything that will have given my favourite band their time in the spotlight. Which brings us to this movie. The plot of EoR1 essentially stretches over a large number of segments and events in the game, which appear as visual novel-esque skits. Similarly to other VN-turned anime, that is where the gist of the problem lies. Having only lessthan an hour and a half of air time essentially impacts how much plot and character development can be squeezed into the movie. Without going into too much plot, this is very obvious in the fact that the first 30 mins of the movie focuses on a portion very early in Roselia's formation plot, but has a sudden jump cut to a time much later in the future in which character development has already taken place for some characters, but it is not obvious how it happened for people that weren't already fans of the game. The art of the series is fantastic, one of the best implementation of CGI I have ever seen in anime, and Bandori is renown for its fantastic music. Both the OP and ED are bone chilling, and I can very easily play both songs on repeat. However, neither art nor music can save the mediocrity of the movie. Now, Bushiroad, the brains behind the Bandori franchise, are known for doing many things for the purpose of cash grabbing. They are a trading card making company that makes a large number of gacha games, so it is understandable that this is their business model. Sadly, as much as I hate to admit it, this movie was one of them. Their marketing for both movies have been tremendous... to a point that they forgot to actually put quality into the movie. As of this review, I have yet to watch its "sequel" EoR2, but judging from what I have seen from this movie, I don't have much faith that it will be any better. Had they actually put in effort to make an actually good movie, maybe giving this another hour of airtime to properly animate the cut out segments that would have helped character development, and not try to put back to back movies just for the sake of sales, we may actually have had a good movie, because the plot in the game behind some of the characters (Sayo in particular) is fantastic. But in its absence, we will have to live with the "what could have been".

Let's get this straight out of the way: Yes this is essentially a recap of the first 2 Roselia Band stories from the game, with a mix of some other events etc. (it is missing many, many details from previously presented story in the game) If you come into this movie expecting a deep story line, insane character development, etc., you will not find it here. What you will find though is a heartwarming celebration of everything that Roselia and its members stand for. As someone who plays the game and follows the story for 3+ years now, this movie served as a reminder I guess,a reminder of all the amazing music and character that this band was build upon. I would not recommend it as much to people who haven't seen the stories in the game, I can see it feeling very rushed and shallow, as the pacing is a bit weird. But, for everyone else who loves this band, this is a nostalgia trip that has some of the most memorable scenes of the early Roselia days, and, even though it tries to pack a bit too much for a 1 hour movie, it still manages to capture the most important aspects of each character, their motivation, goals, personality etc. All in all a must for Roselia fans - That being said, I do not wish to discourage new fans from watching this movie; it might serve as a good starting point in the series if you don't mind missing some details. Needless to say, all the music in movie is amazing, though I would hope they could showcase a couple more songs (there is always the Film Live if you are looking to just listen to more Bang Dream music). One final note, specially towards long time fans of the anime, is that they really improved the visuals & animations of the 3D models - it feels like they have finally found a style that works and is unique and recognizable for the series.

As someone who loves the BanG Dream franchise & the mobile game , I was honestly expecting more from this movie. It lacked many important things such as development and proper pacing. If someone who has no experience on the game or previous band stories , they would absolutely see no development or bond between the characters. Everything felt very rushed and out of place , like it was just a summary for the game's Roselia band story. I was honestly expecting some new scenes that were not featured in the game , & more feelings and emotional scenes. The climax already premiered in noless than 30 minutes of the movie , & the rest just starts slacking & getting more boring. For the OST, the majority of the movie had no background soundtrack at all. And at the times it did , it was very faint & bland not really causing any emotion or feeling behind the characters' words or actions. I was already prepared for the CGI animation considering I watched the BanG Dream anime. It isn't bad and is unique , but it could also throw new viewers off. Overall, this movie had great potential & could have been one of Bushiroad's best works. I'm disappointed that it's basically just a recap of the game stories. There is no point in watching this if you are already familiar with Roselia and/or read their story.

I'm writing this review as someone who is has watched more of the anime than the visual novels. Even after hearing fan's disappointment on the pacing and crunching of the story, it all made sense. Each dilemma of each character was apt to the looming dilemma to Roselia as a band. Though at the same time, I do empathize that "all finished in 5 seconds" kind of thing that was happening for each character, especially for Sayo, or so I heard that she was a well-written character, for I have read the story of how Yukina was only using Roselia as mere contest participants, and yes,I do agree with the lackluster of time. My acknowledgements may sound bias in a way most people see. Maybe if I had read the entire Roselia stories, I may have placed this at a 6, or if I at least read one of the required VNs, then I would be able to perceive how incomparable they are to the movie. but yet again, I still commend for the writing to walk on thin ice and yet reach the end at an elegant time. It managed to create its own set of rules on its own from a newer base, and it redeemed itself for a brazen move. This was still the best kind of story that the anime versions offers for the audience-type. In fact, I have enjoyed this more than any of the conflicts from Season 1-3. While I'm at this point of writing the review, as I may never write a review on a Bandori show again, the dialogue generally needs a bit more diversity. It's funny because when some of the characters in the show compassion, sincerity, or open to one another, it feels like I'm reading an essay where the author reads to oneself. Nevertheless, I totally see this being improved in the movie. If Sayo is an incredibly written character as many says she is once I read it, then I might give it an 11/10.

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