BanG Dream!, also known as , is a Japanese music media franchise owned by Bushiroad. Created by Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani in January 2015 with original story by Kō Nakamura, the project began as a manga before expanding to other media. In addition to other manga, BanG Dream! includes an anime television series, live concerts, singles and albums, VTubers, and the mobile rhythm games Girls Band Party! and Our Notes.
The franchise's premise is based around all-female bands whose members are also voice actresses in the anime and mobile game; , the project has twelve groups, nine of which are capable of playing their respective characters' instruments. The first band, Poppin'Party, was formed in February 2015, and further groups were introduced in 2017 with the launch of the mobile game: Roselia, Afterglow, Pastel Palettes, and Hello, Happy World! In 2018, a backup band called The Third was renamed Raise A Suilen and joined the series, followed by a seventh unit named Morfonica in 2020. Further expansion since 2022 introduced MyGO!!!!!, Ave Mujica, Mugendai MewType, Millsage, and Ikka Dumb Rock!.
For live performances, the voice actresses for Poppin'Party, Roselia, Raise A Suilen, Morfonica, MyGO!!!!!, Ave Mujica, and Mugendai MewType play their own music, while the others are limited to vocals. The original seven bands are grouped in the Girls Band Party! set of media whereas the other five are part of Our Notes. While they are separate games, the bands exist in the same canon.
The anime, which follows fictional representations of the bands, has three seasons of 13 episodes each. The first season, produced by Issen (OLM with Bushiroad) and Xebec, aired from January to April 2017. Sanzigen took over production duties for the second and third seasons, which were respectively broadcast in winter 2019 and 2020. A concert-centric movie BanG Dream! Film Live was released in 2019, followed by a sequel Film Live 2nd Stage in 2021. Three band-focused films have also been produced: the two-part Episode of Roselia series premiered in 2021, followed by BanG Dream! Poppin'Dream! premiered in 2022.
Spin-off anime series include BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Pico and its sequels Pico: Ohmori and Pico Fever! by Sanzigen with DMM.futureworks and Pastel Life by Studio A-Cat, as well as Ganzo! BanG Dream! Chan. An anime following MyGO!!!!! titled BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! aired from June to September 2023. The sequel to It's MyGO!!!!! following Ave Mujica titled BanG Dream! Ave Mujica aired from January to March 2025. A sequel to both It's MyGO!!!! and Ave Mujica is set to premiere in January 2027. An anime following Mugendai MewType produced by Nichicaline titled BanG Dream! Yume∞Mita aired from July to September 2026.
The series has enjoyed international popularity for its live performances and mobile game, while the anime has seen mixed but improving reviews with later seasons. In 2018, the franchise expanded to include a male-based counterpart Argonavis from BanG Dream!, which was spun off into an independent brand From Argonavis in 2021.
Plot
BanG Dream! follows Kasumi Toyama, a happy-go-lucky girl and a new student at Hanasakigawa Girls' High School. During her first weeks at the school, she tries out for numerous clubs in an effort to rediscover the "Star Beat", a "sparkling, heart-pounding" feeling she experienced while looking up at the stars in the night sky as a child.
One day, while returning from school, she spots a trail of star stickers that lead her to a pawnshop owned by her classmate Arisa Ichigaya. In the storage area, she finds a star-shaped guitar with glittery stickers on it and quickly becomes attached to it. The two later visit a local live house, Space, where Kasumi decides to create a band upon watching a performance by a group named Glitter Green. She then recruits Arisa and three of their classmates – Sāya Yamabuki, Tae Hanazono, and Rimi Ushigome – to join her, though they are reluctant for personal reasons. Despite their initial misgivings, the five overcome many hurdles and ultimately agree to form the band "Poppin'Party". With her bandmates, Kasumi finds the excitement that she had been looking for.
During their first year of high school, Poppin'Party meets and befriends four all-girl bands at Hanasakigawa and nearby Haneoka Girls' High School, each of whom has their own stories: Afterglow consists of five childhood friends who maintain their friendship through music; Pastel Palettes is an idol group who are capable of playing their own instruments; Roselia is a gothic rock band who strives to become the perfect band; and Hello, Happy World! is an eccentric band that seeks to spread happiness. As second-year students, they encounter Raise A Suilen, an electronic music group aiming to revolutionize the girl's band genre, and Morfonica, a newly formed classical band of first-years at Tsukinomori Girls' Academy with dreams of changing themselves for the better.
A year later, a band called Crychic disbands on acrimonious terms. Some of their members form a new group called MyGO!!!!! while others create Ave Mujica. The two bands maintain a relationship with each other while often interacting with the other seven.
History Early history (2015–2016)
The premise for BanG Dream! was conceptualized in March 2014 by Bushiroad president Takaaki Kidani, who wanted to lead a music project after seeing the success of Love Live! School Idol Festival, a mobile game published by his company. When a staff member attended The Idolmaster Masters of Idol World!! 2014 concert at Saitama Super Arena, they took interest in guitarist Aimi and proposed having her in an all-female band. Figuring that such a concept would best be viable as a media franchise, Kidani concluded his new project's best method to gain success would be to have voice actresses who could play their own instruments in live shows. To differentiate it from similar music works, Kidani has stressed that BanG Dream! is not an idol franchise but a "girl band" series.
Novelist Kō Nakamura was approached by a Bushiroad editor who had read his music book Round and Round Slide to write the story, and he partnered with Aya Ishida for the franchise's first work BanG_Dream! Star Beat; the manga started serialization in the Monthly Bushiroad magazine in January 2015. Star Beat universe was retconned following the franchise's reboot in 2016 as BanG Dream! without the underscore. According to an August 24, 2016, post on Nakamura's Livedoor blog, the name BanG Dream! stemmed from the idea of "shooting" toward one's dreams. Nakamura, who is formally credited as the franchise's original story creator, based certain aspects of the plot on his high school life such as the desire and efforts to form a band, the guitarist finding the instrument in a pawnshop, and band meetings being held in a warehouse. To produce music, Kidani enlisted Noriyasu Agematsu of Elements Garden, who was skeptical of the franchise's concept due to the difficulties in balancing voice acting with practicing musical instruments but subsequently signed on to the project. Prior musical experience was not a prerequisite for voice actresses as their primary responsibility was to portray characters for in-universe media, though they remained committed to playing their instruments, a mindset that Kidani felt grew the series' charm with fans; in 2019, he noted that some cast members practiced for ten hours daily.
At her Love Generation concert on February 28, 2015, Aimi announced she had aligned with the franchise, which included creating a band and serving as its guitarist and vocalist. Rimi Nishimoto and Ayasa Itō joined the band in April, and the three hosted the project's first concert on April 18. In June, Aimi performed a solo concert at CharaExpo 2015 in Singapore, the franchise's first performance outside of Japan. The group was officially named Poppin'Party during the month, and Sae Ōtsuka and Ayaka Ōhashi completed the band lineup later in the year. In addition to live performances, the five would voice their own characters in other media such as an anime series and animated music videos; the character designs were also loosely modeled after their voice actresses to better reflect their ability to sing and perform.
Poppin'Party's debut single "Yes! BanG_Dream!" was released on February 24, 2016. A music video for the song was produced by Issen, a joint venture formed between Bushiroad and OLM, Inc. in 2015 that was also tasked with developing the anime. To lead the animation, Nakamura served as writer while Agematsu and Pixiv artist Hitowa managed music production and character design, respectively. Poppin'Party conducted the franchise's first in-character live on April 24; the group's early performances were inspired by fellow all-female group Silent Siren, and the two bands collaborated in May 2019 for the Battle of the Bands-style No Girl No Cry concert at MetLife Dome. Poppin'Party's third single "On Your New Journey / Tear Drops" ranked tenth on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart in December, marking the first time an anime music group appeared in an Oricon chart's top ten prior to their show beginning broadcast.
Launch of anime and Girls Band Party! (2017–2019)
In 2017, BanG Dream! expanded to include the anime and the mobile game BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!. Prior to the latter's release, the franchise struggled to attract further fan support; in the spring, media attention was drawn to an official dōjinshi (self-published works like manga) event that saw only nine registered circles (a group of artists creating a certain work) despite organizing for 400 available circles. A lukewarm reception to the anime prompted Kidani to refocus his scope on the game; by its launch in March 16, GBP had attracted over 560,000 pre-registered players. Kidani attributed its eventual success to the collaboration with Craft Egg and Elements Garden and the inclusion of cover versions of popular songs. Four more bands—Afterglow, Pastel Palettes (stylized as Pastel＊Palettes), Roselia, and Hello, Happy World!—were introduced with the game's arrival.
Roselia, who first appeared at Tokyo Game Show 2016, released its first single "Black Shout" on April 19, 2017. The group then enjoyed success in May 2018 when its debut album Anfang, which contained the band's first five singles, was first on the Oricon Weekly Digital and iTunes album charts; the album also sold 25,000 copies in the first week of release, the second-most on the Oricon Weekly Albums Chart. The band went through two member changes in 2018, with Yuki Nakashima replacing the retiring Yurika Endō as bassist Lisa Imai in May and Kanon Shizaki taking over for Satomi Akesaka, who left the project in September due to sensorineural hearing loss, as keyboardist Rinko Shirokane in November. In March 2020, Roselia won the 14th Seiyu Awards' Singing Award.
The vocalists for Afterglow (Ayane Sakura), Pastel Palettes (Ami Maeshima), and Hello, Happy World! (Miku Itō) were revealed during a presentation at Sunshine City, Tokyo on December 7, 2016. Afterglow's remaining cast members confirmed their involvement later in the month, while the voice actresses for the other bands were announced in a promotional event at EX Theater Roppongi on February 24, 2017. The three bands released their debut singles in 2017: Pastel Palettes' "Shuwarin Dreaming" (released July 12) ranked the highest on Oricon's weekly charts in fourth, followed by Hello, Happy World!'s "Orchestra of Smiles!" (August 2) and Afterglow's "That Is How I Roll!" (September 6) in ninth and 18th, respectively.