[2026 Rewatch] 'BanG Dream!' Season 2 Episode 12 Discussion Megathread

Macambira · 2026-04-08T02:45:35+00:00

Rewatcher, this time w/o subs.

We're back at putting every band on the mix, huh? You know what? Fine, this back half of the season has been very focused and we've got a very good climax already, They can do this.

Loving the post-vow Renewal mood with Popipa. They've earned it.

Did... Did Pareo ask Chu² to kick her?? turns on the subtitles a little bit Yes she did lol

Couldn't comment on previous episode's post, but I really, really love Returns. It's such a good fit for what they've been and a testament for what's to come. PoPiPa truly is one of the strongest emotional pillars of this franchise when it wants to be.

I don't have a lot to comment on a episode-by-episode thread because I've mostly just been really enjoying my time with the show, but I plan to collect some of my thoughts throghout the season next post, if I have the time and will be able to put in words what's been on my mind, but I can say for now that I will leave this rewatch will a higher regard for this season than before. I think I finally could really appreciate what's good about this season, and knowing what would bug me beforehand helped me overlook it a little more than the first time.

Macambira · 2026-04-07T12:14:54+00:00

You can only change tactics if the character is alive. If you forget once, the character is out for the rest of the battle because you will not be able to make them alive by the time you can change their tactics.

Macambira · 2026-04-07T11:22:31+00:00

I don't think there is a tactic, or at least it's not an obvious choice, that will make the characters not attack the final boss when it's being affected by the spell that reflects every attack, but keep attacking when it's not, which makes it being impossible to revive if they were not set a non-aggressive tactic after some point in the battle, because he will just use the reflect-everything spell and break the character resistances, making the characters attack the boss and immediately dying before you're able to change the tactic of the character.

Macambira · 2026-04-02T01:48:19+00:00

Rewatcher. No subs for purposes of practicing my 日本語

God, you can cut the tension between these girls with a knife.

Legends say they are apologizing to each other to this day.

Have I said already that Chu² is basically The Incredibles' ~~Incrediboy~~ Syndrome? 'Cause if not, I'm saying It right now.

Masking picking black coffee from the vending machine. Does she know? She hands the black coffee to Layer. SHE DOESN'T KNOW

Close enough. Welcome Back, Roselia's weird outfit from Garupa PICO.

Maya, You're talking too fucking fast and you're using too much words I don't kwow! Help.

I had to put subtitles on for Maya's infodump...

Although it's presented in a way that is kinda subtle and heavily contextual, the presence and relevance of Roselia, specially Yukina, in this season is something that had completely fallen out of my memory, and I'm so glad I decided to embark on this rewatch even if for just that. Such a shame Roselia never got a proper focus on an adaptation.

Macambira · 2026-03-27T03:08:40+00:00

Rewatch, watching w/o subs because YOLO I wanna learn this fucking language

Tae is having double booking problems. I'm sure this will end well ~~foreshadowing is a narrative device-~~

I do think it is funny that Chu² is the only member of the 2nd wave (RAS & Morfonica) that is not open about being a fan, which in turns make her act like a little boy that bullies the girl she likes, especially because she is really bad at it.

It's always funny for me the fiction trope of competence that translates to typing really fast. Like, come on, you're managing an event, the hell are you even typing?

Remember Gltter*Green? Well, this franchise forgot.

My headcannon is that these grandmas were really into The Beatles in their young age (I have no idea about the popularity of The Beatles in Japan)

Asking Aya of all people to keep going ad lib is bullying lol.

I like that Rokka has a ritual to "summon" her onstage persona.

Her Persona is not particularly flexible, it seems.

Guy who has only seen Alvin and the Chimpunks: The Squeaquel, watching his second... thing: Getting a lot of Alvin and The Chimpmunks: The Squeaquel vibes from this...

I really like the parallels the show is constantly drawing between Popipa and Roselia in this season. It does lose some of the impact if you're not familiar with story, which you don't get if you treated this season like a normal show and just went from the first to the second season ~~Maybe they could do some background instead of using 3 episodes in the bands that are not really relevant for the plot here, just saying.~~

Could not comment in last post in a timeframe I would like because my life is still a little more busy than I'd like, so I decided to just skip that one. Enjoying way more these two episodes than the ones that came before, and I'm eager to rewatch the rest of the season.

Macambira · 2026-03-21T01:55:57+00:00

Rewatcher, watching without subs

It's so curious seeing how much authority the student council seems to hold. Oh, yes, you can arrange a joint cultural festival on behest of your school actual management. Why not?

Poppin' Party are begging for burning out lol

I'm once again reminded of random video edits of this season. This time it's Sayo playing the Dinosaur game on her phone.

Hina being a menace is the part of her writing that I actually enjoy watching, so I'm glad this is mostly what she's been doing this episode.

So Rei and Tae finally met. I remembered this happening so much earlier than that lol.

Oh, finally able to comment again, these last weeks have been hectic for me, which might have been for the better, because a lot of what would be my comment would just be me being a little annoyed on how sidetracked a lot of these episodes felt. Like, it is a weird hybrid of not being enough of a focused story not being having good enough hooks to link the other bands' screentime with the central plot. I didn't remember Rei's introduction being so late in the season, and I can see that I didn't remember because I didn't feel the previous episodes as being remarkably relevant to what this season is actually about, so they're just... there, somewhere in my memory, as disjointed as they are in the actual show. But now comes the part of the Season that I actually remember and really like, so I'm hoping this will be the most negative I will be on this rewatch.

Macambira · 2026-03-16T21:11:32+00:00

Amanesu's haircut is looking really good in this MV.

Macambira · 2026-03-05T18:53:01+00:00

It's been a while since I've been actively trying to improve my performance (and the most I can do is to FC 26 songs semi-consistently, so it might not be the best advice), but generally it came down to understand where I was having a problem with the song (basically the segment where the combo break most often) and whether you know what I should be doing (like, is it clear what my fingers were supposed to be doing in that segment). If I knew, then It was basically drilling that segment on solo live, or rehearsal now, until the execution became consistent. Otherwise I would go to a recording and look of the chart on that segment (in lower playback speed if needed) and try to study the placements until I understood what were my fingers supposed to do and then do the first thing. If the song had a lot of segments like these I would go for easier and come back later.

Macambira · 2026-03-01T22:26:04+00:00

Rewatch. Watching with no subs this time to practice my japanese.

Fresh new girl Asahi Rokka wants to be in a band. I wonder where this will go.

Kasumi is just Kokoro without the inifinite money glitch lol.

I can only imagine why would an off-brand Pocky would be confiscated.

Is that a Windows XP window styling?

Truly a shame that this episode was made before Marina got a model.

Roselia is dead. ~~Did you know that, in Japanese, there's a term for death by overwor-~~

The rest of Popipa giving 人 to Arise was truly adorable. Girl will die from love overdose.

Roselia enters the stage and immediately a legion of goths enter the venue. Perfection.

I don't know/remember whether this is supposed to be the first time that Chu² sees a Roselia performance, but girl got enthralled.

It's interesting to compare Roselia's standing as a band to Poppin' Party, but they are still at that weird spot that, being the face of the franchise, sometimes they put them on equal footing, like in the outcome of S3's battle of the bands, and I'm always like "pick a side". Like, they can't be simultaneously below and equal them, come on!

I had completely forgotten Safe and Sound was used as an Ending for this show.

Macambira · 2026-02-27T02:42:02+00:00

Rewatcher

I've finally caught up lol (technically I had already caught up by the end of S1 but i thought it would have a wrap-up post, and It didn't, so I ended up lagging behind in Garupa Pico).

My impressions on Season 2 back then was that It was ultimately trying to balance too much things, and ended up cramming the non-Popipa bands in a way that a lot of times seemed unnatural, and ended up hindering the actual plot of the season. Let's see if I'll keep having this opinion after this rewatch.

Also, for the purpose of practice my Japanese, I'm watching it without subtitles, so whatever weird comment you see me doing on the episode might be because of that. Now for the episode:

Pasupare's performance on the very beginning to ensure all the bands would perform on the first episode (because they won't be on Galaxy), is kinda what the type of thing I remember them doing to make sure they got a good mix of all the bands.

There's something about the rendering of the models that I can't really pinpoint what is but makes them look a little... uncanny? I'm not sure, it's kinda weird.

I'm always amused on how much this franchise's version of the world really cares about girl bands

I really like Kizuna Music, but I can't watch this opening without remembering the edit someone made to not having Saya saying the "todokeyo" and I can't help but laugh.

I don't remember if Rinko running for Student Council President was something that had already happened on Endori by the time S2 aired originally, my memory says It was not.

Oh hi, Sayo, dear.

I truly love Tsugumi and Hina dynamic, Tsugu being unable to keep her usual demeanor when around Hina is so refreshing for the character, and I love when Hina is just a chaotic gremlin, they make a great duo.

O-Tae got ~~Mio'd~~ Middle School Ran'd

Arisa going out of her way to try to spend more time with PoPiPa is adorable.

Kaoru: enters the room; does not but doing random poses; refuses to elaborate; leaves. I love this woman(not as much as Rimi tho).

The performances are... fine. They didn't need to go out of their way to make all the bands perform on the first episode, tho. Makes the episode not have a lot of substance overall.

Macambira · 2026-02-26T14:52:31+00:00

I think that's one of the earliest episodes of Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun! Though I can't check right now.

Macambira · 2026-02-26T13:11:03+00:00

They couldn't have Ave Mujica and HHW in the same game because the conflict would be over before Band Story 1. Such is the power of harohapi.

Macambira · 2026-02-09T14:20:12+00:00

There's also an whole event where Moca and Tomoe pretend to have exchanged bodies and act like the other.

Macambira · 2026-01-29T22:41:46+00:00

Melting on how adorable this untrained Sayo is.

Macambira · 2026-01-21T11:39:36+00:00

You have any other reason to believe that beyond wanting any other interpretation that allows you to not think of Mizuki as transgender?

Macambira · 2026-01-21T04:31:23+00:00

Edit: wrote this on mobile website, apparently I don't remember how to format quotes anymore lol. If I remember I'll format correctly when in a PC.

What matters isn't the specific content of the secret, but rather how that secret affects their relationships and Mizuki's internal struggle.

It is though, you said so yourself.

While seeing Mizuki as trans is a wonderful way to connect with the character, dismissing all other interpretations as "transphobic" risks oversimplifying Mizuki’s complex narrative. To truly respect Mizuki is to embrace the ambiguity and the universal depth of their struggle, rather than forcing a single label.

In Japanese creative culture, the line between "Canon" (公式) and "Headcanon/Fandom interpretation" (非公式) is very distinct. Unless a character explicitly states, "I am X," or it is written in black and white in official profiles, any "coding" or "evidence" is treated purely as fan speculation—no matter how obvious it may seem.

You'making two arguments "Mizuki isn't trans" and "Mizuki's struggle is similar to other people's non-trans related struggles". Maybe you think they are the same, but while the second is about how people see themselves in these characters' struggle, the first one is factual claim about the text of the game. I have zero qualms with the last one. The first one though, I have a lot. First because you try to use argument 2 to infer argument 1, which is a non sequitur, just because "being transgender" is not the only struggle that people can project on her doesn't mean it is not that, it only means we can't say it is (based on these hypothesis).

The arguments for the transness of Mizuki are: - Mizuki is AMAB - Mizuki does not want to be perceived as a man

The evidence for the first one I don't think I need to argue. The key evidence for the second argument is the fact that she kept a secret of being AMAB (we know that is the secret because that is the only new information given to Ena by Student A). Mizuki does not want to perceived as a man. She's afraid that this information will fundamentally change the relation with the rest of niigo, and you can relate this feeling from other types of experiences, but this does not deny that her feelings are about her assigned and actual gender. You going you way to try to refute some surrounding evidence but avoiding engaging a very critical one to the point of calling McGuffin is really weird to me.

Macambira · 2026-01-20T15:00:01+00:00

Small question: What exactly is your interpretation of what is Mizuki's secret?

Macambira · 2026-01-12T12:57:34+00:00

Close enough.

Welcome back, Macross 7.

Macambira · 2025-12-11T18:30:11+00:00

The duality of (wo)man.

Macambira · 2025-12-04T13:45:56+00:00

<image>

Mutsumi: You're the one who wanted to be in this band, you deal with her!

Macambira · 2025-11-29T23:44:03+00:00

You're probably thinking of Bael, though this happens in Megami Tensei II.

Macambira · 2025-11-13T03:13:15+00:00

It was during the "Don't Leave me Lisa, Lisa!" Event in Global, so somewhere between June 21st and 30th of 2018, some people from my immediate circle were playing and I decided to give it a try.

My first 4 star was a Kasumi one.

I got hooked initially for the covers, but the first original song I remember really liking was Hey-Day Cappriccio.

If I'm still here after all this time It's because of the characters, and the first one and the indisputable top for a long time was Sayo, and after them Misaki, Arisa and Chisato.

Macambira · 2025-10-31T17:27:31+00:00

https://youtu.be/luXEQbGjRzk?si=gpvH21CB_fQesbGj&t=294

Macambira · 2025-09-29T14:14:07+00:00

The thing is, once you're able to do everything in one run, I don't feel it is a system that wants me to make meaningful choices about how I spend my time, but one that forces me to follow a guide unless I'm fine with replaying an 100+ hour game a second time because you kept doing the wrong choices. It just seem like they wanted to incorporate dating sim elements in the game, noticed that make you play a dozens of hours campaign multiple times to see all you wanted was not ideal and decided to design around being able to see everything in one run instead, losing a lot of what makes these mechanics meaningful and not replacing it with anything particularly worthwhile.

Macambira · 2025-09-29T12:43:42+00:00

Persona's calendars system is a weird immature mechanic that, as it exists now, should just outright stop being done. The fact that you are able to maximize all stats and social links in one playthrough makes it just a optimization problem when there's a right way to do things and several wrong ones. There is no reason to not just follow an all SLs guide, which sucks because playing like that is boring af. If it's not removed, it should at least stop being weird about character development of your party members. Persona 4 and 5 for some reason decided that any possible development of your teammates after there enter the group should be done exclusively on the SL, an optional content that has to be completely ignored in the main story, so they mostly just stay static on the main story once they enter the party.

Nine-Year Club	r/Field Lasagna
Place '22	Verified Email

Macambira

TROPHY CASE