I’ve noticed a lot of music-themed anime coming along lately, from Anonymous Noise to others such as the Love Live series. While they may tend to blend together after seeing so many, Sentai Filmworks’ Bang Dream: Complete Collection still manages to be a fun slice-of-life series filled with plenty of laughs, tears, and of course music for all to see.
The story centers on Kasumi Toyama, a young lady that loves looking at stars. When she gets transferred to a new school and happens to see some signs shaped like stars laid around town, she can’t resist the urge to follow them and see where they lead. She finally makes it to her destination, a shop that her classmate Arisa’s grandmother runs, and who happens to be selling a star-shaped guitar.
Kasumi decides having that guitar and forming a band is her destiny in life and sets out to do so, but it’ll be tough being the new girl at school and finding band members along with convincing Arisa’s grandmother to sell her the guitar. Kasumi isn’t one to give up though, and she’s determined to make it happen no matter what drama, laughs and pains she has to go through to do it.
As I stated earlier, I’m sure most anime viewers out there have seen shows like this time and time again, with perhaps some being better than this one. Even still, I found myself drawn to this one as it was fun watching Kasumi do her best to fulfill her dreams while going through all sorts of good and bad times in the process. The other characters featured are also just as interesting and fun to watch as she is, and the show is made even better when they all come together. Everything looks and sounds great on Blu-ray here, as all the details come through nicely in high definition.
As far as extras go, there’s an OVA episode to go along with this 13-episode series that’s a nice treat after the show is over. There’s also some clean opening and closing animations that round out the special features.
If you’re looking for a fun, slice-of-life series with some laughs and drama revolving around making a band, you can’t go wrong with the Bang Dream: Complete Collection. A cool cast of characters making their way through all kinds of situations both good and bad along with some fun tunes and a bonus OVA episode makes this dream start and end with a bang.
