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BanG Dream! Idol Franchise Gets All-Male Band Project

posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Shūta Morishima, Seiji Maeda, Daisuke Hyūga participate in new project with 1st concert in July

Bushiroad launched a website on Saturday to announce a new project in the BanG Dream! multimedia franchise. The new project will feature an all-male band. Voice actors Shūta Morishima, Seiji Maeda, and Daisuke Hyūga are part of the project.

The HiBiKi agency streamed a video on Twitter on Saturday featuring the three voice actors. In the video, the voice actors introduce themselves, and state that they will perform their first concert as part of the group name "Argonavis" in July. The voice actors ask fans for their support and state that they'll work hard as Argonavis.

Bushiroad launched the BanG Dream! multimedia project in January 2015, and the company formed the Poppin' Party band for the project in February 2015. The project's other bands include Happy World!, Pastel*Palettes, Afterglow, and Roselia. The band members consist of voice actresses who portray the characters in the story, and they play the same instruments as their characters.

The 13-episode BanG Dream! television anime premiered in January 2017, and Anime Network Online and Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan.

Sentai Filmworks will release the anime with English subtitles on home video on June 19, and it describes the story:

When she was a child, Kasumi Toyama (played by Poppin' Party's lead singer, Aimi) felt a heart-pounding thrill every time she gazed at the stars, and she's been looking without success for something that could inspire the same feeling ever since. One day, she comes across a star-shaped guitar in a rundown pawnshop and, for the first time, discovers the thrill she's been searching for. Kasumi becomes determined to form an all-girl band, and her search leads her to four like-minded souls: Saya, Arisa, Rimi, and Tae (all brought to life by the members of Poppin' Party). Does this band have what it takes to make their dreams of stardom come true?

A spinoff anime titled Pastel Life has been green-lit. The anime will star the band Pastel*Palettes. A release date has not yet been announced.

The BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! smartphone game launched in Japan in March 2017, and an English version launched in April.

[Via Ota-Suke]

Update: Bushiroad President Takaaki Kidani posted on Twitter that the male version of BanG Dream! has a different world setting from the existing BanG Dream!'s world setting. The characters from the two world settings will not intermingle, and he emphasized that the male version is a completely separate work. He added that he himself does not want to see male characters appear in the BanG Dream! franchise's existing world setting (except for the characters' fathers), although he noted that this is his personal opinion. Thanks, Random Name.


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