Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast -

Episode 11

It's MyGO!!!!! made its name on its thoughtful, grounded approach to drama. It was emotionally intense, yes, but much of that was predicated on the visibly raw psychological wounds of the characters opening up even more on-screen. The biggest dramatic "reveal" was the scheming, self-serving nature of Soyo, something the direction clearly highlighted before her visible meltdown. Ave Mujica, being a fucked-up funhouse mirror of its sister series, is all about surprising swerves and emotional jump-scares. Much of its drama has been rooted in reveals, from the truth of Sakiko's departure from CRYCHIC, to the existence of Mortis, to Umiri having so little game you could call her a PlayStation 5. Necessarily riding that kind of escalation as a narrative force means that Ave Mujica was always going to run the risk of going too far, too absurd, too soap opera with itself, and I suspect this episode might be where that line is. To say nothing of how this certainly signals a serious shark-jump for some steadfast shippers.

Unless you are, like me, an indulgent sicko. I was elated with what Ave Mujica did this week.

Meet Hatsune Misumi, the 100% certified, always assurified, normalest girl in the world. You might better know her as Uika, the name of the half-sister whose identity and relationship with Sakiko she appropriated in a fit of desperate jealousy. I'll be referring to her as 'Hatsune' just in the space of this review, mostly to keep her straight with other characters, but I firmly believe she will be 'Uika' as far as everyone is concerned by the time this is all over.

This isn't a direct episode-number parallel as so many Ave Mujica entries have been with It's MyGO!!!!!, but it mirrors parts of the previous series nonetheless. Specifically, featuring a full flashback backstory for a character puts it in company with It's MyGO!!!!!'s always-notable third episode. The difference is that instead of showing the audience Tomori's world through her eyes, they have Hatsune performatively narrate her past. The story isn't seen, it's staged—literally. The one-woman-show approach to Hatsune's recounting of her tragic backstory is a bold one when "show, don't tell" is a level-one criticism.

Of course, as mentioned, I'm an indulgent sicko, so I ate this move up. Two minutes in I was saying "I hope this is how the whole episode is." I personally would've been happy had they gone even more minimalist and not included the illustrative projections onto the backdrop; I appreciate the stylized, shadowy aesthetics therein, though. Ave Mujica has always been about putting the "art" in "artifice" and being steeped in the presentation of stage aesthetics is its foundation for that. This is an episode designed to be an exposition dump, so giving Rico Sasaki a full stage to herself to exposit as dramatically as possible makes for a marked, memorable method of doing so. It's certainly a place to get some of the best mileage yet out of the CGI character acting, letting Hatsune writhe on the stage ingloriously or even take a moment to have two of herself animating around each other. It's arresting.

Presenting Hatsune's history this way is also effective because it allows her narration to detach into the necessarily unreliable. "Uika" has never been the most forthright (recall that I called her "the one to really watch out for" way back when I started this adventure), and her story here doesn't wholly add up. Was it really her mother who decided not to accept the offer of the Togawas and to live on the island instead? Was Uika truly someone who looked so much like Hatsune that a close friend like Sakiko would mistake one for the other? Did Hatsune really come clean about her identity and circumstances with Sakiko's father so soon after meeting him in Tokyo? How could she even know about these conversations these people had behind closed doors with her father Sadaharu Togawa, the guy whose fault all this is, like, at least 75%?

A lot of these are symptoms of Hatsune's self-loathing (a prerequisite for joining Ave Mujica) and eventual reaction to Sakiko because of it. "You turned me, a pitiful being, into a human!" she declares. "Wanting to become human" is a refrain, a motif, and multiple whole-ass songs throughout this whole work, but here specifically it again recalls that third episode of It's MyGO!!!!!. The difference there was that Sakiko's gaze allowed Tomori to actualize based on her true, genuine self (as Tomori doesn't know any other way to be) while with Hatsune, Sakiko never cared who she was until she put on the Uika mask. Small wonder that the previous episode saw Hatsune attempting to become Tomori by emulating her songwriting so she could reconnect with Sakiko. Becoming someone else was how Hatsune got close to Sakiko to begin with.

Nearly all of Hatsune's existence has been based on mirroring others, from repeating Mana's donut-based friendship gesture to replicating Mortis' self-care instructions—all aimed directly at Sakiko. The one thing Hatsune has that is genuinely hers is her love for the sky and its stars, and when she shared that with the person she cared about, Sakiko unknowingly co-opted it into a metaphor comparing Hatsune to Uika. She feels doomed to an unhappiness she can never escape, as she and Sakiko are crossed by those stars.

It's precision-cut tragedy at this point, even with the looming question of how much of Hatsune's stage production turns out to actually be true. And the star-crossed toxicity of this whole situation enhances it in ways I wish Ave Mujica would commit even deeper to. To wit: Hatsune having the barrier of being Sakiko's blood-related aunt would be an even more cruel spin on their relationship if I could genuinely believe the production would actually let them kiss at any point. As is, it's a vicious trap to spring on viewers, but it mostly serves to put off the sorts of shippers who needed an excuse to jump from something like this; it's ineffectual on a sicko like me. Cowardly corporate interference, whether it's from the Togawa Group or Bushiroad, will always be the true enemy of compelling creation.

This episode brings on the new taboo of revealing Hatsune and Sakiko's family tree, alongside being a presentation-minded backstory delivery system that doesn't advance the instanced "plot" much. That means this was always destined to be a polarizing episode of a series that already thrives on provoking reactions. But joke's on the geniuses making Ave Mujica: I loved this episode! It uses the artistic specialties of this series (distinct from It's MyGO!!!!!) to push the envelope of what BanG Dream! can do. Plus it provides very fun recontextualization fodder, such as revisiting the scene where Sakiko meets with the girl she knows as Uika back in It's MyGO!!!!!'s eighth episode. Important to remember that both shows were apparently conceived and written at the same time as part of a whole. How that means they landed on the wilder revelations of this episode, and where they might land afterwards, still can't be safely known. But so long as the journey to get to that destination remains this engrossing, I'll stay happily plastered up against the window watching it, going "Yes…Ha Ha Ha…YES!"

Rating:

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Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast - is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

Chris is a fan of angsty music girls, BanG Dream! or otherwise, and has even written a few posts about them over on his blog. You can also hit up his BlueSky where he's surely reskeeting all sorts of wild Ave Mujica art.