Girls Band Cry, S.1, Ep.10 - Wandervogel
Added 2025-06-26 15:00:08 +0000 UTCWell...this one hit deep. Close to home for me...
Comments
Thought y'all might appreciate this except from the official fan book interview on how the staff designed this episode. Director Kazuo Sakai is one of the three main creators of the story for the show, along with overall series producer Tadashi Hirayama and screenwriter Jukki Hanada: "In that state—having left the countryside, she has to face society...—Why is Iseri Nina allowed to be in that state, having given up on going to college... This was written intentionally from the very beginning: it's because her parents are caring for her to some extent. No matter how much she rebels against her parents, she can't deny that fact. That's why I absolutely had to depict that story at some point. I've been writing from episode 1 with that premise, so I always intended to do [this plot of] episode 10 from the start. Because of that, Iseri Nina remained selfish for a good part of the story. That characterization was done on purpose. So what her father says to Iseri Nina is an irrefutable argument, and he's totally right. I felt that, no matter what, it had to be there as a mountain which she needed to overcome at least once." (Hanada) In producing episode 10, Sakai also pondered it over and over. "This connects to what I said about not wanting the ending to be a tragedy. People like us who make anime are the same in that. we live lives different from the normal path of going to college, getting a job, and so on. That's precisely why I wanted to tell a story where there's no regret or nostalgia for that [different] path, but on the other hand, it's also wrong to completely deny her father's way of life. It's neither that she wants to be forgiven, nor that she wants to forgive him, but she understands her father's way of life. While feeling, 'I wonder if Dad also had it tough, too?', she still thinks, 'But I won't forgive him.' In episode ten, I felt it would be good if I could depict it in a 'that's that, and this is this' kind of way. My own father probably never understood what kind of work his son was doing until the end, but as long as I was doing well, that should have been enough for him. That's why I thought that at the end, from either perspective—the father hugging Iseri Nina, or Iseri Nina being hugged—they would probably hate it. ...It's a difficult thing, though. I can't give a definitive answer. But arriving at an answer there isn't necessarily for the best. I don't think I could ever depict a life where someone gets everything 100% right. Or rather, maybe I feel that life is about making mistakes somewhere along the way; you mess up, you mess up again, and that's how you gradually find your own version of what's right. That's why this series has become that kind of work. It's not limited to episode 10; it has aspects like that throughout."
Andrew Hellebrand
2025-06-28 15:15:39 +0000 UTCIn many ways this is a more low key episode, but it also highlights the attention to detail aspects of the show that help me become so absorbed in the storyline, get emotionally invested and root for the main cast. Despite the slightly heightened drama of disagreements and exaggerated facial expressions as part of the animation style, for the most part everything that happens in the show feels pretty grounded and believable overall. You covered a lot of the major elements in your reaction already, so I can't add as much insight this time, but I do like how this episode allows us to explore Nina's backstory and her relationship with her family in greater detail. Her dad realised he messed up with how he'd dealt with Nina's bullying & dropping out of school the first time round, but how differently they think and their polar opposite personalities meant it took some of this time gap & separation for him to re-examine things and grasp where he went wrong. Nina's biggest issue with her dad, outside of the more general underlying communication issues, is that she felt like he didn't fully believe the extent of the bullying and just have her back when the school wanting to try to sweep the bullying under the rug and move on. I also liked the little asides with Tomo & Rupa, with the former worried that Nina might not come back but not being able to outwardly express it verbally and Rupa seeing right through her facade. With the six year age gap and how both encouraging & slightly protective she is, it feels like Rupa has taken on the role of the caring older sister that Tomo never had (parts of the fandom ship them instead, but that's just typical anime fan yuri projection). Nice parallel with Nina's relationship with her own big sister as well.
Andrew Hellebrand
2025-06-28 15:10:08 +0000 UTC
