Yukina, Lisa, Sayo, Ako, and Rinko – the five young members of all-girl band Roselia – take the spotlight in the brand new theatrical film BanG Dream! Episode of Roselia I: Promise!
This is the first installment of a two-part story that follows Roselia’s formation and journey through several live performances and practices, as the band makes its way towards its ultimate goal of being on stage at the Future World FES! If Roselia is your favorite band from the globally popular BanG Dream! series, this movie is definitely for you.
Here at TOM, we thought it would be cool to give a short spoiler-free review of the movie while it’s currently streaming in the US and Canada with English subtitles.
To borrow from one of Ako’s favorite phrases, everyone in Roselia is super cool! Each member of the band has their own unique personality, and Episode of Roselia I: Promise gives every girl ample screen time to demonstrate her charm to the audience.
There’s Yukina Minato, the band’s leader and vocalist. She’s extremely committed to her goals and not the type to mince words, even to those closest to her.
Like Yukina, the guitarist Sayo Hikawa is determined to improve her sound through hard work and catch up to her talented twin sister. Sayo always speaks formally, which is pretty much the exact opposite style of fellow band member Ako!
Ako Udagawa is the liveliest of the bunch. The band’s drummer and a gamer, she loves things that are super cool and having a fun time.
It’s through Ako that her bestestestest friend Rinko Shirokane joined Roselia. Rin-chan is very shy, especially with people she speaks to for the first time. She overcomes her shyness by performing on stage as Roselia’s keyboardist.
Last but not least is Lisa Imai, the band’s bassist. Lisa is a supportive and thoughtful person, caring about the wellbeing of everyone in Roselia, but especially Yukina, her childhood friend.
Yukina, Lisa, Sayo, Ako, and Rinko are voiced by Aina Aiba, Yuki Nakashima, Haruka Kudo, Megu Sakuragawa and Kanon Shizaki respectively. The voice actresses do an incredible job bringing their characters to life! You can tell that they worked hard to express each individual’s personality, and this is especially true during some of the more dramatic and emotional scenes in the film. Whether it’s Yukina pushing her bandmates to get on rhythm or Rinko struggling to vocalize the words she wants to say out loud, the voices behind Roselia make you sympathize with what each girl is going through.
Fans of BanG Dream! will get to soak in the new Roselia tracks “Proud of oneself” and “overtuRe” during the movie, as well as other recognizable songs. This excellent music is backed by stunning animated visual close-ups that showcase the girls of Roselia performing with their instruments in fun and vibrant costumes (designed by Rinko, of course)!
But it’s not all about bright spotlights and cute outfits. As mentioned earlier, each member of Roselia has her own personality, along with her own vision of what the band should be. How do differing opinions affect the band? Will they be too much to handle, or are they necessary growing pains in order to reach the Future World FES? These are the kind of questions that Episode of Roselia I: Promise explores. After watching “Promise,” we can’t wait to see how the girls continue to face these challenges and take on new ones in Episode II!
For info on watching the film (including territories outside the US and Canada), check out BanG Dream!’s official website.
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This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article written by Sean Cardeno.