Jacen's Rants

How Not To Pace An Anime - Ave Mujica Episode 4 Rant

January 25, 2025

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Beware of general BanG Dream! spoilers

Since my last Ave Mujica post, the anime has decided to once again go off the deep end with its pacing.

In a well-written anime, the climax begins close to the end. In Bandori specifically, season 1's climax started around episode 10. Season 2 and 3 both started around episode 9, and MyGO started around episode 8.

All of that is to say that Bandori does know how to pace a story properly. And yet, here we are, hitting the climax at episode 4. And this is definitely the climax; stakes have to continue to rise in order for a story to remain engaging, and there isn't a lot of room left to go from here while staying realistic.

There are only two directions things can go from here. Either the writing team runs out of steam trying to continue to raise the stakes, or the final 9 episodes drag things out for way too long.

The breakup of Ave Mujica has left the characters in a very precarious situation. The most likely scenarios that I see for the remainder are either a 9 episode arc covering the reforming of the band or an endless cycle of breakups and get-togethers, and neither of those scenarios sound super engaging to me. Hopefully, the anime can surprise me, but I don't see many ways to salvage things from here.