A "BanG Dream! Our Notes" Rant

It's been around a week since Bushiroad announced a new game in the Bandori franchise called "Our Notes". To say opinions have been mixed would be putting it mildly. So, I've decided to throw my hat into the ring and give my thoughts on Bandori's new direction.

For the uninitiated, let me give you a brief history of the events that are relevant to this news. Bandori's premiere mobile game has been "Girls Band Party", which launched way back in 2015 to shockingly high acclaim. It originally contained what I still consider to be Bandori's five "core" bands: Poppin'Party, Afterglow, Pastel*Palettes, Roselia, and Hello, Happy World! Later on, Morfonica was added as a new band in early 2020, and RAISE A SUILEN were included as well after the third season of the Bandori anime concluded later than summer.

In spring 2022, the next generation of Bandori was announced in the form of "It's MyGO!!!!!", an anime centered around the titular band, MyGO!!!!! They were added to GBP in the fall of 2023. The second band of this new generation, Ave Mujica, received their own anime in 2025 as something of a sequel to the MyGO anime, and fans began anticipating their addition to the game.

With all that out of the way, let's get into Our Notes. On December 8, 2025, Bushiroad registered trademarks for the wordmarks and logos for "BanG Dream! Our Notes", quickly leading to wild speculation. On January 12, 2026, they officially revealed Our Notes as a brand new game in the Bandori franchise. GBP will continue the stories of the core five and the two expansion bands, while MyGO will move to Our Notes alongside Mujica, Mugendai Mewtype, and two brand new bands, millsage and Ikka Dumb Rock!

I don't enjoy playing the doomer, but I have a hard time seeing the bright side of this reorganization. It's been clear to me since the launch of MyGO that Bushiroad was trying to wipe the slate clean and reboot the franchise, so this seems like a way for them to sunset the core five and GBP, even if they say they'll support both games for now. I find the core five to be far more interesting characters than MyGO and Mujica, especially after how abysmal the Mujica anime was, so it's very disappointing to see the writing on the wall.

The move is also a bit of a slap in the face to fans who have invested in MyGO in GBP. With MyGO's event stories leaving the game, those cards that they've put resources into are now completely worthless. To a lesser extent, it's also an insult to fans who have been saving up for the launch of Mujica, who now will never have a chance to spend those resources.

The inclusion of Mewtype is also a bit of a bizarre call. Since their debut single in 2023, Bushiroad has done a pretty awful job marketing that group. They also don't seem to have a clear picture of what exactly they want Mewtype to be; they started as a VTuber group, but now have shifted to start doing live performances as well, and the recent trailer and key visual for their upcoming anime just leave more questions than answers.

As for millsage and Dumb Rock, it remains to be seen, but I can't say I'm impressed by their visual designs. It remains to be seen how they ultimately end up being handled, but the first impressions aren't positive to me.

Bandori has been mishandled for years, something that was made particularly apparent with the disaster of Mujica, and this is just another step in that direction. These are the exact same kinds of decisions that led Love Live to the School Idol Festival 2 failure, so I can only hope that Bushiroad doesn't find itself repeating the same mistakes.