Show by Rock!!

This post is comprised of notes I took while watching episodes of Show by Rock!! for a contract with a friend of mine in July of 2023. Scores and comments may not reflect my present thoughts on the series, but generally reflect how I felt as I was watching each episode.

Episode 1

- Cyan is a good MC. Her nervous energy works in this episode, but she still sells her ambition well. Also good genki energy. She's a bit of a mary-sue, both in terms of musical talent and combat ability (which seem connected), but I doubt that'll be a problem really as long as the show doesn't get too into drama and stakes.

- Surprisingly more lewd than I expected for this show?

- The full furry CGI designs are...a choice...

- Not a fan of the manager. He's skeevy and pervy, even if not directly to the girls currently.

- Blonde and twins band is annoying. I think their schtick is they're "perfect" and that's not really my jam, especially in terms of humor.

- Other girls seem fine so far. Retoree is cute, although I can see her falling into a rut real quick. Chuchu has potential, but hasn't done much yet. I can already tell Moa is a ditz, and honestly she might be my least favorite of the main 4, a rarity honestly for a pink girl to be least fave. Speaking quirks can be cute, but hers seems obnoxious. I don't dislike any of them though, so pink girl being last isn't a condemnation. I think Cyan will hard carry this cast, but they should be fun enough, and there's room for them to work.

- Ending of the episode has me concerned that it'll go dramatic down the line, but here's hoping it doesn't...

- Overall, enjoying the 2D segments a fair bit. Don't care too much for the 3D stuff, but if it's just for the fight scenes I can live. I'm worried all the concerts will be 3D though...

Episode 2

- I am not big on the boys...3 chuunis and a straightman...

- tfw the cafe is a bar

- "Rom works for a company" see this is a pretty neutered opportunity for some quality characterization. Like, tell me what the company is. Does he like his work? Does he have interests or aspirations? I get they're using this to characterize him as responsible compared to his chuuni bandmates, but like...this felt like a wasted opportunity and it made me sad.

- So...Cyan's gonna be missing irl for a while...

- Yeah...shame about these concert scenes

- Wasn't as big on this episode as the last. A bit of fun SoL here and there though, so was alright.

Episode 3

- Alright Moa is growing on me actually. She's got a fun quirk.

- Main girl of new band seems potentially fun as a rival. Other girls are meh.

- I don't really get why Retoree had such a crisis here. Like, I get being nervous or somewhat disheartened by your opponent being really good, but her hangups weren't about that, and then she acts like the stakes of this one competition were end-all-be-all? I was genuinely confused if there were stakes beyond just the prize for winning because she made such a big deal out of it. Then they lose and like I thought it's no big deal. So why was she going on about the consequences of losing when the real conflict was that she didn't feel like she'd connected with her bandmates as friends?

- Cyan's method of getting Retoree back in was also super awkward. She's an awkward person, so that's not an issue in her character, but the way in which it succeeds where everyone gets enthusiastic (instead of maybe just acknowledging the attempt) felt off-beat. And I get why the show did it this way. Cyan is our genki lead to our music show, like Yui from K-On! and Rinku from D4DJ. The role of this kind of character is to connect others and use her enthusiasm so others gravitate towards her. And I don't mind Cyan playing that role. But she can't skip over necessary development to do this, and her awkwardness (while endearing and in my opinion a positive thing because it sets her apart) does change how she should be able to go about things. It could have been a great way to connect with Retoree one-on-one, but in this setting it feels weird.

- All of that being said, I think Cyan and Retoree are decently well constructed. Some of my understanding of how they function as characters does kind of rely on my understanding of tropes from the genre, but they also have distinguished themselves somewhat. Cyan especially I feel is well characterized. Retoree got some decent characterization this episode, although I hesitate to call it well executed since it's mostly internal monologue and it contradicts her actions in the episode, but I do feel like I understand the character better because of that. I'm a bit worried though that Retoree's internal conflict has been resolved, and in an unearned way.

- Haven't talked about the music yet. The pop-rock music is pretty good so far. Not really a fan of the OP, but the performances have some fun songs.

Episode 4

- Ok actually I do like the direction of Retoree's development. It's not quite as absolute as I thought, and it's not just tossed aside, just pushed her to try a bit harder to connect with her band mates. Also makes for a nice lead-in for the episode.

- Cutting to the big bads I guess gives us some reason for the battle from last episode

- A 2D PERFORMA...oh...well we almost had something good going...

- Costume episode, huh?

- Boy drama... and food crimes

- Moa setup is decent.

Episode 5

- Oh god Retoree is a 4channer

- Triple flashback…ugh…

- I do like the overall progression. Feels like plot points flow pretty well into each other and keep moving forward.

- The boys suck still

Episode 6

- Did I miss an episode? Why we starting on the beach after last episode? Is it really just to be like "Hey guys, girls in bathing suits ahead after we finish up that drama stuff, don't worry yourselves!"?

- Way better than Ep 3 in pretty much every way. Good payoff for what that set up, even if it fumbled it at the time.

Episode 7

- Oh god, a full boy episode? And it's starting with the same fucking gags that repeat every time they're on screen.

- Ok, we have a plotline with the girls

- I guess Rom acts a bit different in this episode...by having the same reaction as the other 3 losers lol

- Fight scene sucked. This show isn't as good at connecting music to combat as, say, Symphogear, even though it clearly wants to do that.

- Not a good episode :/

Episode 8

- Ok, if their battle of the bands didn't count as a live concert the first time, why would it count this time?

- Rosia pretty good

- The boys are getting worse wtf. They're such assholes to each other.

- It's a bit unreasonable for Cyan to so easily connect the Dark Monster incident with what's happening with Aion, especially since she isn't very familiar with him or his change in behavior.

- lmfao these mfers really just spotted him from a helicopter, recognized him even though they've only met him once, and said he has a negative aura

- Better than the last episode I guess, but I hope we're done with the boys for a while. Like, rest of the season a while. I can feel my score dropping.

Episode 9

- "We have our own weapon!" *pulls out swimsuit pic*

- We need more about Rosia's motivation and why she's so competitive with Cyan. She's acting weirdly omniscient about who Cyan is and I don't really know why, considering the show has implied she isn't directly connected to the more knowledgeable characters in a way which would give her info about Cyan.

- Decent expansion on some of the stuff set up in Ep 3. Not nearly as good as Ep 6, but one of the stronger episodes in terms of drama.

- Them announcing CriCri already has entry into the festival made me question, why did CriCri accept this battle? What can they actually possibly get out of this? I know they're targeting Cyan, but what can they get from defeating Cyan here?

- Oh no, where did ChuChu get monster AIDS from? Did she fuck Aion?

- That was a really fucking short song lol

- Yo wtf they're killing off Rosia?!? She's one of the cutest in the cast, you can't do that

- The series is pretty heavily committing to the drama of it all at this point, which I'm not super psyched about :/ That said, I did like that we got back focused on the girls this episode. It's not a bad thing necessarily, just kinda worried it tries to get too serious.

Episode 10

- Not liking how ambition is portrayed as this great evil in this show.

- Having such an abrupt resolution without much real working out of the feelings which led to the conflict really belittles the conflict itself and makes it seem like a plot device...They do kinda work the feelings out afterwards, but in the moment it didn't make much sense for things to resolve in terms of ChuChu's brainwashing, since those were based in feelings which she still holds and need to be worked out, which they do after. Just felt like things were kind of out of order a bit. Also makes her feelings come off as more of a plot device to neuter Berry-san.

- I did like this episode somewhat. Some good characterization for ChuChu, exploring her motivations and ambitions. I kind of wish it was a bit more poignant on exploring ambition more consistently throughout the episode, but it still did well enough.

- Special version of the ED is neat. 2nd of these interesting flairs I've noticed, first being the Yokai episode title card in Ep 7

Episode 11

- Some payoff for the country bumpkins is kinda neat I guess.

- So...if the other bands participating didn't get pulled into the final battle, why did the Crimson boys? I get the 3 who have members Dagger wants to use being pulled in, but why Crimson when that isn’t the case for them and then no one else?

- So uh...Did they just imply that Far East girl murdered someone last time she defeated a beast? lmao

- 2 part finale time I guess.

Episode 12

- Reee you can't just resolve the conflict without resolving the feelings behind their actions if you're gonna make it so the basis of the conflict are those feelings reeee They just magic blast the evil energy away

- I appreciate the anti-megacorpo stance of the series

- Blonde girl is very convenient to have...

- Decent finale. Battle scene without the CG designs is a sort of blessing. Some fun hype.

Overall thoughts:

- This series feels like it had someone who knew what they were doing come in and do the outline of the general plot, and they were pretty good at it, but then the people who wrote the scripts for the actual episodes didn't get why things happen the way they do, and they kind of just fill up screen time between events. There are some plot and character development moments which flow really well together, and I think there's a strong foundation here, but what they've built ends up flimsy because it ain't got any meat on those bones.

- The comedy was really weak, I hate to say. Some jokes work pretty well, particularly with the main 4, but most of the comedy relies on the dudes, and the dudes suck.

- I wish we'd fleshed out more of the side cast. I get we don't have space for them to all get in-depth episodes, but they really come off as one-note, every single one of them.

- I also wish the main cast got more time to do fun Slice-of-Life things and really develop. I was honestly surprised by how much screentime the boys got, it ended up being a much bigger detriment to the series than I could have ever predicted in those first 6 episodes. I like this main cast, and Cyan really shone in those first few episodes. Episode 6 was quite good, because it really built on things established throughout the previous episodes. But past that point, it floundered and sputtered out. Not even Cyan was particularly good in the back half of the show, she kind of just exists and does stuff, but none of it means anything.

- I was really hoping to get more payoff for what was set up in Episodes 3 and 6, but every moment they could have, they just hand-waved it. I think they realized the show was ending and rushed the plot and forgot everything they'd worked so hard to build in the first half.

I'd say where I left off in my last update, I was well on track to give this a 7 if it had kept its momentum from Ep 6, how high of a 7 depending on how high the highs went. Unfortunately, this back half ended up just dragging the rest down, and I'm left disappointed. Gonna give this a low 6 for now. I'm hoping the other seasons work out better.