MyGO and Ave Mujica caught me by surprise this season with their profoundly pathetic character portrayal.
Guide: MyGO is Season 1, and its sequel or "MyGO Season 2" is Ave Mujica.
Important characters highlighted here:
Soyo: ex-band member of CRYCHIC and current member of MyGO
Sakiko / Saki-chan: ex-band member and founder of CRYCHIC, and the first to leave for unknown reasons.
“Please! I want to give CRYCHIC another go!”
“I want to go back to when we all had so much fun!”
“Tomori-chan and Taki-chan want that, too!” (They never said it.)
“I asked Mutsumi-chan to join the band, and I planned to invite you, too, Saki-chan!”
“Is that true?” Sakiko’s voice is steady, questioning.
“I…” (Mutsumi’s disapproving look says it all.)
“What?”
“Why?”
“Is it only me?”
This scene strips Soyo bare. Gone is the composed, manipulative tactician. This is where the audience realizes that her plea isn’t just about bringing the band back together; it’s about trying to salvage something much deeper, much more personal. A desperate clinging to a lost past and an overwhelming fear of being alone.
And yet, the way she goes about it is almost pitiful. Soyo fabricates lies on the spot, stooping so low that she becomes less than dirt
Soyo is willing to distort the truth by claiming “Tomori-chan and Taki-chan want that, too!” despite knowing full well they never expressed such a desire. It’s not just a lie; it’s a desperate attempt to create consensus, a last-ditch attempt to manipulate Sakiko into feeling pressured.
Then comes “I asked Mutsumi-chan to join the band, and I planned to invite you, too, Saki-chan!”— another frantic attempt to make her claim sound believable. But reality bites back.
“Is that true?” asked Sakiko.
A heavy silence follows as Mutsumi looks down in disapproval.
And then, the realization.
“Is it only me?”
Soyo had convinced herself that everyone was fighting for the same thing. But she was wrong. She was alone in this.
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If Django Unchained is about one man’s relentless quest to rescue Broomhilda, then MyGO is all about its characters—messy, raw, and unafraid to let their conflicts hit as hard as their music.
It is a character-driven drama first and a band anime second. A band of people who stick together not for perfection, but because their broken parts somehow harmonize. Music exists, but it serves as the BGM to a much deeper, more intimate conflict.
- 60% of MyGO is dedicated to building tension and developing characters.
- 20% is spent on the raw, emotional payoffs**.**
- The last 20% The actual music, the performances, the in-between moments.
Every scene in MyGO is meticulously arranged to serve one core emotional arc. There’s no fluff, no filler. Just people being forced to confront their own self-made tragedies.
Unlike traditional band anime, the stakes in MyGO aren’t external. There’s no “We need to perform at Budokan!” Instead, the stakes are personal, self-imposed.
And what makes it so painfully ironic?
Soyo is the one setting up the very problem she’s trying to solve. She creates the band as a second chance, manipulates those around her to form a new group in hopes of reconnecting with her ex-bandmate Sakiko, but in doing so, she only entangles herself further in contradictions. Her actions and her words don’t align, and the show is painfully aware of it.
At one point, Sakiko call her out directly:
“What is that band (MyGO)?”
“Your words and actions don’t match.”
It even goes as far as to explicitly describe what Soyo is doing: お為ごかし (otamegokashi), when someone pretends to act in another person’s best interest but is serving their own needs.
She isn’t evil, nor is she selfish in the usual sense. She’s just so trapped in her past that she can’t see what lies ahead. And therein lies MyGO’s brilliance: There are no villains here, just people stuck in a mess they don’t know how to fix—just lost souls.
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“But you were the one who started CRYCHIC, Saki-chan.” Shifting blame in one last desperate move.
“That’s why I ended it with my own hands.” Sakiko shoulders all the blame to undo Soyo’s ploy.
“Make sure that you don’t involve me any further.” she declares, her voice cold and final.
Sakiko doesn’t just reject Soyo’s plea. She takes control of the argument. Sakiko refuses to let Soyo to guilt-trip her into submission.
And that’s when Soyo loses everything.
“Wait… Please, don’t go!”
“You have it wrong! I really care about everyone! I love them!”
“No!”
“Please!”
Desperation turns into full-on pleading. She runs to grab Sakiko’s hand.
“Saki-chan, without you and the others, I…”
Then, the ultimate collapse.
“What can I do to make you come back?” She falls to her knees, broken, exposed.
“If it’s in my power, I’ll do anything!”
It’s pathetic. It’s painful. It’s impossible to look away.
And this is a scene reminiscent of Walter White’s most desperate moment.
“If I can talk to Gus, I can convince him! Please! PLEASE! PLEASE LET ME TALK TO HIM!”
Mike sighs.
“I can’t do it. Sorry.”
And like Walt, Soyo is willing to strip away her pride. Embarrassing herself, just to maintain control.
But Sakiko won’t let her.
“Let go.”
That’s it. It’s over.
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A Personal Journey into MyGO and Ave Mujica
A little background on how I got to know MyGO: I was your average casual anime watcher, catching whatever was hyped in the season. I carried a bias against “idol” anime and band-adjacent stories.
I thought I had them figured out—simple, surface-level, cute-girls-having-fun stories with nothing deeper to say. I even used to watch idol shows like Love Live with my brother, laughing at their predictable plot until MyGO came along and changed everything.
It won Anime of the Year at the r//anime awards, and I laughed. An idol show winning over Vinland Saga? Over Oshi no Ko? It felt like a joke.
Then came Bocchi the Rock, another massively hyped show on Reddit and among big YouTubers, whose production value and music were praised as “different”. Yet even that couldn’t sway my initial bias until my brother, a die-hard fan of the show begged me to watch it with him. Bocchi the Rock became a critical trigger for me, nudging me to give band anime another chance.
I caught a Garnt/Gigguk MyGO watchalong stream recently. I know Gigguk sometimes has his weird takes, but he's one of those voices that resonates with my own doubts about idol shows, making me think, "It can’t be that good."
Curiosity finally got the better of me. And suddenly, I found myself watching, rewatching, analyzing, breaking down every scene.
The drama wasn’t just good. It was borderline cinematic.
Maybe that’s the magic of MyGO. It makes you think you know what it is, but then it drags you deeper and deeper, until suddenly, you’re on the ground, pleading for one more episode, one more song, one more note. Just like Soyo, begging for a second chance at a dream that was already dead.
And now Ave Mujica is on the air, with all plot pieces finally in place—ready to ship, ready to go. There’s no better time to start watching MyGO and Ave Mujica.