Roselia’s story continues in the second and final volume of Dr. Pepperco’s BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Roselia Stage manga. Yukina was able to gather five talented ladies together in the first volume, but here things start seeming uncertain for Roselia as a certain offer falls into Yukina’s lap.
This volume contains chapters six through to eleven.
Front cover of the second volume of BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Roselia Stage, featuring Yukina Minato, Lisa Imai, Sayo Hikawa, Ako Udagawa and Rinko Shirokane
What are the bonds that form a real band?
As the contest to perform at Future World Fes draws near, pressure mounts from all sides for the members of Roselia – the rigorous practice they need to do every day to stay sharp, family tensions running high, and on top of everything else, a shocking development for Yukina.
When a professional record label approaches her to sign a solo debut, Yukina finds herself facing an impossibly heavy choice. Should she take the shortest path to achieving her dreams, even if it means leaving her band members in the dust? Or should she risk it all, staking her future on the ragtag group of amateur musicians she might actually be willing to call her friends?
You can’t form a band in BanG Dream! without some kind of drama occurring, and Roselia certainly faces their share of challenges. The events of this volume take place in the earlier part of Roselia’s career, meaning the readers have to put up with versions of Yukina and Sayo that haven’t quite gotten their character development just yet.
Fortunately, that’s what this particular volume of BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! Roselia Stage covers. This story is skewed towards Yukina as she is the lead singer, but Sayo gets her moments as well. They do feel a little secondary in the grand scheme of things, since it feels like Sayo goes from despising her sister to accepting her in the background.
What is not in the background, though, is Yukina’s character arc. For those who read the manga with very little idea of Roselia, or even BanG Dream!, Yukina can definitely come off as abrasive in the first volume. But as I’ve already stated, this volume is where some big character development happens for our lead singer.
If anything, Yukina and Sayo might be the biggest drama queens in Roselia – well, at least in this manga. Lisa, Ako and Rinko are just all trying their best, and in turn, being the best characters. Lisa’s willing to support Yukina through anything, even if it means they may clash. Ako and Rinko look to each other for support, and I would argue that those two are even the catalyst for getting Roselia out of a very rough patch.
So effectively, in this volume, we get characters who grow and therefore get better, and characters who had pretty much always been great. That’s definitely a win-win, if you ask me.
Whilst Roselia have their troubles, there are two other bands that are tangentially involved: Pastel✽Palettes and Afterglow. Obviously Pastel✽Palettes are going to come up quite a bit, with Sayo’s sister Hina being a member. In terms of Afterglow, it is Moca who has some advice to share with Lisa – during a time when it seems like Afterglow is going through something rather similar.
Absolutely no mention of Poppin’Party or Hello, Happy World!, and this story takes place before RAISE A SUILEN and Morfonica were introduced. Makes sense, since none of Roselia’s members have siblings in any of those bands.
All in all, I’d say we have a pretty great adaptation of Roselia’s band story from the BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! mobile game on our hands here. Dr. Pepperco definitely did justice for the girls of Roselia. Definitely worth looking into if you’re curious about Roselia, and not willing to invest your time in a gacha game. But I’d also say that it’s probably worth a look for fans of the game as well.
Rory Muses 