Toei Animation isn’t known for being the easiest animation studio to understand as an anime fan, and the conglomerate’s latest strategy for one of its Spring 2024 series in Girl’s Band Cry was keeping the series unavailable in English in an official capacity.
A month and eight days after the final episode, it looks like Toei has decided to officially open up the series to English-speaking viewers, first through a teaser poster on X over the weekend, and now, through the confirmation of a premium digital release through video on demand services starting next week on August 13th thanks to a brand new English trailer, seen below. The series will be available on platforms such as Fandango at Home, Microsoft Store, Amazon Prime Videoand Hooplaamong others.
Toei describes Girls Band Cry:
The main character drops out of high school in his second year, and aims at entering a university while working alone in Tokyo. A girl is betrayed by her friends and does n’t know what to do. Another girl is abandoned by her parents, and tries to survive in the city by doing part-time jobs. This world lets us down all the time. Nothing goes as planned. But we want something that we can continue to like. We believe there’s a place where we belong. That’s why we sing.
Kazuo Sakai directed GIRLS BAND CRY at Toei Animation with series composition by Jukki Hanadacharacter designs by Nari TerashimaCG direction by Jae Hoon Jung and music production by Kenji Tamai with additional music by Yusuke Tanaka. The cast features FIGHT as Nina Iseri, Yuri as Momoka Kawaragi, Look as Subaru Awa, Natsu as Tomo Ebizuka and Syuri as Rupa.
The genesis of the project was the “Girl’s Rock Audition” for the vocalist, guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist of the all-female band which would be the core of the project spoken by Toei Animation, Universal Music Japan and talent agency Agehaspringswhich coalesced into the group Togenashi Togeari, featured in the anime and on tie-in recordings for the franchise. Ace of last month two of the anime’s cast members in Natsu and Mirei have since stepped down from the band due to health issues, while the band and project will continue with the remaining members operating as a trio.