Come on did anyone think Id write reviews for Bandori but not review ARGONAVIS? Didnt think so. And yes it is my second favourite series. I just have a much stronger emotional connection with Bandori. Any major plot points past ep3 the full formation of the band are under spoiler tags. A quick note and helpful reminder: While the series and the main band technically share the same name the bands name is in title case while the series name is in full uppercase. Hence for any times I talk about either the band is Argonavis or for short Argo as I use in this review and the series as a whole is ARGONAVIS. Music: 500https://i.ibb.co/zFXbztt/ep4gif4.gif Freakin awesome. Only one insert and ed1 are meh but the rest are all good to amazing. When it comes to the bands music overall I find Argos are hitandmiss but the anime really just has their hits And the aforementioned meh songs. A couple of their songs particularly the ones in episode 9 and 10 just have so much meaning to them too which is just And the other band that shows up? They have very few inserts but they are some of their best songs overall And the opening and ending they do too are just The performance in episode 8 is visually and musically my favourite in the show That song was literally my favourite from the series for a while and even now is... probably my third or fourth favourite Maybe fifth since the true climax insert in ep13 has just been creeping up on the spot of best in the anime though visually its not as stunning... Yeah they use one of the lessawesome songs Goal Line a lot to the point that more than the opening it could be considered the theme song of this part of the series. But its still a pretty good song though not amazing... Also it just means a lot to me... And the meh insert I mentioned earlier is... a pretty relevant one with some strong emotions despite its mediocrity. Story: Honestly its kinda rushed at the start but it slows down later to give the main drama time to work well unlike the drama of the first couple episodes. Arguably the main band quickly finding the members could be a plus to mostly avoid the opening/ending animations spoiling anything say halfway in to the season... But when in episodes 2 and 3 the existing members were reluctant to let the other characters in the opening animation join that argument loses its value. I mentioned this issue in my review on Bandori s1. Though at least here they rush through that and get some actually good parts a bit quicker The actual drama starts around episode 6 and its mostly characterfocused so Ill go into it later. Episode 10 brings in some lesscharacter focused drama... Now some of you may notice in my note I say it has six out of nine common music anime cliches/tropes Ive noticed. But do remember this cliches and tropes are never inherently bad. Besides... literally only one of them is actually a seriously plot relevant one. And the key part the way they handled that plot point was vastly different to the other instances Ive seen. In the way it was brought in in the way everyone handled it... I felt it when seeing a different instance of it play out. How different the drama was even though the source was literally the same because of the different characters and different circumstances and stuff... Now... the biggest flaws in the story. One is just how much they try to do in such little time. Some plot points dont have as much focus as they might have needed ideally and a couple characters too. As for the second big flaw... which Id say is probably the bigger one the ending. So this tags going to be going indepth about the finale: It is still fairly emotional despite its flaws though. Characters: First off this show doesnt have a generic cheery always bubbly superextroverted main character But rather that personality type goes to the guitarist and leader of the main band Yuuto. 500https://i.ibb.co/MyTcsB1/ep5gif4.gif I forgot why I took such a relatively late gif of him and nothing else... Hes kinda annoying at first at a glance being that stupid archetype so I dont care for him much. But as with any character in this series theres more to him than just that. The drama I mentioned in episode 6 shows that. How about the main character Ren? 500https://i.ibb.co/GpwmMhT/ep1gif2.gif Hes a shy but passionate and cute guy whose problems... appear to end merely at Last time I sung with anyone no one else was serious. I wanna say hes got at least a fair bit of charisma he got the two members that joined after him to open up about their problems and helped them find their places in the band after all though I may be saying that slightly out of he so cute third best boy... 500https://i.ibb.co/vZ0trVr/ep2gif4.gif Wataru the bassist and lyricist... gotta say hes not very interesting. Hes just kinda fun and provides a good balance with Yuuto being more realistic than the overlyoptimistic leader. In episode 7 In short he plays a necessary role but isnt too memorable outside of that. 500https://i.ibb.co/7bmgxxc/ep2gif7.gif Rio the keyboardist and composer is a genius who can do anything really well and he has pride in that... but he also seems to hate his talent for not being able to find anything to get passionate about since hes equally good at everything...? Im not actually certain on that but in both his likes and dislikes theres himself so... Hes... there I guess. 500https://i.ibb.co/WxZYNpd/ep3gif3.gif Banri too doesnt have much presence for the first half at least. While his wish for money is at the core of his character said point doesnt get brought up much later. It takes a while but there are some emotional moments with him at the centreThe events from ep810 in particular. As for the other band? Only really one or two of them have any plot relevance so Ill just go over them briefly. Theres a pretty guy who constantly gets annoyed at his bandmates and is kinda fun a Chuunibyou who needs more focus and... sigh a flirt whose lines are pretty much all about women. Oh how I hate him. Theres also the serious calm glasseswearing guitarist and leader whose plot relevance is doubtable. Then the one who certainly has relevance. The vocalist Nayuta who is incredibly cold harsh blunt and obsessed with perfection. There is certainly a bit more to him but I think thats a bit of a spoiler and... I dont have much to discuss about that aspect of his personality so I dont feel like adding a tag for it... 500https://i.ibb.co/6Y6rN6c/ep5gif3.gif Classic glasses guy pose They also briefly introduce the other three bands at the end but its so brief it doesnt really matter. Like seriously they dont even get animated in 3D if they even physically appeared at all they had such a minor role. Overall: Its a brilliant and emotional story. Its got a couple funny moments and some heartwarming ones exciting moments and some sad ones paired with brilliant inserts and some pretty good characters Its got everything youd want in a show of its genres and does it all pretty well though its far from the best. The first three episodes might not be great and it takes a while to truly pick up afterwards... but when it does it is really amazing. Episode 8 has the best music then episodes 9 and 10 have such brilliant emotions it really does become amazing there Please just try it Itll make Ryo happy too I think. Probably. 500https://i.ibb.co/ssBr5n1/ep7gif31subbed.gif Oh Ryo you have no idea how happy I was when you finally said something like that in the fourth freakin episode you appear in...