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in anime, the production of music usually gets boiled down to "what lyrics do I write to express my feelings?"
though undoubtedly effective and by no means a bad style, I do miss how bandori s1's writing really made the technical aspect of music production more tangible

it's especially pronounced in kasumi's development from wannabe musician to amateur guitarist, starting from begging arisa to let her play the random star guitar (a pricey instrument), to having tae teach her how to tune her strings, to buying a guitar pedal to develop her sound

as opposed to the fridge logic of s2/garupa writing thinking about the other bands and going "...wait, how do a bunch of high schoolers, only half of which work part time jobs at convenience stores or WcDonalds, afford a full suite of production-level instruments?"

personally, I think the reason why season 1 of the bandori anime resonated so strongly with me was because of kasumi's strong determination - not unwavering, but strong.
she's a bit of an anomaly, being the only one in popipa to not have any prior music experience.

yes, she succeeds in the end. but it never feels guaranteed, even if you, as a viewer, already know it's going to happen. kasumi is never presented as a genius musical prodigy that can do a straight riff on her first time picking up the guitar, but as a hard-working learner.

every step of her learning process feels measured, weighted, and intentional. it takes an entire season for her to prove herself as a performer, and, even then, she doesn't do it without first failing and having to backtrack her steps to figure out where she went wrong

music - for kasumi, and the rest of popipa, for that matter - isn't something to be taken for granted. it's not a skill that just falls into their hands, but something that they have to work for, and the effort they put into their instruments illustrates that amazingly

that theme of hard work & perseverance still resonates in the rest of the series, and i savor it whenever the writers mention how their music is made. it's a big reason why I love bandori so much, and it's the reason why it inspired me to pick up and learn the guitar myself!

but, looking back, i always find myself cherishing how the first season of the bandori anime depicts how the girls practice their music & realize their sound, and how it makes their struggle & determination to succeed feel all that much more real to me.

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