My Middle School Obsession Is Dragging Me Back In With a New Failgirl Waifu (BanG Dream! / Bandori!)

It also had Hello, Happy World!

Bright, colorful, and (thanks especially to Karou) quite queer, HHW quickly became my favorites. One of my first cards was guitarist Karou Seta's Hello, Happy Phantom Thief! card, featuring her in a suit and mask, holding drummer Kanon in her arms, preparing to steal her away for herself. (Goka! Gokai?! Phantom Thief!, the original song that accompanied the event,is currently playing)

The comments on the website Bandori Party! for the card seem to say exactly what I would. 
"i love my dyke ass wife" 

"this kaoru will make me nut"

"Pictured: Kaoru literally stealing your girl"

Regardless-- a few years later, a broken tablet caused me to lose all of my progress, including my collection of Karou cards. I rage quit, and with the upcoming release of Project Sekai! Colorful Stage, I had found myself a new fix.

New inclusions to the series seemed to pass me by-- a long awaited 6th band was added to the English server (Morphonica), followed shortly after by a 7th (RAISE A SULLEN, whom had started as a backing band for several others, including HHW). I paid it no mind. I found some interest in the release of Synth V voice banks for the lead singers of 6 of the bands (the first 5 from Girls Band Party! along with Ave Mujica), but due to a lack of original songs made using the voice banks, that also didn't stick with me. I saw lots of posts about the new anime Its MyGO!, featuring another new band, but never stopped to watch it. 

When I started getting ads for a new mobile rhytmn game for the series, BanG Dream! Our Notes, I decided to check it out- would by dear Karou still be included? 
She, along with the rest of Hello Happy World, and 5 other bands featured in the first game, would not be included in Our Notes. The characters had grown up (even if in a much slower time frame than in the real world), Karou was now studying theater in an all girls univeristy. But, I was already on the website, so I decided to take a look at the bands. 

One quickly stuck out to me. 

Ikka-Dumb Rock! Is described as having a "groove driven funk sound", a group of girls living together under one roof on their own for the first time, ranging from a gloomy and quiet middle schooler to a socially anxious and almost manic girl taking a break from university. 

The latter, bassist Yakura Yomogi, has quickly stolen my heart and soul and claimed it for herself. In the little we've seen of her, she makes dramatically funny faces, screams in panic, and according to her bio, is obsessed with delinquent manga characters. She imagines herself being just like them over and over in her head, only to never be able to execute. One of her favorite foods is listed as "Spicy foods (she wants to like them)" She has cute little fangs. She is a fail girl. She is perfect. Not to mention, as a university student, she feels a bit more "relatable" to me (and is also an age appropriate option for me to crush on relentlessly). 

Ikka-Dumb Rock! currently only has two songs released, another on the way set to release on September 30th. As of right now, Keep on Riddim is my favorite. The song is genre-blending and energetic, including an instrumental that feels reminiscent of ska, along with a short rap section and an epic guitar solo. I hope to support all of them (but especially my wife Yakura-chan) for long into the future.