I've been loving BanDori so much lately, like I always love BanDori but recently I've been feeling this intense surge of love like!! I adore this franchise so much!!!!!! I went on a twt rant about how wonderful the cards are a couple of days ago and the tl;dr is AAAAAAAAA PRETTY but I'm thinking so much about like
the characters. how they take old, familiar tropes and build on them to form proper three-dimensional characters that you can relate to and that have realistic and meaningful lives & bonds with each other. HaroHapi goes off the rails sometimes but aside from that this franchise is really just about the normal life of girls in all sorts of bands & all sorts of stages in their musical career and how they deal with it and it feels so REAL
there was this interview where they said they internally don't refer to the characters as, well, characters, but as "members" to keep that down-to-earth feel when writing them and I believe that in a heartbeat. every last part of BanDori is DRIPPING with genuine love and care of the creators, the artists, the seiyuu, everyone involved, for these girls and the stories they create for them. respect for both the fanbase and the work. and that goes such a long mile in making the audience attached to the franchise. I'm in my fair share of fandoms that are structured similarly (wide array of all sorts of characters that are often colour-coded, all of one gender, targeted specifically toward a certain audience, marketing heavily based on attachment the fans have toward specific groups or characters ... the typical "idol franchise", although it's not exclusive to idols), but BanDori feels so unique and I can't even pinpoint why. it's just, I look at almost anything this franchise produces and feel like it's being done with ... heart. so much heart. that's not to say those others aren't, but it really is on another level with BanDori
and thinking back to how the franchise started and kinda flopped originally, seeing it thrive like it currently is makes my heart so incredibly full because it! deserves!!!!! that!!!!!!!! I love BanDori I love BanDori I LOVE BANDORI
I can't even be sad anymore when I don't get the cards I want because I'm just happy I'm blessed enough to be able to stare at them online, blessed enough that we came this far and that BanDori is a thing that's in my life I just. I jUST I know I'm not making much sense but it's 3:30am and I love 35 (thirty-five) girls and their seiyuu (who, side note, always look like they're having so much fun and I hope they're being treated well, we all know how bad the industry can get unfortunately but I get a pretty good vibe from seeing them & their social media) and EVERYONE who works on the franchise. thank you Bushimo thank you CraftEgg thank you Elements Garden thank you everyone else who I really cannot list cause I have the memory of a goldfish with ADHD but I really am just grateful, really, thank you for gifting us this wonderful franchise that I hope will continue to rise to new heights
tl;dr I LOVE BANDORI!!!!!! I JUST REALLY LOVE BANDORI YOU GUYS OKAY
