Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast -

BanG Dream! Ave Mujica is a TV anime made by the studio Sanzigen, which is known for its 3D computer animation. It aired in Japan from January 2 to March 27, 2025, on Tokyo MX and other channels, and it has 13 episodes. Kodai Kakimoto directed it, and Yuniko Ayana wrote and oversaw the scripts. It is part of the large BanG Dream! music franchise, and it is a direct follow-up to the 2023 series BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!. In fact, the last episode of MyGO was built to work as an opening for this show.

The creators planned the two shows as opposites. MyGO is a story about young people and raw feelings, set in small live houses, which are little music clubs. Ave Mujica is a psychological suspense story. That means it builds tension inside the characters' minds. Its band plays on big theater stages, and every member hides behind a mask and a stage name. To make the group feel different from Roselia, the franchise's older dark-styled band, the team took ideas from the circus, from theater, and from old traveling freak shows.

Both bands grew out of the end of an earlier group called Crychic. Its former keyboard player, Sakiko Togawa, is now the leader of Ave Mujica. Sakiko is a proud and tightly controlled girl, and her life fell apart in one terrible night. She builds the new band with a strict plan, and she wants every member to follow her vision exactly. Fame, money, and the band's image all matter to her, but so does something she will not say out loud.

The other four members each carry a stage role. Sakiko plays keyboard as Oblivionis. Mutsumi Wakaba, a quiet girl and an old friend of Sakiko, plays rhythm guitar as Mortis. Uika Misumi sings and plays lead guitar as Doloris. Umiri Yahata plays bass as Timoris. Nyamu Yutenji, who wants to be famous, plays drums as Amoris. Each girl has her own reasons for joining, and her own secrets and fears. As Sakiko pushes harder, the members clash with her and with one another, and the masks begin to slip.

The show leans into big, dark feelings. It is more like a stage drama than a cheerful band story. Songs are fewer, and the focus is on tense talks, shocking turns, and what each girl is hiding. Themes include grief, guilt, control, love, and the gap between the face you show and the person you are. There is also some romance between girls.

Ave Mujica was a big talking point in its season. A reader poll by Dengeki Online named it the most popular anime of Winter 2025. A reviewer at Anime News Network praised its writing and Sanzigen's animation and said it gets better on a second watch. Not everyone loved it. Some critics in China felt it had too few band performances and that its tone was too extreme, and the seventh episode split fans. Still, it is a bold and very different chapter of BanG Dream!.