English Dub Review: D4DJ First Mix Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Rinku Aimoto returns from Africa to start high school in Japan. She meets Maho Akashi who teaches her about DJing. They become fast friends and form a group called Happy Around! along with Rinku’s childhood friend, Muni Ohnaruto, and later Rei Togetsu, the group’s composer and pianist. Happy Around! grows an audience and the group sets their eyes on the Sunset Stage. They face off against other rival DJing groups like the popular Peaky P-key and sci-fi-themed group Photon Maiden. Even though they don’t win first place, Happy Around! still performs with Photon Maiden and Peaky P-key at the afterparty.

 

Our Take:

D4DJ First Mix is a very upbeat show with the four girls forming a DJing group in high school. It does a good job of getting the audience to connect with the girls through their fears like stage fright and friendship issues.

The CGI animation is good and smooth in comparison to the other CGI animation I’ve seen. Rinku’s energetic energy was expressed well in her movements. Although the viewer gets stuck with a faceless crowd in the darkness for a majority of the time until the final episode. I did enjoy how expressive the cast was in the comedic moments.

The voice acting is good. Rinku (Emi Lo) had a nice cheerful voice and Maho (Karin Kagami) stood out from the rest of the cast. Most of the songs are jams even if you don’t understand Japanese. The opening is vibrant in both the song and the visuals that have DJing references to them like the launchpad and turntable. The ending shows Maho DJing, but the simplicity is a nice contrast to the opening. I liked Peaky P-key’s songs and Photon Maiden’s sci-fi-themed outfits.

The pacing is average with the first five episodes getting the members of the group together and learning about DJing. They later established a presence for their group with performances and contests. In between their performances, there’s their interactions with their rivals and navigating through the complexities of high school. Then the anime leads up to Rinku and Muni’s argument and the Sunset Stage battle against Peaky P-key. It concludes with a collaboration between all three groups, and it was a satisfying performance.

Rinku Aimoto is pretty cheerful and is the core of Happy Around! She has a signature spinning move when she’s full of happiness which later becomes the name for her group: Happy Around! She seems to do things on a whim like trying to jump into DJing without any knowledge until Maho teaches her. Maho explains the basics of DJing from transitions and VJing which is good for those that don’t know about DJing. Maho’s goal of getting on the Sunset Stage works out in the end, but she does have some worries that get addressed in the anime.

Muni’s the artist in the group and joins after seeing Rinku and Maho’s horrible poster design. She becomes responsible for the VJing portion of their performances. Rei joins after Rinku tries to learn how to play the piano to give their group more variety. Rei’s shyness before performing on stage is adorable. Overall they all contribute to the group and it’s a treat to see how they develop whether it’d be trying out a new style or composing a new song.

I enjoyed the girls’ interactions throughout the show. The girls are fun with their antics and bonding during sleepovers. I especially liked the crisis of finals which could affect their privilege to use the rooms for their DJing. Most of the conflicts are simple and usually get resolved within an episode or two. Admittedly in one of the episodes where Muni is moody about the other students not praising her by name, it was weak since it doesn’t really do much to help develop the group.

There’s also how Maho and Rei helped Rinku and Muni with their friendship conflict towards the end. Muni Ohnaruto’s childhood friendship with Rinku doesn’t get touched on until the end. You do see bits of it throughout the anime like with Rinku giving each of the girls seashells as gifts. Their conflict is mainly Muni’s guilt of her actions that cause their friendship to dissolve with the long-distance over the years. However, they resolve the issue in time for their battle with Peaky P-key.

Then there’s the rivals: Peaky P-key and Photon Maiden. Most of the girls in both groups aren’t memorable save for the interactions they have with the girls in Happy Around! The anime does explore how Peaky P-key’s leader Kyoko (Christie Cate) and DJ Shinbou (Divi Muse) got into DJing. Their relationship is similar to Rinku and Maho’s and it serves as a good comparison. Peaky P-key set a bar for the girls to overcome given their experience from middle school.

Meanwhile, Photon Maiden is a rival starting out like Happy Around! and has the potential to develop more. Photon Maiden has an entertainment agency backing them up. It was a good glimpse into a different way on how DJing groups get started in the industry. Photon Maiden’s DJ, Saki Izumo has synesthesia, so she can see colors in the sounds. It’s pretty interesting to see her perspective in the one scene where they play a new song.

I like how the groups deal with their losses to each other and work hard to improve for the next battle. Their rivalry with the main cast is a friendly one and not as dramatic as one might expect. Also, each group has its own style and genre which is pretty diverse. It would have been great if there were a few episodes to give a bit of background on the other girls in the other groups to develop the overall cast more.

Overall it was a cute show about DJing and friendship if you’re looking for a comfortable anime to watch. The music and cast were nice while the plot was standard for a high school anime. If there’s going to be another season then hopefully the conflicts won’t be on the friendship since it appears that they have a solid friendship by the end of the anime.