Girls Band Cry

The project began in 2019 when producer Hirayama Satoshi, who had transferred from Sunrise to Toei Animation, brought together director Sakai Kazuo and screenwriter Hanada Jukki, with whom he had previously collaborated on Love Live! Sunshine!!. Hirayama wanted to create a new work different from previous hit productions that would empower young people living in an economy that would worsen after the Tokyo Olympics.

In the scenario, the rough text written by Hanada was used directly as the foundation rather than a general story structure first; when Hanada got stuck, he would go back and rewrite to refine the story. Initially, the team was proposing a direction close to idol anime, but Hanada's insistence on t-shirt designs in the Episode 5 costumes that evoked Chatmonchy and SHISHAMO determined the project's true band direction.

The city where the story takes place was initially thought to be Shimokitazawa or Ikebukuro; however, when Hirayama accidentally read 'Rupo Kawasaki' by Isobe Ryo and learned about rebellious youth in Kawasaki who changed their lives through rap music, and thanks to the live music venue CLUB CITTA' in Kawasaki that Hanada frequently visited, the team conducted research in Kawasaki and chose it as the setting.

The selection of Kawasaki was also influenced by the city having a large number of foreign workers, which suited the desire to create characters of different nationalities, and the actual cost of living (rent, part-time job wages, etc.) made it possible to portray young people's financial problems realistically.

All five main voice actors took their first step into voice acting; they first participated in a workshop conducted by sound director Miyoshi Keiichirō that lasted approximately one month to learn the fundamentals of voice acting, and used recordings taken from the actors in the Diamond Dust role as guides.

The entire series was produced in 3DCG and two techniques never before attempted in Japanese TV anime were developed: 'illustration look' and 'full frame' animation; despite full frame animation costing three times as much as traditional limited animation, it was continued at director Sakai's insistence.

To precisely reflect character designer Teshima Nari's drawing style, Teshima himself was present on set and prepared hundreds of reference drawings of facial expressions; the facial expressions of Nina and Momoka in Episode 8 in particular were created largely through his contribution.

The lighting and composition phase was the most difficult part of the production; a small change in light or camera settings would transform the hair shine into a strange appearance resembling a helmet, so post-production corrections were repeated more than ten times.

Each episode's subtitle was taken from Japanese rock songs at Hanada's suggestion; the final episode's subtitle 'Rock and Roll Wa Naki Yamanai' was taken from a song by the band Shinsei Kamattechan.

When the series aired in spring 2024, it faced the risk of being overshadowed by major productions like Kimetsu no Yaiba and Kaiju No. 8, so starting from Episode 7, it managed to rank first on Japan's X (Twitter) trending list for seven consecutive weeks.

Before the anime, a real five-member group called Togenashi Togeari was established under the production of agehasprings, and the members of this group voiced the main characters in the anime; the group officially debuted with their first single 'Na mo Naki Nani mo Kamo' on July 26, 2023, before the anime aired.