in defense of leo/need

being a leo/need fan is kind of a double-edged sword. most pjsekai fans don’t care about them, so i don’t usually hear any truly egregious takes. however, since most pjsekai fans don’t care about them, they offer the same half-assed reasons why, reasons that reveal how little they understand about leo/need. their criticisms fall into two broad categories, detailed and refuted below.

1: their music is…

a) boring and doesn’t go hard enough

this misses the whole point of leo/need as a band. out of universe, leo/need have never been marketed as a punk/metal/even alt rock band. obviously, they’re not going to make punk/metal/alt rock music (with a few exceptions). in universe, leo/need, make music with a lighter sound, so why should their out-of-universe music not follow that style? their goal is to resonate with the hearts of their audience, but they don’t have to achieve that through an edgier sound. saki’s goal as a composer is to cheer up their audience - a little difficult to do that with the kind of hard rock music people are advocating for.

i do think the girls sound amazing on edgier songs like tengaku, and i am of course on board with the cool, sleek vibe their recent covers have had. but it’s disheartening to see players brush off songs like heartbeat#0822 simply because they’re slow ballads, especially when they’re probably more in line with what leo/need would perform and write in-universe.

also, i might talk more about this in a shiho article, but going back to resonating with the audience. like i said, they don’t have to do that through a heavy, powerful performance, and i think this ties in really well with shiho’s arc. shiho, frustrated by her blunt nature at first, learns that her way of communicating isn’t something she needs to change. the girl whose unique personality is her strength shaking the audience’s hearts in a different way than expected - isn’t that fitting?

b) stereotypical ani-rock - that’s so been there, done that

i don’t disagree - much of their music has a light, youthful sound found in 90% of japanese band anime. but why is that a bad thing? as a consumer, i want more of the stuff i like. i like idol music, so it’s natural that i’d want more idols making music - more chances for them to hit the exact niche of fluffy, upbeat music that i like. same thing with leo/need’s music. in their case, they’ve found the exact niche of j-rock that i like (springtime nostalgia + forward propulsion), and thus dominate my spotify metrics. most people who criticize leo/need’s music don’t actually dislike ani-rock - they’re just tired of it, to which i present the comic below:

you just need to have “holy shit two cakes” mentality and i promise your life will be happier. not to mention, at this point, every genre of music has been iterated upon to death, so where’s this criticism for vbs, or wxs, or 25ji?

2: their story is...

a) overdone

yes, it’s true that the girls band is a popular trope in anime. however, i’d like to once again direct your attention to the comic above. seriously, two cakes mentality will help you enjoy more media - not everything has to reinvent the wheel.

i do object to this criticism a little more because leo/need’s particular take on the girl band is less overdone. out of 9 (bandori) + 2 (gbc) + 3 (bocchi) + 2 (k-on) + 4 (show by rock) + 2 (whisper me a love song) other girl bands, only two have an element of childhood friendship (afterglow + diamond dust), at least from what i could glean from their wikis. including leo/need, that’s 3 out of 22 - hardly done, let alone overdone. diamond dust are side characters, but from the little we know of their backstory, they haven’t ever broken up. afterglow’s story is about them always being friends, “the same as always”. so leo/need’s story of separation and reuniting is actually the first of its kind within the genre (although, like i said, it doesn’t have to be the first of its kind to be good).

b) boring

as with their music, i think leo/need’s story also faces some misguided expectations. people want it to be depressingly relatable like 25ji’s, or wacky with larger-than-life characters like wxs’s, or queerbaity like vbs’s (i didn’t mention mmj because unfortunately people also want them to be something they’re not, but rest assured that i’ve not forgotten them). there’s no way a simple, common tale about childhood friends separating and reuniting could live up to those dramatic expectations, and it shouldn’t have to. once readers cast aside those expectations, they’ll discover a charming tale about four friends, equally relatable in a way that strikes at the human experience. every single human has felt left-behind like saki, misunderstood like shiho, desperate for approval like honami, and powerless like ichika. this relatability is what makes leo/need’s story so powerful. the girls are just like you and me: flawed, hurt, having hurt others, and yet, they can still give it another try. they can make amends and reunite. they tell us that we can do the same.

these misguided expectations also lead to misunderstandings of the characters. there’s this idea that leo/need shouldn’t have forgiven each other, that honami and shiho’s “abandonment” is too cruel to be overlooked. but sometimes, that’s what friendship is like. you hurt each other, forgive each other, and understand each other better in the end. honami and shiho were, and still are, children. they were being bullied. neither of these circumstances lend themselves to rational decision-making, and the girls understand that and move forward. ichika and saki of course get closure, and honami and shiho both learn to rely on their friends. leo/need’s story is a message to try and forgive, but not ignore the pain, and learn from it. there are plenty of stories about not forgiving, and there are lessons to be learned from both outcomes. but the hatsune miku game about Friendship, Love, And Happiness isn’t going to explore the timeline where they don’t get back together.

in general, i think pjsekai fans are too blinded by what they wanted leo/need to be to appreciate what they are. and while it would’ve been nice to see an unapologetically punk/metal band, that’s just not what leo/need is. the fact that they’re perhaps the 14th cake doesn’t make them any less delicious.