D4DJ First Mix

7.6(19,111)

MAL Score

Ranked #1725

Popularity #3739

Slice of Life
Idols (Female)
Music
School

Episodes: 13
Duration: 23 min per ep
Aired: Oct 30, 2020 to Jan 29, 2021
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

After spending most of her childhood in Africa, Rinku Aimoto returns to Japan and enrolls at Yoba Academy, where DJ units—teams of DJs, vocalists, and dancers—are a major part of school life. She quickly crosses paths with Maho Akashi, an aspiring DJ who introduces her to the fundamentals, and the two find themselves captivated after seeing the renowned unit Peaky P-key perform.

Motivated by what they’ve witnessed, Rinku and Maho set out to create a unit of their own, bringing in Muni Oonaruto, Rinku’s childhood friend and a gifted artist, and Rei Togetsu, a gentle, reserved pianist. Under the name Happy Around, the four channel their growing bond and individual strengths as they work toward becoming one of Japan’s leading DJ units.

Otaku Consensus

D4DJ First Mix lands as one of Bushiroad's cleaner music-franchise launches: Seiji Mizushima's brisk comic direction and SANZIGEN's polished full-CG staging make the unit chemistry and performance scenes feel sharper than the intentionally low-stakes script. Critics and viewers consistently praise the music, dance visuals, sound quality, and cheerful ensemble rhythm, while the most repeated criticism is that the show uses DJ culture more as stylish performance language than as convincing technical craft, with little serious drama to raise the pressure.

Why You Should Watch

If you want a music anime that delivers the team-building buzz of Love Live! or BanG Dream! without heavy melodrama, D4DJ First Mix is tuned for you. Its pleasure is procedural and sensory: CG dance blocking, quick comic timing, school-club competitiveness, and songs that move between idol-pop brightness and club-performance spectacle. The show is especially friendly to viewers who like "cute girls doing cute things" but prefer rehearsal-room energy, PA systems, visualizers, and performance tech over tea-room coziness. It also works as a low-friction entry into D4DJ's broader cast because the central unit has clearly separated roles: DJ craft, vocals, art/design personality, and classical musicianship. The trade-off is deliberate: you get warmth, rhythm, and banter instead of shocking turns or angst-heavy arcs.

Key Characters

R
Rinku Aimoto(VA: Yuka Nishio)
Rinku Aimoto turns a standard genki-lead slot into a physical-comedy engine, with her appeal rooted in irrepressible enthusiasm rather than polished-idol poise.
M
Maho Akashi(VA: Karin Kagami)
Maho Akashi gives the show its grounded music-nerd perspective, functioning as the character most tied to DJ fundamentals and performance setup.
M
Muni Oonaruto(VA: Haruka Mimura)
Muni Oonaruto brings the sharpest interpersonal friction to the main unit: a gifted artist with tsundere bite whose fan-discussed conflict even swerves into rap-battle territory.
R
Rei Togetsu(VA: Kanon Shizaki)
Rei Togetsu adds piano-trained sensitivity to the group dynamic, balancing the louder personalities with reserved musicianship.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
SANZIGEN handles the series in a near-total full-CGI style, matching AniList's 98% Full CGI tag; the approach is used not only for performances but also for everyday acting and school-life comedy.
2
The series is structured around DJ units rather than a conventional band or idol club, mixing vocals, dance, visualizers, and booth-centered stagecraft into its performance identity.
3
Reviews repeatedly frame First Mix as a lighthearted slice-of-life comedy with no major twists or heavy drama, making its pacing closer to a comfort-watch ensemble piece than a competition melodrama.
4
One of the more specifically discussed story beats is the dispute resolved through a rap battle, a set-piece external reviewers singled out as conceptually memorable even when they found the execution less explosive than expected.
5
The sound presentation drew notice beyond the songs themselves, with web commentary praising the original music's range of styles, the dance staging, and the first-rate audio quality.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: First Mix is built from an original story by Kou Nakamura with original character designs by Yache, positioning it as an original multimedia-franchise anime rather than a manga or light-novel adaptation.
Fun fact 2: The core production team pairs director Seiji Mizushima with assistant director Daisuke Suzuki and series composer Gou Zappa, while Kenta Tsuboi, Shuuhei Tada, Aiko Matsuyama, Shunsuke Kobayashi, and Misaki Enokida shape the art, color, photography, and editing pipeline.
Fun fact 3: Anime News Network reviewer Christopher Farris called First Mix one of Bushiroad's best idol-franchise efforts so far and praised its polish, while also criticizing how lightly it handles the technical side of DJing.
Fun fact 4: Anime Feminist writer Brock K's coverage of D4DJ highlighted the franchise's explicit queer representation, including a healthy lesbian relationship between Kokoa and Hayate and Tsubaki's crush on Aoi.
Fun fact 5: The season aired as 13 episodes from October 30, 2020 to January 29, 2021, carrying its upbeat club-school atmosphere from the Fall 2020 season into the start of Winter 2021.