Carole and Tuesday Impressions

I've had the chance to watch a few episodes of Carole and Tuesday at the recommendation from a friend. He said that if you like music, you should check this show out. Well, I happen to be very apathetic to the modern idea of what music should be. In fact, if not for the opening that showed off how beautiful the anime looked, I would not have tried it out.

I think this makes it perfect for me to give an impression of the show. How does this music anime stand out to a person like me?

I binged about 10 episodes so far and actually, just as I'm writing this, I went to watch another 2 to round it off to a single cour's worth. As far as I know, Carole and Tuesday is planned for 24 episodes and I might binge it the next time around as well.

From the 12 episodes that I've watched, I can't dismiss the fact that the show is well produced. Great animations, stylish art and popping colours, a select few of amazing songs and a surprisingly cutesy comedic tone to it all. Comedy was not what I expected at all but it was very much appreciated.

The show plays out very much like a modern take on making it big in the music industry. Again, not what I expected but certainly appreciated. One could say it's a more western and realistic take on the 'dare to dream' scenarios thrown around in the anime industry. A more romanticized eastern example would be Love Live Sunshine. I say eastern and western mostly to distinguish the fact that the western world isn't very much a home to the 'idol' culture prominently featured in the east.

I should also mention that everyone in this show sings in English despite speaking in Japanese. The show itself doesn't have any Japanese characters. I suppose watching this in dub would have been the better option but I had no idea of knowing when I started.

Half the songs in the show, including the OP and ED, are fantastic. Basically, all the songs sung by Carole and Tuesday along with Angela are great pieces. Angela's songs lean more towards what you'd usually hear from the trending Top 10s while Carole and Tuesday's performances feel more like well performed acoustic covers or originals from what you used to hear from the early YouTube days. Applause there. It would have been disastrous if the main duo and their supposed rival were to completely fall flat.

Can we also take a moment to appreciate the opening and ending for the show? Amazing stuff. The opening plays out almost like a Ghibli film. This was actually the first thing I saw about Carole and Tuesday that made me curious about the rest of it. Then you get the ending which is even better! It's filled with so much old-school style and funk that it brings a nice contrast to the tone of the series which is in fact, set in the future.

The plot itself is rather straightforward but without all the nonsensical cringe usually associated with 'following your dreams'. Sorry, I like to poke fun at that. The show uses the anime medium very well to insert the comedy and disbelief in the animation work. It strays from using the fact that it's an anime to justify any cry for success, which is what I like to see. The way the characters think, act and perform do not scream at you. They do so realistically to slowly, but surely, get them closer to reaching their dreams.

Of course, this wouldn't work nearly as well if the characters weren't interesting. The main cast is great. They were believable. Fun and comedic to adjust the pacing, cute and innocent to sell their vulnerabilities, and strong and inspired to justify rooting for them.

I can't say the same for the 'villains' however. Aside from Angela and Ertegun, the 'villains' are very much just caricatures. This is too contrasting to the main cast that it's actually off-putting whenever they come on screen. All they do is give heavy-handed speeches about the theme of the show, create villainous tones to set the stage for the show and literally insert drama and problems that completely bring viewers out of the experience. Like seriously, Cybelle could have been a great play on the creepy side of the industry but was just a God awful character. The writing here is completely flawed and a major negative in my books. Hopefully, they improve on this the next time around.

The animations through the series is also something worth pointing out. I realise a lot of shows use animations similar to the ones shown here, some even better, but I didn't quite believe it when I heard this show was by Netflix. Lo and behold, a quick search tells me it's made by Studio Bones. Their animations usually come with a lot of bright colours and big effects from what I've seen of their works so it's quite a nice surprise that they can effectively deliver on the tone of this show despite the fact that buildings aren't flying around.

Overall, I quite enjoyed Carole and Tuesday. It was very wholesome, light and soothing. I admit, I did skim past certain parts, mostly due to the show's slow pacing and the other half of the music performances not actually performed by the main cast. Seriously, what the **** is wrong with the Mermaid Sisters' performance. That wasn't funny. It was stupid.

P.S. I actually do enjoy the Idolmaster anime series quite a bit despite saying I don't prefer music animes. But I don't see it as much music-focused as the games do. I find it enjoyable more for the characters.