Carole y Tuesday

If you love Violet Evergarden you will love this one.

Sure they have some of the usual girls make it big story, but the story is so much more lovely and sweet than that. I genuinely adore this anime and am happy for the change of pace.

Yes you can pan it off as simple and boring, but characters are endearing, the music is soulful and in true Watanabe style, everything is not as is it seems. Btw this whole show takes place in the future on Mars and gingerly incorporates that into the backdrop of the story, never shoving it in your face but allowing you to admire it from a far. Overall, this is a soulful, funny and endearing show that always catches you off guard in true Watanabe style!

Carole & Tuesday does a great job getting you to care about all of its characters and feel genuine concern when things don't go their way. Throughout the anime's run, I was genuinely invested in where the characters were going to end up, how they would make it through road blocks, and felt disheartened when things didn't go their way.

This anime tackles some subject matter that I can't say I've seen in others, which makes it stand out as very modern. While I applaud Carole & Tuesday for even attempting to breach these topics, I feel like its ambition got in the way of it being able to reach a meaningful conclusion. Things like immigration, government corruption, and police brutality hardly have a neat solution in real life, so it's easy to see how their inclusion might mean the ending isn't as fulfilling as it could have been; things wrap up way too quickly and neatly here to feel meaningful.

Despite my feelings toward the anime's ending, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Carole & Tuesday. It has nice animation, great and catchy music, and a well-rounded cast that makes it easy to recommend to anyone.

There are some truly touching songs on the Carole and Tuesday soundtracks - I love Loneliest Girl and Lay It All On Me. However, despite the truly stellar soundtrack, I found the story fell a bit short of a home run. Each episode in the first season seemed like it was trying to do a stand alone episode which led to a disjointed middle. The second season started to have a more overarching story but it still felt a little like a show that didn't know what exactly it wanted to be. Themes and characters where introduced never to be heard from again or just popping in again once or twice for a performance or two. It was hard to feel the emotional resonance of these brief appearances even though I knew what I was supposed to be feeling. The soundtrack patched many of the plot holes - providing the emotional oomph that was lacking. Many character relationships were left unresolved completely. It's worth a watch for the soundtrack and the heartwarming message but its not perfect.