Carole & Tuesday

Carole & Tuesday (2019) 

Let us start on a positive note. Carole & Tuesday has at least one good new song per episode, sometimes two and they are quite varied, as are the singers who appear. Let us just say that the Mars of the future is much more progressive than we are in 2019 in terms of diversity and openness to certain subject matter. Thanks to the way this show is, there is a good chance that everyone is going to enjoy some of the music and characters in this anime series. Unfortunately, it is quite likely no-one is going to like the main two female protagonists.  While it is interesting that the two main female protagonists are socially polarized and each have their own problems, they still come across as very uninteresting in my opinion, so it is quite possible that no one is going to really care about their different predicaments. Moreover, thanks to such a strong focus on the music, there is not much significant character development for the main female protagonists, their predicaments are simply dealt with rather at the very end, and to be honest, by that point I really was not able to care less about how their problems were solved. I was also not able to care less about any of their petty melodramas. In addition to all that, I was not able to build a relationship with the central couple, I could not relate to their problems, in other words, it left me cold most of the time. In all honesty, it did not help that the first half of the anime series could be summed up in one sentence "One hundred and one ways to (not)make it in the music industry". In the end, instead of the main female protagonists it was Angela and her subplot narrative that I found much more interesting. I thought the most likable character was Tao - and I thought even DJ Ertegun was much more funny and better than the main double act, even if he reminded me a lot of DJ Paul Bulva most of the time. The ending itself, which has a quite endearing message, was the thing that really saved this show for me, although it did make me feel like sparking up a joint, putting on my John Lennon sunglasses and going to a campfire so I could sing Kumbaya My Lord. Well OK, sure, singing is not going to solve the world's problems (maybe not even with flowers), however, singers and other personalities are able to point us in the right direction.... So, one last time - I liked the soundtrack, some of the supporting characters, the animation and a message which is perhaps better than Greta Thunberg's. I could not enjoy the narrative’s pace, I did not really get to know or relate to the main double act, in other words, I did not enjoy this anime series in any significant way, so I am simply awarding it 6.3/10. (03/10/2019)