Rolling☆Girls

Watching Rolling☆Girls is like watching a newb play a video game. You helplessly look on as they mash buttons and hope something substantial will come from it. You grit your teeth as they ignore all the opportunity to advance or even score a few points. But as much as you'd like to take the controls and show them how it's done, you're simply delegated to being an onlooker, as you watch them run around aimlessly with no sense of thought or direction.
With the chance to truly make something worth watching squandered, the show seems to lack any proper direction or purpose. Instead what we ... get is another moe-blob adventure with cute girls going around engaging in silly shenanigans. They hint at some kind of "bigger than life" plot involving magical stones, which when ascertained gives the holder power, but that never seem to manifest itself as it is simply overshadowed by the blaring attempts at cuteness and dull comedy.

As a "road" anime it fails since we get no real sense of progression or proper world building. Nothing is ever truly explored and the only setting exploration we get is in a form of a cheap info dump in the 1st episode. They simply attach a quick backstory of a territorial war between prefectures in Japan, which we're told resulted in its current state. This later leads to gang disputes where magical stone holders known as "Bests" duke it out to show dominion over other rivals. But it isn't until 9 episodes in the show that anything substantial happens in terms of plot. The show jumps around aimlessly from one location to the another just to allow our moe dango balls to get caught up in some sort of fluffy tension-less conflict, for it to simply be resolved without any sense of accomplishment. They repeat this monotonous cycle without any cause or context. They simply arrive at a new destination, silly shit happens and then they leave for the next location like it never occurred, that's literally it. The show seem to simply exist as an excuse to show "pretty" visuals and silly hijinks. They didn't even attempt to flesh out any of the 1 dimensional cast, which made them fail as even basic archetypes... how do you even fail basic archetypes is beyond me, that's like failing to write your own name.

The only saving grace to speak of is the bubbly up-tempo art and consistent animation. The world of R☆G looks like it was colored within the mind of a hyper active 10 year old, which makes every episode appealing to look at. It was vibrant, eye catching and made the experience more palatable. But that's about it, outside of the art and animation R☆G offers nothing to sink your teeth into. The show is trying to entertain but doesn't seem to have a clue as to what a "plot" is.

Overall: 3/10

It's simply a moe-blob show with pretty visuals. Other than that it's soulless, forgettable and lacks any kind of purpose. This is as "bottom of the barrel" as an anime can get and only seem to exist to simply pander to the viewers with blatant escapism. There's nothing here that warrants 12 episodes. Your time is better spent elsewhere.


For other titles that does the same thing but to a more refined degree I point you towards:

Kill La Kill: Crazy over the top presentation but have a more focused structure and a sense of progression. It feels like it's doing something with its premise and not squandering it for silly moe/cute girls pandering.

No Game No Life: Striking similarities in visuals and also excessive pandering. But unlike R☆G, it has a clear goal and a better grounded plot. It doesn't payout in the end, with a "read the manga" ending, but at least there was a sense of direction to begin with.

FLCL: Similar over the top presentation with a unique artstyle but handled with finesse and is more self-aware. Has a more clear cut objective, great usage of motifs and allegories, but most importantly, it contained a sense of "fun" that R☆G seem to fail at capturing.

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Rolling Girls is what happens when you sell out. It’s the embodiment of relinquishing your own vision and creativity to ensure that your product sells rather than ensuring its actual quality. This anime is a great exemplification of the profit-over-quality mindset that has plagued the anime industry with its indistinguishable moe garbage for nearly a decade. Now, I’m not being so hard on this show because it’s the worst offender of lazy moe-blob entertainment, but because it has the structure and budget to be something that’s actually good, yet consciously chooses to be something stupid and generic instead. That, to me, is the ... ultimate offense. You Rolling Girls fans probably want me to elaborate after that seething intro, so let’s jump into this:

Synopsis: In an alternate reality, Japan is split into a multitude of factions, each of which is controlled by one or many moe-blobs. Hijinks ensue.

After watching the first episode or two of Rolling Girls, you might be fooled into thinking that this show has an actual plot, actual characters, and a fleshed out setting. Well, don’t be, because this anime has none of those things. The only imaginable reason that you could enjoy watching this show is for the flashy animation with no rhyme or reason behind it and the copious amounts of moe. It’s the epitome of mindless entertainment. Now, that’s all fine and dandy if the show was honest about what it is, but it isn’t. Rolling Girls tries to convince you that it develops a coherent story and legitimate, multi-dimensional characters when it so obviously is not.

The whole idea of Japan being split into factions seems like a cool and imaginative idea, until you realize they are merely using it as an excuse to change the show’s setting and supporting characters every episode or two. Following a largely episodic style, characters come and go before you’ve even committed their names to memory, much less their personality or motivations. Every single subplot is incredibly shallow and pointless, and ends in the same place that it began. To reiterate, NOTHING of significance happens in this show; there is no coherent plot, no matter how hard it tries to convince you that there is. The only reason to watch it is for comedic, moe hijinks, which you can get in so many other shows without the deception.

The characters, as you might expect from a moe-blob show, are completely one-dimensional, boring, and indistinguishable. They all have the exact same sense of humor (which, again, is moe) and even the exact same face. They are completely uninteresting, unoriginal, and zero-effort. However, yet again, the show will try to trick you into thinking they are more than that. The first two episodes strongly indicate the backstories, motivations, and personalities of the girls will actually come into play at some point. Needless to say, they don’t; this is a plotless comedy show and nothing more.

The one and only thing that Rolling Girls deserves praise for is its bright, colorful animation. When they actually decide to animate something of note, this show is absolutely beautiful. Fantastic (though seldom utilized) choreography combines with vibrant colors to really pop off the screen and make you want to never look away. This is really the only reason to watch the anime, as it goes quite well with the whole theme of mindless entertainment that the show has. The soundtrack is pretty unremarkable, as the opening is a pandering idol-girl sequence and the OST is bland. The voiceacting is your standard series of moe quirks and not memorable either.

In short, is Rolling Girls a bad show? Not necessarily, but it certainly is an uninspired one. It can be actually funny at times and the colors are pretty, but when it comes down to it, there is no reason to recommend this show over any other moe-blob comedy; especially when many other shows do the comedy part far better and don’t pretend to have depth to their plot and characters when they actually don’t. I do not recommend Rolling Girls, though I can see how people would enjoy watching it.

(This has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

Growing up, kids always have dreams of what they want to become. A fire fighter, a police man, an astronaut; we all aspire to be something more. For me, it was a professional hockey goalie. In my mind, they’re the last line of defense who get all of the flak when a goal is let in but also all of the glory when that huge save is made. And while that dream of mine never came true, even as an adult, I still maintain that underlying principle: to be someone greater than who I am right ... now. For while you or I may be content with our current selves, as they say, “there is always room for improvement.” Rolling☆Girls uses this idea as its base, but the pretty visuals and varying soundtrack cannot make up for the plentiful errors elsewhere.


STORY

Rolling Girls stars Nozomi Moritomo, an avid fan of the legendary “Maccha Green.” When Maccha Green is injured during a duel, Nozomi, along with her newfound buddies Ai Hibiki, Yukina Kosaka, and Chiaya Misono, traverses the countryside to complete the contracts her idol had yet to get to. All the while having the adventure of a lifetime.

The best way to view this show is on a micro and macro scale. That is, there are the individual, slice-of-life instances and the overarching narrative that ties it all together. Essentially, starting in the small camp, the girls move from location to location participating in hijinks while providing some interesting backstory to the world presented. Interesting is kind of the wrong word though; rather, it’s wacky. Not so much random as it is “culturally diverse.” In short, each area maintains its own, distinct motif. From the anime-obsessed city to the village that thrives on motorbikes and fish statues, there’s never a dull moment when it comes to the sights to be seen. However, this already introduces an unsightly problem: disjointedness. The only commonality that really exists between these separate instances are the girls. There is no correlation from one set of events to the next, meaning when one problem is solved or taken care of it is subsequently dropped and forgotten. This missing sense of connectedness always made the show feel as if what it did was never worthwhile, because nothing ever came of it.

One way to fix such an issue is for the macro level to incorporate some form of togetherness. Here, Chiaya’s alien subplot is brought forth. But once again, the problem lies in how meaningful it all comes off as being. Initially, Chiaya’s background was shrouded in mystery, which later gave way to peculiarity. People were looking for her, sure, but her status or predicament never directly affected the micro instances, with the exception of the concluding one. At this point, the anime goes through an exposition dump, releasing all of the necessary details to make the previously rocky plot have some form of substance. But it’s “too little, too late.” Since the compact happenings never seemed to make the girls grow and the larger happenings never managed to maintain a sense of purpose besides at the ending, it all comes off as having a lost sense of direction. It’s like the girls were simple tourists, enjoying the various landmarks “just because,” without ever having a fulfilling experience despite everything they witnessed and went through.

The anime does have a thematic presence, even if it is small, and it’s the one talked about in the introduction. The show places people into two groups: the “Bests” and the “Rests.” The former are those that wield inhuman power, supposedly due to the “moonlight stones” they found; the latter is everyone who isn’t a Best. Naturally, the girls are all Rests themselves, which is what makes their subcontracting strange. Basically, since they have no powers of their own with which to use to solve the problems at hand, they go by normal, conventional methods instead. What’s interesting, though, is that it’s these very same Bests that have all of the issues; that is, despite their newfound status and capabilities, they still have problems of their own. So what we see is that the stones don’t make the person: it’s the person’s passion that provides them with the wherewithal to do the impossible. In other words, everyone, deep down, is a Best; he or she simply needs to unlock his or her own potential to become one. This message – that with enough tenacity, dedication, and determination, anything is possible – is promising, because it’s something we all understand. Unfortunately, the show forces this idea rather hastily at the end, with little in the way of exploration of it besides an example and a few lines from a narrator. Meaning, while the theme on its own is strong, the show’s inability to properly work with said theme prevents it from becoming lasting or meaningful.

ANIMATION

The strongest aspect of Rolling Girls is the art and animation that accompanies it.

Once again, strong might be the wrong word; it’s often captivating in what it creates. The most obvious detail is the coloring, with the vibrancy and vividness apparent at all times. There are more colors used for everything within the anime than there are stars in the night sky, making each place pop and crackle with shades and tones that seem almost unreal. But to make it have that much more of an impact, the backgrounds are water-colored, giving each environment a rough yet serene look about it. Each place is beautifully handled, and due to the sheer amount of diversity encountered, the show is given ample opportunities to craft whatever it sees fit for the moment.

The character designs follow suit. As with nearly all things Rolling Girls, due to the characters being a part of their own settings, everyone manages to have their own signature look. Nozomi has her motorcycle gear, Ai sports her half bikini, half leather jacket outfit, and Yukkipe wears her all-blue fashion with matching trucker hat. And even the side characters – from the young geisha, to the bar-owning butler, and even to the one teenager with the crocodile mask – each have their own designs that bring about their own flair.

Actual animation is also above average for nearly the entire show. There’s a lot that goes on – circuit races, concerts with fireworks, and aerial warfare with giant robots, to name a few examples. But the most stellar scenarios to see are the Bests doing, well, “what they do best.” They literally explode with colors, flowers, and energy that clearly demonstrate not just their powers but also the great attention to detail each punch, jump, or sword swing held.

CHARACTERS

When it comes to Rolling Girls, a large portion of the cast cannot stand on their own. Main member Nozomi is arguably one of the most underwhelming characters in a starring role, doing next to nothing throughout the entire series. Yukkipe is similar, with her only trait being her bad-yet-not-bad drawings and horrible sense of direction that gets overused joke-wise. The side characters also land into the same bad habits; they’re given minor, relevant background information to make their cases garner some sense of importance. But as has already been discussed, these same characters are around for an episode or two, making such developments in their persons seem weak or inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Now, one argument for why the sides get more focus, and therefore more development, when compared to their main counterparts could be for the simple reason that they are Bests while the girls are “lame” Rests. Yet, this goes against the established theme; if we’re all capable of being something better, why not place attention on those who can become so? It’s almost counterintuitive, since even when we know this to be the message, we never truly see it come to fruition through the characters and their actions.

Regardless and moving along, Chiaya doesn’t fare much better. Having been cooped up in her home to keep her out of harm’s way, she never had the chance to experience school, parties, and most of all, friends. So, this journey of theirs did just that. The girls have their own highs and lows between each other, but eventually, Chiaya and the rest become the best of friends, giving her the one wish she sought her entire life. Her characterization is nothing more than a cute little girl who randomly transforms into her true, alien form from time to time. And sadly, even the outcome reached doesn’t feel like it was achieved. The anime (understandably) spends a lot of its time on the constant stream of new side characters and when it does shift its focus to the group, they never come off as a tight-knit band of buddies, mostly because they hardly do anything – not just for each other but together.

The only character worth mentioning is Ai, but this isn’t saying too much. Her whole reason for joining the gang from the beginning was to simply become a “Best.” That’s it. But out of everyone involved, she seems to have the only personality that differentiates her from the others. Not only does she come off as somewhat selfish but also she never gives in to the tribulations set before her. She tries and fails on numerous occasions, but her hard works pays off, allowing her to “level up,” giving the characters and the audience the insight about the theme of dedication. She more or less grows as a person, both in her behavior and in strength. It’s minimal, though; to reiterate for the umpteenth time, such monumental changes happen right near the finale in one fell swoop rather than being nurtured over the course of the anime. Thus, instead of Ai’s character being impactful, she ends up being only slightly less useless than all of the other cast members.

SOUND

If this anime is remembered for anything sometime in the future, it most certainly will be for its opening theme. It’s a fantastic piece that perfectly captures the fun that is had, the rocking music that it jams to, and the ideas at play. Its extremely catchy beat and simple lyrics really do make you want to “go for it.” As expected, the ending theme is a big step down. It utilizes the same rock-n-roll instrumental vibe, but doesn’t have the same adrenaline-pumping feeling. The tameness and slowness makes it a piece that contrasts in a bad way with the OP, and in turn the goings-on of the anime itself.

The original soundtrack is filled to the brim with a large amount of tracks that keep the style of the anime in mind. Tracks such as “Macchagurin Basasu Shikkou” have a mixed style of piano and hard guitar to highlight the uniqueness of the world, whereas “Mame Sen Dai” demonstrates the cultural influence many of the locations steep themselves in. Even something like “Onore…” keeps with the rocker sounds while still acting as a foreboding mood piece. And beyond this, each area has its own lyrical track that usually plays at the climax of each of the smaller plot lines. This not only further makes each setting its own, distinct environment but also boosts the OST’s overall strength. Since Rolling Girls so heavily leans on the idea of togetherness, including such band-like performances only makes sense in this context.

The voice acting for the show is somewhere around average. Special shout-outs are deserved for Ari Ozawa as Nozomi for her not-too-girly voice and Risa Taneda as Ai for her tomboyish manner of speaking.

ENJOYMENT

When I first saw this one, and even when it first started airing, I was pretty convinced that it was going to be something good. Not “greatest I’ve ever seen” material, but at least something that could be remembered when it finally wrapped up whatever it had set out to do. All of the pieces were there to work with – an interesting world, some fun characters, and cool visuals and music to boot. But like a Lamborghini without gasoline, it looked pretty but didn’t go anywhere.

The longer it went on, the more it all started to blend together. It reached a point of repetition, with the same relationship-mending occurring at each stop along the way. And those “fun” characters started to lose their sparkle once it became noticeable that they didn’t do much of anything. It all became rather boring since Nozomi, Chiaya, and the others were such paltry characters. I couldn’t come to care for them, let alone find myself investing emotion into the anime’s progression. The laughs dwindled. The only real drama surfaced too late. And the actual ending was less than ideal. It was a heaping pile of potential that was squandered by the show’s own devices.

Rolling☆Girls could “talk the talk,” and while it did manage to “walk the walk” for a brief period, it slowly came to a crawl and eventually a full stop. The art and animation is top-notch, and the sound-work is handled nicely, but it doesn’t make up for the lackluster story and especially the incredibly weak cast that it contains. Or in the anime’s terms, it’s not one of the Best; it’s just like the Rest.

SUMMARY

Story: Bad, micro and macro instances don’t work on their own or in unison, with the theme of “Bests” being strong but improperly explored

Animation: Great, vibrant and water-colored art, nice character designs, above average actual animation

Characters: Terrible, nearly everyone is useless besides Ai, and even then, there isn’t enough there to warrant marked purpose

Sound: Good, fantastic OP, fine ED, very nice soundtrack, average VA work

Enjoyment: Bad, initially interesting but eventually follows repetition and boredom

Final Score: 4/10

I was listening to an auto generated YouTube song playlist and I heard a girl band cover of Tsuki no Bakugekiki by The Blue Hearts. It was a really good cover. When I looked into it, I found out it was from an anime called Rolling Girls. What was more surprising was they did an entire album as a tribute to The Blue Hearts. Just based on these facts, I started watching the anime...............................................
This is the first anime I dropped and broke my no-drop policy.

The only things I appreciate in this show was the poppy artwork, it was visually an 8/10 and the soundtracks & ... voices 9/10 for the The Blue Hearts tribute album.

My favorite part about Rolling Girls is how badly this anime was written regardless of the literally, undoubtedly, fucktone of potential that it had to be extremely stylish and unique. If this had a good story, I would have probably have liked it a bit, but not -- it does not have an interesting story -- or a story at all!

Only 5 episodes in, and I can safely review this anime because I know nothing interesting is going to happen later on. The first episode, which left a great impression on me, was but a bait to keep me watching with hopes for yet another ... colorful, awesome fighting scene of the same sort later on. Too bad to myself, that wouldn't happen.

Tokyo is divided into 4 different mini-countries, I guess, with loli's ruling important areas over them and terrorists trying to sabotage said places using automatic vaccum cleaners with Hatsune Miku prints over them, otaku's are obsessed with man-sized afro-american figurines, golden fish statues explode on top of houses (but miraculously don't kill anyone). Sounds confusing? Yeah, I was confused, too. I still don't get what the hell was the point of all that.

Character design is fantastic, but their personality is BORING. You will NOT, under any circumstances, feel attached to a single one of them. I really liked the design and it was just enough to draw me in, but man was I disappointed. I don't even understand what they're doing there. The only reason to justify the main character being the main character, is the for the sake of the story having a main character. Yeah.

I'm going to finish this anime because I already started, and my OCD kicks in whenever I have a show resting under 'dropped', but otherwise, I'm disappointed and would NOT recommend this to anyone whatsoever. Go watch something else that is by far better and wouldn't make you waste your life.

No spoilers!!! :)


Animation: sometimes pretty, sometimes fluid but always inconsistent and sloppy. I've seen other shows pull off the style they aimed for (like Kill La Kill for example) but they don't even get close to that


Sound:
1) not a fan of the soundtrack
2) often the songs playing don't match the scenes
3) very good casting and performances from the seiyuus
...


Story and characters:
1) the first two episodes got me super intrigued and I can't exactly explain why. However, then the plot totally shifts from what I thought was a pretty cool character (Macha Green) to these 4 "randoms" with very little depth to their personalities. Nothing about any of them captivated me.
2) the real plot of the series, which kicks off by the 3rd episode, is not properly introduced to the viewer and each episode was very hard to follow



This show for me was a waste of two potentially awesome characters (Macha Green and her nemesis) turned into a "WTF did I just watch?" and not in an amusing way. It's a 4/10 for me.