Aug 1, 2019
Robin Williams famously said that poetry and beauty are what we stay alive for. They are what make us human. Carole & Tuesday builds a world where this poetry and beauty, in the form of music, are ironically mass-produced by non-humans, and then it presents us with two girls which stand up against this world.
The greatest success of C&T is in its world-building. From the first few moments it’s easy to note the futuristic setting, with AIs being used even by our main characters. This continues throughout the anime where we see many side-effects of interplanetary colonisation, such as the political climate of Alba City
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as well as characters being androgynous due to Mars’ atmosphere affecting their hormones. It’s a great refresher from other stories that take place in a unique setting just as a backdrop and then keep it generic or never really use it as a point of interest (I’m looking at you, isekai’s).
Another point where this show shines is its art. It’s always visually pleasing to look at, character designs are good and even the strange ones aren’t too far-fetched, and instead tell us about the kind of people that exist in C&T’s world. The animation feels occasionally stiff in minor scenes but it’s balanced out by impressive dance sequences.
Throughout C&T, the cast tries several ways to make it big, from channelling their creativity through yoga to filming a music video. Individual episodes are entertaining to watch unfold, but as a whole the events aren’t strongly linked with each other. While this makes it feel like anything could happen next, it also means the show doesn’t have a good sense of direction. All we know is that it’s building up to the “Miraculous 7 Minutes of Mars,” as narration promises us at the start of every episode, but it’s hard to see how much of an effect just 7 minutes out of 24 episodes will have.
While other anime might use plot-twists or character deaths to make the audience feel something, C&T uses songs performed by the characters. The music in C&T is good, but if you don’t like the given song being played it can feel a little awkward watching a girl sing for 2 minutes and seeing everyone praise how she took their breath away when really, you probably lost focus halfway through. Not to say the singers aren’t good but I find that it relies too much on music that is just slightly above average.
There’s also a huge focus on pop music while other genres get heavily overlooked. I’m oblivious about music but I can tell that the songs that get booed and don’t even have proper lyrics sound different from the ones that Carole and Tuesday and even Angela sing. It’s like the anime is deciding what’s good or not instead of letting the audience decide for themselves.
The characters are likable but conventional. Tuesday is naive and worrisome and idealistic, Carole is more street-smart and practical and a little ambitious. The two balance each other well but I don’t think there’s been enough screen-time to show their individual quirks without involving music or singing. Another important character is Angela, the girls’ main rival. Behind her confident outset, she’s suffering with a kind of identity crisis and low self-esteem caused by her controlling manager and mother Dahlia, making her the most complex character in the series.
Other characters are pretty basic, only existing as either to help the duo or stand against them, and barely any of these get fleshed out. It’s not a good idea to have a 5-episode “tournament” arc with 8 contestants but only put effort into half of them. One interesting character is Cybelle, a girl with an infatuation with Tuesday. She kind of portrays the unhealthy fanatics that some musicians suffer with (see: Perfect Blue), but she was not developed and, like other characters, eventually became a plot device to hinder the two.
In conclusion, C&T is a pleasant show that likes to play it a bit too safe, but it’s definitely notable for having a great setting.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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