Story: 6
The story of this show is, well... not good. The writer seemed to have a bad habit of having some wonderful idea and throwing it into the story without ever telling us what exactly that wonderful idea was supposed to be. For example, imagine sitting in some class where the teacher keeps using this seemingly important term "parydot." You have no idea what the heck a parydot is, and neither do any of your classmates, but apparently your professor sure does. Of course, he'll never explain it to you for some reason only God knows. That's what watching Rolling Girls is like; you constantly question whether you missed some crucial piece of information or not, even though in reality none of what seems to be integral pieces of the plot are EVER explained.
If you were to ignore this aspect of the show, however, what would be left is some really loud and over-the-top plot that... I honestly didn't hate. Something about the way they blew every action way out of proportion reminded me of Gurren Lagann. Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not trying to compare the whole show to Gurren Lagann, though I suppose in retrospect they have more similarities than you'd initially think... Hmph, maybe I am comparing it to Gurren.....
Art: 7
The art of this show is certainly unique. All of the backgrounds look like watercolor paintings, which give the show a fresh and interesting look. The palette used is full of bright pastel colors that look like liquefied Starbursts. And even though I had never seen art quite like this in an anime before, it wasn't distracting at all, which I was pleasantly surprised about. If I had to describe it all in a concise manner, I'd have to say it was just plain fun.
The animation, on the other hand, was just meh. It was pretty standard, with a few awkward shots and movements every episode or so. Not good, but not bad either. This was mostly obvious in the slower-paced scenes of the show, when there wasn't too much action going on. And even when action was going on, it was a bit of a toss-up whether you'd get a smoothly animated fight or not. I'd say the animators would get the action right about 70% of the time. But lemme tell you, when they got it right, they got it RIGHT. Those over-the-top scenes I mentioned before really stood out in my mind, and I mean that in a good way.
Sound: 8
This was my favorite aspect of the show. While the opening and ending were nothing special, just standard-old J-Pop, the OST was just great. It really set the mood in the most important scenes, and before long I would catch myself bouncing on the edge of my seat, grinning like an idiot. I'm one of those people who don't really notice the OSTs of shows, I get too caught up in the visuals, but this case was different. The music of the show grabbed my attention and, most importantly, complemented the story. And don't even get me started on that song at the end of episode 8. :-3
As for the voices of the characters, in this regard I was also pleasantly surprised. Rolling Girls consists of a bunch of different one-to-two episode arcs, so naturally our quad of MCs meets a lot (and I do mean A LOT) of different characters. When this happens you usually run into the problem of many of the characters starting to sound the same to you. Rolling Girls managed to avoid this problem, however. Each character had a unique sound to them that made them easily recognizable. Even more impressive, I didn't hate or find ANY of their voices annoying in the slightest. Bravo, Rolling Girls, bravo.
Characters: 7
As has been already stated, there are a lot of characters in this show, most of which you will only see for one or two episodes. And all of them were fairly likable, I'd say. Some were cooler than others, but none of them were especially terrible. Some I wanted to slap across the face a couple of times, sure, but none I wanted to kill out of pure hatred. They each are unique with their own aspirations and motivations, and none of them are "recycled" throughout the show.
While all of this is just fine and dandy, they're just side characters in the end. And our main characters, our "Rolling Girls," unfortunately did not impress me as much as them. They're personalities have nothing wrong with them, and they're not all that bland either. They... just..... don't go anywhere. In a show like this you'd expect our travelers to be the ones to grow the most, but that just doesn't happen. Our main characters hardly do anything, the plot is focused on and furthered by the struggles of the side characters. They're barely developed except for one (kinda...), and at the end we're thrown some random connection between the four that totally just came out of left field. It was quite saddening.
Enjoyment: 6
There was something weird about Rolling Girls that just made it hard to watch. I would sit and stare at the video on my computer screen, but I found it soooo difficult to press "play." Once I started, everything went fine, but just that initial click was a real challenge. This has happened to me for a couple of anime, and I just can't explain it. And even though there were many scenes that I greatly enjoyed while watching the show, I can't say that I've ever experienced an episode that just flew by with Rolling Girls. While I wanted to have one of those "five-minute episode" experiences, I felt like the episodes were twice the normal length instead.
Overall: 7
All in all, this show had its high and low points. It's artistically different and refreshing, but lacking in content. In my humble opinion, it was just "okay." I'd suggest it to anyone who's got time on their hands and just wants to watch something simple and ridiculous.
(A note on my ranking scale: My average anime score is 7. This is because I rate on quality and enjoyment, not in comparison to other works. A 5 would be something I was completely indifferent to, and since I somewhat enjoy most shows I watch, my average is 7)
