Overall: 85
Carole & Tuesday, like the name, is not singular but binary. The first half is perfect, and I would recommend it to everyone. The second half is melodramatic. Without music, the second half was a mistake. It's the third work by Watanabe Shinichiro I've watched. Cowboy Bebop is excellent. Sakamichi no Apollon, another music-driven anime, ended poorly. As a music-illiterate, you may get bored.
-
The Screenplay: 75
Carole & Tuesday define a unique world from the outset, sharply with efficiency. I was on board and oriented within the first episode. I'm sure no one will drop out in the beginning. The story was fundamentally visual. Enjoy yourself and feel in love with anime again if you watched those audiobooks with moving pictures. It takes me on a journey to Mars rather than threw me like a package. The anime flows gently. It's family-friendly. There is no danger. I wasn't surprised by the story but by performance in the end. "I'm finally fulfilled," as the lyrics from Hold Me Now. It's a bona fide, oceanic experience when everything is connected in the world. Watanabe Shinichiro is sympathetic toward their subjects. He is inside their heads, feel the world through their eyes. The anime is more than just what happened. There are a lot of things to say about human nature and contemporary life. What happened on Earth happened on Mars.
It is a unique work far away from the comfortable zone in the industry. Differentiates from multi-culturalism, which I seriously doubt, the diversity of roles and staff are impressive. Carole is a black female immigrant. Cybelle is a lesbian. Galactic Mermaids are a group of trans. There are vocal actors around the world. I had high expectations after I watched the first half.
Cons: It fails to be both amusing and serious. Cowboy Bebop did.
-
Character: 77
A character with a voice actress and a vocal actress. I've never watched an anime before. The CV disappears completely into their roles. Tuesday is a miracle. It's the first character by Ichinose Kana I knew. She proved me wrong that cinderella is cliches.
What's more, the duet of Carole and Tuesday is powerful. The power inside them is the same as Thelma and Louise, or Hanako to Anne, a phenomenal Japanese TV show. Hanako, a famous Japanese translator, was born in the Japanese countryside. Renko Hayama, the daughter of a Japanese noble. When they met at a Christian girl school, Renko divorced once, older than all the classmates. Hanako struggled with her accent and the gap between classes. Being a stranger and misunderstood all the way around. Being a black sheep in the family. Carole & Tuesday know it.
--- WARNING: Spoiler ---
The second half is a disappointment to me, and Valerie must take credits. She is a manipulator of her daughter's life while being manipulated by a conspirator. She is dictatorial but innocent. Everything is that bad guy's fault. She is a good mother and leader without that devil. That's nonsense.
My idea: that scorpion is not real but her alternative personal. There are two Valerie. One is kind and gentle. Another is cold-hearted and brutal. Another believed the ends justify the means. Another is the reason why she could succeed those male rivalries and be convinced. Politics is basically an animal. It grazes on the ordinary. It creates infinite idiots just to eat them. Gradually, the former one disappeared like she never existed. She forgot where she began. That was the beginning of Tuesday's nightmare.
In the end, she paid for her sins. Her alternative personal ended with a career. Like Carole's friend, a hip-hop artist, she watched the ending in the jail, too. Although she is prisoned, her soul is unchained.
It turns out my mother-in-law (I'm joking), Valerie Simmons, is not just an assistant role. She is a female politician with an iron heart. It is a deja vu for Britons. I watched Hunger, starring Michael Fassbender, one of my favorite actors. It's about the 1981 IRA hunger strike. Iron Lady is not exaggerating but understating.
Female leaders would act tougher and decisional because of gender bias. On the contrary, it's non-controversial no matter when male leaders showing their tenderness or ruthlessness.
An old satirical joke from Yes, Minister:
"Speaking as an ardent feminist myself, I think the problem lies in recruiting the right sort of women. Married women with families tend to drop out because, in all honesty, they cannot give their work their full single-minded attention. Unmarried women with no children are not fully-rounded people with a thorough understanding of life. So in practice, it's rarely possible to find a fully-rounded married woman, with a happy home and 3 children, who's prepared to devote her whole life or virtually a whole life to a department."
-
In theory, the ideal human is genderless for me. Despite a bit of disappointment for the second half of Carole & Tuesday, one of my favorite characters is Desmond, voiced by legend Kouichi Yamadera. I remember his/her lines to the gone lover.
--- WARNING: Spoiler ---
Production Design: 92
Cinematography: 90
The production design is top-level. It is a great help to tell the story. The colors are intrusive, garish, and obvious. The character looks gorgeous. The hair and makeup excel the characters. Every time I watched Tuesday wearing a marvelous dress from the Victorian Age, walking in the streets of Brooklyn, taking the monorail to the futuristic CBD, my heart palpitates.
My crazy obsession with the pre-WWI world is incorrigible. I hate modernism and futurism, honestly. Cybertruck? Capital Ship from Star Wars? I don't feel anything. Even Ridley Scott couldn't do anything about it. I love Blade Runner for the story. The production design is instrumental. Watanabe Shinichiro conquered me. It's definitely a bonus. For futuristic lovers, you'll be stimulated and feeling stronger emotions than me.
The frame is crowded and exquisitely composed. The colors are deep and bright. The images look slick and smooth. I recommend it to watch it on your TV and turn off the lights. It deserves your full attention for 25 minutes.
-
Editing: 73
I was with the duet from the start. It takes me where it promised it would go. "7 minutes of a miracle on Mars“, a charming voice from Akio Ōtsuka, works as a mantra. It is indeed a miracle in the end. For the first half, I was swamped. It is seamless and moves like the wind. For the second half, it's the opposite. Although there are many characters, they are together mentally and physically.
-
Sound & Music: 87
The sound effects were an enhancement. The sound of guitar, monorail, and bird is authentic. There is a point of view in the sound. It is highly detailed, deserves a quiet afternoon. At least, prepare a pair of noise-canceling headphones. I feel embraced all the time.
It's an anime that any one of the featured songs in the episode could be theme songs in others. I won't recommend it because the list is too long. Enjoy the vocal and soundtrack albums individually, please.
OP1 is the best, while OP2 is a bit down. ED1 is a tasty tiramisu. ED2 deserves a bravissimo. I'm humming it when I made my dinner. The music help tie the whole anime together.
-
Directing: 92
Watanabe Shinichiro demonstrates fluency and command with the medium. Carole & Tuesday reflects his ambition and vision beyond simply recording performances. The aesthetic choices within the anime are delightful, hearty, appropriate for the material. Anyone who was indulged in the atmosphere of Cowboy Bebop would lose one's self here. Electric shock, charging. Ready! The perspective stayed the same all the time. The anime is individualistic, risky, and unusual. His age changed. His heartbeat doesn't.
