Welcome to the wonderful world of Kaleido Star, where dazzling colors and moving performances are the norms. The stage is a warm and ebullient place where dreams are made and realized, but beneath this, it is a suffocating and cruel battlefield, displaying in full force the foolishness, jealousy, loneliness, and happiness that are found in striving for ideals—Kaleido Star is not one to portray stardom as merely glamorous and flashy. Yet, there is a certain hopefulness underneath this painful picture, a certain charm that makes you exit this show changed and full of life.
The key to this lies in our protagonist, the cheerful and talented Sora Naegino. A go-getter in every sense of the term, she travels all the way from Japan to California to pursue her lifelong dream of performing at Kaleido Stage. Though clumsy, inept, and inexperienced, Sora has a persistent and unyielding drive to pursue her idealized "competition-free stage"--no doubt resonating with those of us who had to give up, one time or another, our own hopes and dreams. Therein lies her charm, as her unalloyed love for the audience and stage, enraptures both viewers and performers alike. Of course, the path that lay ahead of her is not an easy one. Throughout the story, Sora encounters countless trials and tribulations, forced each time to re-evaluate her self-worth as her rose-colored image of stardom is tested. The show, in fact, goes several times too far in the cast’s ridiculously harsh treatment towards Sora, but this only serves to strengthen her resolve.
The rest of the main cast are foils for Sora's development, with each character bringing something to the story, as a dedicated mini-arc fleshes out their character and motivations. If Sora is Kaleido Star's protagonist, Layla Hamilton is undoubtedly the show's deuteragonist. An alluring and elegant mentor figure to Sora, she first appears utterly unlikeable, being both sharp-tongued and judgemental. However, through the course of the show, she is revealed to be much more kind-hearted, simply suffering under the burden of having to please her workaholic father, whose expectations have alienated him from his daughter's feelings. Though Layla, unlike Sora, struggles only internally, as she is treated with reverence by our supporting cast, both are testaments to the price we must pay to realize ideals.
As you can expect from a show revolving around a circus, despite a relatively low and dated art quality, the direction and use of colors are dazzling. Sora’s performances emanate with a love that could only have been possible thanks to the brilliant costume designs and the dynamic fluidity of her movement. More than just making your jaw drop or your eyes tear, they possess a magical quality that transports viewers into the circus halls, filling them with a newfound inspiration to pursue the impossible. The visuals and atmosphere were also complemented by the show’s wonderful soundtrack, which appeared at just the right times, invoking cheerfulness or ominousness depending on the scene.
In the end, Kaleido Star is a show that far surpasses the sum of its parts. After all, there were several times in the second season’s first half that I felt like dropping the series or at the very least, throwing my phone and cursing at the many characters who tear Sora down. The plot itself was also plain and largely formulaic, with some twists here and there that are foreshadowed quite obviously. Despite this, watching Sora’s journey as a performer and as a person filled me with euphoria, touching me in a way that only ARIA previously had.
Kaleido Star is not like your average show, as, regardless of its many flaws, it has the ability to influence the way you feel and act even after completing the 51st episode. It's one that will likely stick with you for a long time, encouraging you to find the right perspective and to never half-heartedly compromise on your ambitions.
For a show capable of something like that, my score is more than justified. Thank you, Junichi Sato, for another masterpiece.
