Monday, March 9, 2020

Carole and Tuesday Part 2 Episodes 5-8


With the help of a music manager looking to make a comeback and a social media expert, Carole and Tuesday have begun their journey to the big leagues.  The path to getting there is littered with obstacles and new challenges.  But none might be as daunting as Gus entering Carole and Tuesday in the “Mars Brightest” competition.  Here, they’ll openly compete with the best talents the music world has yet to see.  Anyone of them could be the next big thing, among them Angela, the starlet who may or may not survive her own frustrating ordeals with AI obsessed Tao.

Carole and Tuesday has become a show that is easy to get into and, even better, is easy to relax with.  Of course, I’m paying attention to details for review throughout.  But even the mini critical nitpicks I might have pale in comparison to my overall feelings that this show is just good escapist fun that’s also an honest critique of the music world and culture at large.  In short, Watanabe is killing it again with Carole and Tuesday same as he did with Cowboy Bebop (though with a lot less hard scifi violence).

Carole and Tuesday themselves continue to be the beating heart of their own show.  No matter what situation they get into, you just want them to succeeded and you feel bad when things don’t go according to plan.  I know that the Cydonia Festival crowd was expecting another artist but Carole and Tuesday blew the guy away despite all the boos and trash being thrown their way.  Man did I want to run through the crowd and slap everyone who wasn’t giving them their proper due.  The feels filled hug they shared afterwards, along with encouragement from their shared idol, Crystal, was reward enough for a battle hard fought.  I also liked C&T’s encounter with Crystal’s ex, Skip.  His speech about the girls needing to remember why the got into music together in the first place will no doubt play a vital role later on in the series…or maybe it wont.  The way Carole and Tuesday is running right now, would it be cliché to let whatever fame they attain go to their head and they end up sort of like Angela?  I hope not cause Angela is a nasty piece of work (even if there hints at a rough backstory). 

This week we also arrived at what’s probably going to be the big arc of the rest of the first half of the series, the Mars’ Brightest competition.  Think American Idol in the far future and you’ve got the right idea.  And just like American Idol, the tryouts and a couple of the main competition sets were some of the funniest moments in the show so far.  Terrible acts and horrendous vocals are to be expected in a competition where thousands try to earn a spot in the Top 8 selection spots.  As for the other acts competing against Carole and Tuesday, OG Bulldogs surprising blend of Rap and Opera in Latin was surprising but fun.  I’ll get back to why Carole and Tuesday’s main piece succeeds in a sec but I do have to say that Pytor’s dance number was pretty amazing.  The way his movements were animated, it’s almost like they drew right over a J or Kpop Dancer, the moves are emulated that seamlessly.  His song was “eh” but those moves man, the kids not just a social media diva that’s for sure.  Oh and there’s Cybelle, who is definitely going to be a problem down the line with her obsessive nature over Tuesday.  It's a scary but honest reflection of celebrity fandom in todays world and theres going to be some tough scenes to watch as this plays out.

Back to C&T, their old school approach to just sitting down, writing lyrics, developing beats with normal instruments and just singing from the heart, that is going to be their ticket to success. They had a great first show at a bar run by an old friend of Roddy’s and it only had a small audience of 10 people.  These two aren’t looking to digitize their music or have an AI write their lyrics or develop their rhythm (speaking of TAO STOP LOOKING AT THEM, LEAVE CAROLE AND TUESDAY OUT OF YOUR CRAZY AI TORTURE SCHEMES!!!...sorry, just seeing him glance at them would be enough for me to put a security detail on C&T to make sure Tao doesn’t do to them what he’s done to Angela).  Even the Mars’ Brightest judges agree with me.  C&T aren’t about making a spectacle of themselves, adding special effects or fancy dance moves.  These two just want to play music together and it helps them stand out in a crowd of over the top performers…though said performers are entertaining in their own rights.  This show has done a lot to make Carole and Tuesday leads we can root for and I don’t think ill ever stop, no matter the odds stacked against them.

Couple of side notes before we close out.  First, good on Tuesday’s brother for not bringing her back home when he saw her perform at the bar.  I wonder how long he’ll be able to keep it under wraps that he saw her from his politician mother, especially if Tuesday’s welcoming the spotlight performing with Carole on Mars’ Brightest?  Carole got an interesting tidbit of backstory.  I mentioned last week that she was an orphan from Earth.  During her Mars’ Brightest interview she says that her parents left her on the steps of a church.  If that sounds familiar it’s because there’s another Cowboy Bebop connection there, tiny but its there.  The Bebops loveable hacker, Edward, was also left at a church by her father before he just flat out forgot his daughter (or son, he cant even remember) existed.  Man what if Carole and Edward were left at the same church and maybe ran into one another.  Lastly, Angela.  If C&T is doing everything in its power to make its core duo likeable, it has left nothing to make Angela a likeable antagonist.  Maybe that’s the point but there are slivers of a sad upbringing in the shadows that could be fascinating to explore.  As it stands now…I’ll be honest, I cant wait to see Carole and Tuesday surpass the little princess and show that AI made music doesn’t hold the same power as a good old fashioned guitar, keyboard and paper lyrics.

Well now that theyre into the semi finals, what’s next for Carole and Tuesday?  What kind of threat will Angela and Cybelle pose to their road to success and what other hilarious acts can we expect from Mars’ Brightest (which, let’s be honest, deserves its own Anime spinoff too)?  Guess we’ll find out all that and more next week right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.

No comments:

Post a Comment