Why I Love Carole & Tuesday

I know there's a lot of anime out there, but I feel like Carole & Tuesday doesn't get enough love out there. Shinichiro Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo is at the helm of this one so it's no wonder that the show is so damn good. What makes Carole & Tuesday so good is the energy it exudes. It's hard to describe quite the feeling it gives me, but I think heartwarming is the most apt. Seeing these two girls struggle to become professional musicians gets you invested in these characters when they finally have a moment of success. This anime came out three years ago so I think it's safe to talk about spoilers so I'm warning those now who haven't seen it.

*SPOILERS AHEAD!*

The two titular characters are very different, but compliment one another. Carole is hardheaded, brash, and kind. Tuesday is reserved and quiet, but both girls show a lot of determination. The pair's styles are also different: Carole dresses casually while Tuesday where's a lot of dresses and vintage wear representing her background. Speaking of backgrounds they even contrast in terms of background while also feeling similar. Carole is an orphan and refugee of Earth. She struggles to pay the bills in her apartment as she works shitty customer service job after customer service job. Tuesday comes from an upper-class family outside of the city and her mother is running to be president of Mars. Actually, that's kind of insane. This takes place far in the future when humans have terraformed Mars and inhabited it. If she is running to be president of a whole planet it basically sounds like a world dictatorship, but that's irrelevant right now. As you can see these two girls come from very different backgrounds, but both of them feel like they don't belong because Carole is lower class and there is a stigma of Earth refugees on Mars and Tuesday's mother is strict to the core. She barely gives Tuesday any freedom and disapproves of her desire to enter the music industry which causes Tuesday to run away from home where she winds up meeting Carole.

Carole & Tuesday is a love letter to music from the story to the aesthetics. Each episode is even named after a hit song. As I mentioned earlier the world has changed a lot even changing how music is constructed. On Mars writing music by hand is considered old-fashioned and the majority of the music industry has AI (artificial intelligence) write their music. There's a personable element that seems to have been lost, but the story doesn't portray that this is the only way music should be produced. Though Carole and Tuesday are traditional musicians they are a fan of the stars that use AI. Actually, a big part of the reason that the girls don't use AI is because they don't have the money for it. As shown in the episode where they bought an AI to produce a music video for them they're not against using AI entirely. And if it's inferred that just about everyone uses AI to write their songs some of the best songs come from the artists that do. Skip's "Unrequited Love" is the best song on the show!

                     The animation is just gorgeous                                     

The music is one of the best things about this anime as it should be given the story revolves around it. While I don't like all of the songs within the anime, there are a few bangers within them and different genres used. I do find most of Carole and Tuesday's songs to be kind of plain sounding, but they killed the cover they did of Flora's song. The most AI manufactured sounding songs from the anime come from Carole and Tuesday's rival Angela. I wonder if it was purposely made so to commentate on how the music business makes songs just for the purpose of topping the charts with no consideration of creativity or expression. Angela's producer is Tao who is cold and doesn't like people to the point that he only lives around AI so I think it was intentional.

I also love how the show explores some of the problems that can come with fame. When on Mar's Brightest Tuesday comes in contact with a fan that is very creepy. Up to this point her and Carole have only been viral on YouTube, but even with that they had already amassed creepy fans. Cybelle is totally disrespectful and ignores Carole and Carole says nothing, (which for me shows this was definitely not written by someone black because she would've gone off on her) pushes herself on Tuesday to work together and when she hugged Tuesday she bit her on the neck. Later, Angela deals with a crazy stalker that even killed her assistant. Perhaps the most heart wrenching part of the show is Flora's story. 

Flora evoking Whitney Houston

Flora, like Carole, grew up with no family and met Gus who helped her take her career off as a musician. Leaving behind Gus and pursuing the money and fame left her without anyone and she became lonely and started using drugs. She's been gone for years without singing and doesn't seem interested in it anymore. I do think her story could've wrapped up a bit more neatly, but still to see her go through it made me want to tear up. Angela, a character I didn't care about at first ended up making me care deeply for her by the end. I was shocked when I saw her take those pills and her eyes glazed over. Carole & Tuesday is great at showing layers to their characters and have them be vulnerable. From the title characters to Gus, and other singers like Flora they do a fantastic job.

As you know from this blog I am a fashion fan and I have to give it to this show for the character designs. The duo wear some absolutely cute stuff sometimes. I really like Carole's outfit with the orange striped shirt with the cut shoulders, booty shorts, knee high socks, and boots. There's also an alternative version in green and red during Part 1's ending credits. Carole's fits are casual, but remarkable from her iconic pink overalls with the white shirt and Tims are the most iconic to her shoulder cut yellow top. All of them are lax without being boring.

 

 

 

Tuesday wears some cute stuff too. Tuesday's vibe is a lot of vintage wear, particularly some cottage core and French art student vibes. They all reflect her upper class background and her soft and gentle personality.

Angela, who I felt was the most basic overall even had a couple pretty cute outfits like when she performed "Lights Go Out". Actually I would describe Angela's style as very corporate pop star and that fits with her background. She was a child star like her mother and did modeling and her drive for success is based off of pleasing her mother. She feels tailored to become a star from her music down to her wardrobe.

A fun part of this anime is recognizing the musical references. You have the titles of the episodes named after hit songs as I mentioned and some of the characters are definitely inspired by famous artists. You have GGK who is clearly FKA Twigs, Crystal seems to be based on Beyoncé, and Flora seems to be inspired by the late Whitney Houston. It was also cool that they got a popular singer with Thundercat to lend his vocals. Watanabe is definitely a music fan as I could tell from Samurai Champloo and its hip-hop influences.

The vocalists behind Carole & Tuesday Nai Br.XX (left) and Celeina Ann (right)

Carole & Tuesday is also kind of diverse. You have characters that are trans, gay, and bisexual and it's not made to be a big deal. You also have minority groups represented and Carole herself is black and is one of the lead characters which is rare in anime. I say Carole & Tuesday is kind of diverse because I'm disappointed at the lack of black voice actors. While they could get a black woman to provide Carole's vocals when it came to the English dub they didn't. When I started the show for the first time and heard Carole speak in the English dub I immediately knew it wasn't a black woman. When I checked the voice credits page I was correct and it was whole white woman. I immediately switched to sub. Since it was so early on that I switched I don't know if any of the other black characters were voiced by black people, but if so it looks worse that they could cast supporting roles to black talent, but not the leading role. However, I don't want to dwell on this too long. Let's get back to the good stuff.

Another component to this anime that is exceptional is the animation. Carole & Tuesday has a soft and clean art style and and the animation runs smooth and properly evokes what the characters are feeling which is accompanied by the voice talent. The colors really pop and they use things like blur for spotlights to make it feel more grounded and during certain performances there is this glow they put around the artist that makes the performance feel magical. I don't watch a ton of anime, but this is one of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen.

Carole & Tuesday doesn't overstay its welcome either. The two part series provides a narrative with a strong start and an emotional ending that does everything that it needs to in the time it has. There are no hanging threads unless one counts where Skip ends up. I do however wonder where Carole and Tuesday's career goes from here and their relationships with their families, but a good anime leaves you wanting more. I will say in the ending bringing Desmond back felt kind of cheap. In his episode clearly made it seem like Desmond died right after his song and then for him to just pull up in the last scene felt out of place. It doesn't kill the show for me. It just stood out. Still, that last scene was beautiful and it made me want to see more though I'm content with it being a completed series. This is why I love Carole & Tuesday so much and if you do too leave a comment so we can talk about it together.