I'll save the plot comments for later. To start with, let's think of the concepts. Real singers, musicians, performers, etc, writing, recording and giving life to the characters that were in general well depicted, inspired and suited by the original songs created. This has never been tried and explored before. It didn't end up as the fans wanted, neither as the people behind the show wanted. Probably, a bit more of money and time would have done better to the looks. Some performances' movements look out of sync. Some others have voices/lyrics and the instrumental part so disconnected as if you get a dog and a cat and tell them to make babies. Plus, something we've seen already in other sources may be regarded as one of the concepts - that is our turning into robots, little by little. Music, of course, is affected. Everything as a whole. But the focus of this show is, as you do know, music. We are so concerned about doing as most as we can and doing it fast, without really experiencing anything and getting to know what we consume, that even if the future idealized is utopian (as in less than a century technology evolved faster than all the expectations for nowadays in 2019) and dystopian (well... arts are almost dead and so are our hearts. Also, it seems there'll always be a white rich person to try to build a wall) at the same time, it is still indeed a possibility.

[You can see some people saying "huh but the show uses the songs to cover for its deffects" DUH THE SHOW IS ABOUT MUSIC. It's probably the same kind of people who'd say "Violet Evergarden is not good, just looks good because of its animation and design" or "Attack On Titan covers its flaws with blood". Well, they really didn't understood what they were watching on the first place]

These as starting points are pretty valid to try building up a universe and writing a story, or so Watanabe thought. Given his experience in futuristic simulations as he's the mastermind behind such a cult/classic show as Cowboy Bebop, everyone should at least give it a try, huh? I myself did never enjoy CB that much. At least not until the mindblowing satisfactory ending. Troll, but satisfactory. He has credit.

Then you get two girls with hearts and mouths and hands and instruments, united by mere chance. It's bold and lacking of inspiration as a plot starter, but it worked perfectly in this show as the two of them were looking for someone... like each other. In a world where 95% or more of all music is entirely made by AIs, they wanted to live the dream of proving there's still room for young spirits who are willing to challenge this world.

I'll stop a bit to talk about the art, the animation, the CGs and the altogether we got: looks not only decent, but really good. Pretty different styles combined. Nice color patterns. Great sequences and flow. Nothing really extraordinary, but again, suitable. And beautiful. You don't need to look like Violet Evergarden and Attack On Titan if you're telling this story. You only need to do a good job that leaves nothing to be desired. Well, they did it. Simple and effective.

Enter the other characters besides them two - well, they exist right? We have to talk about them. Let's start with the catalyst: the boy which was supposed to work for a DJ (read it as criticism: DJs are NOT musicians) and by chance, again, ended up seeing to girls performing a touching song and decided to record it later uploading it to social networks, giving them the task of making it viral. The duo was born. People got to see them. And... the catalyst becomes a dull, practically useless character. All he does up to the last episode is try to convince people to like the duo and help them somehow, failing miserably 99% of times. He is an AI operator and a sound mixer - something we forgot up to the last 10 minutes of the show where he is seen... doing his job. Wow. No, seriously... they could've given him at least a tiny bit more of screen time, backstory, importance, impact, ANYTHING.

Now, the manager. We are talking about a former musician of a band that never really happened. He was there with some guys doing something that some successfull musicians called nice and some hipsters would agree, but that's pretty much it. As they all needed money and money didn't come, the band disbanded. He lived a sad life of drinking and complaining about nowadays music as lacking of feeling and reality. That guy that annoys everyone in the bar and thinks he really was something/someone big enough to deter all the DJs to come. Sounds like a pretty convincing character if well done, right? And he is. Thank you for making me forget the crap you've done to our catalyst by giving us at least one decently plotted character. Anyways, one day he ends up seeing their viral video by chance and storms after them not offering to become their manager but forcing them to accept. Oh, and he's got some nice contacts to help the girls. Manager-san understands the business and has good ideas! Aye! Something may happen!

Then, there's the world's top DJ. Without his AI operator (our catalyst) and his flashdrive with his song, dude's basically null. Thanks, Watanabe. That also helps remember musician is a serious profession.

And now let's talk about the sh*t ton of other musicians: they're all living legends inspired by real artists and... to be honest, I really feel they're a lot more human than some of the most reccurrent or even main characters.

Finally, the rival. Ever seen a story of a famous artist so perfect in everything but with a dark past? Like, great at modelling, singing, dancing, acting, everything; having worked hard since the age of 3, 8 hours per-day, non-stop, to achieve something that wasn't even a goal to begin with? At a point we see the house of cards being teared down and the artist start doing drugs nearly dying and killing a carreer. Does it ring a bell to you? That's most of the kings and queens of pop music in the twentieth century. Cliché. But... I'll tell you: it actually was pretty well played. The rival girl acting as a spoiled brat being all b*tchy in attitude sometimes even pointlessly is something we are really used to. In the second part, the rival will become someone better, being enlighted by our heroes, and join the good side of force. Except for... it didn't happen. No one touched her. She's strong and snapped out of the hellish nightmare herself. Others (as the duo and as her.......... brother?) may have had some influence, but they were lesser. Her act was really nice. Tough. Coming back better than ever. Facing her fears. Facing her mistakes. But no regrets or excuses. Heads up, eyes looking down: she's still the rival. She's still the best. She's still superior. That was quite satisfactory.

The political part of the plot is also credible. Some will come and say "oh that was a vague criticism to people like my beloved conservative president! This writer is just a liberal with butthurt" bla bla bla. Nah. It definetely wasn't the case. A message was passed along: stop separating people, thinking you're better because of your skin color, your money or the place you were born, or hurting them because of their differences. To some, it may look repetitive, too over simplistic, boring... but, hey, take a look around: how's society in your country? Does racism exist? Homophobia? Prejudice against the poor? What about immigrants? Do they all have the same rights, treatment and image the traditional or the elites have? Well, then it is valid. And it was not superficial. It went down the surface. We even saw how being innocent when dealing with shady rich politicians or consultants may be dangerous as f*ck as those guys rule the world. We saw how manipulation goes. How everyone may change positions and discourses if it is what it takes to win an election. We saw sabotaging is normal. We saw creating new enemies or ressurrecting older foes - and further promising to counter them - is a viable way to get people by your side. We saw they run campaigns through fear only. Real politics, you know? You do? Well, that's you. Some people still don't. Some people still live in fairytale states of mind. You have to sugarcoat those things, especially when dealing with teenagers (the main targeted audience, 14 to 21). It wasn't, one more time, anything of extraordinary. But it was good. And suitable.

Now, something that really bothered me is how forced the LGBT topics seemed. But before anything, SJWs please hold yourselves for I am always liberal when it comes to this and am always in the extreme left-wings side of any analysis of politics or society. Even so, it really annoyed me. It felt like watching one of those random Netflix TV series which force this up every 5 minutes just to get masses to watch 'em. They don't really care about LGBT people. They don't give a f*ck about gender. They want our money. They'll use anything in order to having it. It probably wasn't what Watanabe aimed at; still some parts were unnecessary, coming out of nowhere - like our Manager-san's ex kissing her new partner (of the same sex) just to shock some teens. That was really pitiful. He can argue his idea was "society evolved a lot so this is of wider acceptance in the future". Ok, if there's a God, I hope he makes it happen. Still... WHY? JUST WHY? COME ON!

A couple episodes before the everything of the plot really begin were also slow and dull. They tried to be funny and even episodic. Not too good at it. Should've stick to the main issues. But it's no big deal. 2 out of 24.

We had a TOURNAMENT ARC. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah that's what we like. And it was a The Voice/X-Factor/Got Talent version of a tournament arc. It was just fantastic. Great artists, great songs, nice crazy moments. The peak of season one, surely.

And we had the magical ending. Magical to the anime, of course. To us, it was many things: heartwarming, satisfactory, predictable (I'd say except for the rival and her nerdy romantic interest being...... "sibblings"? seriously, that was like watching a Mexican soap opera. I really thought she was gonna conclude by saying she was pregnant of a drugdealer). Not magical. Showing us flashes of this ending since episode one, in every opening, definetely killed all surprises. But I guess it was just like what we got some 20 years ago: predictable 'cause we were told of the finale, but still REALLY GOOD. Again, SUITABLE. I used this word a lot, right? It sincerely is the best one I found. Every peace just go fitting the other and the puzzle is easily finished. To see how all of those simple elements connected to form a consistent plot, like all of those "just ok" things turning solid and making it an amazing show, was really interesting.

Now there's this thing that played a very important role into shaping the anime: each episode was named after a famous and important song. It became a ritual to me: every week as soon as the episode was released I'd listen to the song, check out the backstory and the musicians behind it, and that would really give me some new insights over the show. The first and the last ones, True Colors and A Change Is Gonna Come, are absolutely SUITABLE to the episodes 1 and 24.

As I said in the title, the show is good but not even close to flawless. However, to sum it up, the flaws are so little you just won't care much at the end. All the rest - a chain of "good and simple" things that unite to make a "great and not so simple" show - makes C&T worth watching. I'll recommend it even to my students.

Really, the songs are GREAT. I started watching it because I wanted GOOD MUSIC IN A CUTE AND GOOD LOOKING ANIME. Nothing else. And I got much more. If you're not addicted to music and are not looking for it, DON'T WATCH THIS SHOW. This ain't your regular seasonal moe or slice of life show. This is musically deep even though even when dealing with music it is really simple. And that's what makes it, as of now, one of my favorite animes.