I had no intention of ever watching Carole & Tuesday. My initial thoughts were that it would only be shallow and wouldn't be any more than a coming of age story that tried too hard. All this despite knowing that it was a Watanabe show too, which is saying a lot about my reservations about it. And then one of the songs from C&T showed up on my Spotify Discover Weekly. I instantly fell in love with it and realized that maybe I should give C&T a chance to prove me wrong. And I sure am glad that I did. The aforementioned song is "Lay It All On Me" and it's the reason I fell in love with this show and it's two loneliest girls.
Visually, C&T is incredible. The backgrounds are beautiful in their depiction of the strange, futuristic Alba City. The characters are well designed, all incredibly distinct and colorful, reflecting so much personality with their designs alone. With all that being said, I think my favorite part of C&T visually is the concert set pieces. Each and every one is beautiful and reflective of their respective artist, some of them are simply just so damn cool. Ertegun's sets are among my favorites, but others like Crystal's Cydonia Festival set are so visually pleasing and enjoyable to watch. This side of Carole & Tuesday might be the most surprising to me. I certainly expected the music to be good and I had hope for the story once I started it, but visually, I was blown away by how well animated it was.
Now for the music section that I'll keep somewhat brief since I'll be talking about music all through the review. I honestly don't have a single song that I could say that I disliked, because they were all so unique and fitting to their respective scenes or characters. The only negative I could probably say about the music in Carole & Tuesday is that Carole and Tuesday's music in specific was a little samey, especially in the middle. There were some huge standouts, though. "Loneliest Girl" being the first that always comes to mind after "Lay It All On Me", and honestly, I could name so many others that I simply adored listening to, but to save space, suffice it to say that there were only a select few that I wasn't super impressed with, like the second opening to name one. Obviously, to make a show about music you have to have good music, but suffice it to say that I was blown away despite having extremely high expectations. On a side note, I was actually really impressed with the actual OST for C&T, despite it not getting much of a chance to shine. In addition to that, the voice acting was really good in the dub that I watched it in. I can't complain about a single voice choice or performance, but I will praise a favorite of mine, Ray Chase, for a killer performance as Ertegun.
Favorite Character: Tuesday Simmons, but let's be honest I loved all the characters.
Cop out, I know, but I loved everyone for different reasons. Tuesday was my favorite overall, Carole was my favorite personality, Angela was my favorite character arc, Ertegun was hilarious, etc... I think this was a case that the ensemble pushed each character to be better than they perhaps would have been on their own. Carole and Tuesday's whole dynamic was built upon being with each other, which weakens their individual characterization, but builds our bond to them on their relationship as best friends and musical partners. And, honestly, I think that is more important and more so the focal point of the story anyway. We didn't need to know every little detail about either one of them because the point was the bond shared and their music as a duo, not on if they can be a strong independent character. Which, I'd have to interlude that they do get enough time apart from each other that they never seem as if they're completely flat without one another, just that they're better as a unit. I could concede that they never really had their bond challenged at all, but I was okay with that. Contrived drama is never the answer, even if it's there to "build character" or something.
In fact, Carole & Tuesday benefited so much in my mind from being relatively light on the drama. It was present at times, but it was handled in small doses, you know, like real life drama. I think someone could probably make a point that potentially, Carole and Tuesday got off quite easy in a lot of situations in the show, like being almost completely shielded from Tuesday's mother's campaign, which isn't extremely realistic. In fact, I don't think that Tuesday got enough resolution about her familial storyline. She barely has any connection to her brother and only a handful of times during the show talks with her mother, despite it being a pivotal part of her character. I also think a case could be made for the ending being quite rushed and the lack of resolution being pretty weak, especially since we never get to see them after the big finale performance, which feels extremely lame. I wanted to see their friendship with Angela grow, their debut album release, and more of what they would get into next, but alas, it just....ends.
I bring up things that could be construed as negatives up, because I want to show how little all those things mattered to me in the grand scheme of things. I love Carole & Tuesday. I was so emotionally attached to those girls, Angela included, that I can only applaud the writing for getting me so attached in the first place. I think, if I had to put it into words, I would say that Carole & Tuesday brings some absolutely great ideas and refines some flawed ones, bringing them together to create something flawless. Do I think Carole & Tuesday is perfect in every way imaginable? Absolutely not. I really think some of the things above are pretty iffy issues, including some others, like Carole and Tuesday's relationship building up ridiculously fast. However, do I love it all the same? Absolutely. Did I give it a 10/10? Absolutely.
In my opinion, Carole & Tuesday is emotionally engaging. Music is naturally emotional, and Carole & Tuesday hooks you right in with emotional piece after emotional piece, all while showing so many different sides of music, but never hiding the passion and love that comes with creation and expression. It emphasizes how valuable it is to be able express yourself through art, you could argue that it was an edgy take that was, perhaps, a bit too on the nose, but I respect what was trying to be said, nonetheless.
