While I usually moan about the shows that make me cringe (this is partly where my Summer Curse™ shows come from), I don’t talk as much about the other shows I watch, the shows that really capture my heart and warm by bones. Carole & Tuesday was a show that caught my interest when I first heard about it in mid 2018, when we just got some images. It really didn’t bother me that this was Shinichiro Watanabe’s latest project. I mean this is the guy behind the weeb shows we’ve loved on Toonami/Adult Swim in the noughties (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy, Kids on the Slope). Now he turns his attention to streaming networks, and with this being a Netflix-exclusive, I’m sure a lot of eyebrows are being raised. Okay, so you might already know that I will defend Netflix’s interests in anime, and while I accept that they have got it terribly wrong in some shows (Backstreet Girls being a obvious example), it’s worth noting that they have really nailed others (Violet Evergarden, Aggretsuko, Devilman Crybaby, Dragon Pilot: Hisone & Masotan, Kakegurui, Knights of Sidonia).
Set in the future on a terraformed Mars with a positive, inclusive and diverse culture, the show begins with two girls who started making music. Carole Stanley is a orphaned girl living alone, busking in the streets and working part-time jobs which she is constantly getting fired from, and Tuesday Simmons is a rich girl who is sick and tired of her sheltered life, and runs away to the big city of Alba. We also get many glimpses of their future rival Angela Carpenter, a famous model who is beginning a musical career of her own, despite initially not being able to sing very well. As we watch all three characters’ journeys towards becoming famous in the Mars music scene, we start to like them almost immediately. We admire Carole’s resolve and determination to not let bad things and poor luck get to her, we love Tuesday’s general dorkness (and she really is one, by the way), and while Angela could be seen as a bit of an antagonist of sorts, she is just as vulnerable and naive in music as her rivals are.
It isn’t long before we notice that the show is set in a culture where making music using actual musical instruments has become something of the past, with AI and electronics being the norm now, even in generating vocal talent; Angela starts off needing a special device in order to create her distinct singing voice. This is where both Carole and Tuesday find their niche. Writing their own songs and performing them all by themselves (Carole on piano/keyboard and Tuesday on guitar), they end up attracting an audience that is used to music that is made artificially, even eventually finding a manager and a venue to play in.
Something you do have to give them though: they are passionate about song writing, performing and hoping to be heard in the music scene on Mars, but they are truly abysmal at keeping part-time jobs, whether it be at fast-food restaurants, or even something as simple as dog-walking.
Some of us old weebs may notice the huge musical influence in this show, and we can think back to some of Watanabe’s past shows. While Cowboy Bebop and Kids on the Slope had jazz and blues, and Samurai Champloo had hip-hop, Carole & Tuesday has pop, rock and EDM. It even carries on the unwritten rule of episodes being named after song titles, something that Kids on the Slope also did, with episode titles like ‘True Colors’ (Cyndi Lauper), ‘All The Young Dudes’ (David Bowie), ‘Every Breath You Take’ (The Police), and ‘With or Without You’ (U2).
While we’re talking about musical influence, BONES really made a big deal about Carole & Tuesday being ‘the first anime to have all English vocals’. You can really tell that they didn’t mess around or end up using any Engrish here. Carole’s singing voice is by Nai Br.XX, a up-and-coming US r’n’b singer, Tuesday’s singing voice is by Celenia Ann, an Japanese-American singer-songwriter, and Angela’s singing voice is by Alisa, a new singer who has been all over the place. The numerous songs featured throughout the show are also written and produced by a variety of acts that some of us may have even heard of: Keane, Kings of Convenience, Cornelius, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, m-flo, Nulbarich and more. Heck, I even love how they did a direct parody of those overrated and over-paid EDM producers (Armin van Buuren, Tiesto, Deadmau5) in the form of DJ Ertegun, a secondary character who is initially very skeptical of Carole and Tuesday’s approach to music.
So as I watch this first cour (the second cour is coming soon), I wonder how Netflix got interested in this. We know that anime is not Netflix’s main source of income, with Emmy award-winning shows in their collection and big-name Hollywood actors itching to join future projects, although they have invested a lot of money into co-producing shows and acquiring licenses. I’m pretty convinced, though, that this was the right place for a show like this. I don’t think that it would have made as big an impact if Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, Funimation or Amazon Video ended up releasing this. While we can praise how the soundtrack is entirely in English, what about the English dub itself? Well, it’s…not terrible. Jeannie Tirado, Brianna Knickerbocker and Ryan Bartley all lend their voices to the main characters, among others, and sure, a few lines have had to be changed to make a better translation, but the dub itself is solid, and sounds good.
Safe to say that the show has already picked up a few stans long before it appeared on Netflix outside-of-Japan, and I’ll admit that I’ve fallen for it too. Heck, you can even check out their official Instagram page here: the very one they use in the show. Plus Spotify have even put together an official playlist featuring songs that are episode titles.
Samurai Champloo was a very good show, but it was no Cowboy Bebop, and Kids on the Slope was, sadly, a show that I just couldn’t warm to. While we can simply watch two girls here try to make it in music, what the show also has is a lot of subtlety. You don’t need me to tell you that the West has, right now, shown some of its darkest colors recently, politics-wise. And for a feel-good and inspiring anime like this to come out and show us that love, inclusiveness and passion can triumph makes Carole & Tuesday, in my opinion, Watanabe’s best show since Cowboy Bebop. If you have a Netflix subscription, it really is worth bingeing on this…and worth waiting for the second cour to come, whenever that may be…