Anime Reviews Netflix Reviews

Anime Review: Carole and Tuesday Part 2 (2019) By Shinichirō Watanabe and Motonobu Hori

After gaining world acclaim on television, begin to work on their first album. Their manager, Gus, decides that the two need to stay to their roots of being independently produced and the two scrape by to try to fund their album. Meanwhile, the next presidential race has turned dirty after a terrorist attack sees Tuesday's mother run on an anti-immigration platform, which could mean expulsion from Mars for Carole, and many of their friends.

With the titular pop duo reaching global recognition, the series needed a narrative switch in order to progress the story. If the first part was a ‘making of the band', the second season focuses on the responsibility that comes with celebrity, and although the series still focuses on the duos' development, the focus on a new antagonist creates a political narrative. This political angle comes from Valeire Simmon's (Tuesday's mother) presidential campaign that focuses on deporting illegal immigrants back to earth. The campaign is reminiscent of modern American politics, showing a racist upper class try to censor free expression, even claiming music to be a threat to the people.

Unfortunately, the political narrative is overly simplistic and borders on being ‘woke', which regardless of one's own beliefs, has become rather overplayed in modern media. Thankfully, Carole and Tuesday still maintain their endearing and innocent nature that sees them striving for positive change for more innocent reasons. Their approach to inciting change becomes reflective of their belief in creative expression, only becoming aware of the need for change when their fellow musicians are being silenced. Overall, the second part suffers from the focus on easily targeted/marketable political outrage, but manages to maintain humanity through keeping the innocent charm that Carole and Tuesday established in the first part of the series

With the plot being mostly dominated by the political turmoil on Mars, the series does still manage to put in some rather heart warming subplots, including Gus reuniting with Flora (His constant claim to managerial fame), and Carole finding her childhood friend. The series concludes on a high note that ties in all the various subplots from both parts to have many artists come together, not just in celebration of artistic expression but in appreciation of Carole and Tuesday's. Even if the final episode is a bit sappy, it showcases the profound effect that the pop duo had on everyone they came across, ultimately acting as a celebration of their art.

The music was a highlight of the first series, and continues to help define the world of “Carole and Tuesday”. New musicians are introduced in the second part which ensures there is a degree of variation in vocal deliveries, although all songs are still in the realm of mainstream pop. Unfortunately, this variety is not as noticeable as in the first part of the series, where we saw Carole and Tuesday compete with oddballs and eccentrics, that offered up curse filled acapellas and operatic oddities. Enjoyment of the second part in the music will vary with the individual, and although the soundtrack is more refined, it subsequently loses some charm when dealing with only established performers.

Having previously reviewed the first part of “Carole and Tuesday“, all aspects of the production that made me swoon for the series is still there: an amazing visual presentation, great music, and celebration of the creative spirit. Unfortunately, the second part does offer up a rather cookie cutter plot with an easy targeted conflict that offers minimal surprise. However, a derivative plot that would normally fall flat on the back of lesser realized personas, still manages to stay afloat through the words and actions of Carole and Tuesday. Ultimately, the production holds a lot of charm and visual finesse that has made it one of my all time favorite series.

About the author

Adam Symchuk

Adam Symchuk is a Canadian born freelance writer and editor who has been writing for Asian Movie Pulse since 2018. He is currently focused on covering manga, manhwa and light novels having reviewed hundreds of titles in the past two years.

His love of film came from horror and exploitation films from Japan that he devoured in his teens. His love of comics came from falling in love with the works of Shuzo Oshimi, Junji Ito, Hideshi Hino, and Inio Asano but has expanded to a general love of the medium and all its genres.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

>