Hello all!
I ended last week talking about Carole & Tuesday briefly, so let’s start it off by talking about this amazing music that I just loved from start to finish, heck I am even listening to the soundtrack to the series while I am writing this up.
I’m a sucker for music and when it’s mixed in with anime, how can I not love it?
Carole and Tuesday is an anime I saw recommended via Netflix after watching Toradora and where I saw the instruments, I just had to hit play!
The story is about an orphan girl called Carole who plays music on the street when she isn’t doing part time jobs to get money to keep on going.
One day when Carole is playing “The Loneliest Girl” to a crowd of people ignoring her on a bridge with her keyboard, a girl who has run away from home called Tuesday stops to listen.
From there the girls become friends revealing Tuesday can play guitar and sing like Carole, they form a band called Carole and Tuesday (original name I know) and the anime shows their rise to fame.
Did I mention this this set in the future and on mars? Just finding this out now while writing this up but this set in the same universe as Cowboy Bebop. With this in mind, it shows how much bands in this timeline use ai a lot (Carole and Tuesday don’t use ai so their music stands out a bit in the Mars music scene) and there are issues regarding immigration from Earth to Mars which comes up every now and then.
Honestly have loved the plot and the music most of all, I can find the whole playlist on Spotify and songs like Mother, The Loneliest Girl, Army of Two, Kiss Me and Hold Me Now have been on repeat.
The show in a way reminds of me Jem and the Holograms from the 80s, that the series had a good story, and the songs were catchy such as Nightmare (in my opinion the best song in the whole show, the post has got me re-listening a lot of the songs from the show, shame they only last about a minute!) shown above but only on that regard, Jem and the holograms had an AI robot helping the band out while Carole and Tuesday had their raw talent but still made me think of the show anyway
Honest Jem had a better plot than the transformers tv show that was on the same time (again my opinion and I love transformers) but because it was a girls show it wasn’t taken too seriously, what a shame and shame to the live action film too even though the great Ke$ha cameo at the end!.
I’m a sucker for Studio Ghibli films, with Howls Moving Castle being my favourite, I saw Only Yesterday on Netflix and I thought “oh why not, it’s my day off and this is another film from the studio I can add to the list”.
Only Yesterday, came out in Japan in 1991 but wasn’t officially dubbed to English via Disney (who distribute a lot of Studio Ghibi films outside of Japan, Disney can’t make any edits to their films I believe and other streaming platforms have the rights such as Netflix to show the films, so it’s why you can’t find the films on Disney+ despite Disney doing the dubbing) until 2016 with Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel among the cast, a lot of English voice actors get used in the English dub of Studio Ghibli films such as Christian Bale as Howl in Howls Moving Castle.
The plot of Only Yesterday follows Taeko as an adult gets picked up by her brother in laws second Cousin Toshiro when she arrives at Yamagata and through the film you see her flashback to her childhood, bring back memories such as wanting to travel to the countryside because other kids at school wanted to, problems with math’s, first love and other things a young girl would have to deal with.
That’s all I am going to say about the plot, watch it to find out more!
This plot got me to because it reminds me of my roots, I’m the only one in my family not born in Northampton, I was born in Leeds. I only lived in Leeds very briefly after my birth so the only memories I’ve got of the place are when my family took me back for day trips when I was growing up and that stopped after my 18th birthday. It was only last year when I was 32 that I was able to visit Leeds again by myself and as an adult, with my mind filled with childhood memories of the city and to cut a story about that trip short, it went great, just as I remembered it.
It was Suletta Sunday yesterday, aka the day a new episode of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury is released, and it was the second to last episode!
I have honestly been enjoying this Gundam series, out of the ones I have watched so far (original series, zeta, double zeta and unicorn) this is going up high!
Here are my rankings for the Gundam series I have watched so far, I might need to check out the ones I haven’t got around to watching yet such as Origin.
1st Original Mobile Suit Gundam
2nd Witch from Mercury 2nd season
3rd Zeta
4th Witch from Mercury 1st season
5th Unicorn
6th Double Zeta
(I am currently counting witch from mercury as two seasons as that how it has aired but I know it should count as a single entry)
This week’s episode followed in a good old Gundam fashion with a massive laser that I have missed seeing, two brothers fighting, two sisters fighting, a witch flying and someone’s helmet finally coming off.
What I am loving about this Gundam series is something I mentioned last week, is that I can read everyone else’s thoughts (and the memes obviously such as the one shown above) via twitter and Facebook because there are some good theories to questions the show is leaving, especially for the final episode next week, I am going to miss it!
I confess I did get spoilt via a Facebook group I am part of for the series but still loved the episode, I will avoid social media all day next Sunday, so it won’t happen for the final episode!
I confess since watching Danger in my heart from last week, I have caught up with the manga and I have loved the series so far and it’s not going to stop me watching the anime.
Well, I would mention the new episode but there isn’t one, the series finished last week so it’s good I have caught up with the manga hey?
To fill the slot of a slice of life anime, I discovered an series called My Clueless First Friend, like Danger in my heart as mentioned above the series has finished just yesterday but the manga is still going on (so I will be binging that the next few days!).
“Fifth grader Nishimura isn’t too proud of her “Grim Reaper” moniker given by her bullying schoolmates, but the new kid loves it. The once lonely target of everyone’s ridicule starts to get out of her shell with the help of her new cheerful yet airheaded friend, Takada. Together they’ll embark on a sweet and touching journey of summer fun and friendship! “
This plot is very similar to an anime I watched a few months ago called Kimi Ni Todoke, which plot I will add below
“Known for her semblance to the Sadako character of The Ring series, Sawako Kuronuma is given the nickname “Sadako” and misunderstood to be frightening and malicious like her fictional counterpart, despite having a timid and sweet nature. Longing to make friends and live a normal life, Sawako is naturally drawn to the cheerful and friendly Shouta Kazehaya, the most popular boy in her class. From their first meeting, Sawako has admired Kazehaya’s ability to be the center of attention and aspires to be like him.
When Kazehaya organizes a test of courage for the entire class and encourages her to attend, Sawako sees this as an opportunity to get along with her classmates, starting with Ayane Yano and Chizuru Yoshida. Through each new encounter and emotion she experiences, Sawako believes that meeting Kazehaya has changed her for the better. Little does Sawako know, her presence has also changed Kazehaya.”
Im guessing it’s like its only genre at this rate (a new kid being friends with a creepy looking girl that everyone takes the piss out of), but I will take My Clueless Friend over Kimi Ni Todoke as that series dragged on for 2 seasons for barely a pay off.
My Clueless friend characters at a younger age and still learning about things and with the anime… spoiler but in this first (? Hope they get a second) series they don’t end up kissing even though they did plan to after seeing adults doing it on a Christmas date, but they end up calling each other by their first names, which if you know much about Japanese society is mainly for those who are close such as best friends, family and those who want to get closer than friends and as I haven’t caught up with the manga yet, I can say things will develop over time without rushing which I find great as they are still kids.
Plus, how Takada is always positive, always compliments “the grim reaper” and always turns any insults that classmates give her into weird compliments is just amazing.
Damn I have covered a lot this week, next week I think I will revisit an anime adaptation of a manga series that means a lot to me, the final episode Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury will get hyped/emotional and whatever else I decide to watch but more about that next week in episode 3 of Anime Roundup!
Comment with what anime you have watched recently down below!
Megan
Megan Leyman 
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