One of the best feelings in life is when you go into an anime assuming
it will be awful and get proven wrong. Ginban Kaleidoscope is one of
those shows. I expected a low-budget, predictable, cheesy, and clichéd
work.
…and that’s actually exactly what I got. But never mind
any of that; the series has a sort of indefatigable buoyancy that kept
me popping back for more, despite the fact that I fully expected to
drop the show after the first few episodes (see: Mai Otome, Tsubasa
Chronicle, Mahoraba to name a few from recent memory). In the end,
although I don’t think I was ever actually impressed, per se, I came
away satisfied.
At this point, you should (correctly) be
thinking that I haven’t really explained why the show is entertaining,
as “indefatigable buoyancy” is just some of my usual patented English
bullshit. To start, a major strength of the show lies in the
characters. So many of today’s anime characters feel like they’ve been
wrapped in cellophane, and by that, I mean shiny, static and
artificial. Ginban Kaleidoscope’s characters aren’t particularly unique
or deep, but they’re likeable and actually feel sort of real.
Similarly, the storyline certainly isn’t going to wow anyone with
originality or complexity, but has enough twists and turns to hold your
attention while the charming characters do their thing. Even the
comedy, which I was fully expecting to suck, was amusing in an “I’ve
been awake for 28 hours and even Rob Schneider could get me to giggle
at this point” sort of way. While seldom laugh-out-loud funny, I smiled
quite a few times and never found it tedious.
That said, there
are plenty of flaws. One of the most annoying is that the animation is
almost painfully half-assed. Even though this is a figure skating
anime, it’s pretty clear that the show’s budget couldn’t really allow
for all of the jumps, twirls and twists that define the sport. During
the climactic routines, even the most important parts are often
completely butchered; the creators reuse animation, use stills/single
color backgrounds, or simply don’t show anything at all. The only way
we know how well the skaters do is that the characters talk about the
performance afterwards.
Perhaps more important is the
aforementioned unoriginality. Like most sports anime, the formula is
often blatantly obvious, and the ending is amazing for just how
predictable it really is. Oddly enough, I found myself reluctant to
watch the very last episode, as I basically already knew every single
event that was going to take place. The character’s spunk and the
show’s general charm makes up for a lot of this, but the lack of
creativity as a whole definitely hurts the project.
Still, I
enjoyed myself a surprising amount, and finished the series rather
quickly. To steal from Dinosaur Comics, Ginban Kaleidoscope is pretty
okay. Pretty okay, indeed.