Carol & Tuesday

I don't see how that framing existing proves me wrong about the importance of super grounded story elements being, well, not important.
I...I told you not to click that! I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT COMES NEXT!!!


What it proves is that the show's first assertion to us is that this is a story--and, not only that, but it's a very specific story--and, not only that, but it is a story both PROFOUND AND HISTORY-SHAPING.

Not a meditation on an ethereal concept like "our song" or "connection" or "hope"--a concrete event that shakes the flow of a culture.

For any of that to be A) at all relevant and B) not a lie, the setting would need to be of paramount importance, because we cannot appreciate a shift without first understanding what we are shifting from.

So, when I say "grounded," I don't mean it has to be a certain (that is, a pre-assumed) aesthetic or tone, and I certainly don't mean it has to be burdensomely realistic. It can be dreamy or hopeful or gritty or oppressive or fantastical--it just has to be defined. And we don't have that definition--not in our protagonists and not in our in-story world.

We have a location, sure, but not a setting.

We have actors but not characters.

You may be right that Watanabe wants to make a show that is a love letter to the feel of music. And he might want to allegory it up with this assumed battle between the computers and the artist's soul. And, for something message-focused, okay--you don't have to concern yourself with the finer details. No one's stopping a Grimm's fairytale midway to question the quality of the drapes in the princess's bedroom.

But that opening...
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That opening promises me a goddamn plot. Not a feeling. Not a concept. A plot.

Which means that world needs to be alive, not just exist.
 
I...I told you not to click that! I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT COMES NEXT!!!


What it proves is that the show's first assertion to us is that this is a story--and, not only that, but it's a very specific story--and, not only that, but it is a story both PROFOUND AND HISTORY-SHAPING.

Not a meditation on an ethereal concept like "our song" or "connection" or "hope"--a concrete event that shakes the flow of a culture.

For any of that to be A) at all relevant and B) not a lie, the setting would need to be of paramount importance, because we cannot appreciate a shift without first understanding what we are shifting from.

So, when I say "grounded," I don't mean it has to be a certain (that is, a pre-assumed) aesthetic or tone, and I certainly don't mean it has to be burdensomely realistic. It can be dreamy or hopeful or gritty or oppressive or fantastical--it just has to be defined. And we don't have that definition--not in our protagonists and not in our in-story world.

We have a location, sure, but not a setting.

We have actors but not characters.

You may be right that Watanabe wants to make a show that is a love letter to the feel of music. And he might want to allegory it up with this assumed battle between the computers and the artist's soul. And, for something message-focused, okay--you don't have to concern yourself with the finer details. No one's stopping a Grimm's fairytale midway to question the quality of the drapes in the princess's bedroom.

But that opening...
tumblr_m6qwocAtMf1qarlf1o2_r2_500.gif


That opening promises me a goddamn plot. Not a feeling. Not a concept. A plot.

Which means that world needs to be alive, not just exist.
I don't know. I also feel that there is more to this world than you would think going by the criteria you've already mentioned in other ways, and since you are pretty much right about it also having a concrete story (about the way music will change this world) I think the best way to look at this world is how music is impacting it currently and how it could in the future. The world seems to be jaded and a huge symbol of that is its music industry, that's one thing we can tell. So our main duo are indeed characters who don't fit into the ruts of the current society, we've seen that in subtle ways already but the main way is their music, which both connects them and juxtaposes them from the world they live in.

All that and, it's only been 2/26 episodes.

So I get what you're saying now, I'm just looking at the world and plot building in different places than you would be, expecting the setting to really change everything about the show or what have you.

So like. If it just stays where it is now, I'll have to consider the plot and world it promised sufficiently underdeveloped. I may be okay with it depending what the viewer can glean themselves from looking at context clues, but all the same, one way or the other, more people would probably be satisfied with a more in-depth exploration of the culture and characters. I definitely don't think what we've gotten so far is it, for that.

And I definitely don't think it's disappointing to say, have the only traces of huge technological advancements (besides finding a way to sustainably live on mars) are a few trains and restaurants. And the most famous examples of music being MJ and Daft Punk.

I just don't see the problems with that.

But regardless I think I see where you're coming from now.
 
the primary focus in this show is the music, often times that can become tunnel vision for the director. If this was about anything deeper, more of the living world would probably see more imaginative growth. But the "plot" is a simple predictable one that has obviously only been thrown in there as an excuse to show case the music.

One scene in ep 2 clearly shows that the world around the main characters aren't well thought out, and basically dead just as long as they can get the music out there................

That is if we look at the girls breaking into the theater logically. Relatively big Security guard, two small girls. I can see Carol at the very least out run him, because she seems above average in the athletic department, but Tuesday can't do shit for shit. Even if he couldn't catch either of them while they were on the move, how probable is it for him to just watch as they go on stage and start setting their shit up, including fucking with a piano he's paid to protect? If we look at that scene in a world that actually lived, and didn't revolve around the main characters singing, Tuesday would have been caught instantly, and Carol would have been forced to leave as her partner gets thrown out.
 
the primary focus in this show is the music, often times that can become tunnel vision for the director. If this was about anything deeper, more of the living world would probably see more imaginative growth. But the "plot" is a simple predictable one that has obviously only been thrown in there as an excuse to show case the music.

One scene in ep 2 clearly shows that the world around the main characters aren't well thought out, and basically dead just as long as they can get the music out there................

That is if we look at the girls breaking into the theater logically. Relatively big Security guard, two small girls. I can see Carol at the very least out run him, because she seems above average in the athletic department, but Tuesday can't do shit for shit. Even if he couldn't catch either of them while they were on the move, how probable is it for him to just watch as they go on stage and start setting their shit up, including fucking with a piano he's paid to protect? If we look at that scene in a world that actually lived, and didn't revolve around the main characters singing, Tuesday would have been caught instantly, and Carol would have been forced to leave as her partner gets thrown out.
Or one could deduce that he was paid to protect the entire building, was elsewhere in it, and didn't put two and two together that people would just wander in and play the instruments for a bit, and that's where this music was coming from? I mean he didn't seem too bright in the first place, the two girls were able to stop him from catching them by running different directions in the auditorium after all...

Again I mean I said I wasn't interested in debating all the nitpicking but here I am because whatever. I got time.
 
So I get what you're saying now, I'm just looking at the world and plot building in different places than you would be, expecting the setting to really change everything about the show or what have you.
See, now this...this is how two people who disagree come to an understanding! Because I see what you're saying more clearly now, as well.

I mean, I still disagree, fundamentally. In that I think you're assuming some things rather than extrapolating them, but I would say that particular difference in our viewpoints, there, land much more soundly in the ol' "difference of opinion" bucket.

Yay us.

The world seems to be jaded and a huge symbol of that is its music industry, that's one thing we can tell.
Does it? Where have we seen that?

Now, I think that should be what's happening, and I would assume that to be what the show would want to present. But...I don't see anything making it look particularly jaded. That is, noteworthily more jaded than any older person would see in any younger generation.

Further:
our main duo are indeed characters who don't fit into the ruts of the current society, we've seen that in subtle ways
We've seen that they don't act like normal people. And my issue is that I haven't seen anything to contextualize their behavior--neither in terms of themselves nor--and most importantly, here--the world around them.

Telling me that computers make music but that these two are people making music only means something if I--as an audience member--already have some stake in that struggle. If I am a music aficionado who is currently grieving over the wub-wubs killing the soul of my beloved art, then I might immediately be on board for the struggle and see the girls, in their amorphously childlike self-rapture, as heroic bastions of hope looking to take down the evil machine...but that's only because I've come into the story having done some of the work for it.

But...that's not me. I f***ing LOVE the wub-wubs. When I first heard it, I realized that I'd spent my whole goddamn life waiting for the wub-wubs to be invented. I love me some rock and classical and (melodic) hip-hop...but EDM speaks to my soul.

You want me to think #TeamCannedElectricNoise is bad for the spirit of Mars? Well, Mr. Watanabe, then you have to show me that that soulless approach to music-making is not only bad for the spirit of Mars but that it has any bearing on the state of things at all. We're two episodes in, and, apart from Gus being sad, I haven't seen its supposedly dystopian influence on anything--least of all the music itself.

Which, again, feeds back into the "this could be set right now" point: where is the distinction between what life is like in Alba and what life in like in any major city on Earth right now? What's so dire about the situation in that world that this isn't just an animated version of someone muttering under his breath about those "damn kids and their cell phones"?
And I definitely don't think it's disappointing to say, have the only traces of huge technological advancements (besides finding a way to sustainably live on mars) are a few trains and restaurants. And the most famous examples of music being MJ and Daft Punk.
Not disappointing, just...curious. It invites questions the show doesn't seem to want to answer (yet?). Which is fine, if the show can distract with more important details.

Storytelling is like a magic trick: you need to keep the audience looking at what you want them to look at. And I'm not getting enough of a distraction in any direction, at the moment, to stop me asking all these questions.

the two girls were able to stop him from catching them by running different directions in the auditorium after all...
Heh, I think that was his point: the guy's conveniently inept. Which is fine, if the moment preceding it lands completely. But, lovely as the song was--and, again, the music itself seems to be the only real point--it's an awwwwwwwfully specific set of circumstances that has to line up for them to get recorded there as opposed to someplace less fantastic.

In this case, it's not a convenience I found especially egregious, but I see what he's saying. (For me, it was Carole's sudden "Lets just sneak in and play at Carnegie Hall! I know a guard who is definitely there right now and a total pushover!" and then they just do and become a viral video sensation.)

And like that--
YearlyVagueFinch-size_restricted.gif

...he's gone!
 
Does it? Where have we seen that?

Now, I think that should be what's happening, and I would assume that to be what the show would want to present. But...I don't see anything making it look particularly jaded. That is, noteworthily more jaded than any older person would see in any younger generation.
Tuesday's family and carole's customers and the people in the industry themselves seemed sufficiently jaded to me. And other examples... Sigh... I was actually going to do an entire segment of writing about the clues for this in my episode review which I still haven't really had time for -.-

We've seen that they don't act like normal people. And my issue is that I haven't seen anything to contextualize their behavior--neither in terms of themselves nor--and most importantly, here--the world around them.
Only episode 2 my man. Besides subtler stuff which again, I was gonna delve into

Telling me that computers make music but that these two are people making music only means something if I--as an audience member--already have some stake in that struggle. If I am a music aficionado who is currently grieving over the wub-wubs killing the soul of my beloved art, then I might immediately be on board for the struggle and see the girls, in their amorphously childlike self-rapture, as heroic bastions of hope looking to take down the evil machine...but that's only because I've come into the story having done some of the work for it.

But...that's not me. I f***ing LOVE the wub-wubs. When I first heard it, I realized that I'd spent my whole goddamn life waiting for the wub-wubs to be invented. I love me some rock and classical and (melodic) hip-hop...but EDM speaks to my soul.
I don't necessarily think the message is that dubstep is killing music or anything like that. We've only really gotten a taste of the themes, and so far it's more like, the real soul of music in general lies not within machines, because when it comes to making music with AI the same spirit really isn't in it. Human-created EDM could be just as effective in this. The message is that the auto-generated synthetic music is okay, but it's missing the magic music once had. That's my stance on it, and it really is some nice satire on the real music industry interweaves there.

I couldn't help but smile at that expensive vocal chord stretching machine. Even that is mechanized and profitable XD
 
(For me, it was Carole's sudden "Lets just sneak in and play at Carnegie Hall! I know a guard who is definitely there right now and a total pushover!" and then they just do and become a viral video sensation.)
This. This part annoyed me a bit.

"Yeah, but where are we going to find a grand piano just lying aroundohmygod I just remembered how about Carnegie Fucking Hall!"
 
Tuesday's family and carole's customers and the people in the industry themselves seemed sufficiently jaded to me.
So...exactly as jaded as people today? Or 50 years ago? Or 500 years ago? Because that's what I'm trying to say: there doesn't seem to be anything special about how the people who aren't our main duo act. They're just people being people in the same way that people have always been people.

Tuesday and Carole are the weird ones. And not just weird for the world of the show: I mean weird--full stop. And I can't tell if I'm supposed to think that or if I'm supposed to be charmed by it. Either way, I'm not rooting for them. And I suspect that was not the intention.

And, yes, it's only been two episodes. But, in those two episodes, I've learned exactly nothing about the story from either the protagonists or the world they inhabit. The best I've got is my own set of guesses about what I'm supposed to see but don't.

To wit:
The message is that the auto-generated synthetic music is okay, but it's missing the magic music once had.
Which is an idea that was introduced by...whom?

Oh, the "villain."

Hmm...

Preemptively:

Gus complaining drunkenly about the music playing over the loudspeakers in a bar doesn't count. As the bartender says, "That's called getting old."

"Yeah, but where are we going to find a grand piano just lying aroundohmygod I just remembered how about Carnegie Fucking Hall!"
First off...that's hilarious.

And, second, that it happened is actually--to me--totally fine. It's how it happened that doesn't sit well with me. Like, if Carole had done this before because she knew a trick way in (at night through an adjacent building's basement or something) or if Tuesday's being the governor's daughter helps trick a rookie guard into giving them after-hours access, then sure. I totally buy it. But...thinking it'd be fine to just walk in?

That's not normal. That's not even eccentric. That's ridiculous. (Again: are the girls supposed to be ridiculous?)
 
This. This part annoyed me a bit.

"Yeah, but where are we going to find a grand piano just lying aroundohmygod I just remembered how about Carnegie Fucking Hall!"

And, second, that it happened is actually--to me--totally fine. It's how it happened that doesn't sit well with me. Like, if Carole had done this before because she knew a trick way in (at night through an adjacent building's basement or something) or if Tuesday's being the governor's daughter helps trick a rookie guard into giving them after-hours access, then sure. I totally buy it. But...thinking it'd be fine to just walk in?

That's not normal. That's not even eccentric. That's ridiculous. (Again: are the girls supposed to be ridiculous?)
I really don't know why this was made such a big deal out of because after thinking about it a lot i really don't see anything wrong about it, I mean the two are just finally seeing a glimpse of their dreams becoming less of a fantasy and are a bit zealous, sure, but I really don't know how this makes them ridiculous. It's a tad whimsical but not outlandishly dumb. And I mean, didn't the guy recording them just wander in too? So I guess I don't really care about that detail.

So...exactly as jaded as people today? Or 50 years ago? Or 500 years ago? Because that's what I'm trying to say: there doesn't seem to be anything special about how the people who aren't our main duo act. They're just people being people in the same way that people have always been people.
Besides for the fact that basically every one of the characters we've seen so far seem to be jaded besides the main duo (they make a point of it pretty damn often), only people paying attention to them being those whose attention was captured by an interesting viral video, only then noticing their music. More of a negative lens on people than the real world I'd say, and I work customer service. Maybe I've gotten a particularly good sample?

Anyways, I'd call that more obvious juxtaposition than "them being too weird" but there are some nuances to the two of them too such as carole's monologue on her outlook on the city in the beginning still.
 
I really don't know why this was made such a big deal out of because after thinking about it a lot i really don't see anything wrong about it, I mean the two are just finally seeing a glimpse of their dreams becoming less of a fantasy and are a bit zealous, sure, but I really don't know how this makes them ridiculous. It's a tad whimsical but not outlandishly dumb. And I mean, didn't the guy recording them just wander in too? So I guess I don't really care about that detail.

Annoyed was definitely the wrong word. I don't even know why I wrote that. In truth I found it kind of hilarious. The security guy just standing there dumbfounded as they ran up onto the stage was weird, though. But you see characters doing nonsensical things to move the story along all over the place, so I don't particularly care. I mean, I'd like it better if the story was written in a way that had characters behaving in ways that made sense, but I'm not gonna let it ruin my viewing experience.
 
And I mean, didn't the guy recording them just wander in too?
He's the sound guy for the DJ that will be performing. He's working at the soundboard when the girls push their way inside.

I'd call that more obvious juxtaposition
I think calling it "juxtaposition" is being more than a little generous. (Possibly even you doing a little of that work I mentioned earlier the show should be doing.) But...I mean, like I said, the girls are different. If you want to call that a juxtaposition, then I'll concede the point--but only insofar as it highlights how much there's something un-normal about them, not the supposedly jaded people.

And who are you counting among the jaded? Outside of our presumed antagonists, I mean. Is that bartender jaded? Did that couple at the bar seem jaded? Did Carole's boss? Did Angela's now-former assistant? The cop? Either of the security guards? The DJ? The guy who stole Tuesday's luggage? The goats?

You're saying that our main duo is being offset against a jaded society. So...where is it? Isn't two episodes more than enough time to make clear that the whole of the setting--not just some isolated a**holes being a**holes--needs to get some "be excellent to each other!" infused in its veins?

Because, to me, everyone who isn't the main duo just seems like a city person. Like, plucked from the streets of New York kind of city person: too cool or too busy to act like a hapless bohemian. Except maybe the presumed villains--which sets up a battle between parties, not a battle against a state of being.
 
He's the sound guy for the DJ that will be performing. He's working at the soundboard when the girls push their way inside.


I think calling it "juxtaposition" is being more than a little generous. (Possibly even you doing a little of that work I mentioned earlier the show should be doing.) But...I mean, like I said, the girls are different. If you want to call that a juxtaposition, then I'll concede the point--but only insofar as it highlights how much there's something un-normal about them, not the supposedly jaded people.

And who are you counting among the jaded? Outside of our presumed antagonists, I mean. Is that bartender jaded? Did that couple at the bar seem jaded? Did Carole's boss? Did Angela's now-former assistant? The cop? Either of the security guards? The DJ? The guy who stole Tuesday's luggage? The goats?

You're saying that our main duo is being offset against a jaded society. So...where is it? Isn't two episodes more than enough time to make clear that the whole of the setting--not just some isolated a**holes being a**holes--needs to get some "be excellent to each other!" infused in its veins?

Because, to me, everyone who isn't the main duo just seems like a city person. Like, plucked from the streets of New York kind of city person: too cool or too busy to act like a hapless bohemian. Except maybe the presumed villains--which sets up a battle between parties, not a battle against a state of being.
I mayhaps have gotten ahead of myself with the whole jaded thing, since I guess they haven't made too sharp a picture for that quite yet, but I still think it's rather peculiar that there have been so many examples already all the same. Since the music industry on mars is obviously meant to be satire of our own modern music industry (and no, I'm not just interpolating there) it would stand to reason that the look at the people of this world would resemble our own too, further proving the director's point on music whatever that may be. Yes, I'm moving the goal posts but I'm okay with that because I don't remember why I made my original point. I guess I was trying to counter that this world isn't so different from our own and defend its decision to have it take place on mars with that specific example as it relates to music, but all things considered, the world of this show being much like our own with a few advancements in technology and some ill-advised industrial use of this technology really isn't a bad thing to me at all and is basically even more than what I would have expected from the show.

Let's get this thing straight here to justify this so it doesn't just seem like I'm backpedaling for no reason, or conceding the point so to speak, I understand seeing a show about being on mars and making music and thinking all like "oh dad i hope they have a bunch of really different world elements from reality" and then complaining when you don't get that but it's easier to see the big picture of the show when you don't have any expectations going into it like I didn't. For example I thought it was basically going to be more of a Kids on the Slope kind of deal, I didn't know it took place on mars all throughout the promotion, so I was actually impressed with the choices they made to make it more interesting. That's where I'm coming from here because they didn't need to make it on mars and it wouldn't've been worse to me if it wasn't, but they did so all I can really do is appreciate it. It's nothing but extra credit to me where y'all see it as an unfulfilled portion of the grade.

But will I admit that maybe the world's society as it relates to it's people haven't been shown as all that jaded yet? Sure why not. My core reasons for defending the show aren't devalued by this admittance though.

Also. I do not think 2 episodes is enough to find out that much about a world to make a sound judgment. If they want to slow the world building down a bit to balance it with the story and music, slipping in bits of slightly different marsy culture here and there I think that's fantastic.
 
Episode 2:

I'm a simple man. When I see a slice of life story with music as the highlight, then you know I'm all in. Especially when the taste in pop music is as impeccable as... I don't know. As impeccable as whatever the fuck. Any friend of Cyndi and Bruce is a friend of mine. Never mind if the show references their most popular, most normie, most mainstream tracks.

The setting? Works for me. I wish the futuristic setting was maximized, so it becomes an indispensable part of the story. Kinda like how you can't imagine Cowboy Bebop without the spaceships, space bounty hunters, and Ein the ultra-smart doggie. Carole & Tuesday hasn't reached that point yet, because Alba City is so obviously a dressed-up New York City. Not like Bebop, where you knew you were in outer space the minute you were dumped in its universe.

But that's okay with me so far. We are still only in the second episode after all, and if there's anything the futuristic setting here does, it's to emphasize the incredibly human, down-to-earth, and personalized music of Carole and Tuesday. The world presented to us here is high-tech and highly uncaring - everyone just passes each other by like it's no big deal. But then, of all the people in all the world, it's Tuesday who sidles up to Carole's busking station on the bridge and bawls her feelings out. Which, sure, could happen in a timeline set today, but the connection angle is more highlighted in an alternate techno-verse like this one. At least, that's how I see it.

The characters? They're okay too. Not very fleshed-out, I agree, but they are very easy charmers and don't need time to grow on you. Plus, they have such incredible fashion sense, has anyone ever told them that? Carole, she's flat. Tuesday, she's stereotypical and boring. But I'd like to see them grow into their own characters over the course of this show. In a world set against the backdrop of a bustling techno-city, it's their boringness that sort of grounds the whole thing. Gives a more human slant to the thing, you dig? They're boring, but they have a special show business type of shine nobody else in this show has. So flip the human, boring parts of their personalities, and you get something more relatable and real. Which, yeah, okay, is a bit much to take in right off the bat, but it looks like the story is headed that way anyway, and nowhere else. Still, it would be nice if they became something much more later on.

AI dude, he's cool. A real barrel of laughs, that one. And Gus? Even cooler.

2Ti5F.jpg

Anyone who can pull off a Shining face like this one is aces in my book. Never mind if he's a fat drunkard industry burn-out.

Bisexual DJ Man is going to be another fun one, I can already tell.

Actually, if there's one major thing I agree with so far, it's this:

And, seriously, narrator Gus? I ain't buyin' the hype. In fact, I ain't even renting it.

I know that, as the protagonist duo of a show about ascending the music industry, we will be required to accept the conceit that, whatever we may think of their music as individuals, it is canonically fantastic. Which is more than fine, and I don't have any kind of problem with that. But starting two episodes in a row off with "AND THIS WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER" makes me feel like it's really important to you that I not only accept this premise but believe it. And that's...not endearing me to your cause.

New Manager Gus strikes me as the kind of guy who knows talent when he hears it.

But he's also a regular drunk.

I guess what I'm saying is... he might have it in him to be the world's biggest hard-sell. But he's a hard-sell all the same and it's not doing our girls any favors, I think.

Angela's also a compelling character here - maybe even more so than our lead pair. An overbearing mother, a potentially-abusive talent man pulling her strings, a shallow job description... she's got all the makings of an award-winning behind-the-scenes K-Pop documentary if I ever saw one.
 
Ep. 2:
Mediocre opening is mediocre. But the ending is okay.
NANA. NANA everywhere. And I constantly catch myself not paying attention, especially when the actress/model is on screen.
I guess I like Carole (Nana). Tuesday (Hachi) is your unoriginal ditzy shoujo protagonist that they try to make sympathetic at all cost. I don't hate her, but meh. It's the same with the actress, who they're trying to make as annoying as possible for you to dislike. But I don't dislike her. I don't care about her.
Everything just feels so shallow. The plot, the characters, the convestations... If this is going to show just day-to-day life, I'm gonna need me some layers, otherwise I'm going to get bored. But it's only been the 2nd episode, so it might still get better. Or worse. We'll see.
The song is nice, although the lyrics don't really fit or make any sense, and I don't like how the animation doesn't match the singing or the playing, just like in the previous episode.
 
Ep. 2:
Mediocre opening is mediocre. But the ending is okay.
NANA. NANA everywhere. And I constantly catch myself not paying attention, especially when the actress/model is on screen.
I guess I like Carole (Nana). Tuesday (Hachi) is your unoriginal ditzy shoujo protagonist that they try to make sympathetic at all cost. I don't hate her, but meh. It's the same with the actress, who they're trying to make as annoying as possible for you to dislike. But I don't dislike her. I don't care about her.
Everything just feels so shallow. The plot, the characters, the convestations... If this is going to show just day-to-day life, I'm gonna need me some layers, otherwise I'm going to get bored. But it's only been the 2nd episode, so it might still get better. Or worse. We'll see.
The song is nice, although the lyrics don't really fit or make any sense, and I don't like how the animation doesn't match the singing or the playing, just like in the previous episode.

Watanabe doesn't do layers. What you see is what you get. Generic characters and plot with no depth is about he can deliver. The guy peaked 20 years ago and it's been downhill ever since. Bone's animation is the only thing carrying this show above mediocrity.
 
I don't feel the need to squish this beautiful anime into some kind of mold. I can see there's vision behind it and would much rather be discussing that vision and analyzing it then trying to figure out what fits and doesn't fit in some grand one size fits all puzzle someone's made for themselves. Including me. I mean I have my own ideas about what makes an anime good and what I like about anime and sure as a general rule this doesn't fit them, but it's so eager about it's own subject, the music, that there is something special here to witness that's beyond all that to me. Watanabe and his music team have poured so much into making that aspect that it's overflowing with intrinsic emotion which really is going somewhere and will be bringing the rest of the show's elements along with it.

No different than saying kappa stuff isn't stupid, because it's the director's vision too. A completely different vision but one people choose to ignore possible faults others have with it all the same.

I have no interest in the nitpicking line of discussion in this thread. I could argue round and round why I disagree that it's not believable or the setting doesnt matter or the characters are unrealistic but. Couldn't care less.
Seriously, Turkey, watch NANA. It's similar, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better in every regard.
 
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