Episode 3 “Fire and Rain” [from the same name as the James Taylor song]

Production Details

Episode Director: Satoshi Takafuji [Episode Director on Kiznaiver Episode 10 / Episode Director on Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) Episodes 21, 25, 30, and 36 / Episode Director on PSYCHO-PASS 2 Episode 4 / Assistant Episode Director on Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow Episodes 2 and 4 / Episode Director on Yozakura Quartet -Tsuki ni Naku OAV 3]

Script: Yasuhiro Nakanishi [Series Composition on Kaguya-sama: Love is War / Script on Iroduku Episodes 7, 9, and 10 / Story and Art on Shiawase Restaurant Manga / Screenplay on Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Episodes 4, 7, and 11]

Storyboard: Naomi Nakayama [Storyboard and Episode Director on Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) Opening Sequence and Episode 9 / Storyboard on Casshern Sins 2nd Ending Sequence / Setting Production on Casshern Sins / Storyboard on Arslan Senki First Ending Sequence / Episode Director on Arslan Senki Episode 24 / Setting Production on Kemonozume / Storyboard on Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academa) Ending Sequence / Series Director on Orange / Storyboard on Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Episode 6 / Storyboard on Steins;Gate 0 First Opening Sequence]

Chief Animation Director:Yoshiyuki Ito (Character Designer and Chief Animation Director on Concrete Revolutio / Key Animator on Episodes 1, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 18-20, 22, 24-26 on Cowboy Bebop / Character Designer and Chief Animation Director on Hisone to Masotan / Planning on GANGSTA / Key Animator on Kaiji Opening Sequence]

Animation Directors:

• Atsushi Hasebe [Chief Animation Director on Black Bullet Episodes 1-7 / Animation Director on Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) Episodes 5, 11 and 12 / Key Animation on Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) Episodes 10 and 12 / Animation Director on Bungo Stray Dogs 2 Episode 10 / Assistant Animation Director on Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie / Animation Director on Concrete Revolutio: The Last Song (second cour [Season 2]) Episodes 15, 21 and 24 / Animation Director Support and Key Animation on Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door / Key Animation on Escaflowne the Movie / Animation Director on Eureka Seven Episodes 19, 25, 27 (assistant to animation director) and 33 (as mechanic designer) / Key Animator on Eureka Seven First Opening Sequence / Key Animation on Planetes Episode 18 / In-Between Animation on Porco Rosso film / Key Animation on Scrapped Princess Opening Sequence / Animation Director on Soul Eater Episodes 11, 20, 30, 39, 47, and 50 / Series Key Animator on Soul Eater / Animation Director on STAR DRIVER Episode 23 / Animation Director and Key Animation on UN-GO Episodes 7 and 11 / Key Animation on Wolf’s Rain Episodes 2 and 10 / Animation Director on Yuyushiki Episodes 4, 8, and 12 / Eyecatch Animator on Yuyushiki Episode 9 / Key Animator on Yuyushiki Episode 1]
• Haruka Iida [Key Animation on 91 Days Episode 8 / Animation Director Assistant on Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) Episode 35 / Key Animation on Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) Episodes 8 and 12 / Animation Director on Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Episode 7 / In-Between Animation on Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu film / 2nd Key Animation on Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu film / 2nd Key Animation on Tokyo Ghoul Episodes 4 and 5 / Key Animation on Tokyo Ghoul:re Opening Sequence and Episode 8]

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The universal Shinichiro Watanabe trademark of his shows makes an appearance in Carole & Tuesday–the woolong currency. When we get a new Shinichiro Watanabe series I am giddy with excitement. All of his works are so good! Carole & Tuesday is shaping up to be a spectacular series especially with its two lovable lead characters Carole and Tuesday.

Gus Goldman, whom we’ve seen at the bar drinking his sorrows away for the past two episodes finally gets a chance to shine in this episode. It’s great to finally get to see this guy in action–he was super funny at the end of the previous episode (with that nod to the film The Shining) so I was eager to see how he would handle becoming their manager.

While Carole & Tuesday’s song (Loneliest Girl) gets the attention of A.I. technician Roddy (along with many of his Instagram followers) this episode points out to us that these girls still have a long way to go if they want to make it big in the music industry. This entire episode teaches us that not everything cannot go the way as planned.  I get the feeling that Gus is traditional with his methods–he’s qualified (supposedly according to Wikipedia) having been in a band and we clearly can see this as he’s meeting the girls for the first time at a restaurant. He fell to alcohol finding new hope with unknown talents.  Boasting about familiar artists (name dropping left and right) he has worked with in the past is a bit too hard to believe however his passion and determination make up for it. Especially when it comes to helping these girls get their songs heard– he is admirable and honest from the get-go.  This is big here because it establishes this disparity between independence and reliance. In the first episode, Angela becomes this puppet under the management of media mogul Tao. It’s where we get to see how A.I. systems neglected Angela from the very moment they met and their relationship isn’t exactly great. The restaurant scene here is where we have genuine interactions between the talent (Carole and Tuesday) and the management team (Gus and Roddy) A nice touch is the mention of the tomatoes on their pizza are grown above the restaurant.  Drives home how real Carole and Tuesday are to themselves and how their music is particularly old-fashioned, in the sense of this world’s A.I. defined culture. A strong way for the anime’s creators to depict that even though they live in a society structured around A.I from its products to its entire way of life that there are and still can be places on Mars living in the old ways that don’t have technology do everything for them. It is back to that whole “reliance” idea I spoke about earlier.

I am so glad they waited for three episodes to do this for two reasons. They didn’t cram so much in the premiere episode by introducing us to too many characters for the girls to meet. Secondly, these girls can’t have it happen in a flash. They have to work hard for what they are trying to do with their music. It takes a lot to build a reputation and Roddy’s happenstance gives us a better idea of the world.  While this show is built with a futuristic setting, Carole & Tuesday still holds onto a lot of common themes around pop culture. The use of social media (Instagram, Wikipedia, etc.) These are lots of avenues to take to become successful and this anime uses that to its advantage by giving us a “What if” scenario — Music was written by people has been long gone and with it so has people’s appreciation for it.

Speaking of appreciation, how about that new song “Round&Laundry”? Fantastic. What makes this song even better is its build up. Finding inspiration all around them (hence the title). Heck, even the random guy sitting between them joins in for the beat drops! So authentic! The scene plays like a music video illustrating Carole & Tuesday’s friendship a bit more. Which I certainly hope we get to see more of in coming episodes! This segues nicely into a practice session toying with this idea that the artists of this world might not be happy with A.I. inventing their own music. Especially Angela. Angela’s mother is living vicariously through her daughter and so far it looks like with the best of intentions. he 37 questions is a nod to Vogue’s “73 Questions with Hailey Bieber”  I can really see her performing with the girls in a future episode!

As far as performers go we got a glimpse of DJ Ertegun in the previous episode but it isn’t until now that we can see the hold A.I. can have on its artists and their fans. Ertegun is obsessed with being rich and his image as a DJ. He’s arrogant, patronizing and quite the playboy. His apartment tells a lot about his personality not to mention how muddled the artistic expression has become. The shredded painting on the wall is an obvious reference to Banksy’s “Girl with the Balloon” plus the emphasis on the way it is shown was another homage to the hot topic last year of the same painting presented at an auction. The shredding of the “Girl with the Balloon” which we see in the anime is actually what happened in real life to the popular work (by Banksy himself) after it was successfully bid on. If you are interested in the story you can read about it here.  This really shows us how well-researched this show is even with its visual details. The rest of Ertegun’s apartment is wildly modernistic–the emoji’s stacked together says a lot of about artistic freedom. Ertegun’s narcissistic behavior towards the girls isn’t exactly positive for them–leaving them a bit on edge.  It makes sense why he doesn’t appreciate Carole & Tuesday stepping on his business. He is well-known and appreciated and wouldn’t want to have anyone rising above him. He’s insecure about his own music from the looks of it and wants to maintain his appearance and his “own” music as he says– in the world that doesn’t accept music made by people instead of A.I makes Carole and Tuesday’s songs to be rarer than anything he’s probably heard before. He doesn’t even take a glance at their music! This adds more fuel to the fire that even if others (like Ertegun) shoot down their music they will get up again and play because it’s what they are passionate about. They are two entirely different people that share the same level of enthusiasm and love for music, which is why they have great chemistry together on screen! Like I said before they play to express the emptiness they feel inside. To create something miraculous out into the world even if no one is listening.

I hadn’t noticed it before until I re-watched the last couple of episodes but the lyrics from the episode titles are very much in tune to what is happening in each episode. Last time, the song “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen has the following lyrics:

Oh, someday girl I don’t know when
We’re gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go
And we’ll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us,
Baby we were born to run

and taking a look back at that particular episode we see that Carole wants to play on a real piano so they sneak into a concert hall where their song is recorded and becomes viral. And then the final lyrics here “Baby we were born to run” — they ran from the police in the first episode after Carole is seen playing real music on the bridge and then in the second episode we see them running again on the same bridge after their session in the concert hall. This third episode follows this trend a little bit with the James Taylor song “Fire and Rain”.

Just yesterday mornin’, they let me know you were gone
Suzanne the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can’t remember who to send it to
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again
Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus
You’ve got to help me make a stand
You’ve just got to see me through another day
My body’s aching and my time is at hand
I won’t make it any other way

These lyrics follow towards what happens in this episode. Tuesday had been lonely all this time which is probably why she has run away from home. The sunny days refer to her time with Carole and all the fun they are having even outside of their element of music. Making a stand probably refers to Gus Goldman’s management help. We see the Simmons know that Tuesday is in Alba City and her mom not allowing the police to get involved illustrates the mother/daughter relationship is less important than her political PR campaign. The reversal here is Angela’s mother wants the very best for her but with Tuesday it’s the opposite she thinks this is just some kind of phase and she will be coming back. Carole and Tuesday go to this weird religious cult-like place that isn’t at all what the girls nor Gus would imagine voice training would be correlates to the title’s verse “Won’t you look down upon me, Jesus”.

Personally, I think it would be very funny if this entire show is just one long Space Dandy episode. A spin-off from multi-verse episode in Space Dandy episode 14 (you can read my review on that specific episode here) and it would add even greater comedy if the big reveal is that Tuesday is Honey’s character. I am just waiting for the Dropkix to show up! Just wishful thinking!

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OVERALL IMPRESSION: 10/10

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Also if you want some more information about this series, The staff has released “Making of videos” entitled Making of a Miracle into three parts. You can view these below. They are in Japanese only and do not contain any English subtitles.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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If you want to support this show, the first Vocal collection album is up for preorder, you can find it here, and it’s opening/ending CD single can be preordered here with an Amazon Japan bonus (also available on vinyl)  both of these albums release on May 29th.