Episode 18 of Key Frames: Inbetweens, a mini-podcast about anime. Make a joyful noise! Even though it's the holidays and they're all off celebrating, the hosts of this podcast have managed to put together a ranked list of their favorite anime about music. Why not hear Ben defend Eureka 7 as a "music anime" or Duncan give his thoughts on Andy's beloved Love Live!? There's even a coda to the endless Carole & Tuesday talk at the beginning, as the pun in the title promises. Have a wonderful year, everyone, and we'll see you in 2020!
Discussed:
Carole & Tuesday (1:06)
Eureka 7 (12:31)
Perfect Blue (20:33)
Show by Rock!! (25:28)
Nodame Cantabile (35:15)
Sound of the Sky (41:31)
Love Live! School Idol Project (48:25)
K-ON! (59:21)
Revue Starlight (1:07:40)
The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls (1:17:19)
Kids on the Slope (1:21:46)
Detroit Metal City (1:30:22)
Your Lie in April (1:43:49)
Blue Giant (manga) (1:55:47)
Aggretsuko (OVA) (1:56:20)
Revolutionary Girl Utena (1:59:07)
Redline (2:00:48)
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The tragic deaths of K-pop duo Goo Hara and Sulli
I guess this is Andy's story about the Polish boy with the bugle?
What is the Peter principle?
How is Carole & Tuesday queer bait?
I think people just wanted it to be some yuri anime when it never was listed as a romance. We were told the ending before it happened.
anime fans only care for ships? Nobody ended up romantically with anybody in the end or got boyfriends.
Also Desmond was never said to be dead by anyone in the show.
I do think the chief issue with Carole & Tuesday is one of expectations. I mean, as you said, the very first scene of the anime is about how the two protagonists staged a world-changing event (although it turns out, in a very post-2016 flourish, that derailing a nativist political campaign counts as "world-changing" these days). I think that the diversity of the cast similarly led people (especially ANN reviewers) to place expectations upon the character relationships that the show had no interest in fulfilling. Do Carole and Tuesday simply have a close female friendship or is "close female friendship" code for something (leaving aside the problems with people taking "close female friendship" as queercoding by default)? Do Tuesday's interactions with the reporter and Carole's with her childhood friend have similar implications? The show really doesn't seem to have an opinion on any of the above, which is odd to me given the show is almost entirely about personal relationships.
On the other hand, the Desmond thing is just weird and I'll own up to that. I figured that the framing and the visual language in use were fairly obvious. He says he has one last song, he sings it, he goes limp, and the other characters look very sad. I guess they were just sad that he was done singing and had tired himself out?