What I’m Watching – Carole & Tuesday (Eps. 1-12)

Note: This post contains some spoilers for the series through episode 12.

This past weekend I got the opportunity to speak at GalaxyCon, a multi-media fandom convention in my hometown. We capped off our weekend presenting “Shiny New Anime,” a panel where my husband and I share thoughts about and clips of some of our favorite anime from the past year (on a roughly 12-month rolling scale… sometimes stuff a little bit older sneaks in there if it has a second season or we missed it the first time around). In the lead-up to a convention, I generally try to catch up and finish at least some of the series on my plate; my general viewing habits aren’t that great, and while I’m sure I’d get more done if I kept up with anime on a weekly basis, the reality is that aside from a few shows where being caught-up is pretty necessary (Attack on Titan comes to mind), I tend to watch anime in multi-episode chunks after-the-fact.

The series I chose to focus on prior to GalaxyCon was Carole & Tuesday, for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve been watching other bloggers talk about it for months now, but due to it being in Netflix limbo in the United States I haven’t had the opportunity to watch along with them (that’s a lie… I know full well how to “find it” before its official release, I just choose not to). Secondly, it’s had a fandom presence in the US that far preceded its availability. I attended Anime Central back in mid-May this year, and there was plenty of fan art for the series available in Artists’ Alley (I even bought a couple of cute character buttons despite not having seen the series at all. I had faith). In any case, its weird release schedule caused problems for my typical review process, but I assumed that I would probably enjoy the series knowing what little information I did, so I took a day and watched what was available.

As the story of two characters with different backgrounds finding commonality in music, I’ve really enjoyed it so far. There’s a scene in the first episode where Carole, on her keyboard, and Tuesday, tentatively strumming her guitar, engage in a dialog of sorts, taking Carole’s melody and joining it with Tuesday’s lyrics to form something broader and more beautiful. There’s no traditional dialog in the scene once the girls start playing, and yet you can tell that there’s a sort of back-and-forth conversation between the two as they interject their own musical elements into the mix.

Considering the setting of the series, where most music is written and produced with the aid or intervention of AI rather than organically through human trial-and-error, the fact that these two characters – who meet by chance and have very different backgrounds – manage to have such a profoundly similar musical philosophy is something rare and powerful. I think there’s a temptation to call it too “convenient,” because the relationship just sort of happens without many roadblocks, as if the two were fated to be together, but I consider that a negligible complaint.

I mistakenly started reading some reviews of the series on MAL (not that MAL reviews are inherently terrible, but there are always some people who seem to see the platform as an opportunity to get hyperbolic with their vitriol) and noticed some blunt criticism of the character development, or more accurately the lack thereof, (not an angle that I agree with at this point). It’s true that there’s very little conflict between the two main characters – Carole willingly opens her home to Tuesday and shares what little material possessions she has with her, while Tuesday seems to have very few preconceived notions about Carole’s underprivileged upbringing considering her own sheltered life to that point. Everything is pretty hunky-dory from the start. I don’t necessarily agree that conflict is a marker of interesting relationships, though. When I look at my own close relationships there are always a few disagreements, but rarely the sort of passionate, fiery arguments that some people seem to think are a requirement for a “healthy” relationship (to be honest, when people get into screaming arguments on a regular basis, I tend to see that as pretty unhealthy). To me, communication is key no matter what one’s relationship “style” is; the form that communication happens to take isn’t as important as the fact that it exists. These discussions needn’t be overt, either.

There are a few elements of the show that do bother me, and I feel like they’ve been glossed-over somewhat (or I’m just reading reactions in the wrong places). Like many pieces of modern media it seems to have a dubious relationship with genders, sexes, and sexualities that fall outside the realm of cisgender/heterosexual people. Angela, a child actress who hopes to break into music and who serves as a foil for Carole and Tuesday’s organic approach to songwriting, is managed by her mother, Dahlia. Dahlia is the typical stereotype of a “stage mom” – someone whose own ambitions went unfulfilled and who then attempts to relive them through their child. Another character attempts to trap Dahlia in a “gotcha” moment, revealing them as a “hermaphrodite.” Not only is that terminology out-of-date and offensive, it’s not entirely clear what it’s describing – is Dahlia intersex? A MtF Transgender person? Is the writer conflating biology with gender expression? It’s hard to say and the show doesn’t do a great job of explaining why this aspect of the character is even important beyond trying to somehow vilify her further (she’s also shown to be a violent abuser via flashback, further pushing a stereotype that individuals on the diverse gender spectrum are further predisposed to violence or emotional instability).

There’s also a sub-plot during which Tuesday becomes the target of a stalker – a co-contestant on “American Idol” style singing competition that features in the back half of this set of episodes. The stalker character, a person of non-binary gender (though they’re mostly referred to as female by others), becomes obsessed with Tuesday and attacks her when their feelings go unreciprocated. As a depiction of the dynamic between a stalker and their victim, the storyline is excellent – it truly showcases the mentality and the emotional consequences from that type of situation. However, choosing to make the stalker someone outside the typical gender binary was a bad move and just manages to add to harmful stereotypes.

When the series is focused on Carole, Tuesday, and their several close companions, it’s sublime. I honestly love stories about female-female friendships (and possibly more?) that demonstrate the strength of these types of relationships. The music they construct with one-another is also very good, and it’s a pleasure to hear the various musical motifs that weave their way through the episodes. My hope is that, as the series reaches its actual climax in the second half, that it spends more of its time on what it does best rather than mishandling its attempts at gender diversity. Honestly, there’s a lot to love in the first half and I’ve really enjoyed it, but when I feel like I have to warn people about several character elements it becomes really difficult to broadly recommend it for its good traits alone.

Due to its weird local release schedule, I don’t have a first impression of this series. However, if you’re looking for something similar Anime Feminist has a pretty good reaction to the first episode. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if the site features more discussion of some of the issues I’ve laid-out here in the future.