Completed Series: Kaleido Star

[catystorm]

Title: Kaleido Star (カレイドスター)
Episodes: 51
Year: 2003
Studio: Gonzo

Kaleido Star is a bright, colorful anime set at a pseudo-Cirque-de-Solelil type circus. The performers put on a wide variety of productions including gymnastics, tumbling, trapeze work, trampoline, diabolo and more besides. Sora, a young athlete from Japan, wants desperately to join the Kaleido Stage and make her mark on the production.

This anime feels older than it actually is - not that that is a detriment. It is a bright, colorful and ultimately happy series that treds the line between shounen and shoujo. The majority of the cast are female, of course - but this does not feel like your typical shoujo in there's no magical girl, no romance to be had, and none of the other familiar trappings of the genre. I've heard this described as a "magical girl anime without the magic" and - well, that's a pretty good description.

Sora is bright, cheery, hardworking and determined. My main complaint is that she embodies these tropes 100%, and - despite having character arcs, learning about the downsides of show business and how brutal behind-the-scenes can be - she is still the same character coming out on the other side, just with more experience under her belt.

Perhaps this show was more groundbreaking ten years ago - and I could see how it would be, as it doesn't fit cleanly into into specific genre, something that a lot of series started to do in the early '00s - but viewing it through a more jaded anime watcher's eyes it just feels like a lot of things that have been seen before. Sora cannot catch a break to save her life - but she puts in the hard work! And perseveres! And wins the day! Although, truth be told, there were times when things did not work out for her, where she faltered and backed down. However, the series felt long in the shounen sense, in that there was a lot that could be trimmed to make this a tighter show.

Ultimately enjoyable, but not on my rewatch list.