Hell’s Paradise – 13 (Fin) – The Space Between Life and Death

Shion arrives to save Sagiri and Yuzuriha, with enough knowledge on the “waves” that make up tao that he’s able to fight a sustained solo battle against Jiujin, impressing both Sagiri and Yuzuriha. Realizing he still can’t defeat the monster alone, Sagiri and Nurugai don bandages and cover themselves in Yuzuriha’s ninja mucus in order to protect themselves from any scratches that could lead to flowers blooming.

True to form, Yuzuriha doesn’t directly involve herself in any more fighting, but she is able to prop Senta up so he can tell Shion where their opponent’s true weak spot is: the ovule, since it’s a plant monster. When Shion focuses all of his tao into one point and uses that to slash the ovule, Jiujin is finally killed for good, and even thanks Shion for doing it, as it ends a thousand years of life, much of which must have been pretty dull.

With the first tensen defeated, proving that they can be killed, Yuzuriha is frank in her assessment of Senta: he’s not going to make it and it isn’t worth wasting precious medical supplies on him. That said, she does hold Senta in her arms until he passes.

Sagiri, perhaps the most well-adjusted of the characters there (not saying much, I know) is wrecked by the death of a fifth comrade. As for her charge Gabimaru, he wakes up having no idea where he is or what he’s doing. It would seem his excessive uses of tao has resulted in amnesia.

But it might be even worse than that. As they rest in a nearby stately house, Yuzuriha somehow finds an even cuter outfit to change into, then plants a new seed of doubt in Sagiri’s head: what if Gabimaru was wrong about the village chief drinking the elixir? What if that was just another ninja illusion drilled into him as a kid? And what if his wife isn’t even real, but simply another illusion designed to motivate him?

When Mei uses her tao-vision on Gabimaru, he seems to be missing the whole top of his head-tao, which can’t be good. Now the veil of uncertainty has been cast over a number of things I took as a given (the elixir exists, Gabimaru has a wife named Yui. It’s a particularly cruel way to close this first of presumably two cours of Jigokuraku. 

At the same time, I have faith in Sagiri’s goodness, humanity, and commitment to not let anyone else die. I don’t know if she’ll succeed, but I do know she’ll try her damndest, and for all the right reasons. As for the rest, I can only hope Gabi isn’t a fake wife guy and can recover what he lost with some rest and/or meditation. In any case, we won’t know what will become of these folks until that second cour comes around. But what a first cour it was.

Hell’s Paradise – 12 – Welcome to Horai

Upon crossing the threshold of the gate to Horai, Sagiri, Yuzuriha and Senta are confronted by Mu Dan, AKA Jiujin Amoghavajra, the peony spirit and one of the Tensen. One look is all Yuzuriha needs to NOPE the fuck out of there, but she’s caught by Jiujin’s superior strength and speed.

As he monologues about all the fun ways he’s going to toy with her and the others before killing them, and Sagiri draws her sword to ask Jiujin to let her go, I was left lamenting that Yuzuriha was nerfed before we could ever see her at the top of her shinobi game.

Thankfully, that’s not the case, as Yuzuriha uses wood substitution to escape from the clutches of Jiujin’s formerly human homunculus-like “toys”, launches herself into the air, fires at least eight kunai into Jiujin’s back and throat, and beheads him with a graceful flourish. She kicks ass with style—a completely different style from Sagiri or even Gabimaru.

Before she does this, Jiujin informs them that unfortunately, there is no “Elixir of Life” to be found there. There is only tan, and if anyone other than a Tensen consumes it, they become trees like Houko and the villagers. Sagiri is crestfallen at the prospect of Gabimaru not being pardoned, but once she neutralizes Jiujin Yuzuriha tells her their survival is what matters most right now.

Yuzuriha’s indomitable optimism insists as long as they can stay alive, they can figure things out—but Jiujin won’t make staying alive easy. He regenerates like the Tensen before him, and even when Yuzuriha breaks out her poison slime prison, it only slows him down.

At no point is Jiujin really fighting with anything like his full strength or speed, which makes sense as he’s said he likes toying with humans, and if nothing else these humans are more special than most. For one thing, Yuzuriha and Sagiri both use their tao even if they haven’t mastered it.

Jiujin tells Sagiri that there’s no hope for her as her tao level is simply too low to be any threat to him, even if she did know how to use it. But like Gabimaru and Choubei, Sagiri is able to intuitively, spontaneously summon more tao through her breathing techniques. When she slashes him across the face, the wound doesn’t immediately heal.

As luck would have it, Sagiri’s tao is of a kind you could say Jiujin is particularly “allergic” to; it’s like poison to him. Now that the threat to him is increased, he whips out more of his abilities, like ninpo-like invisibility and briefly switching into a woman to use the other side of his yin-yang  tao.

Against any one of his opponents, that might be enough, but Sagiri, Yuzuriha, and Senta work as a well-oiled team, continually hacking at Jiujin and controlling his movements and position until Senta has him in a hold.

Sagiri is accurate enough to deliver a tao-infused slash across his midsection, where Houko says is the core of his tao. Jiujin goes down, doesn’t regenerate, and stops moving. Yuzuriha leans on Sagiri and declares a hard-won victory.

For the precious few minutes the trio are able to rest, Yuzuriha remains a ball of energy observing their opulent surroundings, while Sagiri hits the nail on the head by suggesting Senta has developed the sweets for Yuzuriha. He can’t deny it, but less than love or lust, it is admiration and envy for how free she lives her life.

Looking back on his upbringing, Senta wanted to be an artist, and grew into a good one, but his family wouldn’t let him pursue anything other than the life of a Yamada executioner and sword tester. He hated killing, and as he studied religions trying to justify all that killing, he rose in rank.

But he was still lying to himself about what he was. And while Yuzuriha lies to just about everyone about everything, she never lies to herself. She is always nothing more or less than Yuzuriha the kunoichi. Senta expects Sagiri to disapprove, but she can’t, because she has a similar soft spot for her prisoner.

Speaking of that prisoner, Fuchi read Sagiri’s notes on Gabimaru that stated he is heartless towards everyone and everything but a single person (Yui). However, his time on the island has changed him to the point he wants to repay Mei for saving him (twice now) by helping her to do or be what she wants.

Fuchi, unaware there is no Elixir of Life on the island, worries this new softness may prove a liability in Gabimaru’s mission. It may, but more importantly, after his battle the strain Gabimaru put on his body to defeat his opponent seems to catch up to him all at once, and he collapses like a sack of bricks with a blood fountain rising from his nose.

When Yuzuriha mentions that there are more flowers blooming around them than earlier, Senta shoves her and takes a projectile flower meant for her straight into his breast. He enters a dream state where a pile of heads from his hated duty are kicked away by Yuzuriha, who then opens an umbrella and dances in a rain of heads and blood while an elated Senta draws her.

Senta remarks that he doesn’t need to be too close to someone like Yuzuriha, but simply being allow to be by her side to watch her brings him sufficient happiness. You could call her his first and only true muse, but it’s too late for Senta. His backstory was a transparent death flag, and he has succumbed to the flowers to eventually become tan.

Jiujan re-emerges in their twisted colossal monster form, and with Senta out of commission, for the first time Yuzuriha can’t be optimistic. She tells Sagiri this is a monster too strong for them to defeat. But along comes Shion to bail them out at the last second. It’s too late for Senta, but not for Yuzuriha or Sagiri to keep living and figure things out.

Hell’s Paradise – 11 – Fruit of Weak, Seed of Strong

The Doshi believed he had destroyed Choubei’s throat and killed him, but Choubei is no longer entirely human, thanks in part (probably) to his brief stint in the pit of vines and flowers. His throat regenerates, and when the Doshi breaks his arms, they heal as well. More importantly, Choubei can now clearly see the Doshi’s source of power: his Tao.

All the Doshi can do is protest that this must be impossible, as Choubei’s Tao continues to grow with his understanding. He even asks how Choubei can take this sudden transformation in such stride. Choubei, of course, is no stranger to change, or pain. As long as he can protect Touma, he’s good. But Touma is worried…is Choubei really okay? Probably not!

Meanwhile at the riverbed, Gabimaru continues to hack and slash at monsters with Mei on his shoulder uttering iterations of “strong-weak, yes, strong-strong, no.” Then a Doshi arrives and scoops Mei up in his cape. Without thinking, or rather, thinking about his wife, Gabimaru repositions himself between the Doshi and Mei.

He doesn’t know why he did this, or why he “hasn’t been himself” since coming to this island, but for now he’s just going to go with it. Even if Mei isn’t human, he doesn’t want anyone to make her cry. If he did, his wife would surely be cross with him.

The Doshi reveals he’s with a second Doshi, one in command of the butterflies and the other the centipedes. They also speak of the final step in training in Tao mastery, which involves sexual congress, specifically with Mei. Only the Tensen possess both yin and yang, which is why they can switch between the sexes.

The two Doshi are only yang, while Mei, an imperfect Tensen who was cast out for being only yin, is meant to be their “training partner”. It’s clear Mei wants nothing to do with them. In fact, the Doshi dig their own graves by being so crass about their intentions. There’s still the matter of being able to accurately read their invisible attacks.

Thankfully for both convicts, it’s Fushi who cracks Mei’s word game: they must learn to embrace both the weak and the strong. So far they’ve only been going strong, which is ineffective when fighting against Tao. A switch goes off in Gabimaru’s head, with this realization synching up with his years of tireless training in what was Tao by any other name, or at least half of it.

Now that he embraces the weak, the yin, of Tao, he can not only sense it to the point he can dodge and negate the Doshis’ attacks, but also better understands how Sagiri can waver and move forward and fight at the same time. He and Gantetsusai defeat the two Doshi, just as Sagiri & Co. reach and walk through the gates of Horai, where they’re “welcomed” by the Tensen Mu Dan casualy beheading Houko.

While Gabimaru is confident he’s attained the same level as the Tensen with his embrace of both the strong and weak, it remains to be seen how long, if at all, Sagiri, Yuzuriha, and Senta will be able to hold out.

Hell’s Paradise – 10 – Wave Theory

When Gabimaru ends up face-to-face with Tamiya Gantetsusai and his Asaemon minder Fuchi, he and Gantetsusai have a number of battles just in their heads, in which they’re fairly evenly matched. But while Gabimaru has drunk the Elixir of life and is for all intents and purposes immortal, Gantetsusai is simply immensely strong, which is arguably more impressive.

The “immortality” he seeks isn’t living forever; that would be boring. Rather, he wants the immortality that comes from having your name be known far and wide long after he dies. If no human has defeated a Tensen yet, he’ll be the first. Rather than fight, Gabimaru convinces the three of them to work together. He then turns around to find Mei has suddenly grown into a young woman.

Sagiri and Yuzuriha sadly don’t have much to do besides listen to Senta geek out about this place, and determining through his extensive knowledge of religions and cultures that this place must have been man-made. He even suggest a man names Moro Makiya, who once tried to overthrow the shogunate, may have been responsible.

Elsewhere on the island, Nurugai continues to follow Shion, and even tries to launch a sneak attack, trying to convince him to train her in the Asaemon ways. He defeats her by knocking her sword away in such a way that it lands right back in its scabbard on her back, which he nudges her just a little to the left so it doesn’t kill her.

It’s not just that Shion doesn’t want to train another young person who will just get themselves killed—he learns Nurugai doesn’t simply want revenge, but to prevent others from dying, which is noble. It’s that sensing the “waves” that everything has isn’t something that can be quickly or easily taught. He’s a busy man, so if she wants to learn it will have to be self-study.

The older Mei is able to speak, but she speaks in riddles. The waves Shion speaks of? Another term for them is “Tao”, another loan word from a distinct religion. Whoever can master Tao has a good chance of holding their own against the Tensen, so Gantetsusai scoops of Mei and asks her to teach him more.

As for the Tensen, Tao Fa and Mu Dan are gettin’ it on (because how else should virtual gods spend their ample free time). Mu Dan explains why no human can escape from the flower pit because anyone who falls in is too weak to climb its sheer walls, form which the limbs of others grab hold to keep them down there.

This explanation is followed by an almost comedic cut to Choubei climbing out of the pit with Touma on his back. And Choubei is pissed. Whatever Touma says to him, he responds with “We’re killing those shitheads, Touma.”

While urging Touma to eat the flesh of the flower people to keep his strength up, they are suddenly confronted by a new, third class of being on the island, a Doshi. The serve as the right hand of the Tensen, acting as servants, fixers, and go-betweens. The Doshi can speak and reason, unlike the “defective” Soshin.

This Doshi has one reason for approaching the brothers: to insist that they return to the pit so his master can harvest their tan (I assume life energy). Choubei responds with violence, but the Doshi responds in kind, and proves an extremely powerful opponent.

Unlike the hordes of Soshin Touma easily slashes down, the Doshi carefully assesses Choubei’s tao and determines that not only has he not achieved full awareness of his own tao (and thus can only harness it imperfectly), but he’s also too injured and exhausted to pose a threat.

To drive these points home, the Doshi strikes Choubei down, relieving him of much of his blood. Will Touma fight, or try to solve things with talk, as the Doshi initially tried before Choubei attacked him?

Carole & Tuesday – 12 – Setting the Stage to Stardom

As a dejected Carole tells Gus and Roddy what just happened, Tuesday is briefly scolded by her mother upon returning to her mansion. Her mom couldn’t give to shits about her beyond how her actions reflect on her, and she basically says as much before locking her daughter in her room for a week.

You’d think for a politician worried about the scandal of a runaway daughter, subjecting that daughter to solitary confinement might not be the best look! Anyway, what follows is an effective montage of the two girls suddenly ripped apart becoming more and more morose. They are both The Loneliest Girl all over again.

Gus, who had a similar falling-out with a loved one that in hindsight he believes he could have salvaged, offers some sage advice to Carole about not letting things fester too long without making amends. Carole, eating her feelings in the form of a double Whopper, is way ahead of him: She needs Tues, and she thinks Tues needs her. Gus agrees, which means it’s time to plan the rescue mission—which, yes, may technically involve kidnapping!

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s only non-robot visitor is Spencer, who is as supportive as Gus about getting the duo back together, and letting his sister pursue her dreams. He reveals to her he saw her in the club, and while he admits he never thought his sis was capable of running away to the big city or getting into music, he can relate (having once pursued music but gave up, likely under pressure from mom).

I like Spencer. He’s a good brother! He didn’t give in to their domineering mother when it mattered most. Mom’s too self-involved and distracted by politics and toy boys to realize her hold on him is not as strong as she thinks. And while he couldn’t make it, he can tell she’s got what it takes, and so will do everything to free her from her gilded prison.

That night—the night before the finals, as Carole, Gus, Roddy take the train to Tuesday’s district—Angela is at the Artience Lab with Tao, asking him why the AI lyrics seem to be almost reading her mind. His answer is that, well, the lab itself has been reading her mind all along, as well as her body. It’s been listening and watching and writing, and perhaps even drawn out words from her subconscious she’d never be able to draw out alone.

In this regard, Angela is not a solo act, despite appearing alone on stage. Tao is her collaborator, since he’s the one who developed the AI. After getting into singing to please Dahlia, she can’t sing the final song to her Mama, so she asks Tao to indulge her and look at her and only her throughout the performance.

Tao agrees, but only this once. Like Carole and Tuesday, there’s nothing overtly or explicitly romantic in play here, but it’s also not like there’s nothing there.

The next morning, the rescue attempt, in which Spencer aids Carole, Gus and Roddy without even knowing it by unlocing her door and holding back a security robot so she can run away in her very inappropriate-for-running fancy shoes. They also catch a bit of luck when a driver in a car that’s faster than the cops recognizes them and offers them a ride to the station.

Gus and Roddy are arrested, but the mission is complete: Carole & Tuesday are on their way to their destiny. On the train, Carole apologizes to Tues for the things she said, and the two make it clear to each other that they want nothing more than to by each other’s side. Carole also finally manages to give Tues her birthday gift: a shiny acoustic guitar pin.

When the two return to Alba City, the grandeur of the first episode in which Tuesday arrives for the first time returns, only now she’s not alone and unknown, but running hand-in-hand with her new bestie as the throngs of people recognize and cheer them on. The only problem is, they’re very late; the season finale of Mars Brightest has already started, and as promised, Tao is in the back of the hall, his gaze locked on Angela.

Angie takes that gaze and runs with it, turning in another lovely performance. The vocals are good, but as usual I’m just not that impressed with the lyrics. She sings two identical verses without any change, which makes me wonder, are they that deep and sophisticated as to make Angela believe the AI was reading her mind? I don’t know, but as usual I have to grade on a curve and for this show, it’s a damn good song, well performed.

The judges agree, and are ready to crown Angela a winner until the sudden belated appearance of Carole & Tuesday. Catherine whips out the rulebook and states that any performers not present at the start of the show will be disqualified. Despite this, Carole, Tuesday, Benito, the crowd, and even Angela all compel her to allow them to perform anyway.

Since they had no time to write or practice a new song, they go with their very first song, Loneliest Girl, the song that marked the beginning of their friendship, the end of their loneliness, made them a viral sensation (thanks to Roddy) and put them on the road to musical greatness.

While we’ve heard the song a few times throughout the series, it’s never been performed so powerfully as this time, and with both this and Angela’s finals performance, Mars Brightest finally sounds and feels like a genuine reality TV competition, breaking through the walls of mere imitation.

That’s carried forward with the deliberation of the judges afterwards. Even DJ Ertegun is moved to tears! Catherine initially holds her “rules are rules” ground, but allows an exception that satisfies everyone from the crowd, to Angela (who wanted a fair-and-square fight) to Gus and Roddy (still stuck in jail): Angela is the official winner, but both acts will be permitted to make their pro debuts.

They earned it, and Angela is cordial in congratulating them. She, Carole and Tuesday have come a long way, and many challenges remain. Will their continued chilly rivalry curdle into outright hostility? Will Cybelle break out of prison and finish what she started? Will Tues’ mom take harsher measures, despite the blowback from the duo’s growing legion of fans? We’ll find out in the second half of the series. I’ll be on board!

Carole & Tuesday – 03 – ASCENSION!

After a rough first impression (I believe accusations of cyberstalking are leveled), Gus Goldman introduces himself to Carole & Tuesday, dropping names left and right. Unfortunately, the pair is #notimpressed because they don’t remember Bruno, Justin, or Brian Epstein—being from a much younger generation.

Brass tacks: Gus knows talent when he hearts it, and if they want to do what they do for more than just fun, he wants to be there to help them. His enthusiasm and earnestness make up for his underwhelming Wikipedia page. But since nobody’s become a commercial hit quite yet Gus has to insist his talent pay for their own Margherita.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s mother leaves getting her back to her son—lest police involement sully her campaign—then (presumably) retires to the boudoir with her toyboy. How I hope Tuesday’s bro doesn’t try to drag her back to this horrid gilded cage.

As Angela is asked 37 questions on some kind of vlog of her life (and introduces her extremely annoying AI pet rabbit Aladdin), C&T are at the laundromat waiting for their clothes to be done.

Tuesday likens the still, then suddenly-spinning clothes as mirroring the two of them, and Carole starts stomping and clapping out a beat, with Tuesday joining in and the two starting to sing an impromptu song (albeit one that is not clandestinely recorded).

Just messin’ around in the laundromat is a kernal that germinates as the two refine the music and lyrics, and their song is the soundtrack for a montage of their day in the life in Alba City, all gorgeously rendered and adding to the lush textures of both the sprawling city and their digs.

As for Gus, he vows to lay off the sauce now that he has a new client. Whatever his reasons for copying Motörhead in the past, he seems genuinely determined to put a human musical duo on the map—no small feat in a Martian cultural continuum in which AI has taken over so much of the creating.

What was billed as a trip to a voice coach friend of Gus’ turns out to be…something else entirely: a SPACE YOGA session so bizarre to Tuesday’s sheltered psyche she fears she’ll have nightmares about the experience.

Angela’s experienced at Artience is no less nightmarish. When she can’t hit a high note, Tao activates her restraints and deploys all manner of nasty-looking torture instruments, all an elaborate artifice in order to goad Angela into screaming…and hitting that high note she thought impossible.

She still voices her complaints to her mother, a former child star herself. But her mom insists she keep at it, lest she become as forgotten as she now is due to people moving on and her career not moving on with it. This looks like a classic vicarious parent situation. I hope Angela actually wants to continue as Tao’s guinea pig for her own sake, not just Mom’s.

Thanks to Roddy, C&T score a meet with the famous celebrity DJ Ertegun, whose sold-out megashows are the toast of the town. When they arrive at his waterfront mansion, Gus is prepared to make the pitch, but he’s held back by Ertegun’s security, leaving C&T on their own among the tacky pop art, including Banksy’s self-destructing painting!

Ertegun makes them wait as he talks on the phone by the woman-filled pool, but when he finally comes in, he initially scares the shit out of them by seemingly stripping in front of them; mercifully, he’s got boxer briefs on, and merely shed the robe so he could do some push-ups while he raps with them.

Either Roddy didn’t explain why C&T wanted to meet with Ertegun, or Ertegun didn’t listen to him (probably the latter), because Ertegun doesn’t know why C&T are there: he assumes they want autographs, selfies, or…him (Gus warned earlier them not to give him a leg massage).

When he learns it’s a pitch, he immediately shuts them down, rejecting them without so much as listening to a single bar. Why is he so confident they’re boring generic trash? Well, for one thing, “he’s DJ Ertegun,” which is apparently sufficient explanation. But for another? Because they’re not AI. Like Tao, Ertegun doesn’t trust humans to make good music, except through technology.

Tuesday wigs out and burns their lyrics with the DJ’s cigar lighter, setting off the sprinklers before running away. Ertegun doesn’t seem particularly miffed that all his goofy art is getting doused, but I imagine T&C left an stronger impression on him!

Carole & Tuesday – 02 – Discovered by Fate

The narrator again refers to the “Miraculous 7 Minutes” before we return to the story of how Carole & Tuesday got there, starting with Tuesday’s first morning waking up somewhere other than her mansion. While Carole is out of there not long after 7, it takes much longer for Tuz to wake up, and when she does, immediately demonstrates her utter ineptness when it comes to cleaning.

Meanwhile, Angela finishes up a photo shoot at a studio where everyone applauds and gushes over her, something she’s obviously taken for granted all her life. When she arrives at Artience Lab, she doesn’t get that treatment she’s so used to. If anything, Tao (voiced most imperiously by Kamiya Hiroshi) treats her like a nuisance. But as long as he creates the perfect song for her, she doesn’t care.

If Tuesday is terrible at cleaning, Carole proves equally terrible at holding down jobs. Hired as a professional mourner at a funeral, she ends up laughing hysterically when a butterfly lands on the priest’s head, earning her her second pink slip in as many days. It’s clear if Carole can catch a break with her music, she’d be a better fit for that than either crying or serving burgers to misogynists.

That night, Carole remarks that if she goes to bed in the wrong state of mind she’ll have nightmares, so she and Tuesday exchange mentions of things that they like, and find they’re both big fans of both Cyndi and Crystal. Carole also learns Tuesday is a total rich girl, complete with a limitless black credit card—but Tuz can’t use it or her family will find her.

The next day, Carole and Tuesday are out on the town on a mission: use the real grand piano at the Martian Immigrant Memorial Hall’s main stage, where DJ ERTEGUN is already setting up a future show with one of his producers, Roddy.

On the way, Tuesday sees her mom on TV—turns out she’s the governor of Herschel state, and potentially running for president—but doesn’t let Carole in on that nugget of information.

Back at Artience, the rocky road continues as Angela is subjected to a mechanical chair of torture as she sings scales for Tao to analyze. When she hits the chair in anger, Tao seems to have more compassion for the machinery than her, whom he calls “a bigger piece of junk than expected” under his breath but over enough for her to hear.

When she asks if he’s really human an AI, he replies that he gets that a lot, then gives her a bone-chilling smile that proves her point all the more. This is a dude who has been surrounded by technology, he’s basically lost the basic skills that make us a social species. At the same time, he’s not wrong that 99% of music is AI-generated and most people can’t tell the difference, so Angela is at a distinct disadvantage trying to force her way into the industry.

C&T arrive at the music hall, and when they’re turned away by an assistant, they barge in anyway, take the stage, tune up, and play their first song, “Lonliest Girl,” with full lyrics and much grander acoustics. It’s a lush, soul-stirring sequence, reminding me of the performances in Your Lie in April. The animation is G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S. Like the OP, it gave me goosebumps.

More importantly, it pretty much destroy’s Tao’s assertion about “the warmth of humanity” being a lie. Roddy records the guerrilla performance on his phone, basically falling in love with the duo in the process. Moments after they finish, security starts to chase them around the hall, and Roddy captures that too! None of Tao’s fancy AIs can hope to replicate the anarchy or spontaneity of two young women eager to make a name for themselves.

Running off once more, C&T have no idea what just happened, but are simply enjoying the adrenaline rush of getting in, playing on the big stage, getting out, and getting away with it. Roddy uploads the footage of them, and the video quickly goes viral, making me wonder when Tuesday’s brother will see it (because there’s no way she’s going to stay hidden from them for long).

Even the drunken ex-music producer hears it. He’s so drunk, he initially yells at the woman at the bar to shut it off, and very nearly gets into a fight with her man. But when he stops and listens some more, he’s absolutely smitten, and apologizes for his behavior before running off and getting his old friend Roddy on the horn.

Through Roddy we learn this guy’s name is Gus, and he wants to know who those two girls were. Thankfully for him, Roddy has The Mad Internet Skillz, and in less than half a minute has not only found C&T’s Insta, but pinpointed their address as well, as the location data of their rooftop photo wasn’t hidden. Oops!

The next morning unfolds much like the previous one: Carole getting up and Tuesday…not. Carole punishes her laziness by placing guitar picks on her eyes, but before she can snap a funny photo Gus starts trying to knock her front door down, bellowing like a loon about the “gig being up” and ordering them to let him in.

Turns out this is yet more evidence that not everyone in this world knows how to properly express their intentions, as he ends up coming off as way more of a threat than a boon to the girls, who are scared out of their wits until he mentions he’s their new manager, and their fear instantly turns to bewilderment. And that’s how Carole & Tuesday were discovered! It happened pretty damn fast too, considering there’s twenty-two episodes remaining! This is going to be epic.

Carole & Tuesday – 01 (First Impressions) – Looking for What’s Missing Together

Tuesday is sick of feeling alone, unfulfilled, wasting away in her family’s massive manse in Herschel. She wants to make music, so she packs up her Gibson guitar and autonomous suitcase, slips out the window, and hops on the midnight train to Alba City.

It’s an elegant opening sequence that shows us everything we need to see without excessive exposition, and shows us the details of this intriguing future civilization on Mars, full of nifty tech and gleaming buildings, but also goats. There will always be goats.

The moment she wakes up and lays eyes on the city for the first time is also very well done. I was a little worried for Tuesday doing what Cyndi Lauper did and going for broke on a dream, but also immensely excited.

Meanwhile, in Alba, it’s hard for Carole to go for broke when she’s just flat-out broke. She at least has an awesome loft thanks to a kindly landlord, as well as a nifty uni-hoverboard to weave through the city churn to her awful fast food job where she’s berated and propositioned in equal measure.

Like Tuesday, we learn a lot about who Carole is not merely by listening to her monologue, but by watching her live. I also love her robotic pet/alarm clock owl, Ziggy, as well as her take-no-shit face upon being hit on by a rude customer.

Tuesday’s great first day in the big city goes about as well as you’d expect; her luggage is quickly swiped as she stands still taking everything in, just after Carole tells us that Alba is a city that will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t stop moving. Incidentally, after two customers spit out food Carole served up as a measure of revenge, the restaurant spits her out, and she’s suddenly jobless…and not for the first time.

As perky on camera as she’s surly off, Angela fires her human manager for booking her nothing but shit jobs like dressing up like a giant durian for a soda ad. She feels she’s above such bullshit, and like Tuesday is trying to take the next step.

After a shit day, Carole sets up her Nord keyboard on a bridge and starts tapping and humming out a pretty, sad, lonely little melody to complement the sunset, assured that no one will stop, listen, or be moved.

So it is most fortuitous that Tuesday finds herself on that bridge just as Carole is playing, and she stops, listens, and is moved. She even comes up with lyrics for it on the fly, which Carole likes.

When a cop shows up to break up her busking, Carole splits, and Tuesday follows. They introduce themselves, and perhaps a part of both of them know right then and there that their lives have been changed forever by their meeting.

As Tuesday’s emotionally distant workaholic mother delegates Tuesday’s running away to her son and gets back to whatever work she does that makes them so rich, Angela’s battleaxe of a mother and manager takes her to see Tao, a music producer who has only worked with AI “talent” until now. If Tuesday feels lonely and Carole feels trapped, Angela is straight-up bored, both with her career and her life. Tao’s warnings don’t deter her from persuing a singing career by any means necessary.

We’re then introduced to the first male character, a former music industry participant (performer? producer? both?) drinks himself into a stupor, asks for the music to be shut off, then promptly passes out on the floor.

At Carole’s super-cool crib, something magical happens. Tuesday whips out her guitar, and Carole her keys, and the slowly, tentatively start dipping their toes into the pool of musical collaboration.

It’s a wonderous thing to see unfold, and like Tuesday’s runaway scene, it’s a picture of narrative elegance and purpose. As they get more and more comfortable singing and playing together, they emit an aura of rising warmth. And they feel it too: this is what both of them were missing: each other.

Carole takes Tuesday to an utterly gorgeous city vista on the rooftop, where they make their first collab official by taking a selfie and posting it to an Instagram story called “Carole & Tuesday”, which is a great name for a musial duo. They’re going for it, and one more look at our drunken ex-music producer suggests that he’ll be instrumental in helping them climb out of obscurity and into the big time, just as Angela is entering a new chapter of her life in that same space.

In the first truly excellent episode of the Spring, Bones, Wantanabe Shinichiro, seiyus Ichinose Kana and Shimabukuro Miyuri, and the all-important Wantanabe anime element of richly-integrated music (which doesn’t skimp on the always-lovely diminished sevenths) all conspire to create a epic, heartfelt genesis of a friendship, partnership, and evolution of the lives of two young women who, as Cyndi said, Just Wanna Have Fun. And I am here for it!