Ever since she was a little girl, Sora Naegino has dreamed of joining Kaleido Stage, a group that combines a series of acrobatic/circus acts into dramatic productions. Unfortunately, as soon as she gets off her flight from Japan, she gets completely lost and then her suitcase is stolen! Although she is able to get the suitcase back with some nifty rollerblade-acrobatics, the incident makes her late for the audition. Superstar performer Layla Hamilton is against letting Sora join, but the owner Karlos (who witnessed the entire rollerblading incident) exercises his authority and lets Sora into Kaleido Stage. Will it be the debut of a new Kaleido star or will Sora be unable to handle the role of the random bouncing pink rabbit? And what’s with that talking doll in the dressing room?
When I first heard about this show, it didn’t sound like anything I’d be interested in, but one episode was all it took to convince me. There is comedy and drama in equal proportions, and Sora is an extremely likeable main character (cheerful and confident, but not genki to the point where you want to push her off a cliff). Although the first season episodes have lower production values than the second, the art is still pretty. The music is quite good as well. One of the best parts of Kaleido Star is that Ken Robbins can’t get the time of day from Sora. Even though he does everything that a good harem-series male lead should do, Sora completely ignores him whenever Policeman-san is around. Ender surmises that this is because they haven’t lived in the same house for long enough for Ken to develop true harem mojo powers. Also, has anyone noticed that Kaleido Stage kinda looks like Balamb Garden from Final Fantasy 8?
I’ve already marathoned through Kaleido Star once, but one of the appeals of this series is how rewatchable it is. The jokes are just as funny (if not funnier) the second time around, and the dramatic moments still get to me. Even the previews are wonderful to watch, especially with Sora’s quirky habit of repeating certain things three times. “My dreams are my wings, which take me to the sky!”
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1970 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Mmm . . . Balamb Garden . . . by the way, is this offered at animesuki? It sounds rather interesting, but I haven’t seen it anywhere in quite a while . . .
Its currently being released on DVD by ADV. I’ve watched to the third volume so far (episode 13) and I’m enjoying it quite a bit.
I especially like the dub, seeing the entire population of a southern california city speaking Japanese just bothers me.
And poor Ken, he’s got a heart condition and they keep sending him running all over the place.
Mmm, Kaleido Star. My favorite series by far, hands down!
Do you know if ADV is releasing the second season? As far as I know, they only announced the first season… and I only have some of the second in raw form.
I’ve seen Kaleido Star on the anime network and ADV did a very good job dubbing it. They’ve been showing it since May I think. It”s a great series and I have all of the first season on my comp, plus a couple of episodes from the second season. It’s soo cool
UBER! Everyone needs to spread the word that KS is the best! best! best!
words arn’t needed just watch the show and be amazed
Kaleido Star sucks, simply as that.
Leon should had ended up in jail for atempted murder, so as Layla and Kalos.
Mai Li should had gotten killed, and Ken is such a wuss. He makes Shinji look like Scarface.
I also find it bothering that the story takes place in the US, while everybody behaves like japanese. Weird sh*t.
The only character I loved is Rosseta and that is it. Do not waste your time and money on this thing away from the true reality of the US.
Soooo, does that mean you wouldn’t like a series like Chrno Crusade either? I thought it was understood that Fool kinda took care of the whole “this is so so real” problem…
My guess is that he prefers Dragon Ball Z.
“My dreams are my wings, which take me to the sky!”
Well that makes a lot more sense than the version in the subs:
“My wings are my dream and on towards the sky!”
WTF?