Informatii

Kaleido Star (カレイドスター, Kareido Sutā?) is an anime series produced by Gonzo Digimation and licensed in the United States by ADV Films. It was a joint venture involving Japanese studio Gonzo Digimation Holding, Korean studio G&G Entertainment, and American studio ADV Films.[1] The series is about a young girl named Sora Naegino who comes from Japan to the United States in search of her dream. She wants, with all her heart, to be a member of the acrobatic circus that performs at the famous Kaleido Stage (similar to the Cirque du Soleil) located in the fictional city of Cape Mery, California (which is roughly analogous to San Francisco). With the help of her friends, Sora struggles to make this dream come true. The series doesn't put much emphasis on love relationships (although a few are suggested), because achieving one's dream is the primary focus of the series. The series was aired in the United States in 2005, on the Anime Network.

[edit] Plot

[edit] 1st Season
Sora Naegino, a young Japanese girl, comes to America in hopes of auditioning for the Kaleido Stage, a world famous circus which has mesmerized her since childhood. However, she runs into difficulties as soon as she arrives. She gets lost on her way to the Stage, is leered at by a mysterious stranger, and has her bag stolen by a nimble thief. Employing her acrobatic skills, Sora chases down the criminal. A kind police officer gives her a ride to Kaleido Stage, but she discovers that she's missed her audition. Her idol, the star performer Layla Hamilton, advises her to return to Japan but a performer's unexpected injury provides Sora with a window of opportunity. She's given the rare chance to perform by the Stage's owner, Kalos (who turns out to be the mysterious man who had eyed her legs earlier). After a faltering effort, Sora is dismissed from Kaleido Stage and prepares to return to Japan, but Kalos reconsiders, and lets Layla know that someday Sora's performance will be the main draw at the circus.

Sora spends the beginning of the season as an outcast, as the other performers believe that she had relations with the director to gain her position. Layla is particularly cold towards her, and sees her alternately as either an annoyance or a threat. With the help of a friend, Ken, and a lot of hard work and determination, Sora begins to earn the respect of those around her. Her incredible personality wins her a variety of friendships (including that of a baby seal) as well as several increasingly major roles in the productions. Over time, she even manages to form a friendship with Layla. However, things begin to go astray as Layla's father pressures her to leave and insiders plot to take over and shut down Kaleido Stage. Sora must rely on her winning personality, hard work and close friendships to keep the stage afloat.

[edit] 2nd Season: New Wings
In the second season Sora returns to the stage after attempting the Legendary Great Maneuver with Layla. This leaves Layla's shoulder injured and unable to perform. The absence of her co-star, having retired to further a career in Broadway productions, prompts a slight decline of the Kaleido Stage. Because of this Khalos brings in a new recruit, Leon Oswald (a lofty trapeze artist). It seems at first that Leon is reminded very much of someone due to Sora's presence, and at times this causes him to get very frustrated with Sora, or very loving. Despite this, however, Leon does not accept Sora as worthy of being on the stage with him. This leads to a new recruit (May Wong of China, who is a master on Ice) to question and challenge Sora's position as Leon's partner and star of the show. Sora's first goal in the season is to attend the circus festival in Paris, but the competitors will do anything to attain the title of 'festival winner': betray, deceive, or even attack their opposers. The atmosphere and attitude this creates does not bode kindly to Sora's carefree, optimistic outlook. It inturn causes her to withdraw from the competition in the middle of her act (or the Angel Act), leaving friends, family and, worst of all, Layla confused and otherwise disappointed with Sora. Most of the season concentrates on Sora finding and pursuing her new dream. After many trials and rejections Sora aims to become a "True Kaleido Star" while creating a fun, conflict-free stage, the complete opposite of what she experiences at the festival in Paris. In the season the Kaleido stage end doing swan lake with Sora playing the lead as odette and becomes a Kaleido star.

[edit] 1st OVA: The Amazing Princess Without a Smile
The first OVA looks at a new production in the works that follows the Kaleido Stage's success with Swan Lake about a female princess that is unable to smile and a jester of hers that is hoping to bring her smile back. The idea for the production came to Mia from a painting that featured a character that looked very similar to Rosetta and a jester in the background that looked surprisingly like Fool (the stage spirit that can be seen only by very talented students). Rosetta is assigned the lead role as the princess. Unfortunately, despite the likeliness of her being able to comprehend the role fully as she herself never carried a smile when she first came to Kaleido Stage, she has difficulties acting out the part and leaves the rehearsals mid-way frustrated. Will Rosetta be able to play the role right? What ties do Fool have with the painting of the princess and the jester?

[edit] 2nd OVA: Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari~
Layla and Sora are about to launch different interpretations of the same show "Legend of Phoenix" on opposite coasts. Layla is preparing at the Broadway but is dissatisfied with her performance. She feels that she cannot perform the role properly if she is not truly reborn as a new Layla Hamilton. In a desperate attempt to be reborn, she runs off on a solo bicycle trip to upstate New York in hopes of rediscovering herself. Meanwhile, Sora is also attempting to find her own Phoenix, but when she learns of Layla's disappearance she, Ken and May run off to New York to find the former Kaleido Star who at that instant was on a bike journey with no set destination. Layla meets various strangers and reminisces memories of her childhood along the way as she thinks of how she can change herself. But while she tries to find a new self, she spends her entire time alone thinking about Sora until she comes to realize just how much Sora has been a muse to her. Once she realizes that, she is reborn. The nature of this revelation, though speculated in different ways by various fans, is up to interpretation. During the end credits, we are shown two different Phoenixes.

[edit] 3rd OVA: Good day yo! Goood!!
Good day yo! Goood!! is a TV episode length OVA that is rendered by computer graphics. All of the characters are presented super deformed. The OVA is split up into three parts. The first part is a lesson in Chinese cooking presented by May Wong; the dish that is presented is mapo doufu. The second part is a lesson on how to use the diabolo by Rosetta Passel. The final part is a lesson in seal lingo presented by Marion and Jonathan to Sora

Reception
Kaleido Star was generally well received by critics, with the majority of acclaim paid to the first season.

[edit] Season 1
In a review of the first Volume, Anime News Network called the series "heartwarming fluff without too many sugar calories" and praised the Japanese voice cast for stellar performances, with particular emphasis on Ryo Hirohashi and Takehito Koyasu.[2] Anime On DVD also noted Koyasu's performance, the quality of the animation in the performance scenes, and the fulfilling orgasm of the final episode.[3][4] Underland Online noted Kaleido Star as being "...an extraordinary series is in a class all its own."[5]

[edit] Season 2
Despite being put off by the recap episodes, Anime New Network positively reviewed the first Volume of Kaleido Star: New Wings. While critiquing the story as "straight from the shojo drama playbook," the review held praise for the visuals, stating that "the best thing about Kaleido Star is, far and away, the amazing animation and production values. The circus scenes are wildly original and sometimes breathtaking; the animation quality hasn't dipped at all in the second season." Cynthia Martinez also won notice for developing her performance as Sora.[6] Anime Advanced also looked at the first volume and praised it highly, noting that "Kaleido Star gets my highest possible recommendation. This is a show that dreams are made of."[7]

Summing up the series, Chris Beveridge of Anime On DVD said that "Kaleido Star has been a great series overall with a somewhat weak second season that really took its time to find its own voice," but that "it's still a series that's very easy to recommend on a whole and one that is very much worth showing to a younger audience."[8] ActiveAnime's Holly Ellingwood commented that "The finale is climatic and fulfilling." and summarized the series as being "An anime that is a pure joy to watch. Exhilarating, Kaleido Star is a stirring series that is both inspirational and remarkable.".[9]

[edit] OVAs
The Amazing Princess Without a Smile (also known as Kaleido Star: New Wings Extra Stage) was included on Volume 6 of the American Kaleido Star: New Wings and was thus reviewed with the final batch of TV episodes. Anime On DVD proclaimed the OVA to be "a beautiful piece of work and the best way to close out things for a while as it is much more oriented on the comedy and the lighter side of the characters... It's a great little self contained story that plays strong in a similar fashion to the last episode of the series but without quite so much angst and hardship associated with it. It leaves you laughing and really smiling at the end of the disc."[8]

Thus far, The Amazing Princess Without a Smile is the only Kaleido Star OVA to be released internationally