Kaleido Star
Kaleido Star (カレイドスター , Kareido Sutā?) is an anime series produced by Gonzo and broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 3, 2003 to March 27, 2004, with a total of 51 episodes divided into two seasons, the first of 26 episodes and the second of 25.
In Latin America it was licensed by Televix Entertainment for distribution in the region and broadcast from November 1, 2004 to January 10, 2005 on Cartoon Network, and later on Boomerang. In Chile it premiered in 2006 on Mega and Etc...TV, being broadcast in 2008. The first season was re-released for Mexico on November 23, 2009 on the open TV channel Once TV and was broadcast until 4 September 2010.
Plot
First season
Sora Naegino, is a young Japanese woman with a great talent for acrobatics. At the age of 6, she loses her parents, shortly after attending the Kaleido Stage to see the play & # 34; Alice in Wonderland & # 34;. A cousin of her father decides to take care of her and she accepts, keeping in her heart, the dream of becoming part of the Kaleido Stage, a circus that is characterized by performing plays. Ten years later, Ella Sora comes to America hoping to audition for the Kaleido Stage, the world-famous circus that has captivated her since her childhood. However, she runs into difficulties as soon as she arrives: she gets lost on her way to the Stage, she is harassed by a mysterious man who keeps a close eye on her muscular legs, and her suitcase is stolen by a nimble thief. Using her acrobatic skills, Sora stops the criminal.
A very kind police officer helps her get to the Kaleido Stage, but once there, she discovers that she has lost her hearing. Sora's idol, star Layla Hamilton, advises him (coolly) to return to Japan, but an unexpected injury to one of the artists gives Sora a new opportunity. The one who gives him this strange opportunity is the owner of the Stage, Kalos Eido (who turned out to be the mysterious man who harassed him). After a faltering effort and despite putting in a great performance, Sora's joy fades after Layla harshly criticizes her & #34;lousy & # 34; her job and fires her from the stage. Very sad, Sora prepares to return to Japan, but Kalos reconsiders her to work in the circus and tells Layla that one day people will come to see Sora's performance because she is going to be the main attraction of the circus..
Sora spends the beginning of the season banned from the stage, as the other artists thought she had a relationship with the director for gaining a position so quickly. Layla is particularly cold and harsh towards her, as she sees the protagonist as a nuisance or even a threat. With the help of her friends (stage director Ken Robbins, artists Mia Guillem and Anna Heart, and young Marion Begnini), and with hard work and determination, Sora begins to earn the respect of those around her. Her amazing personality earns her a variety of friendships (including that of a baby seal, which she saves upon finding abandoned), as well as several increasingly important roles in productions. Over time, she even manages to form a friendship with Layla.
However, things start to go wrong when Layla's father pressures her to leave the stage, as well as an internal plot to rob and shut down the Kaleido Stage by Yuri (Layla's partner), for revenge. from Kalos. Sora must depend on her winning personality, hard work, and a close friendship to keep the stage afloat.
Second season
In the second season of Kaleido Star, Sora returns to the stage after attempting the legendary "fantasy technique" with Layla. This leaves Layla with an injured shoulder and the inability to continue on stage. The absence of his co-star, having retired to pursue a career in Broadway productions, induces a slight decline in the Kaleido Star. Because of this mishap, Kalos brings along a new recruit, Leon Oswald (a noble artist on the trapezoid). It seems that Leon reminds someone of his sister named Sophie in the first place due to Sora's presence, and sometimes this causes him to be really rude or really sweet to Sora.
Despite this - however, Leon does not accept Sora as worthy of being on stage with him. This leads to the top talent of the new Kaleido Stage recruits (May Wong, acrobat and figure skater) challenging Sora, over her position as Leon's partner and star of the show.
Sora in the season attends the circus festival in Paris, but the competitors will do everything to reach the title of "festival winner"; betray, deceive, or even attack her opponents. The atmosphere creates this attitude which does not bode well for Sora in his optimistic and ultra-idealistic outlook. This is causing him to withdraw from the competition in the middle of his act (The Angelic Technique) with the redeemed Yuri Killian, leaving behind friends, family, and worst of all, leaving Layla disappointed and others just as disappointed in her. The moment Leon discovers that Sora can perform the angelic technique and that the only thing left is to perfect it, he becomes interested in Sora being his partner. This causes a conflict between Yuri and Leon which is resolved thanks to Sora.
Most of the season focuses on finding Sora, interrogating, and applying new dreams. After many trials and rejections, Sora aspires to become a "True Kaleido Star," while creating a fun, conflict-free stage becomes his new dream as Sora brings the stage to life. Doing in her performance of the angelic technique, she smiles back to all the spectators, making the Kaleido stage a warm place where there is no competition or tension, which leaves Layla Hamilton a little amazed. Contrary to the experiences at the Paris festival.
OVAs
Kaleido Star: New Wings, Magnificent Stage
Kaleido Star: New Wings Extra Stage ( カレイドスター 新たなる翼－EXTRA STAGE－, Kaleido Star: New Wings, Magnificent Scenario?), also translated as The incredible princess who didn't smile, is the 1st OVA of the Kaleido Star anime. It is about Rosetta, and what happens after Sora performs the “angelic technique”. During an interview with Sora, Fool points out Rosetta as the next star of Kaleido, so Yuri makes the announcement of a new work where Rosetta will have the leading role. Rosetta has been given the task, by Mia, to achieve the character of a princess who could not smile, she thinks she achieves it due to her past experience, but she does not manage to interpret the role, which makes her question her talent on the Stage. Kaleido.
Kaleido Star: Legend of the Phoenix ~The Story of Layla Hamilton~
Kaleido Star ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari (カレイドスター Legend of Phoenix ～レイラ・ハミルトン物語, The Legend of the Phoenix ~The Story of Layla Hamilton~?) is the 2nd OVA of the anime Kaleido Star, it is about Layla, who is going to perform the Phoenix performance on Broadway. To carry out this work, she embarks on a bicycle trip, without saying anything to anyone, to discover what is missing to achieve the character. In this ova they talk about the death of Layla's mother and how she dealt with it. she suffered and how she cried and claimed her mother's absence and how she promised herself to stop crying when her mother died. Layla, discovering herself, cuts her hair and cries and as Sora was looking for her, he finds her crying. There is Remember that not only Layla tries to play the role of a Phoenix but also Sora. She ends the ova with the interpretation of both.
Kaleido Star: Good day me! Gooood!!
Kaleido Star: Good morning! Bueenos! All characters are presented in animation. The OVA (Synonymous Movie or Original Video Anime) is divided into three parts. The first part is a Chinese cooking lesson hosted by May Wong; the dish featured is Mapo Doufu. The second part is a lesson on how to use the Rosetta Passel diabolo. The final part is a lingo lesson presented by Marion and Jonathan to Sora.
Characters
Sora Naegino
- Seiyū: Ryō Hirohashi
- Double Actress: Shirley Marulanda (Colombia)
Sora Naegino (苗木野 そら, Naegino Sora?) comes from Japan and is the protagonist of the series, she is a 16-year-old girl, with a very cheerful and impulsive (and sometimes clumsy) attitude. Sometimes she is carried away by despair and defeat, but with the support of her friends she always manages to stand up and continue. She wears a white polo shirt and a jean-like orevol that fits her tight.
Their work at the Kaleido Star began one day when one of the acrobats had been injured, and they needed a replacement. Sora offers to fill in for the acrobat and they eventually accept her. When they finished the show was a success. Kalos Eido (the owner of the Kaleido Stage), notices her great talent and hires her immediately, causing resentment from the other acrobats who had to audition. Although Sora's adoptive parents disagreed, she agreed.
Sora has had great rivals in the Kaleido Stage circus, who put her talent to the test, one of them will be Layla Hamilton, the current Kaleido star who at first does not appreciate her but with the passage of time she will come to see her great qualities arriving together to work on many acrobatics including the legendary Fantastic technique, leaving Layla with a severely injured arm, after which she leaves the circus for a while, giving Sora the opportunity, with whom she will develop a close bond over time. time. And so begins the story of Sora in the Kaleido Stage. Since the episode "Fantastic Family Ties" she has a little sister, Yume. In the second season she has a lot of problems with Leon Oswald and incidentally she faces a new rival named May Wong with whom Sora gets along very badly at first but they will end up being great friends little by little, in a few more advanced episodes in the second season, they become He will be presented with even more difficult challenges than the ones he has already accomplished.
- Age:16 years (at the beginning of the series)
- Birthday: November 24
- Stature: 1.60
- Blood Type: A+
- Weight:48 kg
- Hair Color: Violet
Content of the work
Anime
Episodes
The anime consists of 51 episodes, 26 are from the first season, and 25 from the second, in addition, there is an OVA which is confused with chapter 52, which is why it is taken as one more episode.
Note: The episodes of The Incredible Prologue to Stardom were apparently not broadcast in Latin America, so they can be confused with specials, but in reality they are normal episodes, for this reason when searching and viewing the episodes on the internet, only 49 and the OVA appear. (Film) by Rosetta Passel.
Music
AleX R. - Dreams (Progressive Version)
Opening
- "Take it Shake It" by Sugar (Episodes 1–13)
- "Yakusoku no basho e" (▪, Yakusoku no basho e?) by Chihiro Yonekura (Episodes 14–26)
- Letra: Chihiro Yonekura
- Music: Chihiro Yonekura
- "Tattoo Kiss" by r.o.r/s (Episodes 27–51)
- Letra: Mizue
- Music: Dream Field
- Arrangement: Keiji Tanabe
- OVAs
- "Blanc et Noir" by Ryō Hirohashi and Kaori Mizuhashi (The Amazing Princess Without a Smile OVA)
- "Ray of Light" by Sayaka ⋅hara (Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari~ OVA)
- Letra: Yuki Matsuura
- Music: Mina Kubota
- Arrangements: Yuki Matsuura
Ending
- "Real Identity" by Sugar (Episodes 1–13)
- "Boku wa kokoni iru" (♫ ♫, Boku wa kokoni iru?) by Sophia (Episodes 14–26)
- "Escape" by r.o.r/s (Episodes 27–50)
- Letra: Mizue
- Music: Keiji Tanabe
- Arrangements: Kenji Tanabe
- "Yakusoku no basho e" (▪, Yakusoku no basho e?) by Chihiro Yonekura with Kaleido Stars (Episodio 51)
- OVAs
- "Tattoo Kiss" by r.o.r/s (The Amazing Princess Without a Smile OVA)
- "Golden Phoenix ~Nando demo~" (Golden Phoenix ~ booked for love, "Golden Phoenix ~Nando demo~"?) by Sayaka ⋅hara (Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari~ OVA)
- Letra: Kaleido Stage
- Music: Hitoshi Sakimoto
- Arrangements: Hitoshi Sakimoto
Inserted
- "Ray of Light" by Layla Hamilton (Sayaka ⋅hara) (Episode 50)
Manga
A manga titled Kaleido Star~ Wing of the future began serialization in Shōnen Fang Magazine and was published on February 19, 2007. The story takes place fifteen years after the events of the anime series and revolves around Sora's younger sister, Yume. Since Sora hasn't visited her family in years for unknown reasons, Yume joins the Kaleido Stage in hopes of finding her.
Some new characters have been introduced, old ones have also returned including Yuri Killian, May Wong, Marion Benigni, Jonathan, Mia Guillem, Ken Robbins, Jean Benigni and Rosetta Passell.
Serialization in Shōnen Fang Magazine concluded in September 2007.
Novel
A light novel called Mr. Policeman's Amazing Wedding (ポリスのすごい結婚式, Porisu no Sugoi Kekkonshiki?) in which Jerry's wedding takes place, where Sora, Anna and Mia are the bridesmaids honor. It was published on February 10, 2006.
Reception
First season
In a review of the first volume, Anime News Network called the series "fluff from the heart, without too many sugar calories" and praised the Japanese voice cast for stellar performances, with special attention paid to Ryo Hirohashi and Takehito Koyasu. In the Anime on DVD Koyasu also pointed out the performance, the quality of the animation in the performance of the scenes, and the fulfillment of the culmination of the last episode. Underland Online noted Kaleido Star as "...an extraordinary series, stands in a class all its own".
Second season
Despite being intimidated by the episode recap, Anime News Network positively reviewed the first Volume of Kaleido Star: New Wings. While criticizing the story as "straight out of the shōjo genre playbook drama", the review praised the visuals, stating that "the best thing about Kaleido Star is by far the incredible animation and production values. The circus scenes are wildly original and sometimes impressive, the quality of the animation didn't drop at all in the second season'. Cynthia Martinez also earned praise for her performance development as Sora. Anime Advance also took notice of the first volume and is highly praised, noting that "Kaleido Star receives my highest possible recommendation." It is a show of dreams that come true.
Summarizing the series, Chris Beveridge of Anime on DVD said that "Kaleido Star has been a great series with an overall rather weak second season that really took its time to find its own voice; but that it is still a series that is very easy to recommend as a whole and that it is a great value to show to a younger audience". ActiveAnime Holly's Ellingwood commented that; "The end is weather and compliance". and summarizing the series as "An anime that is a pure joy to watch, exhilarating, Kaleido Star is a stirring series that is both inspiring, and remarkable".
Kaleido Star: 1st OVA
Anime on DVD proclaimed the OVA to be "a beautiful piece of work and the best way to wrap things up for a while, as it is much more comedy oriented and the lighter side of the characters... It's a great little self featured story that plays strong in a pretty similar way to the last episode of the series, but without as much angst and hardship associated with it. He leaves you truly laughing and smiling at the end of the album".
Curiosities
- The first episode of English adaptation appeared in the January 2004 edition of Newtype magazine.
- Luci Christian, voices of Sarah and Kate in the English version, stated in an interview that this of the voices occurs because "the voice patterns can really establish their voices apart."
- A Japanese circus, Dio Kobayashi, is accredited for being a special advisor in the series.