I was chatting with my RC colleague Zaiden the other day, trying to come up with a U.K. analog for the cultural reference I wanted to drop about Carole & Tuesday.  To wit: this series is the P.F. Chang’s of anime.  The best we could come up with is “Jamie’s Italian” (I’ll take his word for it, never having been – I assume the Jamie in question is Oliver, which sounds about right), but the point remains the same.  Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

So what do I mean by that, exactly?  P.F. Chang’s is “safe ethnic food”.  There’s nothing remotely authentic about it, but the setting is quite upscale.  The dishes are prepared to appeal to the widest possible swathe of customers without offending any palates.  It’s “multicultural” in the way that those in the cultural majority prefer their multiculturalism, packaged and sanitized for their perspective.  Safety first.  Is this a Netflix thing, or just the way Carole & Tuesday evolved?  In the end I suppose it doesn’t matter for the show itself, but the answer is possibly important when one considers Netflix’ impact on anime, both now and in the future.

Truth be told, this was actually a better episode I thought. For one thing, the sci-fi elements felt much better-integrated to me.  You had Carole’s comment to Tuesday that finding part-time work was hard, as “not many places are looking for humans”.  And the job she ends up with – a human walking A.I. pets – is deliciously ironic by nature.  And Tao’s comment about “Martian androgyny” was certainly puzzling.  For once the future wasn’t just an Adachi cell phone – it actually impacted the daily lives of the characters.

Another thing I liked here was the way the music subplot of the week played out.  It was pretty realistic and rang true – in fact, playing as many gigs as possible is the smartest way for Carole and Tuesday to try and make a splash.  Roddy and Gus’ efforts to get them gigs were pretty grounded too, and it was fun to see the Ohtsuka brothers (Akio and Houchuu aren’t literally brothers, of course) go head-to-head as Gus and Hoefner – two really good seiyuu playing a well-written scene is a simple pleasure that cuts through all the flannel.

There’s a fundamental problem for me here though, and I don’t know if it’s surmountable – I just don’t like the music.  That’s a big problem when the series is about music of course, but an even bigger one when the whole premise is built around everyone (most urgently Roddy) being so wowed after seeing these girls that their lives are changed by it.  I can’t shake the Uniqlo thing – every time I walk into Uniqlo I think “God, this playlist is terrible.”  And every song I hear in Carole & Tuesday reminds me of something I’d hear in Uniqlo.  Maybe this week’s C & T song was a little better, and Angela does have a nice voice (but that song might be the most Uniqlo of all, and as Zaiden mentioned to me, Mr. Tao may be a bit of a racist caricature).  But for me, the music is a big hill to climb.