I finally watched the second season of Kaleido Star. My hot take: a decent fanfic of Kaleido Star, but generally just repeats the same character development from series 1 again. For sure a star being insecure even at the top of her game is a real thing that happens a lot. Other characters get less development. How did they manage not to progress Ken/Sora at all?
It weakens the message of the first series a lot, but I'd expect to have fanfic go in a different direction. What the heck is a "true star" anyway? Might as well ask "what is beauty?" while you're at it. And omg, "Only a demon can raise an angel." What the hell is that. Is this supposed to be justification for the abusive behavior that happens in show business? Even in the "surpassing your mentor" version, I disagree with that concept entirely: life is not a zero-sum game. Stars shine whoever they're with. Entertainment is not a sports manga. Physical and emotional abuse of main characters is not fun to watch.
The new characters are interesting, but lead me to one big question: If they really wanted to write a Cardcaptor Sakura cross, why not just write it, instead of adding expies of Sonomi, Meilin, and Yue? Cindy looks exactly like Sonomi, and May Wong is a slightly more chuunibyou Meilin. The last one to figure in my mind was that Leon was Yue. When I realized that he was a white-haired pretty boy who decided to be a jerk until someone lives up to the greatness of his lost partner, I was finally sure it was a real expy cross and not an appearance ripoff.
It was enjoyable to watch, but all of that means that we can do better. Not with animation and music, which were pretty good, but with story. We have the real characters, not the imitation versions. It means a CCS/KS crossover makes sense. Now, it's just to figure out who can see Fool. Akari can, but that's just because she can see all the spirits. And how to bring Meilin into the story.
Also, the location of Cape Mery in California? If we take the second season as canon: nope. That scene in the last episode with the sunrise over the ocean and hills to the left of the sunrise is a tight constraint. Venice can't do that. Huntington Beach is closest, but the beach is not quite angled east-west enough. Malibu could, but is not really built like a big city, but is a 21 mile long strip of smaller buildings. San Pedro... except there's an ugly port there. Santa Barbara would work best, except no islands are ever shown offshore. There's nothing in Northern California. The combination of palm trees and hills and beach angle preclude all other locations in the U.S., sadly. But if we imagine it somewhere near Tokyo... yeah. This is a story written by people who are used to seeing sunrise over an ocean, not west coast dwellers.
It weakens the message of the first series a lot, but I'd expect to have fanfic go in a different direction. What the heck is a "true star" anyway? Might as well ask "what is beauty?" while you're at it. And omg, "Only a demon can raise an angel." What the hell is that. Is this supposed to be justification for the abusive behavior that happens in show business? Even in the "surpassing your mentor" version, I disagree with that concept entirely: life is not a zero-sum game. Stars shine whoever they're with. Entertainment is not a sports manga. Physical and emotional abuse of main characters is not fun to watch.
The new characters are interesting, but lead me to one big question: If they really wanted to write a Cardcaptor Sakura cross, why not just write it, instead of adding expies of Sonomi, Meilin, and Yue? Cindy looks exactly like Sonomi, and May Wong is a slightly more chuunibyou Meilin. The last one to figure in my mind was that Leon was Yue. When I realized that he was a white-haired pretty boy who decided to be a jerk until someone lives up to the greatness of his lost partner, I was finally sure it was a real expy cross and not an appearance ripoff.
It was enjoyable to watch, but all of that means that we can do better. Not with animation and music, which were pretty good, but with story. We have the real characters, not the imitation versions. It means a CCS/KS crossover makes sense. Now, it's just to figure out who can see Fool. Akari can, but that's just because she can see all the spirits. And how to bring Meilin into the story.
Also, the location of Cape Mery in California? If we take the second season as canon: nope. That scene in the last episode with the sunrise over the ocean and hills to the left of the sunrise is a tight constraint. Venice can't do that. Huntington Beach is closest, but the beach is not quite angled east-west enough. Malibu could, but is not really built like a big city, but is a 21 mile long strip of smaller buildings. San Pedro... except there's an ugly port there. Santa Barbara would work best, except no islands are ever shown offshore. There's nothing in Northern California. The combination of palm trees and hills and beach angle preclude all other locations in the U.S., sadly. But if we imagine it somewhere near Tokyo... yeah. This is a story written by people who are used to seeing sunrise over an ocean, not west coast dwellers.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto