2026 REREAD: Fresh, fun, fast-paced, exciting and passionate, and it's only just the beginning.
Great stuff, like the anime.
Final Score: 4.5/5
Original Review:
One of the best manga I have read in a long time. I do believe this is my first five star read of 2021, as well. It only took until March.
'Carole & Tuesday' is a hip and cool manga based on the anime of the same name by Shinichirō Watanabe, the director of 'Cowboy Bebop' and 'Samurai Champloo'. It is a science fiction story set on Mars, and it's about music and pop and rock stars. And lesbians. And it is notably diverse.
I have not seen the anime series yet, but after reading the first manga volume, I definitely can't wait to binge it. 'Carole & Tuesday' is so well drawn and paced - everything flows at a quick but steady and exciting momentum.
I adored the two leading ladies - Carole the Black street smart orphan struggling between jobs, and Tuesday the white runaway socialite - almost from the first page they are each introduced. Right from the get-go you get a sense of what their individual lives are like, and what their passions are - and that's before they even meet each other. Once they are together, by a mere chance encounter on the street, their passions fuse and they become unstoppable. Their chemistry is palpable. Their shared dream of making music - writing song lyrics from the heart, without AIs writing the "perfect" songs, singing, and playing the keyboard, piano and guitar - for all of Mars and even the entire galaxy to hear, is set to turn into a reality.
These two put-upon, disadvantaged girls from different worlds, who were practically homeless and/or poverty stricken before, may be destined to change the music scene. No, the music industry. Because they have soul. They have life.
Because they have each other.
How's that for female empowerment?
The reader feels all of this and more without the manga coming across as pretentious or heavy-handed. It just works. Carole and Tuesday's talents and thirst for recognition are infectious. Be prepared to get hyped up and inspired by them.
It is very funny, too. 'Carole & Tuesday' is a breezy, fun and progressive sci-fi anime/manga project, containing diverse representation, no problem, and LBGTQ elements. Musicians and music fans are sure to love it, too.
Minor criticisms that I perceive are: the volume seems to lose focus on Carole and Tuesday themselves little by little once it proceeds towards the end, even though they are the mains, and are the most interesting characters (not that the side characters aren't interesting - they are - but still, this is the girls' story being told here!); and since this is a manga/comic and therefore solely a visual medium, it can be problematic for a story that's all about music and music playing - you just have to take the author's word for it that the sounds are good or bad. On that note, not a lot of song lyrics are shown to the reader in any of the panels; they are either short couplets, just scribbles, or are not presented, period. It makes the melodies ambiguous, ergo hard to judge and form an opinion on, I guess. No doubt this issue is nonexistent in the anime.
All the same, I had no trouble believing in the manga and its passion and energy.
'Carole & Tuesday, Vol. 1' is awesome. I don't know what else to tell you to entice you to read it, without spoiling anything. Do I recommend it? Oh, very much yes.
(Carole also has a robot owl that doubles as her alarm clock. I thought I'd add that tidbit in here somewhere.)
Final Score: 4.5/5
EDIT: About time I updated. I've seen the anime, and it is great, and relevant, despite the absence of a(n explicit, at least) sapphic relationship between Carole and Tuesday themselves. You can't tell me it wouldn't be even better if they were a romantic couple. It makes sense and is suitable.
Tuesday starts off our story. Raised with every luxury, she isn't able to express herself creatively at home. Because of that, she ends up running away from home to Alba City. Mars has been colonized, and life is interesting there. If you want to make it in "showbusiness," then Alba City is where you want to be. Carole was raised in an orphanage, and is doing her best working and getting by. Though she is lonely, she has a deep love of music, and also wants to make it big in Alba City. When these two souls come together, they make musical magic, and have such similar views on the world despite their upbringing, that they are able to work together as one. When a video of them performing together goes viral, their lives are truly changed.
Je n'ai pas vu la série netflix faute de temps, mais en tout cas j'ai beaucoup aimé ce tome ! Les doubles pages sont superbes et l'aventure martienne de ces deux musiciennes passionnées est top
3.5. i love the story, i love the characters and i love the anime. this manga is amazing, with beautiful art and more insight into some character and what they felt, but sadly the lack of music made it feel a little bit weak. i had to put the songs they were playing to feel more connected to them. i still loved it tho. please go read this manga, go watch the netflix anime and stream the loneliest girl.
J’avais repéré la petite série sur Netflix et je vous avoue l’avoir tout de suite mise dans ma watchlist. J’aime beaucoup le thème de la musique et j’avais vraiment envie de découvrir ce titre. Bon clairement quand je l’ai vu en manga, j’ai préféré découvrir l’oeuvre sur papier. Je trouve que c’est toujours mieux, enfin moi en tout cas c’est comme ça que je fonctionne. Que ce soit dans les mangas ou les romans, j’essaye toujours de lire l’oeuvre papier avant de regarder l’adaptation. Avec Carole & Tuesday, une chose est sûre c’est qu’il me tarde de le découvrir à l’écran parce que c’est vraiment génial. Le manga est en trois tomes, autrement dit, une petite série bien sympathique sur le thème de la musique mais aussi sur l’amitié.
On se retrouve plongé dans un monde futuriste où la population a émigré sur la planète Mars. Là bas, la culture est en très grande partie crée par les intelligences artificielles dont la population raffole! C’est dans ce contexte particulier que Carole et Tuesday, deux jeunes filles qui rêvent de devenir de vraies musiciennes, se rencontrent. On a Carole, la débrouillarde qui vit de petits boulots et Tuesday, une riche héritière qui s’est échappé de chez elle. Leur parcours sera très long et compliqué dans ce monde ou les IA prennent le dessus. Mais ensemble, elles vont bouleverser les codes de cette planète!
Au delà d’être une histoire sur la musique, je trouve que c’est avant tout une histoire sur l’amitié. Et c’est une merveilleuse histoire qu’on a devant nous. L’amitié entre Carole et Tuesday est vraiment hyper touchante je trouve. Tuesday, qui s’est carrément échappé de chez elle, n’a pas hésité une seconde avant de plonger dans l’inconnu comme ça. Sa rencontre avec Carole va bouleverser son périple. Ensemble elles vont commencer à faire de la musique, chacune apportant sa petite touche. Elles vont essayer de se faire connaître, essayer d’avoir une chance de partager leurs musiques avec le monde entier. Pour deux jeunes filles comme elle, c’est difficile de se faire une place dans ce monde et leur périple sera long.
C’est un premier tome plein d’émotions qu’on a devant nous. J’aime beaucoup les personnages de Carole et Tuesday. Elles sont pleines de combativité et ne lâchent pas devant les difficultés. De plus, leur amitié est vraiment une très belle amitié, même si elles ne se connaissent que depuis peu, on voit déjà un lien fort les unir toutes les deux. Le thème de la musique est plaisant à découvrir, surtout dans un monde futuriste comme celui ci. En bref, ce premier tome est prometteur pour la suite et j’ai hâte de découvrir ça à l’écran!
When this new manga came in at the library where I work, I perused the back and thought “Okay, I remember why I bought this: music, friendship … WAIT? ON MARS??” Needless to say, it was the “Mars” detail that put the volume in my bag to come home. I was intrigued and definitely wanted to see what this was all about.
I do not watch anime so I had not seen the anime Carole & Tuesday is based on. I know *gasp* but I’ve only just started getting into manga. After YEARS of trying different manga, it took the pandemic for me to finally connect with three different series that I consume as fast as they publish in English. I dare say this is the fourth that I will add to my “I cannot believe I’m loving manga” stack.
The first volume of Carole & Tuesday started strong: I love the mix of friendship, drive to pursue dreams, and music. I was a bit confused as to why it was said to be set on Mars. It doesn’t seem that planet colonization had anything to do with the story and that it could have been set on future Earth. But maybe the Mars setting becomes more important in later volumes? We’ll see … because I’m definitely reading the next book.
Packing all kinds of positivity, can do attitudes, and good feels, this made me smile from cover to cover. Stellar art and a deft hand let the panels sing when words aren't necessary. Of course, anything involving Shinichiro Watanabe is destined for greatness—I haven't seen the anime, so I'm coming in blind, but it's an awesome story infused with Watanabe's distinctive "Cowboy Bebop" vibe. Carole and Tuesday are so sweet and cute together, like Edward and Ein in a parallel world. ^_- LOL
(I agree with other reviews that hearing the music would really make this pop, which I also say about "Given," so I look forward to watching both!)
Très très mimi j'ai passé un bon moment, c'est assez basique donc je mets pas + mais si j'avais été ado j'aurais adoré. Je trouve les dessins très jolis.
El manga nos cuenta la historia de dos chicas que viven en marte – Si, en marte – Carole y Tuesday. Tuesday es una chica con dinero que con nada más que su guitarra y una pequeña maleta escapa de su casa directo a Ciudad Alba en busca de cumplir sus sueños. Al mismo tiempo conocemos a Carole una joven que vive en Ciudad Alba esperando convertirse en un alguien a pesar de la situación complicada que es vivir en un lugar como la Ciudad. Por cosas del destino ambas se conocen dándose cuenta de que sus historias son muy similares, al igual que sus gustos musicales por lo que deciden hacerse socias y componer música desde el corazón Antes de leer el manga, ya había visto el anime, el cual es uno de mis favoritos. Y al enterarme de que había manga fui corriendo a comprarlo y me lo devoré en un par de minutos, es muy similar a la historia original del manga pero poder verlo desde otro punto de vista es gratificante.
Los personajes tienen todo mi corazón, Carole es trabajadora y Tuesday está aprendiendo a vivir, juntas son un equipo maravilloso y las canciones que componen son super hermosas, me hubiera gustado que pusieran los nombres de las canciones, pero si gustan oírlas pueden encontrarlas en Spotify, mi favorita es Round & Laudry y hay una pequeña mención sobre ella en este primer tomo. Las ilustraciones del manga son fieles al anime y todo es tan hermoso que leyendo mi corazón estaba completamente feliz. No puedo comentar mucho puesto que solo leí el primer tomo, es maravilloso, hermoso, merece mucho más reconocimiento. ¿Recomiendo Carole & Tuesday? ¡OBVIO SI! Si quieres leer una aventura en la industria musical, con canciones realistas que llegan al corazón, deberías leer Carole & Tuesday
Fluffy and feel-good, but theres just no real substance here in my opinion.
Seventeen year old Tuesday has been living in luxury all her life but has grown bored of her life, so she packs a suitcase and her guitar and takes a train to Alba City with the intention to become somebody. She immediately runs into Carole, a girl living alone who can't seem to keep a job. They quickly learn about their mutual interests in music and start playing together. A recording of one of their jams gets out and they get picked up by a manager who tries to sneak them on stage at a festival. That's essentially all that happens in the first volume.
With all the good things I've heard about this series I'm sure it gets better, but I just can't find myself interested enough to continue with the series. Since the story revolves around music I'm sure the anime is much better, since you can actually hear what they're playing instead of just looking at various music symbols drawn around a piano.
The art is gorgeous, but the story just didn't stand out to me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Me encantó la serie de anime y me ha encantado el manga. Lo mejor es que aporta cosas "nuevas" a la historia, o que se muestran desde otra perspectiva. Lo único que he echado de menos es poder escuchar las canciones otra vez mientras leía.
Cute story + pretty art style. However the anime’s biggest strength is the manga’s biggest weakness. Music is the main focus so if you don’t pull up the playlist/ music videos it will be easy to feel disconnected.
I remember when the anime came out I had been wanting to watch it for quite a while, as I'm a big fan of Shinichirō Watanabe's works. But oddly enough, I never heard a lot of folks talking about this when it did. So when I saw the manga was releasing here I decided to pick it up right away and read through it to see if maybe I could figure out why. After reading through volume one and two, my honest opinion at this point in time is that I think folks are just sleeping on this.
Without even knowing that it was a GL going in, just from the first volume alone you can already gather that Carole and Tuesday form a deep connection that will carry us through to the end. After all, they're two halves of one whole soul, or to loosely pull from what Skip said to them. While some folks might say its a bit different feeling from Watanabe's usual works, to me it still felt both the same and familiar with his diverse ways of representation.
If you also enjoyed Watanabe's work, and what something centered around two people finding themselves through music, but still includes all that fun space sci-fi that Watanabe has always delivered to us, you should consider checking this series out.
¡Wuola! Esta es una de la últimas novedades que ha traido ivrea hace escasos días y que yo me hice con él, más por lo bonito de la portada que por lo que habia dentro.
El dibujo es fabuloso, con diseños muy pulcros y redondeados, casi sacados de una saga de shojo o lolitas. Los diseños de personajes y escenarios son increíbles y cada uno muestra un diseño único y representativo. Quizás porque es una historia basada en la música no sienta la intensidad de los momentos por los cuales pasan nuestras protagonistas y sin embargo hay momentos, sobre todo acercandose el final del tomo, con los que conectas y te atrapan, queriendo leer un poquito más. En definitiva, quizás no sea un manga para mi. ¿Seguiré coleccionandolo? No lo creo.
https://songedunenuitdete.com/2021/02... Dans l’ensemble, si j’ai hésité dans un premier temps à choisir ce titre, je ne regrette pas d’y être allé à l’instinct et il est certain que je vais me jeter sur la série. D’autant plus que la finalité ne sera pas la même puisque le manga nous offrira une fin alternative, ce qui veut dire une double lecture grâce à ces deux supports.
Bref. Je me suis régalée avec Carole et Tuesday et je vous le conseille si vous aimez les histoires avec des protagonistes passionnés dans un univers passionnant.
I read this to read Manga as an exercise in reading a different genre/voice. It's aimed at readers much younger than I, and so the story was deliberate and magical like the audience and genre might require. I didn't love it. Redeeming were the nuanced characters, though. If this were a YA book published when I was also YA, the characters would have usually been typecast and the story more didactic. This generation of readers and writers seem to enjoy and explore ambiguity of identity and motives and the unexpected plot that creates.
I like the premise! The characters are interesting. The whole futuristic, we live on Mars thing is cool! I really like manga that has a musical theme. Kind of funny when you can’t hear the music. Haha. But really, I feel like I can tell what kind of music the characters are playing by their faces. The art is very important in a musical manga. I can’t wait to see if a life of fame is coming to these girls.... I’m definitely going to read the next volume!
Great manga adaptation of the eponymous anime. It loses one star for being rushed. The events of the anime are condensed and while you still get what's going on, the anime is better for giving it more time.... surprisingly, the lack of actual music in the manga has not yet become an issue, but once again a place where the anime can shine and the manga just doesn't get to.
All in all, a good place to get a taste of Carole and Tuesday.
My sister actually introduced me to this manga series a while back. On my recent visit to the library, I stumbled across the physical book and gave it a read. It brings back memories of how much I enjoyed the show but unfortunately it got buried sometime in my life.
I enjoy both Tuesday and Carole's characters, ADORING Carole's pet owl Jiggy. Of how they found each other and discover they are each other's missing piece to their musical counterpart.
Muy buen dibujo. Las proporciones del cuerpo están muy bien, quitando un par de cuellos demasiado largos que se le han colado al dibujante. La historia está interesante y es divertida. No es súper profundo, pero apenas está en la presentación. Supongo que en anime tendrá más sentido, porque se puede oír la música y tal, pero no tengo suscripción para verla, así que me conformo xD
I loved everything about this first volume! Carole & Tuesday's friendship, the diversity, and the art style really solidified this as one of my favorite reads of 2022! I really appreciate the way the black characters are portrayed. I love music and I think Carole & Tuesday are queer so I'm really looking forward to continuing this manga.
I really liked the anime, and I really wanted to like this manga adaptation. However, there's just something that makes me... not. There's something in the art, while still lovely, that's just not quite right. There's something in the story, while familiar and one I do like, that's just falling flat.