Ginban Kaleidoscope – Anime First Impressions

Ginban Kaleidoscope had totally flown under my radar for the last few months. I finally decided to take a look at it.  The story follows Sakurano Tazusa, a Japanese figure skater supposedly worth $10 billion dollars (give or take, based on the current strength of the yen). After taking a bad fall at a competition in Canada, she finds that a Canadian stunt pilot has possessed her! I sense already that this is not your typical sports anime. 

Most of the first episode is spent with Tazusa trying to exorcise the
ghost (Pete Pumps… isn’t that a porn star name?) from her body. She
tries a bunch of methods such as hitting herself, reciting buddhist chants, taking a really hot bath, and drinking hot sauce. This is not genius writing or anything, but the visuals make it work. There’s also some great Engrish in the first episode. Tazusa is being verbally attacked by the American skater when Pete helps her out with a useful English phrase. I always love it when native English speakers are depicted in anime. 

For the most part, the story seems original enough (although this anime could probably be considered a more ecchi version of Hikaru no Go?). Hopefully it won’t follow the pitfalls of other mediocre sports anime.

The character designs interesting for the most part. I like all of the different expressions that Tazusa has. She even gets the "fang" for a few scenes. The actual animation isn’t that great, but the style really makes up for it. Some people may not like the gag reactions, but I tend to lean towards the more comicy style of drawing.

The song for the OP was also played for the ED, so I guess it’s either the OP or the ED, and a new song will be played next episode. The song reminds me of a lot of songs from other shoujo anime. It’s pretty generic fare, but it works.

Relative to other anime I’ve watched, Ginban Kaleidoscope falls in the upper half. It still has yet to be seen whether this anime is going to be another predictable sports type or not. The story is pretty interesting, and I like the character so far, so I’ll stick with this one for a while and see how it goes.