ZephSilver

Watching Rolling☆Girls is like watching a newb play a video game. You helplessly look on as they mash buttons and hope something substantial will come from it. You grit your teeth as they ignore all the opportunity to advance or even score a few points. But as much as you'd like to take the controls and show them how it's done, you're simply delegated to being an onlooker, as you watch them run around aimlessly with no sense of thought or direction. With the chance to truly make something worth watching squandered, the show seems to lack any proper direction or purpose. Instead what weget is another moe-blob adventure with cute girls going around engaging in silly shenanigans. They hint at some kind of "bigger than life" plot involving magical stones, which when ascertained gives the holder power, but that never seem to manifest itself as it is simply overshadowed by the blaring attempts at cuteness and dull comedy. As a "road" anime it fails since we get no real sense of progression or proper world building. Nothing is ever truly explored and the only setting exploration we get is in a form of a cheap info dump in the 1st episode. They simply attach a quick backstory of a territorial war between prefectures in Japan, which we're told resulted in its current state. This later leads to gang disputes where magical stone holders known as "Bests" duke it out to show dominion over other rivals. But it isn't until 9 episodes in the show that anything substantial happens in terms of plot. The show jumps around aimlessly from one location to the another just to allow our moe dango balls to get caught up in some sort of fluffy tension-less conflict, for it to simply be resolved without any sense of accomplishment. They repeat this monotonous cycle without any cause or context. They simply arrive at a new destination, silly shit happens and then they leave for the next location like it never occurred, that's literally it. The show seem to simply exist as an excuse to show "pretty" visuals and silly hijinks. They didn't even attempt to flesh out any of the 1 dimensional cast, which made them fail as even basic archetypes... how do you even fail basic archetypes is beyond me, that's like failing to write your own name. The only saving grace to speak of is the bubbly up-tempo art and consistent animation. The world of R☆G looks like it was colored within the mind of a hyper active 10 year old, which makes every episode appealing to look at. It was vibrant, eye catching and made the experience more palatable. But that's about it, outside of the art and animation R☆G offers nothing to sink your teeth into. The show is trying to entertain but doesn't seem to have a clue as to what a "plot" is. Overall: 3/10 It's simply a moe-blob show with pretty visuals. Other than that it's soulless, forgettable and lacks any kind of purpose. This is as "bottom of the barrel" as an anime can get and only seem to exist to simply pander to the viewers with blatant escapism. There's nothing here that warrants 12 episodes. Your time is better spent elsewhere. For other titles that does the same thing but to a more refined degree I point you towards: Kill La Kill: Crazy over the top presentation but have a more focused structure and a sense of progression. It feels like it's doing something with its premise and not squandering it for silly moe/cute girls pandering. No Game No Life: Striking similarities in visuals and also excessive pandering. But unlike R☆G, it has a clear goal and a better grounded plot. It doesn't payout in the end, with a "read the manga" ending, but at least there was a sense of direction to begin with. FLCL: Similar over the top presentation with a unique artstyle but handled with finesse and is more self-aware. Has a more clear cut objective, great usage of motifs and allegories, but most importantly, it contained a sense of "fun" that R☆G seem to fail at capturing.

skysonglark

The first two episodes of Rolling Girls are an explosion of light and colour, leaving the viewer wondering what sort of show this wacky, crazy and interesting thing is going to be. The answer is: not a whole lot. Rolling Girls never lives up to that original promise. The story decides to focus on entirely different characters than the premier, introduced in about the third episode. It jumps from city to city, introducing characters but never spending enough time with them for the viewer to actually care about them. The Rolling Girls themselves, Nozomi, Yukina, Ai and Chiaya spend most of their time failing to achieve,well, anything. Now to explain the art rating. Man, this show is pretty, and the duel animation is a thing of beauty. Every background is a watercolour-style painting that gives the show an interesting atmosphere. Unfortunately the rest of the show is something of a letdown. The writing basically backs itself into a corner, and the show goes out with a lot less of the energy it came in with. The end of the story leaves you going-or at least, it left me going-"Wait, what?" The show had some okay arcs, but on the whole it was something of a flop.