Television series

Carole & Tuesday

Name: Carole & Tuesday
Genre: Anime
Released: 2019
Cast: Kana Ichinose, Miyuri Shimabukuro, Sumire Uesaka

Animated musical
Light-hearted

Two girls from opposite worlds meet on Mars and become musicians, armed with acoustic guitars and the belief that human-made music can change a dystopian future. Carole & Tuesday is a love letter to pop songwriting, optimism, and the specific magic of watching strangers become soulmates. It's gorgeous, earnest, occasionally heartbreaking, and absolutely made for anyone who's ever felt that music was the only thing that made sense.

TVMaze rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like music stories where the performances are the point, and you don't mind a sci-fi backdrop that stays mostly in the background while two voices carry the drama.

Skip it if you want a tight, fast-moving plot; this takes its time with friendships, side characters and songs, and the wandering can test patience.

What it asks of you: One season of 24 episodes, about 25 minutes each: a long haul in total, but easy to take one at a time, with an earnest, sunny tone.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Your Name.2016

A meteor, two teenagers, impossible connection, and animation that stops your breath. Shares the same sense that fate and music and beauty matter more than logic, and that simple moments between two people can reshape everything.

But The plot twist divides people sharply—some find it deeply moving, others feel it derails the movie's emotional core.

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho A Story that leads to the Antarctica2018

Four girls with nothing in common become best friends and chase an impossible dream to Antarctica. Same spirit of wonder and earnestness about ordinary people doing extraordinary things together, with humor that lands and grows on you.

But The first episode feels slow if you're not immediately charmed by the girls. Takes a couple episodes to click.

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho A Story that leads to the Antarctica poster

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!2020

Three girls making anime instead of music, but it's the same DNA—passion, collaboration, visual brilliance, and genuine joy radiating from every frame. A love letter to the creative process itself.

But The drawing animation style is deliberately rough in places, which some viewers find distracting rather than energetic.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Carole & Tuesday

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Sing Street2016

Both argue that music is a form of resistance and survival; both make you believe it.

A Dublin teenager forms a band to impress a girl in the 1980s, and discovers that making music is the best version of himself. Not anime, not sci-fi, but the same thesis—that music and connection can rescue you from a grey life. Real, specific, and the soundtrack is its own reward.

But It's a feel-good indie film that doesn't pretend hardship goes away. If you need either darkness or triumph, not hope mixed with reality, it won't satisfy.

Nana2005

Two girls named Nana, one ride, and one explosive friendship that defines both their lives. A punk-rock-edged predecessor that explores the darker side of chasing music and fame while maintaining real emotional weight.

But The film cuts the manga short and feels incomplete; the manga is better, and the live-action adaptation is better still, which some viewers find frustrating.

Macross: Do You Remember Love?1984

When giant robots meet pop music in the middle of an interstellar war, and suddenly a singer becomes humanity's best weapon. The original predecessor to anime that treats music as transformative and world-changing.

But The '80s aesthetic and pacing will feel glacial if you're used to modern anime. Some plot threads remain deliberately mysterious.

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War?2019

Two brilliant people too proud to admit they like each other. Shares Carole & Tuesday's gift for making small moments between two people feel genuinely high-stakes, with sharp humor and surprising emotional depth.

But It's a high-school romantic comedy about the same two people circling each other; if that sounds tedious, the show won't change your mind.

The Wind Rises2013

A dreamer pursues an impossible passion in a world that doesn't want him to. Miyazaki's meditation on beauty, obsession, and whether making something beautiful is worth the cost—thematically adjacent to Tuesday's journey.

But It's quiet, elegiac, and somewhat melancholic rather than triumphant. No action, no clear villains, just contemplation.

Promare2019

Spectacular animation, urgent pacing, a hero who burns with passionate intensity. If you want the visual pyrotechnics and earnest emotional core of Carole & Tuesday cranked to eleven, this delivers.

But The story is straightforward action-movie stuff; if you're not on board with the characters in the first ten minutes, the plot won't convince you to stay.

Aggretsuko2018

Both are about girls finding themselves through making music, but Aggretsuko asks what happens when making music costs you everything.

A red panda accountant in Tokyo sings death metal karaoke to survive corporate hell, then discovers she might want to do something more with her voice. Animated in a completely different style, way trashier and messier, but about the same alchemy—music as the truest version of yourself.

But The humor is crass and the tone lurches from cute to crude; if Carole & Tuesday's warmth is what you love, this cynicism will jar.

A Whisker Away2020

Both use genre magic to externalize internal emotion; both insist that two people finding each other matters as much as any planet-shaking event.

A magical-girl romance where a girl can turn into a cat, but the real story is about two people unable to say what they feel. Animation that rivals Carole & Tuesday's, with the same sense that something cosmic is happening in small moments between two people.

But The magical realism is metaphorical and vague; the plot relies on miscommunication and teenage irrationality that some viewers find frustrating rather than poignant.