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The Rolling Girls: All that Glitters Isn't Gold
I really wanted to like this show. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, I wanted The Rolling Girls to be an anime that blew me away and carved a fond spot in my heart. What I got instead was a messy hodgepodge of directionless writing and worldbuilding.
The story goes that a great war took place that resulted in Japan being divided into several independent city-states with their own unique cultures. Each city is governed by a Best, a superpower individual that is supported by Rests, normal civilians who try to keep the peace. When superhero Matcha Green gets severely injured in a gang war, it's up to her sister Nozomi to fulfill her duties while traveling through various cities with her quirky group of friends. Everything about the first two episodes led me to believe this show would knock it out of the park. It started off strong with beautifully fluid and vibrant animation and a catchy soundtrack accompanying every scene.
Boy, was I fooled. The Rolling Girls does a common strategy where the studio makes sure the first few episodes have exceptional animation to draw viewers in and then drops the ball quickly. I wouldn't call the overall animation bad, but it greatly fails to capture the amount of passion showcased at the beginning. Seriously, those first two episodes were a Sakuga fest. Thankfully, the show somewhat makes up for this decline by having consistently solid art direction. The backgrounds have a watercolor aesthetic that gives the anime a picture-book feel at times. The color design also deserves special mention for how well the colors pop on screen. I've paid so much attention to color palettes before watching Rolling Girls. The color designer really knew what they were doing.
Enough with the positives, time to address the story. The story was quite honestly uneventful. It's an episodic anime where the gang travels from city to city to solve problems but it hardly ever feels like they do anything substantial. Nozomi routinely finds herself caught in the middle of conflict between two Bests, tells them to stop fighting, and that's that. The characters in conflict resolve their differences mostly through their own actions rather than anything Nozomi does. The other characters contribute even less to the story and feel more like tag alongs. There's also a subplot about the moonlight stones; mystical heart shaped stones that supposedly give people the power of a Best. The gang keeps trying to obtain these MacGuffins but they always fall out of their grasp and their endeavors amount to nothing. Did I mention that aliens randomly start to become a plot focus near the end of the series? Yeah, that's when the show officially lost me.
The Rolling Girls is a show that only has its production values going for it. It could've been something amazing if the story was up to par.
