The Rolling Girls

Episodes 1-2

Rolling Girls sure is a lot of fun. Exuberant, FLCL-style fun, where the world is loose and the style is overwhelming. There's rival gangs and super-powered heroes of justice and explosions that look like flowers or hearts, all backed by bouncy rock tracks and gorgeous animation. It's a candy buffet, basically - maybe it won't turn out to be the most nutritious or well-rounded meal, but for twenty minutes at a time, it won't leave you with any regrets.

These first two episodes introduce us to one of the most colorful post-apocalypses I've ever seen. In the wake of all the world's leaders somehow disappearing, Japan has shattered into a series of feuding local districts, with superpowered champions called Bests either working for hire or defending their personal gangs of Rests from the power of rival territories. All these gangs seem to have their own culture, uniforms and overall aesthetic, and the result is a world filled with sharp bursts of color and wacky design sensibilities. There's a looseness and community-focused feeling to the worldbuilding that rings sharply of Yozakura Quartet, and given the way the first episode alternately emphasizes the idea of “traditional community” and these groups as unruly gangs, it seems very possible that the fundamental nature of community will be a running thread.

Within this world of tiny districts and rival gangs, the Tokorozawa district of Tokyo is defended by the Hiyosicho Propeller gang, whose Best champion Maccha Green is the only force standing between them and takeover by the villainous Kuniko Shigyo and the rival Higashi Murayama gang. The show opens with a fight between Maccha Green and Shigyo that aptly demonstrates Rolling Girls' fantastic design sense and animation. The character motion is fluid and smear-heavy, favoring evocative, overtly cartoonish moments over grounded exchanges. And yet, in spite of that, there's a real sense of weight and coherency to the movements of the characters. Fighters spin and kick into each other in explosions of purple and red, with powerful attacks erupting into blooming flowers of destruction. Most shows don't come close to the fluid beauty of Rolling Girls' fight scenes - even action hits like Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill are often reliant on still frames, and though it remains to be seen if Rolling Girls can keep up this animation through an entire season, these first two episodes offer no signs of letting up.

From the fight between Maccha Green and Shigyo, Rolling Girls quickly turns to its true protagonist - Nozomi Moritomo, who sees the Propellers' leader Masami as a kind of role model/big sister, and joins them in order to be of some use. These episodes bounce between small moments of Masami and Nozomi demonstrating their bound and wild clashes between Maccha Green and Shigyo, ultimately culminating in the obvious reveal that Masami is Maccha Green. Tons of tiny sight gags and random bits of wit keep the whole production humming along the way, from details like the one Propeller who's always wearing a crocodile head to the way both gangs ultimately admit they already knew Nozomi was Maccha, and were simply pretending they didn't to be polite. There's actually almost a danger in how consistently gag-filled and visually busy this show is - the jokes are so constant that even the moments of highest tension aren't truly dramatic, and ideas like the burden of leadership are kind of overwhelmed by the constant, lovingly animated fistfights. But hey, they certainly are beautiful.

Even beyond the stellar animation, Rolling Girls' direction has all sorts of clever tricks up its sleeve. From the way color palettes are used to set emotional moods, to the wonderful shot framing that makes any given freeze frame its own reward, to the setpieces that even use CG animation to strong effect (like one shot that spirals down a rollercoaster and off a cliff), Rolling Girls is shot like it's got something to prove. And the upbeat rock music backing (largely composed of covers of songs by the classic punk band THE BLUE HEARTS) perfectly matches the show's aesthetic, though that too is an area that will have to demonstrate greater emotional range and subtlety if Rolling Girls wants to become truly great.

By the end of these two episodes, Masami has been put out of commission and Nozomi is off on her hero's journey, accompanied by three other (rolling) girls on a quest for some vaguely defined magical… stuff. The show has tremendous promise so far, exhibited in both its wonderful aesthetics and compelling world, but the road ahead will require the one thing Rolling Girls has yet to demonstrate - restraint. It's full of every kind of idea imaginable, and absolutely has the chance to be a top tier show, but it'll have to learn to lay off the gas sometimes if it wants to soar.

Rating: A-

The Rolling Girls is currently streaming on Funimation.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.