Kaleido Star

First season Sora Naegino is a young Japanese girl with great acrobatic talent who travels to Cape Mery (a mix of Los Angeles and San Francisco), California to participate in auditions for the Kaleido Stage, a world-famous circus which has mesmerized her since childhood. However, she runs into difficulties as soon as she arrives. She gets lost on her way to the Stage, is leered at by a mysterious stranger, and has her bag stolen by a thief. Employing her acrobatic skills, Sora chases down the criminal. A kind police officer takes her to Kaleido Stage, only to discover she had missed her audition, an event upon which her idol Layla Hamilton advises her to return to Japan. However, after a performer is injured, the owner of the circus, Kalos, offers her a chance to perform. Having seen her earlier chase, Kalos reconsiders and informs Layla that Sora's performance will eventually be the main act at the circus, earning her reluctant respect. New Wings Sora returns to the stage after attempting the Legendary Great Maneuver with Layla, leaving the latter unable to perform. The absence of her co-star, who has retired to pursue a career Broadway productions, prompts a slight decline of the Kaleido Stage. As a result, Kalos brings in a new rookie star, Leon Oswald, who disapproves Sora as worthy of being on the stage with him. This leads to the most talented of the new Kaleido Stage rookie entertainers, the Cantonese-American May Wong (who is also an ex-figure skater) to challenge Sora's position as Leon's partner and star of the show. The Amazing Princess Without a Smile As its title suggests, the OVA follows a princess who cannot smile while her jester hopes return it. The idea for the production came to Mia from a painting that featured a character that looked identical to Rosetta and a jester in the background that looked surprisingly like Fool. Rosetta is assigned the lead role as the princess. Despite the possibility of her being able to understand the role completely, she has difficulties acting out the part and leaves the rehearsals frustrated. Legend of Phoenix: Layla Hamilton Story Layla and Sora are about to launch different interpretations of the same show "Legend of Phoenix" on opposite coasts. Layla is preparing at the Broadway but is dissatisfied with her performance. She feels that she cannot perform the role properly if she is not truly reborn as a new Layla Hamilton. In a desperate attempt to be reborn, Layla runs off on a solo bicycle trip to upstate New York to rediscover herself. Meanwhile, Sora is also attempting to find her own Phoenix, but when she learns of Layla's disappearance she, Ken and May run off to New York to find the former Kaleido Star who at that instant was on a bike journey with no set destination. Good da yo! Goood!! Good da yo! Goood!! is a 22-minute OVA that is rendered by computer graphics. All of the characters are presented super deformed. The OVA is split up into three parts. The first part is a lesson in Chinese cuisine presented by May Wong, with mapo doufu being the presented dish. The second part is a lesson on how to use the diabolo by Rosetta Passel. The final part is a lesson in seal lingo presented by Marion and Jonathan to Sora. ==Media==

Anime Season 1 Season 2 Manga A manga series titled Kaleido Star: Wings of the Future, began serialization in Shōnen Fang on 19 February 2007. It ended in September 2007 when the magazine went defunct. Novel A novel, titled , was released on 10 February 2006. ==Reception==

In a review of the first DVD volume, Anime News Network called the series "heartwarming fluff without too many sugar calories" and praised the Japanese voice cast for stellar performances, with particular emphasis on Ryo Hirohashi and Takehito Koyasu. Anime On DVD also noted Koyasu's performance, the quality of the animation in the performance scenes, and the fulfilling climax of the final episode. Mike Lewis of Underland Online noted Kaleido Star as "an extraordinary series is in a class all its own". Despite being put off by the recap episodes, Anime News Network reviewed the first volume of Kaleido Star: New Wings. While criticizing the story as "straight from the shōjo drama playbook," the review held praise for the visuals, stating that "the best thing about Kaleido Star is, far and away, the amazing animation and production values. The circus scenes are wildly original and sometimes breathtaking; the animation quality hasn't dipped at all in the second season." Cynthia Martinez also won notice for developing her performance as Sora. Anime Advanced also looked at the first volume and praised it highly, noting that "Kaleido Star gets my highest possible recommendation. This is a show that dreams are made of." Summing up the series, Chris Beveridge of Anime On DVD said that "Kaleido Star has been a great series overall with a somewhat weak second season that really took its time to find its own voice," but that "it's still a series that's very easy to recommend on a whole and one that is very much worth showing to a younger audience." ActiveAnime's Holly Ellingwood commented that "The finale is climatic and fulfilling." and summarized the series as being "An anime that is a pure joy to watch. Exhilarating, Kaleido Star is a stirring series that is both inspirational and remarkable." AnimeOnDVD proclaimed the OVA to be "a beautiful piece of work and the best way to close out things for a while as it is much more oriented on the comedy and the lighter side of the characters... It's a great little self-contained story that plays strong in a similar fashion to the last episode of the series but without quite so much angst and hardship associated with it. It leaves you laughing and really smiling at the end of the disc." ==References==