Episode 11
May gets a speech from Doc Rivers (her mentor) where (s)he mentions not giving up about a hundred times. May proceeds to develop a totally new move despite her injury – the Demon Spiral which, the animators really skimp on. If there is one part of the show that falls short from the first season it’d be the choreography; not sure if it has anything to do with Junichi Sato not directing this season. Anyway the new move totally impresses Leon and she ends up taking Sora’s place at ICF (International Circus Festival).
Episode 12
Sora is bound for Paris to try and convince Yuri (who has tickets) to pair up with her. Incidentally it’s been way to long since I watched the first season so I can’t even remember what kind of character Yuri was but at least for this arc it doesn’t really matter. Needless to say he agrees but before that she meets Mute and Alice fellow competitors at the ICF. Later they offer to help Yuri and Sora with their training only this comes BEFORE Yuri’s long winded speech about how the ICF (admit it ICF sounds better than festival, festival sounds like a place with long queues, public bathrooms and fireworks) is cut throat and not to trust other people.
Episode 13
The ICF begins… the ends rather abruptly. Sora and Yuri get ready to perform the Angel Maneuver only to find out that Mute and Alice stole their routine. However Mute and Alice fail and were really doomed from the start I mean Sora only had a week to master it and they would’ve only had time to practice it in between helping Sora and Yuri. Sora and Yuri are up next and while they perform beautifully Sora is torn up by all negativity saying that this wasn’t the kind of stage she wanted to perform in and the pair withdraws. After all the build up I thought they’d milk this arc for more but it makes sense to end it here as Sora’s vision of a performance is different to that of the ICF. Oh May and Leon win the festival.
Episode 14
Sora is down in the dumps after her latest failure and decides to leave Kaleido Star for good. She flies back to Japan and returns home explaining that she wanted to come back for New Years. She bums around at home for a bit and her mother can see something is wrong. Fool, who, sekusu hara jokes aside has been pretty useless this season is still around and there are 12 episodes to go so something has got to give. Sora’s friends come to visit one who made a brief showing last season, another a seiyuu and the plain one who likes drawing manga. Anyway the one from last season cheers her up and Sora finally knows what she wants a Kaleido Stage where people are happy and there are no battles. With that she returns to Kaleido Stage with renewed vigor. Oh and Ken comes to Japan only to get cockblocked by Mr Policeman.
Episode 15
This episode got me thinking about the economics of Kaleido Star. A quick google search revealed Cirque de Soleil (which is as close to a real life equivalent I can think of) pays its performers a yearly salary ranging from $30,000 for an apprentice to more than $100,000 for an established artist. I wonder where Sora would fit on the pay scale? On the one hand she hasn’t been on stage for very long but she is pretty well accomplished having performed the Legendary Great Maneuver and held the top star crown (albeit a short time).
Anyway babbling aside Kalos has cut her contract but Sora returns as a gofer doing odd jobs around the place. Cathy and Layla are on hiatus from Broadway and have come over to help out with the Romeo and Juliet show. Cathy wants Sora to try out the Juliet role but she refuses having decided never to battle again. This pisses May off no doubt because she thrives in the competition. Leon likes the girls hard to get apparently as his RAEP eyes are turn on. I guess Sora reminds him of his (most likely) dead partner Sophie.
