Welcome back, Tribe Cool Crew
What They Say:
Haneru is a kid who’s always been into dancing and dreams of becoming a famous dancer like his idol Jey-El. One day while he’s practicing his moves at his usual spot he finds out it’s the same place where a girl named Kanon also practices and she’s secretly a famous dancer known as Rhythm who’s well known on the internet. After being impressed by her moves and finding out she’s been watching his, he decides to form a dance team with her.
The Review:
Content (warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers):
Now that’s what I’m talking about. The show’s been kind of rolling around in circles for the last few weeks, and the last couple of episodes were especially bland. These two episodes however, are a complete return to form for the series and brings it back to the level of fun it started out with.
The first of these episodes introduces a couple of new characters named Lui and Moe. They’re the goofiest of the dancers introduced so far (and given the criteria that’s saying something), with a team name to match and happen to be the first dancers in the series to finally break the streak of Jey El worshippers. Instead they want to surpass him and get rich which…isn’t really all that different at it’s core but it’s cool to get some characters whose motivations aren’t quite the same as the others. Their unique style and obsession with team colors catches Haneru’s attention though, and it gets him interested in coming up with a team color for the gang.
While the others are kind of interested in the idea, Kumo isn’t and ends up challenging the two to a dance off. After going the last few episodes without a dance sequence, it’s good to finally have them back. The sequence itself is has some of the best music the show’s rolled out in a while, though Lui and Moe’s dancing CG looks a bit jerkier compared to everyone else’s. It all wraps up with Haneru realizing that Tribe Cool Crew doesn’t need any colors to be a real team after seeing how well Kumo and Mizuki’s dance synched together. Nothing too groundbreaking here but way more fun material than the last few episodes have had.
Of course where all the real excitement lies is in the second one, which brings us the next stage of the Dance Road tourney. All the other major teams from the previous rounds join in this time, and combined with the stage setting a spaceship looking tower, it’s a massive load of fun. Rather than a dance off, this round ends up being a series of dance trials featuring mimicking Jey El’s dancing to a precise tee, and a Dance Dance Revolution knockoff. The dance levels are off the charts with this one, with a lot of great dance sequences, and the show’s musical score ramps up even higher, bringing the most amount of variety it’s had in ages. What really sells it though, is that even the characters themselves are having a fun time, and it makes for one of the show’s best episodes yet. To top it off, it looks like the next trial is a dance off against Master T, and that sounds like it should be a blast though sadly it’s not happening till the next episode. In the meantime though, glad to finally have you back Tribe Cool Crew. Please don’t ever go away again.
In Summary:
Tribe Cool Crew’s finally remembered it’s a show about dancing and rolls out a pair of dance heavy episodes that bring the series back to being loads of fun again. Looking forward to whatever weirdness happens with the Master T standoff, and hopefully it’s as crazy as it sounds, but for now I’m just really glad the show’s back to being great.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Funimation, Hulu
