Dance towards tomorrow
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):
After 50 episodes, we’ve finally arrived at the end of Tribe Cool Crew, and it’s certainly been a long ride. With this show being…this show, there wasn’t much room to doubt as to whether or not it would cap things off with a bang. As such, the real question here was exactly how big of one were we going to get and the answer was far more glorious and amusingly goofy than I could have possibly imagined.
Coming right off of the previous cliffhanger, Haneru and Kanon come face to face with Jey whose fate surprisingly wasn’t that far off from Gallagher’s insane ramblings. Jey really was distressed about how strife in the world never seemed to go away no matter how much he danced and chose to stay asleep rather than face reality, but TriCool’s moves inspired him to face those problems head on, putting a nice little cap on that theme. Gallagher on the other hand though, isn’t so moved and the two sides settle things once and for all with a sequence involving EVERY dancer in the show dancing along to the show’s theme song, even Jey himself! I have to admit I was expecting the show to opt for something cool rather than goofy for it’s last major dance sequence but it’s so well choreographed and weirdly charming that it’s hard not to get caught up in how good a time the show is having with itself. At any rate it’s certainly a memorable way to go out.
Having achieved their dream of dancing with Jey and Gallagher just…abandoning his plans after seeing how amazing that dance sequence was (I’d complain but given how stupid his motives were, does it really matter if he gives them up so quickly?) the characters move on with their lives. Haneru and Kanon unambiguously hook up, Kumo and Mizuki go to study dance with Jey and Yuzuru goes off with Momiji to become…Tengu Batman (I kid you not). Admittedly I wouldn’t mind seeing a spin-off about that last one but then I remember Momiji would also be in it so another time perhaps. Anyway, this all means that TriCool has to break up for real this time, but on a much happier note as they have one last dance together and go their separate ways.
So all in all, Tribe Cool Crew’s been a fun ride. The series was never really able to elevate it’s status above just being a kid’s show and had one too many filler episodes, but it was a darn fun kid’s show so in the end, I’m not too broken up about things on that front. Since it IS ultimately a kid’s show though, I’m really hoping that Sentai Filmworks pushes to get it on a kid’s channel like Nickelodeon or something, but in the meantime I’m glad the show managed to end on a high note. This show didn’t exactly end up lighting the world on fire or anything, but if you’re looking for a good time, it certainly delivers.
In Summary:
Tribe Cool Crew ends with a bang as the show dishes out a dance sequence so simultaneously goofy and amazing that it must be seen to be believed. It also manages to wrap up some of the show’s other elements pretty nicely and our two leads even get together in the end (d’awww). The show hasn’t always been smooth sailing, but I’m glad that in the end it managed to return to what made the series stand out and exited in a blaze of glory. Given its overall length and kiddy nature, it’s hard to seriously recommend it as a whole, but overall I think I’ll look back on it pretty fondly and it made for some good entertainment.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Hulu
