"Tsubasa wa yume, soshite sora e..."

... is the last phrase at the end of each Kaleido Star episode. Yup, I blazed through all 26 episodes and not once did I feel bored or forced. At $49.99 MSRP for the thinpak box (easily $39 with discounts), there's no reason not to pick it up. However, beginning with the Azumanga Daioh thinpak box, I noticed ADV started removing all extra content. Both are barebones: just the audio tracks, episodes, simplified menus (can't verify this), and trailers on the first disc. This is opposed to the Noir thinkpak, which was essentially a re-packaging of the original release. I applaud the move by ADV, as I'm sure people who purchased the original might have felt a little cheated considered how much more they paid. On the flipside, it should tell producers they really need to include more substantial extras other than the clean OP/ED and production sketches. It's especially pathetic when an "image gallery" is nothing more than screen caps.

I read some concerns about people thinking the video quality might have suffered from the reduced disc count (6>5). Rest assured, none of that happened. Five and six episode discs were all dual-sided and came far from reaching the maximum space. My guess is there was no re-encoding from the original release, so everything looks just as good. Luckily for Kaleido Star, the OP title was not changed either, so missing the clean OP isn't a big deal (though the job with Azumanga Daioh was very nice).

Onto the show itself, it depends fairly on your expectation and tolerances. Kaleido Star puts a good first foot forward with one of those extremely bright and enthusiastic leads (Sora). It may not be something new but it's really hard to argue with someone so bright and bubbly (like IRL) and Sora's determination only makes you want to root for her more, not to mention her extremely cute SD eye-catches. About half-way through the show moves from a day to day affair to being truly plot driven. Here, some of the actions set in motion by the antagonistic force are very original and gives Sora and company opportunities to once again demonstrate their resolve. That's not to say the first half is boring, far from it, as there's always a sense of purpose and motivation. There are a few places that'll be easily predictable for people who've watched enough of anything, but the circus atmosphere is fresh enough to hold attention.

The animation is generally clean with very few shortcomings. The second OP relied a little on too much re-used footage, but the show is a bright example of clean colors and consistent designs. There are a few places in the stage performances that seemed a little unrealistic and embellished but given the setting, I'm hardly able to fault it. With the second season a few months away from release, hopefully this set will generate some more interest in a relatively un-hyped series.