"Reach for your dreams, in this stage."
Plot
First Season
Sora Naegino, a young Japanese girl with a great talent for acrobatics, comes to America in hopes of auditioning 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 nimble thief. Employing her acrobatic skills, Sora chases down the criminal.
A kind police officer gives her a ride to Kaleido Stage, but she discovers that she's missed her audition. Her idol, the star performer Layla Hamilton, advises her to return to Japan but a performer's unexpected injury provides Sora with a window of opportunity. She's given the rare chance to perform by the Stage's owner, Kalos (who turns out to be a mysterious man who had eyed her legs earlier). After a faltering effort, Sora is dismissed from Kaleido Stage and prepares to return to Japan, but then Kalos reconsiders, and lets Layla know that someday Sora's performance will be the main draw at the circus.
Sora spends the beginning of the season as an outcast, as the other performers believe that she had relations with the director to gain her position. Layla is particularly cold towards her, and sees her alternately as either an annoyance or a threat. With the help of her friends (stage manager Ken Robbins, the performers Mia Guillem and Anna Heart, and young Marion Begnini) as well as a lot of hard work and determination, Sora begins to earn the respect of those around her. Her incredible personality wins her a variety of friendships (including that of a baby seal!) as well as several increasingly major roles in the productions. Over time, she even manages to form a friendship with Layla.
However, things begin to go astray as Layla's father pressures her to leave and insiders plot to take over and shut down Kaleido Stage. Sora must rely on her winning personality, hard work and close friendships to keep the stage afloat.
New Wings
In the second season Sora returns to the stage after attempting the Legendary Great Maneuver with Layla. This leaves Layla's shoulder injured and unable to perform. The absence of her co-star, having retired to further a career in Broadway productions, prompts a slight decline of the Kaleido Stage. Because of this Kalos brings in a new recruit, Leon Oswald (a lofty trapeze artist). It seems at first that Leon is reminded very much of someone due to Sora's presence, and at times this causes him to either be really rude or really sweet to Sora.
Despite this, however, Leon does not accept Sora as worthy of being on the stage with him. This leads to the most talented of the new Kaleido Stage recruits (the Chinese May Wong, who is also an ex-figure skater) to question and challenge Sora's position as Leon's partner and star of the show.
Sora's first goal in the season is to attend the circus festival in Paris, but the competitors will do anything to attain the title of 'festival winner': betray, deceive, or even attack their opposers. The atmosphere and attitude this creates does not bode kindly to Sora's carefree, optimistic, ultra-idealistic outlook. It in turn causes her to withdraw from the competition in the middle of her act (or the Angel Act) with the redeemed Yuri Killian, leaving friends, family and, worst of all, Layla confused and otherwise disappointed with Sora.
Most of the season concentrates on Sora finding, questioning, and pursuing new dreams. After many trials and rejections, Sora aims to become a "True Kaleido Star" while creating a fun, conflict-free stage, the complete opposite of what she experiences at the festival in Paris.
The Amazing Princess Without a Smile
The first OVA looks at a new production in the works that follows the Kaleido Stage's success with Swan Lake, about a female princess that is unable to smile and a jester of hers that is hoping to bring her smile back. The idea for the production came to Mia from a painting that featured a character that looked very similar to Rosetta and a jester in the background that looked surprisingly like Fool (the stage spirit that can be seen only by very talented students).
Rosetta is assigned the lead role as the princess. Unfortunately, despite the likeliness of her being able to comprehend the role fully as she herself never carried a smile when she first came to Kaleido Stage, she has difficulties acting out the part and leaves the rehearsals mid-way frustrated. Will Rosetta be able to play the role right? What ties does Fool have with the painting of the princess and the jester?
Legend of Phoenix ~Layla Hamilton Monogatari~
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 in hopes of rediscovering 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.
Layla meets various strangers and reminisces memories of her childhood along the way as she thinks of how she can change herself. But while she tries to find a new self, she spends her entire time alone thinking about Sora until she comes to realize just how much Sora has been a muse to her. Once she realizes that, she is reborn. The nature of this revelation, though speculated in different ways by various fans, is up to interpretation. During the end credits, we are shown two different Phoenixes.
CHARACTERS
Sora Naegino (苗木野 そら Naegino Sora)
- Sora is the primary protagonist of Kaleido Star. Her parents took her to Kaleido Stage when she was young. Although they died shortly thereafter, and Sora was adopted by her father's cousin and his wife, Sora is inspired by this childhood memory to become a member of the Stage when she reaches adulthood. With her adoptive parent's hesitant approval she travels to the United States to audition. While Sora wanders around lost, her bag is stolen. As a consequence of chasing the thief and speaking to the police, she is late to the audition; Layla will not allow her to audition, but the owner Kalos gives her a chance to perform in the actual show. Most of the cast do not accept Sora at first because of the special circumstances through which she joins; Sora wins them over with persistence and hard work along with a magnetic personality. Though Sora is a fairly talented performer, there are often huge gaps in her ability, especially on the trapeze. This is because she was never taught before joining the Stage and the first maneuver she learns is Layla's Golden Phoenix, an exceptionally difficult move, so she knows mostly only extremely challenging maneuvers and very little of the basics.
- In the beginning of the series Sora is the only one who can see the magical stage spirit Fool. This character reveals she has been chosen by the stage. In the first season, Fool reveals only she can perform the Legendary Great Maneuver with Layla. In the second, he reveals that she has the potential to become a "true star".
- Voiced by: Ryo Hirohashi (Japanese), Cynthia Martinez (English)
- Layla Hamilton (レイラ・ハミルトン Reira Hamiruton)
- Layla is an accomplished and seasoned performer. She is a stubborn character and plays an antagonist-like role in the beginning of the story, but like many of the other characters, she finally befriends Sora after they become partners for Arabian Nights.
- Layla is the daughter of Mr. Hamilton, a wealthy hotel chain owner; he would prefer Layla to be an actress and is frequently trying to push her into doing so, and he's also very work-a-holic and had little time for his daughter. Layla eventually stands up to her father and rejoins the circus; she loves the Kaleido Stage because she clearly remembers how her deceased mother enjoyed going there. At the end of the first season, after attempting the great Mystical Act and seriously injuring her shoulder Layla gives up the circus and retires to Broadway.
- Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara (Japanese), Sandra Krasa (English)
- Fool, The Stage Spirit (フール Fūru)
- Fool is the mysterious spirit of the stage. He is about the size of an action figure, and appears as a type of jester or clown. He appears to Sora shortly before she appears on the Kaleido Stage for the first time. Fool is invisible to everyone but those who are destined to do great things on the stage and/or whose heart is completely dedicated to the stage. He seems to be the spirit of a true jester who once was devoted to a princess who never smiled.
- Although a ghost, Fool is a pervert who tries many times throughout the series to see Sora, and sometimes her friends, naked (usually by suggesting that they should take a shower). Sora is quick to prevent Fool from peeking in any given situation by trapping him somewhere or rebuking him forcefully, most often in a comedic, slapstick fashion. Later in the first season, Layla becomes capable of seeing Fool as well; the same happens to Rosetta at the end of the second season, who takes his advice more seriously than Sora, most of the time where Sora can tell he is only doing so to satisfy his perversion.
- In his more useful moments, he acts as a fortune teller, revealing possible futures to Sora (in the first season he reads the future from tarot cards, in the second season he reads and reveals the hidden workings of intercharacter relationships via astrology). He is also the one who explains the inner mechanics of the Mystical Act to Layla and Sora in episode 25, An Amazing Bond.
- Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Jay Hickman (English)
- Rosetta Passel (ロゼッタ・パッセル Rozetta Passeru)
- Rosetta is a Belgian-born, French-raised world champion diabolo performer. After her first performance at Kaleido Stage, Kalos kicks her off the stage because her act was unsatisfying: he explains that despite being perfect in the technical field, she lacked passion at what she was doing, so everyone was bored by her act. Feeling this wasn't fair, Sora takes the girl under her wing, teaching her how to put audience enjoyment before technical perfection. In return, Rosetta teaches Sora diabolo, which Sora returns to when she needs help learning new acts. Towards the end of the first season, Rosetta returns to join Sora after Kaleido Stage is taken over by Yuri. She joins Sora's troupe and witnesses Sora and Layla performing the Great Legendary Maneuver together. Rosetta returns in the second season wishing to become a trapeze artist, following in Sora's steps.
- Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi (Japanese), Serena Varghese (English)
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