Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight

As preparations begin for Seishou Music Academy's yearly Seishou Festival, the girls of the 99th class are gearing up to perform their very own rendition of Starlight, the tragic tale of two goddesses drawn together by the glow of the heavens but destined to be pulled apart, never to meet again. Created to foster the next generation of theatrical talent, this girls' only school works to improve the singing, acting, and dancing skills of its students.

One student is 16-year-old Karen Aijou, an easygoing girl who has dreamed of performing on stage since she was a child. Her love for theater is further invigorated when her childhood friend Hikari Kagura transfers to Seishou Academy. Through her old friend, Karen stumbles upon a secret elevator leading to a massive theater underneath the school. Hosted by a talking giraffe, this arena serves as a battleground where her classmates participate in duels to determine who among them deserves the title of "Top Star," earning them the right to play one of the lead roles in Starlight. Emboldened by the promise she made with Hikari to someday be stars together, Karen enters these mysterious battles in the hopes of making their dream a reality.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Daiba, Nana Main

Koizumi, Moeka Japanese

Tendou, Maya Main

Tomita, Maho Japanese

Saijou, Claudine Main

Aiba, Aina Japanese

Kagura, Hikari Main

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Hoshimi, Junna Main

Satou, Hinata Japanese

Tsuyuzaki, Mahiru Main

Iwata, Haruki Japanese

Aijou, Karen Main

Koyama, Momoyo Japanese

Hanayagi, Kaoruko Main

Itou, Ayasa Japanese

Isurugi, Futaba Main

Ikuta, Teru Japanese

Kirin Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Taketsugu, Akane Producer

Ogasawara, Muneki Producer

Iwasaki, Atsushi Producer

Katayama, Yuuki Producer

Reviews

Sep 27, 2018

KANLen09

Recommended

Damn, does this series truly knows no bounds at knowing how to captivate its audience, by showing the weaknesses that breaks you and cultivating that into the strength that makes you better and more spirit-willed with confidence. That's the vibes I got with watching Shoujo Kageki: Revue Starlight, truly a hidden gem, sleeper hit, AND a seriously underrated masterpiece that can compete with the likes of Your Lie In April, in terms of musical development (more on that later). And before you ask, this isn't an idol musical fan-fest anime (like so many that I come to despise over the years).

Since this is an original ... series, I might as well first introduce to you, one of the strongest staff line-ups for this series (because its their efforts that made the show stand out):
Director Tomohiro Furukawa, the protégé of popular director Kunihiko Ikuhara, handling this series. For the many of you whom have watched Revolutionary Girl Utena back in the mid-90s, the similarities will be very striking as many of Ikuhara-sensei's signature directionals is replicated well by Furukawa (his student), such as the Yuri or class settings of works past, with surrealism. With Revue Starlight, the captivating visuals and the show-don't-tell aesthetic all mesh together to form one big picture of storytelling exposition with intelligent creative control, and that's where the series truly executes majestically at its best.

Music composers Yoshiaki Fujisawa (known him for creating A LOT of excellent music repertoire) and Tatsuya Katou, coming from the Love Live! Sunshine series. I was hesitant with Tatsuya Katou because he is a name that I didn't have high expectations with, but knowing his list of works (Fate/kaleid, Free!, Mirai Nikki, Hanebado! to name a few) immediately put me at ease and rest assured, I really thank both composers because EVERY song in here, be it the OST and the Revue songs, were done with much debacle and the subversive aspect means of portraying the feelings and emotions that the main characters struggle with to achieve their very best. With the addition of sound composer Haru Yamada for his marvelous works (Banana Fish, Made In Abyss, and the No. 1 rated anime movie of all time, Kimi no Na wa.), this is an OST that is worth every bit of listening to it as is with watching the show.

Alright, let's get into this series proper, shall we?

Shoujo Kageki: Revue Starlight (doesn't tell much but) shows us about the stories of human ambitions: The cost of fame that comes with wanting to be the very best (like no one ever was), and coming into contact with the setting of harsh competitiveness, comes people's perception of us on the main stage.
From there, the story splits into two:
The Starlight, or which I like to call it "The tip of the iceberg", is about as average as it gets: Practice sessions galore and some character drama about girls arguing and motivating one another as they image themselves on stage, always wanting to be the main character that stands out above the rest.
The Revue auditions, aside from the weird giraffe-host aspect, pits the girls against each other to question whether the feelings from the Starlight festival-cum-play (which seems to always be in repeat, but case-by-case basis with the different characters' perspectives) are truly what they appear to be, and how can they exceed their limits of understanding what they truly want for the best of themselves and the others, at the expense of some sacrificial aspects of their lives.

So basically, a story with lots of plot holes, yet manages to not feel old nor boring, with the endless amount of possibilities that the new future of the girls' wishes could be granted that benefits them to the best of their ability. And yet another series that truly just doesn't give a shit about us trying to predict the plot (which it isn't), and changed gears so fast that we can barely catch up to, and that makes for a fun and fascinating idea that so many anime refused to take the road less travelled, and the risk pays off tenfold here.

The Starlight Kukugumi, which are the main 9 girls of the series, have taken lots of stride to be at where they are, and it's exciting to see every girl gets their own exposition, the perspective they're watching from:

The (main) childhood-friend troupe:
Aijo Karen, the loudspeaker of the group, and one that's not afraid to showcase her talents while being energetic to everything around her, she and Hikari and childhood friends running up the pace on Revue Starlight, and seeing it as a promise to stand together on the fated stage.
Hikari Kagura, the never-giving-up but sore thumb of the group, has a connection with Aijo since being captivated by the Revue Starlight as children, but grows up in failure and had to be content with trying again in Japan, only to see Aijo caught up to her brilliance and her tsundere-side of hoping the same situation as Aijo does.
Mahiru Tsuyuzaki, the stay-by-my-side-always friend to Aijo, is the third wheel in the Karen-Hikari relationship, to stand alongside her on the fated stage. Jealous of how Hikari has stolen her spot, she refuses to call off the relationship by proving that she is the better character aside Aijo, amidst admiring the light that was shone on her, until Karen breaks that mentality and shows Mahiru her own path to greatness without her.

Futaba Isurugi and Kaoruko Hanayagi, these two girls are situations similar but different from how Karen and Hikari were done: both girls supported one another from childhood, and always on the constant look-out of doing things together...until someone breaks that tradition (Futaba) and the score is settled out of the conflict that both friends had for each other.

The master-of-all-trades troupe:
Maya Tendou and Claudine Saijou, both hard workers, impressive at their acting crafts and wanting to be at the very top spot. And since Maya's No.1, and Claudine being the runner-up to her, this reminds me of the situation between All Might and Endeavour (which series I leave that to y'all to figure out). Being a perfectionist isn't easy, and with that comes the level of pride that has been established from the get go, and both characters aren't willing to forgo the spot (which makes for an interesting storyline arc).

The impressionist and repetitive troupe:
Junna Hoshimi and Nana Daiba, both characters who seemingly have their own stories to share as well.
Junna is the example of following your own dreams despite the conformance to the society, and is a little shy, but doesn't beat around the bush to give the clear answer. Nana (or Banana as the girls nicknamed her), her aim to keep the status quo. Both characters are exactly how the world functions and it is very relatable to our own standards.

The more we learn from the characters, the better the storytelling...ain't it so?

Not to mention that Kinema Citrus, the studio that brought you Made In Abyss, showed up with force on this series, and it's a well thought-out production through and through. The striking animation, beautiful artwork all combine forces to create one hell of a bullet show that does just as you would of the music genre: give it a whole lot of justice and experience.

I'm very impressed of the show overall, the elephant in the room is only with 12 episodes, the well done pacing and whatnot made me crave for more to milk on and it's sad because this series definitely set the gold standard for future musical series to follow. It's not a show where people can understand immediately, but it's definitely one that would be left forgotten. If you manage to pick this up, share this around with people who love musical anime, I can promise that it will impress, and impress it does to the fullest.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 10, 2018

Gundroog

Mixed Feelings

If Revue Starlight put as much effort into the story as it did into presentation it could’ve been a great show. However not balancing the two and not at least compensating on something in particular it brought down both elements. There will be some spoilers in this review but given how lackluster the writing is I sincerely don’t think they matter.

Starlight starts off rather simple before trying to make things more complex and failing. We got a few girls, they attend an art school that teaches them all about theater and their ultimate test is to be top stars during a yearly Seisho Festival. However ... there’s a caveat. Outside of interpersonal drama and the hardships of study and practice, girls have to compete in a mysterious underground audition ran by a talking giraffe who serves sort of as a stand-in for the audience hungry for spectacle and drama. They get armed with some weapons with a bow being as advanced as it gets, and go at each other until one cuts off a button from the opponent’s outfit. The one who managed to do that and moves up in ranks. Ranks seem to correlate with their prowess as a performer rather than a fighter, so a lot of the time these fights become battles of will where the one who’s right wins. It’s a more or less elegant and thematically appropriate way of putting in action in a show like this and justifying your characters going “yep, screwed up on that one guess you’re right and I’m wrong”.

The show runs with this sort of basic structure for about 6 episodes. We get some SoL bits, we get a focus on a character or two, we learn about something that bothers them and then it’s solved in a fight and never matters again. As trite as it might sound this is the best part of the show to me. SoL segments are enjoyable thanks to presentations that’s easy on the eyes and character interactions, who despite their overall simplicity have a good dynamic when you put them together. If I were to make a music comparison this show would be like a shittier Kraftwerk when it came to characters. They don’t have a lot of complexity but compose some basic elements together well enough for it to be entertaining. The fights are also somewhat spectacular, they won’t be wowing many people with top notch animation or stunning action choreography even though both of those are on a decent level. However, when you put together everything they do for the characters, the design of the stages, songs and decent animation and choreography it’s a nice cherry on top of I think almost every episode.

Unfortunately when episode 7 rolls in the show changes drastically and tries to be way more complex and dramatic than it has any right being with how barebones the story and characters are, they can’t even establish a coherent theme or statement but you take a look at how it’s presented and it’s as if you’re supposed to be getting something new about life out of this.

At Episode 7 we learn that the aforementioned giraffe and his underground auditions grant winner their wish, which one of the girls uses to put on the same show over and over for god knows how long. It pretty much comes out of the blue but at least there’s nice bits of foreshadowing to be found throughout the show alluding to that girl’s strong affection for the event and recontextualize her actions. At this point she seems like a big villain or a psycho, after all it’s not very kind or healthy to force everyone inside a time loop for unknown but presumably very long time. Not to worry through, her crazy gets knocked out of her the next episode so we can build up the drama between the two main characters.

That’s what the remaining quarter of the show pretty much is. It’s all about the main couple of Karen and Hikari. Even the story within a story of the show, the titular Starlight is supposed to be a parallel to their relationship and their fate. The two want to be happy together but there can be only one top star so one will have to fall by the end. This is their entire dynamic. One wants to do the impossible and go against “fate”, the other wants to prevent her precious little baby friend from having to face the hardships of losing in that underground tournament and losing her “shine” or basically idol charm and shit. Despite being very simple and straightforward the show leans so much on hitting you over the head with “subtle” symbolism and allusions in dialogue that at times you’d think this is supposed to be some 2deep4you art film. It depends on personal preference, but I found it very frustrating how self-indulgent the show got with that stuff despite having a pretty damn basic, unimaginative plot and themes.

Another slightly disappointing aspect is music. Not that it’s bad but unless you’re a fan of JPop already this won’t have anything new for you. Aside from standard instrumental tracks this is just bland, generic idol jpop. It’s nice that lyrics for the fights tie into what the actual fight is about but it’s important to note that unless you’re pirating this anime or know japanese you won’t have much of a clue as to what they’re singing about. On top of that it’s obviously mixed differently from the way a normal track by itself would be so there are many times during a fight where the insert song is getting a bit muted so that characters could talk. Symphogear has a similar thing going on but that show did it much better cause characters actually sing during a fight, so the song itself actually blends in perfectly with the action.

At least art is consistently good. There’s a dedication to striking visuals and cinematography. Also while the actual symbolism was pretty damn blunt and obnoxious at times, at least it was consistently nice to look at and I guess it gives people looking for it something to chew at. The last few episodes, I’m not sure from which point exactly, struggled with production but I doubt many people will notice that. Aside from some cheap, slow, panning shots that you’d see in almost any other show it’s clear that the team working on it believed in the project and was passionate about making it so at least there’s no jank there to really leave a bad spot on the presentation.

Overall this show is rather hard for me to recommend. If you’re really into idols or SoLs with female cast then sure I guess you’ll get something out of it. Otherwise though it’s just a very mediocre, at times bad even narrative that’s only spiced up by nice visuals. Maybe if it went over the top, or at least harder on the spectacle it would be worth watching just for that but as it is that part alone can’t carry the show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 12, 2018

MAGA4Chino

Not Recommended

This is a horror show disguised as a musical and slice of life anime. Everything about this anime should have been viewed as a psychologically manipulative and sociopathic antagonist tempting impressionable performance arts students into acting, singing and dancing for his twisted entertainment, using dangerous weapons to deliver battle ending blows to their opponent. Lying to them about what their participation means at the end and the destruction/theft of these performers' identities.

Unlike others who have criticized this show for its dialogue, voice acting, and character development, I think all of that was done very well. This show had the potential to be great but missed ... its climactic turning point, dived right into the absurd, and played the entire climax to the end while breaking the fourth wall and acting as if the antagonist was part of the audience and had no part in creating this horrifying sequence of events that led to it.

This is an anime made by sheltered and narcissistic liberal arts people for sheltered and narcissistic liberal arts people. The amount of smug meta garbage they tried to shove in at the end made me despise everything about this show. It reminded me of how elitist and removed from normal life people in the Arts are now. A stage within a stage within a stage, because Lord knows if you just make something confusing enough, stupid people that you've hooked and made emotionally invest in your characters will assume and justify that it's actually something really intelligent or clever.

This show did a fantastic job of making me emotionally invested in the main characters and had me yelling at the screen for them to figure out what had happened and put a stop to this antagonist's machinations, but they didn't do that. They left it completely unquestioned and acted as if it was as benign as mislabeling price stickers at the store, even practically honoring him in the end.

I loved the art, the music was fantastic, it's good enough to own. The story was strong and it should have ended strong, unfortunately, it did not and it paid the price for its self-indulgence. I gave Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight a 4/10 because it failed to deliver a final product that equaled the overall value of its parts. Its' directors shot itself in the foot just because they could and so they could make the show look smarter than what it was.

I only hope that others thinking about watching this show understand what they're getting into, if they want to buy into the show's logic, by all means, it's pretty wonderful, but for those that may have some trouble suspending belief, it may be best to skip it and watch something else that won't make you feel gutted like a fish emotionally.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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