This show is not just the everyday life of girls craving stardom at a theater arts school. It's about dreams, overcomings, disappointments, traumas, and hopes.
The anime shows a very realistic vision, with several foundations, and cruel life, and often brutal, that a young woman can have when searching for fame and success.
Yes, brutal. Kageki addresses topics such as sexual abuse and persecutors, eating disorders, resentments left by hurt and hatred, problems in a destabilized family nucleus, family abandonment, ideals imposed on him by others...
They are girls fighting for a desire. Not an idealistic dream, or a desire for megalomaniac greatness, but a passion. They are girls who, when going through all kinds of traumatic situations, overcome them by their own strength to pursue the passion of their lives.
Kageki Shoujo is full of charismatic and exuberant characters, both in sympathy and personality, as well as in willpower. Having dreams is quite common, but who, in their right mind, would shout it to the four corners of an extremely competitive and toxic environment, where every attitude can be subject to reprisals? It sounds stupid but it's not if you're Watanabe Sarasa. The blonde-haired girl's sincerity and willpower captivate every minute on stage.
Escaping from the Kabuki environment, Sarasa finds her place at Kouka College, especially because she meets Narata Ai, the girl who would become her best friend.
There, without a doubt, he is among the characters who achieved the most personal growth throughout history. From Ex Idol, raised in a hostile and neglected family environment, being a victim of attempted sexual abuse as a child, the girl who has androphobia becomes a young girl with no prospects for the future, despite having fame and success.
Naracchi, as she is called, little by little, manages to change when she realizes her real state. Cultivating excellent relationships of friendship and companionship, Ai finds his new goal in Sarasa. To be a friend capable of protecting and possessing enough strength to support your precious mate's dreams.
The anime cast is fantastic. Yamada Ayako, the shy and demure girl, owner of many passions during her adolescence but who doesn't have the main one: her own. Her lack of confidence and self-respect make her an easy target for other girls in the class who are driven by envy, thus culminating in her strong nutritional bulimia. Ayako begins to change when she meets Sugimoto Sawa, a strong and determined girl, willing to fight for everything she wants, even if it means fighting against talent or destiny.
The friendship cultivated between the two is just as important as that of the main pair. Ayako realizes, through Sawa, that the main person to fall in love with is ourselves.
Subtlety and strength. Shyness and boldness. The balance between them is enviable.
While with sisters Sawado, Chika and Chiaki, the story is different. Owners of an unparalleled tune, typical of twins, but distant in their hearts. The pair teach us how dangerous it is to cultivate emotions that are harmful to the heart, such as envy, jealousy, hurt and resentment.
It is worth highlighting the Kouka School and the importance of the Educational Center when the family environment does not meet the needs of growth. Its excellent teachers, both in artistic skills but, above all, in their love for teaching (see the desire to accompany the growth of their students) is, at so many times, the foundation for the maturation of the girls in the Hundredth Class.
How many don't give up at the first sign of difficulties? Kageki Shoujo portrays the opposite of this.
Girls who won't give up, whatever the cost.
