Staging The Story: The Visual Theater of Revue Starlight

One hidden detail I just noticed is that Mahiru's weapon is the only blunt one in the series, therefore the only one theoretically incapable of detaching the pin that would make an opponent's jacket fall, representing how she had no strive to get to the top and was focused only on Karen and not winning the actual Revues

The swan symbolism is very much a reference to Swan Lake, which is further supported by the fact that Maya's weapon is literally called Odette the Mavericks. Maya's character has attributes of both Odette and Odile, both of which are generally played by the same dancer in the ballet.

This video was a long time in the making, so I’m glad to finally have it out—on the week of the fourth anniversary of Under The Scope no less. I just want to thank everyone who has followed me up to this point! It’s been an incredible experience I wouldn’t trade for anything—here’s to four more!~

Many who watched Revue Starlight either did not understand or did not care about how deeply meta its message was. It was both a critique and celebration of theater, especially focused on the theater popularized by the Takarazuka Revue. This was a solid overall summary of some of Starlight's main themes, but each episode honestly goes way deeper and way more meta than what could be said in just this one video. Nearly On Red did a long form analysis of the series as it was airing and the things we noticed and discussed were pretty ridiculous at points. We talked about how the Giraffe works as the audience surrogate, about the nature of what it means to be a "stage girl," about how one can capture the essence of what it means to be Top Star without being "the" Top Star, and the Inception level amounts of "play within a play" implications you can draw from the series.

Why is this anime so underrated...people need to watch this.

I feel like some audiences today are not patient enough as they couldn't sit down and quietly watch a series if they do not see anything that's iconic or dramatic, even if they do, if they do not catch up with what's going on immediately, they still critic that as the show fails to deliver the message. Revue Starlight is the star at the tower top, the treasure hidden inside a chest. People who looked for entertainment only finds it far too abstract and stopped as soon as they couldn't understand what is going on. But if you stayed and wished to see more about it, you will have your own understandings and shout out "I UNDERSTAND" no matter what that its. There are no rights or wrongs for your own understanding of the stage and the stage girls, but that wholesome experience is what you couldn't get from any other anime, and in other words, is the true shine/radiance of the show.

...shit I never noticed the red/purple glow in the background all those times.

Shakespeare would be proud.

“what are you always thinking about?” me: in a constant state of analysing this anime

I think a word that captures the theatre Karen represents very well is emancipatory. At its heart, Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight is a show about emancipating yourself as an actor from a constraining stage (in this case the expectations of the audience, but it could just as well be theatre tradition, self-doubt, a management's financial decision making, gender constraints, any number of things). The thing I took out of this show, for my personal life, was the question of radiance / wanting to do something larger than life. I've always been an ambitious person, but never in the sense that I wanted to stand above others, so I sometimes talked down my ambitions and dreams because what's the point of writing if it puts you on a pedastle and the social conditions around you keep people down? Revue Starlight portrays a way to shine that's co-operative and inspiring, which has in turn rekindled my dreams of having an impact on my stage (literature and politics). I may be wrong, but looking at the outstanding quality and direction of this essay, I'd say it has inspired you to make a great piece of analysis!

I just want to add one thing to the Revue of Pride. Throughout the Revue, not only is there intense verticality and distance that separates her and Maya, but whenever she does confront Maya, she's pushed more and more onto the defensive from Maya's attacks.

When I first watched Revue Starlight I really enjoyed it but wasn't 1100% sure of the meaning. Thank you for clearing things up and explaining the beauty that is the Stage

-Revue Starlight is cool and a really bananice anime, don't you think Maya? -THIS IS TENDOU MAYA!

Now that I watched this again... Especially the Act III explanation, I kinda understand more about the few minutes of the last part of Rondo Rondo Rondo... And this video was uploaded 2 years ago. My mind is blown.

That shot of the fight between Karen and Maya with the camera circling around them was really awesome.

Dammit, Re:Create never fails to make me tear up a bit. Thank you for talking about the best anime of the last few years.

This is really good! Thank you! And I agree with you: symbolism doesn't automatically equal pretentious or fake-deep, and subtext and context are just as important as text.

This was beautiful. First, please, stop making me cry with your videos. Second, keep making me cry with your videos. Anyway, the video sums up a lot of my feelings about Starlight and why to me it was not only the greatest anime of 2018, but became one of my favorites. I appreciate the effort.

I love how the movie goes so far over the top with this

Damn jack. This is easily one of the best Anime Videos on youtube now.