From the moment it began, Revue Starlight (which is streaming on HIDIVE) reminded me of something.
Centered on a group of young women at a Takarazuka-like performing arts school, in which they vie to be cast in one of three successive performances of a muscial called “Starlight,” they find themselves called upon to literally fight for the Top Star position in battles set in the surreal landscapes of their own desires and fears.
And wow, did it remind me of something.
Duels, surreal landscapes, hrm. Uniforms created by impossible machinery…
Now what did that remind me of…?
Oh, yes, I got it! It reminded me, almost immediately, of…Melody of Oblivion.
Yes, of course, it also reminded me of Revolutionary Girl Utena, but there was something specific about the tone that pinged Melody of Oblivion in my head in a very immediate way, which shared some staff and a lot of theatrical elements with Utena. As it turns out, Revue Starlight shares some staff with Melody, so I’m probably not that far off.
In any case, there was a similar sense of grimness that pervaded the plot of Revue Starlight so, despite the apparent desire to excel, the play the young women are working on is depressing as fuck. We watch them shine, in order to star in a play in which they must fail. And yet, despite that, Revue Starlight was a pretty good anime with a lot of emotion and a soupçon of WTF, in between shiny fight scenes and earworm music, capped off by utterly likable characters.
Yuri here lies primarily in intensely emotional relationships between various pairs of the girls. Futaba and her charge, imperious Kauruko, Mahiru’s overt crush on Karen, the late breaking, but immensely satisfying relationship between Nana and Junna and the even more satisfying rivalry of Maya and Claudine. If the story had been about Maya and Claudine, I would have loved it even more. Maya gets very close to making the series about them a few times and even goes so far as to refer to her rival as “my Claudine.” ^_^
By now, if you’ve seen this anime, you’re wondering if I’m going to mention the giraffe in the room. If the role had been an adult man, everything he said would be bizarre and creepy. So it’s a giraffe instead, and comes off as inexplicable and surreal instead of a creeptastic old dude in a series about young women in a school that has no men. So, giraffe.
Of course music plays an important role. The duels are soundtracked by image songs for the character whose arc it is, sung by the voice actress. These are themed to fit both character and the tension that rules the duel. I’ve got the opening theme stuck firmly in my head, but what I ended up liking best was the repetition of the end theme, by the pairs whose story was highlighted in that particular episode. Again, I like Maya and Claudine’s iteration best, but they were all good. And damned earmwormy. I fear I’ll be singing this stuff for days unless I do something to stop it.
Did I enjoy Revue Starlight? Yeah, I think I did. It was shiniy and singy and fighty and asked for very little commitment from me as a viewer. I mean, I never cared about the main plot tension between the leads, which is not all that surprising, I often find my self preferring supporting characters. But it was definitely worth a watch.
Ratings:
Service – Knees, not thighs. Is that an improvement, when it’s so clearly meant to be a stand-in?
Couple Ranking:
1. Maya and Claudine
2. Banana and Junna
3. Futaba with someone who appreciates her, not Kaoruko
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282726. Mahiru and Karen
282727. Karen and Hikari
I’m just giggling at your couples list seeing h the main girls at the bottom. Glad you got to watch it! The first two couple rankings werewere defini my favorites :) I really wish we got to spend more time with them.
Well, I don’t know about the Erica’s thoughts, but personally these two seemed to me too generic and boring. At the same time, Maya and Claudine were so cool that their VA even got a separate stream after the 10th episode, lol.
Yeah me too. ^_^ It was a decent watch.
Oh, I didn’t even expect your opinion about yuri in this show to be at least something close to mine. I was not in vain with such passion waiting for your review :) In any case, for some reason, the relationship between the girls seemed to me a strange combination between Utena and MariMite. It was as if someone was a passionate fan of both franchises and just dreamed of making a crossover of them, lol.
I enjoyed Revue, but I have to say that Revue’s multimedia franchise seems to be aimed more to “fanboys who like cute girls” with the upcoming (or already released?) mobile game and such. I was wondering if you think it’s appropriate considering they definitely take heavy references off Takarazuka and even tries to subvert Takarazuka’s concept in its subtext?
And yet, Takarazuka has overwhelmingly female presence and audience, and Revue unfortunately falls to the trappings of “cute girls shows for male fans”.
For example, it strangely responds to Takarazuka’s “heteronormativity” by completely erasing Otokoyaku roles, and just…. make everyone…. conventionally feminine? Why?
It’s not bad in itself, but I find it a bit icky knowing how much they seem to try to criticize Takarazuka itself, and I would love to know what you think of this.
There is a trend of anime about girls idol groups, and Takarazuka is a well-known Japanese institution, so it’s not that crazy for an anime in the middle of this boom to look towards Takarazuka for inspiration. And as Takarazuka sells itself as an ideal for women without irony (despite extremely rigid hierarchy, disciplne and strenuous work,) the fictitious world was equally presented that way without irony.
If anything, I believe that it’s Takarazuka that strictly conforms to heteronormativity by separating male and female roles and their actresses. Yes, in a more overtly queer scenario and the anime in our fantasy, the roles would have had room for queerness, but neither Takarazuka nor anime as yet has a lot of space for this. Was this anime’s intent to be a critique of Takarazuka or just to springboard off the concept?
If anything, I felt that Starlight Revue glossed over much of what has been criticized in the actual Takarazuka school, leaving only “work realllllly hard to become Top Star.” The girls we see are presented equal opportunity that is not reflected in reality, they have equal chance, support of their group mates and, apparently, plenty of free time to wander about, with only the teeniest hint of discipline. Frankly, that seemed like an idealized version of any performing group and much less abusive than any reality.
Zombieland Saga was more honest, I thought about the hard work and verbal abuse prevalent in the idol world than anything we saw here.
Well, even this was in some sense revolutionary for Bushiroad, whose idol franchises is the literal embodiment of all the pros and cons of all-female idol anime, like portraying girls like birds in a cage or using huge doses of ship bait to attract yuri fanboys.
And although I found it somewhat hypocritical that a lot of fanboys used the social comments of this anime to give a serious look to their fascination with cute girls, I was glad that Bushi at least once hadn’t tried to follow the path of “any fanservice that you want”.
However, as far as I can tell from the American fandom or the fandom in my country, outside of Japan, this franchise has mostly female followers, who see it solely as an appeal to a female audience or a qeer representation. Nevertheless, other Bushiroad’s projects like openly male-focused Love Live and Bang Dream received similar perceptions, so it’s hard for me to discuss this.
In general, the perception of this anime in the west reminded me of a hype around Yuri on ICE, which really was a powerful sports show, but for some reason, the Western media took its appeal to yaoi fangirls as something completely unique in the anime world and a completely serious representation of the gay male community.
There has always been many cases of western audience reclaiming and redefining Japanese or other non-west media, and that’s fair in itself but I don’t think we can ignore the original intent of the creators and how it’s perceived in the actual home country of target audience.
I need to mention that this idea of reclaiming seems to be most popularly a western thing. I am a non-Japanese Asian, and as far as I know in fanbases in multiple countries I have lived, we often just accept that we like something that’s “not for us”. It’s interesting that the west reads it differently.
Revue Starlight is absolutely made with male fanbase in mind, to say that it isn’t would be disingenuous, and this is actually what I regret in relation to it adapting from Takarazuka Revue– Takarazuka’s fanbase is overwhelmingly female. Sure, it is fairly heteronormative, but taking a concept that has been a staple for female audience and bring it for “cute girls” male audience is somewhat putting me off.
Yes, in Japan itself, the target audience was male, but as you yourself mentioned, it cannot be ruled out that Takarazuka itself is a purely feminine phenomenon. So, I don’t know if the authors really saw it as a qeer representation or tried to get female fans, but it’s hard for me personally to say “this is a show for men, Western women misunderstand it”.
In any case, as far as I know, the original musical was staged by a rather big person in the world of Takarazuka, so at least in this part the franchise was obviously trying to appeal to women too, in this case, the audience of Takarazuka.
Whoops, there’s a limit in replies, apparently.
@Super
Oh I’m not saying that anyone “misunderstands” anything, I think especially newer media like Revue Starlight for sure understand its cross appeal potential. See also something like Hibike!Euphonium, which has both male fanbase and female fanbase and seem to appeal to both in various methods.
And yeah, the musical has few ex-Takarazuka members. It is a thing that fans do chase these ex-Takarazuka outside of their original revues, see also Toho stages. I’m just also saying that… it also targets male audience, it’s not something that’s as majorly female-oriented as a bunch of other Yuri or Magical Girl-esque shows. And I have to say I personally regret that aspect, but everyone can have their own views on this.
All in all, I just noticed that there’s a tendency to read things differently between Western fans and non-Japanese Asian fans, which is something interesting that both sides would benefit to know the other side. So often I get to hear western-oriented english speaking voices try to speak on behalf of “anyone outside Japan” which obviously diminish our ability to voice ourselves in the english-speaking critic scenes, so I just want to mention my own PoV from time to time.
It’s always good to remember, too, that no matter what we ourselves are, we don not represent anything other than ourselves. I do not speak for lesbians…I speak for this lesbian. Your opinion is yours and it is valid as yours. ^_^
Well, Euhpo was originally aimed at girls, because the main theme of Takeda is women’s teenage experience. Another thing is that KyoAni made a good emphasis on the sexual attractiveness of girls and portrayed their bonds in a more intimate way (because of which, by the way, Yamada is often accused of baiting, although she just likes to use homoeroticism to depict a woman’s youth), but this is a question of anime promotion.
But as for RS, I would say that this franchise is easy targeted for both genders, even if it is not intentional. Especially considering that 90% of their main inspiration is in either the all-female theater or the shoujo anime and manga. So, if you are worried that this is purely the use of female themes for straight guys, then your concerns are meaningless, I think.
@Super
I mean, you just said “Yes, in Japan itself, the target audience was male” and that it may “unintentionally” targets female audience as well. That’s what I personally am concerned about. It’s not that it’s “only” for straight men, it’s that it substantially is. If that does not concern you, that’s fair, but please don’t tell me that my concerns are meaningless.
I am still well aware that it resonates with female audience, and overall I do enjoy the show. Though the follow up mobile game is a bit confusing with the amount of additional cast.
Either way, I was asking Ms. Friedman about her opinion as a follow up on her review, and I think her response has been helpful. (Sorry I did not end up saying thanks!). I was just furthering my explanation because you replied to my thread. We now should be on the same page here with regards to the franchise’s target audience, and reach different conclusions and have different feelings about it. That’s fair and good.
My wife and I watched this show over the holidays, and we both enjoyed it, baffling as it was. I like your explanation of the giraffe – I kept puzzling over the deeper symbolism, but what you said makes more sense. (Lord knows why I was expecting a talking animal in an anime series to symbolize something deeper, but there I was, cogs in my brain just turning away!)
Well, as I understand it, the main idea of a giraffe is “women shouldn’t fight with each other just for male entertainment”. Of course, this looks a little awkward because Takarazuka has a predominantly female audience, and RS itself is an all-female franchise for (probably) male entertainment, but overall the message is as follows.