In 2019, Revue Starlight hit the anime scene with a bang. It was shiny, with a setup of a Takarazuka-like school, the intensity of competition and performance and internal struggle embodied in duels referred to as “auditions.” These duels allowed characters to work through personal and relationship issues with their partner/rival, and were accompanied by character image songs that expressed deep emotions – what could not be said, could be sung. I reviewed the anime on Okazu, with a ranking of couples, rather than rating the anime itself. ^_^
Now, HIDIVE is streaming Revue Starlight: The Movie and so, I took an appropriate day off to watch it. It had some truly excellent moments.
For most fans, the immediate visual reference would be the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie, what with musical duels and emotional purging. Clearly, the visuals were meant in many places to call Ikuhara Kunihiko’s work to mind….I’d say there’s as much Mawaru Penguindrum as there is Utena in this movie. But still, as with the TV show, I felt the shadow of Melody of Oblivion hovering in the corner of my mind the entire time. If Birdie Wing‘s mecha golf course came with epic music, it’s much the same feel, when the mechanics and music combine. Visually, this series was epic and surreal. It Ikuhara’ed. And in several cases, it worked.
There were only two things that did not work for me, personally. The first and most critical was the insertion of extended scenes of Hikari’s and Karen’s backstory. I am of the belief that few, if any, people were going to see this movie without having seen the TV series, so not only were these redundant, but they were also rather dull. As I said in my original review, Karen and Hikari were the least interesting pair in the series. Having to spend more time with them and their convoluted non-conflict was a chunk of time that added nothing. I’ll get to the second problem in a moment.
An initial fight scene is quite shocking, but when the pair duels actually arrive – they are excellent. The duel that ought to have been the best was, in fact, the best. The “staging” during that duel was animated like actual staging. Despite the leads being two other characters, it is impossible to take one’s eyes off Claudine and Maya. It was perfect. Junna and Nana’s duel was redemptive in a way that I felt really worked and I really dug everything about Futaba vs Kaoruko. And then the end comes, and the final duel is HUGE and full of everything.
The second issue with this movie is that, despite this, the emotional stakes are low to non-existent. I didn’t care who won, or why, because I knew perfectly well that everyone was just going to grow up and move on. Yes, absolutely, high school is weird and a performing high school by it’s nature has to be extra weird. A high school of performing arts at which musical existential duels are performed on shapeshifting stages, presided over by a nihilistic giraffe is just too weird for me to ever develop any emotional buy-in. ^_^
Aside from that, it was a good movie if you’d like to see folks who work with the specific kinds of forced surrealism that Ikuhara favors, combined with a musical emotional journey (oh! Here’s another reference…Red Garden for similar musical therapy sessions and inside voices.) I do enjoy such things and, as a result will quite probably watch this again…this time zapping forward through all the Karen x Hikari stuff. If you have HIDIVE or want an excuse to get a free trial, and also like such things, Revue Starlight: The Movie is definitely worth a watch.
Ratings:
10/10 for Maya v Claudine
9/10 for Nana v Junna
8/10 for Mahiru v <spoiler>
8/10 for Futaba v Kauruko
7/10 for Hikari v Karen
The epilogue in the end credits was quite nice, too. I’m a big fan of epilogues.
