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tokyo-tower-symbolism · 3 months

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What does Karen mean when she says "I am Reborn"?

Revue Starlight takes place in a time loop.

For over 60 years, eight students from Seisho’s acting class continue to audition to be the lead in the Starlight Gatherer, each hoping to use the brilliance awarded to the top star to fulfill their wish to perform on the Stage of Fate. And in each of those loops, very little changes. The same leads are chosen, the same wish is made, and Aijou Karen is at the bottom of the rankings every time.

Nothing changes until one loop where Kagura Hikari transfers to their school from London and replaces Karen as one of the eight participants in the audition, and suddenly everything is changing.

Hikari’s return lights a spark in Karen. The childhood promise they made to perform on stage together is the closest it’s ever been to happening, and Karen refuses to waste this chance.

In the first episode, we don’t get a very flattering picture of Karen. Her roommate struggles to wake her up to get to morning practice, Karen is stiff as a board while stretching, she’s not taken seriously by her classmates at all, and she can’t even picture herself ever beating Maya or Claudine for the lead roles in the play. Don’t get me wrong, her classmates all like her and honestly she’s really funny to watch, but everyone is here because they want to be the star, not to fool around.

It comes to a head when the giraffe who runs the underground auditions points it out. She’s not desperate like the other girls so she has no chance of winning. He says that there is no place for someone like Karen to have a chance at that dream stage.

But Karen doesn’t care. She ignores the giraffe entirely and jumps on stage to join Hikari. And as she falls, she undergoes a transformation, going from her school uniform to the revue outfit.

There’s a lot to be said about the transformation sequence, like how quick and mechanical and impersonal everything is. Machines sew the costumes and get everything ready and makeup is briefly applied. It’s all the work that would usually be given to the school’s Class B, which works on all the backstage stuff, like the props and the sets and the costumes. They’re out of focus a lot of the time and we only really focus on two characters from Class B, but they still exist! They’re friends with the main class A actors and in the movie it’s because of a speech the director of the play gives that the main characters decide to stand up on stage again. But they don’t matter to the audition. It only cares about the top star.

There’s also how the uniforms are mass manufactured and the very important star buttons, which signify victory or defeat so basically life or death, are unceremoniously tossed in a box, showing how disposable the rest of the stage girls are in creating the top star. Honestly the whole thing is kind of sinister in hindsight once you understand the true nature of the auditions.

But the part that’s all Karen is when she jumps and in the background it says: I am reborn.

Because Karen completely reinvents herself. She goes from getting sweeped in a low dip by Junna in their daily life to doing the same to her in the revue. In the following episodes, she starts waking up early, taking practice seriously, she changes her classmates' worldviews after defeating them, and she even beats Claudine and Maya to earn a lead role in the Starlight Gatherer. Nana specifically says that all the changes in this loop stemmed from Karen, despite Hikari’s appearance being the first major difference.

And in the climactic final revue of the show, Karen is only able to reach Hikari by stating that she will constantly be reborn if it means she can stand on stage with her. That Karen doesn’t mind getting her brilliance stolen or being trapped in the stage of fate or whatever terrible fate might befall her if she sticks with Hikari since each time she will get back on stage, born anew.

But what exactly does it mean to be reborn as a stage girl?

Well first, in order to be reborn you need to die, so let’s start there. And in the show, we see two dead stage girls.

The first is Hikari after she lost the audition in London and had her brilliance stolen. As a result, she loses all interest in the stage and can hardly remember why she bothered trying so hard to become the lead in her school’s play. But what snaps her out of this is remembering her promise to stand on stage with Karen, and how disgusted she is in herself that she almost forgot it. In a desperate attempt to reclaim what she lost, she goes to participate in the Tokyo audition since the winner will steal the brilliance of all the participants to make the stage of fate and become the untouchable top star. Unfortunately the one flaw in her plan is that Karen is also in the audition, so even if Hikari did win, she would also be stealing Karen’s brilliance, making it so their promise could never be kept regardless.

Hikari continues to be dead as a stage girl despite being a participant in the Tokyo Auditions. Although her technical skills are perfect, Maya in the first episode mentions that her heart’s not in it, which we later find out is because Hikari had lost her brilliance. This can be seen in her revue outfit in London compared to now. Over there, she had a sword and a red cape just like everyone else. But now her blade is shortened to a dagger’s length and her cloak is blue, the color of her promise which is her true desire here instead of the red of the top star that everyone else desires.

But Hikari is eventually reborn. By the time of her revue with Nana, Hikari has changed. She’s no longer pushing everyone away and has actually started to make friends with everyone and told Karen how dear their promise is to her as well. Even though Hikari only came here as a step on her path to become a top star and one day fulfill her promise with Karen, she’s instead inspired by Karen that the two of them could shine as top stars together here. Her entire worldview is completely changed, and in this Revue against someone who is in the audition not for a love of acting, but to instead use it as a stepping stone for her own ambitions, just like Hikari, her brilliance is reborn. Hikari’s weapon transforms, not back into the sword from before, but into a new dagger with a string that Hikari can use to maneuver herself and a star shaped hilt, similar to her hairpin, a symbol of her promise with Karen.

She’s not the same as she was before she died as a stage girl, but she’s reborn as someone new with a brand new outlook on life.

And the next dead stage girl we see in the show is Karen herself.

After Hikari wins the audition, she refuses to use the brilliance of the other participants to create the stage of fate, and instead offers to create it herself. This doesn’t really work and Hikari is trapped there for months in a Sisyphean effort where she attempts to build the Starlight Tower but it is destroyed over and over again because it’s impossible to put on a play alone.

But outside the Stage of Fate, no one knows what happened to her. Life goes on, but Karen is constantly searching for Hikari but has no luck. In the meantime Karen has lost the motivation she had back when Hikari transferred in. Even though she can say her lines perfectly during practice, there is something missing that everyone can tell. Her heart’s just not in it anymore. Karen even wonders why she’s been trying so hard all this time. It’s the spitting image of Hikari in London after she lost her brilliance. Even though no one stole it from her this time, without Hikari out there, Karen has no motivation to stand on stage.

But with no clues left to find where Hikari has gone, Karen instead has to understand Hikari. She reads Hikari’s Starlight Gatherer book in the original English like Hikari did. It’s hard and she needs a dictionary to translate it, but she puts in the effort to understand Hikari and why she left.

And on her way to confront Hikari once more with this new understanding, she is guided by her classmates. In the background the song “Knowledge of a Stage Girl” is played as each of them tells Karen what being on stage means to them.

Karen is reborn and ready to face Hikari after being dead as a stage girl, and it’s only because her worldview changed after understanding everyone else. Karen at the end of episode 10 couldn’t have convinced Hikari, she was absolutely blindsided then and had no idea what Hikari was doing. But now Karen was ready after having understood a variety of perspectives.

Because that’s what being reborn is, to change yourself. You will never be anyone other than yourself. But every time you understand someone, learn from someone, or get inspired by someone, you are reborn. You suddenly see a path someone else took that you hadn’t thought of before. You’re suddenly given a whole new way of life to live. You can be reborn as someone brand new. And even if you choose to stay exactly the same, you’ve still grown since you now know they exist.

When the stage is reborn in the final revue of the show, it’s only because Karen offered a new ending: that after falling, Flora ascended up the tower once more to meet the trapped Claire. Karen couldn’t change the past, she can’t make it so Flora and Claire never ascended the tower in the first place, she can’t make it so the two of them never took part in these auditions, but she can change what's gonna happen next.

This is also seen in the movie. Throughout the movie, Karen is wandering along a train track and reminiscing on how she became a stage girl. We see Hikari and Karen’s first meeting and the first play they saw with each other. We see how Karen had been the lead in her middle school plays and took dancing and singing lessons ever since elementary school. We see how she had to give up video games and hanging out with her friends so she could get into one of the best acting schools in the world. We see how scared she was that Hikari might have forgotten their promise.

And once Karen arrived at the end of the tracks, she decides to give up on the stage, having realized that she had fulfilled her dream to shine as the lead with Hikari and now there is nothing left for her future on the stage. So Karen dies as a stage girl, for real this time. It’s still a metaphor but it’s real, her body goes limp in front of Hikari and there is tomato juice everywhere.

It’s real bad. Hikari starts crying and cradling Karen in her arms, which is a big departure from how stoic she usually is. But Hikari is finally truthful about why she left, having been symbolically reborn herself, and she tells Karen her true feelings, that she wants Karen to come back to the stage where she is waiting.

Karen falls again, and just like the first time she transformed, it even has the sign behind her that says I am reborn.

Her body rides down the tracks on a train, reliving the memories and burning up everything she already gave up before. But this time when she returns to the end, she is alive and reborn. The circumstances are all the same as before, she still fulfilled her dream and has nothing left. As she later says, she’s the emptiest she’s ever been. But she’s here now, all because Hikari said she was waiting for her, and that’s enough of a reason to stand on stage.

This is just like the first episode, where the only difference from all the other loops was that Hikari was there, and that’s all Karen needed to change and be reborn.

Because Karen can’t redo her whole life. Even within the time loop everything happened more or less the same each time. Karen already gave everything she had into acting and fulfilling her promise. Like the song playing in the background says, “I would be reborn as myself.”

It’s not like she ever acted differently to try and become the top star, she doesn’t imitate Maya or Claudine or any other top star. She is unabashedly herself, always kind and energetic. The only difference is that she’s just more focused and motivated and understanding with each rebirth because the only thing she can change is what she is going to do right now, and that’s what it means to be reborn.

Karen is transformed over the course of the revue, her sword snaps and her future is changed. She gains a better understanding of herself and why she stands on stage. And instead of desiring to stand beside Hikari on stage again, or longing for the stage that had already passed, she finds a new ambition, and chooses to stand against her as rivals who won’t lose to each other. And as established in a previous revue (that Karen wasn’t there for), the revue of rivals never ends, no matter how far apart their stages are. So instead of giving up on the stage like she said prior, we see the reborn Karen auditioning for a brand new role during the credits.

Revue Starlight is all about these little transformations. As the stage girls take part in each of the revues, they learn a little bit more about each other, which helps them learn more about themselves. They grow and change because they clash with each other, and become stronger for it. The giraffe changes from the proctor to becoming a bunch of fruits and vegetables, symbolically the fuel they need to ascend to the next stage instead of using each other’s brilliance. The revues themselves change from being part of an audition to being entirely for the girl’s satisfaction, with previous win conditions such as cutting the brooch or claiming position zero becoming worthless as they move on to bigger things.

And all of this was a choice. The first choice was that Hikari didn’t want to give up on her dream with Karen, so she got back on stage. The next choice was that Karen wanted to stand on stage with Hikari, even if she wasn’t part of the auditions. In the movie, everyone else gets the chance to see themselves as a dead stage girl. At first they are in shock, but then they hear a speech from the director about how they are all scared together. And after that, each of them chooses to get back on stage despite the risk, because they aren’t facing it alone.

In the final revue of the show, Karen said that every time she gets on stage, she is reborn. And we saw that! Before every revue, Karen had her “I am Reborn” transformation sequence. And it’s not just her, in the recap movie, the other stage girls didn’t get the full transformation sequence, but they did get an “I am Reborn” card before their revues. Because everytime a stage girl chooses to stand on stage, someone else is there. Someone else is going to be facing them in the revue. Someone else will be acting across from them, or will be supporting them off the stage. And even when they are apart, they are going to be thinking of each other.

Even from the very beginning, the reason that any of them chose to stand on stage was because of someone else. Maybe they were inspired like Karen, Hikari, or Junna. Maybe it was expected of them like Maya, Kaoruko, or Mahiru. Or maybe it was because someone else was already there, like with Futaba, Claudine, or Nana. And sometimes it’s a mix because people are complex and have so many different reasons for doing anything they do.

But still, they chose to do it, to change and to take a risk and put it all out there and accept whatever comes with it.

And that is what it means to be reborn.

#karen aijou #hikari kagura #revue starlight #analyzing starlight

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editrevue · 6 months

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some wild cards for the ask game- elle and/or suzu since it was her birthday recently!! love you guys 🩷

OH MY GOSH MOLLY THIS IS LIKE WHAT 2 MONTHS LATE IM SORRYYYYY. [ask] THANK YOU FOR SENDING THIS IN. GENUINELY ❤️🙏 I'll just do a general opinion for Elle because she is just a little guy but Suzu will be under the read more! we love you too!

ELLE NISHINO

General Opinion over said character: so much unending love in my heart!!! I did not know what to expect going into the game. she was so mysterious and had so very little to her name at the start but the more we learned the more I got attached and both of us have this funny little thing with kuromaya that they're her self inserted stage parents because of how much she loves maya. it's so cute. she's so cute!! her entire story with frontier tugged on my heart like crazy and was just so special to me. she's a fantastic character too i love the dreamscape and the trope of her stories coming to life, it's such a shame that's all they did with her, left her to the main story and there she stays. i hope in the future they at least give us another card or two with her in it, maybe like a memoir or something. i felt like what she set up for everyone was really important given everything, so it's a little sad to see that arc over already!! i'm rambling but all in all i think she's a wonderful addition to the stage girl roster and I thought what they did with her story was incredibly fun and new, albeit a bit strange at first going into everything especially with all the changes after the anime but I really think she deserving of more love from the dev team and people in general ! Elle is like the brooke page of revue starlight

SUZU MINASE

Sexuality Headcanon: this may very well be me projecting my bestie friends onto their kins teehee but Suzu is pansexual in my heart of hearts. they are a total lover

Gender Headcanon: transgender!! transmasc or transfem, it could literally go either way to me, it changes daily because both make sense. any pronouns or simply a he/her or a she/him!

A ship I have with said character: loving attachments to suzu / mahiru and "traffic light trio" (suzu/hisame/koharu) you honestly cannot make me choose ♡

A BROTP I have with said character: Suzu and Sakura!! Suzu and Mahiru!! Suzu and Hisame/Koharu!! Suzu and Karen/Hikari!! Suzu and Claudine, Suzu and Futaba, Suzu and the siegfeld juniors !!! the list goes on and on for sure she's so lovable and tries to befriend everyone, she has an infectious laugh and a charismatic personality. those by name stand out to me the most given their bond stories or interactions in the stage plays :3

A NOTP I have with said character: Suzu and Sakura is a personal one, and obviously pairings that are gross to ship (juniors or teachers). otherwise I don't think any of them would be inherently weird or "bad" to ship! haven't given it much thought!

A random headcanon: I think that while suzu loooves giving nicknames she's absolutely abysmal at terms of endearment and pet names. she's not necessarily bad at romance and compliments, she's very charismatic, kind, and even a bit touchy by nature, but she can be veeerrrryyy unserious and it definitely comes out when she's flustered, backed into a corner, or nervous (ie; flirting with someone she has feelings for or having embarrassed herself in front of them). she has a lot of humility though and bounces back very quickly, able to try again whether or not it was successful! and anyone she's pining after definitely has a soft spot for it, and wouldn't change it for the world.

General Opinion over said character: oh. my. gosh! i love all 3 of the seiran girls so so so much Blue Glitter literally changed me as a person fundamentally i think. Live #2 did as well obviously and of course, but Blue Glitter and Delight........ ough. all 3 of them get the short end of the stick in the game and that's okay. they get a whole manga adapt and multiple stage performances, so I can let it slide. though I'm glad suzu was able to get some well deserved attention in Rebellion! both on the stage *and* in the game! another fantastic story btw, read it when you have the chance if you haven't! but yes yes, suzu. she's so silly, earnest and innocent, she's such a people person and someone i truly think everyone needs in their life! i've been thinking about her (and hisame) more recently, more than usual, and idk! idk i get sentimental, don't tell anyone. but I love them both a lot, suzu is no exception, and I genuinely think the kind of character she is and her dynamics with the others is so good. she's such a good character!!!!!!!!!!!!! everything with mahiru is just!!!! augh!!!! um waiter, more seiran please .

#✧. ┊ moon intermission #✦. ┊ star performance

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loveswickedpitch · 2 years

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I just finished watching the movie for a third time, so here’s a mess of random disjointed thoughts (and I do mean a mess). it’s roughly in the right order. probably

Yo there was so much tiny Karen I couldn’t fucking stand it she is so cute and baby Hikari was so cute and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Karen’s mom is a MILF

Karen’s aunt is a… AILF.

Seeing a front-loading pink washing machine and/or dryer just makes me think of when Ikuhara claimed that the pink washing machine that Yuri was advertising in Mawaru Penguindrum was the eponymous Penguindrum

Kaoruko talking about wanting to try the Auditions again and Mahiru looking horrified. Also the way the room seems to fucking chill once Maya actually says the word “Auditions”.

Shoutouts to the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it ReLive reference. Hope all you fans still trapped in gacha hell enjoyed it (I’m clean for almost a year now)

Nana tapping her foot at the beginning of “wi(l)d screen baroque” is very important to me

The entirety of the Revue of Annihilation, from the lead-in with the fucking, giraffe symbol rolling along the train to the bloody aftermath

GET OUT OF THE INTERSECTION YOU FUCKING GIRAFFE

The trains transforming into the stage was the hypest fucking shit, immediately topped by Nana’s katana being launched out of a train door and her effortlessly catching it

And then you realize that she had been fighting entirely with the smaller wakizashi and you’re like “holy fuck Nana”. Absolutely poggers

Nana stone cold picking up her katana and slicing Junna’s button off without even looking at her

Maya and Nana having autistic girl to autistic girl communication while Claudine is just like “what the fuck are these two talking about!!” (tbh I didn’t get understand it either on my first watch)

“I’m saying. I somehow feel like I just drank a strong sake.”

When I watched this with my wife I had warned her ahead of time about the ending of the Revue of Annihilation but she still gasped when blood came pouring out of Junna’s neck and honestly? Me too the first time

In general I’m so fucking glad that Nana got the villain song she deserved. “Re:Create” and “Hoshiboshi no Kizuna” are both great but a lot of them consist of Hikari and Karen, respectively. You could argue that “Hymn to Rebirth” is a Nana song as well, but it’s not a villain song at all. “wi(l)d screen baroque” is 100% banana baby

Baby Karen and Hikari with the castanets gave me K-On flashbacks

THE FUCKING VEGETABLE GIRAFFE WILL HAUNT MY NIGHTMARES

The tomato definitely represents the fruit from the Garden of Eden right

MASAI AND SHION’S SCENES WERE SO CUTE AND GOOD AND GAY

ALSO Masai’s little scream into the megaphone was so adorable. Fluttershy vibes

Honestly this movie is somehow even gayer than the TV anime

When the instrumental rendition of “Knowledge of a Stage Girl” came in I nearly started bawling

Nana with a power drill what will she do (stand around and say ominous things, it turns out, as is her wont)

Corpse train….

Impressed that Maya managed to bite directly into the tomato with no hesitation

The giraffe standing in the tube train just like “sup” at Hikari (who is understandably upset to see him)

WAGAMAMA

FUCKING

HIGHWAY

The intro where Kaoruko accuses Claudine of seducing Futaba? Futaba bursting in with a fucking truck looking like a Showa delinquent? Kaoruko’s tattoo… Claudine just shrugging amusedly as the two of them burst out of the gambling house… and that’s before it even starts!

The next part of the Revue really lulls you into a false sense of security as it feels like it’s rehashing things from their original Revue, and it’s much less flashy…

But then we get the SEXY MAIN HALL where Kaoruko flirts with Futaba, accuses her of adultery then pretends she doesn’t care while pouring champagne on herself before leaning in real close and asking Futaba to meet her outside???? Absolute fucking legend

I cannot properly convey my feelings about the fucking disco dekotora showdown other than that my foot was tapping the entire fucking time

Futaba giving Kaoruko her bike and Kaoruko insisting that she won’t wait for Futaba while the lyrics are talking about how she’s going to wait for Futaba… *chef’s kiss* they really are useless

“MEDAL SUZDAL PANIC” is like… so incredibly powerful

Like the Revue starts with the kind of goofy humor from the Karen v Mahiru Revue in the TV anime. Like… here’s sports! Here’s cats! Here’s cardboard cutouts!

And then the instrumental cuts out and it’s just Mahiru singing

anata ga anata ga anata ga anATA GA ANATA GA

Mahiru can have little a yandere. As a treat

The part in the elevator was especially good

Mahiru grabbing Hikari by the collar and dangling her over a massive drop was an incredibly powerful image

I really, really like the bit of the song that plays while Hikari’s falling

Anyway Mahiru good job on reducing Hikari to a sobbing, terrified mess. A+ work

Mahiru putting the medal over Hikari’s head and fluffing out her hair was so cute… and the two of them being like “I’m glad I got to stand on stage with you”... I love them…..

I don’t remember where in the movie all of the flashbacks happened specifically but there being male characters besides the giraffe, no matter how minor, was fucking bizarre.

I’ve had them before and I think that Mister Donut’s donuts are just okay.

I wonder if Seiran was Karen’s second choice high school

“Pen : Power : Katana” was… so absurdly heavy

But at least Nana’s “GAO!!” was incredibly cute

Also the fact that the seppuku bucket had frogs on it is important

I think one of the strengths of this Revue though was how many ways you can interpret it, especially Nana’s actions. It feels more like a role Nana is playing than anything else… her lines in the corpse train scene kind of alludes to that, I feel. Like her slipping back into her antagonistic role from the TV anime bc she feels it’s needed

Junna’s “...together.” after the Revue was just… so good. It’s not “goodbye”, it’s “see you later”. Which I think is a major theme of the film

Did anyone have “the giraffe dies” on their bingo card or

“A Beautiful Person, or Somebody Like That” is such a good palate cleanser after how difficult to watch the previous Revue was

Like yeah it’s dramatic but it’s also fun. Claudine’s having the absolute time of her life

Claudine in a suit with fangs is very important

Instead of a stupid swan this time Maya got a giant CG metal chicken

This Revue was also ridiculously stylish… I especially loved the scene of Maya’s face changing as the frames passed in front of her

Claudine dunking on Maya’s god complex and revealing her as being just as normal as the rest of them was so good

The fucking musical callback to “Pride and Arrogance” was very important to me

“Like an awry arrow revealing the imitation of God” is a good phrase

“You’re the cutest you’ve ever been!” “I’M ALWAYS CUTE!!!!”

“For heroes there are trials!” “For saints there are temptations!” “For me there’s you!”

Get a fucking room you two

Claudine deserved this win more than anyone ever has

Anyway I think they’re legally married now. Congrats to the happy couple

Hikari crying over Karen’s corpse was a really powerful scene

I keep trying to figure out how to introduce “Super Star Spectacle” but just. I don’t think words can do it justice? The entire ending sequence of this movie is perfect. Everything is so raw and emotional and epic

The fucking train sequence was insane and my jaw was on the floor the whole time but don’t think I didn’t notice you borrowing visually from Mawaru Penguindrum in there Furukawa!!! Nothing slips past me!!!!!!

I can’t believe how romantic Hikari stabbing Karen was

Everything after that was just… I don’t know what to say. The song swelling, the characters releasing their capes into the wind, the ruins of Tokyo Tower… I cried. Even on my third viewing, I cried.

The sheer finality of the movie is honestly amazing… it almost explicitly says “Revue Starlight is over. That’s it. That’s the end.” And honestly, even if it wasn’t, I don’t think that it would be possible to top “Super Star Spectacle”. I think anything short of a total reboot would feel cheap after this.

God… I can’t believe Revue Starlight managed to stick the landing and then stick the landing a second time. This movie was one of the best endings I’ve ever seen for any series in my life. I’m so excited to see what Tomohiro Furukawa (and everyone else who worked on this movie) does next

#revue starlight #revue starlight movie spoilers #aaaa

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master-thief-gray-shadow · 4 years

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Karen and Hikari are, of course, the central characters of the narrative. They are the main couple, the star-crossed lovers who’s story mirrors that of the characters in the play they aspire to perform. The show is about them, and their relationship and their journey. It is a complete story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this is why there’s so relatively few fanworks focused on them. Their romance is already so thoroughly explored. What more is there to say?

Maya and Claudine’s relationship, and the general interpretation of it by the fans (particularly western ones) is a little complicated. I think a lot of shippers don’t really look past the surface and just try to fit them into an box labelled enemies-to-lovers/rivals-to-lovers (which it’s...not, but I won’t get into that now). But what these shippers do pick up on is that right from episode one, both of these characters have certain feelings about the other, and those feelings are very complicated. Both characters need to work through their issues to better understand themselves and each other, and I think this is why the ship is so popular. There is very clearly a story to be told here, it just wasn’t told within the work because these two characters are not the focus of the narrative.

Futaba and Kaoruko are pretty much the image of an established relationship. These two have known each other for their entire lives, and it’s clear from the moment they’re introduced they are long past the infatuation stage of romance and well into commitment. Given that they are already very much together, and very much making a conscious choice to stay together, the most dramatically interesting thing to do with their relationship is to threaten or destabilize it, which is why their focus episode plays out the way it does. I think this is part of the reason that they get the least amount of fanworks out of all the main ships--it’s because the untold story with them is about falling out of love, and I think a lot of people just find that too tragic.

While most of the fandom focuses on KuroMaya as the most important couple after KareHika, I feel like the true beta couple in Revue Starlight is actually Junna and Nana. Unlike all the others (KareHika and FutaKao having met as children, Maya having studied Claudine’s early career and Claudine having met Maya’s father at some point) they had absolutely zero prior connection before attending Seisho. Their feelings for each other are woven from whole cloth. Obviously by the time the story starts they’ve gotten to know each other, but over the course of the show we get to see their relationship deepen further. Out of all the couples, JunnaNana are the only ones we get to see falling in love onscreen. Despite this, the full extent of what happens between them is merely teased at, and this leaves people wanting to see more of it. I think this is why in the eastern fandom, with its different culture around fanwork and less emphasis on fanfic tropes, and even in the western fandom to an extent, this is such a major ship. With Nana as an important character it’s already given some focus, but you only need to shift the narrative perspective to see the entire thing.

#revue starlight #gray posts

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insomniacowl · 4 years

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Neon Genesis Evangelion analysis Chapter 16 Seele, Gehrin, Nerv and…

Seele All-Star Special?

The United nation in the world of NGE is merely an assembly of multinational military forces that finds itself struggling to keep itself together amidst the devastation and strife the Second impact has brought onto the world. As we have discussed in previous chapters, the secret organization Seele was behind this catastrophe. ‘Seele’ is a German word meaning ‘Soul’ and we are shown that there are fifteen members at its highest level. While many believe the correct number to be twelve, in just one single scene in the renewal version episode 24 when they are talking to Kaworu, we see fifteen monoliths.

Because they are loosely based off of the twelve apostles of Jesus twelve seems to be the correct number and perhaps showing fifteen monoliths were a mistake that slipped through the cracks of production. But, I argue that this is born out of attempts to legitimize the Christian symbolism more then it was intended and that there is something that could be said regarding the number of monoliths that we see here. This I will cover in greater detail in the chapter (19) covering Kaworu.

Out of Seele's members, we are familiar with five of them, namely Lorenz Keel, and four others that we do see the face of. All other members are shown only via voice coming from the monoliths that are numbered. Considering that another inspiration for this organization was the Freemasons, the numbers likely refer to their hierarchy or order of admittance.

The face of Lorenz Keel

We are never told where Seele originated from and this secretive origin is canon; not even the residents of the world of NGE know their past. But we still know that they are influential to the point they can mobilize the UN to do their biddings and that work under the guidance of the “Scenario” that is laid out in the Dead seas scroll. The Scrolls also contains the information of the two moons, Lance of Longinus, and the number of angels they are to expect.

Some believe that the scrolls also mention Evangelions, but that is a rumor. There is no evidence to suggest that.

Let us now talk a little about Keel. What kind of person is he? We can tell from the end of Evangelion that half of his body (Maybe more) has been replaced with cybernetic implants. Perhaps the goggle that we always see him wearing might not be a goggle but cybernetic eyes that he uses.

This points to the possibility that Keel is actually older then he seems to be, this leading some to theorize that Seele might be “A group of immortal robot-human hybrids” but due to other members of Seele not being shown in this sequence, we cannot say anything definitive about this argument

The truth of Keel Lorenz

A little side note on the End of Evangelion where we are shown Keel’s mechanical body. While many interpret it as the producers of the series showing us the long time and great effort Seele’s members have invested into achieving HIP, I believe that we can also see this as (at least) Keel being a complex character who speaks of wanting to ‘transcend’ life and death via HIP while having an obsession with life so great that he has chosen to extend his life by artificial methods

The council of HIP

Coming back to our main topic and move onto the scene where we see five of the Seele members. This special meeting is aptly naming the “Human instrumentality Project council special summon” and are conducted among five of the top members of Seele and happens five times throughout the series. The colors on each of their tables symbolize the countries that each of them comes from.

First White for Germany and Keel. Yellow for France (this character shares the VA with Fuyutsuki), Blue for Russia, Green for the U.S, and Red for the UK. In the series itself, we are only told of the country of origin of the Green in episode 14, the rest is information from the Evangelion collection book. Some would have realized that four out of the five mentioned here are the 'Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council', the difference being China having been replaced by Germany.

Why this choice of a dark room though?

Out of the five nations represented, Germany plays a significant role in the world of Evangelion. Germany suffered one of the biggest damages of the Second Impact, has the 3rd Nerv operations base where both Kaji and Misato worked in the past. Germany was also the country of origin of Asuka and was where she received her training.

In the bible, seven eyes represent the ‘All-knowing’

This is about all we know, thus able to discuss Seele. In the end, they are sort of Deus Ex Machina that is used to explain away financial, influential, political requirements required by Nerv. Even if the viewers complain that "This is unrealistic!", Seele serves to explain it away.

Moving on from Seele, let us now talk about Seele’s subordinate organization Gehrin, and its successor Nerv.

Akagi Naoko, first-generation member of Gehrin

In German, Gehrin means ‘Brain’ and is the name of the organization that Seele gave their line of support after the Second impact. It was an organization that focused mainly on the construction of the Evangelions and was shown building its headquarters in the third Tokyo city (where current Nerv headquarters is located). It was headed by Gendou with the support of Akagi Naoko working as the head researcher. Since the nature of their activities had to be kept a secret, the public was told that Gehrin was a UN subordinate research facility focused on researching ‘Artificial evolution’.

Ironically, this cover identity falls in line perfectly with what they were actually doing. once the goals of constructing Evangelions were achieved, Gehrin disbanded and was replaced with Special operative organization Nerv run by the same people who were in charge of Gehrin. Simply said, the biggest change was their name.

Yet the organization's name was not the only difference these two organizations had. While Gehrin focused on creating the capacity required for using Evangelions and were completely secretive of their activities, Nerv was more public (although with half-truths) of their activities and publicized goal of the organization ‘an organization focused on repelling the angels’. Across the seven operation bases around the world, they focused on achieving ‘peace for humankind’ and even had an active PR department.

Let’s also talk a little about the iconographies of Nerv. Nerv is the root word for Nerve in English and is used in the same way. It refers to the nerve in our body but also to the ‘Nerve to do something’. As an organization that succeeded Gehrin (Brain) and carries out its plans to fight the angels, I believe the name is very apt.

The Nerv logo is a leaf of a fig tree. In the book of Genesis, Eve uses the leaf of the fig tree to cover herself when she felt shame after eating the fruit of knowledge. For Seele and Nerv that operate to undo the original sin, the choice of the fig leaf is also highly fitting.

The passage on the bottom of the logo “God’s in his heaven. All’s right with the world” comes from Robert Browning’s ‘Pippa Passes’ and is a cynical way of saying that even without a god, the world runs well enough on its own.

Commander: Since when did the UN become a toy (Unit – 02) delivery service?

If they had the money to spend on such toys, they should send some funds our way.

While Nerv is considered the UN’s subordinate organization, it appears that this is only concerning the direction of funds flowing towards Nerv. We can see that the UN is in fact under the control of Nerv. This is shown well in Episode 8 when the commander of the fleet complains of the state of things and how powerless he feels following the orders of Nerv. Furthermore, we can see in episode 21’s newspaper that the UN moved its headquarters to the third Tokyo city for convenience. Of course, we know that Nerve has a strong influence only with Seele supporting them. When Seele stopped their support, we all know what has happened to them. So we can say that Nerv was in its best operative condition when they were fighting off the angels. After all, that was what Nerv was made for.

Calendar of important dates in Evangelion

4 Billion BC

Adam arrives on earth

Lilith arrives on earth

First Impact

1947

Dead Seas scroll discovered

9th April 1956

Birth of Fuyutsuki

19th April 1967

Birth of Rokubunki Gendou

30th March 1977

Birth of Ikari Yui

1985

17th June Birth of Kaji Ryoji

21st November Birth of Akagi Ritsuko

8th December 1986

Birth of Katsuragi Misato

11th July 1991

Birth of Ibuki Maya

1999

Fuyutsuki meets Yui

Fuyutsuki meets Gendou

Yui and Gendou begin courtship

2000

12th September Gendou returns to Japan from Antarctica

13th September Second impact

Professor Katsuragi Dies

Birth of Kaworu

15th September India enters into war with Pakistan

20th September Old Tokyo destroyed by a nuclear bomb

2001

14th February Valentine peace treaty signed

6th June Birth of Ikari Shinji

12th September Birth of Aida Kensuke

4th December Birth of Asuka

26th December Birth of Suzuhara Touji

2002

Gendou and Fuyutsuki joins arctic exploration team under UN investigations council

18th February Birth of Horaki Hikari

2003

Construction of Evan begins

Blueprint of Magi drafted

Fuyutsuki joins Gehrin

China – Vietnam war begins

Japanese self-defense force created

2004

Death of Ikari Yui

Ikari Shinji put under the care of ‘Teacher’

Gendou proposes Human instrumentality project

Birth of First Rei

2005

Death of Kyoko Zeppelin

Asuka begins pilot training

Misato meets Ritsuko

Misato begin cohabitation with Kaji

Construction of third Tokyo city begins

2007

UN headquarters moved to Second Tokyo

Misato break up with Kaji

2008

Construction of Magi begins

Ritsuko graduates Second Tokyo university and joins Gehrin

2010

Misato and Kaji joins Gehrin

Magi completes. On the same day, Naoko and First Rei die. By suicide and straggling respectively.

Gehrin becomes Nerv

2012

Ikari Shinji meets his father for the first time in eight-year at Yui’s grave

2014

Ayanami Rei joins the Third Tokyo middle school

Asuka graduates university

Entry plug constructed

2015

Angel advances

TBC Chapter 17 Angel advances

#Neon genesis evangelion #Evangelion #Eva #End of evangelion #Nge #Nagisa Kaworu #Lilith #Sci-fi #Ikari Shinji #Soryu Asuka Langley #asuka #Ayanami Rei #rei #Anno Hideaki #Katsuragi Misato #Anime #Analysis #Review

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pdaliceliveblogs · 4 years

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This is a really interesting shot. They’re all in their costume uniforms, which seem to be similar to each other but not identical (notice skirt colours, for example) bur rather than being arrayed on the stairs posing like proper Busby Berkeley backup dancers they’re fast asleep.

They are, however, carefully placed in pairs. Up at the top we have Claudine and Maya, the pros who feel alone, both of whom have a strong need to be successful in their art for validation. Their sleeping positions mirror each other, spread across a couple stairs, heads on their arms.

In the middle, Kaoruko and Futaba lie slumped on each other, their relationship so close but so fraught. Funnily enough, despite Futaba being much taller than Kaoruko, the way they lean on each other makes her look very small.

The next stair down is Junna and Nana, both natural leaders who do things for others and have a lot of self-doubt. They, too, mirror each other in their poses, though Nana is curled up a lot tighter than Junna.

And then, at the bottom... Mahiru. I’m worried about Mahiru, if only because the rest of the girls are so clearly paired up. Whether that’s romantic or just friendship, they all have a Most Important Person, and while the prologue manga was pretty strongly aligning Mahiru with Karen, Karen’s on the stage doing a big dramatic dance about her lost Hikari. That pairs them incredibly strongly, and Mahiru ends up looking very alone.

#revue starlight #shoujo kageki revue starlight #revueblog #revue liveblog #pdaliceblogs #revue 01 #claudine #maya #kaoruko #futaba #junna #nana #mahiru #alice reads too much into poses pt 500000

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sundoodle · 4 years

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It's Revue Starlight Monster AU Time

it's gayer. it fluffier. it's very self indulgent only my ships for me hahahahaaha. All the monsters can transform into humans and back again, this post is gonna be a thread of the animal form ref sheets I made n some tiny details.

A....a LOT of Lore below.

LORE that me and @witchbogs have cowritten

Human Knowledge of Monsters:

Most monster communities Are Isolated from humans, but myths and a vague knowledge that they're out there is the common perception. Rumors if they are dangerous or friendly depends on the region/community. There are some areas where humans and monsters live alongside each other peacefully. However, noticing if someone is a monster or not depends upon a human's own ability to Perceive Magic

Our humans are Mahiru, Tamao, Lalafin, Aruru, Akira, and Yachiyo

Lalafin and Aruru grew up around monsters Akira and Yachiyo grew up within hunter families Mahiru and Tamao had casual exposure to monsters

Magical Perception Rank High: Lalafin, Mahiru, Yachiyo Mediuim: Aruru Low: Akira and Tamao

Lalafin grew up in a household that helped protect monsters from hunters. Aruru just grew up chilling with Misora's fam. Tamao had contact with the Hanayagi's but her low perception didn't leave her with much of an impact. Mahiru had the occasional werewolf friend (coughsuzucough)

Akira was raised in one of two very prestigious hunter clans, but her magic perception is utter shit. Her test to become a full-fledged hunter failed because she ended up contracted to Michiru. Akira has no contact with her family and she doesn't really care .

Yachiyo was raised with the other clan and is a full-fledged hunter. Her first solo mission was SUPPOSED to be subduing Fumi, but Fumi transferred and Shiori is....well. She reports back to her family on the dealings of the monsters in the school. The accuracy of them shifts.

WEREWOLF TIME

Our werewolves are Karen, Hikari, Rui, Fumi, Shiori, and Misora

werewolves aren't turned, it's a hereditary magic, and families are werewolf packs. however, the transformation only happens if you have a certain level of estrogen in your system.

Transformation can happen at will, however, everyone Will transform during a full moon. Partial transformations often happen when emotions run high and the wolf gets sloppy. Karen, Hikari, and Fumi are all pretty typical wolfies.

Rui is typical in all but size. she is. ENORMOUS. like size of a small car. While the others are generally a normal wolf size. Except also Shiori, who was sickly as a kid, so her werewolf form is rather small, and high levels of stress can keep her trapped in her puppy form for several days

Misora is a trans girl. She is recently started estrogen and reached the threshold for transformations to start shortly before leaving for frontier. most Beginning transformations happen when werewolves are babies, and their bones are still soft, so the transformation isn't hard. so unfortunately Misora's first couple are painful and she struggles easing into casual ones without the moon. Her fur also starts out real patchy. But everyone at frontier helps her settle in and make sure she's comfortable as possible and are super happy for her when she starts fluffin out

NEKOMATA/bakeneko

Tsukasa is basically a were-tiger, but with a split tail and some neat magical powers. she helps misora a lot with her transformations and is thrilled to be able to interact more casually with other magical creatures. her fam was real strict on secrecy ( fun side note, Frontier def has a whole lil page dedicated to their 'friendly tiger' who just wanders around and hangs out in the performance dorms so many rumors start flying when a red wolf starts showing up with her )

VAMPIRES

Claudine, Nana, and Shizuha are all vamps

full vampirism isn't a heritable trait, since it stops a human from aging. But, vampire clans often adopt orphaned children and turn them if they so choose. Half-vamps are also a thing. Loner vamps are the dangerous ones.

Claudine is a halfie and she chose to join her mother in staying a vampire. She also functions like a Twilight Vampire where she doesn't burn in the sun but sparkles. Everyone just thinks she uses a lot of body glitter. She was originally born in about 1920. Mostly eats meat rare for blood, but if someone offers she’ll take a sip

Shizuha is a pretty new vampire who was raised by a clan. They adopted her from an orphanage and she chose to turn just because she likes her family a lot. Her type of vampire burns in the sun but her health goo is a potion to keep it from killing her. Og born in 1970s. Shizuha’s goo is also her vampire food, but again, will drink from friends who offer (usually lalafin and aruru)

Nana is the oldest vampire. She was turned in a loner accident over 200 years ago. With no vampire support system, she went feral with bloodlust for the first couple decades until she met up with vampire hisame, who calmed her down before leaving her for more civilized vamps. She then chose to stay in a series of tunnels under where Seisho was built, and stayed there eating rats until Karen dug a hole in the garden and dragged her into the common room to show all her new friends. Nana works with Junna for her sun-protection and a way to turn mortal. Nana refuses to drink from humans in fear she’ll go feral again

WITCH

Junna's a witch. She insists she's simply a scientist with a high magic perception. She deals mostly in potion making rather than spells. She helps Nana create blood-replacements for vampires, vampire sunscreen, and is researching a way for Nana to be mortal again

KITSUNE

Maya and Kaoruko. Kaoruko's family is a high profile and important kitsune fam with lots of connections and fae-touched workers Kitsune can do minor wish/curse magic. they can appear as normal foxes as well. Maya's family is known for their talent in acting and slyness

FAE

Futaba, Ichie, Michiru are fae Fae are elfish beings with a ranging affinity for magic. Tend to work in contracts OR minor miracles. Futaba is part of a family who became fae-touched as they worked for Kaoruko's. Her magical ability is low but she excels in noticing spells

Ichie is mostly just a trickster. She does pranks or enchants songs to make people feel happier. Usually they work out, sometimes she gets a mess, her magic can be a little wild.

Michiru works with contracts and persuasion. She made a deal with Akira to form an acting troupe. Michiru also feeds off of emotion, which is why she wants an acting troupe in the first place. Theatres and compelling plays provide a bountiful feast for her. Andrew is Michiru's older brother who prefers the guise of a mole. He likes feeding off negative emotions. he sucks

DRAGON

Mei Fan is a dragon. she cool. she breathe fire. her scales can have some magical properties. she can fly. yeah. dragon.

???

Yuyuko: we just don't know. Except she sleepy and was active during the height of Rakugo/Noh/other traditional Japanese arts

and that is a VERY long thread for the basic information of the plot kjshfjkshf Seiran is technically also in this world. Suzu is a werewolf, Koharu a Kitsune, Hisame a vampire the giraffe and Elle are just the same as in starira. bc i mean they magic. thank you for reading!!!

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animebw · 4 years

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Revue Starlight: Series Reflection

Theater has been of my biggest passions for a long time now. I started performing in fundraising cabarets my dad would host for our local theater when I was ten, and when I finally started acting for real in high school, there was no going back. I have a deep and abiding love for the stage that surpasses pretty much every other hobby I indulge in, even writing about anime. I love acting, I love directing, I love playwriting, I love the process of watching a production pull together, I love watching a performance grow from the first tentative rehearsals to opening night, I love the struggle, I love the success, I love the chaos and nerves and catharsis, I. Love. Theater. And I’ve been so bummed for the longest time because as much as anime has to offer, I could never find an anime that was really able to explore that feeling. Japan clearly has a very different theater culture than the US; there are so few plays depicted in anime, and those few are rarely more than spectacle performances, broad depictions of broad stories that don’t really intend to dig into the meat of what makes this art so rewarding to explore. Sure, Bloom Into You has a pretty rewarding theater subplot, and Rakugo Shinju captures a lot of what makes performing so fascinating to me, but those are clear outliers. Ever since I started watching anime, I’ve been dying to find that one show that truly captures what it means to love theater, in all its impossibly high highs and unbearably low lows and everything in between.

Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, the wait is finally over, and it was 100% worth it.

Revue Starlight is the celebration of theater that I’ve been longing to get from anime ever since I discovered this medium. It’s a soaring, audacious testament to an art form that’s been near and dear to my heart for over a decade now, a riveting exploration of what drives people to reach for the stage and how the pursuit of the spotlight changes us. This show gets theater more fundamentally than I think I’ve ever seen. It understands the ambition that drives actors to compete for the spotlight, and the ways that ambition can both inspire and destroy us. It understands the importance of performance as a transient art, something that must constantly evolve and re-invent itself in the moment of its inception. It understands the fear of feeling like you don’t measure up, the despair of falling short to the standards you set for yourself, the thrill of building a story with your own hands, the numbness of feeling your passion start to sap away from too many false starts. It understands what makes creating for the stage such an exhilarating, terrifying place, the reason so many egos are drawn to speak their piece under the blinding lights yet struggle and break before the pressures it brings with it. There is so much that can be said about theater and those that pursue it, and Revue Starlight captures every single contradictory, chaotic aspect of it.

But what truly lingers in my mind now that the curtain has finally dropped is how fucking perfectly this show gets what makes theater not just fascinating, but meaningful. It understands how this art can truly shape the lives of those that pursue it; I see so many of my theater experiences reflected in this show it’s terrifying. In Mahiru and Futaba, I see my admiration of my peers for all they’re able to accomplish and my desire to do them justice. In Junna and Kaoruko, I see my frustration at feeling outmatched by them no matter where I turn, striving to channel that burning envy into becoming a better actor and a better person. In Maya and Claudine, I see my desire to be more than just a solitary star, to balance my own ambition with the people I care for. In Nana, I see my desire to linger in my most rewarding moments forever, knowing that at some point I have to move on and keep evolving no matter how terrifying it is. In Hikari, I see my terror at losing faith in things I once believed so fully in, striving to find meaning when it seems to be slipping away. And in Karen, I see that spark alight again, that simple, excitable passion that drove me to the stage in the first place, still burning brightly no matter how many times it’s snuffed out. I see my fears, my hopes, my desires, my pains, my triumphs, my failures, writ large against this explosive backdrop of symbolism-drenched duels and literalized metaphors. Revue Starlight isn’t just a show about theater; it’s a show about what makes theater so goddamn important, and why it matters so goddamn much.

And it’s in drawing meaning from those truths that this show doesn’t just excite and delight, but becomes something truly transcendent. By digging into the heart of this incredible art, Revue Starlight weaves a narrative of ambition and despair, change and evolution, love and redemption, and above all else, hope. It’s a story that rushes unflinchingly into the thicket of despair, exploring the inevitable transience of life and the terror that makes us brace against it with clear eyes and a burning soul. It lets us feel every last ounce of the weight of the world as it bears down on us, the terrifying promises of the future awaiting us in the darkness and the fear that it’s already too late to change it. It presents life as the ultimate performance, one where the script is uncertain and the roles are ever-changing, where the stage lights are glaring and every performance rages on with no safety nets and no way to go back. It can be so easy to give in to the pressures of life, to rage against the rolling tides of change and conflict until they drag you under to drown. But Revue Starlight knows that no matter what, the show must go on, because this is the only “now” you’ll ever have, and you deserve to make every moment shine. It’s a stunning portrait of the power of choosing your own destiny, of rejecting the scripts of the past and writing your story anew, of strutting your hour upon the stage alongside the people who make it worth standing there and forging fate with your own hands. And whether you’ve spent countless hours sweating in front of an audience or have never so much sung at karaoke night, the power of that message is sure to make your future feel that much brighter.

Because this show- this incredible, awe-inspiring show- is a soaring triumph of everything that kind of brazen determination is capable of. It’s a riveting, exhilarating, exciting, giddy, spellbinding roller coaster ride, an endlessly entertaining action spectacle and an endlessly profound character drama that achieves every last spark of its own ambition. I marvel at its riveting direction, how flawlessly every scene flows into the next, how perfectly chosen every camera frame is, how spellbinding the action scenes are as they trumpet the show’s themes by way of an explosive musical theater bravura showcase. And I’m truly left speechless at the depths of its character writing, how fully realized and human its expansive cast feels, how quickly and deeply you come to understand and empathize with the stage girls who sweat it out for the honor of being chosen as top star. Every last one of them has more texture, nuance, growth, and personality packed into these twelve episodes than some full protagonists get in their entire run. I could spend ages hanging out with them and never run out of things to discover, or delight in, or marvel over. And the fact that they’re all so astronomically gay for each other is just the icing on the cake. This show really is Symphogear’s nerdier cousin, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Revue Starlight is a goddamn triumph. It sets itself impossibly high goals and achieves them with spectacular fireworks, seizing its own well-deserved spotlight as it weaves together countless threads into a single, astounding testament. I honestly have no major complaints to make; the only real nitpick I have is that a couple action scenes aren’t paced quite as well as they could be, and compared to everything else this show has to offer, that barely even registers. When all is said and done, Revue Starlight is a full-on masterpiece, a soaring tribute to the power and pressure of theater and a truly majestic rallying cry for the importance of forging the future with your own hands. Were it not for A Place Further Than the Universe, this would easily be the best anime of 2018, and it deserves so much more attention than it currently has. So if you’ve been following my binge-watch and haven’t yet watched Revue Starlight, now’s the time to fix that. Watch this goddamn show. Tell all your friends to watch it. Let’s give this incredible artistic achievement the attention it’s rightfully earned. I promise you, you won’t regret it.

And at long last, for all the wonderful things it accomplished, I give Revue Starlight a score of:

10/10

Thank you, Kinema Citrus. Thank you, Tomohiro Furuwaka. Thank you for this incredible performance. I can’t wait to see where the stage takes you next. As for me, I still have to watch the OVAs, which I’m greatly looking forward to. Thank you all so much for joining me on this magnificent adventure, and I hope you all stick around for the show that will take its place! And according to the random number generator, that show will be:

Black Bullet

Oh goody, another show I know virtually nothing about! And it looks like Kinema Citrus worked on this one too? What are the odds? See you all next time for the start of a new adventure!

#anime'#the anime binge-watcher #tabw #revue starlight #shojo kageki revue starlight #shoujo kageki revue starlight

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anonarat · 4 years

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@revue-starlight-week

Nana lay down on a grassy hill by the dorm. The season was just on the cusp of turning from pleasant spring into muggy summer. Warming up, she waited to see her plan come to fruition.

Across her many years she had dated, had loved each and every one of those who’d participated in the auditions, save for Hikari. No, that wasn’t quite accurate, it wasn’t the past tense, she still loved them all. She’d spent so long trying to protect them all, and now, Hikari was included in that.

Was it romantic? Yes. But it was more, a different sort of love too, almost motherly.

She couldn’t deny that perhaps she had been too greedy and smothering. Now they had their chance to grow and spread their wings. While she couldn’t predict the future, she had to hope and believe that they would become more beautiful than they already were.

“Nana?” asked Claudine, causing her eyes to snap open from her musings. Hardly a surprise that she was one of the first to arrive. As her eyes focussed, she could see Claudine holding Maya’s hand.

She had to stifle a giggle at the two girlfriends both trying to play it off casually, but she knew from past experience that in all likelihood their hearts were racing at the simple contact.

“Come on and lie here with me.”

“What’s the purpose of this?” asked Maya, trying to keep the confusion out of her voice. For most people, seeing Maya stare down at them with that haughty expression would instantly break them. Instead, Nana just patted the ground next to her.

When the pair sat down, Nana gave her reasoning, “it’s important to relax as well, we’ve all been working so hard and it’s a beautiful day. I thought I could have a picnic with all the people I love. Have a lie down while we wait for everyone else.”

Maya took the offer to lay down by Nana’s side to soak in the warmth, while Claudine still remained sat up.

“Who is it you love Nana?” came Claudine’s question as she considered her words.

“All of you. All of us who joined the auditions. In another world, another time, I have gotten to know each of you in the fullness of your brilliance,” said Nana, as she was interrupted by Junna’s arrival.

“Morning Junjun!” said Nana, distracted from her train of thought.

“Good morning Nana,” then turning and nodding to the other, “and to both of you Saijou and Tendou.”

“Please don’t be so formal, we’re all friends here.”

“You shouldn’t speak on my behalf,” said Maya admonishing Nana, “but she is correct we should all be friends.”

“What she’s saying is that she really admires your diligence,” said Nana, enjoying the twin blushes of both Junna and Maya, though the latter shot her a glare.

“I told you I know all of you. That’s another reason why I set all this up.”

“Set all what up?” asked Junna, taking a seat on the opposite side of Nana. She smoothed out her skirt and leaned back, bracing herself on her arms.

“A picnic. Also hopefully an opportunity to convince you all to see something my way.”

“Banana, you are really good at saying things that just leave more questions than answers,” said Claudine, “you’re practically begging for us to ask you what exactly you want us to see your way.”

“Sorry,” she apologised, “it’s a bad habit I’ve picked up from when I knew everything that was going to happen. I know you, all of you, well all except Hikari, hold at least affection for the rest of us, if not outright crushes.”

“Of course some of us,” Nana continued with a smile, “know exactly who we desire the most. It’s why without my interference, Clau and Maya will always end up together. As will Kaoruko and Futaba.”

“We’ll what?” asked a Futaba carrying a still dozing Kaoruko up the hill, “I just heard our names, I didn’t catch the rest.”

“Speak of the devil,” said Claudine with a smile.

“If you’re talking about Kaoruko, I can see why you’d call her that,” grumbled Futaba before letting out a yelp as Kaoruko gave her a quick nip to her shoulder. She struggled a bit as she temporarily lost grip on her passenger.

“What was that you were saying Futaba dear?”

“I don’t think these public displays of affection are really appropriate,” said Junna, fixing the pair with her best class representative look. There was absolutely nothing apologetic about Kaoruko’s face, and Futaba just looked disgruntled.

When they joined the group Futaba lay down, while Kaoruko decided to use her legs for a pillow.

“I hope you were only saying good things about us behind our backs,” said Kaoruko, Nana replied with a hum of acknowledgement.

“Oh I was just telling everyone that I knew you two always become girlfriends without interference.”

“Of course,” said Kaoruko, “I have to show Futaba the most dazzling performance, so I need to keep her close.”

“I also know how you’d like Maya to go down on you,” said Nana with a teasing grin. It didn’t stop the normally relaxed Kaoruko going the brightest shade of red and covering her face with her hands.

“What does that have to do with anything? She’s happily with Clau, I’m not some sort of homewrecker.”

“I didn’t say you were exactly, but this sort of thing is relevant to the discussion that I hope to have today.”

“How could something like that be relevant?” demanded Futaba, her eyes narrowed.

“You’ll see. We just need to wait for Mahiru, Karen and Hikari.”

“I think Mahiru was still trying to drag them out of bed when we left. Even if we’re here to have some sort of important discussion,” replied Futaba, not quite mollified. Nana couldn’t deny that she was cute when she got protective.

After that piece of awkwardness, the six of them chatted together for a while, enjoying the morning sun and each other’s company. Even if Nana remained coy about the entirety of her plan, at least until finally the sleepy duo and Mahiru arrived.

“Great, now that you’re here, shall I get the picnic things out?” asked Nana.

“Before that, I think you owe us an explanation, what exactly are you planning?” asked Maya, contributing for the first time in a while.

“I want all of us to be girlfriends with each other,” said Nana, sitting up to face the group. She held up a hand to forestall the questions that it looked like everyone else wanted to ask.

“As you all know, I’ve relived our first Starlight so many times. I’ve, I guess, seduced you all at various times because you are all so dear to me. I’ve spoken to you all, I know you all. Well, all of you save Hikari,” said Nana inclining her head towards the person who had completely changed the auditions.

“I know that many of us hold love or something similar for the rest of us. It’s selfish of me, but I want all of us to be together, never to part. Of course, that also depends on all of you. I’ve never tried something like this before, but please could you all consider it? For me?” finished Nana.

“That’s a fantastic idea!” came the immediate reply from an enthusiastic Karen.

“Well,” said Junna, “that wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but we should all discuss it.”

At that moment Karen’s stomach let out a growl, so Nana added happily, “well, we shouldn’t consider it without having lunch.”

That afternoon they spent discussing it and eating the food that Nana had made for them all. By the time it was finished, they had all ended up in what could only be described as a cuddle puddle. They were all full, contented and loved.

It had only been the very first step on their journey together. Doubtless it would contain many hardships in the future. They hadn’t even really finished the discussion. With a polycule this large, a long time would be spent ironing out the kinks (or indulging them), but for Nana, it was painfully, beautifully perfect.

#Daily not drabble #Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight #revuestarlightweek #revuestarlightweek2020 #skrsweek2020 #Prompt: All 9 girls #...Do you know how hard it is to write a short piece featuring 9 female characters #Honestly though I'm quite tempted to aggressively edit this at some point and post it to AO3 #All hail The Grand Seisho Polycule

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terraoblivion · 5 years

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I get where people are coming from when they claim Karen and Hikari are boring in Revue Starlight. They see a laid back, happy go lucky girl and offbrand Homura. While I believe this perception is wrong, I'm not sure how much I can blame people for it. We were meant to see that, the script and direction are clearly playing on those expectations. They're just also trying to make a thematic point with it.

Yes, Hikari is a cheap Homura knock-off, because she chose to be one. After suffering the trauma of her loss to Judy in London, building herself up as a hero to at least save Karen is what kept her going and helped her cope with that trauma. This is the model of trying to be a hero she chose. The grim, stoic badass driven by past hurt to save and protect the weak, innocent girl she loves. Classic heroic archetype.

Except it doesn't work.

All her plans are utterly absurd. How would being surly and distant to Karen in any way change whether Karen got an invitation? How can she not see the obvious flaw in trying to protect somebody from losing by making them forfeit? How exactly is stabbing Karen in the back and all but committing suicide in front of her supposed to not be traumatic for Karen?

These are all terrible plans, but ones that are consistent with classic storytelling tropes. The superhero must lie to his loved ones to protect them. The damsel is protected not by strengthening her agency, but by keeping her away from danger. The chivalric knight tears himself to shred to prove his devotion to his lady love. The hero sacrifices themselves so that innocents are saved. This is how Homura, the very character people treat Hikari as an inferior clone of, treats Madoka for most of the show.

Karen on the other hand is seen as weak and girly. By the audience, by her classmates (except for Mahiru, obviously) and most hurtfully by Hikari. Hikari sees her as the crybaby love interest she must protect, even as she is aware that she's lying to protect her own feelings. She says as much when she admits that the reason why she wanted to limit interaction with Karen while in London is to avoid feeling homesick.

But while Karen's clearly one of the girlier characters, she's hardly weak. While all the other girls in some form or another buckles under the strain of their career, Karen thrives at Seisho. She's joyful and playful and full of energy as she goes through her day in the first episode. She has fun, she has friends, she appears to genuinely love theater and performing.

In comparison all the other girls are cracking under the strain. Hikari fell into depression from merely being number two. Junna fears that she'll never be a star and if she can't be the star, then it will invalidate throwing away the safe future her family had planned for her to pursue theater. Kaoruko is breaking from no longer being the gifted child everybody praises. Maya had to throw away friendship, her ability to express her emotions and even her social skills to reach the top. All the girls have stories like that.

Except Karen.

Karen enjoys being part of theater with her friends and her performances. She might not be ambitious about being the star, but she still incorporates her performance and practice into daily activities and she's still accomplished enough to not only get in, but to get a role two years straight. It's hard to see how she wouldn't be a valuable member of a theater troupe. She's not going to get into fights over top spot and is quite emotionally stable in general, while also being able to both do the job and have energy left for telling jokes and building camaraderie.

This lack of ambition doesn't stop her from taking decisive action when she needs to either, nor asserting her own needs and desires when she thinks she needs to. She jumps in to save somebody she cares for without a second thought, not even entertaining the lecture on why she's inferior and unworthy. She reaches out to people she's told are her rivals when she realizes they have emotional need and seeks to support her. She claws her way out of depression by taking on a brutally hard task and sees it through to completion. These aren't the actions of somebody weak or thoughtless, they're the actions of somebody with a clear sense of self and what their goals and desires are.

Nor is Karen simply following Hikari like I frequently see people claim. Performing Starlight together was her idea. Getting involved in the revues was her idea. She dragged Hikari back into things when she was trying to sneak out and in the end, she goes to tell Hikari how she screwed up and pull her back out. She also takes time on things unrelated to Hikari to support other girls and her introduction doesn't even bring up their promise until Hikari shows up, even as she introduces her life at Seisho. Hikari is the most important thing for Karen, but not the only thing and what they do together is ultimately always Karen's goals.

While Hikari doesn't realize it, Karen is the one who inspires and leads and Hikari is the one who seeks to follow and support. The big goal they both work towards until Hikari's cynicism, trauma and disillusionment gets the better of her was Karen's idea. All of Hikari's proactivity is aimed at protecting Karen. While appearances suggests that Hikari should be the otokoyaku and Karen the musumeyaku, Karen leads and inspires Hikari and Hikari seeks to support and protect Karen. And both Hikari and, seemingly, the audience miss this.

Which is the thematic point behind why this couple are the leads and why Karen is the hero and Hikari the love interest. It shows the artificiality in the roles of the otokoyaku and the musumeyaku and it seeks to present a counterpoint to traditional character roles in anime. The cheerful girly one is the hero, making the decisions and inspiring others, the aloof, badass loner is the love interest who swoons at the actions of the hero. It's an inversion of expectations and established narrative patterns and one that plays beautifully with both the themes of overturning the strict order of Takarazuka and the preordained tragic end of fictional lesbians.

This is why you could not tell this story with anybody but Karen as the lead and Hikari as both love interest and foil. It's also why I'd be really interested in seeing what a story where one of the other girls is the lead would be like.

Also, as a side point that's not really important thematically, but part of why I love them as a couple. Hikari is such an adorable dumbass. The final chapter of the prologue manga where she thinks she's being the sneaky hero who will bring everybody joy, while everybody else are trying to help out without letting her realize is just the cutest thing. She's just so sure that she's doing this wondrous thing that will shock and delight everybody, even as she's trying to hide an entire Christmas tree in their common room.

#Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight #Aijou Karen #Kagura Hikari #Revue Starlight

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tren-fraszka · 4 years

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Past Imperfect 2019 Letter

Dear creator,

Thank you for taking your time to check my requests. I know my requests can sound a bit tricky, but please don’t be discouraged. I wish you will have good time writing first and foremost!

My AO3 is Tren, if you wish to check it out.

Likes: comedy, casefics, canon compliants, AUs, time loops, bodyswaps, roleswaps, “being hoisted by your own petard” plotlines, snark, pettiness, rivals, enemies to friends to lovers, violence, friendships and character bonding,

DNW: explicit sex, A/B/O, mpreg, rape depicted as positive (so no “it’s okay, because the other person enjoyed it/it was what they truly wanted”), trans headcanons, soulmate AUs, stories ending with surrender to fate/destiny, fourth wall breaking in canons where that doesn’t occur, character has cancer or other real life terminal disease AU, word “queerplatonic”.

Also, I included what ships I’m okay with in each fandom. Please do not include any ships that aren’t canon and I have not allowed in those sections (if you feel really strongly about a ship I haven’t mentioned, you can always ask through mods just in case).

Additionally, while I almost never request fanart as possible medium, because I prefer my main gift to be fic, I would be very okay with receiving fanart treats. On another note, feel free to use my old letters if you get your hands on them. I never stop being interested in fandoms, and if I requested something once I will still want it in the future.

REQUESTS

A general note on time travel: feel free to get bloody if you want. Aside from Revue Starlight which isn’t a violent show by nature, I don’t mind characters dying and getting hurt during the attempts to change the timeline. I also don’t mind characters not succeeding in their attempted goals, as long as the fic doesn’t have a complete downer ending. I’d rather the heroes won at the end of the day, but I don’t mind if you make it a bitter victory. Good endings are, of course, fine too. I also love the trope where the attempt to change the events through time travel results in the canon timeline.

TALES OF SYMPHONIA

Lloyd Irving, Lloyd Irving & Kratos Aurion

This party gets so many things wrong on their journey to save the world that almost half of it is in ruins when they are done saving it. Needlessly to say I think there is a whole lot that our party may want to fix using time travel.

I'm partial to the idea of time traveller Lloyd because he would be so terrible at it. He's just so earnest he would accidentally reveal he has a whole lot of knowledge he shouldn't possess. Give me future Lloyd who returns to the body of his younger self who has only just started on his journey of regeneration and who keeps struggling not to call Kratos dad. Or future Lloyd returning to the past with his own body, who is desperately trying to stay incognito and fix the timeline rather than accidentally breaking it even more (bonus points if future Genis and Yuan have some sort of magical connection with him and are constantly screaming at him about what he should and shouldn't do). I would also love future Lloyd pretending before the party that he is just a mysterious swordsman by emulating Kratos.

I'm also fine with other characters travelling in time, I just don't have concrete prompts for them. But you are free to have fun with them. I'd rather the Kharlan Heroes weren't the ones time travelling since their charm is in the fact that they are absolute dumbasses who keep failing to account for the consequences of their actions (aside from Kratos who spends way too much time being apathetic, only to regret absolutely everything when he does manage to pull himself out of his depression), but if you have some good ideas for how they can fail even more by time travelling I won't mind (maybe they can accidentally get into way of some other time travelling characters). I just want them to keep being ancient disasters. If they suddenly became competent enough to fix the timeline it would feel weird. Unless it's Martel who somehow time traveled into the future and proceeds to fix everything by slapping all other Kharlan Heroes and telling them they are idiots.

As for how much the timeline is fixed, I would prefer for Yggdrassil to get defeated and the worlds to be merged at the end, but if the characters' efforts don't amount much to actually making things better than the original timeline, I won't mind. You are even free to make them fail even more. Honestly, stopping Kratos from gallivanting into space is the only fix-it that actually matters to me and I would love if it gets included into the story.

Also, you are free to go for some darker moments with Lloyd time travelling back to when his mom died and trying to save her, but failing to do so.

As for the ships, I'm fine with: Lloyd/Genis, Genis/Presea, Lloyd/Genis/Presea, Zelos/Colette, Colette/Sheena, Zelos/Colette/Sheena, Anna/Kratos, Yuan/Martel, Kratos/Yuan (as "useless widowers who only have each other left" ship). Please don't include any ships not listed here, even if they are 2/3 of a threesome.

Time Loop/Groundhog Day

Time Travel Fix-It

Mental Time Travel to Past - Replacing Past Self

Mental Time Travel to Past - Sharing Body With Past Self

Time Travel Fix-It - Time Traveler Fixes Things By Accident

Uncontrollable Spontaneous Time Travel

Time Travel to Fix Problems Caused By Previous Time Travel

Multiple Travelers - Get In Each Other’s Way While Trying To Achieve Different Goals

SHOUJO KAGEKI REVUE STARLIGHT (ANIME)

Yes, I really am okay with any characters from this show. I love all girls in this theater school, so I'd rather you focused on the ones you enjoy the most, dear author. I admit I just want more shenanigans around Banana's time loop. Give me all more or less successful attempts to break out of it. Maybe Maya becomes aware of the time loop and starts to view Nana as a rival much to Claudine's frustration. Or Kaoruko's increasing frustration with the fact that she's the only one who remembers time loops other than Nana finally spurs her to put effort into bettering herself. Or maybe Giraffee's POV as it gets increasingly frustrated with the repeating performances and tries different indirect approaches in hopes of stopping Nana. Feel free to use any other idea you have, I'm just interested to see your ideas!

I'm playing Re-live game so you are free to borrow characters and ideas from it. Maybe rather than Hikari it's some other stage girl that comes to Seisho and gets caught in the time loop? Or one of the characters travels into the future and they end up having three days to learn for their role, because they don't share memories with their future self.

You are free to ship any girls from the anime as you like. My only request would be that if you decide to borrow Michiru from Re-Live that she will not be shipped with anyone.

Breaking a canonical time loop

Canonical Time Loops

Time Loop/Groundhog Day

Multiple Travelers - Accidentally Get In Each Other’s Way While Trying To Achieve The Same Goal

Multiple Travelers - Get In Each Other’s Way While Trying To Achieve Different Goals

Time Loop - Unexpectedly Living With The Consequences Of Actions During Final Loop

Time Travel For Pranks And Petty Mischief

Trying to not break a canonical time loop

5 Minute Long Time Loop

Outsider POV Of Strange Events Caused By Time Travel

LORD EL-MELLOI CASE FILES

I’ve watched anime and read the first volume of the novel. I also know way too many other Fate properties if you want to use them or the characters from them.

Waver Velvet, Gray

This canon is perfect for all sorts of magic induced time travel shenanigans be it time loops or time travels. I would love for Waver and others to stumble into some sort of time distortion and have to figure out how to escape out of it.

I requested Waver and Gray, because I feel like they would be the most interesting characters to be involved in time travel shenanigans, but if you want, I also wouldn't be opposed to Flat, Reines or Callum in that role. You may make the situation as serious or as mundane as you wish. This fandom is great for all kinds of stories. Whether it be Gray caught up in a time loop that always ends up with Waver ending miserable and trying to change that, or Waver having to watch death of people important to him.

The loop could be caused by magical accident or be a ploy aimed to Reines faction. Or maybe Flat created a time loop because he couldn't finish his homework on time. Or someone from Waver's class brought a cursed artifact to the class and now they need to figure out who it was. The possibilities are endless. I also think that a character from the future using magecraft to communicate with those in the past could work really well here.

If you know Zero, then I would also be very much up for Gray travelling back in time to see the fourth Holy Grail war. Whether she changes anything, or if she remains a bystander by accident or choice isn't really important to me. I'm fine with both. Though I think it would be really sweet if she got to comfort Waver after Iskander's death.

I love this fandom for all the gen relationships, so I would love if you went in that direction. When it comes to pairings I would be okay with Waver/Melvin or Reines/Gray, but don't feel forced to write them in.

Time Loop/Groundhog Day

Time Loop - Unexpectedly Living With The Consequences Of Actions During Final Loop

Time Loop - Only looping character is aware of the loop

Time Travel For Pranks And Petty Mischief

Unusual Ways To Communicate Through Time

Accidentally Built A Time Machine

Uncontrollable Spontaneous Time Travel

5 Minute Long Time Loop

Meeting your hero in the past

Multiple Travelers - Accidentally Get In Each Other’s Way While Trying To Achieve The Same Goal

Parallel Universes

Outsider POV Of Strange Events Caused By Time Travel

MY HERO ACADEMIA

I'm reading the chapters as they come out, you are free to incorporate any new developments.

Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Uraraka Ochako, Tokoyami Fumikage

Unlike other canons I requested, for this one I have a very strong preference for one of the characters I requested to be the time traveller. I love most of the cast, but this is one time I'm gonna play favourites.

This canon is great for characters going back in time to fix stuff with everybody having heroic motivations. How well their attempts go is up to you. Feel free to put the characters through some hell if you want.

Since I would enjoy similar scenarios for all characters I feel like it would be more helpful if I focused on the reason why I chose this specific characters:

- Uraraka - one of her biggest strengths is her ability to read and influence others. It would be interesting to see her change the events using her talents. She's not very powerful and charismatic compared to some of her classmates, but she has plenty of tricks of her own to use instead. Also, she has determination to spare.

- Tokoyami - I love him and Dark Shadow. It would be very interesting to see how the loyal and hard working Fumikage deals with suddenly being thrown into the past. He would surely want to help his friends, but at the same time he seems to believe in fate to some extent. How would he be able to reconcile those two drives?

- Aizawa - on the one hand as a teacher he can do much more, but on the other one now he has to save his thirty students from all the dangers lurking before them. Needlessly to say, it's no easy task to keep all the problem children of class 1A safe. He's an experienced hero, so it would be interesting to see how he uses his knowledge and skills to overcome the obstacles in his way.

For the pairings I enjoy Bakugou/Uraraka, Todoroki/Deku and Aizawa/Hizashi. I don't have strong shipping preference for Tokoyami, but I would be okay with shipping him with Deku. Feel free to ask through mods if you feel strongly about shipping him with someone. As far as Uraraka's feelings for Deku are concerned I'm okay with her crush being mentioned, but I'd rather it wasn't the focus and definitely not an endgame. I like the idea of the two of them dating for some time, but realizing it isn't working for them and staying friends instead or a scenario where Uraraka never conveys her feelings and they sizzle out through years.

Character Receives Letters from Their Future Self

Character's Health Worsens the More They Time Travel

Time Loop/Groundhog Day

Character Meets Their Own Earlier/Later Incarnation

Time Loop - Looping character trying to save another character's life

Uncontrollable Spontaneous Time Travel

5 Minute Long Time Loop

Alternate Universe - Canon Character Is Secretly A Time Traveler From The Future

Multiple Travelers - Accidentally Get In Each Other’s Way While Trying To Achieve The Same Goal

Mental Time Travel to Past - Sharing Body With Past Self

Mental Time Travel to Past - Replacing Past Self

Mental Time Travel to Past - Merging With Past Self

#exchange letters

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theatricks · 5 years

Text

Entanglement of the Mafia Famiglia - Chapter 1

I’m extremely late in posting this (orz), but @Disu_izu_Fengzy and I have teamed up to translate this event! You can check this thread for an HD video with subtitles or if you’d prefer, the plain text is below!

[Mafia Famiglia - The Jet-Black Omertà]

Masai: 1945, the Mafia Golden Age. A high class neighborhood in the New York suburbs. Masai: In the yard of Don Brioschi, boss of the underworld, a spectacular party is being held for his daughter Elena. Masai: Underneath the dazzling sun, a band plays lively music, and everyone, both men and women, dance and sing.

[A script reading recital for competency]

Kaoruko: "Haah, that was fun. Dancing the La Vinca on a birthday is special!" Nana: "Elena-ojousama, that was a wonderful dance. I will prepare you some juice." {The Boss' Daughter, Elena - Played by Hanayagi Kaoruko} {The Maid Attendant, Melissa - Played by Daiba Nana} Kaoruko: "Melissa! Mm-mm, I'm not done yet. Let's dance together next!" Nana: "After you have finished your greetings, then. Your older brothers have arrived." Kaoruko: "Wow, onii-sama!" Hikari: "Elena! Happy birthday! Your dance today was even better than usual." Junna: "Congratulations, Elena. You've grown into a fine young lady." {Elena's Brother, The Eldest Son - Played by Kagura Hikari} {Elena's Brother, The Second Son - Played by Hoshimi Junna} Hikari: "Indeed. Aah, my cute little sister! C'mere and give me a hug!" Kaoruko: "Onii-sama, spin me around like this! Around and around!" Hikari: "Alright, hold on tight so you don't get thrown off! Here we go!" Kaoruko: "Kyaah♪ Fufufu." Hikari: "Hahaha, dancing with me is pretty good, too, right!" Junna: "Onii-san. If you do that too much Elena is going to get dizzy." Hikari: "Oops, you're right! Elena who was just in the cradle until recently is already 10 years old--I got carried away!" Junna: "You said that last year, too. Well, I understand the feeling." Masai: Stop j~ust a moment. Masai: Can you make the second son a bit more nihilistic? Masai: It's his little sister's birthday, but it's also a family meeting he's keeping a distance from. Junna: 'A bit more nihilistic'... Got it, I'll give it a try. Masai: Please do~ Okay, let's try it once more from here~ Junna: "You said the same thing last year. I mean, I guess I understand the feeling..." Hikari: "I see you're as depressing as ever. It's your little sister's birthday party, you know? Cheer the hell up!" Junna: "Haha, it's not that I'm unhappy. Not all of us can be as simple as you." Hikari: "What did you say?" Kaoruko: "Geez. It's been so long since the three of us have been together, but you're already fighting. Let's all get along and dance♪" Claudine: "The two brothers laughing together along with their angelic little sister? Family really is a wonderful thing..." Futaba: "Master, pardon me. Bartolomei Salvatori would like to have a few words with you..." {Boss of the Underworld, Don Brioschi - Played by Saijo Claudine} {Head Maid - Played by Isurugi Futaba} Claudine: "Bartolo, huh. Bring him here." Futaba: "Are you certain? He's not supposed to set foot on Brioschi territory..." Claudine: "Think of it like prison. Even when someone is put into solitary for causing discord, they're at the very least allowed a meeting with their parents."

Maya: "Pardon me for not contacting you sooner, Don Brioschi. As for young lady Elena, I hope she has a long future ahead." Claudine: "It's good of you to come, Bartolo... No, Don Salvatori. Is this your friend?" Mahiru: "It's an honor to meet you, Don Brioschi." Maya: "A business partner I can trust. We've brought good tidings, as befitting this joyous day." {Boss of a Rival Mafia, Don Salvatori - Played by Tendo Maya} {Boss of a Smuggling Organization - Played by Tsuyuzaki Mahiru} Mahiru: "We're here to ask how you'd feel about getting involved in a new business craze soon. We'd like your cooperation, what with all your influence with politicians." Claudine: "A business craze... In other words, unseasonable 'snow', right?" Mahiru: "Yes. A pure white powder that brings happiness to those who obtain it... It will bring us millions in wealth." Mahiru: "Your share is 30 percent. For the first year, it will be millions of dollars, but after that, the profits will keep on increasing."

Nana: "Boss. I heard those men came to Elena's birthday party. That they brought you a business offer..." Claudine: "I refused. 'Snow' is profitable for sure, but it's not worth destroying the fellowships I've built up." Nana: "New business over old friends. That's what an ambitious person like him must be thinking." Claudine: "I intended to let him pass our boundaries and do as he pleases." Claudine: "However, I'm curious about the smuggler that came with him. Was he aiming for something, or was he searching for something?" Nana: "---Then, I'll have my subordinate look into it."

Karen: "So this is the bar that smuggler hangs out at. Something smells doughy..." Amemiya: It's 'fishy', Aijo-san. Karen: Wah, sorry! Is it 'cause I ate kinako sticks earlier...? {Melissa's Subordinate - Played by Aijo Karen} Futaba: If it's the kinako sticks' fault, then I'm not giving you anymore of them. Karen: Eeh!? I won't make a mistake next time, so forgive me~! One more time! I'll go one more time, okay! Masai: O~kay, then let's repeat it once more from here. Karen: "So this is the bar that smuggler hangs out at. Something smells fishy..." Mahiru: "Don't move. What does the Brioschi family want?" Karen: "Hold on, I came to cooperate. Y'know, 'snow', that business offer." Mahiru: "Hoh. You're here as Don Brioschi's middleman? You don't look like you're in the position to be, though." Mahiru: "Leaving that aside, we have a proposal for you. If you assist us, it'd be a great help... Right, boss?" Maya: "Precisely. I have a better role for you to play than a rat. The glorious role of being Lady Elena's kidnapper." Karen: "Salvatori...! You're kidnapping Lady Elena?" Maya: "You're free to refuse the offer or to negotiate the performance fee. However... The boss taught you that a Sicilian man must treasure his family, isn't that right?" Karen: "...! Do you mean to hurt my family...!?" Karen: "Did you forget the 'Jet-Black Omertà'? You swore non-aggression to us when you became the master of a household!" Maya: "I did not forget it. That's why I said this is an important role only you can play." Karen: "What is your goal... Answer me, Salvatori!" Mahiru: "Don't get so heated. You came here to cooperate, right? By your own will, without anyone instructing you." Maya: "Lady Elena is being attended to by that filthy hit woman. Seeing her nonchalantly pressing juice at the party made me sick." Maya: "That's why I'll remind them. That the blood that runs through our bodies is still dark...!" Mahiru: "Lady Elena will be the bait to lure out Melissa." Karen: "Good God! Reconsider! You don't understand the significance of what you're trying to do!" Maya: "You're my blue bird. And for bringing me happiness, grazie!"

#revue starlight #shoujo kageki revue starlight #starlight relive #translation #seisho

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banditchika · 6 years

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we all know claudine could walk down the street and get any girl she wanted. what about everyone else though? how would you rank them in terms of Girl Pickup Power

okay in terms of success rating it’d go like this

1) kuro: self evident. charm. poise. wit. looks!! she goes up to talk to a gal n even if nothing comes out of it, she’ll leave a girl feeling rlly good ab herself n with one hell of a story to tell!! fey-like charisma n the energy of a mysterious 1920s party crasher who saunters in w/o an invite n steals ppl’s drinks w a sly little smile, knowing that everyone attending is too smitten to try n stop her

2) karen: girl stopped on the way to the most important audition of her life to get down on one knee n dramatically declare her intention to help an old lady get her groceries, that’s Pure Princely Puppy Energy. karen’s got so much confidence n aplomb; even if her success rate is lower than kuro’s, in terms of pure “make girls feel amazing ab themselves n have a great day” energy?? karen is peerless

3) nana: i doubt she’d try it w/ actual serious intent but nana knows what she looks like!! she knows she can get it!! nana has a mischievous side to her, so i think she’d enjoy making girls blush n paying them attention, so long as everyone knows she’s not seriously looking for anything. she’s tall, she’s strong, she’ll give you baked goods--nana doesn’t have kuro’s charm or karen’s sheer puppy boldness, but she has just enough confidence to go for it n tbh?? what’s not to like ab nana??

4) futaba: she’s so handsome. she’s like the rugged, wholesome n down-to-earth love interest in a Certain Kind of romance novels who’s just so very normal n so very reliable n therefore, extremely loveable!! futaba’s the kind of girl you marry, yknow, but the fact that she herself is So Very Married knocks her way down the rungs of this ranking. in terms of capability she’s right where she’s supposed to b but girl uhaul’d before she even turned 10, probably. still, girls love her, n for good reason!! futaba is a Catch(TM)

5) mahiru: she’s got the beef n she’s kind, sweet, n so very strong n were it not for a crippling lack of self-esteem n the fact that mahiru is a “bring ur girlfriend home to meet the family after the second date” kind of gal, girls would b all over her for a good time!! it’s kuro’s mission to make a ladykiller out of mahiru (or really to just. give her enough confidence to borrow one of kuro’s croptops bc mon dieu its a crime to just HIDE all that away mahiru!!! flaunt it!!) but mahiru’s just too much of a domestic lesbian... all she wants a girl (or couple of girls) to bring back home to the farm n help out w the harvest. she has the assets but little actual pickup ability or desire, so here she is.... laying low....

6) junna: i think i’ve said before that she’s really a weirdly confident lesbian, but also, like... her interest in picking up girls is in the negatives. junna doesn’t do casual; she has to already b at a certain level of closeness to even Consider kissing a girl, so she’s automatically kicked down the rankings bc of that alone. but she also has additional personality handicaps bc junna’s the most charming after you’ve known her for a little while, so even tho she’s basically made of girlfriend material, junna radiates so much designated driver energy that girls kind of. swerve her. junna’s endearing quirks n ~suaver~ side takes time to emerge, n even then she doesn’t like to show them easily. junna’s greatest assets: her kindness, understanding, patience, etc etc etc r all things that reveal themselves w/ time n tribulation, so her ability to go to, idk, a bar n successfully get a girl to hit on her?? negative. she’ll just sit there n drink soda for three hours then go home n her friends love her for it

7) maya: “oh bandit but she’s so cool n girls love her how can she possibly b ranked so low” yeah girls love to LOOK at her but remember ep 6?? maya walked towards a cluster of her friends n classmates n everyone shut up so fast. maya is appreciated like a fine oil painting: fun to look at n talk about but r u gonna take her home?? r u gonna make sweet love to the painting?? cook breakfast for her in the morning?? even if she goes to a place where no one knows her n she can just b another gorgeous girl looking for another girl to pick up, i don’t think maya would b Very Good at doing romance outside of her community of theatre gays. she can get someone to have tea w her easily enough, but the girl walks away from the encounter feeling as tho she’s just had a nice outing w her beloved grandma rather than a date w a hot stranger. maya’s passion n fire come out in a stage setting n if u put her outside of that, she’s more than content to just putter around rather unsexily. add that to the fact that ppl don’t pique her interest easily, so she has no real desire to go out of her way to interact meaningfully w the average stranger, n u have another designated driver type to keep junna company

8) kaoruko: she’s gorgeous n a power lesbian n im sure her accent attracts more than a few admirers, but also consider: she’s very married and very, VERY shy. hitting on strangers out of the blue?? no way, not for her. she’ll leave that to kuro n sit on futaba’s lap so no one else gets any bright ideas. i think kaoruko would LOVE to watch her friends run around trying to get some, but actually participating?? not for her

9) hikari: hikari. i think it’s pretty self explanatory by virtue of personality why she’s so low!! before her england revue i think she might actually have ranked pretty high; she was so energetic then, n even as a kid she had her head screwed on well from what i remember. but the hikari now is hard to engage conventionally, so take her out to the hypothetical bar scene that i’ve constructed n she’ll likely be trying to order the weirdest, most dangerous sounding things on the menu n not paying attention at all to any girls throwing admiring glances her way. i think she appreciates girls!! i also think that she believes she has all the girls she needs, so there’s no need to try n pick up any more, ykno??

#sincerely pantsu #ask #long post #thanks ro this is something i put more thought into than i should have instead of napping #huesofthemorning

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tendomayas · 5 years

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does anybody else think about what the ~backstory~ is regarding maya’s bow and why she wears it? (*cough* tell me your headcanons...)

part of me wants to believe that she just wears it just ‘cause. like there’s no sentimental story to it or whatever. it just looks good yknow? it adds a nice touch to dress up a regular hairstyle. and yknow how maya is not really a visual artist? so the least she could do is make her hairstyle pretty by adding this small creative element...

but it’s also fun to think up of more meaningful ones. i like to think she has kept this hairstyle since childhood.

what if it was part of her costume during her very first stage play, and just decided to keep it for remembrance/good luck charm?

maybe she looked up to an actress/a character from a play who had that hairstyle too and decided she would wear her hair like it because they inspire her a lot.

maybe one time during rehearsals they had ribbon lying around as props, and it just so happens that she needs to tie her hair for practice, and so the hairstyle was born. and it just kinda stuck.

etc etc~

i mean, it might be weird to kept the same strand of ribbon since childhood, but who knows. i would also say it’s as important to her like how karen & hikari’s hairpins are to each other. she even wears it despite having a ponytail on.

i may also be over analyzing this... but it reminds me of a crown? i know it’s not where crowns are usually are... but it gives off the same vibe yknow. the whole “i am worthy so of course i have a pretty headdress” kinda thing. also bows/ribbons are always related to gifts/anything that is polished and perfect. and all of that in relation to maya is... well... i don’t even have to spell out how fitting it is.

anyway. this post turned out way longer than expected but idk guys i just love that maya wears a bow!!!

#maya tendo #tendo maya #revue starlight #maya tendou #fun fact i also wear a bow often so i'm so glad i finally love a character who wears them too #rambles

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queen-of-hearts92 · 6 years

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Revue Starlight Theory: The Tower of Venus.

My theorizing normally goes in my write ups, and I have talked about this a bit in my episode 10 one but I. I gotta post this separately. I gotta let everyone know, that I think I know where the stage came from. Cause I think the show has been hinting at it and the proof is mounting up. I’m about to lose my fucking mind in the best way possible so just gotta share this theory!

We’ve seeing these Venus De Milo statues every time we are on campus and while yes they are used to represent Maya, there can be more than one meaning to an object or symbol. So, there is one Venus De Milo placement I’ve thought was very weird. In episode 7, during the after party for the Starlight play, we see a Venus De Milo right in front of the Star Tower prop.

But, this statue isn’t featured in the Starlight play at all. Nor is said love goddess present. So, why the fuck is it grouped with the other two props? I was stumped on this for quite awhile until episode 9 when we see the book Starlight is based on, the passage below caught my eye.

It says here that the Star Tower is on another planet. After learning this, I slowly realized why that Venus De Milo was there. Hell why they are here in the first place. And theres so much that points to this conclusion that I must share it! This is gonna sound kinda nuts but, here it goes.

Theory: The underground stage, and in turn the giraffe, is from outer space. Specifically the planet Venus, and the show has been foreshadowing that it’s from Venus this the entire time.

I know! I know! That sounds wild, like a space giraffe? Really? But ohh boy there is just so much shit related to Venus in this show I can’t help but think that this theory is fucking possible! So, all my proof has been gathered here in this post!

Note: If you have read any of my meta before then you’ll probably see repeated information (or just wholeass taking my info from my previous posts) but I gotta put it in here for clarity sake. Plus it’s a good reminder anyways.

Let’s take a look!

>The stage’s connection to Starlight

-First off we know that the stage is closely connected with the Starlight play. The stage is connected to it due to the constant presence of the Star Tower. The tower that holds the star is in the London stage even though the Starlight play isn’t being performed at that school so we can assume that it’s present in all the auditions that happen here. And the tower in the Starlight play itself and it looks the same as the one in the underground stage. Therefore the Starlight story probably really happened and now the Star Tower is here in this stage.

Note: I’m very positive the stage is alive so I will be treating it like it is a living creature with wants and desires, just to let you know.

>Aphrodite’s symbols

I swear I’ve went over these several times, but! I shall do it again. Let’s go over all of Aphrodite’s symbols that appear in the show one more time so we all know what they are. And of course this involves Maya and a reason why she has this connection with the goddess in the first place.

-Aphrodite/Venus is the greek/roman goddess of love, passion, and beauty. Of course she’s associated with the planet named after her. The biggest show of her symbolism is during Maya and Karen’s duel in episode 3. Most of her symbols have been heavily associated with Maya in particular. Maya’s stage is covered in greek/roman architecture for starters, and also birds. Particularly swans, the swan are one of Aphrodite’s symbols. Maya descends from the ceiling riding a fucking swan, and there is ancient art of Aphrodite doing just that. Maya chucks Karen into a huge swan at the bottom of the stairs, there's also a curled up swan right here before Maya opens up the stage. The smaller birds on the stairs and one as a gold statue could indicate two different bird symbols, either sparrows or doves. I’m leaning towards doves since we see white birds earlier in Maya’s room. Doves are also one of Aphrodite’s symbols.

-Another symbol is the white myrtle flower, Maya has a white flower in her hair during the flashback. While its not the same type of flower the fact that it’s a white one indicates to me that it was meant to represent the myrtle flower. The statue(s) we’ve seen all around the school is Venus de Milo, and in episode 3 Maya stands right next to in the similar pose increasing her connection with the goddess. Additionally we have seen the statue more when an episode more heavily involves Maya in some way, we see that in episode 7. Funny we don’t see the statue in episode 10 yeah? I’ll get to why in a bit.

-Aphrodite/Venus is also associated with water since she was born rising out of the sea, there is water all over the stage and the series in general. On Maya’s stage, there is a fountain by the golden dove during the duel. Speaking of gold, Ode to Aphrodite is the only full poem that Sappho wrote that survives to this day. The word “chryse” in Greek means golden and it’s used in the poem to describe the goddess. The dove on the stage is golden, also Sappho is a very famous lesbian so there is that.

-So, why does Maya have all of these symbols? Maya has the Aphrodite symbolism because she herself was a symbol for the stage. She’s everything the stage could want for a Top Star including accepting the loneliness that comes with the position. But, we all know by now that she isn’t really ok with that. Maya very much doesn’t want to be alone at the top, especially since she has fallen in love with Claudine.

When Maya made the choice in episode 10 to not be alone at the top, she lost favor with the stage and it dropped her as a symbol since she no longer fits what it wants. Hence we see less of Aphrodite’s symbols around her. Hell in the 2 vs 2 duel the only prop that belongs to Maya that appears is the stairs, nothing else.

-Also it’s not just Maya that has an Aphrodite symbol around her, Nana has one too! Frogs! The Greeks and Romans associated frogs with fertility and harmony. And with Aphrodite because frogs were associated with licentiousness aka being promiscuous. Uh, yeah it’s not a perfect fit but the presence of frogs I think is still notable.

Let’s go on to the next goddess shall we?

>Inanna’s symbols

-Inanna has her symbolism all over the place too and she shares some things with Aphrodite/Venus. Both of them are associated with doves and of course love and passion. Inanna is also a goddess of the sky, war, and combat. The connection to Inanna and Aphrodite/Venus is pretty intense, which is because Aphrodite/Venus is a descendant of sorts of Inanna. The planet Inanna is associated with is Venus, and this association leads to a primary symbol of Inanna. It’s an eight pointed star called the Star of Ishtar/Inanna, also called the Star of Venus. The star is in the show itself! It’s in Karen’s gem on the hilt of her sword. This gives her and Karen a connection.

-The most they have in common besides the star is a parallel with Inanna’s famous decent into the underworld. In the myth, Inanna goes to the underworld to rescue her husband. She has to strip off her clothing to get through the seven gates of the underworld but gains her clothes back when she leaves much later. Inanna’s trip ended up being a failure though, her older sister is the queen of the underworld and she said no fuck you and skinned her and hung her body on a wall. Yup. Luckily her sister in law bailed her and her husband out so it’s fine.

In Karen’s story, she descended into an underground theater and falls below to rescue her love Hikari, and she also loses her clothes and gets new clothes. And as of episode 11 Karen is doing it again but going up instead of down this time. Also, in the Starlight play. Claire and Flora also have to pass through seven gates to get to their goal, just like Inanna did.

>Hikari and the Morning Star

-Hikari’s gem symbol in her weapon is the Morning Star, which is another name for the planet Venus. I say this because in artwork (if you can’t see it, look at the top by his arm) the Morning Star is portrayed like the symbol in her knife, usually in paintings regarding the greek god Phosphorus. He is the god of the Morning Star. And yes I know Lucifer is the other name for the Morning Star, Phosphorus also has that as one of his names. The Morning Star here resembles the greek/roman version of Lucifer, not the christian one. Mmmkay? Anyways, Hikari’s name even has a connection here! Hikari’s name means light and Phosphorus/Lucifer means light bringer. What are the odds eh?

-Karen and Hikari have the Star of Inanna and the Morning Star respectively because I think thats the stage’s way of marking them as the couple to act out the tragedy it wants. The stage does provide them with their weapons after all. Hikari’s weapon didn’t have the star there during her first audition and none of the other girls have clear symbols in their weapons like they do (trust me, I checked a lot gdi). And yes Karen and Hikari are the main pairing in the show but I don’t think thats why they have them. These two have these symbols that are the same star, and that is very significant in a show where a couple wants to be stars together and share the same stage.

So we have not one, not two, but three gods that are associated with the planet Venus that have their symbols in the show. That many references to this fucking planet indicates to me that the planet Venus is important here. And, it’s not just mythos that are indicated here.

>The planet Venus in real life.

Aspects that the real planet Venus has ties in with shit we’ve seen in the show too!

-Venus is extremely hot temperature wise, so much so that we can’t land anything on the planet for very long if at all cause it will melt. It’s covered with volcanos and boy does it have a lot of fire there. In Rev Star, the scenes with the literal giant stage hands in episode 8 were very much on fire. Kirins are also associated with fire, and would you look at that theres a Kirin being a spokes animal of sorts for the stage. And ofc there is the golden bird statue in episode 3, it shot fire out of its back to invoke the image of a phoenix. Which is another being associated with fire.

-The reason why Venus is pretty much on fire all the time is due to the greenhouse effect. The gas that surrounds the planet is so damn thick that heat can’t escape into space, just like how greenhouses trap in warmth for plants to grow. In Rev Star we’ve seen plant life growing indoors and underground, so you could say it’s like a greenhouse housing plants to grow.

-Venus wasn’t always a fiery hell scape, it used to be a water planet. Lots of oceans and shit like that. That would match up to all the water we’ve been seeing in the show, maybe the stage took the water with it lol.

-You know that symbol on Claire and Flora’s outfits and on the giraffe logo? I think I finally figured it out! It’s a phase of Venus, but flipped so it isn’t on it’s side. And it’s orange in the play because the planet itself (and its surface) is colored orange.

-The Star Tower has a strong association with the color pink, Venus does too in terms of its planetary symbol being one that also is used to mean a female person and pink is very strongly associated with those who consider themselves female.

-Venus is the brightest star in the sky, its why theres so many mythos surrounding it. The star in the tower is also extremely bright and brilliance/shining has been a consistent theme in this show. Shine bright like the planet Venus!

>Space theme is already there.

Rev Star involving things like stars and starlight gives it an automatic association with space so we do already have a space theme. Here are two examples of it’s space theme meaning the stage is from the planet Venus.

-Looking at the giraffe logo you can see that the giraffe’s neck has stars on it. If this is the logo for all the revues then this could indicate that this is a space giraffe. Yup.

-The ending theme is Fly me to the Star, note how star is not plural. That’s a little weird isn’t it? Specially since in the Starlight play there are two stars not one. But! There is only one star in the Star Tower. So, the star that we are really flying to is the Morning Star aka the planet Venus. WE GOING TO SPACE MOTHERFUCKERS!

>IN CONCLUSION!

As you can see, theres a TON of things associated with the planet Venus in this series. Hence I think this is all foreshadowing to where the Star Tower and the stage is from, motherfucking outer space! But there is still the question of how it got here and why it ended up here in the first place. I’m very curious to learn more. In the meantime, I gotta say if I’m right, I hope we fight the giraffe in space. Thanks for reading! Let’s see if I’m right or not! \ouo/

#revue starlight #shoujo kageki revue starlight #moo watches revue starlight #my 11 write up will come later! I just needed to get this one out first #like im fuckin flipping I cant believe the giraffe might be an alien geez #Venus now haunts my life its EVERYWHERE in this show #im flippin but im so excited sdjkh

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