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9/10 AMAZING TIER

30. Revue Starlight
https://myanimelist.net/anime/35503/Shoujo%E2%98%86Kageki_Revue_Starlight
Summer 2018 (12 episodes) plus one movie
My Score: 9/10, MAL Score: 7.65/10
Best Character: Hoshimi Junna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha07uSQmtLc

Premise: Seisho Music Academy trains students in dancing, singing, and acting to prep them for a life in theater. Then nine girls are pulled into a series of mysterious auditions unlike any other.

The Good: Revue Starlight is a music anime that at first seems like it'll be a cute girls doing theater slice-of-life. It has an amazing first episode twist, however, and, fair warning, I'm going to spoil what that is because otherwise I can't talk about anything. It quickly turns out to be an action anime. Nine girls are drawn into auditions by a mysterious talking giraffe, and the so-called revues take the form of musical battles fought on an impossible shapeshifting stage. The animation and visual style are beautiful. The characters are all unique and relatable. The battles are also some of the best I've ever seen, and they're bolstered by nice songs with a lot of meaning in the lyrics.

Still, my favorite thing about Revue Starlight is that it's brimming with symbolism. There's a nice surface level story for each character, plus an overarching plot about them battling to become the top star. There is also just so much depth beyond that. The revues blur the line between reality and fantasy, starting with a wonderful scene when Karen leaps from a high place and has a full magical girl transformation sequence before she elegantly arrives onstage. In that scene, one basic bit of symbolism is the hair clip she got from her childhood friend representing their promise to stand onstage together someday. It gets melted down in the sequence to power an engine. Her dream and their promise fuels her transformation! That's an easy one, but there is so much more and it goes so deep. Every time I focus on something and think about it for a bit, I keep finding more and more symbolism about acting and theater and dreams and life. I love stories with so much to examine. It also helps that the surface level story is flashy enough to be compelling on its own. The symbolism feels more like a bonus, a reward for attentive viewers rather than something that's necessary to appreciate the story.

The Bad: There are a few plotlines and characters that kind of bug me. I'm not a fan of Hikari because she's so needlessly antagonistic at times and a lot of her actions don't make sense to me. She drags Karen down a bit as a result. It isn't anything that ruins the anime, but that is my least favorite part.

Overall: Revue Starlight was such a wonderful surprise when it first aired. I thought it would just be about cute theater girls. I would've been happy with that too, I mean the theater bits were fun in Hinako Note. Then Karen found a mysterious elevator where a wall used to be, fell into the basement to meet a talking giraffe, and then she leapt into the auditions with an amazing transformation sequence. The revue that followed, a well-animated battle with good music, was beautiful. The rest of the anime maintains that level of excellence. It's also chock-full of symbolism, which I love. The anime felt like watching an impossibly intricate theatrical performance. I also enjoyed the sequel movie when I watched it recently.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/2/7/AAcDcBAAD4a3.jpg

CHARACTER: Hoshimi Junna (Revue Starlight)
https://myanimelist.net/character/151668/Junna_Hoshimi
Voiced by: Satou Hinata
TOP 100 RANK: 90th

SPOILERS FOR REVUE STARLIGHT

VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXz51nX7dLQ
(From the movie)

I like all the characters in Revue Statlight (except for Hikari). None of them were an obvious favorite, though, so I had to think a bit before settling on Junna. She might seem like a weird choice, and Junna herself would probably agree. She's not a childhood actress like Claudine, and she doesn't have the raw talent of Maya. She isn't effortlessly capable like Nana, and she isn't an heir to a prestigious dancing school like Kaoruko. Even a goof like Karen has moments where she can flip a mental switch and blow everyone else away. Against all of that skill, the only thing that Junna has is discipline and hard work. She fears that will never be enough to catch up to her peers.

I'll talk mostly about the movie now since it's still fresh in my memory. Everyone is choosing what path to take after graduation, and Junna wants to go to a higher level school. She reasons that she isn't ready to go onstage, not yet, so she wants to continue working hard to get there. The video I linked is her battle with Nana, which is all about calling Junna out. During the anime series, despite her doubts, Junna fought and clawed and struggled to be the top star. She lost, but she at least tried. Now she's seemingly giving up, cloaking herself with excuses that she isn't ready yet. Nana dominates her for most of the revue. All that Junna has is a bunch of famous quotes about acting and perseverance.

Then, as Nana is walking away, Junna finally decides that she's not done yet. Using one of Nana's swords (rather than her bow, which I viewed as symbolism for the way she distanced herself from things to make it hurt less when she couldn't reach her goals), Junna fights back. There are no more excuses. She gets knocked down, over and over, but she gets up every time. Then, finally, she gets the upper hand. She beats Nana, someone who easily defeated everyone else in a 1v6 earlier in the movie. I really related with Junna. The question of talent vs hard work resonated with me, and I was glad that she won't lose sight of her dreams.