Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight Movie

With the arrival of a new generation of talented girls, another lively year at Seishou Music Academy begins. The graduating 99th class is already preparing for the much-anticipated rendition of Starlight, a bittersweet story about the parting of two girls.

It seems like all students in the Actor Training Department have their post-graduation future figured out—except for the cheerful Karen Aijou. Having fulfilled her promise of performing in a play with Hikari Kagura, her ambitious childhood friend, Karen struggles to find her purpose. What lies beyond their promise is a mystery to Karen, as Hikari was the fuel that kept her passion for performing aflame. Now alone, Karen must confront the reality of stage girls and find her way toward the future—her very own stage.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Daiba, Nana Main

Koizumi, Moeka Japanese

Tendou, Maya Main

Tomita, Maho Japanese

Saijou, Claudine Main

Aiba, Aina Japanese

Kagura, Hikari Main

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Tsuyuzaki, Mahiru Main

Iwata, Haruki Japanese

Hoshimi, Junna Main

Satou, Hinata Japanese

Aijou, Karen Main

Koyama, Momoyo Japanese

Hanayagi, Kaoruko Main

Itou, Ayasa Japanese

Isurugi, Futaba Main

Ikuta, Teru Japanese

Kirin Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Ogasawara, Muneki Producer

Katayama, Yuuki Producer

Taketsugu, Akane Producer

Furukawa, Tomohiro Director, Episode Director, Key Animation

Reviews

Dec 30, 2021

Domsa

Recommended

Revue Starlight was one of the series I skipped during summer 2018 and watched at a later date. I ended up really liking it: the pretentious allegory, the idea of life being a stage performance, the critique it brought upon revue (and theatre in general I'd add) and meritocracies to some extent. What's great about this last aspect is the fact that you can tell that it's critique coming from someone supporting the cause, but not agreeing on the means implied, unlike critique for the sake of critique. All in all, a great little series with a rather big cast of cute girls that felt ... a tad bit underdeveloped and that could do a bit better in terms of making its ideology clear. 8/10, there's space for improvement, mainly by getting closure.

And here's where the movie came into play: it served as a really nice conclusion to some of those characters' arcs. Moreover, I'd say it's the natural next stage for them. In the past few years I've been constantly switching between stages: hs to uni, uni to work, gaming to theatre and back to gaming, drawing to watching movies, series and the like to reading and so on and so forth. At times, I'm rather nostalgic about some of these moments, but looking back on it, I'd say it's a natural transition. It's sometimes tough to accept the fact that you have to move on, but by the time you do, you realize that you're already there and this procedure was, in fact, not that hard. Treasuring those memories is a fundamental aspect of moving on. Actually, not of moving on, but of finding meaning in your life. I could call it, pretentiously, the existentialism of Revue Starlight, pat myself on the shoulder and call it a day.

The movie looked really good, some minor nitpicks here and there, but nonetheless a solid production. I absolutely loved the flashy nature of the series and the movie only adds up on that. Pair that with the fabulous OST and the almost memely-called 'Ikuharaesque' at times direction and I'm sold. As I've previously mentioned, the character arcs featured in those acts were great - a really nice combination of drama: on stage - interpersonal drama, conflicts we have at times with one another and drama as in theatre; backstage - intrapersonal drama, or this thing I like to call what-the-f*ck-am-I-doing-with-my-life-what-is-life drama. Ideologically speaking, this last type of drama is my personal favourite meaning of the word. It's probably because I can relate to some extent to this existential dread switching stages causes. Most of us should as it's the thing modern society agreed upon. Moreover, the postmodern society brought something new: the fact that we are connected which undeniably agravates this dread. We see people transitioning between stages faster or better. We see ourselves in an almost-deprecating light: we might think of ourselves as failures because we are not lawyers or doctors or engineers and so on. Our world is spanning for more than those 50 kilometres it used to. We can see those shameless influencers trying to make a living by making you feel shitty about yourself. We can see those flexers whose sole merit of being where they are is being born under better circumstances. We can see people living much better than ourselves, but we have no idea about the context those images were taken in, about how much work they've put into it, whether their image is just an image or not. Despite that, these last aspects are not something you think about first and foremost. This can lead to dread. This leads to dread. This is one of the reasons people claim that unhappiness has been on the rise for the past few decades among others. Truth is, it's difficult to be happy at all times. Heck, it's not even necessary. But being constantly under the weather would make my life, at least, more miserable. I hate motivational speeches. I absolutely detest reading those inspirational books like 'The Alchemist'. Yet here I am... preaching... in the same manner. (or rather calling something that might look similar at first glance a masterpiece)

Insert the movie in our context. It's not about 'Do more of what makes you happy', 'when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it' and all that bullshit. It's a simple, yet effective: find your own meaning and raison d'etre. I believe that most people are not 100% certain about the choices they make at various crossroads. Back in high school, someone might have thought that a certain profession was his calling, however, after ditching a few years in training that certain someone realizes how much he truly despises said profession. Don't hesitate.

We have acknowledged that life is kinda... dumb and meaningless at times, harsh even. For example, I find living to acquire some wealth I can for my descendants to inherit not that rewarding. I'll die, how will that help me? However, some people might set that as their goal and that's perfectly fine. It's a very noble one in fact. I'm not sure if that's exactly the way the parting sequences, trains and so on and so forth, which where predominant themes and motifs all throughout the movie are to be interpreted and that's great, works of fiction that are open to various interpretations are a blessing for some of us. To each, their own. You do you.

Revue Starlight's movie might not be for everyone, but as a sequel I absolutely loved it. It started as both critique and love letter to the meritocratic and the rather homophobic at times thing that Takarazuka is and it turned out as a really nice take on existentialism and living up to those expectations that we believe the society has from us. For me, it was a really nice belated Christmas gift. If you wonder what drugs I'm on, I'd like to know too.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 12, 2023

cringeylazy

Mixed Feelings

A movie that excels in visuals, music, sound, voice acting, cinematography, and just about everything you can imagine but still gives no closure to the average viewer 

Revue Starlights film is one of the strangest pieces of media I have ever witnessed. After pondering about this movie for about half an hour after finishing it, the only thing I can compare the feeling of finishing this film with is when you accidentally click on a much later episode of a show/anime by accident and watch half the episode utterly clueless to what's going on.

This movie does absolutely brilliant work with visuals, camera angles, animation, and sound ... and is entertaining throughout, but it is lacking in what's most essential in any piece of well-written entertainment, and that is a basic understanding of what is going on the screen. For some fans, using wishy-washy writing to make the audience make assumptions about what is going on within the characters minds may be commendable, but for some of my other favourite anime like End of EVA and Madoka Magica Rebellion they manage to achieve an understanding of the characters and plot in an entertaining and subtle manner without one character just spitting exposition. This movie, however, barely (and I mean barely) provides enough context to almost everything that happens to even arrive to any kind of conclusion by yourself. The only information you have to grasp onto are the baseless platitudes that characters shout at each other during fights or performances, which are mostly buzzwords with no context whatsoever. Now you could argue that it might be a problem with poor translation. If that is the case, I'll give it a proper watch again to give it a more fair chance with better subtitles. But otherwise, there was never any sense of meaning to any fight I watched because I had no idea why or what was happening. The only fight that I understood and really enjoyed because it worked (and how I feel like the rest of the fights were supposed to work) was Claudine and Maya's, as this fight had context, backstory, provided new information, and had a satisfying conclusion.

The problem also is that even when you discover the background and context of what is going on with the characters (by either thinking about it a bit or reading someone else who analysed it online), it's not really compelling enough to make it have any grounds to be gripping, grab my attention, or most importantly, be entertaining...
I am usually a very easy-to-please person when it comes to anime. I enjoy cute characters, cliches, plot twists, idol shows, shounen, moe, psychological anything! But this movie didn't feel fulfilling; it felt like it was missing something throughout. I was really looking forward to this film for a long time. While I was bored midway through the original series, I really loved its twist and ending, and I was excited to see the movie after seeing the really positive feedback from fans. But I feel that even with lower expectations, I still would've considered this movie to be a 7/10, not the masterpiece that the majority of fans give it.

While this review has been very negative so far, I do want to confirm that I did enjoy the film because of the visuals, characters, and music. I just don't consider it to be a groundbreaking piece of entertainment; it's just good. An entertaining film that could've been better with a prequel to give more context and provide more time to work on building the plot into the fights. The whole film felt like 5 climaxes to an ongoing series without the 9 episodes building up beforehand needed to give reasoning, meaning, and impact to the events taking place.

If you're a fan of Revue Starlight, I can still recommend this movie, but take it with a grain of salt, ignore the ratings and high praise, and enjoy it for what it is, not what it might be. Hopefully you'll enjoy it more than my grumpy ass.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 27, 2023

Gippy

Not Recommended

NOTE: SPOILERS FOR THE TV SHOW AND CERTAIN SECTIONS OF THE MOVIE

This movie sequel takes place after the TV show. There was a recap movie called Rondo Rondo Rondo but I didn't see that. I'll be completely upfront here and admit that I didn't like the TV show very much, giving it a 3/10. However, having recently enjoyed Kageki Shoujo, which took a more grounded approach to the world of theater, I was willing to give the Revue Starlight franchise another chance. I was hoping that the movie would address my grievances with the TV show, and convert me into a fan.

The reason I disliked ... the TV show was because of two main factors. First, it had presented a fascinating plotline halfway into it. One of the girls, Nana, had repeatedly won her duels, then kept turning back time to re-experience the moment. This set up Nana to be the primary antagonist, and for the show to take a dark, complex turn. But then the main girl, Karen, inexplicably defeated her in one episode and continued the poor main storyline.

The second factor, and more importantly, was the entire premise of the show itself, where girls faced off in rapier swordfights, all set up by a mysterious giraffe. They kept talking about "glimmers" and wanting to be the "star" of the play. And the show didn't make me care at all. The fights held no weight to them, because it was playfighting and not some life-or-death matter. You could argue that I'm being too dismissive of the show's fantasy elements, that there are elements the viewer should just accept. In magical girl shows, we don't need a full explanation of why magical girls are able to transform; we just accept it. However, even in magical girl shows, there's some semblance of universe believability, such as a key moment where the girl acquires her powers, or a cathartic scene that causes her to unlock additional powers from within. But in Revue Starlight, the stages were all mysteriously created for the girls in a world that supposedly resembled modern-day Japan. And the whole Starlight system was never fully explained. But at the very least, there was the story for Karen to be the main star, however contrived it was.

The movie, on the other hand, took the pretentious and abstract elements of the TV show, and turned it up to eleven. Kinema Citrus correctly knew that virtually every viewer who sees this movie were already fans of the TV show and accepted its shortcomings. Instead of improving on the TV shows weaknesses, it dismissed them. It went for the grandest, most pretentious spectacle without a care in the world for the haters. It reveled in its absurdity and lack of stakes by proudly showing explicit, graphic footage of exploding tomatoes, then passing it off as fake blood from fake rapier stab wounds.

There is virtually no explanation of present-day events in the movie. There are numerous flashbacks, but the movie fails to connect them to the present storyline, other than that Karen and Hikari were best friends when they were kids. But you already knew that in the TV show. I felt nothing as the stages became more elaborate, with the use of vivid imagery that appeared because the writers thought it would look cool, such as trucks, trains, and neon lights. Abstract literary devices and symbolism only works when the viewer is able to make a connection, but the movie made no attempt to explain this. Rather, it wants fans to come up with their own theorycrafting to explain everything. As fans attempt to channel their inner life experiences and thoughts, they may see some of themselves in the girls. And perhaps that's why Revue Starlight has such fervent fans, because to criticize the franchise would be to criticize their inner selves.

As for the production value, it is incredible. This movie is certainly an audiovisual treat, and Kinema Citrus is at the top of their game. But what good is it if the story is such incomprehensible garbage? I couldn't tell you what really happened in the movie. I couldn't tell you why the giraffe transformed into fruit salad, or why the final revue ended in an unnamed desert. Even as the numerous revues ended, I couldn't understand what had happened between the dueling pairs. Revue as an artform had its golden years in the 1920s, but lost popularity as the audience found it too patronizing compared to regular theater. In a way, the Revue Starlight movie is a summary reflection of that. It is so grand and spectacular. But yet, it is so pretentious, arrogant, and abstract, leading to emptiness for those who don't understand it. The movie laughs at them and throws tomato blood at their faces, while the fans will latch on to it as some form of higher entertainment.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight Movie Discussion KANLen09 - Dec 30, 2021	46 replies	by GenesisAria »» Apr 26, 7:17 PM
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