Kageki Shoujo!!

After being forced to graduate from JPX48 following a controversial incident with a male fan, Ai Narata swears to never interact with another man ever again. Using her talents and strong desire to get away from men, Ai auditions for the exclusive all-female Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts. The school is renowned for producing the best actresses that go on to perform in the famous all-female Kouka Theatre Troupe. Coming from the idol industry, Ai is the perfect candidate for the school's hundredth generation class, but her aloof demeanor alienates her from her classmates.

The eccentric Sarasa Watanabe is the only person who wishes to become Ai's friend. She enters Kouka with the goal of becoming a top "otokoyaku" performer—an actress that plays traditionally male roles. After seeing a Kouka performance of The Rose of Versailles when she was younger, Sarasa dreams of performing as Lady Oscar one day. Unfortunately, Sarasa's inability to read a room causes friction between her and her classmates, including Ai, who reluctantly becomes her roommate and partner in many of their classes.

Succeeding at Kouka will involve more than just raw talent for these young girls as jealousy, deceit, and the harsh realities of show business put their mental fortitude to the test. Will Sarasa and Ai be able to rise to the top and stand on the silver bridge?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Watanabe, Sarasa Main

Senbongi, Sayaka Japanese

Narata, Ai Main

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Yamada, Ayako Supporting

Sasaki, Rico Japanese

Hoshino, Kaoru Supporting

Taichi, You Japanese

Sugimoto, Sawa Supporting

Uesaka, Sumire Japanese

Andou, Mamoru Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Onodera, Tamotsu Supporting

Tobita, Nobuo Japanese

Nojima, Hijiri Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Narata, Taichi Supporting

Nojima, Kenji Japanese

Satomi, Sei Supporting

Nanami, Hiroki Japanese

Yada, Shouko Producer

Mukaitouge, Kazuki Producer

Suwa, Yutaka Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Reviews

Sep 25, 2021

Marinate1016

Recommended

Kageki Shojo took me by pleasant surprise. As a huge Love Live and idol stan, I was obviously going to give it a watch. What I was not expecting was such a competent story about the darker aspects of show-business and the pressure that many girls are under to succeed in the industry. By week two, it was by far my most anticipated show of the week and I loved it so much I couldn’t help but go out and by every volume of the manga.

So, firstly, Kageki Shojo isn’t an idol show per se, it’s more of an acting show and follows girls from ... various artistic backgrounds coming together to study the performing arts. That’s a bit of a different take on the usual girl idol group team-up to save a dying school formula we often get. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s nice to have something unique. Episode 1 is your usual cutesy pilot style set up, but from episode 2 onward the show really gets going and at points gets surprisingly dark. Offering realistic, but hard to watch depictions of sexual harassment, grooming, eating disorders and child abuse. Yea, this isn’t your usual Revue style set up. I was also amazed by how much each of the characters was developed over the course of the season. While it’s only 12 episodes, it felt like all of the girls had plenty of time for their arcs. Most are dealing with some sort of trauma from their past that stands in the way of them and achieving their goals. The story satisfactorily provides backstory, conflict and resolution for each making for a very enjoyable story.


The artstyle in the show is quite unique. It’s extremely bright and pleasant to look at. It mixes elements of traditional shojo art with a more modern take. I think the voice acting is also great in the show. During some of those darker moments I mentioned earlier, they really add a lot of emotional and depth to scenes.

I can confidently say that if you enjoy shojo manga and revue/idol shows you’ll find Kageki Shojo to be a very enjoyable watch. Underneath it’s bright and colourful exterior, it deals with very real issues that girls face. While it didn’t have the hype that some shows had this season, it quickly made its way to the top.

Kageki Shojo gets 10 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 26, 2021

Edenharley

Recommended

Kageki Shoujo was such an incredible depiction of the acting world and really gave me a lot to think about regarding it, I can safely say it had some of the most realistic and modern drama I've ever seen in an animated show all based within a great setting with some fantastic characters to embody it. I really don't have any issues with this show, it did everything I wanted and was so captivating in doing it.

The story focuses on this prestigious drama school and our main cast who are admitted to it. From the opening episode the viewer is shown how elite Kouka academy ... is and you really believe this the whole way through. I cannot stress enough how much this show made me really think about the drama and issues it brought up, pretty much every episode introduces an issue or thinking point about the prestigious world these girls live in and it's handled in such a scarily realistic way consistently. The characters are portrayed so well in these situations and it's all so believable that I was just genuinely impressed throughout.

Speaking more about the characters, most of our main cast have a pretty expansive backstory that is explored throughout the episodes, and they all have their fair share of issues that so many young girls in similar situations in the real world absolutely experience - but it never feels like a trope. They are absolutely written in a way that makes it all seem grounded and you can tell how much they are affected - this isn't limited to just them either, things the other girls do reflect so much on the others and there is a lot of growth because of this.

I absolutely love our main two characters Ai and Sarasa - the development between them from start to finish is so heart-warming and is handled so well, especially Ai. Her character is so damn well written, at the start she is struggling with so much and internalises all of it, but she slowly opens up and Sarasa is absolutely the catalyst - without going into spoilers Ai's backstory is so horrid and unfortunate, but you see how much she grows from it by the end and it's just so great.

The art and animation definitely aren't anything too special but are still really good, everything is very soft and colourful which really sells the idea of Kouka being very pristine and perfect. The soundtrack as well is great throughout, I really love the ED.

Overall this is an absolute must-watch show, it might not sound interesting from the premise alone but I hope this review was able to hook people into checking it out because you will absolutely not regret it!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 25, 2021

jiroutachi

Mixed Feelings

※ Contains light spoilers, as well as mentions of heavy topics such as sexual assault and eating disorders.
※ I have not read the manga, so this review covers only the anime.

Being a young girl is tempestuous and complicated. This is something that Kageki Shoujo!! (or Opera Girl!!) understands fairly well; almost as well, though, as it only barely understands entertainment value and emotional payoffs.

Don't get me wrong, Kageki Shoujo is not a bad anime. I honestly understand why most of the scores are on the higher side. Seeing a show that treats the traumatic issues young girls go through in a sensible and reasonable manner ... instead of applied for shock value, especially after the Wonder Egg Priority fiasco, already makes this a holy grail. They tackle things like eating disorders, bullying, child sexual abuse, the unreasonable demands of show business and family complications with a reasonable amount of poise. The girls in this show aren't treated as simply vessels for suffering and trauma - they are treated as people who are trying to navigate life and heal the wounds inevitably inflicted onto them by the world and the societal pressure they are under. Each of them have their own personal struggles that shape the way they experience the world, affecting also how they deal with the demands at Kouka. Not to mention the setting involving girls in training to become Kouka (modeled after Takarazuka) actresses is pretty interesting.

That's a good amount of positives in the show, yes? But now allow me to get into the negatives.

The most glaringly obvious problem with Kageki Shoujo to me is that, in its genuine efforts to do well with difficult subjects, it forgets about something very important: making their characters not be absolute snooze-fests. And that is what they are: those girls were written with the utmost care put into the portrayal of their trauma and backstories, but not an ounce of this same care was spared for making them charismatic, lively, interesting people. Their personalities are just a timid blow into each of their school girl selves; one of them is strict. Another is stoic. Another is shy. Another is cheerful. And little is done to make them memorable or fun to watch - we only get the amount necessary to make sense within their backstories and to make them barely distinguishable from each other. I wouldn't even say there is effort put into making their personalities realistic either, considering that some of them are bordering on being anime trope caricatures. Even Sarasa, the biggest stand-out of the group, gets boring to watch after a while when the "I'm super tall but also super merry" gimmick wears off. It's very hard to see the 1st years as a natural group for a good while; you can only really start to believe in their alleged friendsip towards the end of the show, and even so it's still nothing that will make you truly feel like you're watching a good group dynamic. Watching those girls was mostly dull when the anime wasn't talking about their heavy and darkest issues. Caring for and connecting with those girls was hard; sure I could empathize with them and their trauma, but I was left cold most of the time, unable to give an emotional response and feel anything other than a simple "she's nice, I guess" towards them. This actually made all of the well written bits about the societal hardships that they face go almost completely down the drain, because it doesn't matter how respectful you are with them if you make your subjects about as interesting as unseasoned pasta. Not to mention that their character development felt contrived as a result - the biggest example of this being Narata Ai, who downgrades from being an interesting exploration of how heavy trauma can make you aloof and close-hearted to being the centerpiece of mediocre kuudere moe moments for the rest of the show.

Another point of contrivance was how the show seemed to suffer from a double identity. I heard that the manga itself was actually split in two parts, and the anime adapts both - the first part up to episode 5, and from episode 6 onwards the second one. I don't think this was a good decision, because it's honestly glaring and plain as day that the first and second half have different feelings to them. The first few episodes' main focus were on the aforementioned heavy subjects and character backstories. The second half focuses on the actual theatre aspect of it, showcasing various Kouka personalities and traditions, and finally having the girls engage in some proper acting. And I have to say, the second half is definitely better - not by a huge margin, mind you, but it felt more like the anime I wanted to watch, since for an excruciatingly long while the Kouka setting felt more like adornment than something relevant and woven into the fabric of the series. Kageki Shoujo does still lack a lot of things I'd expect to see in an anime of the sort: theatrics, bright colors, big personalities, nuanced conflict, explorations of gender, even a more interesting visual identity (the muted colors and safe directing did it no favors). But that's not to say the show was entirely unenjoyable, with moments such as the Romeo and Juliet audition in the final episodes being decently entertaining. I feel as though it was cut too short. If I got to spend a longer time with the energy it was building in the second half, I could see myself liking it more, and perhaps even becoming attached to some of the characters.

And speaking of the first half of the show, that's where lies another huge issue I had with it. I've praised Kageki Shoujo for doing the bare minimum and giving us serious and sensible treatment to topics pertaining the suffering young girls go through in society... however, I don't know if I can say the same about nuance. To be more specific, those subjects are dealt with with respect - but not with nuance.

To be fair you can blame some of this on the fact that the first and second half were adapted from technically "separate" manga, and I won't say it's so bad that it's offensive, but there is a certain shallow quality, a stillness to the way Kageki Shoujo seems to resolve its character arcs, that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Every single time it feels like they're about to say something of great value, they pull back and decide to go with something safer instead. Ai's arc begins with a smoky bang, viscerally examining her PTSD and fear of men caused by abuse infused with a critique towards japanese idol culture... only to fall flat on its behind when the culmination of the conflict ends up being all about "her stalker/fan wasn't actually a bad person!" Shouldn't her arc's resolution have been about her own self? I'd like to have seen Ai heal and grow from her relationships with her newfound friends at Kouka, not from a "not all men are bad" moment - especially when we and Ai already know that via her relationship with Taichi. In the end, Ai's fan's good intentions don't matter, not because he's a bad person, but because this is derailing the direction Ai's arc was taking. The same can be said for Yamada's clash with an eating disorder. She started purging after hearing from a teacher that she's fat, but not only does that teacher receive no consequences for her reckless statement, she doubles down on it. And the resolution of Yamada spiraling into self-destructive behavior is just... another teacher telling her not to give up, and then she is magically recovered and this is never touched upon again. So her self-esteem issues were fixed just from that? I'm supposed to believe that the teacher who showed no remorse for saying "fatties have no place at Kouka" won't do it again - and, if she does, that Yamada will be ok upon hearing it? It makes no sense to me. The show is empathetic towards the issues these girls face, but it also seems coldly disinterested in challenging the systems that are the root cause of them. The takeaway from these arcs seems to be "Just work hard, do your best and adapt and then it will be ok! Sure, the rules are unfair, but we can meet them halfway!" which is a little uncomfortable to say the least when applied to the harrowing realities these characters are going through. The way that those issues are nearly nonexistent in the second half of the show compared to the first is truly baffling, and I honestly wish they weren't included at all if it was never the author's intention to give them continuity. Those aren't things that go away and no longer need to be talked about after they happen. You can't make use of such serious subjects to make small and/or episodic arcs with an immediate resolution without making it look like you're taking them lightly - this isn't Pretty Cure, bulimia is not a monster of the week. In the end, was Kageki Shoujo even actually trying to say something about those subjects, or was it trying to be a more lighthearted slice of life drama with mini arcs that don't tie into each other? Pick one. I think you can't do both at once.

Like I said, Kageki Shoujo really doesn't do a lot besides but the bare minimum. When it comes to its complicated subjects, it lacks the explosive emotional catharsis of the likes of Madoka Magica, it lacks the biting and nuanced critique to harmful systems of Revolutionary Girl Utena. When it comes to its entertainment from the dramatic theatre setting and slice of life moments, it lacks the likeable personalities of Revue Starlight, it lacks the emotional punch of Love Live. Hell, even the known-to-be-awful Wonder Egg Priority had a little more guts than this does. Kageki Shoujo just doesn't bother to work with what it has. And I'm a little sick of dubbing bare minimum as acceptable. I'm yawning.

Call me back when those girls are ready for a revolution.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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