Thinking back on Revue Starlight
October 1, 2024
October 1st is the birthday of Junna Hoshimi, my favorite character in Revue Starlight! Revue Starlight is an anime that brought me that much closer to a friend who I consider like family. It's also just damn good; a resonant, character-driven tale about a group girls who live and die by their passion. I figure this is just as good a day as any to look back on it!
Revue Starlight is primarily the story of the the ditzy yet determined Aijo Karen, who seeks to reunite with her childhood friend and perform on the stage together with her. Amidst that drama (alongside that of 8 other characters in the cast!) there's these mysterious, surreal "battles" the stage girls must participate in to become the Top Star. I was roped in by this interesting premise and ideas, and stayed seated for the remainder of this twelve-episode journey. I just love the way each episode unfolds to give you more and more about each cast member and explore what makes them tick; you learn what drives them to improve, as well as their relationships with each other. Everyone in Seisho Music Academy is fleshed out and likable, and just as significantly, they're very gay. Very very gay. Damn.
I mean what I say; I was completely caught off guard by the levels of yuri in this series. Everything else is a joke. If you're looking for "strong female bonds", Revue Starlight has them in spades. The dynamics between each pair of characters are extremely well-baked and strong; it's hard not to love how they all bolster each other! Even the odd number out of the cast of 9, Mahiru, distinctly and unambiguously has a crush on the main character, and has an episode where she grapples with her unrequited love and weighs it against her own passion. It's genuinely wonderful stuff all around, and isn't half-baked at all; there's so much intention and thought in writing the closeness of these dynamics, rather than any of it feeling like pandering for pandering's sake.
Though the girls are certainly competitive, the stage of Revue Starlight is one of mutual growth and camaraderie, rather than hostility and tension.
But aside from that, it's such a resonant series because of what it uses the framework of its "theater kid death battle" setup to say. It's about passion, it's about the lengths you'll go for your art, it's about camaraderie and competition, it's everything in between. Even if you aren't necessarily into the performing arts specifically, the things it says about working for what you love and striving high in general are sure to strike a chord. Even if you aren't a creative at all, the series will no doubt connect with you with its talk of rebirth and how we can shine our brightest as long as we have the will to return to the stage.
Junna Hoshimi is my favorite character for no grand reason... I have a bias towards studious megane archetypes 😅 But her situation is also easy to resonate with; she feels somewhat threatened by her more talented peers, and as a result works extremely hard in an attempt to reach them. Junna's on an exhaustive quest to invoke her own unique greatness among a crowd of shining stars, and as a result has to learn to balance her desire to become something better with self-care and self-respect for her own abilities and limitations. She's a wonderful character, who is amplified further through her connection with her partner, Daiba Nana.
Junna Hoshimi serves as Karen's first "opponent" in the Revues, and exemplifies the stage girl mentality with her hard-working attitude and burning desire to achieve.
What's more, everything in this already great 12-episode journey is taken even further in the movie, which acts as something of an epilogue story; the girls' trials are greater, the revues are even more intense, and the finale is... well, I don't want to spoil it :] The series loves to play with its symbolism, utilizing the abstract and surreal nature of the "performances" to say greater things about the cast, and it reaches a dazzling apex here. It's so so cool and these things in my opinion make the whole thing worth an easy rewatch or two! I remember being like "wow..." after I finished the series, there was just so much to soak in at the end but I was left with such a good feeling ultimately.
Revue wasn't just the anime, either. It actually started as a series of musicals — as natural a start as could be — and the anime came second. There was also a mobile game (which died the day before today, believe it or not...) and more recently, a visual novel was released that continues off from the movie! I wasn't able to play the mobile game (and if we're being honest, I was probably never going to; not a big fan of gacha!), but the visual novel is something I've been wanting to look at and reignite my love for the characters and their stories proper. The anime is what I single out as it was my primary experience with Revue Starlight, and the most accessible aswell; but from what I've been told by much more devoted fans, the musicals are just as special and remarkable in their own way, and there were some great stories within the game aswell.
Revue Starlight is just a wonderful series that I owe a lot of smiles and happiness to. It brought me a lot closer with some of my friends and showed me a world of passion with a close-knit cast that certainly burns bright. If you've got time to spare, and haven't seen it, I think you'd be doing a disservice not to look into it yourself. A very happy birthday to you, Junna Hoshimi; may you find your own star!