Revue Starlight: Across the Divide | (Not Quite) Daily Show
Revue Starlight: Across the Divide | (Not Quite) Daily Show
A look at the finale’s surprising inclusion of the audience in the story.
Episode 19 of the Summer 2018 Season of the (Not Quite) Daily Show, (NQ)DS Sum18 Ep19.
Contains spoilers for all episodes of Revue Starlight.
01:50 – The Distance Between
05:32 – Cycles of Performance
11:11 – Power of the Audience
15:53 – Takarazuka Audience
17:54 – Anime Audience
25:35 – Cycles of Creation
29:18 – The Undivided Stage
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nearlyonred
October 9, 2018 @ 11:30 pm
Your Revue Starlight videos were amazing.I was thrilled to see that you made so much content for a relatively unpopular show. Thank you for making me appreciate a show that i already loved even more
October 9, 2018 @ 11:30 pm
Wow, I never seen a comment section with so many large comment per comment
October 9, 2018 @ 11:33 pm
I’m embarrassed to say that I definitely was one of those people fretting over a score after I finished Revue Starlight, questioning whether it or Planet With was my AOTS, and comparing the show to its its influences. And looking at that way of thinking after this video, it does feel like I was too fixated on giving a number value and ranking to the series, ironically missing the point of the giraffe’s leaderboard, and kind of cheapening how much enjoyment I got out of the show. While I do think having a personal hierarchy of the art you consume is inevitable, prioritizing where a work of art sits on that hierarchy over what the work itself has to offer can undermine your experience with it. I think that is something that we as viewers kind of forget sometimes, especially in the age of internet databases and critical aggregate sites. Thanks for making this video, that was some great food for thought.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:34 pm
*End of Starlightgelion*
October 9, 2018 @ 11:34 pm
I love your analysis
October 9, 2018 @ 11:35 pm
Nicely done. I quite enjoyed that take on what for me was definitely one of the most meta shows I have seen in a while. I definitely admit that I am completely guilty of analyzing and forming my own personal opinions on shows after they are over. I don’t think Revue Starlight was saying that was necessarily wrong, so much as it was calling attention to the fact that just because we may rank things, it does not mean that those who rank lower are without redeeming value.
I also was really drawn in by the Giraffe being the audience stand in. Without an audience, a theater production, an anime, etc… has nothing. It has lost its purpose. The audience sets the performance in motion and the production’s life is derived from the audience. If we as the audience walk out, then the performance ends because no one is there to view it. One take on that scene I had was the Giraffe was saying that he has the power to intervene, but that would be disrespectful to us as the viewing audience who have watched over the player’s journey to this point. We the audience have watched the series to the end, therefore we must have been captivated or intrigued by something about it, otherwise we would have abandoned it long ago.
Another interesting point I thought about was when the Giraffe calls us viewers, patrons of these Stage Girls’ Eternal Instant. That makes a lot of sense when you consider that this is a show that can be re-watched endlessly so this fleeting moment in the show for the characters is essentially preserved eternally for us, the audience. This echoes the idea of how a performance burns brilliantly and eternally. In addition, we as the viewers of this Eternal Instant can also glean more perspective and understanding each time we re-view the episode.
Finally, as to the actual finale between Karen and Hikari, what I felt Karen finally convinces Hikari of is that it does not matter if one’s shine or brilliance is taken or stolen, because a real stage girl, (like everyone sung about in the last episode) can be endlessly reborn, no matter how many times their shine is taken or they fall short. Karen is also saying that if Hikari is now devoid of shine, she may take all of hers because as long as she has her, her brilliance will continue to be reborn. A true stage girl is constantly in evolution and never really loses their shine. It is meaningless for Hikari to continue to sacrifice herself, her shine, for everyone else because even if she stopped, all the other girls would be fine because they all understand the "knowledge of a Stage Girl." That they will fall and rise again countless times, as many times as it takes.
Really enjoyed the discussion and the insight here and am looking forward to the Hanebado conclusion as it was my personal favorite show this season.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:35 pm
What if KSHMR should have been position zero due his story tales way better than starlight like story second son and the winter demon from live AMF 2016 if KSHMR made diff ending on starlight that would be better the ending would be like " our salvation our hero it was you who save us from tyranny , because of you save girl’s fate and hopes now it is we became reunite and hope this is KSHMR" epic ending
October 9, 2018 @ 11:36 pm
There’s one further point that makes the Takarazuka Revue angle on ranking even more explicit. A big part of selecting the top stars of the six Takarazuka Revue troupes is simple popularity polls of the otokoyaku. The audience directly helps select the winners and losers in the Takarazuka system. This also means that the apparent similarities to idols, similarities that go so far as the stage show ending with a live or idol concert, are meaningful rather than just an artifact of Bushiroad’s financial interests. The idol industry is heavy on ranking idols against each other, fans voting for their favorites is a recurring ritual within that corner of the entertainment industry. And these votes heavily influence the decision of who gets to be the center on the next big single and who gets to dance in the background on the far left corner of the stage and only sing in the chorus, if not getting dropped entirely.
What’s really interesting is that for such a bright, positive show where every conflict ends with the characters involved in a better spot than where they started, Revue Starlight is ultimately surprisingly revolutionary in the positions it takes. It not only decries ranking, hierarchies and competition as destructive, oppressive modes of behavior leading to both individual misery and stunted ability to engage with and appreciate the world. It does that most directly in relation to art, but is that really any different in other parts of life from the cutthroat nature of academia to "meritocratic" companies pushing for employees to constantly prove their worth? Can you truly argue that somehow the thing that leads to hurt in art, won’t when it comes to analyzing the causes of the collapse of the Roman republic? It feels like it’s a stretch to make that claim.
It also heavily centers female bonds, both of friendship and of love, as one of the two key factors in breaking out of such toxicity. There is no need for an outside savior, no supportive member of the elite, no vanguard party with outside funding. It’s all the people trapped within the system supporting each other and coming together and those people are all teenage girls, that most maligned of demographics, and the person most representative of the system is the only male character. In a show as thematically conscious as this, the genders of those involved is no accident, nor are their sexualities and how they can only truly express them after making a break with the system. The other key factor in breaking out is, of course, simply the refusal to play along with the system. A refusal that’s neither born out of somehow being a pure, untainted outsider traveling to the heart of society and seeing the rot within, nor from specialized learning only afforded some form of elite. It comes from simply refusing to play along or value what the system tells you to value.
One final way it is quietly revolutionary, is by decentering both the author and the need to carefully catalogue and preserve the supposed essence of the work. The work is made anew in each telling and if you don’t like some part of it, you can tell it in a different way. This obviously applies the most to works such as theater where each performance will be subtly different and to adaptations of existing works where you can make a choice to make changes in the adaptation. But it still has implications for fan engagement with art even so. There are broadly speaking two traditionally modes of fandom, curatory fandom and transformative fandom. Curatory fandom is the fandom of repeating entire scenes of Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail from memory, cataloguing the exact tonnage of star destroyers or determining which romantic relationships are canon. Transformative fandom is the realm of fanfiction and fanart, of cosplay and livejournal roleplay, as well as of shipping wars and insistence that Ron is secretly beating Hermione.
It doesn’t take a lot of poking around the internet, to see that curatory fandom enjoys a greater prestige with transformative modes being either derided as tools for lesser minds who lack the creativity to create original works and outlets for deviant violation of the creator’s intent. It also doesn’t take much effort to see that transformative fandom is a traditional domain of women and that a lot of men, particularly antifeminist men, are less than accepting of it. Yet it’s also the perspective on art appreciation that Revue Starlight’s approach to art encourages, which again ties back to how the basic plot of the show centers of a group of queer women breaking free from systems oppressing them.
Of course, it might well be that the most revolutionary thing Revue Starlight does is be a bright, positive show with a happy ending that also dares to delve into complex themes and discussions. The current fandom environment is one where dark is frequently associated with positive terms like "serious", "realistic" or "meaningful".
All of which means that the show itself is Karen. She too is bright and cheerful, claiming neither secret knowledge nor outsider credentials, nor just plain older being smarter, yet like the show she’s wiser than is immediately apparent and like the show a lot of people dismiss her as shallow and meaningless at first glance. And like the show, she’s the one who in her own quiet, unassuming way pushes revolutionary ideas within the context she exists in. All without denying the legitimacy of the more fiery defiance of Junna, a character who reads like a much more conventional revolutionary hero.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:37 pm
It ended.
This is good enough that could be official bonus material.
Thanks Theta, it was a pleasure to accompany this, it enhanced the experience.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:37 pm
I really enjoy your analysis and the way you articulate your points. Hopefully you’ll gain even more audience in the future. Cheers!
October 9, 2018 @ 11:39 pm
So first off before commenting on the content: I really like what you are doing with your hands this time. It feels natural when you move them, there is less awkward shoulder movements and it makes it much more engaging for me personally, good job! (And yes I am aware with the background of an anime about the influence of the audience over art, that I am trying to influence you. And you are probably aware of it too. Its kind of fun.)
Now back to the main topic:
I really liked this episode, it made everything much clearer while still being ambiguous enough to let me think about it. And every time I do, I see new possibilities, interpretations, ideas.
The whole idea of making us believe that the giraffe is a standin for the Takarazuka allowed us to criticize it and the system we thought it stands for. We rooted for Karen and her dream.
Now while the critique against Takarazuka is still valid, we also have to ask ourself on how much we are involved in the bad practices that stand in Karens way, what are we at least complicit in? We can’t really talk us out anymore after criticizing ourself this much, can’t push the respnsibility away anymore. The giraffe allowed us to take a good look at us as an audience, as a mass.
Apparently the number one position in Takarazuka is also dependend on the size of your fanbase. Which would mean that the actors have not only to work on their theater skills, but also on enganging the audience. They not only have to best their competition in the theater, but also best them in public relations work, keeping fans happy, stealing fans from each other. Seems like a good way to get a heavy burnout.
And last but not least, the stardust gatherer. I guess we are it. We shape the industry with our demands, how and what we view, forcing the actors and creators to adapt. It can be a positive influence, opening the room for improvement and creativity, and it can be negative, enforcing repetitious pattern leading the other side in a worse spot. While we like to be suprised and see new things, to see Hikari and Karen performing together, we would also watch them fail at their dream, enforcing a strict hierarchy until they burn out and can’t go on anymore. All the hard work, tears, hopes and anxieties and we take the result in, sitting in our seat in the audience in front of them.
So perhaps we should start to think more about what and how we consume and what happens to the people who produce our goods.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:39 pm
What a strong ending Revue Starlight had. I really enjoyed it, although I felt Karen’s end of Banana’s arc was a bit weak, the ideas and messages the show built to deliver, hit tremendously. It’s a lot to digest and I ended up watching your video and the episode twice. Once with a friend who I continuously got annoyed at for not paying attention then making sure to follow up at some point in every episode "that didn’t make sense" and not gonna lie, a little annoyed with one of your own comments about a goal of trying to bring something like anime out of its entrapments of discussion and into a new one – one where people like my friend who would be distracted by his phone every few minutes would miss content of the show but still insist on engaging, only to walk away with very little except a handful of disjointed highlights.
I’m not trying to imply that obtuse anime discussion boards, imageboards or sub-communities are a high level of discourse, believe me I’m tired of engaging in Made in Abyss (not a spoiler) discussion where people vapidly post for the 400th time "Nanachi best bun" or squee about Nana & Junna. Beneath that however there is a unique perspective that attracted those people to anime for a very specific reason. The outcasts that engage in it hunched over a keyboard instead of buttoned up next to a water cooler on break are there own kind of people who do deserve exclusive environments away from the vapidity, even if it does invite some of their own. The kinds of discussion I try to integrate myself into I often find others who would otherwise be making empty remarks are happy to take a deep dive into the themes that the person idly engaging with the content would often have it pass by them. They’ll be happy to remark on the heavy implications and somber reflections anime like Revue Starlight might bring to the table. Feelings of being an outsider and the worry of total exclusion, of carrying a heavy weight and being burdened enough to feel no one else might want to carry it.
I thought a lot about what I should write, and deleted two drafts before posting it. I’ve heard it said in the past from a broken clock that art communicates. It’s a resonant idea that does stir with me, and I heard a ticking clock once say that in animation everything is intentional. I think that message communicated can’t be grasped by everyone, and that which is intended may be equally intended to be evaded by an audience. Your words on how not every anime needs to be ranked sit closely with me, while I have my favorites, some of them are very unpopular shows. One of which, Flip Flappers earned the unfortunate name among its Western fans as "Flip Floppers" simply due to its poor reception in sales. It was one of those shows that in just a single episode you could preen over almost every frame to find new details, every line of dialog and moment of action would be ripe in meaning, subtext, allusion and something that the everyman who talks about events in a show as they happen at a water cooler that they glanced up from between flicking thru facebook would unfortunately miss.
I do not think there isn’t room for both, but I think the closest the watercooler could get to is something like Boku no Hero Academia, Cowboy Bebop, or something similarly mainstream. That said I very much enjoyed your analyses and do not want you to think you’re off the mark. You’re on point, I just disagree with the intent in some ways. For now, you’ll have to be stuck with weirdos like me talking about our magical girl cartoons on the internet.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:40 pm
Actually,there some of the sub that not correct ,for the example,banana was actually saying im so happy we can cook together 😀
October 9, 2018 @ 11:46 pm
I found your channel searching for content about starlight, and have to say: it has been really fun to follow this series of videos. Very insightfull and very well argumented. Really, very nice job 😀
October 9, 2018 @ 11:47 pm
Well … MAL is an awful place to look for recommendation or objective reviews, there are a lot of trolls that rate series with 1 and 2’s even before the official start of the show. Shoujo kageki revue starlight is a victim of this, a lot of people rated the show with 1’s after the first episode for no apparent reason.
In short, you can’t trust the MAL score at all.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:47 pm
All I can say is amazing video. Thanks Th8a
October 9, 2018 @ 11:52 pm
anime audience topic was amazing. That is an amazing point people tend to overlook. it was a pleasure to find your channel. excited for the next shows (go for hyouka!)
your channel is not of the biggest, but for sure one of the best
October 9, 2018 @ 11:53 pm
Thanks a lot
This is the best analysis video I’ve watched so far
October 9, 2018 @ 11:54 pm
The giraffe stands for the audience! I knew it!
I’m sad of not having the chance to be more active in the comments during this season. I would’ve liked to talk about how weird it was the lack of any mention of the audience in the show while it was running, because the moment you ask yourself were the audience could be, the giraffe is the only candidate.
-Anime audience
Rad.
When I finally finished the show, I didn’t event update my anime list myself, a software did it automatically. I’m obsessed with that stuff, even though I hate that feeling of trying to compare two pieces of art and realizing how pointless can be.
I didn’t give this show the best of scores, and I’m feeling a little guilty haha.
Anyway. I had a lot of trouble understanding the show, but I didn’t had trouble understanding nor enjoying the NQDS. I’ll surely give Nearly on Red a good spot in my tyrannical list.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:56 pm
i just noticed this after rewatching. during karen’s encore, she was litterally shining on top of the tokyo tower lights. it was very fitting, given her encore was titled the starlight gatherer. looks like the previous prediction that karen could be the starlight gatherer was on point.
October 9, 2018 @ 11:58 pm
It’s here!!!
October 10, 2018 @ 12:00 am
Ah I really have to watch this one huh…
also, (not quite) daily reminder
Made In Abyss soom?
not forcing you or anything, just anticipating the inevitable X"DDDD
October 10, 2018 @ 12:02 am
I will never forget the feeling of being roasted by a giraffe.
As a community, western anime fans really sell themselves short with a meta based on scoring and ranking. How many people didn’t watch this show because of how it was ranked or categorized? Likely far too many. They missed out on a great experience that would encourage growth. The best moments of anime aren’t always the flashiest or most emotionally impactful. The best storytelling happens when you can take away a lesson or have something revealed about yourself.
Excellent analysis once again, Th8a.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:03 am
Well that was amazing. Thanks so much for all the videos so much
By the way, you probably have talked about it already, but any theory why specially a giraffe as expectator ?
October 10, 2018 @ 12:04 am
WAKARIMASU…. I am giraffe now I understand…. I AM REVUE (reborn)
October 10, 2018 @ 12:07 am
another amazing analysis, you opened my eyes on a brand new point of view for this series! I can’t wait what series you will pick for the next season 😀
October 10, 2018 @ 12:07 am
I discovered your channel thanks to Revue Starlight and I gotta say it’s one of the best anime analysis I’ve ever heard. I loved this series, the Revues, the music, the girls, their dreams and hopes, everything, and it was your channel that made me understand it and love it even further, to be honest this would have been a 7/10 but thanks to you it was a solid 9/10. Yes, I know, the show it’s a critique to the whole industry, including the scores, but when you have such a huge amount of data you need to organize it somehow, otherwise it would be a complete chaos, isn’t it?
Thanks a lot for doing this, for your hard work and I’ll eagerly wait for your videos of the shows of this upcoming season.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:07 am
Is the starlight gatherer a real book?
October 10, 2018 @ 12:08 am
This show is really written exceptionally, one of the best written anime in years. It operates on so many levels which is rarely seen. Working with only 13 episodes, they were able to give depth to everyone in the cast, albeit some more than others. Music was exceptional, which is to be expected for a show involving performing girls. Going so far as including the audience in the show, that has got to be the most brilliant use of breaking the 4th wall I have ever seen. Everything in this show was just really well executed.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:09 am
Holy crap was this a good final review video. I’ve been trying to have my half of the conversation with this show for a few days now and while I’ve picked up on it’s inclusive themes(among others) and how much I loved it. I didn’t even BEGIN TO THINK in a way to extrapolate the metaphor of the show onto anime’s audience and anime itself. I was clearly not focusing at all on that section(Just enjoying it for the spectacle of a fourth wall break) and yet the moment you mentioned it, I’m like IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE HOLY SHI** .
conceptualizing anime with me as the potentially toxic audience or the positive one, reaffirms what I’ve been(Trying) to do when watching anime season to season. Rather then chastise everything for not being perfect, finding the thing that’s special or enjoyable about each different piece. Looking for the Banana anime to come out of their obsessive haze of the past and realize the potential of what they have. Rooting for The juuna anime that may not be the best yet but you know that the team behind said anime will get better, their passion alone applause worthy. The Maya and claudine anime that utterly excel at their craft even while perpetuating the system. And the Karen anime, that maybe even if they can’t quite do it alone, they ensure that anime as a whole will continue moving forward with bold determination and innovation.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:10 am
Joy! Third post!
That said, I prefer the deeper abyss & HnK analysis.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:12 am
I simultaneously love and hate that you included Senjougahara as a tsundere.
Ignoring that, I love the way you talk about art and its audience.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:12 am
great video! I swear you are underated.
Also I agree, I treat anime as a form of art and you can’t rate art through numbers.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:12 am
I can’t thank you enough for all the amazing videos you made about Revue Starlight through the season, I found your channel due to them and my experience with this already outstanding anime was even better thanks to you, I hope I get to see more of your work in future seasons!
October 10, 2018 @ 12:17 am
Great analysis Th8a. Thank you for giving me a better understanding of this show. I had a feeling I wasn’t fully grasping everything this finale was presenting. I started this show not expecting much and it turned out to be amazing. Wakarimasu
October 10, 2018 @ 12:21 am
Just what I was waiting for. That whole speech about not resuming your experience by just putting a number on it was really… Well, hard hitting. The entire series calling us out on our bullshit was rather amazing. The first thing I always do when finishing a show is writing a review and scoring it (Though I don’t use numbers or stars or whatever, I have a hierarchy of words that goes from "Perfect" to "Garbage", passing through things like "awesome", "pretty damn good" or "boring") and in the end, I think that maybe I should re-evaluate the way I speak about the shows I like.
These series of analysis fall into this mindset too, I think. With Just one more video to go for this season (Hanebado) I can’t help but think "What anime do I wish to see from th8a next", instead of just understanding that whatever you do I’ll like anyways, at this point.
Also, since of course I can’t come out of my mindset that easily, I need to point out that this show is my AOTS without the hint of a doubt. And you probably have a pretty big hand in it, since you really helped me appreciate it.
Thanks for your hard work, Th8a.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:23 am
My reaction at the end? The moment it ends?
Sadness.
I think about many things while watching, during the it’s exhibition. But when it ends, a series that I like, I just feel sadness. When it’s a series that I feel it’s also good, many times I cry. I may make comparisons sometime later, it’s normal, when you watch and have and habit to talk a discuss with other people, but that’s it, during the ending is just between me and the characters, trying to bear the birth of the feelings of "saudade" that I’ll have the next day.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:23 am
Amasing analysis. I actually caught up that giraffe is the audince even before this episode but I never thought about it from the point of overall creation. But still… don’t you think blaming the audince that we want only a tragedy is a litle… preachy? After all an audince is not one person. We are different and we want different things. But there is only one giraffe in the Starlight and he is just accept the ending Karen presenting as the best one. He is not inviting us to dialogue, he is is trying to say the we are same as he and should accept what he accepts, or we are wrong. But that not how it works. There in nothing wrong in liking tragedies, saying one is better that the other just because it "breaks the pattern" is kinda shallow. Giraffe does not adress the fact that different opinions and interpretations could coexist at the same time, he just say "yep, I was (you) all along, and if you don’t like what I like – I don’t care, because that’s the ending I choose". If it was shown that there is another giraffe akin another opinion on the Karen ending it would’ve made the whole 4th wall break much more compelling. Because no mather what Karen does or the the anime shown about Takarazuka or the nature of tragedies there are still exist Takarazuka audience and(or) people who don’t like this anime and this ending. And I actually like the ending in general just… if you start doing things like that don’t do it half assed.
Anyway, it was a show that make me think about it more than anyting I saw in a couple of years, and I have a lot of fun watching your videos and talking with you about it. I don’t know if I ever be able to post such big comments on your future videos, but I’m always waching what you are doing and really appreciate your work.
October 10, 2018 @ 12:23 am
Fortunately MAL has no meaning whatsoever lol
October 10, 2018 @ 12:25 am
classic shirt, stellar analysis, especially drawing the parallels to the anime audience.
another masterful video.
edit: will you be making a final video on hanebado? found its final episode quite beautiful and worth of a sendoff.