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shintorikhazumi · 3 years

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TROPE MAYAKURO SHORTS (?): I. Rivals to Lovers (1)

A/N: Just me vomiting concepts for MayaKuro because I’m stuck on longer-length chaps that are just sitting in me folder. Some of these will defo be shorter than others in the future.

edit: changed the trope after it being pointed out by a reader, and it does feel like it makes more sense. Sorry bout that! wrote this at...1-ish, 2-ish am

Enjoy?

~Shintori Khazumi

1. Rivals to lovers (Part 1)

The sounds of labored breathing- pants, a few mumbles and hums, along with the rustling of clothes filled the room. Claudine groaned as Maya skillfully guided her along in this tormenting physical exertion that had lasted well over four hours.

“...Are you...hah... satisfied yet?” Righting her position, leaving Maya’s dip, Claudine huffed; sweat trickling down her neck, revealed as she brushed damp hair back and into a ponytail, drawing Maya’s eyes to that sensual curve.

So maybe Tendou Maya, the ever-perfect top star was heavily drawn to Saijou Claudine, her forever number two, her rival, her...enemy at times on stage. It almost made no sense as to why two individuals constantly fighting, competing, bickering, one of the pair seemingly unable to stand the other, would ever enjoy each other’s presence. But that was then.

Now, however, Claudine’s pull on Maya made perfect sense. She was gorgeous (Maya defended that this was a very objective, factual statement and not due to any growing attraction on her part), intelligent, a little hot-headed, but ever kind. She could also be so incredibly warm and thoughtful, always placing her friends before herself.

Saijou Claudine also held a passion for the stage so strong, it burned hot, and shone brightly. This, Maya was proud to say she knew better than anyone.

What else was it, that was keeping Maya constantly tiptoeing around the concept of Claudine, eyes always drawn to her presence- no! Maya... Maya never stared. She... She only glanced at most! She definitely never found her gaze locked onto Claudine’s lithe figure as she performed her sets of practice during the after hours of class. She certainly never noticed the way Claudine’s waves would bounce softly, hair fluffy, as she walked down the halls. She never paid attention enough to the girl to see how her new pen matched her lovely, shimmering eyes, life vivid in them. She did not see the necklace Claudine wore ‘round her neck, a reminder of her most beloved family away from her, that she hid beneath her clothes, unknown to the world (except Maya). No, she didn’t know that Claudine liked to spend some of her holidays strolling down a creak in a nearby park, singing to the flora and fauna, serenading the world with her blessed voice-

“Tendou Maya?” Said blessed voice broke her train of thought. “I asked you if you were satisfied yet.” Claudine reiterated, arms crossed over her front, a towel slung across her shoulders.

With well-practiced composure, Maya’s voice betrayed none of her inner wild musings, sounding as confident as always, if she could say so herself. “No. Not yet.” She shook her head, usual playful smile growing on her lips. She knew it always riled Claudine up. She loved it. “I still feel as though I haven’t perfectly embodied the-”

“Maya.” Claudine called, not very excited for any of Maya’s mind games. No Tendou, no ‘ma Maya’. Just. Maya.

It made Maya’s heart flutter against its cage. More-so than when Claudine actually called her ‘hers’. Platonically. Of course.

“Yes, what ever is the matter, Saijou-san?”

Claudine rolled her eyes at that, knowing that Maya wasn’t taking her seriously at all.

“I’m hungry. Can we please leave now?”

‘But then that would mean my time with you would come to an end. You only ever offer your undivided attention to me within these four corners, as we drown in the addiction of dance.’

As poetic and well-constructed the statement was in her head, Maya would never voice that to Claudine. Not unless she wanted her feelings known. God forbid Claudine ever learn of them. Why didn’t she want them known, who knew? Not Maya. So instead, she played it off. As she always did when confronted with these dangerous emotions, always threatening to overwhelm her with her own desire for her stage partner.

“Ara, ma Claudine, are you admitting defeat?”

Claudine snorted, turning her head away. “Who is going to be defeated it the Cafeteria closes before we can have the chance to eat dinner? Don’t come running to my room if you end up starving in the middle of the night, you insufferable glutton.” Claudine marched away, beginning to clear her things, placing them neatly in her bag.

She was about to head to the changing room, but not without throwing one last glance Maya’s way as a final invitation. Maya continued to pretend to be stubborn, however. She knew Claudine would stay. For her.

...Or not.

Eyes widening, Maya saw that her dear Claudine really had no plans of waiting up this time. The door to the room was swinging shut, and Maya was still rooted in her place by the silly pride that consumed her.

Ah, maybe that was why she couldn’t bring herself to even utter a simple confession. The simplest, ‘I love you’. Maybe she was expecting Claudine to say it first. Maybe she had been assuming it all this time. She wasn’t so sure now. If Claudine always waited for her in different scenarios, maybe... this was one of them too.

Snapping out of it, she called after the long-since gone girl. “N-no wait I’m sorry, I’m coming! I’m coming! Wait for me, Ma Claudine! Wait-!” Clumsily tripping over her legs as she made a grab at her items, Maya gave chase, sliding the door to the changing room open, praying Claudine still waited. Like she always did. Hopefully.

And her eyes landed on that shining gold, reflecting the light that flowed through the high windows, enhancing Claudine’s visage with that lovely afternoon glow. The girl was sat at one of the benches, feet shuffling and tapping absentmindedly as she hummed to herself, earbuds secure in her ears, eyes locked on something opposite of Maya’s direction. She was now clad in their school uniform, bag by her side, ready to leave at any moment. And yet she hadn’t.

The sight, coupled with the knowledge that Claudine had waited. Again. Like she always did, filled Maya’s chest with a blooming warmth, heart picking up its pace slightly.

Silently making quick work of changing while Claudine was preoccupied, Maya sped through her motions before walking up to the girl, tapping her shoulder lightly.

The girl jumped slightly, adorably surprised. Turning to her companion, Maya noticed her suppressing a small smile. It was endearing.

“About time.” She huffed, pretending she was annoyed as she had every right to be.

“I know. I apologize for making you wait too long, ma Claudine.”

“You should be.” Claudine glared for a few moments, before sighing, patting Maya’s cheek softly. “Come on. I hear potatoes are on the menu. I had Karen save some for you.”

Ah, the way Claudine moved Maya’s heart.

“Thank you.” She murmured, sincerely. Tenderly.

It made Claudine blush.

“W-whatever! Let’s get a move on, you infuriating woman! I’m starting to feel a little light-headed.”

And Maya’s teasing nature came back all too quickly. “Oh? Would you like me to carry you all the way to the mess hall then? Seeing as how you’ve... weakened.”

“...”

“Claudine?”

“I should have left you behind! Irritating!” Spinning on her heel, she marched out of the room and down the hall, Maya trailing after her back.

As she stared at the girl storming away, stomps resounding in the corridor, Maya sighed.

She’d done it again. Never honest enough, unable to truly let her admiration for Claudine show in any better way.

“I’m sorry.” She murmured. “I’ll try harder next time.” Her sincerity was far too hushed for Claudine to hear, but maybe that was good enough for now. She could try again later. Hopefully Claudine would still wait.

Hopefully she even was.

Maya felt her mouth open, words forming on her tongue, then closing again. What could she even say? To get her feelings across. Other than,

“I love you. Claudine.”

And with eyes widening, she saw her halt in her steps, turning back to Maya, the tips of her ears red.

...she’d heard it... She’d heard it and-

“I know.

That’s why I waited.”

A/N: I accept trope submissions/requests!

~Shintori Khazumi

#mayakuro #tendou maya #saijou claudine #shoujo kageki revue starlight #revue starlight #starira #fanfic #trope

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queen-of-hearts92 · 6 years

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Giant hands as imagery never mean anything good. The literal stage hands from episode 8 was scary enough but now theres this huge looking hand at the start of Maya's chapter of Overture. Due to this manga being a prequel to the anime I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a giant hand is featured here. Considering what hands like these usually mean, it gives quite unnerving implications, especially for Maya since this was in her chapter. Let me explain! About Maya Tendou and why I’m sad about her.

Quick note from the future: I wrote this post before episode 10 happened so while I would change somethings around I still stand by a lot of what I said here! I’ll probably do a follow up post to this one eventually! Ok thats all, enjoy the meta! owo/

Loom hands can represent danger from a powerful force, they often mean something is preying on someone else. Like a predator hunting down prey, the sharp claws add to the predator image hence the literal stage hands are also clawed. An example would be in the book/movie Coraline who is targeted by the Other Mother. Not only does Other Mother have creepy hands but on the posters and covers for the movie there is indeed a clawed hand above Coraline.

Another thing looming hands can represent is a lack of control over yourself/your life like being directed by a puppet master. Remember when Maya was talking about the beauty of choice in episode 7? We can start to see why she views it so positively, cause she doesn’t often have that. To go with the theme of a lack of control, the controlling hand can also represent abuse of any kind.

You see. The visual of an adult hand reaching towards a child who looks like her in the darkness has some, sad implications about Maya. I actually did wonder if that sort of thing happened during her childhood. I never put it in my write ups cause I didn't want to assume nor did I feel I had enough evidence but then this chapter happened. Now I’m suspecting abuse, physical and/or emotional most likely. I’ve said a few times in my write ups that you don’t get someone like Maya out of a happy childhood, and I know I’m right but what happened exactly we were only able to guess at for awhile but thanks to this chapter we have some idea of whats going on.

Maya has had expectations thrown at her since she was born. Her parents it sounds like that they groomed her to be a stage girl. I’ve always been bothered that she's referred to as a thoroughbred. Yeah that word can be used at ppl but not normally, you call race horses that are born and bred to compete a thoroughbred. Maya has that word in every one of her descriptions, and that’s why.

She was bred for the stage, nothing else was ever an option for her. Maya’s whole existence is the stage, the ghost story play in her chapter is really referring to her. She’s the ghost that gets swallowed up by the darkness. Two of the quotes from the play that stood out to me was “Aside from the heart of a stage, the position zero, there was nowhere else that I belonged.” and “The light of the spotlight is the only thing that reveals my existence at all”. To farther cement this parallel is that the ghost girl has Maya’s hair style therefore looks similar to her and only Maya is able to see her. Maya the performer is seen by others of course but Maya as a human being isn’t. That’s the invisible part, only being in the spotlight reveals her existence.

We can see this in the fact that Maya doesn’t have any close friends and while Claudine is easily the closest to Maya she’s still distant to the point that Kuro also sees Maya as a perfect embodiment of the stage. Kuro couldn’t even fathom that Tendou Maya was afraid of something silly like ghosts hence she thought Maya was acting instead. That’s a big relationship barrier here, Kuro needs to see Maya as a human being or their relationship just isn’t going to work.

Noticing that Maya has been dehumanized by everyone around her is extremely depressing honestly. From what I can tell her parents see her as a well trained prized pet, her peers see her as above them, and her crush sees her as this perfect stage girl to a point she cant recognize if Maya is acting or when she’s genuinely like scared in this case. Maya does do what she is expected to do but it seems like she’s created a coping mechanism of sorts. If her peers see her as this untouchable figure fine, she’ll be that to inspire them to progress. She wants to be the best so others do their best, this way it gives her a purpose besides just being a wind up toy on the stage. However this kind of coping won’t work forever cause at the end of the day she’s still treated like an object and not a person. Something will give, and it will hurt a lot. Like someone, please see her as a person! She needs that so so badly. God dammit...

On top of all this Maya being associated with birds has depressing implications as well. Birds can mean all sorts of shit, but one of the big ones is freedom. Ya know, caged birds still sing after all. If Maya is that bird, the one who can’t fly freely, then she’ll learn how to sing. However Maya isn’t associated with the traditional caged birds, she’s associated with swans. Swans can’t be contained like that, shouldn’t be contained like that. Just because a swan has accepted their cage doesn’t make the cage less smaller or tighter. Or feel less suffocating. Like I said in my episode 7 write up, Maya is trying hardcore to look only forward and never back but not facing the ghosts of your past can and will cause problems and eventually drag you down. Maya isn’t a lark or any kind of songbird, she’s a swan that learned how to sing and perform. And if that swan can’t or won’t break free, then its only gonna get worse from here.

All this shit ofc factors in kuromaya. I think one of the reasons why Maya has fallen for Claudine and seeks her out is while Kuro does see her as perfect, instead of backing down she fucking goes for it and thats exciting as hell for Maya. People just don’t do that around her nor succeed in truly challenge her like Kuro can. Plus unlike her, Kuro chose to go into the stage and acting. Maya must really admire that she chose this rough path and did it cause she wanted to. Hell maybe even envy her for being able to do that. She loves Kuro’s drive and passion, she loves being around her. But I do think that eventually Kuro also treating her as not human will get to Maya. And when that happens, that’s gonna hurt a lot man.

I honestly can’t imagine what it’s like to go your entire life being treated like a fancy animal at best and a thing at worst. The coping mechanism is probably the only reason why she hasn’t fucking lost her mind or her sense of self, but as I said that won’t solve anything in the long term.

Maya is gonna break, everyone has their limits and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’ll be hitting hers soon. She, honestly needs to. You can’t bottle that shit up forever, its gonna explode. When the break happens I’m pretty sure Claudine will see it happen, cause she needs to see that Maya is human too. She’s probably the only one who can possibly understand since she also grew up in the spotlight. This will be a helpful and healing experience for both of them, Maya can finally let it all out and Kuro can learn a new way to look at her and even their rivalry over complicated lesbian mating dance. I’m hoping that’s what episode 10 will show us.

And I’m gonna cry a lot if it does go this way, ever since I noticed how everyone around her dehumanizes her I’ve been sad about it. I just want Maya to be happy god dammit. ;A;

Edit: I just gotta say, Green Finch and Linnet Bird now makes me think of Maya and now I’m sad. orz

#revue starlight #shoujo kageki revue starlight #maya tendou #tendou maya #moo watches revue starlight #let me just. spill all my feelings about maya everywhere #IM VERY SAD ABOUT HER SINCE HER OVERTURE CHAPTER OK

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daiba-junnana · 6 years

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My theory about Revue Starlight so far

(Spoilers warning. I have watched both the musical(like 5 times) and just watched the sixth episode)

For the people who haven’t watched the musical, here’s a run down of important parts (because it is very important)

The main antagonist in the musical is Hikari. As a transfer student and a new rival, everyone was very weary of her. In the beginning, nobody really warmed up to her except Karen, who got ignored every time. Hikari was very cold and distant, more so than the anime. Then the audition started, and everyone is fighting each other in a revue. The revues all have names(themes) like in the anime, except that these themes and who fights in them are very different:

Hikari vs Junna(Karen interrupted and won) Passion

Maya vs Claudine Maze(Maya won)

Mahiru vs Banana Loneliness(Mahiru got switched to fight Hikari)

Futaba vs Kaoruko Despair(Kaoruko won)

Hikari vs Mahiru Jealousy(Hikari won)

Karen vs Banana Loneliness(Karen left the match)

Maya vs Kaoruko Pride(Maya won)

Maya vs Hikari The shine of the star (interrupted by Karen)

The tone is generally very sad because everyone is fighting each other, couples have to break up etc. Nothing came out of these fights that’s really good. It’s just angst and more angst. Then well of course Karen said we shouldn’t fight then they all became true friends and everyone finally accepted Hikari into Class A. Problem solved.

Now let’s talk about the anime.

First, the themes and fights in the anime is very different from the musical, despite being the same project and all. The story is also different, and the characters are different as well. At first I thought well this might just be some adaptation problems or something, nothing to be cared for. Well I was wrong. Totally wrong.

In the first episode, Claudine mentioned that “the villain from the last play reprises her role as the lead this time”. What does this mean? Is this just mindless chatter? No. It is not. The villain from the last play is Hikari, and the last play is the musical. Since she’s the lead this time, of course everyone quickly warms up to her and Karen solves the distance between them in just 4 episodes.

In episode 6, Banana said that the play this time didn’t go according to the script, and if the play was to go on then it has to play out according to the original script.

Starting from the first episode, the story moves away from the “original” story, the musical. I mean Hikari isn’t even playing the same character as last time. So if the original script is the story of the musical, then it makes total sense that Banana said the play this time didn’t go according to the script. Even the fights are different. The tone is different as well. Since in the musical fights serve as despair material to characters and in the anime fights serve as problem solvers. Futaba and Kaoruko didn’t even fight the Revue of Despair.

What does lead mean in Revue Starlight? Well I think of the play Starlight and the two protagonists(Flora and Claire) who tried to grab the shining star together. What happened to them? Flora was blinded and fell, and Claire couldn’t stand the weight of the fallen star so she fell too and was imprisoned. Flora is Karen, and Claire is Hikari. Both the meaning of these names indicate that, and also episode 5 indicates that as well. These two share a single fate, so they either fail to grab the star, or they succeed.

In the musical, the character that we know the least about is Banana. I thought it was just bad writing. Apparently it is done for a purpose.

All we know about Banana is that she was all alone before watching starlight. The stage changed her, so she doesn’t want anything to change, to be any different. That’s the reason she was so against Hikari joining them in the musical, because Starlight only has 8 characters. She wants the stage, the play to be exactly the same, since she sings”Time please stop I don’t want to grow up” in “The Reason I’m Here”(my favorite song from the musical)

Now the play has completely changed in the anime. The only one that wouldn’t want that is none other than Banana. Episode 6 implies that she can enter freely into the underground revue. Episode 3 had her work in stage production. Both episode 5 and 6 implies that she works with the script for Starlight. What does this all mean?

Well this means that Banana has noticed that the play isn’t going according to the script, so she became the script writer in order to control that. To change it back.

Original script can also mean the original script for Starlight, where it ends in a tragedy. If the play has changed, then that means instead of tragedy, it will end on a happy note, where Hikari and Karen gets the star.

When Banana said she doesn’t want anything to change, I realized that if Maya is the manifestation of this audition system, then Banana is the upholder of this system. It is useless to beat the creator of the system. So the only way out is to beat the upholder, then the system will be weak enough to crumble. Banana is like the guardian of the Top Star system, or the star itself, which in the original script the two main characters fail to grab.

So maybe there’s actually nine characters in starlight after all. It’s just the guardian of the star didn’t appear.

It is hard to distinguish whether you are just playing a character of a fictional story or real life. Sometimes people do get that mixed up, feeling like they are still acting when it’s real life. Life is an act after all. It’s the same with Revue Starlight. Are the characters in the musical the real ones? Or is the anime correct? We don’t know, at least not yet.

There’s some other questions I have that have not been answered. Hopefully they will be answered soon, either by more thinking and deduction or the next episode which I’m super excited about(Banana is my favorite character after all). Anyway this is it for now. Anything else I think of will be posted in a later post. Can’t wait for the reveal next week : )

#shoujo kageki revue starlight #my theory

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