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evakuality · 3 years

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Hanna, episode 8

1. I know I’ve said it before, but these scenes with Hanna and Mia are so super gay. Part of me still really really wishes that they’d gone there - I like the Jonas/Hanna reunion in s4 well enough (if we ignore the absolute travesty of stealing time from Amira), but I’d have really loved if Mia and Hanna had been the thing instead of adding in a random extra character for no reason. Imagine the potential.... Also, Alex is still the worst. Like I know he’s the worst because William was the worst. But he’s still the worst. Gross. His sleazy manner is so offputting. I hate that Mia ends up falling for this. I do hope that unlike the original, Mia doesn’t lose all of who she is herself in her season.

2. Ugh, I forgot how irritating Kiki is. I really really like her by the later seasons (particularly in s5) but man in these early times she was not so great. I know Kiki thinks they’re all being punished because Leonie hates Hanna, but as I said before Amira and Mia weren’t even with Hanna at that point, so that’s not likely. Kiki’s need for control and to be liked is really coming out in some unpleasant ways. This whole ‘what Hanna does reflects on our crew’ is so... bleh. With every word Kiki gets more and more toxic, and then starting in on Amira as well, and wondering why she’s the bad guy? She’s a young kid and she has this desperation to fit in and be cool and liked etc and I get that she’s not a dreadful person at the end of the day. But she really needs to grow up. Particularly given that she literally pursued Alex when he’s not exactly a saint about all this sort of stuff. One thing I do love about this bit with Amira (and she repeats it when she speaks to Matteo in s3, which is a nice bit of character continuity), is how she leans forward and speaks very forcefully to Kiki as she explains her point of view. The camera is tight up in her face, or rather she moves into it, and it doesn’t let Kiki or the audience move away. And the call to prayer is a lovely touch right after, reminding of the ‘Muslim gangster world’ and what that’s really like. Kiki needs to step out of her own sphere and realise that other people have their own thoughts and feelings and things aren’t always what she thinks they are. Poor Hanna is suffering a lot, and instead of supporting her, Kiki chooses to pile on, focusing on her own ‘pain’ at the situation. Which, in context, is really really petty. And then she acts like she’s the hurt party? Grow up, child.

3. This little scene with Jonas is so painful. The acting here is really nice. Jonas’s sadness and hurt is so palpable, as is Hanna’s anxiety and tension. It’s all so awkward and painful, and the way it’s shot with Jonas always at a distance and never really looking at Hanna just makes that all the more intense. And I mean, I know Jonas is hurting and I know it’s hard for him, but this whole bit about how Hanna has no personality of her own is so mean. In some ways he’s right (and correct me if I’m wrong, but in the original it was Eva herself who says this bit to her Jonas - I don’t recall every detail of Eva’s season as well as I’d like so this may be wrong, but what I remember is something similar to this line as part of why she choose to end it at the end, and if so I don’t really know that I like this change; it’s better from the character herself as a realisation). But even if he’s right, it’s a bit unfair. He told her to go and be someone outside of him, and now he’s like ‘I don’t know you at all’ and it’s really frustrating because I still don’t feel like ‘make out’ is an accurate description of what happened, and Sam is really the one who was pushing and pushing, and yet all the blame is being set on Hanna. He says it’s not because of that, but of course it is.

4. I always cringe at these scenes where the Eva character gets ‘slut shamed’ and basically panics. It’s so hard to watch them go through it, and in so many ways this is the hardest episode for them. Hanna is at a nadir. Yes, Mia, Sam and Amira defended her, but with the tension with Kiki that support is falling apart, and then Jonas told her to call him when she gets a personality (harsh!!), and now she has someone in the school sending her messages in period blood. It’s all pretty shitty. And Kiki almost word for word repeating Jonas’s accusation about knowing ‘what kind of girl’ she is. It’s totally understandable that she wants to get away from all of this stuff.

5. Then this shot of her at the bottom of the stairs. Distanced and lonely, and it’s even worse than it was at the start of the show. Then, at least she was outside and had space around her, and the colours were much happier. Here she’s closed, in, boxed out by stairs and the walls etc and it’s this dark, gloomy colour set. There’s a bar of light, but she’s not even in it, she’s to the side of it, like she can’t even let herself have that. Then we cut to literally seeing her through the bars of the stairs, like she’s imprisoned, which is effectively what everyone in the school is doing to her. I do like the change that Matteo is here in person for this ‘you shouldn’t change schools’ talk. There’s something about the interaction that changes when they have to do it face to face. And yes Hanna, my love. You start getting angry that people keep trying to tell you who you are. Matteo’s lines here really do feel more like an overt attempt at reverse psychology than Isak’s did. Again, I assume this is because we still didn’t know about Isak at all. Whereas Matteo still feels more cynical and calculated. His attitudes and the way he’s approached Hanna have felt different. It’s really interesting to consider where his head is at in this season given just how low and disconnected we see him at the start of his own. I guess when he’s called out for it over the next little bit it does change things a bit. Plus of course the way his own life is about to be hit.

6. The Hanna and Leonie talk is really interesting. Up til now, Leonie has seemed much more dominant and Hanna much more timid. And that’s been partly the way it’s filmed - they’re sitting or Leonie is placed above Hanna. But here, Hanna looms over Leonie, quite literally, and it’s good to see her start to stand up for herself. Leonie’s mannerisms are the same but they aren’t having the same effect. And that’s partly because Hanna is at her lowest ebb. While she seemed lost and lonely at the start of the season, that’s nothing on where she is now - now, she really has nothing left to lose so she can have this conversation and look! Direct communication actually worked! She got the results she wanted. Also interesting is the choice to put Leonie in white and shoot against this wall - she looks diminished and washed out even after they were put back on the same level when they sit. Until now it’s been hard to sympathise with her. Yes, we know she’s been hurt, but she’s been so awful with it. But it’s so clear here just how much of a toll all this has taken on her too. And it’s so painful to watch Hanna have to admit to the things she did that have ruined so many of her relationships. And the business with wishing we can change things but not being able to - it’s so human (and also this scene is so incredibly well acted!) and it sucks to have to admit that we can’t do anything about what we’ve done in the past.

7. Somehow this bit with Jule doesn’t hit the way it does in Eva’s season. I think it’s a combination of the way they’ve chosen to portray Jule - she seems a lot more standoffish - and the fact that Matteo has been a bit sketchy the whole time, with some clear hints that he’s not all he seems to be. Also, possibly, because we do have Skam as a reference and so we did already know where this was going. Either way, this last part of the scene falls flat after the very emotional bits with Leonie.

Overall, I find this episode a lot more fluid than the previous one. But this last day’s clips must have been a whole lot when watching live. Poor Hanna goes through the ringer on this one day. The way this one is lit is really interesting as well. It’s either dark shadows or it’s really bright light, almost harsh with sun etc almost washing things out. It’s an episode of extremes, which I guess is the point. Hanna is going through some extreme emotions here, and the surroundings do tend to reflect that.

#druck #og druck #hanna episode 8 #long as usual

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sor-vette · 3 years

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two, down!! (index/description)

☜ one, strike!!

☞ three, an all-out fight club!!

It was the middle of February. The month of perpetual grey and rain. It tapped against the small cubic window of your bedroom as you laid in bed reading the text.

Erik: "Meeting, you and me. Main building. Now! Wear something without any blood on it. 😘"

The phone falls out of your hands and smacks you in the middle of the nose.

"Ow."

***

You already see Erik in the distance. A bright red shirt flowing around him like a drape in the frequent bursts of wind. Across the river, he looks like a will-o'-the-wisp and you can't help but be increasingly apprehensive about what has he planned.

You get off the bus in the middle of the bridge, stop and glare at the circular high rise. Legally known as Bighit - an independent advisory firm for various claims, to the large variety of your clientele it was BH - vigilante made business. Briefly put a vast clockface with thousands of cogs spinning both on the own and tandem with others. It looked and sounded and you knew it to be an imposing organization. Nevertheless, you entertained the idea of how would this company would fall and could it be possible to burn down all the spider webs it has formed in the now 22 years of its existence.

"Good morning!" Erik beams widely, trembling in the wind. His pirate shirt not doing anything to help the situation. In his hands, there is a thick brown folder. The sight of it begins a gnawing motion in the stomach.

"What are you doing?" you ask suspiciously, studying his face for any giveaway. Which of course there were a lot. He was still young both in the field and age. The little runt was mostly brazen, often impolite and careless. But now, now, he was nervous. Maybe it wasn't even the weather that had him shaking like a leaf.

"Oh, I'm taking my enrollment review today. In 20 minutes to be precise."

What was gnawing had turned into a stone that travelled up, ignoring the gravity, and settled deep in your chest pressing down and creating a hole. A horrible numb feeling that you'd hoped you wouldn't feel again. And again. And again. And now once more.

"Oh."

You take a moment to force your voice to remain unfazed but even to your own ears, it sounds too hoarse and slow.

"Don't you need my referral?"

"I asked Olga." Yes. Olga. That's why you didn't know.

"So let's go up?" if Erik had a tail it would wag at lighting speed. He is not just nervous but positively jittery. You had seen him this happy...never. Yeah, this was the first time. When he would officially enrol in another department, at best giving you a clap on the back for all the trouble caused and moved on. In a week he would give you a distant wave, in a month maybe a nod if you passed by in a hallway, in half a year it'll be like you never even existed.

You nod quietly entering the glass doors. BH was a massive, subtly hidden maze, much like the overall organization. By the schematics and the layout, no one would give a second thought that it would be more than just an ordinary office firm. But of course, what they didn't know and what was a closely guarded secret were the literal hundreds of small alcoves and passes hidden within the walls. Meant for in case of a sudden police raid. Not to mention the literal escape tunnel that stretched underneath the river you just passed. No one knew exactly how it looked like or how it was even built. Some said it was an abandoned underground transit system from WW2, others said that it was built in the early years of the BH establishment having cost literal billions. But no one knew the truth. Even Namjoon had shrugged when you asked him, long ago already.

In silence, you both take the escalator upwards. To the 25th floor, a.k.a. the 7th department - the literal heads of the system. The building usually had hundreds of people running from one place to another but even so, this was a large commotion for an event this small.

In the doorways there stands a tall woman and you nearly bite your tongue off at the sight of her ramrod back.

"Petsch." You growl and Erik beside you throws a surprised glance.

She turns around almost immediately. As if hearing you or just sensing your presence like the ill-bred Cerberus that she was.

"Hello, .̴̭͙̪̻̈́.̸̮̟̳̐͆͘͠.̶͚̉͛.̸̺̞̉͐̈́̐͋.̶̟̻̺̽͛̒̚.̷̗̱̃.̶̮͚̼̾͜͜.̷͉̋̈́̐̔͝.̵͖͛̓͆.̷̼̲̥̙͆̊̊͝͝.̸̢͕̔.̸̜̜̲͈̅͜͠.̵̱̤̆̑͘.̸͖̰̣͈̾̊̈́́́ " Her glee is almost maniacal as she power walks towards your little group.

"Deputy Petsch. How wonderful to grace our Earthly realm with your presence. I did wonder why it looked like the skies were weeping."

"It's Chief of Staff now," she corrects getting even closer, "to no one's surprise I've been promoted while you've been demoted."

"Yes, I can see the stress of the new position. Or is that just your face?"

In the corner of your eye, you can see Erik standing completely still, his head darting from one speaker to another bemused.

"As the Chief of Staff, I'm here to evaluate your...pet." Erik gives a silent wave and Rosaline narrows her eyes, most likely not knowing what to make of him.

"What happened to Michael?" Petsch scoffs at your question.

"He retired to live with his family so much so for living a dignified life." You straighten stubbornly at the newly given information. Erik's hands are still lightly trembling, along with the file in his hand.

"Interesting. I will attempt corporation." You push out through gritted teeth but immediately get one of Rosaline's bony vulture fingers thrust in your face.

"Don't even try to sweet talk me!"

In return, you snap your fingers near her outstretched hand. A gesture you would normally never do but it was Rosaline. Anything but an abnormal reaction could ward off this lietonis off your neck. (a/n)

"I tried to be peaceful. Well then. Let's. Begin." She huffs and puffs and then stalks over to the lecture hall, her tight blonde ponytail swinging like the world's most obnoxious metronome.

Erik stands silently for a few short moments before -

"The fuck was that about?" You hide your face in the palm of your hand. If Rosaline was here for the panel review then this little fucker had no idea what was coming.

"Rosaline and I have what you would call an uncivil work relationship."

"A rivalry?"

"No, a rivalry with another woman would be inherently attractive. Rosaline just...sucks the lifeforce out of me like a goddamn Dementor." Erik chuckles at the sight of your displeasure but a quiet bell coming from within the lecture hall stills him again.

"Please all attendees take your seat! We're about to start soon!" A faceless voice calls over the crowd and the unpleasant feeling that Petsch managed to eradicate away for a moment returns worse than ever. Your own hands begin to mutely tremble. Erik looks close to passing out.

"You're going to be fine." You say gently bumping into him, "you're my trainee after all."

***

Oh, he's going to be not fine at all.

For some reason, the hall is literally stuffed with attendees.

The enrollment panel reviews despite the name, yes, was actually an open doors event. Much like an undergrad presenting a thesis it had a panel of judges and a crowd of listeners. Usually, it was limited to other potential interviewees who wanted to get a sneak peek in the twisted action to come but the number of people was 5 if not 10 times more audience than what you've ever been in.

Truth be told you never knew how friendly Erik was with other departments but even if he was a magnet surely this crowd was too massive.

With a rapidly rising anxiety, you start to pick out familiar faces. Some of them your trainees and previous teammates, some who gave you a stink eye, and then some with whom you didn't want to interact.

On the third row there sits Jungkook and sweet Jesus what were they feeding him in the footsoldier department. He was now almost twice as large as he had been when you last saw him. One tap of those arms and you'd be in an automatic knockout. Behind him sits Jimin, also looking confused as to why he's here. Which is somehow even more offputting considering he's the one who decided to be here. In the back rows, there is Jin, face hidden in his hands, large sunglasses pushed atop of his head. The only reason why you recognize him at all is that those very sunglasses had "JIN" in large letters above the rim. Naturally.

At this point, your insides are just a gaping screaming void of pure social terror as you start to suspect they were all here. While scanning the crowd you notice an orange fleck that is surrounded by a gaggle of students who eagerly listen to every falling word. That would be Hope. And far closer to the seat that you wanted to take sits V. For reasons unknown he was perched in the first row, fiddling with the strap of the camera. The last thing you want is to meet that vitriolic, judgmental stare of his but it would be unfair to Eric to sit anywhere else. The supervisor, even the one who had no idea that the review was taking place and did not actually write the referral, always sat in the front. The little scamp should have at least that.

You sit down stiffly with your hands bunched up in fists and shoulders tightened to the point where it was almost painful. V pretends he doesn't recognize you. You turn around once again to look over the crowd, almost meeting Jungkook's gaze but he suddenly finds his shoes to be the most captivating image in the world. Jin nearly takes off his jaw while ducking below the chair line and Hope is still surrounded by his devoted students. Jimin is persistent in looking disoriented.

In the faraway upper back, behind the fifteen rows of cascading seats, there is a second door. Slightly ajar and leading to complete darkness but you can swear there is a hand holding the doors open. For a moment you wonder who would hide away in a dark side room only to silently observe everyone but then you know exactly who. Yoongi. You whip around so fast the chair makes a loud squeak. In the peripheral vision, you make out a movement from V but he turns back to the camera without a second thought.

No, Erik was in deep trouble. The panel of judges or should you say evaluators was much too high standing for the first time enrolment. Rosaline Petsch's choice of coming here could be attributed to her being a harpy. Sure. Namjoon, although a CEO was known to just arrive at small scale events, to fully support his staff and also fully give them untreatable heart conditions. But the following had no place being here: Rhys Bethany, the key speaker of yesterday's anniversary and the head of Internal Affairs. Rahul Singh, chief of Communications. Tamira Johnson, head of International Affairs. Shen Qiongzi, head of Large Operations management. And two others whom you didn't even recognize. These were some of the biggest names of the entire organization and also the most bewildering. Strictly speaking, none of them had any input on the hiring or the enrolment process. The matters far, far below their usual duties.

Why were they here? Had Namjoon invited them? Why would he? Because he was still angry at you and was punishing Erik for it? He wouldn't do that but would he? Were you being narcissistic for thinking it had anything to do with you??

Whatever the answer was, hearing the last bell ring and seeing Erik, suddenly look very small and scared climbing up on the stage without even the protection of his notes folder... You felt a lot like seeing a crowd of shrikes encircle one mouse. You squeeze the handles of your chair, rocking back and forth with anxiety.

"As part of your legal right, what would be Your prefered choice of name for the course of this review?" You hear Ms Johnson speak. Erik picks up the microphone to speak...

....not a sound comes out of his mouth. You cringe.

"My real one, ma'am," he finally manages to croak after a moment of silence that was perhaps too long to be unnoticeable.

"Thank you. We will begin the first part of the enrolment request review for Erik Genyer."

You blanch at her words. The first part... meaning that what is about to happen was an actual full, point by point review and not the shortened version that came into popularity in recent years. The review would last three hours and it was three hours of ruthless questioning.

You grip the handles even tighter.

***

Erik fares surprisingly well. After the initial shock, he starts to melt into well-rounded answers. After the five minute pause in between the two parts, he even starts to subtly lean into humouring the panel, offering sarcastic, unhelpful comments. Truly one you could call your own.

Your heart is in continuing thunder as it beats harder with each given situation and particularly hard question. At this point, you have tossed and turned and quietly whined at every to the degree that it is noticeable to everyone in the room. And that in itself pushes to a worrying realization that Erik had somehow managed to slither his unholy way into your heart and become not just a trainee under your care but a friend. Like a proper friend. A friend that would leave you in literally the span of 10 minutes.

Namjoon who was eerily silent for most of the hearing, providing only two softball questions, had noticed your flighty twitching and leaned back to glance at you. You look at the ground knowing that you were perhaps not in the right mindset to put on a facade of your somewhat trademarked blasé attitude.

For God's sakes, you were not even this nervous in your own review but then again you had resigned yourself to the bottom of the barrel. Erik was not.

Finally, he passes the third part of the review. He had taken a few hits, all of which delivered by Petsch, but overall came out with impressive results. Two things were left to unfold. The panel would ask him what was his preferred choice of the department and then either allow it or politely indicate his skills would be more useful in another department and refer him there.

"Mr Genyer do you have a specific department choice?" Mr Singh asks politely. He'd been a tough but fair reviewer nevertheless it was always Namjoon who asked this question. Why was he so quiet? What was the point of showing up if he was going to be silent?

"I have." Erik answers and you see a smile form in his mouth. It was his bastard smile. Eerily similar to the picture of the cat surrounded by knives. You've seen that expression many times, mostly when he was breaths away from pissing off a lot of people.

"And what would that be, sir?"

"The cleaner department."

....

Not a single person breathes. Not a sound is made. The panel has gone speechless. You think your heart has stopped entirely.

"I'm sorry, do you mind repeating that?"

Erik couldn't look smugger as everyone stared at him.

"I'd like to work in the cleaner department."

The second time he says it causes an uproar. People actually stand up in the back. You hear a crunch to your side. Tae dropped his camera on the ground. There's so much noise you can't even decipher what is being said. Vaguely you maybe hear Jin's loud ass "what?" but that also could be literally anyone else.

The panel has to turn around and repeatedly shush the crowd. It is not an easy task. You just stare at Erik, mouth dropped open, eyes bugging out and he gives a self-satisfied smirk.

"I promise tomorrow you’ll have reparations."

These were the reparations. As the crowd finally eases back you let out a breath, lungs screaming for oxygen. Hadn't even noticed the lack of breathing process.

"Why would you choose a cleaner department?" It is finally Namjoon's turn to speak but he too sounds astounded all the way to outer space.

"It is a lowly position." So low in fact, they were not in the count of departments. Hence the status of 0 out of 7. You're hit with another realization. "Aspiring 0". The one Erik had placed in his Instagram bio. It was not zero aspirations that you thought he meant, no he was aspiring to be 0. And suddenly it makes sense. Him being such a little pain in the ass, always sneaking off, taking cases well above his position, taking yesterday's case in fact. All to rank up and enter the review faster. You don't even know how to function with this information.

"Why would you choose the cleaner department?" There was only one person who had chosen the cleaner department. A year ago. You. But even back then the choice was between quitting altogether or becoming part of the 0.

"The cleaner department is as hard-working and as essential as any other position in the organization." He shrugs.

"Yes, but why choose it?" Ms Shen pursues. You can hear it in her voice that she simply cannot comprehend why would anyone choose to work there. Honestly neither can you.

"I like it there. The cleaner department has the friendliest, most genuine and accepting people I've met among all departments. Also, I've had the most supportive, protective mentor anyone could wish for. I've never been more inspired to both be myself and improve forward as I have under their tutelage and I hope that by working in the cleaner department I can repay them for the faith they had and hopefully continue to have in me."

His request is approved and after a quiet "review ended" Erik is officially given the position of the evidence removal department.

***

The crowd is restless. There's not a soul that's not debating outside the room. Everyone huddled up together. What Erik did today would go down in the history of the company. Right next to your name.

Briefly, you encounter Petsch who throws something snide in your direction but you brush past her without a second thought. Finally, you find that stupid red shirt, snuggled against the window. You break out in a sprint and smack him in the middle of the chest.

"OW!"

"Why would you do that?" You yell. Why are you yelling? You don't know. You're happy. Literally so happy. Erik begins to laugh, kinda nerdily as he is snorting a bit like a pig.

"You should have seen your face! Oh, man, I wish I had my camera with me! Oh, a picture truly is worth more than a thousand words."

"You idiot! I trained you," you deliver a smack "so you could," a smack, "have a better life!" Erik's smile doesn't falter for a second.

"What's better? It's a shithole here anyways. So they pay me more in other departments. The money I'd spend on therapy for working there would still decimate my pay into non-existence."

You stop hitting him as something dangerous bubbles up your throat. The hole in the chest filled. No, not that, he will never let me live if I do, you think to yourself.

"Are you actually crying?" Erik giggles his expression turning somewhat strange.

"No."

You do end up crying. After taking you to Omelas where surprise, surprise, your inner circle of other cleaners and Irina were waiting. Diego was already rolling on the floor with Liz trying to pull him up in a somewhat vertically inclined position. J.D. giving a quiet, appreciative nod and S - Jo along with Byun screaming their lungs out in some kind of celebratory song. You can't even tell which language they are screaming in.

Olga looks at the scene with mild amusement. If you'd had become a little bit like an unwilling older sister to this little horde of gremlins then Olga was like everyone's collective mom. How many of your messes and mood swings had she endured? You couldn't even count but you remember how badly you were afraid of disappointing her. And if Erik felt even the half of that...

It was then and after two bottles of vodka that you started sobbing. But just a little bit. After all, you hadn't cried in a while and if there was a better place to cry it was among this little makeshift family.

***

(a/n: lietonis, more commonly known as lietuvēns is a spirit from my country's folklore that is rumoured to strangle people and animals in their sleep. Basically something like a sleep paralysis demon.)

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ladyloveandjustice · 6 years

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Summer 2018 Anime Overview: Revue Starlight

(Also known as Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight).

Karen Aijou is training at her school to put on the annual Takarazuka play, “Starlight”. She’s shocked when her childhood friend, Hikari, suddenly appears. She follows Hikari into mysterious elevator and finds her engaged in an even more mysterious sword fight with another student that’s preceded over by a talking giraffe for some reason. She’s told that this is a competition between “Stage Girls” for the title of “Top Star”. Karen sees that Hikari is in trouble, and quickly dives to her rescue, remembering the promise she and Hikari made to become stars together. Now Karen is involved in a truly strange competition...

I was super sold on Revue Starlight from the first episode. Girls fighting with swords? Takarazuka? A random giraffe? Utena references? Nice animation? This show was made for me, clearly.

And I came out of it satisfied. It was pretty surreal and pretty gay and that’s what I’m here for. It’s hard to explain exactly what the series is about without giving away some major plot twists, I’ll put it like this- it’s very much about two girls trying to upend the vicious, cyclic system they are caught in and there are definite themes of adolescence and identity. And some characters are not what they seem. I’m always down for that.

After all, the “Top Star” system only lets one person be at the top, while the others get their dreams crushed- but Karen wants to stand together with someone. There’s a lot of light critical examination of how Takarazuka in particular is structured here- I’d really suggest checking out these posts by Atelier Emily which dig deep into the subject. Basically, there’s this understanding in Takarazuka that the “otokoyaku” (the woman who the male roles) will be top star and its the “musmeyaku” (the woman playing the female roles) must support her and consign herself to secondary status.

As Emily puts it “ [The musumeyaku must be] the perfect feminine foil so the otokoyaku’s masculine performance would stand out more in relief, [...], all while taking care not to skew too much into a romantic interest, so that young women in the audience can still imagine themselves in the arms of their favorite otokoyaku top star. Furthermore, they cannot achieve top star themselves, and must ensure that their talents do not outshine those of their otokoyaku partner.”

This whole dynamic plays heavily into the show- Claudine and Maya are the top otokoyaku/musumeyaku pairing in the school, yet it is Maya who gets all the attention while Claudine feels frustrated and like she’s second best. She wants to outshine Maya, but it seems like she just can’t. Meanwhile, Karen has this idea she and Hikari can be a couple who share the stage equally, which threatens to destabilize the entire system.

The series does not just examine Takarazuka but the nature of theater in general though, with the last episode in particular digging a little into the role the audience plays. It’s also touches on adolescent anxieties- we see characters coping with fear of the future and growing up, we see Mahiru struggling with her unrequited crush on Karen and her jealousy of Hikari and childhood friends finding their bond straining...of course, as expected of a series where a giraffe watches girls engage in sword fights while singing, these conflicts are expressed in a fantastical way much of the time.

Before I go further, I should mention some cool things the series did that I really need to go back and examine- there’s a lot about the show I feel I haven’t grasped yet, and I feel I need to rewatch it before I’m able to grasp it completely. BUT I GOTTA GET THESE REVIEWS OUT BEFORE I DIVE INTO THE NEW SEASON, so this is what you get.

One thing I missed out on is that the songs the girls sing while fighting are really connected to themes of the episode- unfortunately the release I watched did not translate them, so that was lost on me. The credits sequence was also an evolving one, the lyrics would change and it would focus on a different girl or pair of girls each time- but again, not translated, so I feel like I watched an incomplete version of the show. But I will get the whole package someday because I think it’s really cool the show did that.

I was correct in guessing from the beginning that this series takes a ton of inspiration from Utena and also from Yuri Kuma Arashi (the director actually worked on that show) but this is very much its own thing. There are scenes in the first half that seem like they’d fit in with Love Live! or some other idol show, with girls just goofing around and ~following their dreams~, but the back half leaned way farther into the plot and metaphorical significance of the bizarre stuff that was happening.

I think the main thing Revue Starlight has going against it is character- Karen doesn’t really change much over the course of the show. She matures and is challenged a bit yes, but not in a significant way. The Karen of episode 12 makes the same decisions and has the same goals as the Karen of episode 2 essentially did. There’s not that much to her other than her determination to become the top star with Hikari, as well as her very broad “cheerful, ditzy and persistent” I’m-the-main-character-of-an-anime deal.

Hikari is a bit more complex, with some backstory and reveals about her character in store, but she also isn’t anything we haven’t seen before in a lot of ways. It was hard for me to get as invested in their relationship as I wanted- they’re just fine as characters, and they serve the themes of the show fine, but they’re so broadly sketched and kind of nebulous the emotional connection is not quite there for me.

Which is too bad, because they are EXTREMELY Gay. Don’t expect any kissing or anything ground-breaking, but the stuff they say about each other is like you know. “I only want you by my side/be with my forever/YOU’RE MINE, EVVVVERYTHINNG 222222 MEEEE THE REASSSSON I LIIIIVE IS FOR US” that sort of stuff that leaves little doubt.

The gay doesn’t stop with that.There’s also the fact that Mahiru’s is as blatant as she can be about her huge crush on Karen (she uh. goes looking for an indirect kiss at one point) and she sees Hikari as her rival, and is pretty much clearly correct. All of the other girls are clearly paired up and you’ll have them referring to each other as “my [insert name here]” or saying other stuff that barely qualifies as subtext and suggestively dancing with each other.

Like I said, nothing ground breaking, but it’s good as far as “It’s-not-as-text-as-I’d-like- but-really-barely-subtext” gay stuff goes.

Most of our background lesbians are just a lot more interesting than the main ones, but we’re not given enough time to connect with them as much as I’d like either. Their arcs could have been more fleshed out, especially the arc of one surprising major player. I think a series with so much going on and such a big cast to explore maybe should have been a twenty-six episode deal so it could dig a little deeper with the characters and build up to things a little more.

So yeah, if I’d talk about the quality of my emotional connection and the strength of the characters and narrative and in how incisive it is, it’s not nearly as good as Utena (which I wasn’t expecting it to be, THAT’S A TALL ORDER) and more on the level of its other major influence, Yuri Kuma Arashi. It is a lot more thematically cohesive than YKA and without the deeply uncomfortable aspects, thankfully. The series may have moe character designs, but it remains classy and never indulges in blatant fanservice that I can remember.

There’s plenty of other things to touch on- there’s what seems to be light examination of the ‘bury your gays’ trope, as we find out the play “Starlight” is about a pair of HEAVILY-queer-coded-girls whose story ends with them tragically cut down and separated, and the series engages with what that show means for these girls acting it out and whether they’ll have to meet the same fate.

Honestly, it’s the kind of series you could write loads and loads of analysis for, so if you like stories you can interpret a lot and read a lot of things into, this is probably your jam. I’ve loved the discussion this series has encouraged- I advise checking out the Afictionado’s posts on the show! I can’t wait to read more about everyone’s perspectives on the show as I revisit it!

So yes, my final verdict? it’s a good show, and if you’re like me and you love stuff that centers around the relationships between girls, if you love stuff that’s full of symbolism and action and weirdness that looks at the construction of fiction and fighting unfair systems and if you think Takarazuka and musicals are cool as hell- definitely check this one out. I recommend it and there’s really nothing offputting about it I can think of. One of the “Top Stars” of the season for sure.

I’m excited to give it a rewatch and pick up all the things I missed the first time. Right now, It’s not in my top ten or anything and I can’t say it moved me deeply. it was just a bit to nebulous in a lot of ways- but its definitely a worthy addition to the “lesbians with swords” genre, and in the end, what better compliment can there be than that?

#revue starlight #shojo kageki revue starlight #karen aijou #aijou karen #karen aijo #hikari kagura #kagura hikari #maya tendou #tendou maya #claudine saijou #Mahiru Tsuyuzaki #anime overview #summer 2018 anime

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