2019-11-03, 08:52 | Link #1 | |
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Revue Starlight Movie
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https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...n-film/.152918
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2021-04-16, 11:13 | Link #6 |
Happy Sphere
Join Date: Mar 2021
Location: Texas
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I really liked the trailer. Even more so after I found a subbed version this morning. Looks like the movie is about the group’s final year at Seisho, the legacy they’ll leave, and the fact that they’re all going to go their separate ways after one last performance of Starlight. That’s especially worrisome for Karen and Hikari! And a bit for the other pairs like Maya and Claudine as well as Kaoruko and Futaba...
The animation looked good, that little twirling jump Claudine does in the dance room was amazing. The story looks good, too. That series of edits with several of the girls alone or looking sadly towards the courtyard with the Starlight / party stage is kinda heartbreaking! And the idea of an inevitable train departing was a bit chilling. I’m glad it appears more like a wrap up movie than one that is angling towards the other music academies like the stage plays and mobile game did. I just wonder how long it’ll be before I can see this. Maybe early next year for a US release?
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2021-12-26, 23:28 | Link #11 |
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Join Date: Apr 2006
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Well, the BD is out and I got to watch the movie. It's not bad. I think it's better than the tv show even. The tv show's core theme was that you can stand up and try again after a failure, but the show portrayed this in the most stupid way possible: giving Karen an absurdly massive plot armor at the end.
The movie does away with all that crap. This time around the core theme is about finding your own path in life and having the courage to face it on your own, which is a more interesting theme imo. And there is no plot armor. Everyone gets their ass kicked, Karen included. So yeah, it's a good movie.
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2021-12-27, 11:38 | Link #12 |
Happy Sphere
Join Date: Mar 2021
Location: Texas
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Yep. The movie did a good job of answering the question: Now what? Each of the girls, but Karen in particular, had successfully reached an ending. I liked that it didn't just treat them as a singular package that would somehow move through live and their professional careers always together. Instead, they each have to struggle to find new beginnings.
The animation was very good this time around. It's not over the top flashy like a Fate movie or anything, but it was consistently in line with the high points of the series. The songs were all excellent. I was a little worried because I didn't like the remixes they did for the Rondo Rondo Rondo recap movie, but there was nothing to fear. The six Revues were splendid shows of light and sound. All in all, the movie was both cute and bombastic. It was dripping with symbolism, but in a way to give the scene and Revues another layer of meaning. If this is to be the last major Revue Starlight story I'd be very happy to have it end here. Spoiler:
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2021-12-27, 23:17 | Link #14 |
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Well that sounds good. Revue Starlight is pretty good, but Karen is an extremely weak main character even excluding plot armor. My joke is the show is about a Karen getting her way because she asked to speak to the manager (giraffe)
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2022-01-02, 21:59 | Link #15 |
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I kinda hate to say it, but... I didn't like this movie.
Going into it, I was hoping it would give us something truly new. A new story, a new challenge, a new rival. Or even just following the core characters after a significant time-sklp, say. This movie felt like a re-hash to me. An extremely flashy and well-acted re-hash, yes, but still a re-hash. The same pairs that had relationship struggles/dynamics in the original are the pairs who have them again now, in the movie. They flipped some fight outcomes for the movies, but the relationship dynamics are basically unchanged. Frankly, this movie seems totally pointless to me. A massive missed opportunity to do something truly new and interesting with these characters, and with this franchise. Edit: Plus... what even was the plot of this movie? People can say what they want about the Revue Starlight TV show, but as fantastical as it was, at least it had an actual plot that could be followed pretty easily.
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2022-01-06, 17:56 | Link #16 | ||
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But the movie is kind of a different beast, because it's about graduation, and that changes things in a big way. While you're in school we're all buddies, we support each other, whatever. But after you graduate, you're on your own. You have to face the world on your own. And that's what the movie was about. About finding your own path and having what it takes to face it. Of course, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the same "stage girls fight each other" premise, so I don't blame you for thinking it's a re-hash. But honestly, it would have been the same thing no matter what the movie was about. For me, the movie was worth it simply because it showed Karen in a more interesting light. In the TV show she was a boring and uninteresting "perfect hero" but the movie reveals that was largely a facade. It shows that she had built her life around Hikari, so graduating and parting ways left her empty, and she couldn't see how to rebuilt her life as a stage girl without Hikari at the center. In the TV show, we do get to see a depressed Karen when Hikari disappeared at the end, but that just felt like the normal depression of losing your best friend. The movie was different. It showed that Karen was unhealthy obsessed with Hikari and needed to get over it in order to move forward to the next stage of her life. So that was cool. And it was also cool that Hikari had to kick Karen's ass in order to help her move on. lol
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Last edited by Kazu-kun; 2022-01-06 at 19:48. |
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2022-01-07, 01:15 | Link #17 |
Happy Sphere
Join Date: Mar 2021
Location: Texas
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The movie only had one Revue with the same pairing as the series: Kaoruko vs Futaba. But, beyond that, every Revue, besides one, moved the characters in substantial different directions than similar Revues in the series.
- Banana vs Everyone had no real equivalent to anything in the series. It was about Banana (and to a small extent, Maya) already understanding what their upcoming graduation truly meant for everyone. - Kaoruko and Futaba's Revue was the only paring to show up a second time, but instead of a fight to mend their relationship and draw closer together, this time their fight is ultimately a full on breakup that sees them split apart. These two had been friends since they were little kids and by the end of their Revue they have agreed to go their separate ways. Not that they don't still share feelings for each other, but... really, Futaba finally pulled herself away from a mildly toxic Kaoruko. I did like the symbolism of Futaba lending Kaoruko her bike as a way of still giving her love and support from afar. - In the Hikari vs Mahiru Revue, we got a Mahiru who was welcoming of competition and who was encouraging Hikari to mend her friendship with Karen. This is almost the complete opposite of the jealous Mahiru who was scared of competition and who wanted to keep Karen all for herself in the series. - In Junna and Banana's Revue, we got two really interesting changes. Junna had been relying on hard work and inspirational phrases to get by but never really saw herself as capable of beating the top students like Maya. Banana's criticisms of not feeling Junna's stage presence forced Junna to put more value in herself to which she eventually declared, for the first time ever, that she would become a leading star. That was a subtle but substantial change from her always striving but never truly believe she'd make it in the series. And Junna, for the first time, criticized Banana for being unable to move on and for trapping everyone in her time loop and for trying to force predefined roles on all her friends. This is a big difference from the Junna in the series who basically told Banana that what she did was ok because everyone makes mistakes. And, both characters were changed because of the Revue. Junna had been planning to drop out of theater to study literature, it was her first choice on her application form at the beginning of the movie, but because of her new confidence in herself she ends up at a New York music and drama school as seen in the credits. And Banana finally, truly got over her obsessive love of the 99th Starlight. We can tell, because she used the same phrasing "...a brilliance like jewels set ablaze..." that she had used in the series to describe her unobtainable feelings she felt the first time she performed Starlight. After seeing Junna overcome her difficulties, Banana was inspired to overcome her own and she too is now able to truly look to her next stage... which turned out to be the Royal Academy of Theatrical Actors, the super prestigious school Hikari attends. - The Karen vs Hikari Revue isn't much of a fight, but it's a big reversal of Karen's outlook. She goes from someone who naively believe everything will always work out so long as everyone gets along and works together, to someone who (finally) understood that in the real world she will be up against real competitors and that even if they are her best friend in the whole world she will still need to try her best to land a role. It kinda undoes one of the core themes of the series. But it leaves Karen in a much better place to go out and obtain her own stage in the future. We also learned that seeing Starlight for the first time with Karen almost scared Hikari away from being a Stage Girl. She thought there was no way she could be as good as the actresses up on that stage. It was Karen's promise back when they were little that gave Hikari the courage to strive to become a star as awe inspiring as the ones they saw together. I thought it was pretty cool that for all the ways that Hikari saved Karen throughout the series and the movie, it was actually Karen who had first saved Hikari. - The only Revue that came close to being a rehash was the Maya vs Claudine one. We learned some new things about Maya. That she sometimes felt empty playing the role of the perfect Stage Girl. That, for the most part, she didn't even have to really try when going up against others but because of that she was never able to truly put forth her whole self. Sure, the music and animation were exceptional, but... for the most part, these two's Revue was more a continuation of their duet from when they fought Karen and Hikari in the series. In the movie they both again acknowledge that the other is the only one who can truly unlock each other's full potential. On this one, I kinda wished we'd gotten to see some of Maya or Claudine's past, instead. Claudine has an interesting history as a child star, and Maya has an interesting history of being from a family of stars... Either or both of those would have provided us something new we hadn't see from the pair of them before.
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Last edited by Ragashingo; 2022-01-07 at 03:50. |
2022-01-07, 11:36 | Link #18 | ||||
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Anyway, there's also the added conflict in how Karen and Hikari's dream of becoming stars together was in conflict with the rules of the Top Star competition. So, at least for me, there was some suspense in wondering how all of that would play out. In sharp contrast, this movie gave me nothing to feel suspenseful about. Sure, the movie developed the core characters a bit more, it explored some ideas, but I never felt any real stakes with this movie. So that made me feel much less emotionally engaged with this movie than I was with the TV show. Quote:
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Now, personally, I liked the dynamic between Hikari and Karen in the TV show. I felt it was beautiful and it appealed to me as a yuri fan. The way the movie frames this dynamic in a more negative light in the movie is not a good thing, in my view. It somewhat undermines one of the more compelling aspects of the entire franchise. Edit: Obviously this movie was going to feature more Revue fights. That alone is not why I consider the movie a re-hash. The reason I consider it a re-hash is that it focused on the exact same relationships that it did in the TV show, and it did so in a way that didn't really strengthen or intensify those relationships. There was no surprising reveal in this movie (about the Top Star system itself). They didn't introduce new competitors. They didn't really create much in the way of a new story. They could have done that. I mean, the first third of the movie talked some about the specifics of what each of these girls would do after high school graduation. That made me hopeful that at least we'd get some scenes after the climax of the movie that would show the characters in their new lives. Very disappointing to me that we didn't even get that in this movie. Quote:
And the answer there is very much "Yes". The main relationships in the original TV show were Kaoruko/Futaba, Kuro/Maya, Nana/Yuuna, and Hikari/Karen/Mahiru. And instead of giving us something different, the movie just re-explored all of these relationships. Now, if it did so in a more yuri-centric way, making these relationships more intense and clearly romantic, maybe I would have considered it worth it. But personally, I felt that what they added to these relationship dynamics wasn't that compelling or satisfying, at least not emotionally. Another issue for me is that there's a Revue Starlight game that introduced a whole bunch of new characters, some with great designs. I had hoped this movie would include these characters in a truly impactful way, in combat itself. It was a significant letdown to me that this didn't happen.
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Last edited by Triple_R; 2022-01-07 at 11:58. |
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2022-01-07, 12:38 | Link #19 | |||
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Remember when Mahiru had her insecurities about being overshadowed by Hikari, only for Karen to console her, beat her down then spend the rest of the season on Hikari anyway? And Mahiru just had to... deal with it because it's Karen? Quote:
What part of Karen's own ideals was she forced to come to terms with other than a lack of power that she overcame anyway? All of the girls who lost in the TV show were compelled to change with their loss. Mahiru had to get over her inferiority complex and jealousy over Hikari, Junna had to get over the pressure of expectations and falling behind. Nana had to get over her fear of change. Meanwhile, Karen wanted to be the Top Star and have fun from the beginning. She lost to Tendou Maya and doubted herself, then went straight back to the same thing and just won. What exactly did she develop other than power? |
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2022-01-07, 23:27 | Link #20 | |||||
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Last edited by Kazu-kun; 2022-03-15 at 14:31. |
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