(L) Revue Starlight Movie

[Stark700]

The "Revue Starlight 3rd StarLive 'Starry Diamond'" concert announced with a teaser promotional video on Sunday that production on two Revue Starlight anime films has been green-lit. There will be a brand-new anime film, and a separate "reproduction" compilation film will open early next summer.

Source
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...n-film/.152918

[Liddo-kun]

now this is something unexpected.

well, more Starlight is always good.

[blakstealth]

yoooooooooooooooooooo I can get behind this! this was the most surprising show of the season for me when it aired.

[BassGSnewtype]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

now this is something unexpected.

well, more Starlight is always good.

I was like "Wait, WHAT?!!"
But agreed

[Tohsaka]

Trailer released. The film will premiere on May 21.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/z5hfWlnhTqk

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[Ragashingo]

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?

[Ragashingo]

This was supposed to have been delayed to June 4th. Does anyone know if it actually came out? I'm eager to see it or even read a review or plot summary.

[c933103]

Originally Posted by Ragashingo

This was supposed to have been delayed to June 4th. Does anyone know if it actually came out? I'm eager to see it or even read a review or plot summary.

It did, I have came across quite a bit of spoilers about it, but I am trying to forget those spoilers until I actually get to watch the movie

[Ragashingo]

Originally Posted by c933103

It did, I have came across quite a bit of spoilers about it, but I am trying to forget those spoilers until I actually get to watch the movie

Could you link those? I'm thinking it'll be quite a while before I can see the movie.

[c933103]

Originally Posted by Ragashingo

Could you link those? I'm thinking it'll be quite a while before I can see the movie.

I was reading by looking at what people posted under the tag #劇場版スタァライト in Twitter

[Kazu-kun]

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.

[Ragashingo]

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:

This is very much a movie about moving on in life. A few of the 99th class, like Maya and Futaba, either received invitations to join a new national school, while others, like Kaoruko, already had their own plans. This puts several of the girls at odds with each other. Moving on in life not just to new stages but away from the friends they'd made.

The first Revue is basically Banana trying to get it through to everyone that their fight isn't over. That they will soon be moving on to new stages and that the fight to be a stage girl never ends. There's some pretty cool animation here as Banana just takes everyone apart. The concept that the train will reach its destination, but will they reach their next stage as Stage Girls was neat and echoed throughout the movie.

In the second Revue, Kaoruko and Futaba have to deal with the reality that their childhood promise is ending. When they were kids, Futaba promised to follow Kaoruko and watch as she became a star. But now, Futaba is applying to the national school, while Kaoruko is heading back home to lead her dance school. Their Revue is sorta a flip of the one in the series. Not visually. Visually is some cool scenes from a samurai movie and then a cabaret. But emotionally, it's about them moving apart and being ok with it. Also, I think it was super sweet that although Futaba won't be there to support Kaoruko directly anymore, she is lending Kaoruko her Tonda motorcycle so she can still help carry her in spirit!

The third Revue is both fun and scary as Mahiru criticizes Hikari for going back to London after she and Karen starred in the 100th Starlight play. It starts off with a bunch of quick, fun scene changes all with an olympic theme. Like a swing of Mahiru's mace instantly becomes a thrust of a fencing sword blocked by Hikari in full fencing gear. But, half way through, Mahiru funnels her previous jealousy of Hikari monopolizing Karen's time in the series to push Hikari to go apologize to Karen for returning to London so suddenly. Mahiru gets legitimately scary for a bit and the Revue turns almost to horror as a result. It's a really cool shift. Then, in the end, Mahiru comes out of it and returns to the sweet, encouraging girl that she is and encourages Hikari to make amends with Karen.

The fourth Revue is interesting. This is the one where my crappy Chinese -> Google Translate -> English subs do the worst job, but what I think is going on is Junna has tried to reach her own star but has sorta lost her way. Banana is there not so much as a friend, but as someone telling Junna to drop out if all she can do is quote other people's encouragement while not accomplishing anything. The Revue, then, is Junna both carrying on with her hard work and proverbs, but also Junna learning to trust more in herself and her own strength. Banana shatters the gem in her bow, but she picks up one of Banana's swords and continues on. Though Junna gets knocked down by Banana again and again, she keeps rising back up and defies the more passive, pure role Banana had for her, to finally become her own star. The two sorta part ways destined for different stages, but both hope to act on the same stage with each other in the future.

The fifth Revue is an epic, four act battle between Maya and Claudine. Maya sees herself as something of an impassive role model of perfection who is empty inside as she sets a perfect example for others to follow. Claudine sees herself as Maya's true rival but wants confirmation of that. By the end of the Revue, that goes through a few big scene changes including the final one that is a strong callback to the Karen / Maya Revue in the series, both Maya and Claudine admit their love of the stage and that it is only one another that can push each other higher. Claudine wins this round, but Maya says there's always the next day's battle. The two end laying opposite of each other holding hands over Position Zero similar to Karen and Hikari in the series.

Interspaced throughout, we've been getting flashbacks to Karen as she grew up. We see her first childhood meeting with Hikari. We see how the two went to see their first Starlight. And we get to see how Karen let their promise guide her life as she grew up. It's actually pretty sweet. But, in the end, even with their promise, Karen has to walk her own road, literally... in the metaphysical Starlight desert.

For the sixth and final Revue, Karen reaches Hikari who is waiting for her on their Promise Tower. Karen thanks Hikari for giving her the promise that helped drive her all her life. She admits that she never really noticed the heat of the spotlights or the stare of the audience because she was so focused on her promise with Hikari. There's definitely some fourth wall breaking here. But, now that they've actually fulfilled their promise and done Starlight together, Karen feels empty inside. She doesn't know what to do next. Hikari knows the answer. They each have to move on to their next stage. This Revue isn't so much a battle. Rather, it's a visually extravagant depiction of Karen coming to that same conclusion. In the end, their Promise Tower is ripped in half by Karen's realization. But, it lands back on Position Zero and though Karen is both fulfilled and empty inside, she now knows that there will be new stages to be on and new roles to strive for.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Ragashingo

Spoiler:

They each have to move on to their next stage. This Revue isn't so much a battle. Rather, it's a visually extravagant depiction of Karen coming to that same conclusion. In the end, their Promise Tower is ripped in half by Karen's realization. But, it lands back on Position Zero and though Karen is both fulfilled and empty inside, she now knows that there will be new stages to be on and new roles to strive for.

Rather than Karen coming to the same conclusion, it's more like Hikari beats some sense into Karen.

Spoiler:

Hikari finally removes all her limiters and goes all out. The show only touched the surface of Hikari's true potential when she defeated Banana, but here in the movie she becomes the true embodiment of her name (hikari means light).

We see it in her speech:

"there's only one star on the stage, and I am the star" Hikari declares

And we also see it in her radiance which spreads even outside the tower. For the first time in Revue Starlight story, we can clearly see why Karen idolizes Hikari so much. Hikari is an overwhelming star on her own right.

Then Hikari taunts Karen to come at her but before Karen can even move, Hikari has already run her through with her dagger. It's only in this moment, after being defeated, that Karen realizes she doesn't want to lose to Hikari, she doesn't want to keep following her from behind anymore. In a lesser movie this would have been the moment for Karen to get a dumb powerup that would allow her to win even after been defeated (like in the tv show) but not here. This time there's no powerups, no asspulls. The Revue is done and Karen lost, but with her loss everything that was holding her back is gone as well.

And now Karen feels empty, so Hikari tells her she just has to look for a new stage of her own.


Honestly, this scene alone justified the movie's existence. Not only we got to see Hikari's true potential for the first time, but we also got a nice role reversal since this time the one with the emotional issue was mainly Karen, and the one resolving the issue is Hikari. Kinda the opposite of what happened in the show.

[Archon_Wing]

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)

[Triple_R]

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.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

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.

I'd argue Revue Starlight never had much in the way of story to begin with, or more like it didn't really matter. I mean, stage girls fight each other to become "top star." Like, who cares? lol What mattered was the theme behind all that crap. And even that was a largely pedestrian message like "it's okay to try again, let's all share the stage together" and whatnot. In fact, the trippy visuals were probably to hide how simplistic the show was under the hood.

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.

Sure but at least the movie had a somewhat different message from the TV show. The TV show was mostly focused on the girls competing against each other to become the top dog in the school. With Karen proposing the idea that it's more important for them to be on stage together and support each other rather than tripping each other to see who's on top. Kind of a naive message imo, which was one of the reasons I wasn't so enthused about the show.

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

[Ragashingo]

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.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

I'd argue Revue Starlight never had much in the way of story to begin with, or more like it didn't really matter. I mean, stage girls fight each other to become "top star." Like, who cares? lol

I cared. Conflict and competitions are often fun, and sometimes interesting. Honestly, I'm not sure why anybody who watched the entire TV show would think otherwise. Why even watch the original TV show if you didn't care about the conflicts and competition in it? I mean, that's most of the show!

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.

With Karen proposing the idea that it's more important for them to be on stage together and support each other rather than tripping each other to see who's on top. Kind of a naive message imo, which was one of the reasons I wasn't so enthused about the show.

It's not a naive message at all. In fact, "the importance of supporting each other" is one of the best and most topical messages to have in our world today, given the ongoing world-wide struggles with Covid. The hyper-individualistic message you're perceiving in this movie is really not what people need to hear right now, imo. The much-better message, right now, is the message that the TV series conveyed.

In the TV show she was a boring and uninteresting "perfect hero"

No she wasn't. She lost to Tendo Maya right in Episode 3. And she faced many struggles during the TV show.

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.

Originally Posted by Ragashingo

The movie only had one Revue with the same pairing as the series: Kaoruko vs Futaba.

It's not so much "is this a rematch?" as it is "Did the TV show already explore, in detail, the dynamics between these two particular characters?"

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.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I cared. Conflict and competitions are often fun, and sometimes interesting. Honestly, I'm not sure why anybody who watched the entire TV show would think otherwise. Why even watch the original TV show if you didn't care about the conflicts and competition in it? I mean, that's most of the show!

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.

Good, then you should understand why some people did not like the TV series, because there was no suspense or conflict. Karen got what she wanted all the way through to the end. She didn't have to grow.

Originally Posted by Triple_R

It's not a naive message at all. In fact, "the importance of supporting each other" is one of the best and most topical messages to have in our world today, given the ongoing world-wide struggles with Covid. The hyper-individualistic message you're perceiving in this movie is really not what people need to hear right now, imo. The much-better message, right now, is the message that the TV series conveyed.

I don't think the TV series supported its own message all that well considering the only person who got what she wanted was Karen herself.

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?

Originally Posted by Triple_R

No she wasn't. She lost to Tendo Maya right in Episode 3. And she faced many struggles during the TV show.

So what exactly is your idea of a "struggle"?

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?

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I cared. Conflict and competitions are often fun, and sometimes interesting. Honestly, I'm not sure why anybody who watched the entire TV show would think otherwise. Why even watch the original TV show if you didn't care about the conflicts and competition in it? I mean, that's most of the show!

Maybe I wasn't all that clear. Of course, watching competitors can be interesting, but the way the TV show framed it, it's like it was undermining the whole thing. Since the ultimate message of the show is that everyone should support each other and be together on stage and whatnot, instead of trying to beat each other to get to the top. So who cares about the girls fighting each other when the point the show is trying to get across is the opposite? That's what I meant...

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.

Except the whole thing was resolved by the magic of plot armor. Karen just wills it and gets her way. How many times does Hikari beat her at the end before Karen magics her way to victory? I don't even remember because it didn't matter at all. Karen just said "fuck it" and got what she wanted anyway. It was the most dumb way to resolve this. Of course, they wanted to show the girls rejecting the rules, taking their fate on their own hands and all that good stuff, but there are thousands of better ways to do it than Karen getting away with it just because she can. That was super dumb.

It's not a naive message at all. In fact, "the importance of supporting each other" is one of the best and most topical messages to have in our world today, given the ongoing world-wide struggles with Covid. The hyper-individualistic message you're perceiving in this movie is really not what people need to hear right now, imo. The much-better message, right now, is the message that the TV series conveyed.

If you want a role, you have to compete and beat your opponents. And while the TV show argued that even a stage girl who loses can shine again, in the real world an actor who gets beaten in auditions has it really hard to succeed. It's a cut-throat environment in which only the best of the best succeed and everyone else falls to the sideways. The TV show tries to sugarcoat this. How is that NOT naive??

No she wasn't. She lost to Tendo Maya right in Episode 3. And she faced many struggles during the TV show.

Losing doesn't mean anything if it doesn't fundamentally change the character. The other girls changed after losing, but Karen didn't. All her victories after her loss were the result of plot armor rather than fundamentally changing and growing. Even the director realized this which is why they did the movie. He talks about that in an interview that's going around.

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.

The movie frames their dynamic in a more realistic way. Hikari and Karen are stage actresses. They live in a highly competitive environment and Karen's previous mindset didn't cut it. It might have been okay while she was a student, but you simply can't succeed with that mindset in the real world. That been said, it's not like they stopped being friends or anything. All the movie is trying to say is that they should see each other as rivals and find their own individual "stages." There's nothing negative about that.