Revue Starlight

Episode 5

Poor Mahiru. Imagine living day in and day out pursuing your passion, next to the girl of your dreams, when all of a sudden her childhood friend shows up out of nowhere and whisks her away into some surreal contest judged by a talking giraffe. You'd probably be upset too! Mahiru has largely existed as a gag character so far, shoved into the background with mouth agape as she watches Karen become closer with the other girls in their troupe. One of my favorite moments in any given show happens when a gag character gets some depth and pathos. I've been quietly hoping that Revue Starlight would do the same for Mahiru, so I'm happy to say that she gets to be the focus of its 5th episode.

Much of Mahiru's behavior and timidity can be traced to her background. She comes from a small town out in the countryside, her family owns a farm, and she was the only person from her junior high school to get accepted into Seisho academy. In her hometown, she was a big enough deal to get a small TV spot dedicated to her, but at Seisho, she's just one of many, lacking the pedigree and privilege of her many classmates. Everybody shines but her. So it's easy to understand why she latched onto (and crushed on) the effervescent Karen, who took her hand and comforted her when she felt separated from everyone else. Karen, whose enthusiasm for the theater didn't quite translate into basic human functions like waking up on time, in turn became a walking disaster that Mahiru could care for. Even if Mahiru was a nobody, she could become somebody by supporting a person who actually did shine on their own. She could be not only wanted, but needed.

This arrangement gets thrown out of whack once Hikari shows up. Among everything else she's done so far, she literally sleeps between their beds, forming both an emotional and physical barrier in Karen and Mahiru's relationship. And now that Karen is closer to Hikari than ever thanks to their night on the town, Mahiru is even more of a third wheel. Karen's shine is no longer for Mahiru alone, which gets illustrated beautifully in a long panning shot showing Hikari catching all of Karen's sparkles in a net while Mahiru stands abandoned in the darkness below. In fact, everyone is beginning to notice Karen's shine as she translates her newfound determination into hard work and extra practice time. As Mahiru's frustrations grow, she eventually directs her ire at Karen herself, and the inevitable audition between the two of them ensues.

I've probably made the episode sound more intense than it is, and while it does take Mahiru's feelings of love and jealousy seriously, it's also pretty funny. The tendency to blend tragedy and comedy together is as old as theater itself, so it shouldn't be surprising that her unrequited desires get sublimated into a running gag about her romantic rival walking in on some particularly vulnerable moments. It's a straightforward joke, but the execution is where it shines, using both framing and timing to accentuate the comedy. For instance, the first scene is set up so that when Mahiru's head falls as she takes a big whiff of Karen's pillow, it reveals Hikari, who nonchalantly announces that she forgot something before leaving the room. A few beats are allowed before Mahiru loses it and throws the pillow at the camera. The other two scenes are set up similarly, with Hikari inadvertently interrupting Mahiru while she's deep in the Karen Zone. My favorite part of all of them is Hikari's deadpan acceptance of Mahiru's horniness—she's not out to shame her, but she's clearly amused. This all adheres to the comedy rule of threes as well, which is a classic technique used to great effect by Kunihiko Ikuhara, whose influence continues to weave through Revue Starlight.

The Revue of Jealousy introduces us to Mahiru's stage, which is full of cats, baseball, and cute wooden cutouts of both Mahiru and Karen. It's a far cry more whimsical than the melodramatic pyrotechnics of Karen's duel with Maya, and Mahiru's revue song is an upbeat and jazzy number, so it'd be tempting to dismiss it all as a farcical lovers' spat. But we actually get some pretty poignant insight into Mahiru's own psyche. For instance, she unintentionally reveals how much of their current relationship is based on projection when she literally plays the role of Karen in her introduction. Mahiru attacks with a mace, which is animated as if it's imbued with the weight of her feelings. She doesn't really want to beat Karen either, so instead of going after her cape pin like the rules dictate, she opts for slugging Karen into home plate (which does call into question how much Mahiru understands baseball, but I digress). There's also some fourth-wall-breaking as the two of them interrupt the auditions between the other characters (which happens three times, of course). Their fight isn't as fluidly animated as past duels, but the shot composition is the strongest it's been, emphasizing both the slapstick moments and the distance that has grown between Karen and Mahiru.

Mahiru's problem isn't how much she loves Karen: it's how much she doesn't love herself. She feels like she doesn't deserve to be at Seisho, like she only got there on the good graces of other people and she possesses nothing valuable of her own. She substituted all that with an unconditional devotion to Karen, but that's not a healthy foundation for any relationship, warping hers into one defined by dependence and possessiveness. No one should define themselves exclusively by their worth to someone else, and Karen lets Mahiru know that she is talented, enthusiastic, and shining on her own. Mahiru loses the duel, but she regains the drive that sent her to Seisho in the first place. As her friends all happily chow down on her family's potatoes, she remembers how much support she still has in her original goal of becoming the kind of Star who can make the people important to her smile. It isn't all that different from her attitude toward Karen before this episode, but now her selflessness is borne out of her desires rather than her insecurity, because she too can shine.

This was my favorite episode of Revue Starlight yet, both humorous and heartfelt in all the right ways. I was initially sold on the show's premise by its surreal and serious take on the girls' ensemble format, but its willingness to have some fun with its central tenets also bolsters my confidence in its execution. The giraffe is both an unfair arbiter of an unjust system AND a goofy talking animal who delivers garbled monologues while drinking out of a pool. Maya is both the cool and collected Top Star AND a high school girl who says things like “this is potato.” Mahiru is no longer just the disaster lesbian pining after her roommate; she's her own character now. Revue Starlight is already a special show, but I hope it can continue to give the rest of its cast this level of care and attention.

Rating: A

Revue Starlight is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Steve is a longtime anime fan who can be found making bad posts about anime on his Twitter.