Final Thoughts on: "Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight"

Synopsis

This the story of two girls and a beloved song and dance revue troupe named Starlight. When Karen and Hikaru were children, the two made a promise that one day, they’ll stand on the Starlight stage together. However, at one point, Hikaru ends up moving away and it is years later when the two are 16 that they reunite.

At this point, Karen is very enthusiastic about the lessons she takes every day, holding her promise close to her heart. However, behind the scenes, a mysterious audition process takes place for a chance at joining the revue auditions. By chance, Karen finds herself entangled in this mysterious event and now must compete with the other Stage Girls.

Initial Impression

The first thing that popped out with the episode is how it built its plot. Whether it be establishing the characters with a soft start or teasing the viewer with Karen’s dream, there was a solid foundation made by the episode in terms of introduction. The main point of interest in the episode, however, is when the Revue audition was revealed. A portion which held a solid transition and some lovely animation and music.

There are other points of interest though and one of them is the giraffe character. Out of all characters to be chosen as a mysterious “man behind the curtains”, a literal giraffe character is certainly something different. Another is the way that Karen jumped into things. It was clever of the episode to have Karen’s dream of falling connect to how she drops into the audition and have her transformation. As transformation sequences go, having machines do the work and having no magical effects is a nice change of pace.

In terms of flaws, there is some to note. The most prominent is how the characters are rather generic in terms of personalities. There wasn’t really anyone in the episode that stood out as either unique or different than expected. Other than this, the pacing of the episode could have been done slightly better.

Final Thoughts

“Performance” is truly the best way to describe the series and what it gave, There was drama, there was action, and most importantly, there was a story that engaged the viewer as the series went on. Initially, you would think that this was a typical female-oriented series that involved fighting and a mystery. Instead, the series introduced a surprising amount of depth and layers than expected.

It gave time to each of the characters and managed to connect the different portions of the story through one main factor. Simply put, it laid out different pieces throughout the series which managed to tie together in the end in a rather clever way with the whole “Starlight” tale. The fact that each of the girls’ story connected to certain aspects of the tale while developing them was rather clever. However, at the same time, it was fairly evident what kind of development they would receive.

Well, there was one character who received a different than expected development, but it felt like there was very little build-up to it, still, it was good. The revue auditions still shined with its action and music and it really placed a shine on the series. From the way the stage shifts to their character to the animation of their movements, it was a visual pleasure overall. On a side note, it was nice of the series to make Karen’s transformation be on certain moments, it made it stand out more.

The downside of the series seems to be trying to bring in a unique sense to it with its narration and story format. The thing with this is that it does bring depth, it also feels like the series is trying to dig just a tad too deep with how it tries to present more poignant moments with different characters.

Conclusion

This was a story that held a clever connection to one story which not only brought a unique format to its storytelling but also helped in moving along the character development. While the character development was fairly expected with how the characters were presented, there was a good song and fight animation to go with them. The amount of depth and layers to this story was a pleasant surprise, but there were moments that the series seemed to try a little too hard by bringing in poignant moments with the characters. It’s a series that brought a performance to enjoy, an interesting story that was well-formed, but a few flaws that could have made the series better.

Rating: 8.5/10