#instead i just rewatch the time loop ep over and over again lol...that ep is so good tho

[desperatepleasures]

thinkin about how legends of tomorrow had a canon ace character :')

[athyrabunlord]

Thoughts and Notes about ep1-5

This is a continuation of this post here, and some extras too. It’s less casual and more organized this time.

I now have rewatched ep1-3, and then watched ep4-5 which I was strongly recommended to do because those will answer some of my questions.

Tl:dr version - ep4-5 did nothing to endear the MC duo (if anything, it did the opposite), but provided interesting insights on other characters and thus are worth the watch

The (once again very long) version:

As said above, I have now watched ep4-5 as per recommendation because I’m told that I missed a lot from skipping ep4-5, that reading summaries wasn’t enough because that messes up the narrative. Fair enough, I agree with that and therefore decided to watch for myself.

Before that though, I rewatched ep1-3 just to see what else I could have missed. I must say that it was very interesting in this rewatch now that we know more about Nana and Hikari. Many of Nana’s lines in these earlier episodes are indeed foreshadowing. Her friggin’ first line is a foreshadowing.

One thing to add here that I missed mentioning in my previous post is that, yes it’s strongly implied that Karen have not participated in the loops’ Revues/that ep1 is the first time she participated.

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Notes about Ep1:

The narration of the play Starlight, of little Karen and Hikari and when they made their promise; the play’s cast was the girls in their Revue outfits with Hikari on the very top

Maya pointing out that she couldn’t see Hikari’s heart, which both Kuro and Nana expressed their surprise’; since the scene switched to the stairway, we don’t know what Nana’s expression is then - surprise about that insight on Hikari, the rogue factor, or surprise about Maya able to sense that? Ep7 did reveal a lot, but not all yet

I knew Kirin’s eyes were green but now that I’m staring at them, I think they’re the same/close to the shade of Nana’s green

Hikari would’ve lost to Junna if Karen hadn’t intervened, and then Junna lost due to the element of surprise.

Revue of of Passion - with help of ep8, it’s obvious now why Hikari would’ve lost, she no longer had her passion after all

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Notes about Ep2:

Just as Kirin warned, both Hikari and Junna reminded Karen not to speak of Revue in public (the first rule of Fight Club is, you do not… cough); Mahiru’s reaction was confusion, Nana’s was surprise, implying this could be the first she finds out of Karen participating the Revue

Maya and Claudine, pls go a get a room X”DDDDD the chemistry between these two good lord

Hikari noting that Karen doesn’t have enough shine, that’s why she wasn’t chosen in the first place; Karen countered that what Junna said made her heart doki/making her want to understand and try harder (on top of the fact Hikari’s back with her here)

Nowhere was it stated that ep1’s 3-way match didn’t count or does count; however, the fact ep2 is “Day 2 Audition” implies there is some sort of impact

Junna said the moment she became Stage Girl was when she was 8; interesting note is that it’s implied she watched a play of Starlight or similar, but the cast was shown as mannequins in contrast to ep1

Revue of Desire- Junna wants to be a star; she wants to shine and step out from the shadows, to surpass Maya and Kuro and thus she tried and tried so hard just to keep up; in my rewatch here, I note that Karen didn’t even talk-no-jutsu… she just said she wants to become stars with Hikari, and the next moment landed that decisive blow

After that, Kirin remarked he now knows why Karen wasn’t originally chosen, implying Hikari and Karen’s fate are shared

Maya defeated Kuro but neither’s stories are shown enough at this point to judge whose desire is stronger

Summary: still cannot accept Junna’s loss. If Junna doesn’t have as much talent as the top girls, she at least has passion and work ethics and desire to win which Karen lacks at this point; even if I take a step back and say Karen’s desire is stronger than Junna’s… so, having a goal to due to a childhood promise is more favorable/stronger in the Revue than a desire to reach the star through hardwork? Hmm. I’ll just say Junna lost because she was overthinking and, quoting her, the simple-minded ones are stronger lol

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Notes about Ep3

Nana seems (pleasantly) surprised when Junna and Karen seem so close; could be due the fact this rerun truly is different

I really must mention I like the start of Claudine and Futaba’s growing bond/dynamic

Kaoruko talking to Mahiru about how Hikari’s presence brought all the changes; it could’ve been just an off-handed comment, or does Kaoruko know more than she seems? (even though ep5 appeared to be her first entrance to Revue and her centric ep6 didn’t confirm that)

Still irked by what Karen told Hikari - “I’ll be back after I win!”; I’ll just put it as her being idealistic and believes that her dream is enough fuel to lead her to victory, especially after the match against Junna

Seriously, Kuro and Maya, I have a room all prepared, go for it, let it all out gah pls just go at it

Revue of Pride - Maya expressing surprise that Karen is even in this Revue; meaning she has never considered Karen as a possible rival, or she thought Karen didn’t have a goal/reason to be top star; she asked Karen just what had she offered in exchange, to reach for the star? Indeed, what had Karen offered?

Kuro vs Futaba, and flashes of the other girls in their Revue outfits (but only Nana’s katanas were shown); was this implying that there have been other matches by this Day 3 of Audition already? If anyone has a chart of who’s fought who already on which days, that’d be great (I’ve seen some on twitter but can’t find them anymore).

Allow me a moment to gush over Maya’s part in the duet of ep3 again. Those lyrics are just so damn good lol. And also goddamit that beautiful animation

Instead of herself, Maya mostly talked about Kuro; I’ve already talked about this in my previous post but yeah, I love them. This is KuroMaya

Interestingly, after her victory, Maya said “the passion with her (Kuro) is…”, trailed off; well, I guess we’ll wait for a Kuro-centric ep to find out more

Hikari trying to intervene but couldn’t; implying Kirin really did sneakily allow Karen to crash the audition in ep1, or Karen has some sort of power that allowed her to sneak in without Kirin’s notice

Conclusion: while Maya is indeed more superior in skills than Karen, this being Revue of Pride implies that due to Maya’s pride/confidence in her skills and acknowledging what’s at stake, she defeated Karen

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Anyway, finally here we are, ep4-5. I took into consideration all the points that those arguments have made against my post and what I should look out for:

explanation/evidence in Karen being so powerful (ie. improving enough to defeat Claudine)

The impact of Karen losing to Maya has on the plot/character development

The resolution of the Mahiru-Karen relationship (as well as, the Mahiru-Karen-Hikari situation)

The Karen-Hikari bond being a strong enough fuel for the viewer to relate to and root for them

Summary/Notes about ep4

Once again we’re shown that little Karen and Hikari’s promise was made after they’ve seen the play Starlight; however this time, while played by the girls, they’re in the actual play’s outfits and the two as the lead; for the first time, we’re shown exactly what happened after the two leads reached the top; Karen was… affected by the red light (interestingly, her own jewel color), and then the scene continued to the next line of how ‘their dreams could never be’

Bana-nice; Nana seems happy at the new term, perhaps because that’s never happened in any of the reruns before

Sigh, really, making a ruckus in the morning, disturbing most of your dorm mates’ rest, and ditching your hallway cleaning duties, that’s just rude and disrespectful; Karen did apologize and promise to be back soon (which she didn’t)

Kaoruko talks to Futaba about the Revue audition, foreshadowing ep6

Hikari reminding/making sure Karen remembers their promise, and the two chatting about various things, while walking around the city dragging her suitcase and making Karen chase after her for the whole day; I’ll… just leave it as because Hikari haven’t been back to Japan for 12 yrs and thus want to do a bit of tour around; also, Karen mentioning she felt that she and Maya were on totally different stage

Important Note: we’re shown yet again that Kuro was practicing, as per all previous episodes; that’s 4 eps in a row; why specifically keep showing her practicing, out of the other girls? I’m really excited for her centric ep

Also seriously MayaKuro please, I beg of you, do something about your sexual tension *writhes* a claymore couldn’t cut it in half X”DDDDDD

Ahem. Kuro asking Maya why she’s in the Revue, and Maya replying she’s jealous at the very thought of someone else being the Top Star; implying she wanted to win to keep their status quo of her being no.1 and therefore, her partner/no.2 will remain Kuro

Hikari trying to warn Karen of the stakes, of what it means to lose at Revue; Karen just assuring Hikari she won’t lose again because she wants to shine, that she’ll be so brilliant and intense that she won’t lose to everyone;

Hikari reminding Karen there could only be one winner; Karen refuted that Kirin never said that - rather, the winner could be whoever presents the most dazzling revue; Hikari is in disbelief since there’s no way they’d get special treatment like that; Karen assures Hikari it’ll be okay (At this point, I think that’s exactly what will happen lol)

Once again, Nana looks very happy about ‘bana-nice’ and that this is the first time they made up alibi to get past roll coll for the absent duo

It was never shown that Karen or Hikari contacted the girls that they won’t be back; sure they ran out of money but, surely their phone still have battery? If not, that’s utterly irresponsible of them to just get out like that and expect things to work out

The rest of the girls are such amazing friends; Karen thanked Junna for doing her cleaning duties; in spite of the dorm head finding out and Junna freaking out about the hardcore training as punishment, the bottom line for Junna is that she’s glad Karen and Hikari are safe; the rest of the girls welcome them back

Conclusion, if you really ship KarenxHikari, you’ll probably enjoy it. If not, well, you’ll enjoy all the other moments and appreciate the other girls.

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Summary/Notes about Ep5:

For Mahiru, Karen has always been a source of light, absolutely brilliant; however, so are the others in this prestigious Academy; Mahiru thought everyone but herself is radiant; it’s implied that she’s been struggling with this inferiority complex for a long time

Once again, Nana seems pleased at Karen’s change; however, her gaze was cloudy and displeased when the GroupB girls suggested Hikaren as the leads, that she should move forward and strive for improvement; def foreshadowing of ep7

Mahiru had such trouble waking up Karen in the morning, shown in previous episodes; now, Karen woke up early to train with Hikari, now that she’s made a promise to Hikari that she won’t lose again and will catch up to Maya. Good for her to finally be motivated, but coming from Mahiru’s POV, that’s painful. The unspoken question of “I’m not good enough to motivate you?” lingers in the air

We learn about Mahiru’s background; that she came from a large family, who owns a farm, and it had a been a huge deal for her to get accepted into the Academy, enough to get interviewed

After a bit of… stalkerish behavior from Mahiru (which I suppose is meant to be presented as comical but I just cringe) in which Hikari is always present and thus stopped Mahiru from really doing anything, Mahiru finally snaps, telling Hikari not to steal her brilliance which is Karen; Hikari is irked by the casual use of the word ‘steal’ (which is explained later in ep8)

Mahiru receives the mail about the Revue, marking this as her first fight

Revue of Jealousy - in a way, this makes sense why it’s only now that Mahiru qualifies to participate in Revue; on a side note, I really, really dig the song…

The whole thing is presented as comical in an almost psychotic, creepy way; of course, Mahiru’s completely snapped; she’s scared of losing her place, of losing her shine; she’s the one who had always been by Karen’s side but now…

Mahiru’s. Weapon. Is. Badass.

Also, a note, you -can- intervene in other Revues somehow; if Mahiru or Karen wanted, they could have started fighting Maya and Futaba; Kaoruko and Junna; Hikari and Kuro then and there

Anyway, it’s very painful to watch Mahiru chasing after Karen. “I just want to be useful again.” “Do you not need me anymore?”

After Mahiru’s self-deprecating rant, Karen counters that Mahiru has her own shine and lists all the qualities she likes about Mahiru, making her recall the joy of being accepted to this Academy and so on

And then, Karen won. If going by my above points, this is Revue of Jealousy so in that aspect, Mahiru definitely should have won. If not, still I don’t see how Mahiru so easily lost. As mentioned in my previous post, where is the supposed damage from being repeatedly thwonked by that mace/scepter? Karen did a ‘homerun’ to win but, urgh, she won because she made Mahiru recall her own shine??

Afterwards, we’re shown Mahiru acknowledging her own shine, which has always been there since middle school, and that she won’t rely on anyone anymore.

Conclusion: I tried to remain as neutral as I could but now I’m sitting here, tasting bitterness and just overall horrible for Mahiru. Those summaries I read before were nice and sugarcoating in comparison now that I’ve watched the real thing. If the ep’s intention is to make viewers feel horrible for Mahiru, then in that aspect it’s a successful delivery. If the ep’s intention is for the viewer to accept Karen and root for her… My opinion of her went from neutral to you’re such a horrible friend who doesn’t deserve Mahiru at all. I want to like you Karen, I really do because you’re the MC, but I really can’t, not after ep5.

I feel like full extent of Mahiru’s despair was just dismissed. Her issues, not just the jealousy of Karen being ‘taken away’ from her side, felt really downplayed. Sure, Karen did give her hope and the other others’ acknowledgement at the end, the warm and family-like atmosphere soothe her, but the scale is just too much to justify that change. You do not just overcome years of feeling inferior over one supposedly inspirational speech. Ep 5 isn’t just horrible on the Karen-Mahiru relationship now, it’s a slap in the face to the character of Mahiru. I’m… appalled. Really, put yourself in Mahiru’s shoes.

Now, going back to the four points I listed before writing about ep4-5, none of them are answered/resolved. Karen trains yes, but Kuro has been training for so much longer and she was better than Karen to start with. Karen losing to Maya made her want to start training harder and her plan to defeat Maya is to become more radiant. Um, ok. The other two points I already said above.

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And so, I’ve come to a final conclusion that:

You either adore Revue Starlight in spite of its faults (or for some people, blind to the faults), and/or ship Karen x Hikari and/or considers Karen a good MC;

or;

You’re still watching Revue Starlight by ignoring its faults because you like the other characters/ships/elements too much, and/or really don’t care for Karen x Hikari and/or find Karen lacking as MC.

If you’re watching the series and don’t belong to the two groups I mentioned above, please, please comment on this and shed some light as the middle(?) ground since it’d be nice to see a completely different perspective.