#god knows what's happening with claudine and maya

[cometblaster2070]

mahiru is genuinely my icon in revue starlight because she's so fucking funny like listen to me she's been PINING for karen for so long right they're BFFs she knows everything about karen and she takes pride in the fact that like wow there's no one closer to karen than I am.

then hikari shows up and mahiru goes into a tailspin like what tf is this why does karen know with this incredibly scary looking stranger and then she realizes they were childhood best friends and that they have a HISTORY and she sort of loses it for a while because the girl she likes' situationship from like grade school's come back and the girl she likes is absolutely completely head over heels for this girl and now what is mahiru supposed to do.

but then the resolution to the conflict is mahiru going yk what I can work with this and she basically grabs hikari and goes I have decided to make you mine as well

and it just works??? like hikari is so aloof and withdrawn and lowkey scary but her interactions with mahiru later on are SO funny like mahiru's out here telling her to clean her room and get her shit together and then the entire bit in the movie like???

she is an ICON and i want to be her actually.

[caramelmochacrow]

I love how in the movie everyone was in their gay divorce arc except maya and claudine

YES. LIKE. EVERYONE WAS DIVORCING EACH OTHER WHILE MAYA AND CLAUDINE WERE JUST. DOING WHATEVER THE HECK THEIR REVUE WAS.

When THOSE scene happened in the kaoruko and futaba revue me and my sister were losing our shit. Like. There is no straight explanation for anything that was happening in that revue and the others in general. Nothing. I know that futaba and kaoruko being those positions probably means something other than 'they're gay', I know it does, but my GOD THESE BITCHES GAY. Also at the beginning when claudine was being a gambler and kaoruko a dealer, kaoruko saying she ruined her sweets box, saying she ruined it and poisoned it, and then says 'your the reason that we...' and then futaba (literally) breaks into the scene a few moments later and says that their friendship was like a box of sweets all imply that kaoruko is blaming claudine for their divorce. I love it.

The revue of hunting was just. God. Nana saying junna was bright, nana asking where her junna was and that she was beautiful, junna saying that the words she quotes inspire and move her while to nana they mean nothing, Junna finally finding her own words and saying that she will finally become the protagonist and then the last part where they're going toward the next stage, moving on from the starlights they did in seisho and everything else, nana crying and saying that she was a liar and that junna is still bright, junna not going back to comfort her and nana wiping away her own tears and both of them calling each other by their full names killed me.

That entire revue was just an Experience for me. I love nana a lot so seeing her just be THAT in the entire movie and revue made me so so insane. Nana ilysm but :(

Karen and hikari was the biggest divorce in the movie ofc. Karen worked so hard to just do one play with hikari, but now that she did it, what else can she do? She finally did starlight with hikari. Hikari did the same, but she always loved the stage, so she knew what to do next, to go to the next one. But karen didnt. She doesnt know what to do. Without hikari she isnt a stage girl. Literally. Once hikari leaves her she wont have a purpose on the stage, she is nothing. So instead of something like hikari helping karen find her new purpose for the stage, she just helps by telling her which direction she should go to find her next purpose by herself, then everyone throwing away the cloaks that the giraffe gave them except for karen meaning that they found their next stage and at the end they show karen about to audition for something and her cloak finally flying away meaning she found a new purpose and reason for the stage just. Yeah. They sure are that, huh?

Maya and claudine. These bitches. When I finished kaoruko and futaba's revue, i told my sister, "if this is kaoruko and futaba, what's maya and claudine going to be?" And after junnanna, I said, "that was the gayest one so far, wonder if maya and claudine can top it," AND THEY DID. They didnt do any of those positions the other guys did but the things they said? Oohhhh boy. It beats a confession by anyone.

The subs I watched are different to the ones some people watched I think but the implications still stand. Maya and claudine's revue begins with them acting out a play. (Also can I say that claudine's voice and outfit was TOP NOTCH AMAZING AT THIS PART. HER VOICE AND FIT OOZES WITH SMUG I LOVE IT) claudine and maya make a deal, implying that claudine is the devil and that maya is a pure and innocent person wrapped in the devil's finger. Things happen, blah blah blah, and maya tells her that she cannot steal her soul because she has none, she is a vessel for the gods and gets an outfit change, she wears all white and a fancy gown that's clearly suppose to be a swan, contrasting claudine's black attire. the part where they're fighting as other people from other countries, rivals in history, they say (in the subs I was watching) something along the lines of "a hero is nothing without trials and a saint is nothing without temptation." Maya is clearly the saint at that part, with claudine asking her to make a deal with her like the devil, maya plays a lot of lead roles, which is usually the hero, so maya is the hero. A hero cant be a hero without trials, if they are a hero, what will prove it? A saint cannot be a saint without temptation, what proves they are a saint without it? So if that's what the questions are, what proves that maya is amazing?

It's claudine. Claudine is her trials, claudine is her temptation, without claudine maya has no proof she is amazing.

Then at the end, instead of one of them being on top of the other like the other guys, they are lying down on the ground at the same area, they are both finally on equal ground.

Anyway wow I rambled a lot lol sorry.... I just love the movie a lot so... just take this ramble?

[smokestarrules]

I love how scary Nana’s allowed to be. 

After episode 7, it’s always clear she’s an antagonist - that’s never the question, even when you feel for her - even though Maya and Claudine are the last fight, and the Giraffe himself the final boss, she’s very much the main antagonist from episodes 7-9 at least. 

And yes, her motivations are the purest they could ever be, but god she’s scary. She can beat Maya with a single blow (because she’s done this already), she knows exactly what to say to calm any of her friends down (because she’s done this already), and until Hikari shows up, she basically knows everything that ever happens (because she’s done this already).

Despite all that, she still embraces Hikari into “her stage”, because she’s not a bad person. Her fight against Hikari is just Nana begging her to give in and accept the repeat performance - to keep everyone safe.  

Even her song against Karen!! Or maybe especially her song against Karen. The first time I listened to it - really listened to it, outside of the anime when you’re trying to pay attention to what’s on the screen - I got chills. It’s terrifying, and it’s the only one of its kind. 

The only comparison is to Maya’s songs, maybe, but even then there’s a clear difference. Hers are full of power, complete and utter confidence, but Nana’s are the ultimate form of control - she’s done this before, and you’re not much of a threat to her. 

Just - listen to Hoshiboshi no Kizuna, I am begging you. Nana’s vocals are bone-chilling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCHswI1QbyU&list=PLgnJcKVfkTlByuL9h6ffFXcPS7eIvhCWa&index=8

(This is also portrayed rly well in the mangas, too, just look at her lmao)

And I just really love Nana a lot. 

[pdaliceliveblogs]

I mean I did spend most of this episode cooing over these two but it feels a little weird to be looking at cute couple credits when Karen just fell off a building

What an episode! I absolutely loved that; the Revue itself was really beautifully choreographed and things are fuckin’ HAPPENING. Maya and Claudine are finally on the same page for real; they’ve been struggling together for so long and now they know they’re lifting each other up. It’s really beautiful to watch.

minor prediction:

the next episode will start after whatever Hikari wishes for has taken effect

see you next week, guys. God damn. Thanks for voting in this show.

[docholligay]

I feel like I say this all the time, but man, Nana really is the ultimate helicopter parent. If people don’t experience sadness, and failure, and difficulty, they’ll never grow. They stagnate. Nothing becomes of people nothing happens to, they become vapid and boring, they completely lack in any kind of emotional depth. I’m sure we’ve all known people whose parents treated them like hothouse orchids, and they’re empty inside as a chocolate rabbit. They have nothing to draw on. All they have is this idea that life should always be easy and they should always get their way and oh my god all of a sudden I remembered someone on tumblr like this and god I hated her she was such a spoilt brat. 

ANYWAY, what I’m saying is that she’s protecting them, sure, but she’s not letting them become anything. They’re stuck. We’ll never know if Maya makes a success of herself or if she burns out in a magnificent conflagration the way people who are very driven when young often do. We’ll never know if Claudine goes back to the Paris stage. We’ll never know if Futaba pulls her head out of her ass and starts hanging around decent people. All these things can’t happen if they aren’t allowed the painful instruction of failure, and, like a helicopter parent, Nana can’t even see how she’s hurting them. 

[master-thief-gray-shadow]

Jolie

Summary: “It means ‘pretty,’ right?” Maya said as she leaned forward ever so slightly. “I wonder, what was so pretty just now you had to comment on it?” Her eyes were burning into Claudine’s own, daring her to say something honest for once. Well, if honesty was what Maya wanted, then honesty is what she would have. “Care to tell me, Claudine?”

Claudine stood up, relishing that now, for once, she was glaring down at Maya. “Yeah,” She said through clenched teeth. “You’re too pretty!”

Notes: Didn’t think I’d ever write this particular ship, but here we are. Better than nothing.

In the venerable Takarazuka Revue, the theater troupe for which Seisho Music Academy prepares its students and sends them off to once they graduate, there are two broad roles which one may take: the musumeyaku, who plays women’s roles and embodies a feminine ideal, and the otokoyaku, who plays men onstage and adopts a masculine persona. The otokoyaku is expected to exude boyish charm offstage as well, with appropriate dress and mannerisms. Though tempered with a gentle feminine touch, the ideal otokoyaku presents in a distinctly masculine manner. Which lead to a problem with otokoyaku-in-training and feared and revered top star Tendou Maya. One of many problems. Actually, no, there were very few problems with Tendou Maya. Which, Claudine supposed, was a problem in and of itself.

Claudine watched with her breath held as Maya moved a lock of hair behind her ear. Again. Like for the third time in...oh, maybe fifteen minutes. And every time Claudine had watched. Watched those long, delicate fingers take a silky-looking strand between them and maneuver it so that it wouldn’t obstruct her vision, thus leaving the world (well, the person sitting in the chair across from her, who happened to be Claudine at the moment) with a perfect view of her flawless, sharp features. But she’d been staring at those features for quite some time, and movement draws the human eye, so Claudine’s focus at the moment was on those fingers, and the hair between them. Safely secured, the strands blended together with the others, becoming lost in an ocean of brown. Deep, chestnut brown that flowed down her back like a river, shining with a soft silky texture and so voluminous it seemed to blow even without wind. All topped off with a cute little blue bow. Claudine was rightly proud of her own platinum waves, but Tendou Maya, the otokoyaku she had partnered with, had no right, none whatsoever, to have hair so long, so gorgeous, so…

“Jolie.” Claudine had vocalized her thought before she could stop herself. It was in French, though, so she was pretty sure she was safe. She relaxed, and went back to watching Maya intently. And then Maya paused in the middle of turning a page, reminding Claudine of something she always seemed to forget in moments like this: Oh god, oh fuck, she speaks French too oh no oh god--

“Did you say something, Claudine?” Maya said, looking up from her book to meet Claudine’s eyes from across the coffee table. Her lips had formed a serene, gentle smile, but her eyes hid a glimmer in them. Oh, she had heard her. She heard her, that infuriating, conniving...ugh.

“I didn’t say anything,” Claudine said with some considerable venom. Enough to have turned the heads of everyone else in the common room, which of course happened to be everyone. Yeah, of course, everyone wanted to watch the top two students fight. They always do.

Maya set down her book. “Are you sure?” Maya said, her tone level, in sharp contrast to the hidden smugness in her gaze that only Claudine could see. “I believe you said ‘jolie,’ correct?”

“Yes, and it means ‘shut your mouth.’” It didn’t, of course, but Maya’s French was...mmm, it left something to be desired. Maya probably wasn’t that ignorant, but Claudine was taking a gamble. Wouldn’t it be funny if she could convince Tendou Maya something like that…

A raised eyebrow communicated that Maya wasn’t buying it. Damn. “Are you sure? That doesn’t sound right.” God she was so sure of herself, it made Claudine’s blood boil. She wanted to punch her in that stupid perfect smug face of hers. Well no, not punch her. She would rather...um...uh…

“Yeah, well, uh…” Seemed like the clever retort function of her brain wasn’t working right now, clogged up with thoughts of...things she wanted to do to Tendou Maya’s face. God dammit, why was she so gay and weak like this?

“It means ‘pretty,’ right?” Maya said as she leaned forward ever so slightly. “I wonder, what was so pretty just now you had to comment on it?” Her eyes were burning into Claudine’s own, daring her to say something honest for once. Well, if honesty was what Maya wanted, then honesty is what she would have. “Care to tell me, Claudine?”

Claudine stood up, relishing that now, for once, she was glaring down at Maya. “Yeah,” She said through clenched teeth. “You’re too pretty!”

Maya seemed genuinely caught off-guard by this, reeling back as her face twisted in confusion. “Wha--”

“Your hair’s too long!” Claudine said, pointing accusingly. “It’s too long and too pretty and the way you put that stupid bow in it makes it even worse! Your hair’s too pretty and I’m sick of looking at it!”

There was a long, stunned silence, throughout the entire duration of which Claudine could feel her face heating up degree by degree. Eight pairs of eyes were burning holes in her, most of all the ones right in front of her. The silence was broken by the sound of suppressed giggling.

“Not a sound from you, you midget!” She said as she shot a hard glare at Futaba, who had nearly doubled over trying to contain her laughter. She did a quick sweep of the room to find there were several other people stifling themselves as well, and determined that this would probably be a good time to leave. Better now than when something even more embarrassing happened, like Maya finding a way to respond. Claudine did not want to stick around for that one, she thought as she hurried to her room. Nope.

It had been a week since the incident, and Claudine had resumed her push-and-pull relationship with Maya without any complications. If she didn’t know any better she’d say Maya had forgotten all about it, but Maya didn’t forget these things. She was being deliberately silent on the subject. Not that Claudine would ever actually ask her about it, especially considering she had a vested interest in burying the whole thing. Still, it was good to have some semblance of normalcy in their little rivalry. Although there was something off today…

“Saijou-san.” The unmistakable sharp tone of voice easily caught her attention Claudine turned in her seat to see Junna standing behind her, looking very businesslike as usual. “Have you seen Tendou-san? I haven’t seen her since this morning.”

Claudine put a hand on her chin thoughtfully. Yes, come to think of it, she’d hardly seen Maya around today either...what was up with that? “No, I haven’t. Désolé.” She gave a small shrug.

Junna nodded. “Understood. That’s odd, though, I figured you of all people would know where she would be.” She adjusted her glasses and looked out the window. “I’m going to check the studio again. It’s possible she’s practicing there and I just missed her the first time.” As Junna made her way towards the door to the dorm Claudine scoffed. Pfff, Tendou Maya. If she really had run off right after breakfast to practice then she would have been practicing for...Claudine took a quick glance at the clock on her phone. So it was around one in the afternoon, meaning that Maya had been at it for around four hours now. On a sunday. Claudine stood up. Well, if she was going to beat Tendou Maya in anything, she would have to train harder than her, and she was already behind.

“Oh, Tendou-san, you’re ba--Tendou-san?” The sudden shock in Junna’s voice quickly caught Claudine’s attention, at which point the words themselves registered in her mind. So Maya was back, and...did something happen? Was she okay? Claudine was about ready to rush to the door when Tendou Maya herself strolled into the common room, and Claudine could plainly see exactly what Junna had been so startled by.

Oh god. What the fuck.

Yeah, it was the same infuriating Tendou Maya alright, except now she had gotten a serious haircut. It now hovered only a little above her shoulders, there wasn’t even enough in back to make a tiny ponytail with. And yet still there was so much volume packed into those short little chestnut locks, it still shone in the afternoon sunlight and Claudine was still filled with the urge to run her fingers through it. Worst of all, it framed that lovely face of hers perfectly. Tendou Maya stood before her, looking handsome as fuck with her short hair. Claudine could feel the gay panic setting in again.

“What do you think?” Maya said, stepping forward and sweeping Claudine straight into her arms. Because of course, Tendou Maya couldn’t just show off her new look, she had to rub it in her face by doing something like this. Claudine blushed furiously as Maya dipped her low. “Am I still too pretty, Ma Claudine?”

“It’s…” A great look for you? “I…” Really really love it? “You’re…” So handsome I can’t speak? Every sentence seemed to die in Claudine’s throat, but her vocal chords still insisted on making noise. “AAAAAAARRRRRGH!”

[queen-of-hearts92]

Giant hands as imagery never mean anything good. The literal stage hands from episode 8 was scary enough but now theres this huge looking hand at the start of Maya's chapter of Overture. Due to this manga being a prequel to the anime I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a giant hand is featured here. Considering what hands like these usually mean, it gives quite unnerving implications, especially for Maya since this was in her chapter. Let me explain! About Maya Tendou and why I’m sad about her.

Quick note from the future: I wrote this post before episode 10 happened so while I would change somethings around I still stand by a lot of what I said here! I’ll probably do a follow up post to this one eventually! Ok thats all, enjoy the meta! owo/

Loom hands can represent danger from a powerful force, they often mean something is preying on someone else. Like a predator hunting down prey, the sharp claws add to the predator image hence the literal stage hands are also clawed. An example would be in the book/movie Coraline who is targeted by the Other Mother. Not only does Other Mother have creepy hands but on the posters and covers for the movie there is indeed a clawed hand above Coraline. 

Another thing looming hands can represent is a lack of control over yourself/your life like being directed by a puppet master. Remember when Maya was talking about the beauty of choice in episode 7? We can start to see why she views it so positively, cause she doesn’t often have that. To go with the theme of a lack of control, the controlling hand can also represent abuse of any kind. 

You see. The visual of an adult hand reaching towards a child who looks like her in the darkness has some, sad implications about Maya. I actually did wonder if that sort of thing happened during her childhood. I never put it in my write ups cause I didn't want to assume nor did I feel I had enough evidence but then this chapter happened. Now I’m suspecting abuse, physical and/or emotional most likely. I’ve said a few times in my write ups that you don’t get someone like Maya out of a happy childhood, and I know I’m right but what happened exactly we were only able to guess at for awhile but thanks to this chapter we have some idea of whats going on. 

Maya has had expectations thrown at her since she was born. Her parents it sounds like that they groomed her to be a stage girl. I’ve always been bothered that she's referred to as a thoroughbred. Yeah that word can be used at ppl but not normally, you call race horses that are born and bred to compete a thoroughbred. Maya has that word in every one of her descriptions, and that’s why. 

She was bred for the stage, nothing else was ever an option for her. Maya’s whole existence is the stage, the ghost story play in her chapter is really referring to her. She’s the ghost that gets swallowed up by the darkness. Two of the quotes from the play that stood out to me was “Aside from the heart of a stage, the position zero, there was nowhere else that I belonged.” and “The light of the spotlight is the only thing that reveals my existence at all”. To farther cement this parallel is that the ghost girl has Maya’s hair style therefore looks similar to her and only Maya is able to see her. Maya the performer is seen by others of course but Maya as a human being isn’t. That’s the invisible part, only being in the spotlight reveals her existence.

We can see this in the fact that Maya doesn’t have any close friends and while Claudine is easily the closest to Maya she’s still distant to the point that Kuro also sees Maya as a perfect embodiment of the stage. Kuro couldn’t even fathom that Tendou Maya was afraid of something silly like ghosts hence she thought Maya was acting instead. That’s a big relationship barrier here, Kuro needs to see Maya as a human being or their relationship just isn’t going to work.

Noticing that Maya has been dehumanized by everyone around her is extremely depressing honestly. From what I can tell her parents see her as a well trained prized pet, her peers see her as above them, and her crush sees her as this perfect stage girl to a point she cant recognize if Maya is acting or when she’s genuinely like scared in this case. Maya does do what she is expected to do but it seems like she’s created a coping mechanism of sorts. If her peers see her as this untouchable figure fine, she’ll be that to inspire them to progress. She wants to be the best so others do their best, this way it gives her a purpose besides just being a wind up toy on the stage. However this kind of coping won’t work forever cause at the end of the day she’s still treated like an object and not a person. Something will give, and it will hurt a lot. Like someone, please see her as a person! She needs that so so badly. God dammit...

On top of all this Maya being associated with birds has depressing implications as well. Birds can mean all sorts of shit, but one of the big ones is freedom. Ya know, caged birds still sing after all. If Maya is that bird, the one who can’t fly freely, then she’ll learn how to sing. However Maya isn’t associated with the traditional caged birds, she’s associated with swans. Swans can’t be contained like that, shouldn’t be contained like that. Just because a swan has accepted their cage doesn’t make the cage less smaller or tighter. Or feel less suffocating. Like I said in my episode 7 write up, Maya is trying hardcore to look only forward and never back but not facing the ghosts of your past can and will cause problems and eventually drag you down. Maya isn’t a lark or any kind of songbird, she’s a swan that learned how to sing and perform. And if that swan can’t or won’t break free, then its only gonna get worse from here.

All this shit ofc factors in kuromaya. I think one of the reasons why Maya has fallen for Claudine and seeks her out is while Kuro does see her as perfect, instead of backing down she fucking goes for it and thats exciting as hell for Maya. People just don’t do that around her nor succeed in truly challenge her like Kuro can. Plus unlike her, Kuro chose to go into the stage and acting. Maya must really admire that she chose this rough path and did it cause she wanted to. Hell maybe even envy her for being able to do that. She loves Kuro’s drive and passion, she loves being around her. But I do think that eventually Kuro also treating her as not human will get to Maya. And when that happens, that’s gonna hurt a lot man.

I honestly can’t imagine what it’s like to go your entire life being treated like a fancy animal at best and a thing at worst. The coping mechanism is probably the only reason why she hasn’t fucking lost her mind or her sense of self, but as I said that won’t solve anything in the long term. 

Maya is gonna break, everyone has their limits and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’ll be hitting hers soon. She, honestly needs to. You can’t bottle that shit up forever, its gonna explode. When the break happens I’m pretty sure Claudine will see it happen, cause she needs to see that Maya is human too. She’s probably the only one who can possibly understand since she also grew up in the spotlight. This will be a helpful and healing experience for both of them, Maya can finally let it all out and Kuro can learn a new way to look at her and even their rivalry over complicated lesbian mating dance. I’m hoping that’s what episode 10 will show us.

And I’m gonna cry a lot if it does go this way, ever since I noticed how everyone around her dehumanizes her I’ve been sad about it. I just want Maya to be happy god dammit. ;A;

Edit: I just gotta say, Green Finch and Linnet Bird now makes me think of Maya and now I’m sad. orz

[amemiyashion]

A Revue of Revenge

Funny story about this fic, it actually wiggled back-and-forth between being posted quite a few times. At first, it was going to be a normal smut fic, but then I gave it my own twist and held onto it instead. Then I wanted to post it as a christmas fic, so I reworked it and tried to post it, but I was a coward again. And THEN the Maya OVA came out and confirmed that she wasn’t too amazing at dealing with intense emotions, so it almost became too good to post. I decided against it again, but I remembered I have this blog, so I’ll post it here first for safe-keeping. Maybe I’ll put it on AO3 one day.

A Revue of Revenge

Words: 3247 (about)

Relationships: Mayakuro

By now, the year had taken a hungering bite into the winter months, leaving nothing behind but the fleeting, tiring days of the winter holidays, and the glittering bauble-esque reward of Christmas, at the end of it all. Saijou Claudine couldn't say she enjoyed those days; the ever-present chill made it difficult to practice, as the act of changing into your leotard became a momentary dip into icy water, and staying in it even worse. Naturally, the only ones who had the guts to bear the cold was her, Junna Hoshimi and of course, Tendou Maya. Junna, however, had made herself sick from spending too much time in the frigid practice hall, and was now spending more than enough time wrapped up in Nana's arms to speed up her recovery.

The latter, though - Tendou Maya, the maze of a Stage Girl who'd been Claudine's girlfriend for more than half a year, now - Usually joined her in practice, but today had been absent. Claudine had paid no mind to it, practicing alone despite the soft panging loneliness in her stomach. It was always healthy to take a break, after all. And so, she was especially looking forward to returning to the dorms at lunchtime to share an hour or so with her before returning.

Claudine hummed along in her head, thinking about what she'd like for lunch. Hopefully something warm - something she could wrap her hands around and relax as the feeling returned to her numbed fingers. Maybe Nana could make a nice soup. But then again, she'd probably end up making banana soup, and Claudine could only fear what that tasted like. Considering they were leaving the honour of making Christmas Dinner to Nana, the nine of them would probably be having banana turkey and banana Christmas pudding by the end of the week, and that was enough banana for a year, in Claudine’s books.

By the time she reached the dorms, she'd spent long enough in her thick woollen coat and gloves to have warmed enough to make lunch herself, and was no longer at the mercy of whatever Nana cooked up. Regardless of what she’d have, Claudine wanted to share it with Maya.

Sharing was one of the tenets they'd built their relationship on: sharing food, sharing secrets, sharing their time together, and every so often, sharing their bodies. They supported each other this way, still always competing, and still occasionally bickering. Maya sometimes complained that they shared a bit too much - particularly Claudine, and food – but every time she did, Claudine just shut her up by sharing even more.

Claudine made it back to the dorms in record time, hurried on by the fuzzy, dreamy romantic nothings spinning about in her half-numbed head. Managing to unlock the door despite dropping the key once or twice, Claudine barrelled inside and took a deep breath of the warm, almost humid, air of the dorms. Her body trembled as it warmed, and Claudine thankfully unbuttoned her jacket and hung it on the hook besides the door, ready for when she left for the school once again. After all, her duty to practice always calls – practice, and lunch.

 Claudine dizzied halfway through the living room, on the hunt for Tendou Maya, more in her own mind than the real world. She was pulled out of her musings by a worried cry however, and looked about for the source. Claudine had been convinced she’d been alone in the room – she’d only wear the innocent, lovey-dovey expression she had on if she were – so when she found three people on the couch across from her, she was frankly shocked considering the noise they were making.

"Karen...!" Junna and Hikari were leaning over what seemed to be an incapacitated Aijou Karen. Hikari was slowly fanning Karen, a concerned look on her face, whilst Junna inspected the -- the black mark on Karen’s face. "Oh, god..." Junna's voice wavered as she tried to apply some kind of ointment from a first-aid kit.

Claudine's brow twitched in confusion, and she approached the three hesitantly. "What-- What's going on here?" She was struck as Junna turned to her, almost accusatorily.

"Oh, Claudine." Junna's attention darted between Karen and Claudine, and she could've sworn she heard her murmur 'speak of the devil’ when her back was turned. "Karen has been, umm... struck." Junna shook her head and cleared her throat, figuring the truth was better after an uncomfortable moment. "Tendou hit her."

"What?!" Claudine couldn't believe her ears. Tendou Maya, who was usually so polite and graceful, had apparently lashed out at Karen. Claudine had been planning so spend her lunchtime with the girl, but those plans were feeling less realistic by the second. "Do you know why?" Claudine looked at Karen - still washed out on the sofa - and wondered if they'd managed to get anything out of her.

“Well, I saw it all.” Figuring she’d have to explain, Junna muttered to herself. "Karen was feeling cold - as we all are," She sniffed instinctively, still not over her cold. "So, she hugged Maya, as she does..." Junna hesitated again, stuttering and shifting about on her feet. "And she called her - and I quote - 'soft and cuddly'." With the words out in the open, Junna managed to regain her composure. "I think you can assume what happened next." It certainly wasn’t hard to imagine.

"Oh..." Claudine couldn't even laugh as the picture in her mind came into focus. "Is Karen okay?" Not wanting to have to face whatever Maya was doing right now, Claudine feigned interest in Karen. Her partner had always been a strong girl, and by the looks of it, Karen had been on the receiving end of quite the punch.

"She'll live." Junna rolled her eyes. "We've all seen her in worse." After watching Hikari try to shake Karen awake again, she turned back to Claudine. "I think the person who's really in trouble is you, Claudine." She laughed facetiously. "Maya's been stomping around the dorm for almost an hour now, and I think she might be looking for you."

"How- What makes you think I have anything do to with this?" Claudine stepped back, Junna's accusation hitting home. Claudine’s shock was obviously just lip-service, and the sudden shift in Junna's expression told her she wasn't interested in dancing around the truth.

"We all know, Claudine." Was Junna's stark answer. Watching Claudine splutter her way through another excuse wasn't in her interest, and she promptly turned to pay attention to the comatose Karen, who seemed to be coming back to life. Hikari shook her one last time, and Karen putted to life like a broken engine. "Karen?"

"Hikari...? Junna?" Karen groaned, rubbing her head to find it hurt more than it usually did. Claudine didn't have time to waste with this reunion. Apparently, Tendou Maya was hunting her down, and if Karen's state was anything to go by, she wasn't about to get off easily.

 "Futaba! Futaba, open up!" Claudine battered unforgivingly on the door to Kaoruko and Futaba's shared room, her head occasionally darting up and down the corridor to check for any sign of Maya. After a few moments, a bed-headed Futaba creaked the door open.

"Kuroko?" Futaba dithered as she tried to sort out her messy pinkish locks, forcing her eyes to stay open. "Before you say anything, it's a Sunday in the middle of winter. Don't judge me."

Ignoring Futaba's excuses for spending so long in bed, Claudine tried to barge her way into the dormitory. "You owe me a favour, Futaba. Let me in." With that, the door slid open and Claudine almost fell through. She'd expected a snide comment from Kaoruko, but the girl was still asleep, buried under layers of duvets.

Taking a sweet breath of relief as she took a seat on Futaba's bed, Claudine rolled her eyes at her own overreaction. She had really taken to hiding away in her friend's room to weather the storm of her girlfriend's anger.

"I hate to ask, Kuro, but... What are you doing in my room?" Futaba flopped down in her bed next to Claudine, curling the covers over her shoulders as she felt the chill air Claudine had brought in with her. "Something wrong?"

"No, of course not. I just--" Claudine quickly realised just how futile lying would be. "I think I made Maya mad, and I'm hiding." Swallowing her shame tasted like a mouthful of salt, as it also meant accepting the fact that she was most certainly the one in the wrong.

Futaba choked a laugh. "You made Maya mad? Usually it's the other way around." She stopped and looked and Claudine more seriously. "But an angry Maya does sound pretty terrifying, doesn't it? I'd want to hide, too."

"Exactly." Claudine nodded as Futaba was just as understanding as usual. "So, I think we should switch rooms for tonight. I'll stay in here, and--"

"Wow, now. I think that'll just get me killed in my sleep." Futaba shook her head. "Maybe we could just talk to her about it? I'm sure if it's you two it's something stupid." Claudine hadn't expected Futaba to be so level-headed about it, but she was probably just still tired from having woken up.

"Honestly! As if you and Kaoruko's problems aren't stupid, too!" Claudine bit back, sure of herself that Maya's problems were more than some trivial high-schooler tip.

Futaba was about to speak up - and surely agree, considering their last argument had been over the last cookie in the jar - a scream rang out through the halls. Both of the girls leapt, and even Kaoruko woke up. Kaoruko hadn't been the one to scream, however, and once the other two realised, Futaba hopped to her feet.

"You're not coming?" Futaba looked down at Claudine, who was still glued tightly to Futaba's bed. "Come on, Kuroko. It's not like you to mope. What if someone's hurt?"

Claudine looked as if she was about to shake her head, but groaned and jumped up, finding she was incapable of being so petty. Telling herself she wasn't afraid of Tendou Maya, no matter how riled up she was, Claudine followed Futaba out of the room.

 Claudine mused on just how similar the scene they found was to the one she'd seen only a few minutes earlier. The ominous feeling in her chest grew as she gradually began to feel like a hunted animal.

"Nana, are you okay?" Junna was kneeling over Nana, cradling her in her arms as if she was actually dying. "Claudine!" This time, however, there was no pity from Junna; as soon as she spied Claudine, she shot a painfully spiteful look in her direction. "If you can't control your girlfriend, I'll have to call faculty."

Claudine shuffled up to Nana, still feeling the daggers coming from Junna. Even more than when she’d attacked the puppy-like Karen, Claudine felt like Maya had committed some reprehensible crime by taking down Nana. Sure, the girl might not be quite as innocent as most would care to know, but her motherly instincts made up for it twice over.

"I--" Nana spoke up. "I just asked her if she wanted something for lunch." Junna's expression became even worse as the motive behind the horrific act became clear. Nana pulled herself closer to Claudine. "This is your fault."

"Nana, we both know whose fault this really is." Claudine bit back. Nana’s maternal habits had gone into overdrive over the winter months. And whilst Claudine might have appreciated having someone wait her on hand-and-foot, Maya surely didn’t.

Nana fainted, if only to escape the conversation.

"Claudine, really. You've got to sort this out." Junna pressed, still clinging to Nana, fully aware she was faking her unconsciousness. "It's only getting worse."

Futaba murmured an agreement from behind Claudine, but before she could think of a retort, yet another pitched yell broke the air. This time, it was Kaoruko's - only she was capable of such a squawking, outraged howl.

 The two - and Junna as well, once she'd carefully placed Nana on the sofa to rest - found Kaoruko splayed out on the floor of her room, with a satisfied, if bedraggled, look on her face. Only as satisfied as someone could look, trying to crawl back into bed after being throttled to the floor, though; that much was evident by her ruffled pyjamas and flustered red face.

"Kaoruko, what did you do...?" Futaba knelt down next to Kaoruko, not bothering to help her up.

Kaoruko cackled, as she was prone to do, and finished scraping herself back into bed, snuggling into it like a rodent into a hole. "She came looking for Claudine," she managed to grin despite her condition as she pulled the covers over her shoulders. "And I called her fat when she walked out." Kaoruko returned to her usual snickering self in record time - Claudine was frankly shocked she'd been the only one to completely survive Maya's wrath. "Apparently I'm not worth killing." The exasperation in the room was audible - perhaps it'd have been better if Maya really had finished Kaoruko off.

Junna and Futaba looked at each other suddenly, wordlessly conspiring. "Well, Claudine, I think we all know what needs to happen next." There was a direly ominous tone to Futaba’s voice, and she approached Claudine from behind as she rolled her shoulders.

Before Claudine could even take a guess at what Futaba had meant, both of her arms were sealed. She gawked, suddenly arriving at the conclusion that Futaba and Junna had a moment ago. She struggled, but found no purchase. Claudine had expected Futaba to be strong enough to hold her down, but Junna's sudden burst of strength seemed out of nowhere - no doubt Nana was spiritually lending her her strength. "Wh-What are you two doing?! Unhand me!"

"No can do, Kuroko." Futaba sighed. "I hate to do this, but it'll be one of us next." Junna nodded in agreement, and Claudine could feel her heart sink. "Hey, Maya!" Futaba called out, and the air went dead silent. "Come and get her!"

Claudine laughed dryly. "You're both acting like you're going to sacrifice me to her." She looked over her shoulder at Futaba, but found no mercy, as a violent stomping filled the air. And when she turned back, Maya was already there.

"Thank you, Isurugi, Hoshimi. I'll be taking her, now." Was the last thing Claudine heard before she was grabbed by the collar and dragged back to her room.

 Claudine hadn't expected to still be alive, but as Maya practically threw her onto her own bed, she didn't think she'd have to worry about that for much longer. Nothing came, though, and Claudine opened her eyes to find the girl simply looking down at her, rather irritatedly. "You're not going to kill me?" She asked facetiously, but not entirely believing Maya wouldn't.

"Why would I..." Recalling that she'd just left a bloody trail through the dormitory, Maya sighed and collapsed onto the bed. "I'll need to apologise for that."

"I think Kaoruko had it coming." Thinking she could distract Maya with intimacy, Claudine set her hands on Maya's shoulders and edged closer, beginning to play with the collar of her shirt, but she was shocked when her partner rejected her touch. Maya almost shrunk in on herself, her cheeks growing the mildest red.

"She wasn't wrong, though, was she?" Maya's voice was at once accusatory and embarrassed as the source of her anger finally showed itself. Both of the girls' faces went a flushed shade of red as the words tried to come out. "You... You've..." Maya squeaked, unable to even think it, despite it being painfully obvious to the both of them. Claudine had to admit, it was difficult watching Maya unable to say what was on her mind.

  "I've made you fat." Claudine was just as afraid of saying it as Maya, but at this point her dignity, and responsibility as her girlfriend, won out. Claudine's stomach lurched at her own bluntness, and she hurried to correct herself. "I mean, not fat-- just, softer." Fearing Maya's wrath, she echoed Karen's words from earlier.

True enough, Maya had become slightly plumper over the months she'd spent as Claudine's beloved - at first, the natural exercise she did at the school made it a neutral game, but once the walls in her and Claudine's relationship had broken down, spurring the blonde onto bigger things, she'd began to gradually put on weight. Claudine had noticed, of course; the amount of time they'd spent naked in each other's presence had given her a front-row seat to Maya's growth. She'd been pussyfooting around the topic for the past few months, as she secretly enjoyed the show. She would never tell Maya that, though - it'd just be an extra burden in their relationship. Realistically, it was only a few pounds, but even that made all the difference to a Stage Girl. And considering it was the Christmas season, that number was probably only going to get worse if Nana had anything to say about it.

"Precisely." Maya had regained her composure quickly, and was now glaring at Claudine with the same intensity she'd had earlier. "I think it would be best for the both of us - myself especially - if you let me go on a diet."

Claudine's head spun a little bit at the implication that she had full control over Maya's eating habits, and that if she said no now, it would mean no. She took a breath and composed herself, reminding herself what happened the last time she let her indulgences take centre stage. "Of course. But--" Claudine cut herself off, realising how selfish even a single 'but' would be, baiting Maya into a trap with the promise of freedom.

"But--?" Maya reacted, and Claudine already regretted it. The air in the room had relaxed after the matter of the hour was settled, but Claudine wasn't feeling it. "I'm sure watching me go on a diet will be absolute torture for you." The malice in Maya's eyes had already been replaced by a kindness - and, perhaps, there was just a sliver of eroticism behind them. As ever, the girl was so quick to forgive. "Perhaps I'll let you have one favour."

Claudine looked for an escape as she found herself trapped between her embarrassment and her more earthly desires. Of course, Maya had already recognised the blush splashing across Claudine's cheeks; she was only like this when she knew she was putting her girlfriend on the spot. "I--" Claudine choked up, unable to even voice her desires, having locked them away safely for both of their sakes.

"Don't be embarrassed, Claudine." Maya's eyes shifted between a kind glow and a teasing edge. "I don't think anything you say could shock me, anymore - you've had your way with me plenty of times before." Claudine could see Maya on the verge of laughter as she squeezed Claudine between her fingers.

"Gah!" Claudine decided she'd had enough of Maya teasing her. "If you're going to insist, then..." Swallowing her embarrassment, Claudine approached Maya again - apparently, she must have had quite the menacing look on her face, seeing as Maya practically backed off as she closed in. "Take off your jumper, and turn around." Claudine demanded, watching as apprehension flashed across Maya's face.

"You have a rather unpleasant look in your eyes, Claudine." Maya tutted and she gingerly turned, stripping off her jumper and shivering slightly against the cold as it bit through her thin undershirt. And as she peeled that away too below, the roll of soft flesh around Maya's middle was revealed - it sat lazily on the hem of her pants, hungrily devouring skin that was once muscular and taut and turning it into smooth, plushy curves. At first, Maya instinctively covered it, wrapping her arms around her hips, but taking care not to touch her soft skin as if she were afraid of her own stomach and the power it could hold over her. "I do hope you aren't planning anything untowards." Even like this, though, Maya was completely irresistible.

"Shut up." Claudine cleared her throat, looming over Maya as she tensed up. As always, Maya was a sensitive mess when it came to intimacy. Watching her squirm was something Claudine would never get tired of, even if it came at the price of having Maya watch her squirm with the same glee. As she pictured how red her partner’s face must be, Claudine began wrapping her arms around her middle, easing Maya's arms out of the way before resting her chin on her shoulder.

"...!" Flinching as Claudine's cold skin brushed against her own body, Maya wished that Claudine would get whatever she was planning over with.

And Claudine happily indulged her request; with a slow breath to calm her heart, she set her hands on Maya's exposed stomach, squeezing deep into the layer of flesh. Feeling Maya twitch as Claudine exploited her insecurity, her fingers dug even deeper, feeling out the very extremity of Maya's fluffiness. Just having her girlfriend's skin bulge between her probing fingers was heavenly enough, but Claudine wasn't done yet. "This is Tendou Maya." She whispered, twisting the Top Star of Seisho's signature line into a teasing torture.

 !!!

Claudine awoke a few hours later, groaning as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She took a wild guess at what had happened as she looked about, peering through the half-light of the late afternoon. She'd have laughed at Maya's touchiness if it hadn't been her on the receiving end, this time. Her eyes adjusted, and she spied a figure on her bed; Tendou Maya, her limbs splayed across the mattress, and a smattering of cookie crumbs across her cheek.

"God, she stuffs herself with cookies and falls asleep in the middle of the day. To think Tendou Maya could be such a slob..." After what the two of them privately referred to as 'The Incident', Claudine had sworn herself away from blackmail. She decided, however, as the shutter of her camera went off once, twice, and again, that having a bit of ammunition never hurt.

[cheesytoucans]

The ot3, on the other hand I think took longer for people to understand what was going on. Maybe there was a lot of debate on the internet on who was dating who and if they were or not cheating with the other, until there was an interview and then Karen exclaims "They are both my wives!!!" "Wait Karen, no, I mean, we are dating, be we are not married-" "OH! THAT'S WHAT I FORGOT TO DO YESTERDAY!" And now they are having a doble proposal in the middle of national television

Mahiru almost had an heart attack, not because she thinks it was sudden, She's the one cleaning the room, she knew the moment Karen got the rings (also Karen is not subtle at all, she probably went "hey guys I'm going out to buy wedding rings for us, do you know your size?")

oh my god, poor Mahiru is trying to be the responsible one and is like attempting to explain what a poly relationship is and Karen is just over there like “OH YEAH..............MARRY ME” and all on national tv too, what a fucking lesbian icon am I right. I’d like to imagine that the rest of the group is watching this go down. Claudine was only watching out of the corner of her eye while she does other shit, she looks one moment and everything looks normal, looks again 5 seconds later and Mahiru is screaming, Hikari just looks resigned, and Karen looks like she’s having the time of her life. Claudine just sighs one big old sigh “Maya, Karen just got engaged on national tv” Maya just snorts, of course she did.

Poor Junna was letting the kids watch, Nana with them, until suddenly Junna starts hearing the youngest yell the distinct words: “Mama aunt Karen is getting married!” excuse me Karen is doing what now? She looks over and Nana is laughing her ass off while the kids yell about how excited they are, they only barely know what’s going on but they’re excited. Junna takes one look at the tv and makes a note to herself to get Mahiru some really nice white wine for her birthday. 

And then we got Kaoruko who saw this shit go down and was like what the fuck???? getting engaged to 2 girls on national tv is the gayest shit I’ve ever seen???? how dare those fuckers try and out gay me again. She sends a nice gift for the newly engaged trio and it just contains a note that says: “try to out gay me again and we’ll see what happens” complete with a knife emoji. 

[docholligay]

Prompt: Rin, the day after the final duel

Sorry, this was going to be a shitpost and then it wasn’t. 2,100 words and mostly my feelings original character do not steal ahahahah. 

The world had snapped back. She couldn’t explain it any other way. It was as if reality had been stretched and stretched and stretched, a tight rubber band almost to its breaking point, and then suddenly released. Loose. Free. At one time, Rin might have said that such a thing would be relaxing, that she could not quite define why everything in her life, in the school, felt so tense, but it clearly was, and she was looking for relief.

Instead, she felt the world’s elastic contract, and was overcome by a sudden wave of nausea as she stood next her tea kettle, waiting for it to boil. She bent over and took a deep, slow breath, trying to bring herself back to calm.

“Rin?” Ayaka’s voice was soft and worried as she sat at their little table in the corner of their tiny apartment, the pancakes and salted salmon laid out on the table in front of her. She liked them to start their day together. Rin liked it too. It was nice. “Are you alright?”

Rin shook her head briefly, but then brought herself back to standing and nodded, her still-wet brown hair flicking drops down onto her glasses. The nausea rose again.

“Think I just need ginger tea this morning.” She gave a sideways smile to Ayaka. “Maybe you got me pregnant.”

Ayaka gave a huff of a laugh, but relaxed and turned back to her crossword and her salmon.

The beep of the tea kettle signaled its rolling boil, and Rin’s mind exploded. There she was, in front of the classroom, again and again and again. There was arguing, and a stage, somewhere, that she knew and she didn’t know, and there she was, watching Maya and Claudine take the leads again and again, and they blended together, faster and faster, a carousel gone wild, the horses no longer seen and the music of it louder and louder. She felt the vomit rise in her throat.

“Rin?”

We will all do Starlight! Her mind screamed.

The world went black. She felt herself fall deeper, deeper, into the darkness and the heat, and though she couldn’t open her eyes, she saw the bright red words, “I Am Reborn” written across the blackness of the sky, and felt the strong thump as she hit the floor.

There was the scrape of a chair against the floor, the tumble of someone next to her.

“Rin!!”

She felt Ayaka’s hand on her neck, and then nothing at all.

That was eight months ago. The official diagnosis had been, effectively, ‘we don’t know but she seems fine,’ a diagnosis which had given Ayaka no small amount of rage and disbelief, but which, as the months passed and nothing else seemed to arise, she seemed willing to accept, even if she looked at Rin with a careful eye even now.

The world had come back to itself, and after a few days at home, Rin had come back to school to find Hikari Kagura standing in her office, waiting, a look of sad resignation on her face. Yoshiko, who sat across from her in the office, either didn’t notice Hikari or didn’t seem to care, and Rin bit her tongue.

It wouldn’t be the first time she and Yoshiko had argued about the way to treat students.

“I hope you are feeling better, Miss.” Hikari said seriously, flat a look of disconnect on her face as she neatly folded her hands in front of her.

“Yeah, nothing to worry about…” Rin walked over to her desk and sat down.“What’s the matter? You all fighting over rooming again?”

Rin was more or less used to the general problems that plagued Seisho after hours, and she was more or less happy to be the one to take care of them. Sometimes the other teachers didn’t seem to remember what it was like to be that age, in such a pressure cooker, and, Rin felt, they didn’t give them enough in the way of quiet empathy. Sometimes it was just enough to listen.

A sudden flash of realization came to her that Hikari might want to talk about something that she didn’t care to discuss in front of Yoshiko, and was about to stand up against and suggest they go sit outside, when Hikari had presented her with a piece of paper.

“I am withdrawing from Seisho. Everything should be in order.”

There was no hesitation, no room for argument, as she gave Rin the papers. Rin glanced over them, that same strange feeling coming over her.

“Kagura, I–did something happen? I’m still a little foggy, but I’m sure we can–”

But Hikari was already heading for the door, and turned only to look at Rin one last time.

“Thank you for everything, Miss.”

Karen had been just as confused, and had wasted no time grilling Rin in the most polite way she could manage. Rin didn’t have the words to tell her that she didn’t understand either, that she had seen plenty of girls drop out of Seisho but she had never seen anything quite like this, and that there was something she felt was happening, something she could almost remember, but every time she touched it, that nausea ran through her, and she could hear the music again, so loud. Like something was trying to keep her out.

“I must have looked like I didn’t care,” Rin had said that night, lounging on the couch in a pair of loose pajama pants and her undershirt as Ayaka embroidered an edge on a costume she was working on, her dark hair softly curling against her shoulders, “But I just…I don’t know either, Ayaka. I know I got handed paperwork and she left. No forwarding.”  

“It isn’t really your problem, Rini.” She did not look up from her dress.

She’d forgotten she had managed to get sick at the least convenient time for her love, who was knee deep in final measurements and embellishments for her show, and Ayaka had not brought it up. It was sometimes a shock to Rin, still, how beautiful she was, how talented she was, and that one day backstage, in a show she had perhaps fifteen lines in, Ayaka had looked up at her while she hemmed her pants and given the most radiant smile Rin had ever seen. That she had loved Rin, who never really made it on the stage, was a miracle and a mystery.

None of this, of course, made Ayaka even the slightest bit right.

“It IS my problem, though!” Rin sat up and leaned toward Ayaka. “I have never had a kid just LEAVE like that, there’s usually something,” she tugged at her hair and flung her hand into the air, “and I can’t figure out what it is. I’ve asked around, and it’s making me, and the girls–”

“You should lie down.” Ayaka said brusquely, eyeing her seriously.

Rin closed her eyes and shook her head. It was like she wasn’t even listening. “Oh my god, stop babying me,” she huffed, “I’m an adult, and I’m fine, and–”

“Rin Miyamoto,” She set down the dress in her lap and looked at Rin fully, her voice firm as stone, “You do not remember what I remember, in the kitchen. You did not have to watch yourself crumple to the floor, and you did not have to call your name, over and over, to no response. I have been with you for seven years. Seven. If something happened to you, I’m not sure what, or where I would–”

There was a small crack in the stone of her voice, and Rin’s eyes softened. It was easy to think of Ayaka as unshakable. Part of what Rin loved about her so much was her strength and her fierceness, the way she dominated a room even with her small stature and flowing dresses. She was like an empress everywhere she went, but she could be hurt, and looking her now, her eyes gently misting with tears, Rin realized that she had frightened Ayaka. That she wasn’t the only one struggling to find footing with the events of the past week.

“–You are the softest part of my heart,” Ayaka did not look away, and Rin felt her own eyes begin to water, “I need you.”

Rin took her hand and squeezed it softly. “I’m not going anywhere.” She smiled over at her. “I’ll take care of myself. I won’t push it, I promise,” she put her hand on her chest and laughed, “I promise to remember I’m an old woman with limitations and responsibilities to Princess Ayaka.”

Ayak laughed and squeezed back. “Queen Ayaka, thank you.”

Eight months ago, huh? It seems shorter. It seems longer. HIkari came back, and that was good, right?

That was two months ago. Two months ago, in Rin’s office with no explanation but some paperwork, but with a bright smile on her face, hand in hand with Karen. No explanation but that she was ready to enter the doors again, and the world seemed to move to allow her to be the lead with Karen. They were wonderful. Excellent. The girls fell into place around them, and Rin was surprised that Maya and Claudine seemed so at peace with playing the supports to a girl who had never shown much drive and a usurper from London.

And she felt that touch again, that something had happened, the nausea and the spinning and something just beyond her reach.

She hadn’t told Ayaka.

Standing backstage at the production of Starlight, the one Nana had presented to the class with a new ending which was received with delight by the girls, Rin had to smile. It didn’t really matter if this had been a strange year, and if her nausea only flared up occasionally, and she hadn’t fainted at all, then there wasn’t much to worry about. The girls all seemed happy and content, and the show was better than it had ever been before. Rin had a new suit in soft grey windowpane check that Ayaka had lovingly made her for the premiere, blue vest tucked beneath it. She looked rather handsome, she thought.

Things could keep going on like this, as far as Rin was concerned. If she could get another class out the door, ready to face the world and full of hope and optimism, she’d be happy enough. She didn’t wish for much else for herself. Maybe she’d campaign the school board again that they should have an alternate uniform, she was getting tired of seeing poor little Futaba in a skirt.

Another wave passed over her, the lights on the stage, even standing in the back, too bright, and she gripped onto a piece of scenery tucked away backstage to steady herself.

But things can’t stay this way, a far away voice whispered, audiences get bored when things are too bright. Light means nothing without shadow, and the shadow must come to the stage. You understand.

I understand. She’d heard that voice before. The world became a carousel again, and Rin could not, would not, refused to look away, just kept pressing deeper and deeper on the thought until she felt it break through.

The giraffe. The duels. The never-ending lust for brilliance that kept the girls slaving at the stage.

Rin looked back to the stage, where the girls where draped across the stairs, Karen greeting her Flora with tender and expressive eyes. They were all so young. They were all so happy. The giraffe had let them believe it could stay this way.

Her girls. This wouldn’t be the first of her girls he’d tangled with. He preyed on those fresh buds, barely bloomed and so sweet. He never came for those who bore the scars of the stage, those who had seen what it was to rise and fall and who were ready to not only parry but also block a blow.

Rin Miyamoto, who never made it on the stage, who was only a teacher and who would never have a big apartment in a nice neighborhood, who loved her job and her girls and her life with her love, was tired of it. 

She rushed out of the backstage, the hold it had had on her all these months finally broken, and stormed toward the space where that elevator would be. Where she knew it must be.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Let’s see how tough he is facing an adult.” She growled as she sped down the hallway, already feeling the sword form in her hand.

“I’ll take care of myself. I won’t push it, I promise,”

“You’re gonna get the hell out of my school.” She shook her head angrily, the cape beginning to drape across her back. “You’re not going to touch any more of my girls.”

“I promise to remember I’m an old woman with limitations and responsibilities to Princess Ayaka.”

She slammed her hand down on the button, and felt the ground begin to shake.

“I’m sorry, Ayaka.”

The floor dropped, and the lights came up.

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight Theory: The Tower of Venus.

My theorizing normally goes in my write ups, and I have talked about this a bit in my episode 10 one but I. I gotta post this separately. I gotta let everyone know, that I think I know where the stage came from. Cause I think the show has been hinting at it and the proof is mounting up. I’m about to lose my fucking mind in the best way possible so just gotta share this theory!

We’ve seeing these Venus De Milo statues every time we are on campus and while yes they are used to represent Maya, there can be more than one meaning to an object or symbol. So, there is one Venus De Milo placement I’ve thought was very weird. In episode 7, during the after party for the Starlight play, we see a Venus De Milo right in front of the Star Tower prop.

But, this statue isn’t featured in the Starlight play at all. Nor is said love goddess present. So, why the fuck is it grouped with the other two props? I was stumped on this for quite awhile until episode 9 when we see the book Starlight is based on, the passage below caught my eye.

It says here that the Star Tower is on another planet. After learning this, I slowly realized why that Venus De Milo was there. Hell why they are here in the first place. And theres so much that points to this conclusion that I must share it! This is gonna sound kinda nuts but, here it goes.

Theory: The underground stage, and in turn the giraffe, is from outer space. Specifically the planet Venus, and the show has been foreshadowing that it’s from Venus this the entire time.

I know! I know! That sounds wild, like a space giraffe? Really? But ohh boy there is just so much shit related to Venus in this show I can’t help but think that this theory is fucking possible! So, all my proof has been gathered here in this post!

Note: If you have read any of my meta before then you’ll probably see repeated information (or just wholeass taking my info from my previous posts) but I gotta put it in here for clarity sake. Plus it’s a good reminder anyways. 

Let’s take a look!

>The stage’s connection to Starlight

-First off we know that the stage is closely connected with the Starlight play. The stage is connected to it due to the constant presence of the Star Tower. The tower that holds the star is in the London stage even though the Starlight play isn’t being performed at that school so we can assume that it’s present in all the auditions that happen here. And the tower in the Starlight play itself and it looks the same as the one in the underground stage. Therefore the Starlight story probably really happened and now the Star Tower is here in this stage.

Note: I’m very positive the stage is alive so I will be treating it like it is a living creature with wants and desires, just to let you know.

>Aphrodite’s symbols

I swear I’ve went over these several times, but! I shall do it again. Let’s go over all of Aphrodite’s symbols that appear in the show one more time so we all know what they are. And of course this involves Maya and a reason why she has this connection with the goddess in the first place.

-Aphrodite/Venus is the greek/roman goddess of love, passion, and beauty. Of course she’s associated with the planet named after her. The biggest show of her symbolism is during Maya and Karen’s duel in episode 3. Most of her symbols have been heavily associated with Maya in particular. Maya’s stage is covered in greek/roman architecture for starters, and also birds. Particularly swans, the swan are one of Aphrodite’s symbols. Maya descends from the ceiling riding a fucking swan, and there is ancient art of Aphrodite doing just that. Maya chucks Karen into a huge swan at the bottom of the stairs, there's also a curled up swan right here before Maya opens up the stage. The smaller birds on the stairs and one as a gold statue could indicate two different bird symbols, either sparrows or doves. I’m leaning towards doves since we see white birds earlier in Maya’s room. Doves are also one of Aphrodite’s symbols.

-Another symbol is the white myrtle flower, Maya has a white flower in her hair during the flashback. While its not the same type of flower the fact that it’s a white one indicates to me that it was meant to represent the myrtle flower. The statue(s) we’ve seen all around the school is Venus de Milo, and in episode 3 Maya stands right next to in the similar pose increasing her connection with the goddess. Additionally we have seen the statue more when an episode more heavily involves Maya in some way, we see that in episode 7. Funny we don’t see the statue in episode 10 yeah? I’ll get to why in a bit.

-Aphrodite/Venus is also associated with water since she was born rising out of the sea, there is water all over the stage and the series in general. On Maya’s stage, there is a fountain by the golden dove during the duel. Speaking of gold, Ode to Aphrodite is the only full poem that Sappho wrote that survives to this day. The word “chryse” in Greek means golden and it’s used in the poem to describe the goddess. The dove on the stage is golden, also Sappho is a very famous lesbian so there is that.

-So, why does Maya have all of these symbols? Maya has the Aphrodite symbolism because she herself was a symbol for the stage. She’s everything the stage could want for a Top Star including accepting the loneliness that comes with the position. But, we all know by now that she isn’t really ok with that. Maya very much doesn’t want to be alone at the top, especially since she has fallen in love with Claudine. 

When Maya made the choice in episode 10 to not be alone at the top, she lost favor with the stage and it dropped her as a symbol since she no longer fits what it wants. Hence we see less of Aphrodite’s symbols around her. Hell in the 2 vs 2 duel the only prop that belongs to Maya that appears is the stairs, nothing else. 

-Also it’s not just Maya that has an Aphrodite symbol around her, Nana has one too! Frogs! The Greeks and Romans associated frogs with fertility and harmony. And with Aphrodite because frogs were associated with licentiousness aka being promiscuous. Uh, yeah it’s not a perfect fit but the presence of frogs I think is still notable.

Let’s go on to the next goddess shall we?

>Inanna’s symbols

-Inanna has her symbolism all over the place too and she shares some things with Aphrodite/Venus. Both of them are associated with doves and of course love and passion. Inanna is also a goddess of the sky, war, and combat. The connection to Inanna and Aphrodite/Venus is pretty intense, which is because Aphrodite/Venus is a descendant of sorts of Inanna. The planet Inanna is associated with is Venus, and this association leads to a primary symbol of Inanna. It’s an eight pointed star called the Star of Ishtar/Inanna, also called the Star of Venus. The star is in the show itself! It’s in Karen’s gem on the hilt of her sword. This gives her and Karen a connection.

-The most they have in common besides the star is a parallel with Inanna’s famous decent into the underworld. In the myth, Inanna goes to the underworld to rescue her husband. She has to strip off her clothing to get through the seven gates of the underworld but gains her clothes back when she leaves much later. Inanna’s trip ended up being a failure though, her older sister is the queen of the underworld and she said no fuck you and skinned her and hung her body on a wall. Yup. Luckily her sister in law bailed her and her husband out so it’s fine. 

In Karen’s story, she descended into an underground theater and falls below to rescue her love Hikari, and she also loses her clothes and gets new clothes. And as of episode 11 Karen is doing it again but going up instead of down this time. Also, in the Starlight play. Claire and Flora also have to pass through seven gates to get to their goal, just like Inanna did.

>Hikari and the Morning Star

-Hikari’s gem symbol in her weapon is the Morning Star, which is another name for the planet Venus. I say this because in artwork (if you can’t see it, look at the top by his arm) the Morning Star is portrayed like the symbol in her knife, usually in paintings regarding the greek god Phosphorus. He is the god of the Morning Star. And yes I know Lucifer is the other name for the Morning Star, Phosphorus also has that as one of his names. The Morning Star here resembles the greek/roman version of Lucifer, not the christian one. Mmmkay? Anyways, Hikari’s name even has a connection here! Hikari’s name means light and Phosphorus/Lucifer means light bringer. What are the odds eh?

-Karen and Hikari have the Star of Inanna and the Morning Star respectively because I think thats the stage’s way of marking them as the couple to act out the tragedy it wants. The stage does provide them with their weapons after all. Hikari’s weapon didn’t have the star there during her first audition and none of the other girls have clear symbols in their weapons like they do (trust me, I checked a lot gdi). And yes Karen and Hikari are the main pairing in the show but I don’t think thats why they have them. These two have these symbols that are the same star, and that is very significant in a show where a couple wants to be stars together and share the same stage.

So we have not one, not two, but three gods that are associated with the planet Venus that have their symbols in the show. That many references to this fucking planet indicates to me that the planet Venus is important here. And, it’s not just mythos that are indicated here.

>The planet Venus in real life.

Aspects that the real planet Venus has ties in with shit we’ve seen in the show too! 

-Venus is extremely hot temperature wise, so much so that we can’t land anything on the planet for very long if at all cause it will melt. It’s covered with volcanos and boy does it have a lot of fire there. In Rev Star, the scenes with the literal giant stage hands in episode 8 were very much on fire. Kirins are also associated with fire, and would you look at that theres a Kirin being a spokes animal of sorts for the stage. And ofc there is the golden bird statue in episode 3, it shot fire out of its back to invoke the image of a phoenix. Which is another being associated with fire.

-The reason why Venus is pretty much on fire all the time is due to the greenhouse effect. The gas that surrounds the planet is so damn thick that heat can’t escape into space, just like how greenhouses trap in warmth for plants to grow. In Rev Star we’ve seen plant life growing indoors and underground, so you could say it’s like a greenhouse housing plants to grow.

-Venus wasn’t always a fiery hell scape, it used to be a water planet. Lots of oceans and shit like that. That would match up to all the water we’ve been seeing in the show, maybe the stage took the water with it lol.

-You know that symbol on Claire and Flora’s outfits and on the giraffe logo? I think I finally figured it out! It’s a phase of Venus, but flipped so it isn’t on it’s side. And it’s orange in the play because the planet itself (and its surface) is colored orange.

-The Star Tower has a strong association with the color pink, Venus does too in terms of its planetary symbol being one that also is used to mean a female person and pink is very strongly associated with those who consider themselves female.

-Venus is the brightest star in the sky, its why theres so many mythos surrounding it. The star in the tower is also extremely bright and brilliance/shining has been a consistent theme in this show. Shine bright like the planet Venus!

>Space theme is already there.

Rev Star involving things like stars and starlight gives it an automatic association with space so we do already have a space theme. Here are two examples of it’s space theme meaning the stage is from the planet Venus.

-Looking at the giraffe logo you can see that the giraffe’s neck has stars on it. If this is the logo for all the revues then this could indicate that this is a space giraffe. Yup.

-The ending theme is Fly me to the Star, note how star is not plural. That’s a little weird isn’t it? Specially since in the Starlight play there are two stars not one. But! There is only one star in the Star Tower. So, the star that we are really flying to is the Morning Star aka the planet Venus. WE GOING TO SPACE MOTHERFUCKERS!

>IN CONCLUSION!

As you can see, theres a TON of things associated with the planet Venus in this series. Hence I think this is all foreshadowing to where the Star Tower and the stage is from, motherfucking outer space! But there is still the question of how it got here and why it ended up here in the first place. I’m very curious to learn more. In the meantime, I gotta say if I’m right, I hope we fight the giraffe in space. Thanks for reading! Let’s see if I’m right or not! \ouo/

[cheesytoucans]

it's like claudine knows it's the only thing she can tease maya about but somehow she can't because maya is trying so hard and a pouting maya should be illegal.

Claudine spins around ready to give Maya the teasing of a lifetime for her portrait that looks like a blind third grader drew it only to be meet with the most powerful thing in the world: a pouting embarrassed Maya. I feel like Maya making any facial expression that isn’t passionate or her default, perfectly practiced non expression when she isn’t acting is probably pretty rare and even more rare would be Tendo Maya of all people pouting like someone just took her ice cream from her. 

And we all know that Claudine would be so fucking weak to that shit, she’d try to pretend she wasn’t, oh god would she try, but man it would be so obvious that she was internally panicking more and more with each second she looks at Maya. The kicker is that Maya would absolutely know that, kind of like how a smart puppy knows that they can look cute and sad to get what they want from a person, just like that, Maya is a smart puppy.

So you know all of that just leads to Claudine completely deflating and like Junna or someone witnessing this entire exchange, in which no words happened and yet so much was said, with a look on her face like why the fuck am I friends with these people. 

[cheesytoucans]

AU in which mayakuro won instead? maya would refuse to take away kuro's brilliance and kuro would probably say something gay like "as long as you have your brilliance, i would continue to chase you and regain mine" and ripped off her own jacket.

god I can’t even imagine the shit that would go down if mayakuro won instead. Like does the person who wins get informed of what’s going to happen to the losers? it’s entirely possible that they have no idea and they just make their wish with the faith that no one will be irreparably harmed. 

Because god just think about it, If Maya ended up winning, had no idea that Claudine was going to lose her shine, and just woke up the next day to a Claudine looking like she just doesn’t care anymore, that shit would fucking destroy her. Maya is way too kind and sweet and loving in the first place you know, so Claudine losing her shine would be bad enough, but knowing that it was her fault and there’s nothing she could do about it, god that would be some tough shit. 

Same with Claudine now that she’s finally admitted how much Maya means to her. Getting up the next day and suddenly the top of your class is lethargic and uncaring, that would be hard for everyone in the damn school, let alone poor Claudine who would lose her rival and the person she loved would be changed forever.  

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight 11: Requiem for a Stage Girl.

First sight of blood spilled in the show! Um, hooray?

For the previous episode go here!

To go to the start of these posts, go to the Prelude!

YOOO! We are near the end everyone! Can you mcfucking believe it?! Man, this anime was a fucking ride and I loved it! God this is good, and gay! Anyways! Episode 11 was an emotional ride, oooo boy! Let’s waste no more time and get right to it then!

This time I couldn’t settle on a song title or lyric for this post I liked so I made one up! A requiem is a musical piece thats often played at a funeral. Hikari is pretty much treat like she’s fucking dead plus I like how it sounded.

>It’s the final countdown! *trumpets play*

We start where the previous episode left off, Karen falling rapidly off the platform. She is still in shock. Karen lands in the water that surrounds the stage and luckily she’s in a place where physics don’t matter so she has landed there safely. Giraffe announces Hikari as the winner of the auditions, he goes “ok time to harvest that starlight for your wish, what you want?”. All the other Stage Girls below watch and wait to see what stage Hikari will wish for. There’s an awkward silence before Hikari gives her answer, she doesn’t want it. Giraffe is surprised, Hikari says she doesn’t need any fuel for her wish. Perplexed, Giraffe asks if she plans to provide her starlight and only her starlight for the fuel. Hikari says, “Didn’t you want to see an unpredictable stage?” confirming that yes she wants to give herself up so no one else's is taken. She grips her knife blade hard enough to cut her hand causing it to bleed. The blood drips onto, not the ground but onto Hikari’s metal badge making anyone watching this go yooo.

Giraffe accepts her request. The tiara is on Hikari’s head as Giraffe announces that the audition duels are over and Hikari’s request was granted. We zoom out a bit to see a giant version of the tiara encircle Hikari, disjointed sounds play and then we hear the sound of a large door closing. Hikari vanishes, only position zero and Giraffe remain. Karen lies in the water too stunned to say or do anything. Position zero is shown one last time before the lights go out, plunging the screen into darkness.

It’s all over.

And then we get the opening.

*record scratch* *freeze frame* Yup that’s me, you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.

One day after the final auditions, there's a notice on a bulletin board. Hikari has apparently transferred out of school. Karen is confused to say the least. She and Mahiru go to the office to ask their teacher whats up. The teacher confirms that yes Hikari left, all the documents have been filled out and they are stamped with Giraffe’s logo. Karen asks where Hikari went exactly but their teacher brushes her off and says doesn’t know. So yes the school is in on all this magic stage bullshit. Karen tries calling Hikari, but her phone has been disconnected. Cause that’s not incredibly alarming at all.

Two days after the final audition, turns out Hikari left all of her things behind. All of it, cause that isn’t alarming at all. Karen pulls out the Starlight book, Nana and Junna are concerned.

Three days after the final audition, Karen calls the London school to see if Hikari is there. Doing her best to speak english while Mahiru holds a notebook with the english words to help her. Futaba and Kaoruko are nearby watching them. Karen’s call was in vain though, Hikari isn’t there either.

One week after the final audition, Karen and Mahiru go to the police for help. They sit with two officers to talk to them. Officer 1 says that Hikari did file the correct documents to leave school but Karen is like “I mcfuckin doubt that.”. The officers are like ok ok, we’ll ask a few more questions then. They ask where Karen and Mahiru last saw Hikari and it hits both of them that saying “on an underground stage with a talking giraffe” would just make them sound crazy, they can’t answer that question. Well shit.

Two weeks after the final audition, Karen sit in the subway station texting Hikari hoping she’ll respond. She’s sent several messages actually. But no response, at all. Karen looks at her phone sadly.

Three weeks after the final audition, the final cast list for the Starlight play has been posted. It’s legit the same exact cast as last time. Alrighty then.

One month after the final audition, she goes to the Tokyo Tower shop alone and stares sadly at the lamp display.

Seven months after the final audition, it’s now December. Karen and Mahiru sit on Karen’s bed still calling Hikari’s phone, and texting it. Still no response. Karen gets up and put her crown hair clip on, she says “Let’s go Mahiru.” and the two leave to go to school.

Mr. White and Hikari’s suitcase being left behind is a HUGE indicator that Hikari’s disappearance isn’t normal at all.

We go to Nana and Junna walking to school, they’re in winter coats. Nana comments on how cold it is, Junna says it’s the coldest day this year and references Nana’s time loop by saying that Nana probably hadn’t experienced cold like this in awhile. Nana is like “yeahhhh.”. The two come across Mahiru and Karen at a mailbox, Karen is trying to contact Hikari via snail mail now. Nana asks Karen if she’s cold and gives her a hug saying “Hot Banana!”. The four of them smile and then Karen says via voice over the contents of the letter she sent. She talks about everyone preparing for the Starlight play. We see a pile of letters Karen has sent to Hikari, they’ve all been returned so no luck with the snail mail either.

Jun Jun certainly thinks you are Nana! *runs*

It’s now the evening, the girls are still working on the play. Junna is writing stuff down on a clipboard and Nana comes in with food for the stage crew. Nana and Junna are called away from the group to run though the script for the play. We go to our girls and Karen, isn’t doing too well. Ameniya (the script writer if you don’t recall) asks if Karen was injured, Karen says no. So she’s like “so, why the fuck are you performing so badly??”. Sanai (the director if you don’t recall) hits the mark by asking if it’s because of Hikari. Ameniya is about to tell Karen to get over it when Mahiru goes “LET’S NOT.” so she stops herself from saying that. Ameniya apologizes and is like “just try to focus ok?” Sanai says “If you aren’t feeling up to doing this role its ok, we can get someone else to do it”. Wow, now that’s a comfort fail right there. Anyways, Junna and Nana arrive and they get back to rehearsal.

While going through the scenes, Karen is still distracted. She starts wonder what was wrong with her, why does she not feel anything while performing? No joy, no fear, nothing. Karen stops practicing all together concerning everyone in the room. She questions why she wanted to be on stage in the first place. Hikari is gone, why should she bother? She speaks aloud saying she loves the stage but she doesn’t know why. Then, a realization hits her like a truck. She knows now what Hikari meant when she said you lose the most important thing to a stage girl if you lose the auditions. Karen’s starlight wasn’t taken by the stage but, with Hikari completely gone it might as well have been stolen from her. Karen realized that this did happen to Hikari, she starts to cry. She says she gets it but also doesn’t but she does. She says her realization aloud that Hikari lost her starlight. Karen cries out Hikari’s name and has an emotional breakdown in the practice room.

Yeah this is the expression I’d make too if I discover a magic ass stage gives you severe depression and it’s already done that to your gf.

It’s the next day, Karen is in her bed with the covers over her head. The other girl are outside sitting at a table together, they all know the truth now about the price of losing the auditions. They are all disturbed by this revelation and the mood is somber. We learn why Maya reacted the way she did to Hikari in episode one, it was the lack of any emotion whatsoever in her eyes. Maya says that since Hikari’s starlight was stolen she became a dead stage girl. Claudine points out that all of them still have their starlight and Futaba comes to the conclusion that was because Hikari didn’t steal it from them. Kaoruko asks why Hikari would do that. Nana gives a reason, Hikari couldn’t bring herself to do such a thing. Put someone through the same pain as she suffered put Karen through that pain. Futaba is like “well shit she saved all our asses then.” Nana says that Hikari ended up losing all of her starlight and wonders where she disappeared to.

Back with Karen, she’s looking at the childhood photo of herself and Hikari. Karen sits up and wonders if Nana was right, the Starlight play is a sad story about parting. She opens up the Starlight book and even though she isn’t sure if she can read this without Hikari she gives it a try anyways. Then, an idea comes to mind. Later, Mahiru comes home to Karen translating the Starlight book from English to Japanese. She’s pleased that Karen’s motivation came back. Then we get a montage of Karen translation the Starlight book and she even gets some help from her friends. After the montage, we see Karen has gotten to the end. And we find out what happens to Claire after Flora falls from the tower, Claire was punished for the sin of trying to seize the stars and was sealed into the tower just like the other goddesses in there. A new sinner, imprisoned away in this horrible tower thing.

The moral of the Starlight play is if you try for a happier ending you can go fuck yourself. Time to change that ending yes?

Karen is like, well this part of the ending isn’t in the play at all. Then she figures out where Hikari is, she’s imprisoned in the tower just like Claire was in the story. Karen is like “HOLY FUCK, I GOTTA GET TO THAT ELEVATOR!” and runs down the hallway towards it. On the way she grabs the same crowbar Hikari had used in episode three and gets to the elevator. She says while trying to break the elevator door down that where Hikari was isn’t their stage. They haven’t stood on their stage yet! Karen shouts that they haven’t Starlighted yet as she swings the crowbar down, the red light next to the elevator turns on. And, as if the school itself is responding to her, all the fucking lights turn on too. Karen finally is able to pry the door open, light next to the elevator is now blue. She looks down the stairs into the yawning void, here she comes motherfucker.

As Karen descends down the stairs, we get a new song! It’s an interlude. Junna appears next to Karen on the stairs, she goes “So, seizing the stars is a sin? Guess us Stage Girls are all sinners then. But fuck it, who cares if we’re seen as sinners. I don’t care! I’m going for that star anyways!” We pass by Junna’s props as they go down the stairs. Junna stops walking and tells Karen to tell Hikari that she will be waiting for her on the stage. Karen nods and they wave to each other as Karen continues onward. Mahiru walks down the stairs with Karen next, she says “We’re from different places and have different stories but we all met on the same stage. We discovered our starlight together.” Mahiru’s props are passed by, Mahiru stops walking and tells Karen to tell Hikari that she will see her on the stage. 

Next is Kaoruko and Futaba, they don’t walk down the stairs with Karen but they stand in one of their props (the dojo area). They both say that us Stage Girls are united as one by the stage. They ask Karen to tell Hikari that they will see her on the stage. Karen walks with Nana next, she says “All stages come to an end, so we should burn as brightly as we can while we’re there.” Nana’s props are passed by. Nana tells Karen to tell Hikari that she will be waiting for her on the stage. Karen and Nana wave to each other and Karen continues onward.

Claudine travels with Karen next, they take a gold elevator downwards. Not just any elevator through, the same one from the Starlight play. She says, “The stage keeps us going and it's where our hearts belong. It’s the stage the fulfills us.” Maya continues what Claudine was saying as she and Karen walk down the stairs, “Stage girls can be reborn endlessly, hence even if we fall we can get back up again.” Claudine says, in French, that she will be waiting for Karen and Hikari on the stage. Maya also says she will be waiting on the stage. Karen finally reaches the entrance to the theater, the other girls sit at the bottom of the stairs to see her off. They will all be waiting on the stage for her and Hikari. Karen goes inside, and the door shuts behind her.

Zettai. Unmei. Mokushioku.

No background music plays as Karen enters the stage, it's dark and it looks like the water is gone. And for the very first time, Giraffe isn’t present at all. There's only a small section of the Star Tower here. Something is wrong. Suddenly we hear a cell phone ring, Hikari’s phone sits on position zero plugged into an electrical socket. All the messages Karen sent to Hikari start flooding in. Karen runs over and picks up the phone, the phone turns into a ticket. A ticket for a show. She looks up and the Star Tower section now has an opening, Karen announces her name and class and walks towards the opening into the unknown. The credits now play.

But. There’s a post credit scene, Hikari is naked in a pink sandy wasteland. Her cape is stuck on the branch of a brush and the tiara lies in the sand. The Tokyo Tower lays on its side in the sand a little bit aways. Hikari says she remembers her promise with Karen. The episode ends here.

I’m sure she’s fine. This is fine.

>How to save your girlfriend from a pink hellscape: Discussion edition!

-Well well everybody we got ourselves a nice set up episode! I suspected that it would be a set up one. Also every passing episode, my fear of the stage grows. Hahaha. Ha.

-I fucking told y’all it's ALL the girls who lose get their starlight taken and not just second place! Not like that was hard to fucking know like, sorry I just saw folks going “only 2nd place loses their starlight” and I got annoyed. Good to have verbal confirmation man.

-So! 7 months have passed in universe, it's December now. Likely close to Christmas or New Years. SAVE HIKARI FOR CHRISTMAS KAREN!

-Hikari is pretty much just gone. Her paper says she transferred but all her shit is still at the dorm and her phone was disconnected. The paper was marked with a giraffe symbol which means the school is for sure in on it. So “SHE SENT ALL THE PROPER PAPERS IN” MY ASS. Like, god. Fuck, poor Hikari. ;;

--Also gotta take an aside to say everyone who called Hikari a snake or anything of that nature post episode 10 fuckin take that shit back cause she saved our girls! Hikari is good.

-While I figured that the school was in on this shit, I gotta rant angrily about them. I know they fictional but it always gets my goat (fictional or irl) when adults who are supposed to look after kids don’t do so and even worse when they let something like a severe depression causer creature even near these kids. So here I go! Fuck you Seisho Academy! You irresponsible selfish assholes, how dare you let this stage creature come here and feed off of your students. The fuck is wrong with you?! And then you lose track of a kid?! Really?! Also how is letting eight girls get depression gonna fucking help ya?! Like oh shit you just lost eight students good fucking job. What the fuck. I’m gonna go fight ya, meet me in the fucking pit.

-Even though Karen’s starlight wasn’t taken, the stage ended up taking what was most important to Karen anyways. It was Hikari, without Hikari’s existence she can’t muster up passion for performing on the stage anymore. Karen’s emotional breakdown was heartbreaking good god. Thankfully she bounced back!

-The other girls know the truth about the stage now, and realized that Hikari pretty much saved all of them from losing their starlight. This isn’t how I thought the girls finding out the truth would go but this reveal worked really well. Like, they heard the fucking giraffe talk about fuel and shit so when Karen realized what happened to Hikari they put two and two together. Also, looks like I was right about why Maya reacted to Hikari the way she did in episode one! Yeehaw.

-Turns out after Flora was zapped to the ground, Claire became trapped in the tower for her sins. Called it! Yes! I think it’s interesting that to find the truth we have to go back to the plays roots. Going back to your roots to rediscover your passion is something that’s happened a lot in the show. I like this theme.

-Well would you look at that, Karen’s princely vibe is coming into play! Hikari is a princess now like, she’s literally locked in a tower. And if Giraffe is a Kirin there’s even a dragon to fight! Fairy tale imagery is fun. Also oh man if Karen like gives her cape to Hikari I’m gonna cry.

--Also also, hey rev star. We got lots of girls dipping each other and that’s great but please, we need to see a bridal carry DO IT! The perfect opportunity is right here! Right now! Karen can do it! It happened in Hikari’s dream in the prequel manga Overture! Make Hikari’s dream come true DO IT!

-The lack of music when Karen walks into the stage is creepy as fuck. Makes the phone sounds all the more startling. Also the entire stage was much creepier than usual and that’s saying something! The lights in the audience were off, a good chunk of the tower was gone, and Giraffe wasn’t there at all. This, is alarming to say the least. Even more alarming, the stage is still fucking here. It hasn’t moved to a new location, why? Was it...waiting? Waiting on Karen to come and continue the tragedy? Jesus christ, this stage man. ono

-Hikari’s phone turns into a ticket and I. Fuck. That was fuckin wild. Really good editing in this show oh man.

-Hey guess what? CROWN SOUNDS ARE HERE AGAIN. 20 seconds in, fuck. I don’t really have time to snag a audio clip for it but, just letting you know it's fucking back and still fucking scary.

-I loved how Junna’s stair moment was her going “we’re sinners now? Ok, I’m still grabbing that star though! You can’t stop me!” God I love her, Jun Jun is great!

-Small detail but I wanted to mention it anyways but during the whole episode we never see Maya and Claudine too far from each other, always together. Even during the staircase part, Claudine was only a few steps away from Maya. Like quite a difference to see that right? They meant it when they said they’ll always stay together in the previous episode. It’s a cute detail and its nice to see their relationship going so well! I love them.

-So I wrote about the stage and its favoritism towards certain Stage Girls but it got really fucking long so it will be its own post one day!

-I love the Evangelion like imagery at the end there, this shit is gonna get surreal and I am ready!

-I wish all the Stage Girls were going on this rescue mission but oh well. The scene with Karen going down the staircase was so nice and sweet and I loved seeing all her friends support her! But, this part also felt like a goodbye. Like Karen isn’t coming back...hope I’m wrong.

-Each girl that walked down with Karen was in the same order as their duels. With Junna going first and Maya going last, nice touch!

-An Interlude is a musical piece played between acts of a stage production. So, does this mean we going to act 2 now? Possible season 2? Hope so!

>This speculation was brought to you by: Put that stage back where it came from or so help me!

-I wrote theory about why I think the stage is from the planet Venus! Check it out!

-Since Hikari lost her clothes cause she’s in the tower. This might mean that this shot from the opening is telling us that Karen will end up staying with her in there. They will then, literally become starlight. Just like Karen says in her audition speech. If this is the case then that could leave this show open for a season 2. That would be kinda sad tho, but it seems foreshadowed hm. The other options I’m thinking is that they both get out just fine or only one of them gets out. Or maybe they just, end up on fucking Venus and it’s like oh shit we gotta get back to earth. That option is a bit out there yes but hey, you never know!

-I’ve been shouting about the Starlight Gatherer for awhile now. We still don’t know who it is, I’m banking on Giraffe still! Or maybe the stage itself? Gdi I’m just gonna wait and see at this point, I don’t have any new theories here. Heres a good video about the Starlight Gatherer if you want some more speculation! Oh! And, let me just. Drop the little poem we saw about it right here:

Starlight Gathering is Forgiveness of Sins

Starlight Gathering is a Wonder of Night

Starlight, The Shining of Hope

Your Shines are the Starlight

The Starlight Gatherer

Gives The Beast from Over the Garden Wall vibes here...I don’t like it. ono

-I’ve pointed this out before but I’ll say it again. In her stage outfit, Hikari gets a crown of stars around her head. In artwork often the divine or saints get a circle of stars as a crown like that, these are known as Crowns of Immortality. I have been wondering how this related to Hikari, but I think I know now. Martyrs can also get crowns like that in artwork, and Hikari just martyred herself to save everyone's starlight.

>All good plays must come to an end.

I, can’t believe we’re near the end. Where does the time go? But wow, I love this anime! My gut feeling was right! Am I ready for the end? No. But it will come either way, let's enjoy while it's here my dudes! That’s how shit like this rolls, burns brightly but it doesn’t last forever so we should enjoy it while its here.

See you on the final stage for episode 12!

[queen-of-hearts92]

Revue Starlight 4: Where in Tokyo is Hikari Kagura?

BANANA, IN PAJAMAS, IS VERY BANA-NICE! 

For the previous episode go here!

To go to the start of these posts, go to the Prelude!

Sup everyone, this week we have a what is known as a breather episode. It’s a break to get to know everyone more pretty much! But it was still a good time! Like wow, even the breather episodes are fascinating! Ok! Here we go!

Quick note: I discovered Claudine’s nickname is Kuro, given by Karen it sounds like, so I’ll probably use that from time to time. So Kuro=Claudine, now you know and won’t be confused when I call her that being like “who the fuck is Kuro?”. Odd her image color is orange but her nickname means black and theres no orange on her stage outfit. Eh, whatever.

>Guess who watched the stage play?

Recently I decided to go ahead and watch the stage play, it was a chinese sub (I’ll link ya to it if you like, just message me) so while I couldn’t gather a ton of info I did gather some interesting shit. First off, the stage play story and the anime story are quite different from each other as far as I could tell. So don’t worry too much about spoilers, the show is very quick and compressed pacing wise for example. Ok so first off, remember the mystery names in the cast list on the bottom of the fan translated website? In the stage show there are three teachers overseeing the fights, I only know one of their names so the other two I’ll call Red Jacket and Yellow Sweater.

Red Jacket seems to be a gym teacher of sorts, Yellow Sweater is a music teacher. Yellow Sweater dislikes the fights right away while Red Jacket gradually gets more and more uncomfortable with the kids fighting. The third teacher is the most important one, she’s in charge (might be the headmaster of the school) and orchestrating the whole thing. Her name is Souda Haseda, the girls call her “Souda-sensei”, and I really think its very likely she is going to be in the anime. So we are probably gonna get a face to the system! Good, this will be exciting!

Second thing here, in the stage version it seems like the audition duels magically jack up the girl’s aggression and worst possible traits A LOT. This way they fight each other and its, wild. You can break out of the influences but man does it hit hard! Examples being Maya being really bloodthirsty (my curiosity of the play started cause I saw a screenshot of her stabbing Claudine, don’t worry Claudine is fine its not really mentioned or has consequences as far as I can tell), Nana’s aggression is fuckin nuts, and Hikari starts taunting her opponents and during a fight with Mahiru she knocks Mahiru the fuck out! Like holyyy shit Hikari!

And they snap out of this blinding rage when the duel ends but the winners go right back into it once their next duel starts. Like when Maya beats Kuro she isn’t happy, no. She’s upset and has this look on her face that says “I won but at what cost?”. And then the next fight she’s right back into stabby time. I’m not describing everything cause you could see it for yourself but wow man. I actually don’t think any of this stuff about the auditions will be true in the anime but I think the underground stage is probably set up to egg everyone on into wanting to fight each other. Yikes.

-The word Kirin was used in the musical, and I think it was referring to the mythical animal. I’m thinking I’m right about my theory of what Giraffe is! But there's still a lingering question, if Kirins are supposed to be beings of good luck and fortune why is there one associated with a game of misery and conflict? Hm. The mystery continues.

--Also btw, I tried to see if Souda-sensei’s name meant anything but I couldn’t get anything to make any sense. All I know is her name involves running and feathers and maybe camels and gauze or something silky? I got running away/escaping, going fast. Idk, it’s this 走駝紗羽 (and I’m pretty positive her name is written this way) if anyone wants to give it a go themselves. I’m not an expert at all so maybe you’ll find something I missed.

Alrighty that’s all I gotta say on the play! Glad I watched it, still don’t know what’s gonna happen in the anime tho lol. Yay surprises!

>*Carmen Sandiago theme intensifies as the ep summary starts up*

The episode starts with baby! Hikari and Karen watching the Starlight play. The roles are filled by all the girls doing a repeat of the stairs from episode one. Teen! Hikari and Karen are playing the two goddesses, just like we saw Maya and Claudine do in the flashback last episode. The pink star shines brightly as it did last time we saw this play.

Y’ALL I ALREADY WARNED YOU ABOUT THOSE STAIRS!

After Hikari and Karen’s characters reach for the star, they are each on a raised platform. And then, THEN THE STAR BLASTS KAREN’S CHARACTER IN THE FACE AND SHE DIES. Yeah. Anyways Karen’s platform goes down while Hikari’s goes up and sand rains down from the sky onto Hikari’s character who is crying. Notably the tower that held the star is empty.

Twinkle twinkle little star, IT WILL UNLEASH THE WRATH OF GOD!

Now we are in the present, its the next day. Karen wakes up and notices Hikari isn’t there. So she proceeds to run around the dorm barging into all the rooms looking for Hikari. She wakes up Nana and Junna, looks around the bathing room while Maya is there, and startles Claudine into speaking French while she was looking at photos of Maya dancing on her tablet….Which is for researching Maya’s dancing of course, and for no other reason even though she hides her tablet screen so Karen can’t see the photos. Research purposes only!

After this show is done I might do a best screenshot compilation post. This will be one of them, it’s priceless.

We then go to the living room where we find out Karen woke up Futaba and Kaoruko and the two are on the couch looking very sleepy. Everyone else is also there and being like “God dammit Karen, she’s been doing this all morning!”. Karen runs into the living room, sad she didn’t find Hikari anywhere in the dorm. Nana asks if Karen tried calling her and Karen is like oooh yeah phones are a thing. She thanks Nana by combining her nickname with the word nice getting the amazing phrase “Bana-nice” and floofing Nana’s pigtails. Nana likes this. 

Karen calls Hikari and asks where the fuck she is, Hikari doesn’t say anything but Karen can hear a train station and is like “wtf are you off campus?! You need a notice! Curfew is at 6!” but Hikari hangs up. Karen decides to go and find her. All the girls (including sleepy Kaoruko draped over her gf like a sloth) follow Karen to the door. Futaba is like uh are you gonna get a notice? Junna reminds Karen it's her turn to clean the hallways. Karen is like, sorry I gotta go find Hikari! Karen runs to the train station but no Hikari. She sends Hikari a text and Hikari response with the best emote known to man. And no translation needed honestly.

Hikari won’t hesitate bitch!

Eventually Hikari sends a picture of herself in front of a, blurry blob. Karen guesses a rock climbing wall, its wrong. Karen runs around and asks a little girl what she think it is and the girl thinks its jellyfish. Karen runs to a aquarium, its the wrong one. Hikari sends another jellyfish picture and Karen races out to the train. Btw Hikari has her roller suitcase with her the entire time. Anyways, Hikari is in another aquarium but Karen is tired so she sits in a train station. Hikari then finally texts words instead of jellyfish photos, she asks why did you lose. Karen replies saying that Maya and her aren’t on the same stage (as in she means Maya is much stronger than her), if you could even call it a stage that is. Hikari calls her an idiot. Karen then asks well what should she have done then?! Hikari responses with, I don’t know. She wonders what should they do. Karen decides to call her and this time Hikari picks up and responds! She asks if Karen remembers “their Starlight”.

Back on campus, Futaba and Kaoruko are chilling in a training room. Kaoruko complains about having to wear school uniforms/school wear while in the school building. She then brings up the audition duels, she is surprised Futaba is in them and didn’t talk to her about doing that. She wonders if the prize of being Top Star is real. Kaoruko says “aw man that means we gotta fight one day, but you’ll let me win right?”, Futaba doesn’t give an answer. Instead she slides Kaoruko off of her lap. This is fine. Just fine.

Anywho Kaoruko is then like, I got an idea! She starts skipping towards the teacher’s office with Futaba right behind her. Yeah she’s gonna go tattle on Karen and Hikari being off campus without permission cause then less rivals for Top Star, don’t ever trust the sleepy ones you guys. Luckily Mahiru stops them in their tracks saying she’s the goddess of the hallway while pointing with and spinning her baton. Mahiru says she senses wicked intent from them, and figures out Kaoruko’s plan right away and does a great impression of her. Kaoruko tries to be like “uhhh no we weren't gonna. Do anything like that.” Mahiru then aggressively spins her baton at them until they run away. Mahiru then dramatically laments that she’s jealous that Karen was chasing Hikari and not her.

ALL HAIL THE HALLWAY GODDESS! PROTECTOR OF THE IDIOTS!

Back with Karen and Hikari, Karen is like ofc I remember our promise! Then the two have a long much needed catching up talk while they individually wander around Tokyo for the rest of the day. Eventually Karen talks about how much she loves the stage and wants to go even higher, hence she’ll keep doing the audition duels. Finally, at night, the two meet in person at the lit up Tokyo Tower.

Meanwhile, we go to Claudine practicing dance. She’s been doing so for awhile. Maya then comes the fuck in and asks if she wanted to dance with her. They turn on sweet jazzy music and they dance. Maya comments that Claudine seems all psyched up again and Claudine says that Maya tends to fire her up and Maya is like “orly? Cool” (Maya don’t be coy you already knew that). Claudine asks “So, why the hell are you even IN the auditions in the first place? It’s not like you need em, you’re already take center stage with everything!” Maya playfully says she gets jealous is all. They finish their dance with Maya dipping Claudine, she says the idea of anyone having the Top Star besides herself makes her very jealous. What Maya is really saying is she wants Claudine to challenge her and try to take the Top Star, Claudine smiles and calls her greedy. Challenge accepted.

Maya is NOT subtle with her crush at all, it’s amazing. 

Back with Karen and Hikari, they try to go to the aquarium that’s under the tower but sadly its closed for maintenance. The two sit in a park nearby the tower, Karen is like “its okay we can always come together here again!” Hikari then finally talks about the audition duels. She says if you lose too many times and get booted out, you will lose the most important thing to a Stage Girl. Damn. 

Karen is like ooohh that's why you locked me in a shed, but she points out that not going to the duel meant she’d lose by default and Hikari very obviously didn’t think of that. Karen, running up a slide, is like Hikari don’t worry I won’t lose anymore! She’s gonna be shining! She will shine with Hikari! Hikari points out there's only one Top Star and Karen is like uh Giraffe never said there couldn’t be two! Not a bad point. Hikari is like dude thats not gonna happen but Karen is like let’s try anyways. Hikari is like, ok. And joins her on the top of the slide. They stand together holding hands, the tower glowing softly nearby.

They say if a couple witnesses the turning off of Tokyo Tower’s lights at night, they will stay together forever......uh. It’s still on. Uh oh.

Meanwhile at the dorms, their teacher is checking if all of them are there so the girls gotta cover for Karen and Hikari. When their teacher checks the room, Mahiru is like oh they tired so they went to bed early. Kaoruko and Futaba are being body doubles in Karen and Hikari’s bed. However because they didn’t use pillows like most kids in media do, now Kaoruko and Futaba’s room is being checked and they ain’t there. Everyone is thinking fffucck. 

So, to allow the gfs to sneak back to their room, Maya and Claudine join in to help their dumbass friends/floormates. Claudine’s brilliant idea is to stage faint and start rambling random words in French, Maya catches her and is like “oh nooo. She fainted!” the teacher runs over asking what happened and Maya says, what's most likely the first thing that popped up in her head, “She’s got, stage fright!!” I’m. You guys.

Anyways, Futaba and Kaoruko sneaked back to their room door while the teacher’s back was turned. The teacher turns around and sees them by their door. Maya very quietly asks Claudine how long she was gonna lay there rambling in French, so Claudine springs up and is like “HEY I’M FINE NOW!” The teacher is like, well alrighty then. After she leaves, Nana is like “wow i’ve never done that before….but Bana-nice!” Junna is like let’s NEVER do this again.

This goes to show. Top of the class or not, teenagers are teenagers.

The next morning, Mahiru is waiting on the stairs in front of the dorm and sleeping. She wakes up and sees Karen and Hikari walking towards the dorm. She’s like YAY THEY’RE BACK! Junna and Nana come outside while everyone else looks out their windows. Junna is like “WTF What were you two thinking?!” Turns out they ran out of money so they couldn’t take the train back, oops. Karen is like, it’s cool we got back at 6. Junna groans and is like 6PM not AM! Junna scolds them and Nana says Junna did Karen’s cleaning duties for her, Junna blushes. Karen gets emotional, apologizes, and hugs Junna, much to Mahiru’s dismay. 

Then, because these useless lesbians were outside shouting about covering for Karen and Hikari, the teacher rides by on her bike and is like Karen and Hikari come to the office later and bring all those who covered for you too. Yeah she found out, oops. She says they will get “the legendary punishment” and rides away. Junna is like fffffffffuck I’ve heard horrible things about that! Rumor has it that it has caused students to leave the school all together! Karen is like, fuck. Uh, it’s fine! We’re all in this together. Junna is dying squirtle. 

But, she says she’s glad they are safe. Then all the girls tell them “Welcome back”! Hikari is obviously touched by this. The girls go back inside for breakfast. Hikari puts her new stuffed jellyfish next to her bear and the episode ends with the ending theme being sung by both Hikari and Karen.

Let’s face it, getting the jellyfish alone was worth going out for!

>Even the breather episodes have a lot going on!

-Odd to mention now I know, but I love how they draw bangs in the show! They so flippy and cute!

-Also fun fact, the white bear Hikari has everywhere is an in universe mascot character called Mr. White. Hikari loves this mascot so much its on her stage uniform!

-So Hikari straight up leaves the dorms this episode and I think the reason is this, she realized Karen only auditioned cause she was there. If she wasn’t there Karen would’ve never auditioned, so her quest was doomed from the get go. So she leaves hoping Karen would now stop dueling since she isn’t there. But what Hikari underestimated was how much Karen cares about her, she didn’t expect Karen to call her or go looking for her. Hikari at this point is at a loss of what to do, the reason why she came in the first place was a failure. Hence she wanders looking at jellyfish, avoiding Karen since she didn’t want to admit how she felt and that she fucked up. But Karen got it out of her via texting and they finally spoke extensively to each other. This was a good step for them! Looks like Karen convinced Hikari, for the time being, of getting Top Star together!

But is it really such a good idea?...Dunno yet.

-I love that sleepy Kaoruko just drapes herself onto Futaba like Futaba is a big old pillow and she is a sleepy sloth. Very cute girlfriends. Though, there was very strong foreshadowing here that their relationship will be strained thanks to the duels. Futaba isn’t going to just let her win, her silence after Kaoruko asks her that just proves it. Good luck dear lesbians.

-I can’t believe Claudine “I keep photos of Maya dancing on my tablet just for observing her dancing and not because I think she’s hot or anything. JUST FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES!” Saijo is fucking canon. I made a joke of that nature in my last post but then this really happened! I’m SO pleased. Also Karen startled her so much she reverts to speaking French lol. Kuro is the living embodiment of the “600 photos fly out of pockets” meme I swear. I really like her, she’s great!

-Nana’s reaction to Karen fluffing her pigtails was very cute. She is very cute.

-Junna with her hair down is very cute yes but oh man this screenshot of her being startled awake is the funniest fucking thing oh my god. I can’t decide if she was dreaming of titty or if she was ready scratch the face off of whoever came into her room lol.

-I love how comfortable the 8 girls are with each other? Like not all of them are best friends or anything they are just used to living with each other, I assume they’ve been living with each other since their 1st year. And yeah you just kinda get used to any weird shit your floor mates do. We got a good look at that this episode. Karen is running around looking for Hikari and she’s comfortable with everyone enough to barge into people’s rooms and any other room and be like “HAVEYOUSEENHIKARIISSHEINHERE?!”. Also it is funny seeing Karen burst into every room in the dorm like that. She even startled Maya lol. Karen pls.

It kinda gives me flashbacks to when I was in theater and summer camp lol, er not the running into the bathroom while someone was there part tho.

--Also Karen, why do you keep looking under places that Hikari can’t possibly fit or hide in? Unless Hikari is a cat, if she can get her head through she can get in. Maybe, she is a cat. *X Files music*.

-Being Mahiru is still suffering. Like damn it’s suffering! Karen didn’t even really talk to her getting back from the big city. She looks so sad when Karen hugs Junna and not her. OUCH. Currently I’m putting my bets on us losing Mahiru first, she’s the odd man out and that would hurt Karen greatly and up the stakes a lot. Either way it’s only a matter of time b4 she mcfreakin loses it now, and judging by some episode five screenshot teaser that might come soon. SPEAKING OF WHICH!

--THIS. OK. WHAT. IS. THAT. WHITE. THING?! IT HAS AN EYE?! AAAAA?! Is it a prop?! Is it real?! Is it a lovecraftian horror?! What?! Whatcha got in store for us episode 5?! I’m excited and scared at the same time.

-What’s very interesting is that Karen wasn’t sleepy or tired this episode even though it’s post duel. I’m thinking her drive to find Hikari overrode everything else, amazing. The power of gay love!

-When Claudine suddenly dropped to the ground, for a hot second I was like WHAT IS SHE OK but then I realized it was a distraction. Shout out to Maya for just going with it, catching her and everything. Also well well Kuro it looks like you trust Maya enough to catch ya when you stage faint. :3c 

Anywho what cracked me up the most was how slapped together their distraction was, like you guys you’ve been actresses for awhile now and this is the best you can do? Guess they aren’t one for improv lol. I’m honestly glad it went this dumb cause it goes to show that even the top students are still teens, covering for their idiot friends/floormates. I am also happy they took part in this hairbrained scheme, I’ll say more about this later.

-Hikari says when you get booted out of the duels you “lose the most important thing to a stage girl”. Well that’s really vague Hikari. Either she is still withholding information OR that is all she knows. I got the impression in the stage play she was Souda-sensei’s spy/agent to get people to fight, can’t say if that’s true here though.

-Kaoruko omg. I knew she had a secret mean streak but wowww. The good news is she isn’t very sneaky about it, nor is her girlfriend, so Mahiru easily stopped that shit in its track. I still love her though, Sailor Neptune's spirit lives on and is as passive aggressive as ever!

-The Venus de Milo statue didn’t pop up this episode, but that’s likely cause we weren’t on campus very much this time. The pink light was still everywhere like usual though. Also we learned the school has free practice days! That’s neat.

-Hey Maya, I don’t think saying ominous things about the audition duels while dancing is how you flirt with a girl. Granted it looks like it worked? Weirdos. And I told ya guys, Maya really loves dancing with her. She went out her way to do so this episode! Also good to know Maya always smiles at her when they dance even if no one else is watching so her smiling isn’t performative. And man, I’ve noticed Maya seeks out Kuro and only Kuro instead of hanging out with anyone else. That girl has got it bad. 

--Maya hun, did you learn all your flirting tactics from the theater? I think she did, amazing.

-Honestly I’m loving Kuro and Maya’s dynamic more and more each episode, they are actually really adorable? Kuro is in deep denial while Maya is like “That’s ok, take your time. :)”. In the meantime she’s here to impress and think “She’s so pretty when she fights and when she dances and when she-” and so on and so forth. 

However like with everyone else’s relationships, their relationship is going to end up strained thanks to the audition duels. Right now, Maya very firmly believes that being a Top Star means being alone. Throwing everything and everyone away, no matter what. But that begs the question, how will she handle it when it’s Kuro’s time to get booted (I think Maya and Karen will be the last ones standing)? I don’t mean just losing, being kicked out of the duels all together.

If my theory on radiance aka ability to perform on the stage is the thing taken is correct, than that means Maya can’t dance with her or see her fiery passion for the theater anymore after she’s kicked out. When that time comes, will she really be ok with leaving Kuro with nothing and standing alone? Ha ha, what if Maya knows they have limited time together so she’s trying to have as much time as she can? Ahaha...oh I just made myself sad.

-Speaking of Maya and Kuro, those two are a lot different than I expected. Way nicer and for sure not so above it all. They are just teenagers like the rest of them. I really love how different Maya is off the stage, when fighting/on stage she is very intimidating and seems all powerful. But when not she is, very respected and talented yes, but she is just another girl in their class. Maya isn’t an asshole to her classmates like you’d expect most characters like her to do, and like I said she obviously enjoys dancing with Kuro even though they are rivals.

Kuro on the other hand could’ve been like your average rich bitch character but nope! She's actually very chill and playful with everyone not named Tendou Maya, hell she even has a nickname, all of her intensity goes towards Maya instead. And ofc her deep denial about how she feels about Maya. It's very fascinating and I love it, I love them. They could’ve easily been the stock popular snobs/jerks but they aren’t, they are much deeper than that. And that’s wonderful!

-How odd that Claudine is asking Maya why she’s even in the underground duels and says that Maya “doesn’t need them”. So does that mean these fights are for girls who are desperate to get to the top and feel there’s no other way? If so, then why is Maya there? Maya herself doesn’t give an actual answer. Hm.

-The curfew for the dorms is 6pm apparently but the duels obviously go way past that time and into the night. So there’s at least two possibilities here. One, the school is very much in on it so the curfew is null and void for the girls who fight that night. Or two, the dueling does indeed take place in a dream world or dreamlike world. The question is when do the girls enter it? How does the elevator work then? Do their real bodies go with them? Are they just teleported back into their beds afterwards? Or a mix of both, school is in on it and there’s some magic shit going on? Like the school knows but the audition duels are in a dreamlike place is what I mean. HM. There is so much we don’t know about the duels honestly. What are they hiding? And, how much do the Stage Girls really know?

--I’m thinking that it’s likely the duels are taking place in a dreamlike world, that would line up with Karen waking up in bed after them and line up with the girls being tired the next day. However I must point out that even if the audition duels do take place in a dreamlike world, it doesn’t make it less real. No the experience is very real it just takes place in a dreamlike reality (think like in the movies Inception or Paprika). The Stage Girls remember the duels and no these aren’t just normal auditions, we have zero evidence suggesting that still so I’d say get that idea outta yo head. 

I’m also thinking any wounds or hell even dying would all be temporary, like you’d wake up and you are fine physically. However emotionally not so much, you’d remember the experience of either dying or killing someone and that will probably fuck you up a bit, shit. And I think there is a way to die but it maybe only the Revue itself can do that. I’m guessing losing will really scramble your brain in some way. Oh dear.

-We see more of the Starlight play, so the summary I got right now for the plot of this play is this. Once upon a time there were two goddesses, they loved each other very much. But they both wanted to reach for a light high up in the sky, a star. So together they leave their nymphs friends (Idk are they nymphs or what) behind, and they go to the star. Both goddesses reach for the star but, the star fired a laser beam and shot one of the goddesses out of the sky. The other was being pulled into the star, unable to go back for her lover. So she turned her into sand to spare her a horrible death. They were forever separated, their dream could never come true. The End! Soooo this foreshadowing makes me nervous for the girls, I’ll talk about it more in the speculation part.

--Quick note here, I learned that the names of the two goddesses in the play are Claire and Flora. Now Flora is a latin name that means flower and is the name of the Roman goddess of flowers and plants. Interestingly, the school’s symbol is a flower! Or looks like one to me at least. Claire is also a latin name and it means bright, clear, and….famous. Hm, I think I’m gonna assume Claire is the goddess who didn’t die. Could be wrong though.

>IMMA FIRING MY SPECULATIONS! RAWR!

(Is that meme considered old now?)

-So is the legendary punishment legit or was their teacher just fucking with them? I suspect if it is, and if we see it, the punishment isn’t as bad as it’s rumored to be. If it is, maybe it's like the stage play. In the stage play, because Karen was late to class too many times I think, the girls got thrown into the fighty Greek Chorus hell pit. Most of them without weapons, at least Maya and Kuro went for using their bare hands instead. Wow. Death by greek chorus, what a way to go.

-I’m thinking that starlight equals radiance aka talent. The starlight gatherers thing I pointed out last week would match up to this idea.

-The penalty of losing too much in the auditions is that something important to Stage Girls is lost. I strongly think what they lose is their radiance aka starlight. Basically all their abilities they can use to perform. Maybe even weakening their bodies? My current thought for the truth about being Top Star is that Top Star is given all the radiance of the girls who lost, maybe used as a battery by the tiara but even just being given all the radiance is painful too. You’d be alone at the top, all your friends are gone and you’ve literally taken away everything they had. Basically the winner doesn’t even win, the only winner is the cruel system. 

So I got two ideas of where this could go, one is that the girls who lose become shells of their former selves after losing their starlight. Blank eyes, not very active, that kind of thing. And maybe the effect can be resisted for a little while but it will come for you in the end. And maybe it could even cause you to fade away into nothing but pink light....which is all over this anime. UM. OH GEEZ.

The other idea is that, the stage literally steals you away. If the idea is to give all the radiance at once to whoever the Top Star is, storing the losing girls would work too. Like the stage basically catches the losing girl, drags her under or upward (or even stage left or right) and then the girl is put in a deep sleep pretty much. They sleep in coffins or boxes until there is a Top Star, then they will be taken out and drained. This could be a good way for the school to not have to deal with zombie like girls, they can just say they are sick. Not like the other Stage Girls can tell anyone otherwise. What happens afterwards can’t say I know really. Could go with them fake joining the Starlight group like in my theory. Or they just bury whats left of the girls under the stage. Shit.

-Heres a theory that came to me while I was watching the stage version, the Starlight story isn’t made up. The myth is real. The goddess that lived is among them, maybe as the head teacher Souda-sensei? That would explain all the goddess symbolism, specially love goddesses because this one lost her lover and so did Inanna and Venus. It might also explain our Qilin, he is loyal to her. 

So if the goddess is real why is she here? Well, I think she did indeed take the star and stored it away. However, this goddess has become cruel. She had seen other women with their best friends and their lovers and became angry. Why do they get to keep who they love the most and she had to lose hers? So maybe this is a recreation, she might just be a goddess who loves theater and sees it as a good way to lure girls. She puts the same number of girls as there were goddesses or goddesses and their nymphs idk. They fight for the Top Star, fighting friends and lovers alike. And the girl that wins gains the star powers, but now she’s alone and she lost everything else. Just like the goddess herself, another lonely star.

>Bana-nice!

This was a nice breather episode! Got to hang with the girls more, got some more foreshadowing, got some more gay, it was fun! And it gave the animators a break! It looks like episode 5 is gonna be a doozy though, oh boy.

See you on the stage for episode 5!

[cheesytoucans]

alright I have so much to fucking say about the first episode of revue starlight, I’ve actually seen it 3 goddamn times now which is basically unheard of for me with anime. Even with shows I really like I still don’t go back and rewatch the first episode multiple times, basically I’m losing my fucking mind over this show so there’s gonna be a bunch of rambles under the cut

First of all I’d like to reiterate just how much I think the utena vibe works for this show and adds to it. I’ve been thinking for years how we need a new modern utena like show and this one uses it to perfect effect. It’s got the whole vibe of utena but it’s less obtuse and they took out every single guy and replaced them with cute girls and that could totally not be your thing and that’s fine but for me that’s just a combo pack that I cannot resist. The style also just really works for the kind of story that it seems like they’re trying to tell and as of right now it has so much potential and room to grow. 

Just like with utena it looks like these “duels” that they do are symbolic on some level. As of right now the obvious one is that they are literally competing and fighting for the honor of being the best and for things like theater and idols that’s a huge, important part of that work. Besides that I could think of a bunch of other things they could also be symbolic for (god knows if they’ll go the utena route and have some sex symbolism or not but it sure has a few suggestive moments so it’s possible) but I’d like to wait until we got a few more episodes before I start throwing out random ideas.

Moving on though, the line at the beginning where they say: “The tale of these 8 women captivates us” seems slightly worrisome after you realize that there are 9 of them and that Karen is missing from the establishing shot of all of them on the stairs. I don’t know if that’s meant to tell us something or if something will come later with that but when you take that line and then combine it with Karen’s super weird dream where Hikari seems like she’s trying to murder her and it gets a little scary. Normally I would say that there’s no way that means anything but with the way that this show is already playing with symbolism I really wouldn’t be surprised if it was foreshadowing. Also the fact that Karen and Hikari seem to be watching themselves as kids is kind of interesting and might play into something later as well. 

Then we got Karen’s roommate Mahiru who very obviously has a crush on her and it’s cute and amusing. 

this shot where Karen has her face firmly planted into Mahiru’s boobs and Mahiru doesn’t even look phased is 10,000% funnier after you realize that Mahiru is so fucking smitten with her. 

I also wanna say that this scene just flows super well and is paced perfectly. They flow from each student to the next in a way that tells you a small tidbit about each of them and lets you get acquainted before  smoothly rolling onto the next and it just makes it so much fun to watch. 

I really like the way that all the fooling around stops too when Maya walks in, not only does her name give her away as this well to do lady but her voice and the way that she walks seems to command the room and gets everyone else to focus on the class that’s about to start, it’s a power move to say the least. Also the way Claudine especially seems to get fired up and the way those 2 interact throughout the rest of the episode, they got some weird sexual tension going on there, they probably got caught angrily making out in the locker room one day and never lived it down. 

I really wanna know what this musical thing is about because it sounds so gay and they say that Claudine and Maya were the stars last year so that definitely means they’ve been angrily making out at some point, it’s canon now. 

the way that Karen hangs on for dear life is so fucking funny, also super gay. I don’t know if it’s like training for her to hook her leg around her thigh but that’s also super gay and I love it. 

After all that is the dream sequence which is probably my favorite scene in the entire episode. It’s too early to tell if this dream is like a premonition or what but my gf had an interesting theory that I’d like to share. They said that it’s possible that the dream was a test of sorts to decide who would be fit for the revue starlight and that Karen didn’t pass because she let herself be pushed off the tower by Hikari. There’s no way to tell if that’s true or not at this stage but it’s a cool thought so that’s something to think about. 

this shot is probably my favorite in the entire episode though. It’s slow and lingering and that combined with the limited music and the strange buzzing noise like your ears are ringing makes the entire thing just stick in your brain to the point that I was thinking about it for hours after I first watched it. It’s also interesting that Karen doesn’t remember that she bought that barrette here until she’s pushed off and with the strange morbid atmosphere you really gotta wonder if it’s trying to tell you something. 

The transition that leads you out of this scene is also perfect by the way, that text tone on a black background followed by the picture of a giraffe is so bizarre and because of that it leads you out of a strange dream sequence perfectly. 

You also really gotta wonder if Junna knew about this whole underground revue starlight before she got that notification and if so who told her about it? The same with Hikari, who told her and why? and does anyone else know? that also leads you to the question of is this starlight thing going to land on the more symbolic side and they’ll barely talk about it outside of it or will it be discussed at length.

I’m really curious about what happened in Hikari and Karen’s past too. Hikari seems to be hiding a lot of demons and I want to know how much Karen has to do with it all. There’s definitely something to be said about how Hikari has kept that barrette all these years but to what ends we don’t know yet. 

Then we got the revue starlight itself and holy shit is that beginning suggestive 

I really wonder if that’s something they do in the actual starlight musical thing or if it’s just for this underground thing but it also makes you wonder if this really is going to go full on utena and this duels will be a sex metaphor as well. I’m not sure if the show is willing to go that far or not, utena did somehow get away with an onscreen sex scene so I guess anything can happen. 

I would also really be down if the duels went utena in a different way in that they each represented the girls doing them and their struggles and lives and whatnot, again I’m not sure if it’ll go that direction but it would be interesting. Their weapons as well could possibly be representative of who they are, it’s honestly fascinating that Hikari as a dagger of all things and Karen gets the hero sword. 

They also seem to be in real danger of serious injury or death with how that arrow barely misses Hikari’s skull and then later she’s thrown back hard enough to give her a concussion, so there are real stakes here and I love that. 

I love that it doesn’t seem to matter that Karen wasn’t fit for this underground thing before by not being motivated to stand at the top, the fact that she proves herself here and now is much more telling of who she is as a person and is a huge testament to her worth and character. Also the fact that she jumped into action because it was Hikari and she was worried, that’s gay. 

That whole transformation scene where she puts on that outfit was so utena and I loved it. Also loved that those outfits are very prince like and when I first saw Karen in it the first thing that came to mind was that she’s a handsome little prince, I dig that.  

this shot that gets repeated from the dream sequence is so damn cool and that white text on a red background is also so damn cool and so utena and I’m fucking living. 

while the nudity in the ending is definitely fanservice I also wouldn’t be surprised if it was symbolism in some way, which again it’s hard to know what kind since nudity can represent a whole bunch of things so who knows, a thought to keep in mind.