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tokyo-tower-symbolism · 3 months ago

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This is an essay I wrote for Curtain Call: A Revue Starlight Re LIVE Memory Book.

I don’t think we’ll get a proper ending or send off the Rinmeikan characters before the game shuts down, which is why I want to talk about Carmen - Song of Freedom. It’s about two years old at this point, but as we near ReLIVE’s end of service, I kind of see it as an epilogue to the Rinmeikan story.

Rinmeikan has a distinct separation between their second and first years. The second years are all haunted by failures. Tamao failed to keep her grandmother’s beloved performance department alive because she hadn’t been willing to risk everything. Fumi quit acting after becoming disgusted by herself, who was so focused on being the best at Siegfeld that she wished ill on her sister once she began to rival her. Ichie always regretted not going against management and turning on the mics for Sweet Pleats’s final performance to give her fellow idols a chance to really show off their talents. In Downfall, their chapters reveal their regrets about their past and what they lost, and ignites their desire to fight and protect what they have left.

Meanwhile, the first years aren’t weighed down by anything like that. They miss the Performance Department and the place they created with everyone, but they don’t really worry about what they could have or should have done. Yuyuko and Rui lament how empty their days are without the club, with Yuyuko no longer fulfilled with how she used to pass her time before and Rui being fawned over by others, but not by the one she really wants to look at her. And it’s because of how they can’t be satisfied without the Performance Department that they do something, not because they regret how it ended. Yuyuko writes a script for the second years because that’s what she knows she can do, and Rui constantly reaches out to Tamao, ready to join her the moment Tamao reveals their stage, because that’s how she’s always been, that was why she started acting in the first place.

Tamao is the one who enforces the divide between the years. She refuses to ask the first years to take the risk of getting in trouble with the school by going against their decision and reviving the Performance Department until Yuyuko joins her. And during the Performance Festival, she reveals her plan to reap her costars souls only to Fumi and Ichie, leaving Yuyuko and Rui in the dark once more.

During the Performance Festival, the second years are fueled by their regrets. Ichie doesn’t want everyone to split up and go their separate ways like her former group, so she goes along with Tamao and Fumi despite her misgivings, just so they can stay together. Fumi, in an attempt to atone for her attitude at Siegfeld, devotes herself to making someone else shine, even if it costs her own brilliance. And Tamao rejects her passive attitude from before, instead taking initiative to become the top star in this performance. But still, they end up making the same mistakes that caused their regrets. Ichie goes along with Fumi and Tamao’s plan at first even though she knows it’s wrong, not unlike how she caved under the pressure of the adults who managed her former idol group. Fumi runs away from being the star, just like how she ran away from Shiori’s brilliance. And back then Tamao tried to rely on the auditions to revive her department instead of fighting herself, and now she imitates stage girls like Akira and Maya instead of fighting with her own acting.

But with Yuyuko and Rui, they don’t have mistakes they can repeat or a past they are trying to escape. They didn’t start with failure or loss, they started completely blank when it came to the stage. They’ve only ever gained things at Rinmeikan, guided by the second years. What they do isn’t for the future of Rinmeikan, but for the place they created. Yuyuko does the same thing she did in Downfall, even when kept out of the loop she wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with the second years, to bear their burdens as well. She hardens her resolve, and makes sure to bring Rui with her, just like when she made that script for Rinmeiki knowing that Rui would join them. Rui too, she started acting and learning because she admired Tamao’s kind acting, and in Arcana Arcadia she learns from other stage girls and improves so she can fight for Tamao’s kind acting.

Eventually, the second years decide to be true to themselves, using their pasts as the reason to change for the future and for Rinmeikan. Ichie stands up to Fumi and forces her to show off her true acting, something she wishes she had done with Sweet Pleats. She refuses to let Rinmeikan suddenly disappear without showing off their true shine. Fumi decides to aim to be the lead, even if it means outshining Tamao, because that’s the new way for her to keep her promise with Shiori. She will put Rinmeikan on the map herself, because that’s the kind of star she has always been. And Tamao decides to stand on stage as herself instead of as Death, because even if she failed before, everyone wants to see her shine brightest as herself. The Rinmeikan she revives will not be the one of the past, but instead her own.

But for the first years, it’s a little different. They want to be together with everyone else, but their reason to stand on stage will become a lot flimsier once the second years graduate. So Arcana Arcadia never really answers what is the fuel that keeps them going.

In Carmen - Song of Freedom, Frontier invites Fumi, Yuyuko, and Rui as guest performers for the eponymous opera, Carmen.

At first Frontier planned to just invite Fumi, but she initially declines because she wanted to instead work on training Rui and Yuyuko in techniques outside of their usual Traditional Japanese forte so the Frontier second years decide to invite those two as well. This is an opportunity for Rui and Yuyuko to learn from someone outside of their school, but despite that we hear that Rui and Yuyuko don’t particularly want to learn from someone else.

Fumi has always been the least Rinmeikan of the three second years as she saw herself as an outsider and brought a level of Siegfeld strictness to their practices, and she mentions that she wants to show Rui and Yuyuko the benefits to using singing methods other than the German singing style they had been taught at Rinmeikan, which while impressive, is also very intense and impractical for operas which are completely sung through. Tamao, Fumi, Shizuha, and Tsukasa all agree that they should pick up new techniques so they can adapt to new settings. This is a very Rinmeikan idea, considering how most of the second years have had to adapt to make the best of their circumstances after failing. Still, Rui rejects the new technique, claiming she wanted to be bound to Rinmeikan. But it’s rough on her and her singing can’t keep up.

But after watching Fumi’s etude with Lalafin, the two of them decide to stick to the German singing style, even if it will be harder on themselves.

Tamao, Fumi, and Ichie are all fueled by regret. Each of them are the way they are because they don’t want what happened to them to happen to anyone else, especially not their friends in the Performance Association. They are on their paths out of necessity, it's not what they initially imagined for themselves, but they have to make the most of the hand they’ve been dealt. A big part of their stories is that they can’t ignore their past, they have to accept their mistakes and bring it with them, as hard as it can be, since it’s part of them. That’s why they made the same mistakes even when they wanted to change. It’s disappointing for them.

But Rui and Yuyuko don’t see that. They think they’re amazing.

Although the second years see themselves as a cautionary tale, for the first years they are their inspiration. Even when they are introduced to new ideas at Frontier, they choose to stick to their ideal from Rinmeikan. They don’t want to learn something new to replace what they already had, they instead use the new setting to better showcase what they’ve learned. And it was because of Fumi that Rui and Yuyuko were invited to Frontier and had the opportunity to learn. But despite that, Fumi worries that Rinmeikan was wasting Rui and Yuyuko’s talents by not being good enough for them.

In the event, when Shizuha tries to compliment Rui and Yuyuko, she is thrown off by how they only attribute their success to what they learned Rinmeikan. No matter what the second years think about themselves, Rui and Yuyuko adore them. Even when presented with new options, they choose Rinmeikan. The German singing style they were taught meant they needed to work a lot harder, but the end result gave them a more powerful performance. It might be tougher for them and they’ve been warned against it by people who experienced it, but they still choose that.

Because they want to be like their seniors who taught them, even if they aren’t perfect. They’ve seen how brilliant their struggles made them, so they’re willing to take the harder path too if it means they can be like them. It’s not as easy, but there’s nothing else like it. For the second years, their failures are a shameful part of them that they can never escape, but the first years who admire them don’t mind that at all because it made them who they are, and that’s who they want to be like.

And it’s just kind of nice to see that Rui and Yuyuko choose to follow Tamao, Fumi, and Ichie. Like despite everything that went wrong for them, they’re still inspiring.

It’s a story you can’t really have at Seisho, where everyone is a rival who inspires and pulls each other to aim for a higher stage. So it’s nice to have a school where it’s not the success but the failure that pushes everyone forward together.

Rinmeiki is a play about how there is beauty in death.

That line has a lot of interpretations throughout Arcana Arcadia, but I think the relationship between the second years and the first years is the best way to interpret it. Tamao tried to throw away her past self, but that was who captivated Rui. No matter how much Tamao cursed her own inaction, Rui still idolized her kindness, because she saw something that Tamao missed. It goes both ways too. Despite Rui’s initial stage fright and general anxiety, everyone encouraged her to stand on stage since they saw the potential in her. Even if Yuyuko tries to appear apathetic, everyone knows how hard she works, even if she tries to hide it. It’s hard for them to see themselves properly, so that’s why they have each other to see the best of them.

No matter how final or how tragic death might seem, it doesn’t need to be bleak. It can be inspiring, it can be an angel, like Rui’s interpretation of Death in Arcana Arcadia.

It’s hard for the second years to see the beauty in their own metaphorical deaths, in their failures, but the first years see it. They aren’t as wrapped up in what went wrong, and can instead appreciate the totality, how bright they shined before and how brilliant they were after. This wide view is like their traditions and history in a way. Even as the school’s reputation started to fall, there were still a handful of people who remembered them at their best. I think the beauty in death comes from the life that came before, in appreciating everything that came before, even if it has ended.

ReLIVE is approaching its death as well.

Honestly I have issues with ReLIVE. There were a lot of event stories that felt either way too short or way too drawn out. I didn’t get to see nearly as much of Frontier as I would have liked. And don’t even get me started on the timeline. There is only a three month window between Starlight and the start of their third year, are you telling me they managed to put on that many plays!? Also the predatory gacha system. That part sucks too.

But I also really enjoyed it. It gave me a steady flow of stories outside the anime and plays, and it was so cool to see the themes of Revue Starlight in new contexts and reimagined. I definitely won’t forget the characters it introduced any time soon.

And I really will miss Rinmeikan.

It was nice to see how they were there for each other, how they supported each other and hyped each other up despite their own misgiving about themselves. Alone, they might have crumpled, but together they made a stage that will last, even past the death of their game.

#revue starlight #tamao tomoe #rui akikaze #fumi yumeoji #ichie otonashi #yuyuko tanaka #analyzing starlight

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