thanks to the staff crossover (yurikuma and starmyu share some storyboard artists/episode directors/animation directors), it’s been fun to spot the similarities between yurikuma and starmyu
Starmyu and Symbolism in Expression - Ootori Itsuki
I will be doing a series of posts regarding the past few performances in Starmyu so far, so I thought I’d start with one of my favorites, which is Ootori’s! First of all, I recommend @hotarumei‘s post on the character name meanings in the show!
Solo performances in Starmyu are often abstract portrayals of everything that has to do with the character so this series (yes I intend to do one for every solo performance so far) is dedicated to interpreting the symbolism in these scenes.
Ootori’s performance in episode 2 opens with flames engulfing the screen, only to reveal his overwhelmingly audacious kingdom of gold.
The entire place lifts elements directly from Gustav Klimt’s most famous pieces. The best example I can think of being The Tree of Life below:
It’s entirely possible the director just thought Klimt’s aesthetic looked great and decided to adapt it for the show, but it’s worth noting that Klimt was an artist who started as a traditional artist and became controversial during his time for the eroticism of his works. Like many great artists, his work would only become truly appreciated after his death, and would be lauded as being ahead of its time.
All that is sucked into a blackhole and essentially disappears, Ootori is left with himself and what looks like falling stars.
I’m not quite sure how to interpret it other than Ootori willingly sacrificing what he had to attain an even higher level of enlightenment that can only be achieved by losing everything you had.
This scene looks ridiculous but it actually makes a lot of sense! Ootori’s name means male phoenix bird, a mythical creature often tied with death and resurrection but depending on which lore you look at, he can also be seen as as a fallen angel (like in episode 1, he has black wings.)
There’s this duality to Ootori’s character that gradually paints him as a tragic figure constantly trying to free and redeem himself. In this performance, he is more like the Phoenix in Chinese myth, symbolic of the sun and fire.
Here we see him ascend towards the sun. Once he literally becomes one with the sun, he finally gains access to his ‘sword’ (not THAT sword but this sword):
Prior to this episode we had no idea what the sword meant but after episode 5, it all clicks with the narration about the prince who left for a journey and abandoned his love and dreams for the throne. Ootori’s sword is a sabre, but I’m not sure if that’s an important detail.
So far, Ootori is the only character shown with a sword which nearly confirms that if there was anyone destined to have become a king, it would’ve been him.
True to the phoenix lore, Ootori is consumed by the own flames of his passion. He remains incomprehensible to his past peers and while that does lead to his ‘destruction’, the only way he can ever be reborn is rising from his own ashes. The song shows how he sacrifices his old kingdom and fights alone with a motherfucking flaming sword, but it’s all a metaphor for how he decides to channel his talent and ability to rebuild and reform what he lost for something even better.
Why You (Probably) Should be Watching Starmyu - Part 1
It is inevitable that it would come to this, but here I am, writing about a musical anime and why it’s one of the best shows this season (yet).
Highschool Star Musical (or Starmyu) is directed by Shunsuke Tada and written by Sayaka Harada, animated at C-Station. It’s set in a musical school where the musical department essentially narrows down those ‘worthy’ of joining their department through various screening performances.
Starmyu isn’t just good, it’s actually pretty great. The writing is thematically cohesive, the characters have depth to them and the visuals (especially the musical performances) are ambitious and leads to some really great looking numbers. It’s really more than what I’d expect from a show of its ilk, but above average shows don’t make me write posts like this. Great shows do.
So why is Starmyu so great? I just really love the themes this show covers. I just really, really do. It’s hard not to compare it to Kunihiro Ikuhara’s Revolutionary Girl Utena, when the themes are so closely linked to the anime classic. It’s also worth noting that the show contains deliberate homages to both Dezaki and Ikuhara works. Heck, Ootori Itsuki basically has the same last name as Akio from Utena.
Not so subtle Rose of Versailles homage in episode 1
The series starts wihen Hoshitani watches a ‘mysterious student’ perform under the rain, and it moves him to transfer to the same school-- with hopes that he can one day perform like that highschool student.
He goes to Ayanagi Academy, a school that focuses specifically in performing arts. The series quickly makes it a point that the musical department extremely difficult to join and the student council sits at the top of the school’s inner society.
The five main characters, burdened with personal anxieties, unwillingness to conform, family problems and lack of talent are crossed out of lists, marking them as failures. Ootori decides to take them under his wing as train them as his star team. An act that can be seen as a simple display of rebellion, only to make more and more sense as the series goes on.
Starmyu looks like a simple musical anime with good looking boys, but it’s essentially about characters who fall victim to an established system that robs them of their urgency, their love for the art and most importantly, their personal freedoms.
Ootori taking Hoshitani and the others in, is his way of trying to fight the system he and Hiragi have been trapped in. It’s a system that extends outside the school premises to their families and their relationship as friends. While Ootori looks for a way to free himself, Hiragi walks a path that constantly chases after the past, hoping to recreate and relive it through the people he chose as his star team. Hiragi chooses to become a King of a Kingdom that is slowly revealing itself as a hollow imitation of the past.
Ironically, despite Ootori’s projections of wanting to break free of his family (ex. in Episode 2 he asks his team to perform a play about the murder of the Ayanagi principal), he easily resigns to the fate his grandfather decides for him. The people around Team Ootori are unable or rather, unwilling to question the decisions of people they see as above them. Something characters like Tsukigami and Tengenji are more than willing to do.
Our five main characters suffer from the same crippling restrictions that family and society bear on them. But unlike Ootori and Hiragi, they still have a fighting chance not just to change themselves but the world around them. This is where Hoshitani comes in, a character who takes full advantage of his freedom to do what he wants because he becomes the catalyst for this change.
Boys become princes, and then they becomes kings-- in a way it also works as a metaphor for adulthood, where despite our so-called freedoms, throwing away our dreams and loves for the safety of our own imagined kingdoms.
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