My theory about Revue Starlight so far
(Spoilers warning. I have watched both the musical(like 5 times) and just watched the sixth episode)
For the people who haven’t watched the musical, here’s a run down of important parts (because it is very important)
The main antagonist in the musical is Hikari. As a transfer student and a new rival, everyone was very weary of her. In the beginning, nobody really warmed up to her except Karen, who got ignored every time. Hikari was very cold and distant, more so than the anime. Then the audition started, and everyone is fighting each other in a revue. The revues all have names(themes) like in the anime, except that these themes and who fights in them are very different:
Hikari vs Junna(Karen interrupted and won) Passion
Maya vs Claudine Maze(Maya won)
Mahiru vs Banana Loneliness(Mahiru got switched to fight Hikari)
Futaba vs Kaoruko Despair(Kaoruko won)
Hikari vs Mahiru Jealousy(Hikari won)
Karen vs Banana Loneliness(Karen left the match)
Maya vs Kaoruko Pride(Maya won)
Maya vs Hikari The shine of the star (interrupted by Karen)
The tone is generally very sad because everyone is fighting each other, couples have to break up etc. Nothing came out of these fights that’s really good. It’s just angst and more angst. Then well of course Karen said we shouldn’t fight then they all became true friends and everyone finally accepted Hikari into Class A. Problem solved.
Now let’s talk about the anime.
First, the themes and fights in the anime is very different from the musical, despite being the same project and all. The story is also different, and the characters are different as well. At first I thought well this might just be some adaptation problems or something, nothing to be cared for. Well I was wrong. Totally wrong.
In the first episode, Claudine mentioned that “the villain from the last play reprises her role as the lead this time”. What does this mean? Is this just mindless chatter? No. It is not. The villain from the last play is Hikari, and the last play is the musical. Since she’s the lead this time, of course everyone quickly warms up to her and Karen solves the distance between them in just 4 episodes.
In episode 6, Banana said that the play this time didn’t go according to the script, and if the play was to go on then it has to play out according to the original script.
Starting from the first episode, the story moves away from the “original” story, the musical. I mean Hikari isn’t even playing the same character as last time. So if the original script is the story of the musical, then it makes total sense that Banana said the play this time didn’t go according to the script. Even the fights are different. The tone is different as well. Since in the musical fights serve as despair material to characters and in the anime fights serve as problem solvers. Futaba and Kaoruko didn’t even fight the Revue of Despair.
What does lead mean in Revue Starlight? Well I think of the play Starlight and the two protagonists(Flora and Claire) who tried to grab the shining star together. What happened to them? Flora was blinded and fell, and Claire couldn’t stand the weight of the fallen star so she fell too and was imprisoned. Flora is Karen, and Claire is Hikari. Both the meaning of these names indicate that, and also episode 5 indicates that as well. These two share a single fate, so they either fail to grab the star, or they succeed.
In the musical, the character that we know the least about is Banana. I thought it was just bad writing. Apparently it is done for a purpose.
All we know about Banana is that she was all alone before watching starlight. The stage changed her, so she doesn’t want anything to change, to be any different. That’s the reason she was so against Hikari joining them in the musical, because Starlight only has 8 characters. She wants the stage, the play to be exactly the same, since she sings”Time please stop I don’t want to grow up” in “The Reason I’m Here”(my favorite song from the musical)
Now the play has completely changed in the anime. The only one that wouldn’t want that is none other than Banana. Episode 6 implies that she can enter freely into the underground revue. Episode 3 had her work in stage production. Both episode 5 and 6 implies that she works with the script for Starlight. What does this all mean?
Well this means that Banana has noticed that the play isn’t going according to the script, so she became the script writer in order to control that. To change it back.
Original script can also mean the original script for Starlight, where it ends in a tragedy. If the play has changed, then that means instead of tragedy, it will end on a happy note, where Hikari and Karen gets the star.
When Banana said she doesn’t want anything to change, I realized that if Maya is the manifestation of this audition system, then Banana is the upholder of this system. It is useless to beat the creator of the system. So the only way out is to beat the upholder, then the system will be weak enough to crumble. Banana is like the guardian of the Top Star system, or the star itself, which in the original script the two main characters fail to grab.
So maybe there’s actually nine characters in starlight after all. It’s just the guardian of the star didn’t appear.
It is hard to distinguish whether you are just playing a character of a fictional story or real life. Sometimes people do get that mixed up, feeling like they are still acting when it’s real life. Life is an act after all. It’s the same with Revue Starlight. Are the characters in the musical the real ones? Or is the anime correct? We don’t know, at least not yet.
There’s some other questions I have that have not been answered. Hopefully they will be answered soon, either by more thinking and deduction or the next episode which I’m super excited about(Banana is my favorite character after all). Anyway this is it for now. Anything else I think of will be posted in a later post. Can’t wait for the reveal next week : )
