Episode 3 begins with a flashback depicting the main characters’ first performance of “Starlight” at Seisho Academy’s 99th annual festival. Maya and Claudine play the roles of the two main characters of the play while the others appear to be playing supporting roles. The narration is pretty similar to the one seen in Episode 1’s version of the play though the visuals do provide a clearer idea of what “Starlight” is about. The two main goddesses, played by Maya and Claudine, want to grab a star for an undisclosed reason but this results in Claudine’s character disappearing, leaving the characters’ dream unfilled. Obviously, the show is piecemealing here so you are going to have to watch more to better understand the story within the story. It is however interesting to see Maya and Claudine play what appears to be close companions, when they’re not that particularly chummy towards one another in real life.
Back in the present, we see Karen barely make it to the class, having been exhausted from fighting in the revue last episode. Junna is also tired and Claudine ends up sleeping through the first couple of classes. The idea that the revues are physically taxing for the characters and that can mess up their time at school is an interesting one. Sadly, this effect fades away pretty quickly, presumably because the girls simply acclimate to all the fighting in due time (or the writers completely forgot about this idea).
As if Karen reuniting with her childhood friend wasn’t enough for Mahiru to deal with, Revue Starlight adds insult to injury by having her see Karen and Junna being buddy-buddy with each other. That was inevitably going to happen but how bold of this show to do it first thing in the morning. I love how Mahiru’s eyes shrink and her weird little hair antennae perk up when Karen and Junna refer to each other informally. The poor girl looks about ready to snap. Oh and of course, there’s more of Mahiru getting jealous of Karen and Hikari. At this rate, she’s going to go insane (assuming that she hasn’t already).
At the start of class, the main characters’ homeroom teacher, Rei Sakuragi (Kaori Nazuka) reveal that Nana is stepping down form performing onstage to instead join Group B in working behind the scenes on the class’s upcoming performance of “Starlight”. This comes as a bit of a shock to Nana’s friends as she is apparently very good at acting, singing, and dancing. Definitely the funniest reaction is Kaoruko and Futaba trying to bribe Nana with candies so that she favors them during the audition process and makes them the star of the show. One curious line of dialogue is Nana promising to help create an ultimate performance akin to the first round of “Starlight”. Kind of crazy of Nana to think she and her friends have already peaked but to each their own.
We get a couple more scenes before the audition of the week starts. Knowing that Karen will participate again, Hikari decides to take the matter into her own hands by locking Karen up in one of the school’s sheds. That Hikari stays on guard duty means that she isn’t doing this to curb the competition. She clearly cares about Karen and she must have her reason for wanting to keep Karen away from the revues. That said, this is extremely funny of her to do.
Mahiru finds herself having a chat with Kaoruko in the bath. Why the bath? Well, this is an anime so why not. This gives us a slight glimpse of Kaoruko’s relationship with Futaba. The way she bemoans over Futaba’s absence makes it seem like she sees Futaba as more of a servant than an actual friend. I love that Kaoruko brings up Mahiru’s Karen insecurities for seemingly no reason other than to rile her up and because it gives her joy. As you may have noticed, Kaoruko is a very toxic girl…and I find it very entertaining.
Parallel to that, we see Futaba hang out with Claudine in the school’s dance studio. It makes a lot of sense to have these two befriend each other. Both girls want to aim for the top but they both feel like they’re stuck in someone else’s shadow. With Futaba, it’s Kaoruko and with Claudine, it’s Maya. When you think about it, these two have some common ground that they can bond over.
Obviously, when the giraffe notifies everyone about the audition, Karen manages to escape Hikari’s prison and partake in the event. If this Starlight gig doesn’t pan out, Karen should consider looking into becoming an escape artist. Hikari tries again to intervene, going as far as break into the underground theater with a crowbar (obviously her real weapon of choice). To her chagrin however, the underground theater prevents her from entering and it instead warps her back to school grounds. Interesting that Karen was allowed to gate crashed but Hikari gets kicked out. Given that the theater can respond to a Stage Girl’s will, it wouldn’t surprised me if it responded to Karen’s desire to find Hikari and knew here that Hikari would do nothing but hinder the auditions.
When I first watched Revue Starlight, I was kind of surprised to see it go ahead and pit Karen against Maya of all people. It’s more or less making her face the final boss earlier than she should. Then again, the show did tease Maya as the next opponent last episode. This fight needs to happen anyway. You can’t have Karen win all the time and it’s important to establish how difficult the road ahead is.
I randomly like that Maya does her roll call while descending on a prop replica of a swan. That bird shows up a couple more times throughout the fight, albeit in different fashions. Traditionally, swans are associated with gracefulness, which fits Maya’s belief that she is the most refined and talented performer in her class. It can also to her skills in ballet, which have been made apparent in a number of scenes before. Also yeah, the main characters have a roll call at the start of the revues. It’s not too important to bring up each and every one of them though I kind of love how most of these are self-serving and meanwhile, Karen says that she and her friends are all going to do Starlight together.
The battle between Karen and Maya is called the “Revue of Pride”. As has been the case so far, the title befits both characters. Maya is obvious. As the top student in the class, she’s undoubtedly a very prideful person. She’s seemingly good at just about everything, everyone envies how good she is, and she most certainly knows both points. Calling Karen prideful is a bit more odd. She’s pretty carefree and she certainly lacks the pompous air that Maya has. That said, Karen can speak proudly about herself, such as when she tells Claudine that she’s evolving everyday. She’s most definitely prideful in this fight; she immediately assumes she’ll win the fight and she doesn’t change her mind when she realizes her opponent is Maya.
It comes to no surprise that Karen loses this fight. Seeing as Maya is the top student in the class, you’d expect her to be a force to be reckoned with. This fight definitely does an excellent job selling how strong Maya is. She reads Karen’s attacks and even toys with her a bit. Everything in the stage from the spotlights to the props to the pyrotechnics to even the freaking stairs all bend to her will, leaving Karen at the mercy of her domain.
What especially sells Maya as the more dominant fighter is how she starts to fight Karen from above. When the Revue starts, Karen enters the stage from the ground while Maya descends down, as if she’s meeting at her level for the fight. When the fight begins in earnest, both characters are positioned at opposite ends of the frame, presenting them as equals. As the duel progresses, Maya consistently fights on higher ground than Karen. It’s very indicative to where they are in terms of status. Maya is the best in her class so it’s only natural that she’s literally at the top of the arena. Karen meanwhile must climb her way to the top and while she sometimes catches up, she finds herself back down at the bottom again.
During the fight, Maya asks Karen what she’s doing at the revues. I find it a little funny that almost everyone didn’t expect Karen to be there. When Karen says her goal is to become a star alongside Hikari, prompting Maya to cite some lines from Starlight. Basically, the two main goddesses in the story sought to catch two stars to achieve their dream. But as we know, that ended with one of the goddesses disappearing. Maya’s conclusion is that to obtain something, you have to give something up. She therefore scoffs at Karen’s desire to be a star with Hikari because she doesn’t think Karen is giving anything in exchange. Now, as for what Maya gave up, it’s implied to actually be Claudine. In an earlier flashback, Maya tries to offer her friendship to Claudine but Claudine instead declares that she won’t lose to her, effectively rejecting the offer. From that, Maya presumably concludes that she has to be a star alone so in a way, she sacrificed Claudine.
That adds an interesting layer to Maya and Claudine’s rivalry. For a while, it felt like Claudine is the one perpetuating it (and well, she did start it) but it turns out that Maya also lets it happen. And the only reason is feels one-sided because Maya gave up trying to be friends with Claudine. There’s also the implication Maya’s decision has on Karen and Hikari’s relationship. Karen wants to fulfill her dream with Hikari but Maya thinks it can’t happen. So, will Maya ultimately be right about this or will Karen manage to prove her wrong?
The insert song for the Revue of Pride is aptly titled “Pride and Arrogance”. I love how the beginning of the song is this slow, suspenseful track led by the piano and then it just ramps up into full orchestra as Maya wipes the floor on Karen. Major props to Maho Tomita for her singing as Maya; her booming vocals towards the end greatly sell how commanding and powerful the character is in the fight.
This is one of the very few songs in the entire show where Karen sings early on. I find that plays into the idea that she’s in over head about about beating Maya in the revue. Obviously, as the fight progresses, Maya completely takes over the song. The first three lyrics is an exchange between the two characters. Karen says she should be able to see “the view at the top of that tower”, presumably referring to being the top of the class or the top star. This is immediately countered by Maya telling her that she won’t it, which is incredibly blunt and it establishes the tension between the two. Karen’s one and only solo verse has her trying to understand where Maya is coming from. Once Maya takes over, she challenges Karen to defeat her. As the fight comes to a close, Maya more or less declares that the top of the tower is her pride and it is hers alone.
Parallel to Karen and Maya’s duel, we get a few glimpses at another duel between Claudine and Futaba. In a way, “Revue of Pride” could also refer to Claudine. She’s too proud to be stuck at #2, behind Maya. Showing Claudine’s duel alongside to Maya’s creates some cool contrasts between the two. Maya declares that she’s a star on her own and yet at the same time, Claudine says she won’t lose, showing that she wants to eventually catch up to Maya. I’m also amused at the difference in tone between the two fights. Maya curb stomps against Karen and she takes the stage all for herself. Meanwhile, Claudine extends a hand of friendship to Futaba after she defeats her.
After the ED, we get a brief glimpse at the scoreboard. Revue Starlight doesn’t really share the full rankings after every fight so really, this one instance is to show Karen being at dead last and establishing that she has a long way to go if she is to become the Top Star. One detail that does raise an eyebrow is Nana ranking third, behind only Maya and Claudine. The others did say Nana is good but damn, third place? It sounds like this girl is a lot stronger than she lets on.
Back in school, Karen tries to tell Hikari the bad news. Even though Karen was in over her head, this scene makes me feel bad for her. She tried to win and she instead got one hell of a reality check. That vacant smile she gives is especially concerning. Either she’s still trying to wrap her head around the fact that she lost or she’s trying to downplay how badly she fought to cope. It could also be both. As for Hikari, it’s very obvious that she’s unhappy with Karen. You know, if I had a nickel for every time Suzuko Mimori voiced a musical anime character who slapped her best friend in the face, I’d have two nickels. Funny how that’s happened twice in Mimori’s career. I’m hesitant to justify Hikari’s slap because let’s face it, that’s very out of line for her to do to a friend. And yet, I can see where Hikari is coming from. She disapproves of Karen participating in the auditions so she doesn’t have much sympathy when Karen comes out of it dejected. And if Karen is going to be so reckless for her, then perhaps Hikari thinks that the only way Karen will stop is if they stop being friends altogether.
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