This is notably one of the only two episodes in Revue Starlight to not feature an insert song and by extension, a revue. While it may sound like the show is taking a breather, this is actually a very integral episode as it has Karen and Hikari formally reconnecting as a friends.
We begin the episode with another performance of Starlight. Instead of Maya and Claudine, Karen and Hikari play the roles of the two main goddesses this time around. Karen playing Claudine’s character and subsequently disappearing at the end of the play is interesting. It foreshadows what may happen to Karen in the future and it helps explain Hikari’s actions, however extreme they may get. You’ll may notice in some of these performances that younger versions of Karen and Hikari are watching them. How are these two watching their adolescent selves perform this play with their future friends? There is actually one way this could happen but this is more likely to be a stylistic choice to showcase Starlight’s relevance to our leading duo.
After their big falling out last episode, Hikari has become more distant from Karen…literally. This girl is nowhere to be found. She straight up left the gang’s dormitory. Naturally, Karen is in a panic and she goes on a wild goose chase to find her old friend. Given Hikari has her suitcase in hand, it’s implied that she is planning to leave Tokyo and go back to London. This is a little farfetched. Aside from the fact that she’d have to switch schools again (and at the last minute), she’d better still have a home in London or else she is homeless over there. For that matter, what would her parents think of this…and where even are her parents? That all said, I can see why Hikari is going this far. She doesn’t want Karen to fight in the auditions and she’s aware that she’s the reason Karen is fighting in the first place. If she wants Karen to stop, her only choice may be to just remove herself from Karen’s life entirely.
Assuming the airport really is the destination, Hikari sure takes a couple of detours as she decides to check out some aquariums in Tokyo. Apparently, Hikari really loves jellyfishes, to the point that all the related merchandise at the gift shops makes her go broke. I admit that I’m not sure what the jellyfishes’ significance is. They may speak to Hikari’s character. Like, maybe with everything going on right now, Hikari just wants to feel free and serene, even it for a brief moment. It could also be that she just thinks jellyfishes are cute.
For a while, Hikari takes some pictures to give Karen hints regarding her whereabouts. Mind you, she deliberately takes pictures of herself and/or jellyfishes so unless Karen is a supersleuth, she can’t figure out which aquarium Hikari is at. And wouldn’t you know, Karen is in fact very hopeless at deduction. In fact, she doesn’t realize Hikari is at one of the aquariums until a random little girl figures it out for her. And before that, Karen was checking underneath bathroom stools and the roof for Hikari. It’s very clear that Hikari’s intent is here. She makes her hints difficult because she doesn’t actually want Karen to find her. By dropping hints at all, Hikari is more or less trying to make Karen give up on her.
While waiting for a train, Hikari stumbles upon the old photo of her and Karen, which has appeared a couple of times before in the show. I find it a little weird that it’s the very next picture after the ones she recently took during her aquarium tour. Like, does she not take pictures that often? Or does the phone have a mind of its own? But whatever; the point is that Hikari starts to have second thoughts about her plans. And sure enough, she eventually decides to message Karen for real.
Interestingly, Hikari breaks the ice by asking Karen about the latter’s duel with Maya. When Karen asks what she should’ve done to defeat Maya, Hikari simply responds with “I don’t know” and “What should we do?”. Even though Hikari is presumably more knowledgeable about the revues, she acknowledges that there is a degree of uncertainty to them. She’s navigating the competition about the same way as Karen is. It’s a shift in how Karen views Hikari. In the first episode, she looked at her with complete admiration as though she is some prodigy (and to be fair, Hikari is very good at her craft). But now, she sees a vulnerable side to Hikari and it feels like the first time the latter is opening up to her.
Karen then proceeds to call Hikari on the phone. The two agree to rendezvous in-person at Tokyo Tower and they chat on their way there. It’s a very normal conversation as Karen and Hikari just talk about all sorts of things — what they’ve being doing, likes, dislikes, theater, and of course, their promise to be stars together. The rather mundane nature of the scene is what I love most about it. It’s just two friends reconnecting and that’s exactly what these two needed to since the beginning of the show. For the first time, these two actually come across as friends. A particularly evocative direction is how abridged the scrip is. You only hear bits and pieces of the conversation. It’s initially confusing but it compliments the casual tone the scene is going for. And really, the main takeaway is simply that these girls are finally talking after nothing but silence and one humorous kidnapping. The details doesn’t matter. What matters is that they’re finally connecting with one another.
By the time, Karen gets to Tokyo Tower, the place is about to close so she and Hikari hang around a nearby playground. Hikari warns Karen that there’ll be a huge consequence for anyone who fails to win the revues, hence her not wanting Karen to participate. This also means that if Karen does win, then whatever consequence awaits the losers will befall on Hikari. Karen however resolves for the two of them to win the revues together. How you might ask? Honestly, this is Karen dreaming big. There’s no known precedent and technically, the giraffe never said there can only be one Top Star. In that sense, the girls might as well try. Still, this doesn’t a tie is guaranteed. Hikari has her doubts over this but she does accept it as her goal, if only because Karen is her best friend and she wants to believe that they can both win.
I can’t help but notice how Karen and Hikari use the playground slide during this scene. You have Karen running up the slide and while I could say it’s Karen and Karen, I do think it’s intentional. Right now in the revues, Karen is at rock bottom and you’re generally supposed to go down the slide. In a way, Karen running up the slide alludes to the uphill battle that awaits her and her perseverance to still make it to the top. When she helps Hikari up, she’s essentially inviting her to trek through this battle with her. I could of course be overthinking this but I am a Revue Starlight fan so what else is new?
That the girls choose Tokyo Tower to meet up is not at all surprising. This is where they apparently made their promise to be stars together so it’s only natural that they’d pick that to reconnect and make a new promise together. The show kind of messes this up by not having the two at the tower itself but moving them to some odd playground nearby does allow them to be framed in front of it and I’d argue that’s a prettier and more evocative shot than one set in the tower’s interior. The show also rectify this further in later episodes by adding some more significance to the playground.
While Karen and Hikari are away, you occasionally see what the others are up to you. There’s one scene where Kaoruko asks Futaba to lose the revues on purpose so that she’s more likely to be become the Top Star. Kaoruko plays it off as being playful but there’s a hint of genuineness to her request. Regardless, it’s very insane of her ask that of Futaba. It’s like Kaoruko insists that she must be better than her friend. Like I said before, this girl is toxic. In another scene, Maya and Claudine practice dancing together. Maya confides to Claudine that she’s competing in the revues because she doesn’t want anyone else to be at the top. That’s very egotistic of Maya to say; to bring it up to the runner-up is also very bold. Still, it’s interesting that Maya isn’t cocky enough to think that she’ll always be #1.
Really though, the MVP this episode besides Karen and Hikari is Mahiru. Kaoruko comes up with the ingenious plan of snitching Karen and Hikari to the school faculty for running off without permission, just so that she has less opponents for the revues. This girl is toxic, I’m tell you! Fortunately, Mahiru shoos her away with her baton. Glory to the Goddess of the Hallways. The theatricality expressed here by Mahiru is funny but it also makes it clear that this girl has officially gone insane. She doing Karen (and by extension, Hikari) a favor but the fact that Karen ran off to find Hikari drives her nuts. At this point, the show really needs to feature her in a revue. She honestly needs it.
Mahiru helps Karen and Hikari again by forcing everyone to cover for them when Sakuragi-sensei does a curfew check. There’s plenty to laugh at this scene. Kaoruko and Futaba being forced to impersonate the missing girls as punishment and them tiptoeing back to their room. Claudine pretending to be sick and speaking random stuff in French to keep Sakuragi-sensei distracted. The fact that Mahiru planned all of this in advance. Simply put, this scene is a riot. What’s really darn funny however is the fact that this plan ultimately fails anyway. Karen and Hikari make it back home (hilariously, they ran out of money and had to walk back for hours) and Sakuragi-sensei immediately catches them and the rest of the gang red-handed. The way she casually passes them by on her bicycle is icing on the top.
I really appreciate the fact that everyone welcomes not just Karen but also Hikari. That’s something that’s sort of been skimmed over. Hikari has been distant not just to Karen but everyone else as well. And unlike Karen, the others have never met Hikari before. It’s nice to know that in spite of those barriers, they still consider Hikari part of their circle and they welcome her with with open arms.
Watch Revue Starlight on HIDIVE
Xenodude's Scribbles 