Revue Starlight: The Movie
The stage emulates life and compresses it, setting free skills learned over lifetimes in brief but dazzling displays for the amusement and judgment of others. For the performers, it is the ultimate risk, and some will rise while others must fall. Nowhere is this truer than at the Seisho Music Academy, where music, dance and real weapons all come into play in the creation of the next great Star. Karen and Hikari’s destinies have been linked since a childhood promise, but their journeys here have taken very different paths. Now, after Hikari leaves, Karen must discover who she is without her opposite, while Hikari must rediscover her own course. Nor are they the only girls who must reassess and change if they want to achieve their dreams, as the dance, magic, and swordplay continue!
A very fitting epilogue for the TV anime that treats every character with respect, giving everyone a sense of purpose and decisiveness that was lacking from their TV counterparts. Karen, especially, who I found to be the most boring originally, had her past & current motivations fleshed out spectacularly. The theme of graduation is ever-present, with each pair of stage girls having their chemistry put on display for better or worse. It's less about developing the relationships further and more about forging your own identity as you come to terms with individual goals getting in the way of those relationships. It's abundantly clear that, much like the stage girls, Furukawa is beginning to forge his own identity here. While Ikuhara's influences are still evident, Furukawa has turned the symbolism up to 11 with this entry while embracing his very own brand of it. In a world where a Revue Starlight movie could have just been a cash-grab advert for the gacha game, we're incredibly blessed to have received such a great movie featuring violent theatrics, a magnificent score, and incredibly well-shot Revues that serve as a fitting sendoff for the cast.