Episode 3
"Top Star"
Mahiru: Damn it Karen you hoe, is every yuri bait here gonna start calling you by your first name!?
She's in the way Mahiru. You know what must be done

Junna seems to be trying to figure out what the Hell is the giraffe.
With Karen realising her place, will Hikari avenge her?
Can't wait to buckle up for the next 9 episodes or so.
Oh shit they are onto the giraffe.

What an absolutely amazing episode, it feels like both Karen and especially Mahiru are being forced to confront some of their inner demons here. The bath scene and TENDOU MAYA interrupting the start of Karen's song with her own performance were especially interesting. Something to note is that her Rapier is named Odette the Maverick, if anyone was confused by the copious amounts of swan imagery.
And omg that ED hrrrggghhh. That art style! That Eva reference! It's so fucking good.
And this is without subs! I can't wait to go home and watch it with!

As expected of TENDOU MAYA, her song was the best so far.
That frame you screencap'd was great, by the way.
But at this point, it clearly can. It's glorious.
This is still easily my AotS but if they're going to start focusing on Revues that don't involve Karen then I hope they start soon. I'll be disappointed if most of the show is just going to be Karen against the other girls. I'm pretty sure we're bound to see Hikari vs Mahiru and I'd be sad if they just put it in the background of yet another Revue with Karen like they did with Futaba vs Claudie this week. There's also likely going to be an inevitable Claudie vs Maya rematch towards the end which should deserve a lot of screen time for how important it's going to be to the story.
This episode was the battle of the stars and the battle of the supports.
Claude versus Futaba was surprisingly heart-wrenching, as Claude learned to accept what she is even if she continued her strive for Top Star. Futaba herself learned that it's okay to be a support role if you're supporting somebody great.
Meanwhile, the fight of the leading roles. Karen got dominated by Tendou Maya (this is) because she won't give up her promise to Hikari - she isn't giving enough of her pride to the stage. That's a powerful metaphor, and really paints Tendou Maya as a very sympathetic character as you learn how she's given up everything, including her friendship with Claude, to get where she is.
Mahiru and Kaoroku... well, the yuri has at least been confirmed of a somewhat romantic side with regards to Mahiru's feelings for Karen. I mean, as if it wasn't obvious, but knowing the Takarakuza it was worth taking that with a pinch of salt. But that scene was surprisingly sensual despite how strong the censorship was, and simply because of Kaoroku's sultry line delivery and that damn rubber duck.
I'm absolutely in love with this show. I watched the episode about an hour but I watched it again because hot damn
Personally, I think she lost because she's fighting for a spot alongside Hikari without involving Hikari at all. She's just as alone as Maya, but without all the sacrifices Maya made to become better. And we shouldn't forget that Maya had a huge headstart when the show began. It'll take a tremendous amount of effort from Karen to catch up. I'm fairly happy Karen finally lost. I hope she'll finally talk to Hikari, now, since it seems like Hikari is adamantly against what Karen is pursuing.
I'm not sure if you've read the prequel manga, but if you haven't yet, I encourage you to seek it out. It says a lot, both about Kaoruko/Futaba relationship and also why Mahiru has such strong feelings for Karen as well. Kaoruko knows what Mahiru is going through in a way, and also is somewhat aware of the good and bad of it.
THIS IS TENDOU MAYA!
Glad to see that this won't always end with Karen winning. This fight definitely showed us how much of a gap there is between Karen and Tendou as performers. Also I love the fact that Tendou can manipulate the stage. Again I may be overthinking this but is there a reason why she can manipulate the stage? Is it because she just has more experience than Karen?I know we'll probably never get one and will just be forced to accept things but I'd really would love to get more explanation about these stage fights.
Poor Mahiru. Everyone is getting closer to Karen and for her it feels like she's slowly slipping away from her. Hang in there!

Also looking forward to more banana related food by best girl.

I love it cause they are able to tons of great imagery with this most notably the staircase as a symbol for the steep and harsh path towards the top that actually exists in Takarazuka Theater.
I feel that this has the potential to become a bonafide meme at some point :P
Or maybe not. Who knows.
I doubt it too in universe though, since we actually see that she has the skills to back her up.
I take the moving scenario as Maya actually using everything in such ways that Karen can't even understand and connect. I think this reflects well on Karen, since she has saw now not only how good Maya actually is, but she also saw for the first time the road to the top of the tower, which is going through Maya herself. That is why everything that moved was a road, a staircase, with dead ends and parallel staircases were we see Karen jump to.
All the staircases represent all the ways to get to the top, and Maya is at the top of all of them, in the last one.
Well at least this aligns better with my original theory that Hikari is totally selfish and wants to be a Top Star alone, and will eventually get it but after seeing all the season Karen "fighting" to share the spotlight, Hikari will have a change of heart and give it up.
To the episode itself, while things started already, it feels like in this episode, A LOT of characters are moving.
* Maya vs. Karen in the revue
* Hikari trying to prevent Karen from entering the revue
* Banana deciding to step back (was surprised to see she's currently 3rd ranked, that's actually pretty great seeing how her personality greatly differs from those two ranked above her)
* Hoshimi researching something (related to these revues?) is maybe the least one of the cast is doing this episode
* Futaba and Claudine having a revue in the background and some pairing
* Mahiru and Kaoruko also have some pairing...kinda.
Talking about Kaoruko, at least with Futaba, it seems at least that she's earnestly competing with Claudine and the others (at least she seems amicable towards her) but with Kaoruko, I get the feeling she's more or less trying to manipulate Mahiru.
Interestingly, while the dialogue of both pairs makes it look like Futaba is the stronger one (as she's for instance the one with the bike carrying Kaoruko), Kaoruko is in fact ranked 4th, one above Futaba at 5th rank. It feels like Kaoruko is much less of a cute ditz as she makes it look like to the outside.
As I'm writing this, she reminds me A LOT of Ami Kawashima of Toradora and it doesn't help that she's also got that blue hair. For the upcoming episodes, I think I'll take a closer look on her since she looks more dangerous than she seems to let others on.
The revue fight itself was fantastic and I LOVE the way the movements are animated. While they aren't always massively wild and jumpy, it's really the understated movements of attacks, evasion and such which really make it look great.
Seeing as everyone of Karen's fights allowed the opponent to use props against her, I wonder when Karen will be able to use stage props to her advantage in the fights. I'm massively curious about that.
probably one of the better ED i seen in the while, i really like it
the melody reminds me of the old anime but i can't pinpoint which, the first second sound like something from Utena, fly me to the
Love that scene after ED as well that slap hurt
She is best known for giving voice to Love Live Umi and some other anime roles like Tougou from YuYuYu.
Also, kinda hoping the yuri goes past just bait... knowing that the director is Ikuhara's protégé, who knows?
I really can't get enough with that line. It shows that Maya, is technically the star that they want to all to be.
I'm glad that Karen is defeated, her defeat can make her realize that her vision of being a star together is idealistic and will not work in the real world.
Though, I want then in the end to share the stage and be a starlight of their own.
Also poor Mahiru~chan, I'm rooting for you girl!!
Source〈https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/92akpo/spoilers_shoujokageki_revue_starlight_episode_3/〉
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