This is less a review and more a commentary on the main themes and metaphors of the movie. As such it will contain spoilers. All the worlds a stage And all the men and women merely players They have their exits and their entrances And one man in his time plays many parts. When Revue Starlight aired and ended in 2018 it was common to see people criticize the show for having a frankly rather plain protagonist in the form of Karen. I too shared this opinion but also understood why it was so: Revue Starlight was first and foremost an allegorical story meant as a critique of the hypercompetitive nature of Takarazuka theatre and its selfdestructive condition as well as a meta commentary on the relationship between an audience who wishes to see a tragedy unfold and the lives of the characters that have to act it out. Karen and her story are therefore little more than a vehicle for these ideas and their execution: Karen eventually destroys the tragic competitive system and acts out Starlight with Hikari as she had dreamed everyone is happy and her story is over. So how do you follow up on a finished story? 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h15m33s954.png?w=1024 Whilst watching the first revue of the film I was reminded of the words a professor of mine said: A book is dead as long as it is just sitting on a shelf. It only becomes alive when it is read. A common metaphor when it comes to thinking about stories and texts it is often used to refer to the way a text is only relevant when someone is interacting with it. The Revue Starlight movie takes this to a literal extreme: The narrative finished with the TV show and Karens story has been told but what about the others? Those who did not have a protagonist role and whose lives still hold stories to tell? With the end of Revue Starlight Nana sees their death their fading into obscurity as the audience moves on. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h16m18s133.png?w=770 The corpses are framed as packaged action figures an extreme objectification: They are toys for the audience 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h16m00s096.png?w=1024 And so the girls take up their weapons once again to become the top star to become the protagonist and have their lives their stories be told. The giraffe representing the audience is now food the attention of the fans of the show fueling the creation of a sequel in order to quench their thirst and giving the girls a new chance to exist. The second half of the movie is revue after revue clash after clash. But these fights are not between the girls but rather between the presupositions each girl makes of the other which in a meta sense are the archetypes that the TV show had given to each of them: Maya is the ultimate elite Claudine her eternal rival Mahiru the jealous enamoured etc. They are the roles that Revue Starlight and in a way the audience had given them. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h18m36s028.png?w=1024 And in the process of fighting the girls lay bare their worst possessive feelings towards each other. Kaoruko will not accept a Futaba that pretends to continue her studies away from her because it does not conform to the way she believes Futaba must be and neither will Nana accept a Junna who wishes to momentarily leave the stage because that is not the Junna she fell in love with. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h18m12s961.png?w=1024 But relationships are not built on mutual unconditional devotion they are built on the recognition of the autonomy the agency of the other. A relationship that is built in mutual subservience and codepence is destined to shatter. And the film understands this with every revue culminating in both girls accepting each other in all their faults and beliefs and emotions in all their humanity and learning that you must let go of your own ideas of how someone should act and exist in order to truly love them. And in learning to let go the bonds they share become ironclad in a way reminiscent to how Liz and the Blue Bird did four years ago. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h59m51s885.png?w=1024 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h59m22s809.png?w=1024 Mahiru understands this from the very beginning her acting as the yandere having been just an act. Even though she may love Karen she has found both a passion for theatre that goes beyond her and a newfound love for her rival and is able to let her go with her blessing. But what about Karen our protagonist the one whose story already ended? All the way throughout the movie Karen searches for Hikari along the train tracks and we are constantly regaled with scenes of her past from her meeting Hikari as a little kid to her discovery of her passion for theatre and deciding to apply for Seisho. But when she finally finds Hikari she dies. I have nothing she cries as she collapses like a puppet whose strings have been cut and the frame shifts towards an image of a tomato the audiences attention exploding. Her story was over the second the TV series ended and as she was only a vehicle for the thematic statement of the show she has nothing else not even the attention of an audience who found her shallow and even boring. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010106h22m25s682.png?w=1024 But Hikari wont let her die revealing that the reason she left her was because she was afraid of becoming her fan of forcing her own ideas of how and what she should be in her as the other girls had done for their respective pairs. And through her wishes for rebirth she lets her down into the forge once again. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h20m25s462.png?w=1024 Karens figure shifts into that of the Tsign representing the Position Zero of the stage the top star because thats all she was in respect to the TV shows intention. But this is not true as the film has shown us: We have seen episodes of her entire life what Hikari meant to her what theatre meant to her episodes of her life with unnamed friends unnamed family members the people that had been with her through her life. And now we no longer know Karen the thematic vehicle we know Karen the person and we want her back. Little Karen holds the tomato. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h21m20s600.png?w=1024 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h21m29s883.png?w=2000h= You are me I am you/The past is the future the future is now And now the rocket that propels the train burns through all her past selves her memories her life. But these are not the flames of destruction they are the flames of rebith of passion. And that is what the movie claims we as humans are our pasts presents and futures the people we love and have spent our lives with all our emotions the passions the loves and hates the drive to go forward. Burning and condensing all that makes up Karen the train propels forward until it comes to a stop and Karen the human is born. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010106h40m57s349.png?w=1024 And the new Karen knows she knows that she is not someone who has nothing because she is no longer a narrative device but a true human with all that makes up her identity. She sees Hikari and is equally entranced and terrified by her by the person who brought about all the passions and triumphs of her life. No longer beholden to the brutal laws of the revue of the audience her weapon shatters and Hikari pierces her with her own in a final excisement of her existence as nothing but the Protagonist the Top Star as Position Zero icons fly away from her body as blood. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h26m14s888.png?w=1024 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h26m58s163.png?w=1024 And the Tokyo Tower the symbol of their promise breaks in half and flies away falling to the Position Zero the true Position Zero the beginning of her life as a human and not her identity as the Top Star. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h27m33s614.png?w=1024 And the girls cast away their capes the symbols of their belonging to the system of the revue. For they too having recognized each other as autonomous humans in all their passions have attained humanity and are no longer beholden to the wishes of the audience. They are themselves. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h28m54s240.png?w=1024 Karen stands upon the broken train tracks that had brought her this far. Weve acted it all out. Revue Starlight. Right now I might be the emptiest in the world. Hikari hands her the audiences tomato Then go on and find it she says Your next stage. Your next role. Karen is empty now truly empty but not in the negative sense. Shes a jar yet to be filled with quenching water a flowerpot whose seeds have yet to flower The Fool who will embark in a journey to The World. Revue Starlight is over but in having learned to love each other and all that makes up their identities the girls of the 99th class will go on. So go on. 220https://sparkslocker.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/shoujoe29886kagekirevuestarlightmovie2022010105h29m42s721.png?w=1024 link You may also find this article herehttps://sparkslocker.wordpress.com/2022/01/01/aijoukarentheprotagonistaijoukarenthehuman/