Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight Episode 8: Toward the Light

I’m really glad we got an episode like this because Hikari has been my least favorite character of this show so far. She’s always been really mysterious, but not interesting. While she is one of the main characters, the other characters became way more fascinating to me. After last week’s brilliant episode, Nana shot up my list to stand next to Mahiru as my faves, but honestly I love all of them except for our main pair. But finally I can say that I like Hikari after this episode, even though I’m a little on the fence with the actual episode and how it kind of diminishes how powerful last week’s was.

The animation was stunning and the symbolism this time was great, as usual. We got treated with lovely London backgrounds this episode as we saw Hikari go to school in this acclaimed London academy where girls all over the world go to. We see her be passionate and smile, having fun as she remembers the promise she made to Karen as kids. It was interesting to see that Karen had been writing letters to Hikari the whole time, just as they promised when they were little girls. It was really sweet to watch them buy each other their gifts at Tokyo Tower, as they stood on top of the slide like we saw in the episode “Promise Tower”. One day out of the blue, Hikari gets the invitation to take part in the revue auditions, where the Giraffe (in English at first) offered her what we already know. She agrees and takes part, making it to the finale but losing to a girl named Judy Knightly. The next day, she notices something different about herself. Her regular routine was disturbed with changes, she lost a little weight, and she wasn’t able to act with her all in her lead role of her school’s play. Apparently, her “shine”, her “radiance”, was gone. I loved when Hikari walked through the animal skeletons of the Natural History Museum and stopped to sit in front of the giraffe skeleton. Hikari notices there’s something wrong with her ever since she lost the auditions, and so she goes to Giraffe to ask him what happened.

This part kind of confuses me. What Giraffe explains is very Madoka/Yuki Yuna-esque in that the girl that becomes the Top Star must need some sort of nourishment, which comes in “radiance” I think. Obviously that must come from all the girls that lost. We see Hikari tremble as she played the king in the play. She said she didn’t feel the same on stage as she did before. It was like her passion was all gone, which plays back to when Hikari transferred to Seisho and Maya noted that, while great, her performances were devoid of passion and emotion. It makes me wonder whether this “radiance” is mental, or magical, or both. Like, did Hikari just lose confidence in herself or is there a supernatural reason? The fact that she suddenly lost weight and some of her belongings makes it seem supernatural, but the fact that she found her “radiance” later against Nana makes me think it was psychological. So both?

Either way, my theory from last week has been destroyed (maybe) because the reason why Hikari went to Seisho was to have another chance and nothing else. I say maybe because maybe Giraffe did send her there specifically to stop Nana, he just didn’t tell her. If that wasn’t the case, then yes my theory was wrong and the fact that Hikari was able to beat Nana this time kind of diminishes the huge reveal we got last week.

I say that because a Hikari/Karen revue in the end seems inevitable. Nana may be relegated as like a secondary boss, and maybe Giraffe as the final boss? Which would upset me because I find Nana to be such a fasincating character. The revue itself this episode was glorious in symbolism, music, and the development of Hikari as she found her confidence and radiance. The image that I used for the featured image, with the giant hand behind Nana was terrifying, signifying how powerful she was. It was also great how it paralleled the play from the London school. But the ocean of blue when Hikari fought back was beautiful, and the strength of the waves showed off her newfound strength in herself. Nana was determined to save Hikari as well from the pain but in the end she was defeated. The defeat came as a surprise to people as I checked discussions. I think the reason for Nana’s defeat is because she has grown or improved. She’s done the same classes, the same lessons, the same fights for I don’t know how many timelines. But this timeline is already different with the introduction of Hikari, things aren’t going to go the same way for our Banana. Also, Hikari went to an extremely prestigious international school, and she probably has more experience than her. I’m just trying to find some reasoning after they had shown Nana to be OP after last week’s episode.

But while Hikari defeated Nana, Nana reminds her that she most likely will fight off against Karen. When that happens, what will she do then?

I liked this episode, but I have my gripes with it. I just really hope that Nana won’t be pushed to the side! But I appreciate this episode for the Hikari development. I like this confidence in her, and I like that we got to see who she was before she came to Seisho. I really wonder, though, where the anime will go from here. I’m sure we’re going to see a Karen/Nana revue since they’re tied in the rankings. I’d also like to see the Karen/Claudine revue they showed shortly this episode. Wouldn’t it be cruel if Claudine was the only girl not to get an episode? I wanna hear Aina Aiba sing! Let’s see what happens!