Cards on the table, i kinda hated Revue Starlight the first couple times i watched it. Or... well, it's hard for me to hate plotting this well-considered, and fights this well-choreographed, and characters so complex, but it was sort of a begrudging "like". Definitely not "love", though it spoke to me very deeply. i just straight up encountered a skill issue within myself watching episode 5; Mahiru's distantly hovering devotion to Karen had been building in incredibly identifiable fits and starts any time she was on screen. But at the same time it's clear Mahiru is the (heavy scare quotes) "loser" in the love triangle. (In the same way Clannad and Monogatari are not harem-genre, Revue Starlight is not a
It was worse on my second watch, i think. that has to justify my considering it a favorite at first, right ? there's something about Revue Starlight that made me want to understand it better. for about 4 hours i'd marked the show as dropped on my anilist Though i considered Revue Starlight a masterpiece, that was mostly a matter of sheer awe at its scope. Even now, i'm sure i'm only scratching the surface of one of nine core characters, and i remain awestuck by how layered each scenes are, the revues themselves especially. Why can't Karen just be with Mahiru ? Or both of them ? Why can't she just suck it up to do right by this girl who's always been by her side ? i would never think like this about real life, but it's all make-believe anyway, so why can't this play do right by all its players ? Without someone for Mahiru to glom onto, it feels like she's been left farther from "justice" than the rest of the cast. Literally the odd one out. Sit down, shut up and mother the happy couples.
Bluntly
i've talked about that a lot recently. i've also mentioned how (sorry) Hatsune seems genuinely afraid to touch Sakiko, right ? That scene on the ferry really was a miracle, an act of the girl who styled herself as God. i only bring that up because a miracle like that is really the only way a relationship like that can work. Otherwise it's just absolute terror all the way down, or hedgehogs freezing to death. That kind of reverent fear is shown to be anathema And obviously i yearn for nothing more than to be that choice for someone, and to make their life better, and oh hey look we're back at care again. Welcome back, subject of the post, i'd begun to wonder if you'd left the building.