Kageki Shoujo!!

Okay... wow. This has to be one of the best anime I've ever watched. I already knew going in that this wasn't going to be the typical idol anime due to glowing recommendations, but this completely blew my already high expectations out of the water. Every single character arc was written with such care and delicacy, and every single member of the cast was shown so much love by the writers - at the end of the show, you really want to cheer these girls on with all your heart. Ai's story is not one that is easy to handle as a writer, but you can tell the writer approached her arc with deep empathy and really put in the effort to understand how an event like this permeates every aspect of your life for years and years. They really handled the characterization of Ai being in "survival mode" until she met Sarasa so well. I truly think this show healed something in me; I don't think I've ever felt so heard by any anime until this one. It deals with struggles that everyday people face deeply in such a compassionate and gentle way, without tragedizing them nor making light of them. I particularly adored Aya's arc and that last episode with Sawa. The way the topic of talent versus hard work was brought up was written with nuance, and I liked how there wasn't any extremely satisfactory conclusion at the end either. That last episode also made me realize how much my love/hate relationship with Sarasa was a projection of my own struggles with the prodigy versus hard work debacle. Above all, this was simply a delightful peek into the world of Japanese musical theatre. The only weakness of this show that I'd have to pick out would be the fact that a lot of the characters' issues seemed to be "solved" after their character arc episodes; Aya less so with her Juliet episode, but this weakness is understandable given that they have so little time to dig deep into each member of the casts' stories. All around just incredible. Goosebumps and tears through every single episode. I love our duo main leads, Ai and Sarasa.

This anime had a strong start. From the beginning it gripped me with it's story and characters acting in realistic ways, and dealing with understandable and deep issues. Seeing as this anime was under an 8 on MAL, I figured there must be some drop in quality, or a bad ending toward the end. That never came though, and It was good the whole way through. The show focuses on a bunch of girls working hard at a prestigious academy. At the beginning it focusses mainly on one girl, but moves the focus around later to give them all some valuable screen time and character building. There isn't really much of a miss with any characters either. There are some I don't like as much as others, but I can at least understand their views, and they feel realistic. I don't want to spoil any of the plot, so I'll just end with saying if you like character dramas with realistic and likeable characters you'll want to give this one a shot. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and for sure recommend it.

This is one of those shows that is SO incredibly brilliant and powerful, but it's almost to the point where I don't know if or when I'll be able to watch this again due to just how uncomfortable it made me. While I've never pursued this specific genre of acting, so many of the characters and their storylines hit so disturbingly close to home. I felt like I was watching my own life on display multiple times throughout this series. It's a painfully blunt look at the entertainment industry that doesn't shy away from just how physically and emotionally damaging it can be to the people who try to "make it" in this field. I'm relieved it got a bit lighter as time went on, because my heart felt like it was in my throat during those first few episodes. Every character gets time to shine and has a part of relatability in them that made me feel both empathy and sympathy. It was very painful, but I'm grateful that there were also healing moments that spoke directly to me and that I truly think helped me with things that I've been suffering with for far too long. If you're pursuing or have pursued any sort of creative craft before, I really think you'll get something out of this series. I hate how many times I've said this this year, but like with most of the best shows I've seen this year, it NEEDS a second season. If and whenever that day comes, I'll be first in line to return to this world. 10/10

Essa resenha será escrita em inglês e em português [PTBR] This review will be written in English and Portuguese PTBR ____________________________________________________________________ Kageki Shoujo é o Shoujo como deve ser. Eu vejo Kageki Shoujo como uma das mais relevantes representações do Shoujo moderno, isso devido à como ele consegue abordar temáticas relevantes e muito atuais, trazendo discussões importantes, que não só conversam com esse universo feminino, mas trazem a discussão para qualquer público que queira refletir sobre a obra. O “gênero” Shoujo, e digo “gênero” por ser algo “senso comum” dentro dessa galera que curte mangá e anime, mas que eu particularmente acho meio idiota classificar Shoujo como gênero, mas enfim, esse “gênero” no meu entender, a algum tempo atrás meio que limitava-se a temáticas que são relativamente relevantes, mas quase nunca eram abordadas de maneira “séria”, sempre trazendo temas como inseguranças, traumas de infância, de maneira a só dar um background a seleto personagem, mas quase nunca era trabalhado mais a fundo tais temas, Kageki Shoujo não se difere tanto nesse ponto, apesar de trazer temas relevantes e importantes de refletir sobre, ele ainda usa isso como uma muleta narrativa para dar um estofo emocional para seus personagens, a diferença aqui é que isso é feito de maneira eficaz, e mesmo não sendo o objetivo principal da obra, ela consegue nos mostrar esses temas de maneira responsável, a fim de minimamente discutir como isso pode impactar nossa mente, forma de agir, de se relacionar etc. Shoujo quase nunca foi técnico, aqui não é diferente. Kageki Shoujo foi produzido pela Pine Jam, que já trabalhou em algumas obras, como Just Because, que é um anime que eu até gostei, mas o estúdio nunca se destacou tanto pela sua qualidade técnica, de animação, character design, e qualidade de produção em um geral, o que nem de longe é um defeito, ainda mais em uma obra que não se propõe a ser uma master piece no quesito técnico, então eu já não esperava muito dessa parte, e com isso não criei falsas expectativas quanto a obra. Até que ponto o “passado triste” é relevante? Bem, eu realmente gosto do que é feito aqui com relação as personagens dessa obra, não só as principais, que no caso seriam a Sarasa e a Narata, mas falo de todo o grupo ali de estudantes que compõem o grupo principal, possuem personalidades bem distintas, e levam consigo motivações próprias, motivações essas que são movimentadas por traumas de infância, decepções, problemas emocionais, e por ai vai, isso realmente é algo que torna essas personagens criveis, mas a questão aqui é, até que ponto isso é realmente relevante? O anime por muitas vezes perde tempo de tela mostrando algum conflito entre personagens que não agregam muito para a trama em si, como por exemplo o conflito entre as gêmeas, que envolve um sentimento de inveja, misturado ali com algo mal resolvido no passado delas, mas não me entenda mal, não digo que esse conflito é mal apresentado, ou mal desenvolvido, mas eu só acho realmente que aquilo agregou pouquíssimo ao todo da obra, tanto que após a resolução desse conflito que citei das gêmeas, nada muda entre elas, a relação delas entre si, ou com suas colegas, ou se quer aquele conflito impacta em alguma decisão futura de alguma delas dentro da obra, enfim. Casos como esse me fazem pensar o quanto é importante trabalhar um conflito, interno ou externo, se isso não vai agregar para o “big Picture”, não digo que tudo necessárias mente precisa agregar a trama principal da obra, pelo contrário, acho legal quando são trabalhados temas de personagens secundárias, o problema aqui é que esse conflito não soma em nada nas personas das personagens envolvidas, esse é o ponto aqui. Mas claramente temos a contraparte, onde é trabalhado de maneira muito “na cara” o passado triste de uma personagem, onde vemos por exemplo o motivo da Narata ter pavor de homens <spoiler>, que é devido ter sido abusada de seu padrasto quanto muito jovem, e sua mãe simplesmente ignorar seus avisos, por conta de sua vida corrida como atriz, isso tudo além de nos mostrar um problema que é muito normalizado, principalmente no Japão, que é a cultura das Lolly, também nos mostra o porquê aquela personagem é tão complexada com suas relações, não só com homens, mas em parte com mulheres também, desde cedo ela precisou saber lidar com atenção em demasia, e isso foi criando uma casca em volta de si, a tornando entre muitas aspas “fria”, como um mecânico de auto defesa. Através ali do primeiro arco do anime, vemos como a Sarasa consegue quebrar essa casca, tornando a Narata mais receptiva com as pessoas, coisa que sem dúvida deve agregar muita mais a longo prazo no mangá, já que no anime acaba que não vemos 100% o impacto disso. Quando falamos da Sarasa, eu gosto dela como personagem movimentadora da trama, mas não a vejo como uma personagem multifacetada, ela é até relativamente plana quando falamos de complexidade narrativa, ela tem um passado um pouco complicado, devido a vir de um local onde ela sofre um certo preconceito “velado”, onde apesar de ser boa em uma coisa, não é dado a atenção devida a ela, pois aquele ambiente é totalmente masculino, então apesar dela ser muito boa naquilo que faz, sempre a desincentivam a seguir com aquilo, pois é algo que nunca vai se realizar. Esse fato por si só é importante para motivar ela a descobrir uma nova paixão, e futuramente entrar no colégio de artes para tornar aquele sonho realidade, fora isso, não vejo uma complexidade muito grande em sua construção como personagem, fora o fato dela ser a personagem mais cômica da obra, coisa que acaba escondendo ainda mais os seus reais pensamentos e sentimentos, apesar de isso ser mostrado volta e meia, mas nem se compara com a sinceridade com que a Narata é trabalhada, sempre tentando vencer os obstáculos causados por seus traumas, mas sei lá, pode ser que eu gosto de uma personagem mais complexada mesmo. Existe diversas outras histórias de várias personagens dessa obra, mas aí vou deixar que você veja e tire suas próprias conclusões. O Plot não é lá grande coisa, e está tudo bem! Essa obra não é movimenta por seu plot, pela história daquele mundo, ou a história do colégio que estudam, tão pouco pela história do teatro, não! Na verdade o “além das personagens” dessa obra acaba ficando de lado para dar lugar a construção dos personagens, e como sempre digo, “personagem é rei”, então acabo não ligando muito do anime não trabalhar situações mais macros desse mundo que é nos apresentado, como por exemplo abordar melhor a hierarquia daquele colégio, ou nos mostrar mais do universo otokoyaku (acho que é assim que escreve), então nada disso é muito trabalhado na obra, até porque não é o objetivo da obra, como já disse em algumas outras análises, existem histórias que são movimentas por sua história macro, por seu plot, e outras por seus personagens, e esse anime consegue se encaixar bem dentro de sua proposta. A arte que aborda a arte, mas e a arte? Eu particularmente sou uma pessoa que dá bastante valor para a apresentação, bem como o conteúdo, claro, mas além do conteúdo, acho que a “forma” também contribui e muito para aquilo que o autor quer passar, e acho que isso é muito bem-feito aqui. O design de personagens desse anime é algo que gosto muito, principalmente a Sarasa, ela nos consegue passar muito de sua personalidade somente por sua aparência, então quando vemos ela, já conseguimos notar que ela é uma personagem alegre, para cima, que realmente muda o clima de um ambiente, e sua estatura, muito alta no caso, é outra coisa que contribui para ela ter uma presença muito forte, o que a beneficia em muitos pontos dentro da história desse anime. As cores utilizadas para compor essa personagem, como seus olhos verdes quase sempre estrelados, o loiro misturado com verde de seus cabelos, tudo isso não é por acaso, as cores foram muito bem pensadas para nos passar um sentimento, um senti…

This is one of those shows where the overall satisfaction somewhat depends on the future. There's clearly a lot more manga than has been adapted here, so what we have definitely isn't a full story, and nor does it feel like one. It's definitely going to need further seasons to really spread itself out, and the uncertainty of whether or not that will happen makes it a little difficult to judge this show on its own merits. Of course, I'm going to try anyway. The good thing is, there are a lot of those merits. "Kageki Shojo" is a really fun show, with a big cast of nice and distinctive characters, that largely manage to get a surprising amount of development despite the cast's size and the show's 13 episode run. The focus is, of course, protagnoists Ai and Sarasa, and they're both perfect for the roles they play in the story. Their somewhat unlikely friendship is really fun to watch unfold as the story goes, and despite both definitely having their quirks, both manage to feel like well fleshed-out characters, with a good balance of positives and issues they need to work through. The rest of the main cast all get their moment in the spotlight too, with a couple of the episodes more focused on them being some of the most interesting in the show. Again, though, the short run-time does put a little damper on this praise, simply because it's so clear that so many of those characters have a lot of development left to do, and I would really like to see it. From an animation standpoint, I imagine opinions are going to be mixed. The art-style itself is great, giving a really comfy and appealing shojo aesthetic, and there's some really need bits of direction in here. That said, the show clearly ran into a few budget restrictions. Pine Jam are a fairly new and small studio, and it shows that they don't have the resources of a much bigger studio. Personally, it doesn't bother me; I'm generally a huge fan of some of their previous work; "Just Because!" and "Gamers!" are two shows I absolutely love, for various reasons, and because I appreciate what those shows, and this one, do, I can forgive the slightly less refined animation. It's not bad, to be clear, there's plenty of good movement and facial expressions, and the animation is consistent, but it's clear that it's a little less refined than bigger studios. And, again, what story is there is put across very well, for the most part. It's definitely a character-first kind of show, so most of what I mentioned about the characters can be repeated here. Ai and Sarasa's backstories are both pretty interesting, and give them a unique point of view on the world of the show, and it makes their development over its course really satisfying as we learn more about what brought them to Kouka. Overall, it's all well-paced, with a good momentum to it, and never feels like it's wasting time on filler or brushing over important things. Again, my only real concern about this show is that we might not see any more. Certainly, I've seen people talking about the show, so hopefully it's been fairly successful financially, but if it hasn't, I doubt a small studio like Pine Jam would be able to justify making more. To speculate, I imagine that budget is why this is all we have anyway; there definitely seems to be enough manga material to have at least put out a 24/25 episode long season, but that, naturally, costs twice as much to make. Hopefully, we get to see this story continue. And, if we do, I am sure that it's continuation will be just as great as this was. Overall, a really fun and interesting show, with good characters and a simple but competently executed plot. Let's just hope the shareholders are just as happy with it as me.

Kageki Shoujo!! is a good show, sadly not more. For me it had to stand the comparison with Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight where it fell one step behind in every category. Most particular is the story. Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight managed to tell a full story in 13 episodes which is even much more packed as what Kageki Shoujo is looking to contain and yet did this show not manage to even come to a partial goal of the story. It just stopped in the middle at a very low impact point. There is no benefit to watch this show as you will have nothing at the end except some characters. Which on the positive side the characters are the only selling point for me making me watching week for week. It will touch quite dark topics. Also that the characters keep their traits and not change 180 just because they hear a speech. Art and Sound are quite good but not stellar. The episodes were quite enjoyable to watch and at least for the first 8-9 episodes they also made me want to see the next episodes. If there will be a second season which will cover at least cover the play I will raise my rating to 8 but as it is its a 7 and you should watch Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight before considering this show.

I read the manga for as many chapters as were available after searching for Shoujo Kageki (Revue Starlight) manga, and I loved it. However, I would recommend that you not go into it expecting something like RevStar. It is much more subdued and goes into topics imbued with realism, like weight gain, harassment, and role successions. Each character gets a satisfying amount of time put in to examine their characters, which some might say RevStar didn't quite meet. Despite both being based on Takarazuka school, I appreciated the stark difference in the two shows' tones. What appealed to me most in Kageki Shoujo was the relationship between the two starring characters as well as their backstories. In my opinion, any lackluster moments are worth moving through for the absolutely shining monologues and song performances.

"The illustrious Kouka school is now accepting applications. Come join us, on the stage of your dreams." Story & Characters: The Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts is an extremely prestigious academy for females, seeking a career in acting on the big stage. However, the path to get there is anything but simple. Opera Girl! shows us the school that is currently in its 100th year, putting the spotlight on the 20 applicants that got in, when roughly 400 did not. The focus isn’t always on school, but on how our characters get through every day lives in which they are challenged as a person. What must this new pack of students learn before getting their career goal on track and what must they do in order to make that a reality? We focus this series on a plethora of characters, all with very different backstories and motivations. Sarasa is prim and energetic, whose unusual height makes her stick out a little more from her peers. She saw a Kouka performance at a young age and that motivated her to go along this path. She wants to role of Lady Oscar, the lead in one of those plays, and makes it well known that that is her goal. Contrast that with Ai, who is an ex member of JPX, a popular idol group where she had a negative fan experience that caused her to drop out. Her reason for going to Kouka isn’t to learn to be a great actress, but to get away from any society with men in it, something she generalizes due to that experience. Both of these characters have deep backstories and it attempts to make us care about their present-day story that much more. We also have an ensemble of very strong side characters as well, some of which get an entire episode to show us who they were before Kouka. This includes the serious and dedicated Kaoru, the less-than-confident Ayako and cheerful twins Chika and Chiaki. These four have extremely strong backstories and the series actually does a really good job at displaying conflict that they go through in the current day, some of which aren’t topics that you would typically see in the modern day. These four, like Sarasa and Ai, go through some pretty heavy drama moments, making our connection to them that much more special. We don't get to see many students, outside the first year's class, but Hijiri, a second year, is present in multiple scenes, and she clearly seeks to antagonist herself with these girls as much as she can, and makes for a strong minor distraction. The story itself has a mix of dramatic and tough love moments weaved into it. While we are told early on that Kouka is at the high end of schools for its industry, the girls that attend them clearly aren’t always mentally prepared for what’s to come. The teachers not only go through every day exercises that you’d see in a typical school, but also physical activities that include ballet, singing and yes, acting. Can you keep balance at all times, can you tap dance with perfect technique? We even see one teacher criticize a student’s body image. Fairly or not, they clearly want to show us what it’s like in the real world and don’t hold back their words when doing so. Through the runtime of this series, I found myself very involved in our character stories, but a little less interested in the school itself. This isn’t from a lack of trying because the series clearly wants to warm you up to those epic moments. However, I found myself feeling somewhat uninterested in what the school is about, possibly because we don’t get to see the results of the girls’ hard work, outside of a few snippets here or there. The series takes us through the girls’ first year at Kouka and does a decent job at displaying some of the work they go through, but showing us more quality content at present day would have gone a long way. Like I previous mentioned, I loved seeing our character’s backstories, though showing us Sarasa’s backstory too many times was starting to annoy me because it was mostly to back up the point as to why she’s at Kouka. Even though she’s our main character, I didn’t feel like some of the scenes added enough. It makes me care about some people in her life, such as Akiya and Kouzaburou, a lot less. Connecting us between those pasts and the character's current day situation was where this show shined, and while they did this wonderfully with our entire side cast, I wished they dedicated some of Sarasa's bits to the grander story related to the school instead. (Story: 6/10, Characters: 9/10) Art: The art style was a bit off putting to me because I don’t feel like it was up to the level that we are used to seeing these days. It’s a different style that I’m just personally not a fan of. It’s not bad, it’s just not exceptional. It somewhat reminds me of the art style that Blue Reflection Ray uses, though it’s a different studio here. The series keeps to light tones for pretty much the entire series, but there are some dark moments that I feel weren’t displayed in a way that could have made us feel for our characters just a touch more. However, the big moments were really well shown, even if they are on a smaller scale. (7/10) Sound: Between the fantastic music and VO, there was some real hard work put into this series. Both aspects come out on top here and while music is obviously the focus of this series, I was more impressed with the VO work put in here. Siv Ryan (Sarasa), who has an extremely small resume, was fantastic. All the different tones used in specific scenes are different, so much so that I didn’t think it was them to begin with. It’s hard to say they were the best when you consider the other performances in this series, but this was incredible. Xanthe Hyunh (Ai) keeps to mostly lower tones here and is definitely different from her other works, but was solid here too. Amanda Lee (Kaoru) also keeps to lower tones, something that she’s not known for either, but crushes not only this role, but her short singing moment in episode 8. Funny enough, Chika and Chiaki are voiced by Japanese VA twins and while not twins, the Rial sisters voice them here. I’m not the biggest Monica (Chika) fan, but her and Natalie (Chiaki) keep such a similar voice style throughout the entire series that they give off the same energy as any other set of siblings would. Natalie has been rising in roles lately and someone I'm very eager to see in more works, going forward. Also worth mentioning that Bryn Apprill (Hijiri) does a really good job with a character that we want to hate as much as possible. The voice direction here is extremely strong, evidence of a very good ADR director (Marissa Lenti). (10/10) Overall Enjoyment: Opera Girl!’s main story isn’t one that I found myself attached to, but the characters have so much to them that you can’t help but care, even if you aren’t into the story itself. This is clearly the draw, and the moments that we discover what these girls have gone through is what makes me care here. That worries me for any potential sequel – where I care about the girls backstories and not the main story itself. Obviously new students can enter the picture, but the series clearly wants to focus on Kouka’s 100th year troupe. That being said, for any fan that wants to view characters dead set on an acting career, this could be for you! (7/10)