The Outsiders - Revue Starlight | (Not Quite) Daily Show

[@NearlyOnRed]

Sorry for delay folks. A co-worker had wedding-related events this weekend that took all my usual free time.

[@BillErak]

Oh thanks god. I was genuinly worried, glad nothing bad happened.

[@NearlyOnRed]

[@carrionysus5893]

"banana is initially an outsider to the underground auditions" TRULY words spoken before the release of ep 7. love it. the analysis is very good though especially considering the limited information, i very much liked getting info about the takarazuka revue since it's kind of hard to find english info on them so i kind of knew the general gist but not a lot of the details

[@Tallaflo]

That's so real. When you are around so many talented people you either retract or push yourself to go even further beyond what you thought were you limits. It's a critical life changing decision. This show is turning out to be surprisingly good. Good video as always! :)

[@NearlyOnRed]

Thanks! There's an anime in particular I always think of related to this idea, which is The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. While a lot of it is coming-of-age and the type of humor that naturally results from co-ed dorms, a lot of the characters in the show either struggle with being geniuses/savants in their particular focus, or holding on to their own confidence while being surrounded by such genius. Some characters waver between being inspired or intimidated by those around them, while others struggle with the way their abilities isolate them from others. This subtext/theme really elevates the series above being merely a highschool rom-com.

[@savethprince]

after watching episode 7, wao great job getting all the foreshadowing of banana

[@deathdoor]

This.

[@deathdoor]

At the first episode I was taken aback, but... wow! This is excellent! What I find the most excellent is that, despite all this detail and care, it's not really complicated and fanciful, excessively symbolical and metaphorical. It's a more grounded Ikuhara.

[@NearlyOnRed]

I agree, the symbolism is very 'accessible' if you know what I mean; it's easy to understand what they are indicating even on a first watch, but it's not purely surface-level storytelling, either. Makes it enjoyable to just watch, and enjoyable to pull apart, too!

[@margarethw7866]

i'm mindblown, and it's a mindblown after mindblown this really reflects how much of a research and foreshadowing goes into this anime and also your videos. wow i really cant form coherent thoughts right now. And now that i've completed the anime it brings even more layers and contexts. Shit is so good.

[@azazazazaz936]

I initially thought Banana would be the focus of the next episode going by some of here scenes in this episode. But it makes sense if those were to set her up as a later antagonist to Karen like you said. Though I’m not exactly seeing her comments about Maya and Claudine as necessarily an endorsement of the Status Quo. I thought the B-girls jumped the shark a bit with their proposal and that was meant to show her pragmatism, but your interpretation does hold some water. I was thinking about some parallels to Darling in the Franxx. Minor spoilers ahead for Darling in the Frandd for other people reading. Protagonist is in a slump(though we don’t yet have confirmation that Karen used to be a star when younger)-> ghost from the past comes to help them get their groove back-> some conflict between them -> conflict seems resolved with some personality change in the protagonist-> we see the effects of those changes on the supporting cast. Based on this I’d speculate we’ll get a reignition of the Karen-Hikari conflict around episode 8 after a couple more episodes focused on the supporting cast. Obviously, this pattern applies to more shows than these two, but I still thought that was interesting. Can’t wait for the next video on Planet With. Especially since another mini-arc concluded

[@NearlyOnRed]

Well a lot of it is conjecture I will freely admit, haha. I feel like the characters we have been given just slight insight into (like Banana and even Hikari) will probably get focus later, letting them parcel it out to us to preserve the mystery of their motivation. If someone forced me to guess, I would suppose that next episode might focus on Futaba or Kaoruko or both, since we don't know as much about them and they already hinted at coming conflict (they have a scene in the middle of Karen chasing Hikari through town in the 4th episode). As such, I agree with you that we will probably get some time here in the middle to focus on the non-Karen characters, similar to how Hiro/002 got reduced focus after their mini-arc concluded in ep6 of Darling. Maya is another one that I expect might get saved until later, but I guess we'll see! A lot still depends on what the unknown consequences turn out to be.

[@jacksonhager5898]

Great stuff! I am still of the mind that Banana knows much more of the auditions than she lets on. This is a wild guess, but perhaps upon learning the dark nature and consequences of the Revue, Banana has begun to seek a way to preserve the group dynamic from their first year, a much happier time before any of them knew about the Revue.

[@NearlyOnRed]

I agree that Banana knows more than we are aware of, as she is occasionally demonstrated to be perceptive and capable, but not in a way that is obvious to everyone else (except Maya, she's shot some looks / had words with Banana that make me think she knows more about Banana as well). There is also her first encounter with Hikari when Hikari is snooping around the elevator, suggesting she might know what that implies. It's hard to do these focused videos rather than an hour+ of talking about every little thing, haha!

[@NearlyOnRed]

Why not both! Maya is pretty observant also (sees that Hikari's heart isn't in it at first, teasingly warns Claudine about Karen's ascent), so I can definitely imagine them reaching a point where they can't both pretend to ignorance any longer. And I think you're right about them potentially having clashing personalities (Maya's speech to Karen during their revue especially comes to mind). I enjoy Maya as an enigma / mysterious for as long as they can maintain it, but I'm sooo curious, haha.

[@weiLian]

看完第七集，这分析的确比较准确！

[@Ethernialol]

There is another thing about Banana you could drive from the prequel manga. I think she, similar to Mahiru, could have self confindence issues. She wants to support others, but she doesn't believe she is good enough to be on top. Compared to Mahiru, who's forgotten her original purpose and lost her way, Banana knows her personal limits and understands that she never be as good as Maya and Kuro. Or at least she thinks so. Another thing that could drive her - is the fear of losing. She, as Hikari, could known what the real price to pay in this auditions, so she wants to avoid it for the sake of "not losing this precious thing" and not ruining lifes of herself and others. It's basically what you've said about "preserving the status quo", but from the perspective of a person who knows too much. Maybe she has some painful experience, maybe she has additional knowledge, and that's why last year' Starlight is so important to her - it's close to her ideal, to how things should be. Another obvious thing - her revue outfit is white, complitely different from all the other girls. It could represent her neutral stance or... something entirely different. And her weapon of choice is two katanas. Not one, but two. Maybe something about her dualistic nature? Anyway, as always it's all comes down to personal refusal of change. Similar to Karen and Mahiru, until Banana changes something about herself she won't be able to move forward, so we'll wait and see what it actually is.

[@NarutoandCloudrock]

Banana had a battle pretty sure. During ep 3 battle with Karen and Maya we see a series of shots of some of the girls in battle gear as Maya is talking about how the other girls are working for top star as well. During one of those shots we see a close up of Banana's sword. We also see Junna, Mahiru, and Kaoruko during these shots too.

[@NearlyOnRed]

Yeah I know which scene you mean, but I wasn't sure whether it meant actual battles were going on, or if it was meant to be representative of her dialogue in the moment and how it encompassed all of them. As in, it could be representative of her 'mental picture' of all the other girls, rather than events that are currently ongoing. After all, we do get several cuts of actual fighting between Claudine and Futaba. Since Mahiru and Banana appear to have no idea what could have happened between Karen and Junna at the beginning of that episode (during the Jun-Jun / Karen bit), I thought it might be just as likely that neither of them is yet involved.

[@retractingblinds]

I was thinking about it on my first watch of your video, there hasn't really been anyone pushed by apparent external pressure to succeed. It's all been inner motivation, that is the grounds in which they engage in the underground revue. I think simply because of a lack of it, and Banana's rank as well as her natural advantages she'll be pushed to engage with the underground revue, to push her self to succeed through outside forces. So far I can't really see anyone in the class being the source of the conflict.

[@metathpr4h290]

Fantastic comment on a great episode, I'm really curious to see how Hikari and Karen pushing this hard will affect Banana, also happy to see Mahiru finally realizing again her own worth, the representation of her "getting few bits of Karen" due to Hikari's net between them was amazing.

[@NearlyOnRed]

I agree about the visual representation of Hikari between them; I think the show has done a good job of visual symbolism that is pretty accessible even on a first watch, while still having some complexity and nuance that rewards diving deeper. At times I am frustrated that I am not doing the 'full spectrum' analysis of this one, haha.

[@metathpr4h290]

Honestly I'm enjoying a lot this type of storytelling. Of course not everyone will agree, but I'm not a fan of series that leave me completely confused while watching them for how overly complicated they are in the presentation, Starlight on the other hand is doing a great job so far in keeping the events easy to follow while being so interesting in the way of showing them, all while also keeping interesting details to analyze that make the experience even more enjoyable but are not a big deal if you miss them for the sake of following the story. I find this very appealing and between my own watch and your videos on it talking about the episode and expanding those more hidden parts I'm having a ton of fun each week watching the series, thanks a lot for the good job you're doing.

[@BillErak]

Huh, I had interpreted Banana's comment as her giving up the place of top star because she didn't believe she could actually change the status quo, and her distress at the B-students coming from a realization that if Karen and Hikari managed to change other's opinions, maybe she could too, and that maybe she gave up too soon. But your interpretation makes more sense and is actually more interesting.

[@NearlyOnRed]

It's a lot of conjecture on my part, but she seems just as taken aback at Junna's words in that first episode disparaging the first Starlight as she did during the Class B Girls' comments. She doesn't argue (or say anything actually) in either case, but her silence seems polite rather than accepting. This is part of why I think of her as someone who wants to 'keep the peace.' Not enough to go on, really, but I found it interesting that episode 5 spent time on her and Karen even though it's "Mahiru's episode."

[@angelofajardo7036]

im starting to become a really big fan of your channel brotha , that it seems like i wont be able to live without these analyzing / in depth videos you upload concerning an anime's story episode by episode keep up the Good work and if its possible sometime it would be lovely if you would pick up " Gundam 00 " its a 2007 anime but is somehow ahead of its own time and is a 10/10 for me.. that + your analyzing in depth skillz i would very much enjoy watching and listening to it if you made one someday :D anyways God bless mate !

[@tofuteh2348]

Why not get a chair and table? Love you

[@MrEng1ne]

Pants.

[@NearlyOnRed]

Pants.