Revue Of Pride - Visually Ambitious And Thematically Majestic

No matter how many times I rewatch this anime, it still leaves a profound impact on me with so many intricate elements.

In particular, episode 3 - the 3rd revue to be more precise

• is what fascinates me the most. Instead of cooling down from the first two beautiful stage plays prior to this episode, things went all out by heating the game to an astronomical level.

Though the central theme of this revue isn’t too groundbreaking, what truly blows my mind away is the evocative visuality and the glorious OST, Hokori to Ogori (hats off to the spectacular performance by Maho-nee).

Without further ado, let’s dive into one of the most iconic moments in this bizarre world of Revue Starlight.

As the stage came to life, the atmosphere shifted entirely from the cheerful tone of the slice-of-life on the surface to a fiery and solemn setting of the underground competition.

The lighting usage is spot-on as the contenders made their entrances.

While Karen casually made her debut, Maya gracefully descended from the summit. This prologue is likely a metaphor for their power gap.

However, Maya isn’t one to look down on her foes.

To demonstrate her title of being the 99th class leader, Maya had decided to examine this challenger by standing on equal ground with her.

Despite the enthusiasm emitted from the build-up, the opening is rather chilling as it gave off the impression of a majestic, high-class ball of the

nobles than a regular duel between knights or whatever you wanna call the girls in this spooky playground.

Nonetheless, things escalated fast as the Karen and Maya boldly affirm their stance.

I should be able to see – Karen

No, you should not see – Maya

The view from the top of that tower – Both

It boggles the mind how quickly Maya shot Karen down with her desire to ascend the very top.

So in just a single line of the revue theme track, the arena was set ablaze as

, which effectively brought us to the initial clash.

What lies in your heart? What do your twinkling eyes seek?

I still can’t reach that star, but for the sake of that promise, I’ll keep on charging ahead

Karen

Admittedly, this is quite a tricky part of the encounter since I’m not sure whether Karen was curious about Maya as a person or as a top star.

The latter would imply that Karen sought to defeat Maya regardless of what fueled her, for

was Karen’s prime goal here.

On the other hand, the former leaned towards a personal interest, which I don’t find to be the case because, as mentioned before, the promise is more important to Karen.

The fight raged on for a short while until Maya issued a brief pause. Her eyes lit a strong sense of distraught as she questioned Karen of her motivation behind her participation in the revue.

At the same time, it is noticeable how

, which is pretty hype and, again, showcased the arrogance of Maya.

I really love the way Maya delivered the “together?” in a pondered manner upon Karen’s outrageous declaration. Most likely, there was only one thing that occupied her thought at the given time.

Technically speaking, Karen’s answer was rather disappointing, at least from Maya’s perspective.

To Maya, this is heresy. The “holy grail” of the revue is meant for a single winner, nothing more, nothing less, hence her urge to fix this faulty notion of a naive Karen.

This speaks volumes of Maya’s straightforward nature since idealism has no place to confront her.

At this point, it appeared that Maya had been painted as your typical “boss” class antagonist with one sole objective in mind: utmost supremacy.

However, is that really the case here?

In my view, the second phase would tell us a different story in this regard, as Maya sincerely expressed herself in many elegant ways.

No longer messing around, Maya unleashed her true might as the head of 99th class,

I don’t know about you, but this moment was just pure fire as

is just a sight to behold.

So far, red and gray have been the main palettes of this revue. This, of course, is no strange thing for they represent the girls respectively, mostly from their outfit design.

As Maya finished her chanting, the theater came into full view in all of its glory.

The atmosphere now consisted of nothing but glowing spirits between the actors, thus further accentuated the tragic undertone behind the harsh truth of this vicious cycle.

Come climb up here, if you have the resolve

Try to tear me down, show me your fury

Do not be at the mercy of the beast that lies within you

I have no need for those who lack willpower

I want you to show you are fighting with your pride on the line

Maya

While it is undeniable that Maya is inherently competitive, she, however,

For the record, there hasn’t been any instance of Maya looking down on other opponents.

It might be a bit irrelevant to the topic but, earlier in episode 3, almost every moment featuring Maya is merely her seemingly taking some random glances and sending greetings to her peers.

Unexpectedly, when this stage manifested, all of these elements would then hold much more value and weight than they originally appeared to.

Therefore, Karen’s idea of reaching the top star with someone else is a pipedream, a ludicrous wish to Maya; hence her being mildly furious and going all out in this second phase.

There is but one lone star on the stage

Desire it

Starve for it

Thirst for it

Fight for it

Maya

The best thing about this revue is how it not only solidified Maya’s character and ideal but also served as a subtle foreshadowing for something much more climactic to come.

For those who have already finished the anime, you can already tell the reason for this quick line-up shot as Maya poured her heart out with the song and dance.

Nana stood out the most with only the lower half of her face revealed in contrast to the other three, indicating that there’s much to her character compared to other candidates.

I mean, everything adds up, to be honest, when you look at this series as a whole and connect this segment with “something” in the later events to come, it’s simply mesmerizing (NANA HYPE).

But I digress.

Maya’s resolution might not be absolute and flawed from the context of the story, it still strikes me as a practical approach to the revue or competition in general.

No matter how you look at it, there can only be one winner, which ultimately led us to the final phase, the climax.

Going higher, shining brighter

I will illuminate the horizon

A single step forward is a step closer to my dream

That is pride

Going higher, shining brighter

Towards unreachable heights

That is my pride

Maya

Maya reinforces her ideal by proclaiming to reach an infinite height, and IMO this is where Maya truly shines as a character.

Think about it, Maya is like a monarch standing on top of the mountain, undefeated, uncontended, yet she refused to rest on her laurels.

Despite her recognizing and understanding the pains, despairs, and tragedies that engulf the fallen ones, Maya would not feel pity for them.

Instead, she strives to push herself further. Not because she doesn’t care about her peers,

With this, everything came together as one.

It felt as though the

Therein, this put me in a difficult position for I could not even make up my mind lol.

On another note, I think I finally understand what the Giraffe was seeking all the time by orchestrating this revue system.

It sure seems like an ass move, but then again,

for yearning to see the girls’ suffering just so it’ll satisfy our craving for the unknown, the sublime scenery?

Anyway, getting back on the topic, Karen found herself being utterly overwhelmed by Maya’s brilliance as she struggled and unable to get an opening to make her way through.

In contrast, Maya was relentlessly toying with her prey. Every time she was close to receiving an attack from Karen, Maya would then widen the gap by fiddling the stage as she will it, which is insanely epic and out-of-this-world.

Eventually, the moment of truth drew near.

When Karen exhausted herself and realized that she was facing an immovable wall, Maya valiantly delivered the finishing blow.

Incidentally, as she let her emotion got the best of her, Claudine was also seen to be having an intense battle in a different arena.

And just like that, the curtain fell on the Revue of Pride with Maya once again reaffirmed her resolve to stand on top, alone.

I must say episode 3 as a whole, and this revue, in particular, was meticulously and masterfully crafted in every way.

There was so much foreshadowing, subtlety, and foils running together to raise the bar and suspense on top of a flawless assemble of theatrical showdown backed by a majestic theme track.

The directing is one thing, but damn, all those choreography shots and the non-cut, flashback, etc just refused to let up the stream of hype and thrill.

Moreover, the lighting deserves a medal here, for they pretty much captured the semi-gloomy atmosphere while maintaining the passion and tension as consistent with the nature of a revue in this anime.

For an anime to have achieved so many feats while retaining the core value of the plot, themes, and characters, it’s not something I can hope to witness every once in a while.

On a different note, just an FYI,

I confess that my bias for Maya is high, but I by no means use that as an excuse to talk down on Karen. Still, fact remains that she had made several mistakes at this point.

Karen did redeem herself in the endgame and even surpassed Maya in some ways because, after all, her theme is evolution, so I don’t have anything against that.

However, this post’s main focus is episode 3 alone, so welp.

To wrap this up, the Revue of Pride is hands down my personal favorite stage play despite its early presence in the grand scheme of things, which more or less get overshadowed later on.

Nevertheless, as someone who also participates in competitive activity,