My return to Revue Starlight: The first post.

Okay, it’s been two months since I put out a prelude post to this. If I announce a post project and two months pass by, that usually means that I’d completely forgotten all about it, or was just too lazy to do it.

I know first impressions mean a lot, but the truth is that pure laziness is the best excuse I could come up with here. And pure laziness is my excuse for not thinking of a better post title too; then again, we all know that the main protagonist’s real name is not Karen Aijo…it is Bakaren.

For real though, I have quite a few legit reasons for being tardy. I have been doing a lot of work over the spring season for The OASG, and have even begun my own anime-watching project there, where I take a look back at Escaflowne, a show of my youth. I had stepped back from my regular Otaku Theater column, only for me to end up back on the anime trash-talking bus.

Here on Anime Solstice meanwhile, I’ll be taking a look at Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight, a show that really annoyed the heck out of me when it originally aired in 2018. I asked myself whether this was even a good idea to do this review project, considering how much I tore apart Mahouka way back when, when I marathoned the entire thing, non-stop. At first watch of Revue Starlight, the main protagonists frustrated the heck out of me, the overall surreal atmosphere of the show really took me by an unwelcome surprise (for some reason), and thanks to all of that, an indescribable rage boiled up in me. And so here I am, returning to this show that pissed me off so much, and going in with a far more open mind…and a stress ball at hand if/when I need it.

But before I begin, I should say that these posts won’t be in any strict show order, and I won’t be entirely going over them episode-by-episode. This was the ‘cool weeb’ show that I missed out on, and I might as well be cool and hip and write about it in a…well…okay, let’s just get cracking here.

(NB: This post, along with the others, will contain spoilers for Revue Starlight)

But I like SHAFT too.

This post has come just after I’ve seen the first PV for 2021’s Luminous Witches, another show in the increasing World Witches franchise; I know the PV has been up for a while, but I just didn’t get around to catching it until now. But did any of us expect SHAFT to produce it, though? Ask that to the same people who didn’t see them making a show for Fate/Extra, that ended up becoming Fate/Extra: Last Encore.

This is a show will be something that, I think, will divide the hardcore SHAFT fans even more. So what have the studio ever done to bring the fans to this point? Myself included, we were people who rode the Monogatari wave, the Madoka Magica wave, and can spot a 90 degree head tilt from miles away. SHAFT can choose to produce/adapt whatever they want of course, and yet we as anime followers/weebs/etc. are becoming not as impressed anymore. Perhaps we should take a look at their back catalog first, before making any wild speculations.

My return to Revue Starlight: Prelude

So here it is, Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight. The show that all the cool kids were watching back in 2018. If you weren’t a fan of the Maya x Claudine pairing, or the Nana x Junna pairing, then you weren’t considered cool enough. I like to boast about my own tastes in shows, but would it shock you when I say that I have not actually completed this show? I ended up dropping it in the third episode, after I began to feel really frustrated in how the show presented the characters, the character design itself (especially the two main protagonists of Karen and Hikari), and…well…a lot of other petty little things.

Staying home.

And so I’ve taken this opportunity to reinvigorate my personal blog. It’s taken me 3 months, so hey…again.

Not exactly the way I had wanted though, but my family are already telling me how stir crazy I’m becoming in this apartment of mine. And as someone in their mid-30s, my mindset as an anime fan could be seen by some as different than those who are fresh out of high school or college. Other things are a factor too; I’m not really a part of the UK fan community or con scene anymore, and I often find a lot of…other things more enjoyable than what the latest episode of ‘insert-anime-here’ will bring.

So, where do you want me to start?

Gone.

This personal blog of mine has gone through so many ‘renovations’ that I’ve actually lost count now. Every time I do one, I get some kind of weird euphoria that I know that that renovation will be the one – the one that’ll keep me writing…something.

I have a regular column writing about seasonal shows, and I’ve written for other blogs in the past (Anime Herald/Japan Curiosity), and I’ve been doing that for a while now. When I have had time to update this place, I feel all sorts of things, and end up writing about all sorts of strange stuff. I’ve covered the controversial Japanese cult Happy Science and their interests in anime (which even they responded to), I’ve done entire 2-cour marathons of shows I absolutely hated with a passion, I’ve spoken about my past as a crazed, ignorant and obsessive Madoka Magica fan, and I’ve spoken about how I felt the UK con scene was in a deep decline (which has effectively left me alienated from them).

So after all of that, what would another renovation of this place even accomplish? I write things that I’m fine with, but most of the time, it is just a case of me emptying my brain and putting together all of the gooey mess into a WordPress post, regardless of how it looks or of any consequences that would come after it. And after so long in the blog writing game, I don’t think that looks too good. People have said my writing is fine enough, but deep down, I can’t quite see how.

So I’m going to do the only thing that’s left right now: I’m putting this blog on an indefinite hiatus.

Maybe when I return I’ll be writing about the same shit, only each post will be meticulously planned, as opposed to just brain-emptying. When will the next update be? A week, a month, a few months, a year, I don’t know. But when I come back, and I will come back, this place will look very different. Some of the major posts here (Happy Science, Social Anxiety Disorder, etc.) will remain, but everything else will be scrubbed entirely. All of that hard work will disappear, but I know this is for the best…for both me and you guys, I’m sure.

Later.