Line #5 Manga/KagekiShoujo


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kageki_shojo_anime_key_visual_4.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The Silver Bridge awaits!]]
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5	->''"Everyone must have noticed it in that moment. Without thinking, they looked up in the sky and saw themselves there. But did they see what I saw? That amongst the sea of glimmering stars, there was one bright star, shining above all others?.. That star was Sarasa Watanabe. That was where she belonged. Where I belonged. I want to see the world from up there."''
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7	Ai Narata, a quiet girl who hardly ever smiles, was popular as a "cool" member of the Main/IdolSinger group [=JTX48=], but recently had to leave it. Hating attention from fans, she resolves to start a new life as a student in the Kouka Music School, where girls study to become actresses of a magnificent theatre company that is [[Main/NoCommunitiesWereHarmed totally not]] the Creator/TakarazukaRevue. She meets and is assigned as roommate to the loud, outgoing Sarasa Watanabe. Initially, there's friction between the [[RedOniBlueOni polar-opposite characters,]] but eventually, they will forge a road into the starry sky together.
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9	A manga by Kumiko Saiki, originally serialized in the {{Seinen}} magazine ''Jump Kai'' from 2012 to 2014; however, in a rare move, the manga was restarted in the [[ShoujoDemographic shoujo]] magazine ''Kiss'' in 2015, where it is still ongoing. The manga got adapted into an anime in the Summer-Autumn 2021 season.
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11	Not to be confused, but inevitably to be compared, with ''Anime/ShoujoKagekiRevueStarlight'', seeing as both franchises take inspiration from the Creator/TakarazukaRevue. ''Kageki Shoujo'' is [[SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic considerably more realistic]], and does not contain massive underground stages, sword battles, or a talking giraffe[[note]]except, of course, Sarasa[[/note]]. The amount of [[ShipTeasing yuri hints]] among the main cast is also considerably lower, in line with Takarazuka's official disapproving view of such relationships among its actresses; a likely schoolgirl lesbian appears in a backstory part of an episode but she never joins Kouka. ''Kageki Shoujo'' is ''not'' an "answer" to ''Revue Starlight'', as the manga was created a few years before that franchise.
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13	----
14	!!The anime and manga contain examples of:
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16	* AllLovingHero: Sarasa is pretty close, consistently supporting everyone around her, including Sawa Sugimoto when they became rivals for a role.
17	* ApatheticTeacher: Mamoru Andou, "The Phantom". Previously a good actor, he had to retire from acting following an accident and now is... not that good at teaching other people to act. He tries to teach the [[MethodActing Stanislavsky System]] as pure theory, which is guaranteed not to work; because of a student suggestion, he finally lets the class ''act'', but does not provide much in the way of support. Later Sarasa learns key ideas of the System from Ai (who heard them from her actress mother); only then does Sarasa remember that Andou-sensei "mentioned something like that". Eventually Andou [[TookALevelInJerkass takes a level in jerkass]] to the point of [[spoiler: taking a lead role in a student audition skit and playing it so forcefully that the student participants are thrown off course]].
18	* CutShort: The anime, as its ending appears to be "okay, we ran out of allocated episodes"; the end of the first year of theatre school is not reached. The manga is ongoing, into the second year as of 2021.
19	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Hijiri Nojima. The official English subs actually use the word "bitch" for her at one point.
20	* DoesNotLikeMen: Ai Narata, because [[spoiler: [[FreudianExcuse her mother's partner sexually abused her as a child.]]]]
21	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Ai Narata's hair is quite short at the start of the series and grows episode to episode. This shows both the setting of time and [[DefrostingIceQueen a very gradual personality change]].
22	* FuroScene: The main cast are shown in a common bath of the dorm in Episode 11. The scene is done in a decidedly pure way.
23	* FictionalCounterpart: [=JTX48=] is clearly {{Music/AKB48}}, and is located in Akihabara.
24	* HeroOfAnotherStory: Satomi Sei. She is the number two otokoyaku (nibante) of the Winter Troupe at the start of the show, and becomes the top star of the troupe following the last show of the previous top star (which the main cast watch in Episode 5). While she is a supporting character in Kageki Shoujo, inworld Kouka fans would see her as the big figure of the year. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in Episode 10, where Sarasa does the right play to let Sei-sama shine for the audience.
25	* IceQueen: Ai Narata, at least externally.
26	* InSeriesNickname: Ai Narata had the nickname "Naracchi" in JTX.
27	* LimitedAnimation: Appears throughout the anime, most notably in Episode 10, where a ''sports festival'' is covered mostly through panning stills.
28	* MasterOfNone: Sarasa is very good at copying other people's theatrical performances. [[spoiler: She learned this in KabukiTheatre as a child. While her imitation skills instantly wow her classmates, this eventually earns her the criticism of her instructor Ando. Ando mentions that [[DeconstructedTrope simply imitating performances of past actors]] will not allow her to become a great one herself.]]
29	* MetaCasting: [[https://www.takawiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Nanami+Hiroki Nanami Hiroki]] as Satomi Sei. Not just a real Takarasienne voicing a fictional counterpart, Satomi seems to share some of her characteristics with Nanami herself and others, including the plot-relevant role of [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Tybalt]], with [[https://www.takawiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Ouki+Kaname Ouki Kaname]], with whom Nanami closely worked.
30	** In on-screen Kouka shows, characters tend to be [[TheCameo voiced by]] former Takarazuka perfomers.
31	* {{Moe}}: [[invoked]] [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in Episode 13, where a senior teacher, Ohgi-sensei, explains how a Kouka performance appeals to the audience. For a Western audience, this is a [[DeconstructedTrope significantly different]] "moe" from the one they are used to, because this is the "moe" in playing a male character for a female gaze[[note]]in modern parlance, cishet female gaze, but the teacher character would not use this wording[[/note]].
32	* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Kouka is very obviously the Creator/TakarazukaRevue, complete with the building and the street it is on (Hana no Michi). It is transplanted from Takarazuka City into Kobe, in a possible ShoutOut to the 1957 movie ''Film/{{Sayonara}}'' where the FictionalCounterpart to the Creator/TakarazukaRevue is also located in Kobe. The internal system of the theatre and school is re-created in painstaking detail, with some notable exceptions (the Takarazuka Music School uniform is not a SailorFuku). Troupes Snow, Flower, Moon, and Star are renamed to Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn; the recently-created fifth troupe, Cosmos, does not exist in this world.
33	** In the anime only, it also appears that the theatre was founded several years later than the real one, as the centenary is approaching, but Ai is mentioned in the anime as still being an idol in 2018; the Creator/TakarazukaRevue celebrated its centenary in 2014. This is probably a change made because the anime was released in 2021; the manga uses original dates, with the theatre being founded in Taisho 1.
34	* ObliviousToLove: In Ayako Yamada's backstory in episode 12, [[spoiler: Asuka Yano]] basically confesses to her [[spoiler: and cries at the rejection, masking it as laughter]]. Ayako realizes this for the first time a year or more later, in Kouka.
35	* OneGenderSchool: Kouka Music School is an all-girls school. Since the school is based on the real life Takarazuka Music School, which is also girls only, it only makes sense.
36	* SetBehindTheScenes: As this is a work about theatre, the trope applies to the entire story. For example, the girls get a full tour of the backstage in Episode 2, complete with Sarasa wandering onto the Grand Stage itself. In Episode 10, we get a glimpse of theatrical thinking behind a sports festival that Kouka puts on just once in a decade.
37	* ShoutOut: A weird GenkiGirl with twin tails, naive, assertive, exceptionally physically strong, who always speaks up and solves problems in a forward but smart way - sounds like Literature/PippiLongstocking.
38	* ShownTheirWork: Kumiko Saiki evidently knows ''a lot'' about [[Creator/TakarazukaRevue Takarazuka Theatre]], with the setting very closely resembling it and some characters being "mash-ups" of stories and traits of different actresses. She also understands KabukiTheatre and the difference between the two is a plot point. It appears that she researched idols, too.
39	* ShowWithinAShow:
40	** In a work about theatre, this trope comes with the territory. Notably, ''Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles'', in which Sarasa wants to play the role of Lady Oscar one day, is basically the RealLife Creator/TakarazukaRevue show.
41	** Kouka's production of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' utilizes a translation of the original Shakespeare text, while the version more often performed by the Takarazuka is actually [[Theatre/RomeoEtJulietteDeLaHaineALamour the musical by Gérard Presgurvic]]. This is most likely a homage to the [[https://www.takawiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Romeo+and+Juliet+99+%28Flower%2C+1999%29 1999 Flower Troupe]] production of ''Romeo and Juliet'', which did the same thing, or several other Zuka adaptations of the same material.
42	** Kabuki shows are also seen (more prominently in the manga) and referenced in plot-relevant ways. The translator of the anime and manga [[https://twitter.com/katrinaltrnsl8r/status/1442151263890653195 documented]] some references on Twitter.
43	* StalkerWithACrush: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]. An unkempt young man, a fan obsessed with Ai, appears near the Kouka school and scares her to bits, causing Sarasa to march to her defense. [[spoiler: It turns out that seeing Ai on TV rescued him from a {{Hikikomori}} lifestyle and he came only to apologize, because his behaviour set off the events leading to Ai being forced out of JTX. Moreover, he later helps Sarasa find a depressed Ai just in time to rescue her from some riff-raff.]]
44	* TechnicianVersusPerformer: This comes into play between Sarasa and Sawa when both audition for the role of Tybalt. Sarasa is considered the natural prodigy at acting while Sawa is the hardworking [[AscendedFanboy Ascended Fangirl]] of Kouka. [[spoiler: Sarasa ultimate wins the role although both auditions were considered equal. Sawa and the viewer learns that the deciding vote came down to Sarasa managing to edge her out on the basis of potential audience appeal in her performance.]]
45	* VariationsOnAThemeSong: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC6d7AyKHeE ending]], which is a Takarazuka-style song (unlike the peppy "typical anime" opening). In [[ADayInTheLimelight episodes focusing on characters other than the protagonists]], the ending is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSkECVCQ8bo sung by these characters]] and has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAEwPDiVKaw different lyrics]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJowuHDWDT0 modified visuals]]; the melody stays the same.

Context Manga / KagekiShoujo