Mahiru Tsuyuzaki - A Study of Jealousy

“I adore the shining stage, but... I love it even more when you shine. In a duet that goes round and round, I hope we can dance together, forever. 99th Class, Mahiru Tsuyuzaki! I was the one... who was always by your side.”

Takarazuka - lavish, all women theatre troupes popular in Japan for their adaptations of various western stories, various manga, and famous films - is the basis of action, turn-based, gacha game Revue Starlight: Shoujo Kageki and it’s predecessor, an anime titled Revue Starlight.

Takarazuka is a revue, a theatrical performance of dramatized media, with music, singing, fighting, and duels. The role of the male lead is played by the otokoyaku - tall women with often baritone singing voices and handsome facial expressions - while the role of the female lead is played by the musumeyaku, more traditionally feminine and beautiful women, often doe-eyed and possessors of womanly voices.

This type of system, however, relies on an idea of a “top star”, or the best stage girl out of everyone in the troupe. While in Western countries, the top musumeyaku is recognized along with the top otokoyaku, in Japan, only the best otokoyaku is awarded the title of top star - a point of contention and jealousy for women with more feminine dispositions.

At its core, takarazuka is viewed by many as a feminist statement in the modern world - an all women’s play, with even men’s roles played by women, a stark contrast to the early Shakespearean plays, where even the smallest women’s roles were played by men dressed up in make-up and dresses. Started in 1913 by Kobayashi Ichizo, it was a ploy to attract people to his new resort that lied at the end of one of the electric railways, named Takarazuka New Spa, and blew up within the three revue plays sixteen teenager or young adult women held that year.

Originally, the structure of the Takarazuka was not what it was, instead, it was a very male dominated and lead organization. Kobayashi Ichizo, the founder, cited the main reason for the creation of takarazuka was that “actresses make good wives and mothers” because of their ability to act better than most women, a popular way of thinking during the 1910’s.

Despite all this, women saw this as an escape from the social expectations placed on them, especially since Japan was a mainly patriarchal society, leaving women with very little to express their creativity in other than mainly feminine roles within black-and-white movies. These ideas of feminism tied into western development within Japan, which was a relatively young country during this time period due to extended isolation. Expert Lorie Brau says, “We might also find Takarazuka of interest as a response to Japan's mid-Eighth-century dilemma of how to create an identity and participate in a modern world dominated by the West while remaining Japanese.”

Girls who were more masculine in their vocal tones and body shape rose to the top easily, despite the idea of otokoyaku still not being introduced until Asato Shizuki’s time, one of the all-time top otokoyaku. The juxtaposition between strong, western ballads and more traditional Japanese dances and plays was what led to the development of different troupes, as some stage girls seemed to be much more talented in one area than the other. These troupes are named Hana-gumi, Tsuki-gumi, Yuki-gumi, Hoshi-gumi, and Sora-gumi. Hana-gumi and Hoshi-gumi, or the Flower and Star Troupes, are known especially for their strong otokoyaku compared to other troupes. Tsuki-gumi, or the Moon Troupe, tends to have younger singers with higher training in areas like singing compared to acting or dancing. Yuki-gumi, or the Snow troupe, tends to uphold more traditional Japanese styles in their plays, and Sora-gumi (lit: Sky Troupe), or Cosmos, tends to a more experimental type of performance.

All of these intricacies make up the world of Revue Starlight. While other media forms exist centered around Takarazuka, namely recent anime Kageki Shoujo, or the original Sakura Wars games, Revue Starlight remains to be one of the only that fully challenges the system of top stars within its narrative of teenage girls. Karen Aijo, our main character, is remarkably simple. In a class full of childhood actresses like Claudine Saijo, or prodigies like Maya Tendo, she stands out very little. When her childhood friend Hikari Kagura comes back to Japan from boarding school in England, this all changes.

Hikari strives to be a top star, and Karen aims to enact a childhood promise she made with Hikari. Neither of them fits into the perfect role of otokoyaku and musumeyaku - both are the same height, and while Karen might have a more feminine personality, Hikari can be noted to be a traditional Japanese beauty. Neither forces each other into the role, which is a stark contrast from the other relationships in the troupe.

Claudine seeks to be top star, and competes with Maya as both work their way throughout issues with each other and competition. Most notably, Futaba and Kaoroku are the anomalies, Futaba has a tomboy-ish personality, and takes care of Kaoroku all the time, but can never be otokoyaku despite her wishes and looks because of her short stature. Nana and Junna are both naturally talented, and Nana easily the best stage girl - but Nana wants to break the toxic system that comes with being a stage girl and top star.

On the outside of all the struggle within the otokoyaku and musumeyaku system, there is Mahiru Tsuyuzaki.

Born in the countryside and eldest in her family, Mahiru has great talent with baton-twirling. She’s still in the troupe the rest of the girls are in, and is Karen’s best friend before Hikari comes back, but is notably kind-hearted, if not wildly insecure because of all the talent that surrounds her at any given moment of the day. Compared to the other girls, it can be noted that Mahiru is bland despite the viewer’s first instinct to want to think otherwise because of her calm facade and kind outlook on all of the girls. She comes off as the least interesting in the group due to her bland hairstyle, lack of quirks and motherly personality.

When considering her upbringing compared to the others; Mahiru grows up in relative normality - she’s a country girl with a passion for the baton, but has never trained for things like the revue for her whole life and doesn’t have any exemplary back story compared to Hikari or Karen, characters whose entire personality reflects the traumas and hurts of their past.

Jealousy is a theme we can see throughout Mahiru’s character. Her main color is green. Her first revue is named the “Revue of Jealousy.” Her name, while nothing special, are all nature related - her first name means midday, and her last has two characters. The first means dew, and the second is cape, a section of land. Mahiru’s more nature related name is supposed to represent how she’s the character who gives into natural, more carnal emotions the most.

When Hikari comes back and claims Karen to be her partner, Mahiru seems to develop this sense of jealousy. She acts even more docile, shows animosity towards Hikari, and seems to forget herself in this anger.

What makes Mahiru’s jealousy so compelling is the fact that everyone’s been on her end of the story. While during the anime she makes up with Karen, and even comes to make a tentative trio with the three of them (Hikari, Mahiru, and Karen), she’s still noticeably not the focus of anything. Her revue contrats her sweet personality, and makes you root for her. Up till this point, she’s been ignored, but seeing her fight with everything she has makes you happy even if you don’t agree with her jealousy.

Mahiru’s someone who goes against the simple “sweet anime girl” structure. Her jealousy makes her so much more human, and so much more loved. Her character stands to be a great lesson on jealousy, esteem, and making yourself who you want to be but still remembering that emotions are meant to be felt, and not repressed.