Revue Starlight (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Revue Starlight (Shoujo Kageki Revyuu Sutauraito) is a 2018 original television anime series directed by Tomohiro Furukawa and animated by studio Kinema Circus. TBS published the series and was first broadcast in Japan on July 2017 as part of the Summer season.

Background:

“As the 99th graduating class of the Seisho Music Academy prepares for their annual review, “Starlight”, aspiring actress Karen Aijo is happy just to have the chance to be in the cast. But when Karen’s childhood friend Hikari mysteriously arrives after years abroad, Karen quickly learns that there is more going on at Seisho than the normal drama classes.

Following Hikari late one night, Karen discovers an elevator that takes her deep below the Earth, where the secret auditions for the leads in Starlight is underway… a competition that is fought with real weapons as well as song and dance! Goaded by the giraffe in charge of the trials, Karen throws caution to the wind and takes the stage herself… but will she be ready to survive the ultimate contest of drama and skills?”

Plot Synopsis via MVM Entertainment, September 2020.

Revue Starlight is an interesting anime series that provides a magical girl battle action type approach like Symphogear and few other anime in the past have previously done before. The idea itself isn’t exactly original, but what the show provides is well executed and considering it was one of the few anime from the Summer 2017 season that Sentai acquired, it was their strongest license in a while.

The franchise is still continuing in Japan at the very least, since a theatrical film is in the works at the time of this post after they recently put out a compilation not too long ago.

The show was also given the English dub treatment and additional subtitle support to translate the lyrics for the music presented in each episode. Sentai even went out of their way to provide the show with a special edition box set in North America, and eventually it was brought over to the UK by MVM Entertainment on Blu-ray.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

MVM Entertainment first released Revue Starlight in a collector’s edition package that resembles the Sentai release. Contained inside the rigid box is an Amaray case for the two discs as well as a set of art cards and a booklet. The booklet and art cards are the same as the Sentai limited edition release, with the rigid box having artwork being close to the Sentai’s clamshell box. Essentially if you want a trimmed down version of the Sentai release that has the more important items, then this is the one to go for.

On the bottom of the box, there is brief information and BBFC content about the series, while the rest of the box is clean with no info or logos whatsoever. The Amaray case will have the BBFC logo on the spine and info on the back cover. Unit count is never known for MVM titles but I believe their collector’s editions are 1000 units. The SRP is £79.99 but a standard edition Blu-ray will be arriving soon.

I acquired the collector’s edition Blu-ray set as part of MVM’s Deal of the Week offer which was for £19.99. Considering it was a lot cheaper than the prices for the collector’s sets during the Christmas 2020 sale, it made sense for me to order it at this moment.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with Amaray packaging with some info on the artwork
• 64-page Booklet
• 10 Art Cards

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: MVM Entertainment
Released: 14th September 2020

Revue Starlight offers all 12 episodes of the television series across two Blu-ray discs using the Sentai encode. The audio options available include the main Japanese language with English subtitles and the Sentai Studios English dub.

As this is a Sentai authored title, we have yellow subtitles for the dialogue. The subtitles are locked during playback, but considering the Sentai discs are geo-locked, this UK release can also play on Regions A & B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	2 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 1:

• Japanese Audio Episode Commentaries
  • Episode 1 with Momoyo Koyama (Karen), Hinata Sato (Junna), & Maho Tomita (Maya)
  • Episode 5 with Momoyo Koyama (Karen), Haruki Iwata (Mahiru), Moeka Koizumi (Nana), & Teru Ikuta (Futaba)

Disc 2:

• Japanese Audio Episode Commentaries
  • Episode 10 with Momoyo Koyama (Karen), Suzuko Mimori (Hikari), Aina Aiba (Claudine), & Ayasa Ito (Kaoruko)
• Episode Previews
• Revue Starlight Shorts
  • Measuring
  • Discussion
  • Opening
• Japanese Promos
• Clean Opening Animation “Hoshi no Dialogue”
• Clean Closing Animations “Fly Me to the Star”
• Also Available from Sentai Filmworks Trailers

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Revue Starlight is available to own as a collector’s edition Blu-ray over on Amazon UK. A standard edition Blu-ray is also available to order.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills. Due to current global situations, shipping restrictions may apply.)