Happy to see you finished it! ^^ Two things to say! First, it's not Hikari the one who broke throught Nana repeating performance, it's Karen. And Nana himself realize it after her defeat. Why? Becase Karen at the beginning wasn't in the Revue, because was being outcasted by Hikari, but Karen "jumped in", trasforming the audition for 8 in 9. Hikari vs Nana revue it needs to Hikari to born anew, but Nana could still win. And in the next ep she channel her "hate" against the true culprit, Karen (1)
You’re not wrong about Karen’s importance to everything, but Hikari’s introduction to the auditions was the shift that actually started changing the time loops. The way it’s presented, I think the Giraffe explicitly chose to throw her in there to shake up the repetition after going through it so many times. Karen built off that momentum and really became the driving agent of change afterwards, but Hikari’s choice is what set it all in motion at the start. It wasa collaborative effort.
(Also, in regards to all your other asks, I’m aware of this show’s connections to the Revue, and I’m definitely interested in reading more about it! Though even without those connections, there’s enough broadly applicable to theater culture as a whole that I don’t need to be a Takarazaka scholar to appreciate it.)
