The Masterpiece of Alien Stage

Intro

I am a bit late to Alien Stage ...but I watched it all for the first time the other day, and I've already gone back to rewatch it three times!! 

I think it's unique in its ability to tell so much in such a short video. Together it's only around a half hour, but the audience can gather so much about the characters, backstory, the world, and its conflicts. As someone who wants to direct, produce, or animate stories like this as a career, it's such an inspiration for me. Especially because (from what I've heard) it's only animated by two women!! LIKE WHAT!! 

In this blog entry, I'm going to split my thoughts into two sections. 

• a basic analysis without spoilers
• full analysis and thoughts with spoilers

Alien Stage Analysis (no spoilers) 

Alien Stage takes place in a world that has been taken over by, as the title suggests, aliens. In this world, there is a program called "Alien Stage" where humans perform beautiful songs for the aliens against other humans. We can gather from the videos that these humans were trained since childhood to be singers, in many vigorous and often traumatizing ways. Throughout the story, we follow the 6 main characters, Mizi, Sua, Ivan, Till, Hyuna, and Luka as some continue in the competition, while others are part of a rebel group that is trying to stop the horrors happening in the competition. 

Through beautiful music and amazing visuals, there are many ways this story can be interpreted. In my opinion, I think that it is a commentary on how people consume media (whether that be music, television, celebrities, or anything materialistic) at the expense of others. The humans performing are subjugated to so much harm from when they were children to who they are now; all for just the chance to perform, and even then the price of not winning in their life. However, the aliens (that could be parallelling people in our world) just consume it as entertainment. From the first episode, we can see the main theme is the loss of hope these humans have. They don't believe in god anymore, they are just cattle meant to be raised, used, and thrown out when not useful. However; it's hard for them to be stripped of all hope, they still have connections with other people. They form friendships, and enemies and are trying to survive, and we see that even though they are kept in this program for entertainment, even aliens can't strip them of being human and wanting to survive, wanting to escape and longing to hope again. 

Alien Stage Analysis (more of a rant lowkey) (with spoilers!!)

OKAY NOW I CAN REALLY TALK!! 

the first thing I have to say is WHY IS EVERYONE DYING OMGGGGG!!!

while I am sad all my favorite characters died (TIll, Ivan, and Sua) I do think part of why the show is so powerful is that there are permanent deaths. Part of why it's so popular is because it's so sad!

All the episodes are amazing, but I think the standouts to me are Round 5, Round 6, and Weige. Round 5 stands out because it's the first time we really see anything go wrong. We are introduced to the rebel group, no one actually dies and Mizi goes missing. Also, Luka's character is so different from the other contestants, as he tries to mess with the people he is performing with. Round 6 is obviously a fan favorite (where are all my Ivan x Till shippers at?) for me the music was the most powerful in this, and how it goes along with Ivan's death sends shivers down my spine. Till one of the most compelling characters for me, and in this episode we got to see a different side of him, compared to his first performance which was very outgoing and energetic. Weige is just a masterpiece. I'm a sucker for flashbacks and alternate universes, and being able to see what could have been with the character is such a punch in the gut. However, even though it's very sad, especially with Hyuna dying at the end, we are left with some hope. She tells Luka to "live with love" and as a viewer, I felt some hope for the future.   

Obviously, a big part of the fandom loves the ships, including me. However, I think a lot of the time people sacrifice other parts of these characters because all the focus is on the ship. I personally ship Sua x Mizi, Till x Ivan, and Luka x Hyuna. One of the big debates is on who Till loves, Mizi or Ivan. for me, even though I ship him with Ivan, in the story I think his character doesn't like anyone romantically. He is a very unwell character who has gone through so much trauma, and I don't think he is well enough to even think about liking people. It diminishes his character down to "who he will end up with", while really he is just trying to survive, but at the same time does love the people around him. He definitely idolizes Mizi and obsesses over the idea of her, while he and Ivan have more of a mutual bond in their friendship. Character dynamics are definitely why I love the show so much, I think they can express a lot and create really interesting dynamics in each episode, and while I love shipping and everything I do think people focus on it too much at the expense of the characters.

Outro

Okay!! I think that concludes my thoughts on Alien Stage, if you guys wanna watch it here is the link to the playlist with all the episodes (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ-JZOYFII4dHqeSu6yeGj-30sZohX_oX&si=9foj37PODzmzSQ-g) 

If you read this whole thing then thank you so much!!