Empty Movement's 2023 Revolutionary Girl Utena UPDATE

Fashionably late? As always. 2023 was a HUGE year for Empty Movement, so much so that to confess, we did a big fail in actually keeping up with sharing the stuff we did! OOPS. So finally, we proudly bring you: all the Revolutionary Girl Utena content we dropped in 2023. Essays, artbooks, CD information, you name it. Click below for the entire site update, or get it at the source, as always, at ohtori.nu.

In Analysis (Fan Essays): • seebee's essay The Power of Living an Embodying Narrative is about more than Utena, it's about the fandom--including us. We were both interviewed for this piece, and the result is an absolutely beautiful essay that has helped inform how we do Utena stuff going forward. Thank you so much for letting us be part of this! • seebee's VIDEO essay FILM CUTS BACK | transfeminism in utena absolutely blew our minds and it's so good we're listing it. Look at the title. Just go watch it, it rules. • Nicole Winchester's essay No Choice But To Become Witches: The Bishōjo-Demonic Phallic Mother Dichotomy in Revolutionary Girl Utena catches you up to speed on the academic discussion around what might best be described as the shoujo manga iteration of the Madonna-Whore complex. Then, naturally, it finds plenty to say about Utena. Great work that was well worth the coding!

------------

In From the Mouths of Babes (Translated Meta/Creator Content): • Cross X Talk, A Round Table Discussion Commemorating the Second Musical Utena GOGAI FUCKIN' GOGAI. Nagumo and friends bring us the final untranslated part of the 2019 Black Rose Musical's program guide: the monster interview with Ikuhara and the director of the musicals, Yoshitani. INCREDIBLE content here that 100% lives up to the first musical's similar encounter! A must read!! • The Rose Apocalypse's Ei Takatori Interview The director of the mysterious 1999 musical (yes the machine gun one, and YES WE HAVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT IT COMING) interviewed in The Rose Apocalypse book. This...is that. Thank you so much to iris hahn for translating, and I can't wait to bring you more of this mythology!!! • The Utena Dossier Animage Magazine's June 1997 supplemental, this 36-page Utena tome has ben translated by Nagumo with editing by Ayu Ohseki. Because so much of the content is in its visual presentation, I worked the translation into the original scans! Check it out! (PS. Yes that is an entirely different gallery on the emptymovement.com domain, no this won't stay there, yes it has been a weird couple years.) The Dossier includes two long interviews that are also worked into html pages for easy viewing! The Auspicious Joining of Manga and Anime: Saito and Hasegawa For Whom the Director Smiles: Ikuhara and Kitakubo

-------------

In Historia Arcana & The Bibliothèque (Untranslated Resources): • There are a lot of changes happening in this arena!!! How and where to place different materials has been a moving target, so I'll do my best! The sites don't quite reflect this yet, but Historia Arcana will be for cover to cover Utena media, including special magazine publications. Something Eternal's gallery, the Bibliothèque, will be for magazine articles, clippings, and other things. Major artbooks will likely be in both places, cross referenced. New books in Historia Arcana: • The Rose Spiral: Reflections on the Mythology of Utena While not strictly official, this is a fan published book of in depth analysis of Utena, circa 1998! Yep, cover to cover. • Revolution Dictionary (OST 1 First Press Bonus) Cross-referenced from Audiology, this is the bonus dictionary you only got if you grabbed it early! Cool! • Revolutionary Girl Utena Making of Visuals Book Art of UTENA I am mentioning this for completions sake and because I already uploaded it, but this is a cover to cover high resolution, uncleaned scan of the 1999 Art of Utena artbook. I am going to clean the scans, and ultimately be posting the official artbooks elsewhere. • Revolutionary Girl Utena Photobook: Rose Memories This special Animage bonus could be purchased for 700 yen, and back then, was probably a great way to keep the anime in your pocket! It's entirely shots from the TV series, though, so there's nothing specifically new. But I scan it all, baby. New books in the Bibliothèque: • Chiho Saito's 1999 Revolutionary Girl Utena Original Illustration Collection HI THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL. Read more about why when you visit! TLDR? Here's some of the best artwork of Utena, rescanned and remastered by yours truly to be the best big big scans of big big beautiful Chiho Saito Art. This is a feast. I even made myself a calendar! (Note that the price is such that I don't make a profit on these, so if you're looking to donate, definitely go by other routes, haha.) You will find multiple ways to obtain the scans, and in more than one size. Either way you soak up the rays, enjoy 'em! New articles and clips in the Bibliothèque: • H! Rockin' on Japan Magazine Saito X Oikawa This fashion music magazine's July 1999 article has ALREADY BEEN TRANSLATED? Like, I am going to add the translation officially to the site of course, but holy hell Nagumo is amazing!! This article is actually the origin of a Saito art piece that uh, well. Now we know she went to a love hotel with movie Akio's VA. Cool! Anyway check it out! • Comickers Magazine, August 1997 This absolute monster find is an industry-focused magazine with this gorgeous spread and interview with Chiho Saito. It gets into how she does things. The making of Utena. All kinds of stuff. I'd LOVE to know more about this one!! • Comickers Magazine, June 1998 Again, an industry-focused publication, this time it's exploring the manga and the anime and how they compare. Again looks like a tasty meal!! • Volks Magazine, Spring 2022 YEP SCANS OF THE BOOK OF THE DOLLFIES. For a lot of us, this is at close as we get to these ludicrously gorgeous dolls. I included a few extra pages because they were just fuckin' cool and felt relevant. • Sega Saturn Magazine, December 1997 One of two grabs I got recently on Yahoo! Japan! This appears to be the first look announcement of the 1998 Utena video game! (Yes we have more on it, yes we will eventually post links.) • Sega Saturn Magazine, April 1998 This feature brings attention to the voice actors, who are all returning for the game! • Dengeki G's Magazine, January 1998 Another gaming focused magazine, with frankly a more adult edge, cheaply lets the readers know about Utena. These three game magazine moments are just a bizarre reminder of how we did things before the internet, LMAO

---------------

In Audiology (Music and CD Information): • Complete information about the STAR CHILD - Girls Character Song Best album! You also definitely can't grab the two new remix tracks there. • Did you know there was a first press bonus dictionary for the first OST? I DIDN'T UNTIL RECENTLY. Now I know all about it, and so can you. Check it out! Obviously, scans available, both here and in Historia Arcana. • I FINALLY acquired a complete set of the Utena CD singles!! Check out complete track lists, scans, and information for ALL FIVE Utena singles. Yes. Including the movie Akio guy's one.

----------------

In The Doujinshi Gallery: • Several dozen dounjinshi were uploaded earlier in the year, and can be found listed on the Site Update archive here.

---------------

That's all for now, folks! There's so so so much coming. I have the episode 18 and 20 (!!!!) storyboards to scan, as well as a fully translated scanlation of The Duelist Bible. We're planning to do something for Anthy's rare LEAP YEAR birthday coming up, probably a musical stream or something! Love!

I love how pure and kind Will is and how well the cunning Menel compliments him. Menel definitely holds some feelings, but I think Will is a bit too naive to understand.

And THEY ARE SO DAMN CUTE TOGETHER

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

Moonrise over The Temple of Poseidon, Greece by Thanassis Economou

Yabusame – Horse Archery

I wonder how common knowledge it is that "Cazador" is just... it just means "Hunter" in Spanish. It's just literally Hunter.

Which can sound menacing and intimidating if we interpret it in kind of an "ooh, skulking in the shadows, hunting his prey" kinda way (complete with spooky finger-wiggles), BUT it also carries the possibility that he's that upper middle-class white kid in 4th grade whose equally upper middle-class white mom always has to go yell at the teachers for not letting him eat glue.

In addition, "Szarr" (which I think is meant to be reminiscent of "czar", the monarch) with this spelling is just the Hungarian word for "shit" with an extra "r" tacked onto the end, so I'm having some difficulty being scared of Shit-Hunter, the vampire lord

"Do the cattle not know you, boy? Have they not seen your fits of temper?"

The way Astarion instantly gets defensive and throws himself at Cazador as soon as the bastard calls his partner "meat" or "cattle"...it's more than a protective Astarion moment. No matter whether Tav intervenes or not, Astarion still lunges at Cazador after his goading. Because this is the reaction Cazador was getting out of him. As always, he couldn't be satisfied with just imposing his power and authority - he had to make Astarion think he has a fighting chance, only to crush his spirit once more.

The bastard has been pushing his buttons the moment he walked in, goading him, humiliating him. He has tortured him for centuries, he knows how to make it hurt.

So, even though Cazador is a truly pathetic creature, nothing but an envious former lackey imitating a lord, he isn't blind or dumb. He instantly catches on who is this mortal standing next to his spawn and glaring at him with murderous hatred.

(Of course, who else he could bring but a lover? He wasn't made to have friends)

And, being the twisted bastard he is, he knows about Astarion's tendency to grow fond of the cattle he delivered. So when he sees Tav, he sees another wound to stick his finger into. He doesn't simply insult Tav - he associates them with all the previous lovers who followed Astarion, smitten and trusting, straight to the slaughter.

After months of disobedience, the prodigal son appears, but all old habits die hard: he knew he was not to show up without a morsel to his master, did he? Does the meat know what happened to the other ones?

Of course, it makes Astarion go for his throat.

from that day on I was his

Be my mirror... tell, how you see me?

Astarion is the vampire of my heart. I adore his voice, I adore his gestures, I adore how much work the writers did to show his character so multifaceted and touch on psychology. I love to appreciate and anger Astarion. And I understand all those who admire him or cannot tolerate on their team!

astarion’s “i’ve almost forgotten how much color there is in the world” line is so infinitely more heartbreaking when you realize he’s an elf- which means by dnd/baldurs gate rules he has darkvision

darkvision, which allows certain character races to see in the dark but only in shades of gray

this man quite literally has been living almost 200 years in complete colorless darkness or at the very least with a very limited visualization and only just now is able to see a full spectrum of color….

I don't know how else to be with someone. No matter how much I'd like to.

I used the photomode mod to take a look at Astarion's love confession scene. Normally, the camera is focused on Tav when choosing what to say.

These are the expressions Astarion is making off-screen while you are hovering over dialogue options.

Be gentle... if you can.

i am NOT normal about this man AT ALL YO

eternity

prints | high res on patreon

of course astarion gets mad early game when you do nice things for no reason. can you imagine getting out of the hell he was in and discovering that the world is awash in kindness, just never for you? the gods do answer prayers, just never your's. people go on long, dangerous quests for strangers with no reward guaranteed, but you just never saw those people. now that youve already done the impossible and escaped, you can see that rivers of sympathy and compassion flow all over but for some reason they always dried out before they reached you. where was all this good in the world when you needed it most?

i would be spitting mad