#Utena and Anthy themselves fight over Akio
Note
Regarding Utena, I wouldn't use the phrase "sleeping with each other" when most of the sex is outright abuse.
For example, Utena and Anthy are 14 years old, and cannot consent to having sex with Akio, so saying they're just "sleeping with" him frames the issue as if it was consensual and an active choice on their part.
Ah I wasn't just talking about Utena and Anthy. Akio also slept with Kanae (and Touga... I think) Shiori slept with Touga. Touga actually slept with everyone in school.
Our main three sibling groups in the show, Akio & Anthy, Touga & Nanami, Kozue & Miki were all incestuous.
So that statement was just an overall. Pretty much every relationship in this anime is heavily messed up in some way
Forgive me, I haven't watched Utena in a very long while, so there are some things I totally forgot about, but from my memory, the love square was insane. Utena started dating(?????) Akio, and then found out he was sleeping with Anthy, and then the two of them seem to passive-aggressively fight over him briefly??
This show is absolutely beautiful and started off with a somewhat clear story. A tomboyish girl named Utena joins a strange magical fight club at school for the hand of Anthy. Anthy is maybe under some kind of spell to serve whoever she is betrothed to. Utena doesn't seem to get it, and really only wants to fight for Anthy's freedom and happiness. After living together, the two become good friends and maybe even start to fall in love.
Utena loses at one point and falls into a depression, dressing up like a girl again, doubtful and insecure about herself, only to make a comeback. There's a mysterious prince who descends from the heavens to grant her power through the sword she pulls from Anthy's heart. That castle could be real magic, from another realm, or just from her imagination from the prince who saved her as a child- (sike!!! its a projection in the sky?????? guess what, everything is fake!! ??? ....except for the swords pulled out of peoples hearts. Those are real, somehow.)
But yeah once Akio is introduced the show quickly devolves from "Magical LGBTQ+ highschool girl challenges gender roles and relationship norms, saving a princess in the process and falls in love with her," to backtracking, incest, sex, sexual abuse, weird comic relief, manipulations, illusions where everything isn't real yet at the same time it is, shirtless men, driving cars, dead people, etc.
The bitter-sweet confusing ending where Anthy is finally free but at the expense of Utena, who in the end realized she could never be a prince, apologizing in despair at her failure, pierced with thousands of swords in Anthy's place...
It still has an interesting aspect parallel of Anthy, a princess, sacrificing herself for a prince who in the end becomes a corrupt shadow of himself. Vs. Utena, a princess acting as a prince, sacrifices herself for the princess who was a shadow of herself to free her. The fact that the thing that saved her all those years ago was her want to save Anthy was really poetic.
Like there's a lot of metaphors to be found here, really beautiful, surreal amazing ones, but in my head I can only see it as a horrific confusing tragedy. But the cliffhanger is like "Utena is out there somewhere in another universe! I'm gonna go travel to find her : ) " how and why did that happen and where on earth did she go-
(I don't know how to associate the movie with the anime because those feel like two completely different universes and probably are.)
The show mid to 3 quarters of the way went absolutely bonkers. I feel like it kinda lost sight of where it was trying to go for a while. The ending was truly beautiful, but it was so odd due to prior inconsistencies in the story. You couldn't tell what was actually real or not, or how things came to be or why. And things that happened before, like all the sexual abuse is never addressed or brought up again. And it acts like the ending is happy, like there's hope for Utena and Anthy, but it just feels like nothing was really resolved. Anthy leaves the school, which, you know, good for her, her freedom was the point of the anime, it was what Utena was working towards her whole life, even if she didn't remember. But I don't know if she was well and truly saved if Utena was now in her place. Feels like they're just gonna go in a loop. Doomed by the narrative when the narrative itself doesn't really acknowledge that.
I just got a "Don't try to be something you're not because you'll succeed but at your own demise" kind of moral from it, which felt like a loss rather than a win when it came to the gender role commentary.
#with a surrealist metaphorical show unless stated otherwise by the creator#its left up to interpretation- and with this show there are many#just everyone in this show is just so messed up#Nanami killed a cat#Akio slept with kids#Touga slept around#green haired guy abused#Utena and Anthy themselves fight over Akio#everyone is manipulating each other in some way#and then we turn around and have nanami becoming a cow- laying eggs- anthy collects bugs like a quirky school girl-#anthy and akio gaslighting some guy into being in love with their cousin who set the school on fire#its inconsistent tonal shifts#like what on earth was going on#utena#revolutionary girl utena#utena critical#ask#text post
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Iconic Homerotice Betrayals: Round 3
Poll Directory
Context:
Sasuke/Naruto
Summarized by anonymous contributor
Two traumatized orphans find kindred souls in each other (even if they're too emotionally stunted to admit it even to themselves). They both grow stronger, but then Sasuke grows jealous of Naruto's progress. He's obsessed with strength, needing to get revenge for his family, and Naruto threatens that. Sasuke decides he's not getting the strength he needs from the village, so he leaves- but Naruto chases him. They face off in a dramatic waterfall battle before the giant statues of historical figures (that also had a friends-to-enemies thing, let's go Symbology), and Sasuke manages to beat him. He swears he wants to kill him, but when he finally has the chance, he just hangs over Naruto's unconscious body... face to face, just staring at him from inches away... before he gives up. He can't kill him, even if he refuses to admit to himself.
Why.
Fast forward several years, Sasuke is 16 and "evil", Naruto is OBSESSED with getting strong enough to bring Sasuke home. They fight - over and over and over again, Naruto trying Desperately to bring Sasuke home, and Sasuke refusing over and over again. Everyone tells Naruto it's a lost cause, but he refuses to give up. And somehow, Sasuke never works up the will to kill Naruto.
Eventually they work past it all and end up joined at the hip (and in gay love, no matter what Kishimoto tries to say).
Anthy/Utena
Summarized by Anonymous Contributor
THE blueprint for homoerotic betrayals of the canonically gay (as opposed to interpretive, certainly there are older iconic examples for that) variety. listed as #2 in the infamous top ten anime betrayals video, iirc.
it is about akio pushing anthy to utena. it is about utena’s protective stance, misunderstanding. most of all, it is about anthy kissing utena’s shoulder before stabbing her.
the story has been leading us to this the whole time — utena assuming once again the protective princely position; akio, always playing divide and conquer, unable to manipulate utena to betray anthy, now reliant on anthy betraying utena; the game being rigged from the start, true victory impossible (for the duelists, who will always lose the game proper to akio, the rule maker, in one way or another; for akio himself, just as obviously); utena’s love for anthy within the princely stance; anthy’s love for utena and anthy’s fear (of the world beyond; of utena loving her truly; of utena not loving her truly but just projecting onto her still as any prince does, and turning out to be the same (as akio) in the end) and akio (framing himself) as the only one who will love her no matter what because friends turn away from you and only connections by blood are forever, the two of them are the only ones who’s real in this projected world, so on and so forth, and anthy’s bitterness towards utena (“do you know, utena-sama, how i always despised you” from that one “in the next episode” bit) and her princeliness and her being not that impossibly unlike akio (all princes are the same). everything has lead us to this moment. and yet we are shocked.
personally, i’ve never moved on from how she kisses her shoulder.
See a whole dissertation on Utenanthy here
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Thinking about my Utena post about the story from Akio's perspective, I've been thinking also about the final arc from Anthy's position and whether there's anything that we missed - I don't think I'd really thought fully before about what 'the power to revolutionise the world' means to each of them.
That's what Akio/World's End tells the duelists they're fighting for, and they each interpret it differently, which is I think why he keeps it all so vague and shrouded in mystery because it's probably an empty promise. Sayonji wants the Rose Bride first and foremost, for the status she will give him; Mikki wants a power that he associates with art and creativity; Juri wants to prove that her cynical world view is justified; Nanami and Touga both seem to want power for the sake of having power, because it gets them whatever they want in life, because they're used to getting what they want.
But for Akio? It's the power to revolutionise his own world, i.e. to regain the power of Dios, to stop being a human man and to return to being a hero, elevated above mortal men. What power he has in the time of the story comes either from projecting illusions or from pressuring Anthy into using her real power to manipulate others. His world is the one that will be revolutionised, and the duelists are merely the tools he uses to get there, so he has no intention of giving them anything tangible.
Anthy didn't set out to make Dios a powerless mortal man: she sought to protect her brother from the world that wanted to work him to death, and to make people stop relying on him and learn to solve their own problems. But over time, as Akio returns to the world, it's as if he almost grows to resent being powerless - he feels entitled to that power, and at the start of Utena's story, we meet a very human man with the entitlement of a man accustomed to power, entirely separated from the noble Dios.
From Anthy's perspective, allowing that now-entitled and arrogant man to have the power of a sort of demi-god would be disastrous. The chances of him becoming a noble and honourable hero, after decades of living as a man in a patriarchal environment, are slim to none. He would rage, and he would see humans as less than him, and he would not be anyone's hero. He might even kill her for trapping him in the first place. So when Utena comes close to freeing that power, of course Anthy will do what it takes to stop her, even stabbing her in the back. She has been doing what she can to keep Akio in check and keep Utena from progressing through the duels by manipulating others into fighting her. The student council wouldn't have posted themselves beyond their breaking point if they'd reached the final duel - Sayonji never seemed to care about doing anything beyond having the Rose Bride on his arm, and Mikki wouldn't have defied Akio. Juri and Touga might have, but out of spite or arrogance, not out of a genuine desire to protect and free Anthy.
Akio's abuse of Anthy is difficult to explore in this light without coming across as victim-blaming, and that's absolutely not how I read this narrative. But I am also aware that this story is a product of the 1990s, when 'victim blaming' wasn't in most people's vernacular. It is possible to read Anthy acquiescing to Akio's abuse as a means of placating him - keeping him subdued out of fear of what he might do to others if he doesn't get his way. She would rather throw herself off a building to end the duels than openly defy Akio. It's only when she sees Akio throw Utena aside to go after a sword to open the Rose Gate that she realises he's effectively trapped himself, focused on his 'might makes right' obsession with swords and their power rather than stopping to look for alternative ways to open the Gate.
She realises that Akio will never 'revolutionise' his own world because he isn't open to alternative ways of existing - all he knows is swords and duels and physical strength. Her world has focused only on his, and her own 'revolution' happens when she steps away from him and is ready to explore what else the world has to offer besides keeping a power-hungry man in check.
There's tons more to explore here, but that would require going back and rewatching again, which I'm not in a position to do. Maybe the movie? Everyone is different in the movie, so there's likely more Anthy-perspective to take into account. But I am enjoying writing meta again for the first time in ages!
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Utena thoughts...about 2 weeks later
I've been putting it off for way too long and so most of my thoughts stopped being fresh. On top of watching way too many analysis vids post-watch, but still I do at least want to put my 2cents of Revolutionary Girl Utena out there for the world.
Utena is perhaps one of the most famous "magical girl"/shoujo action shows out there for not only it's transgressive themes of relationship abuse and low-key pretty much being the poster girl for like actual feminist perspective on/in anime...but also just doing it all in both a heavily allegorical and understated, yet super over-the-top stylish fashion
But that's it's reputation preceding itself, is Utena worth while all these years? The answer is Yes, but it also really shows it's age and budget in pacing and repetition, tho as an appreciator for "behind the scenes" compromises in art, it's more showcasing Ikuhara's talent in working around both taboo and long-form budget constraints with just well-thought out and iconic imagery that - while episodic and formulaic - is just very good at filling the 39 eps with feasts for the eyes.
Utena broadly is about tomboy Utena with memories long ago after her parents died being "saved" by a princely figure like a princess...except she's so enthralled by the nostalgia that instead she becomes a full on Prince herself and receives a dueling ring to fight in the Ohtori Acadamy secret duels for "engagement" to Rose Bride Himemiya Anthy.
Utena is divided between 4 arcs, only the first and last being Manga adapted from hearsay:
1: Student Council Saga
2: Black Rose Saga
3: Akio Ohtori Saga
4: Apocalypse
From back to forth I'd say that Akio + Apoc is more just escalation into the finale while Black Rose being anime original comes off as a glorified side-character study which while complementing the secondary cast, feels like one of those Anime movies that has to say "but if you don't watch this part, it's pretty much optional for the main plot" despite it also actually introducing the most important antagonist within it's margins.
More importantly, it's the Student Council (arc and the actual people) that lay the foundation but also a large part of the show's focus which ironically puts Utena in the background until like almost the finale and some in-between developments, so it's less "Utena (and Anthy Himemiya)'s story" until the very end, but more like a showcase of how fucked up the system at large is (pin in that).
By the Council themselves is:
Kyouichi Saionji: The biggest jobber, like actually introduced as the most despicable loser ep 1 and proceeds to be a complete arrogant joke for the rest of the show. Honestly in another shojo "love" story, they'd find some way to redeem him but semi-compellingly they turn him into like an Aqua-lad type pathetic brat with an inferiority complex to the actual Student head
Miki Kaoru: the naive "nice, non-threatening soft boy" that also just never actually listens to the girls around him. Probably adds more complexity to the whole patriarchal idea on analytic reflection since yeah, the whole "nice guy finishes last" plays up better when the kid comes off as that "ally" energy of wanting to save Himemiya from being the Rose Bride but also low-key won't actually not just do the duels and win her cuz he's that sorta wishy-washy hypocrite. Arguably the least hateable guy in the cast (minus mascot Chu-Chu)
Juri Arisugawa: TRAGIC LESBIAN TRIANGLE LOVE. Probably the biggest point to of both "not-explicitly homosexual" but also really freaking obvious since her entire story is her girlfriend stealing her "boy crush" when actually she was crushing on her and being pretty much frustrated throughout her story as pining most of it. It's quaint by today's standards but also like damn girl, get over her she was like the worst back stabbing bitch (literally if Black Rose counts)
Nanami Kiryuu: SPEAKING OF QUEEN BITCH, it's been a long time since I've watched a High School girl bully and honestly it's kinda refreshing. If Miki is "soft-boy uwu" Nanami is a brat that gets her come-uppance often, featured prominently as an anime only with the MOST filler/comedic episodes but also not low-key, being the most out-spoken actual brother complex ironically spins perhaps the biggest twist and ironic relationships of "I love my brother but not-like-that but also like-that" by the end. Mostly comedic relief but I find her inclusion to actually add a lot more to juxtapose...
Touga Kiryuu: Big Student Council Prez himself, the first arc antagonist and also a strong foil to Saionji and later a stepping stone for Akio. Touga is THE image of a Princely Playboy Heart-Throb that in any other Shoujo romance would have the main girl win him over from all those "other girls" despite him being apathetic if not outright manipulative of them. Good thing Utena is better than that and really puts a spotlight on just not-actually-ok his power hunger for "the power to bring the world revolution" that leads him to heavily objectify Anthy, arguably even more than Misogynist Trophy Girlfriend beater Saionji, since he doesn't even see her as more than a means to an end despite professing and looking the Prince part but lacking all the actual virtues.
The Student council matters more since they're characters and subsequent tragic flaws are the ACTUAL meat of the show and on second rumination actual shows more how fucked up the system/gender dynamic/power hierarchy is since - while it blatantly fucks over Juri who can't just outright say who she likes - also show almost it's own sub-text of Masculine failings: Saionji desperately clinging to being TOXIC MASCULINE™ and completely falling short underneath Touga; Miki's "nice boy" act belying him trying to replace his low-key nostalgia for his sister (also a bitch, but apparently was more like Nanami in the manga); and best yet Touga being the quintessential "Prince in all but actual behavior" by emulating a cutthroat and Machiavellian world view but coming up empty because well, he's just an illusion of a prince...but that leads in way more to the big finale piece where I'll reintroduce the actual story's main trio
Utena Tenjou: Tomboy Prince with brain empty except for lesbian thoughts. Honestly probably what every western "STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN" archetype wishes they were since while having very tomboyish personality in athletics, blunt speaking and also VERY oblivious to the actual plot for REAL DRAMATIC IRONY, but also never actually demeaning her being feminine partially due to her love of an childhood prince and how she maintains her relationship with both her friend Wakaba and later Anthy. Honestly mostly a plot device after S1 until she gets ACTUAL development by the very end and instead kinda bumbles her way into undoing the entire REVOLUTION OF THE WORLD. I kinda wish she felt either more cognizant or at least felt like she was developing/properly rebuking the rest of the cast's power obsessions but I guess that's for the movie.
Anthy Himemiya: Actual Trophy Wife with a dark secret (darker than ski- wait no that's terrible scratch that). Set-up very much as an immediate princess in distress while also being the most femme Yamato Nadeshiko, Anthy being the Rose Bride as a literal prize who acts and behaves as whom she's "engaged" with desires while otherwise being quiet, wry, mysterious and noticably submissive, by the end it actually plays up into THE BIG REVEALS of just how abused she's been into a hopeless acceptance...like y'know actual abuse victims.
Akio Ohtori: Grade A Antagonist, probably the most insidious I've seen a villain in a while, Akio is notable for, back in 1997, being perhaps the big go-to of actual deconstructing the facade of a whole shoujo genre's "hots for a teacher/sexy man putting the moves" and highlighting how actually exploitative and abusive a person like that really is. Being Himemiya's brother (somewhat justified in the manga by both being a weird Sailor Moon-esque reincarnation of gods/godesses of Dios), despite how much of his motives are runing the background and how the entire back story is uh...brought up in like barely in the last arc with little lead up (some scenes feel like they'd be a full melodrama season and they just have like 1 scene in the final arc episodes) he manages to one-up Touga (in the plot as well) by instead of "just" objectifying girls, not-just-flat out saying Utena looks best as a princess, but y'know the fact that he is implicitly yet constantly exploiting and victim-blaming Anthy for her own suffering for "the power of Dios/Revolution of the world" turns it on its head
I've spent all this time on characters but in truth a lot of the meat of the show relies again on the Council Members fleshing out the issues of system leading to outright divorcing "being a Prince" (heroic altruistic virtues) and "being a man" (considering like all but maybe the comedic relief have some deliberately misogynistic behavior) and beyond just the plot (or rather character) synopsis, the talent goes far more in how it's framed, the symbolic/allegorical shots, the repetition adding a good episode formula flow to character showcases, probably the most "tasteful" allusion to uh...*ahem* sexual abuse that so many other edgier/prentious shows fumble. Both in how intimidating yet understated it's foreshadowing is until they hard-reveal it despite never explicitly naming it even tho it sends Nanami into hysterics
Really it's both a massive blessing and reason for it's cult beloved status for it's aesthetics but also it's burden, for being a full 39 episodic season by season character development study of everyone BUT the main trio except for snippets and the very end that makes it greatly appreciable as a legitimate work of art.
What I wanted more to say however (long overdue) is that a large part of following is, visibly at least, western feminist critiques and yes while it almost seems like Utena fits the "deconstructing patriarchy" story like a glove...it's weird how almost none of them actually can give a good historical account of actual Japanese female/gender/sexuality norms nor Anime contemporaries actually were. Like Tenchi Muyo and Berserk came out the same year (Cardcaptor Sakura the next) and despite how you can "feel" the influence in lots of modern shows like SHAFT's signature visual imagery cuts or many WESETERN shows having straight scene references to Utena....almost no one has a similar feel to Utena until like Princess Tutu comes out.
Really tho probably should've watched Utena and then Tutu because while it's undeniable that Utena is a major pillar of shoujo re-codification - what with everyone before Utena was saying they thought it'd be like a Rose of Versaille or Lady Knight rip-off...whose laughing now? - it's almost like there's a missing link between it and it's major western fanbase (probably with what few anime did get overseas, this one probably rose to the top), or how very noticeable there IS an influence on it's genre in Japan
Almost none of the big analyst fans actually know A) it's not "a deconstruction of Magical Girls" since despite Ikuhara working on Sailor Moon just before this, almost none of the tropes line up and instead more with Shoujo genre as a whole. or one of the major inspirations was Takarazuka theater.
And this is not to dismiss how inspirational it is to it's western fandom, but while I am notably cynical towards placing things on pedestals, there's probably something about cultivating the whole pop-culture feminist reading commune with people making weird time-loop theories while kinda most of it is just filling in a mad-lib mostly thanks to Ikuhara just keeping things on the vague and letting the audience take away their own perspective.
Again, most of the show is completely sub-textual or visually/symbolically depicted and never stated nor properly defines it's weird key words (End of the World, Revolutionize the World, Power of Dios, Rose Bride, all things said constantly but never really said what they "mean". But that's also perhaps its charm, in it's allegory and very Death of the Author approach, it has definitely allowed it's fan theorizing and appreciation to flourish so there's something there for that.
Ultimately I'd say Utena the TV series is great more so for what it isn't...or rather I should say it's great for not just subverting Shoujo tropes and archetypes for the Japanese audience but also that despite dealing with some very serious and heavy subjects in obtuse and perhaps understated ways for the time, people have allowed it to be put on it's pedestal because they can easily fit it in themselves.
Honestly though, not that a more "straight forward" approach wouldn't detract from Utena but I will say that the movie, Adolescence of Utena, is very much the best encapsulation of what Utena strives to be (for another big blog post) and while the TV series has plenty of time and flexes it's directorial muscles with budget constraints and season pacing UNrestrained, the movie will trim a lot of the fat
#long post#Revolutionary Girl Utena#I haven't actually done my Anime thoughts in a while#Maybe I'll keep this on my main blog this time#I wrote this mostly on facebook tho if I wrote it here first I'd better integrate images probably#anolyso's media time#uh...except now that's on my main blog
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Binge-Watching: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Episodes 37-39
Bravo
Just... Bravo.
Sugar and Spice
You know, it’s funny. One of the first things everyone tells you about Ikuhara as a director, whether they’re fans or not, is how obtuse and symbolism-driven his shows are. Everyone talks about how many metaphors the dude layers into his work, how you need to read deeply into every single image to parse out the meaning. And that’s true to some extent; Ikuhara does not exactly create the most accessible shows in existence. From Utena to Penguindrum to Sarazanmai, the way he tells stories invites you to fill in blanks he doesn’t fill in himself. His work can be confusing or unclear, or even just confidently non-literal. He asks you to work out the meaning for yourself, whether or not he’s given you all the tools to do so effectively.
But every once in a while, it seems like even he gets tired of all the pussyfooting around and decides to just explain his symbolism outright so even the thickest audience member can understand it.
Anthy’s statement that “girls are all like Rose Brides” pretty much confirms that my reading from last session was 100% true. The title of Rose Bride is just a literalization of the pressure that society places on women and girls, the way it commodifies them and turns them into prizes to be fought over, lacking any agency to enact meaningful change in their own lives. It’s a box to squash them into, until whatever individual personality they once had is erased and papered over by the designation of Female and all the submissive surrender that implies. Every woman has felt the chains of the Rose Bride hold them down at some point in their life, whether an abusive boyfriend, a toxic work environment, an overly traditional family, or any number of the conscious and unconscious social structures in our society designed to keep them in place. Anthy may be the character who actually bears that curse, but the patriarchal tyranny represented by Akio has no issue treating all the women around him in the same way. Just listen to how he condescends to Utena, telling her over and over again that girls shouldn’t wield swords, girls shouldn’t be princes, girls should just shut up and let themselves be saved by the men in their lives. Hell, he literally tries to take away her own internal sword, telling her that the literal representation of her heart is better off in the hands of a man. You can’t get a more cutting metaphor for this monster’s attempts to rob her of her very personhood.
The False Castle
And speaking of Akio’s manipulations, there was one last plot twist waiting for us in this final stretch, and it’s possibly the best goddamn twist of the entire show: the dueling ground is Akio’s observatory. All this fucking time, Utena, the student council, the members of Black Rose, they’ve all been fighting right under the prodigal asshole’s watchful eye. All those crazy props that littered the stage during the later duels, like the desks and cars? Projections from the observatory’s telescope, which I guess has the power to make hard light objects. The castle floating in the sky? Another projection. The giant symbolic building that everyone’s been fighting for was never even real. It was a perfectly crafted illusion designed to lure in the desperate and foolish, making them believe they were fighting for a shot at eternity when all they were fighting for was a chance to be used by Akio as an unwilling key to open the gateway to eternity for himself. That means that all this crazy symbolism we’ve been seeing over the course of the duels was actually fucking real. It wasn’t just a directorial flourish to represent the characters’ mental states, it existed within the show’s universe. THERE WAS ACTUALLY AN EXPLANATION. How fucking bananas is that? I can’t believe Ikuhara found a way to make his symbolism make both metaphorical and literal sense. I bow my hat to you, sir. Seriously, well fucking done. No goddamn wonder Akio doesn’t actually have any interest in the stars: this observatory was never meant to look skyward in the first place.
And it really is the perfect image, isn’t it? The last piece of information we’re told is that Akio and Dios are technically the same person, as foreshadowed by plenty of previous clues. Dios was the hero Akio used to be, but when Anthy saved him all those years ago, that persona was ripped away from him and now exists as a quasi-real spirit figure, just barely still holding on to reality. With the heroic side gone, Akio’s curdled into the bastard he is today. He accepts no responsibility for the hurt he’s caused, telling Anthy to blame the world, not him, for how she’s suffered under him. He victim-blames Utena for keeping up her relationship with him, as if a middle school girl is more culpable than the adult man who took advantage of her. The eternity he promises is the happily ever after of fairy tales, the perfect prince with his perfect princess living on forever and ever. And if his own sister must suffer eternally as humanity’s witch to make that dream real? That’s just a price he’s willing to let her pay. Besides, she’s happy now. This is the only way she can truly be happy. It’s the logic of an abuser through and through. But he still sees himself as the gallant prince he used to be, slaying evil and coming to the rescue of maidens in distress, even as he does nothing but mistreat, assault, and degrade the people around him. As he even mentions himself, the castle Utena thought she was ascending to was, in the end, nothing more than the fetid den where he enacted his worst crimes upon Anthy. A projected image of an ideal that doesn’t exist, luring you in to be swallowed whole by the scummy, all-too-human monster using it as bait.
In the end, Utena really did find her prince. Her search for her noble savior brought her, literally, symbolically, and metaphorically, right into Akio’s cursed arms. And just like the false castle that drew her eyes, she didn’t realize the true nature of the dream she was chasing until it was almost too late.
The Fool Reborn
And Utena comes so terrifyingly close to giving up. The pressure Akio exerts over her almost turns her into exactly the damsel in distress he wants her to be. She takes her ring off for the first time, thinking that a prince’s attire no longer suits the girl who slept with an older man. She continues hanging out with him, despite now knowing what kind of person he is, perhaps believing she deserves it. No longer trusting Anthy after last night’s revelations, she’s separated herself from the person she thought she could confide in the most. And Anthy, in her eternal sadness, seems all too happy to keep suffering in silence and let the pain swallow her whole (”Pardon me. This isn’t mine, it’s yours.” Yeah, she ain’t talking about the toast there.) She’s spiraling faster and faster, and if someone doesn’t catch her, she’s going to completely self-destruct. But miracle of miracles, someone does come along to catch her: all her former opponents. Yes, after so long trading blows on the dueling ground, the members of the student council are no longer the same antagonistic forces they used to be. They’re a little older, a little wiser, a little more self-assured, a little more aware of the problems with the way they’ve carried themselves. Without Utena knocking some sense into them, they never would have started down the long, slow path to self-recovery. And now that Utena’s in a crisis of her own, it only makes sense to return the favor.
And Christ, I fucking love this scene. After so long being at each other’s throats, watching them just play a casual game of badminton as they hash out their issues one last time really makes you appreciate how far they’ve come. And as they volley questions and shuttlecocks back and forth, Utena comes to realize how much they’ve all changed since they first met. Nanami stepping in as the rare voice of reason! Miki and Juri revealing they’ve both sort-of fallen for Utena after getting over their toxic feelings for their previous crushes! Not only that, they’re all aware of how much they’ve changed. Nanami acknowledges how obsessive she can be as she encourages Utena not to let her worst instincts betray her (”I get stupid when I’m around you!”) Miki takes a casual attitude toward how his affections have shifted: “Can’t I change my mind?” Juri’s equally nonchalant about wanting Utena’s picture to be the one in her new locket. How remarkably easy it seems in retrospect. How infinitely capable are humans of becoming something other than we used to be if what we once were no longer suits us. Utena is no longer the person she used to be, but that doesn’t mean she needs to be the person she’s turning into either. Only she gets to decide that much. Only she gets to figure out who she wants to be. And in the end, there was only one choice she was ever going to make.
In the end, who she wants to be is someone she’s been from the beginning: a fool who believes in true friendship.
On the Balcony
Which brings me to the first of two scenes in this finale that utterly fucking destroyed me. After years of suffering Akio’s abuses, years of burdening herself with endless pain, after everything she and Utena have gone through in the past months, Anthy finally breaks. It’s too much heartache. It’s too much fear. It’s too much internalized self-loathing. Trapped in a vicious cycle that’s stripped her of her humanity and dragged down the one person who genuinely cared for her, Anthy tries to throw herself off a balcony. To erase herself from the world and escape the eternal agony she’s lost all hope of ever healing from. But just as she falls from the edge, Utena’s hand is there. It reaches out. It grabs her own. It holds her steady and pulls her back from the brink. It pulls her back into the arms of the girl who always promised to save her.
And after thirty-seven episodes of dancing around each other, hiding their feelings, unable to give voice to the pain they hold inside, unable to confide in each other... Anthy and Utena finally talk to each other.
God. Fucking god. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment? Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for these two to stop holding back and finally let their walls down? To hear Anthy choke back tears as she says she thought it was okay for her to be abused and misused, because she didn’t think she had a heart worthy of being broken? To hear her break down with the guilt of having caused Utena pain and admitting all the lies she’s told her? To hear Utena in turn apologize for never realizing the pain she was suffering? To hear her admit the shallowness and egoism of playing a prince to save her, despite not being able to heal the wounds that truly mattered? To hear her admit that her first instinct upon Anthy revealing the secret of her and Akio, reaching out for help in the most desperate manner possible, was to feel betrayed instead of realizing the true horror of Anthy’s situation? Every repressed feeling, every mistake they made, every regret they could never move past, all of it comes pouring out in a single, overwhelming tide, and it just fucking broke me. I was weeping openly and proudly all throughout that litany of confessions. God, they did it. They fucking did it. After spending the entire series circling each other from a distance, these two flawed, suffering people finally found their way into each other’s arms. And it’s a sight so beautiful it chases away the night.
The Prince Defeated
But accepting their pain is only the first step. The monster that drove them to this point still has his claws in them. If they truly want to step back from this ledge, they need to make sure Akio can never reach them again. And Anthy’s still too traumatized from years of abuse and coercion to dream of defying him. She begs Utena to leave her behind and run, run far away where she and her brother can never hurt her again. But Utena takes the second choice: stand and fight. There’s no way in hell she’s leaving Anthy to suffer anymore. Not when she finally understands the true extent of her pain. Not after chasing this destiny for her entire life. She chose to be a prince to save Anthy from her despair, and there’s no way in hell she’s turning back now. No matter how terrifying the path ahead, she’ll face it head-on, clasping Anthy’s hand tightly and never letting her go again. It took her far to long to realize, but she’s sure of it now: she loves Anthy Himemiya. She came all this way just to save her. And no one- no god, no devil, no prince, no monster- is going to stand in her way. She fights back with all her strength! She matches Akio blow for blow in a final, furious duel! Her conviction pierces the projected illusions and finally brings the false castle crashing down, just as Saionji saw all those episodes ago! It’s a brilliant, breathtaking light show! The full might of the prince Utena’s always aspired to be, blazing with all her courage intact as she carries the mantle Dios abandoned all those years ago!
But just when it looks like she’s going to win... a blade spears her through the back.
I don’t think I can adequately express the sheer horror that burned through me when Anthy betrayed Utena. I don’t even recall if I made a noise or was too traumatized to manage anything other than a silent gaping scream. I have seen so many shows try and fail to pull a last-minute twist where the hero is betrayed by someone they were trying to save, pulling the maneuver out of their ass for a cheap, unsatisfying shock to try and make things feel more meaningful. It almost never works, and it almost always reeks of laziness and contrivance. But this? This fucking hurt. This fucking speared me through the gut just as surely as Utena. All the courage she showed, all the determination that drove her forward, and it still wasn’t enough. Because it could never be enough. No matter how hard she fought, no matter how desperately she struck against evil, Anthy’s prison was never one a prince could break. A knight in shining armor could never free her from the chains Akio imposed upon her. A hero could never slay the self-loathing that bound her to the man who made her life a living hell. Utena was fighting a losing battle from the start, playing a rigged game she had no chance of winning. And Anthy would rather strike her down right there than force her to become the next victim of the system that kept her locked up.
The Rose Gate
And so, Utena falls. The prince fails one last time. Anthy surrenders to her jailer. The path is clear for Akio to open the way of revolution. The door to eternity, bound by roses, is the last barrier he must pry open. He strides forth, accompanied by a shimmering rose mosaic on the wall, shedding bitter tears in a pathetic attempt to guilt Anthy into overcoming her regrets and joining him once again. And once again, Anthy is ripped to shreds by the swords of humanity’s hatred. The last guardian of the rose gate is the endless storm of steel that flays apart all those fooling enough to reach for eternity. It is for that reason the Rose Bride was created: to bear the wrath of unending slaughter, taking all humanity’s sins on their head while the supposed noble prince grasps his prize all on his own. It’s horrifying. It’s brutal. It’s utterly eviscerating and tears your heart from your chest. And Utena desperately tries to stand up, pleading Akio to turn back, to help the sister he claims to care about, to show even one glimmer of the hero he used to be, for there to be some way, any way, to save Anthy from this torment. But no way comes. No one steps in to save Anthy. Even Dios, the power Utena’s always relied on when her own falls short, tells her she’s done enough. There’s nothing more a girl can do. There’s no way left to save Anthy. She might as well give up, satisfied she did all she could. She might as well lie down and accept one last kiss from the prince who set her on this path in the first place.
But Utena rejects his kiss with a violent punch to the floor.
She rejects giving up.
She rejects thinking she can’t do anything just because she’s a girl.
She rejects the failed path of the prince.
She rejects every last role that’s even been placed on her, including by her own hands.
Utena Tenjou, broken and bruised, stands up.
And what follows is a sequence that officially solidifies the finale of Revolutionary Girl Utena as one of the greatest anime finales I’ve ever seen.
Love’s Revolution
The power to revolutionize the world. From the very start of the show, every character has been fighting for it. The student council has sought it. The black rose folks sought it. Akio sought it, and now stands on the verge of obtaining it. But try as he might, the door won’t open for him. Utena’s sword, the sword of the prince she used to be, shatters against it. Not a single prince has been able to breach that gate. So Utena pushes by him, grasping the gate’s handle as Anthy is skewered endlessly in the sky above. She pulls with all her might, even as her strength fails and her body crumples. She pulls as if her life depends on it. She pulls as Akio criticizes her from the sidelines, comparing her to the Dios he used to be, telling her that such childish determination won’t amount to anything. She pulls as everyone and everything tells her she can’t do anything. She pulls and screams in their face to shut up. She pulls not as a prince, not as a hero, not as a princess, not as a girl. She pulls as Utena Tenjou, who loves Anthy Himemiya with all her heart.
And before Akio’s stunned eyes... the door begins to open.
Except the door is no longer the rose gate that would grant the power of revolution. Why would it be? Utena’s desire was never to change the world. From the very start, she never cared about the foolish duels or the misguided motivations that trapped everyone within them. Her mission was always one single goal: save Anthy Himemiya. Rip the chains of the Rose Bride off her. Free this lost, frightened soul from her lifelong prison and allow her to stand on her own two feet at last. And what else should the door become but the door to Anthy’s coffin. The door to the prison she’s been trapped in all her life. The door that keeps her trapped in despair, unable to move on. The same coffin that Utena buried herself in when her parents died, the same coffin that Saionji spoke of to Touga, the same coffin representing everyone’s fears and regrets and trauma and paralysis. The same coffin that freezes everyone in place, victims of the lives they’ve lived, unable to break free of the systems that hold them in place. The same coffin that Utena was never able to open before, all those times she misread Anthy, all those times she was unable to see her despair, all those times she failed to open up to her.
But this time? This time, Utena holds nothing back. This time, she pulls with all the strength she was too scared to call upon until now. This time, she whispers, in a voice wracked with sobs, the words of her heart she was never able to say before:
“The only time I was really happy... was when I was with you.”
And just as the droplets of water unlocked the gate to the supposed “dueling arena” time and time again, Utena’s tears break through the seal.
The door to Anthy’s coffin- the door to Utena’s revolution- opens.
And inside is the true Anthy Himemiya, naked and bare, the girl Utena was always trying to save no longer hidden.
After almost thirty nine episodes... Utena and Anthy have met each other at last.
Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, I’m not ashamed to say that I fucking lost it. I descended into full-on Niagara Falls territory and didn’t let up for the rest of the episode. All the hardship, all the suffering, all the battles, all the twists and turns, all the lies and deceptions and hidden agendas, all the unspoken pain and repressed trauma, all to bring us to this one singular, perfect point, where two people finally let their defenses fall and see each other clearly for the first time. No longer are they a duelist and a rose bride, a prince and a witch, a broken ideal and a chained scapegoat. Now, at long last, they are nothing more or less than Utena Tenjou and Anthy Himemiya. Two girls with the strength to reach out to each other, to share each other’s pain, to open their hearts and let their love be known. The dream that Utena’s been fighting for, the mission she’s tried to hard to achieve, has finally come true: Anthy is free. The door to her coffin is open. The chains of the Rose Bride have been shattered. And it came not from the valor of a prince, not from the courage of a princess, but from something far more powerful than either of those restrictive roles: love. Love, in its purest, most unabashed form. Love, in its capacity to see someone as they truly are and let them see you just as clearly. Love, which tells you that you deserve to be happy. Love, which tells you that you deserve to be free. Love, which is the truest, greatest revolution that could ever wait on the other side of that door.
That’s the truth that Akio could never see, that Dios failed to realize, that the student council was blind to, that the Black Rose never even came close to realizing. The power to change the world lies not in some false notion of eternity designed to keep you frozen in place forever. It doesn’t lie in binding yourself to a broken system that only serves to drag you down. It lies in the simple kindness of reaching out. It lies in rejecting hatred. It lies in offering a shoulder to lean on when times get rough. It lies in owning up to your mistakes and resolving to be better. It lies in telling someone who’s been trapped all their life that they deserve to be free. Beyond all the upheaval and posturing and chaos, the power to bring the world revolution is nothing more or less than the power to give someone the strength to live their own life. After all, when the systems that govern out lives are based on oppression and misery themselves, what other revolution could there be... but love?
Someday, Together...
And for all the sacrifices, for all the missed opportunities, for all the failures and false starts along the way, Utena’s revolution is a success. Just for a moment, she and Anthy lock hands as their true selves. Just for a moment, they find the strength to save each other before Anthy’s coffin falls away with the collapsing arena. Utena becomes the new target for the swords of mankind’s hatred, gladly serving as their new scapegoat so that Anthy can walk free. In the end, the school goes back to normal, and Akio retains his position. But the people he had under his thumb are finding their own paths. Miki has taken Tsuwabuki under his wing. Juri has returned to fencing on her own terms. Touga and Saionji spar as friends once more, giving each other the strength to strive to be better. Nanami seems an infinitely more well-adjusted and eager member of their friend group than she ever has before. Wakaba has found a new friend who’s just as doting and loving toward her as she herself once was Utena, and she deserves all the loving cuddles she’s about to receive. And Anthy? Anthy makes the single bravest choice of the entire show: she leaves. She leaves Akio, leaves the school, leaves the abusive environment she’s been trapped in for god knows how long. Akio can stay in his cozy coffin pretending to be a prince, but the former Rose Bride has no reason to play along anymore. She has no reason to stay on this sinking ship with a paralyzed coward who can only hurt other people in pursuit of an impossible goal. At long last, Anthy’s life is her own, and only she can decide what to do with it.
And what choice does she make now that her life is finally in her own hands? The same choice Utena made for her all those years ago. Wherever Utena is now, she’s far outside Akio’s clutches, some place he can never reach her. And this time, Anthy will be the one to save her. This time Anthy will be the voice of kindness come to pull Utena out of whatever prison she’s become trapped in. This time, they’ll be there to rely on each other through thick and thin, no matter how rough the path ahead may be. After all, they still have a date in ten years to look forward to. They still have so many promises to fulfill. They still have so much life ahead of them, far from any princes or princesses or false idols desperate to tear them down.
We still have so much life to live.
We still have all the time in the world.
We still have so many revolutions, big and small, left to undertake.
And someday, together... we’ll shine.
Odds and Ends
-It bears repeating: this OP fucking slaps.
-”It’s been a long time since we’ve ridden on a bike together.” Oh, just kiss him already.
-”What a coincidence. I put poison in your tea.” sdfkhsdkfh WHAT
-Christ, they’re even bringing back the cursed therapy elevator.
-So. The red carpet leading toward the final door. The side characters having a cookout as they wait for the protagonist to come back safely. Lesbian lovers falling from a tower and suffering the sins of dreaming. Gee, I wonder which show’s tragic ending Revue Starlight was subverting.
Wow. Okay. This has been the single largest amount of time I’ve ever spent on an analysis post for this blog. This took me close to four hours to write. So you all better fucking appreciate it. I’m gonna go shower, and once I’ve given my wrists a chance to recover, it’ll be time for me to give my final thoughts on this truly one-of-a-kind show.
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What character(s) from other fandoms that you're a part of remind you the most of Catra? Personally, I don't think I've seen too many, aside from maybe Vegeta from DBZ and maybe Jason Todd from DC comics but that's about it for me
Ok, anon, thanks for your patience. Let's go.
Firstly, I have two ladies that do give me a similar vibe to Catra (though they aren't 100% matches as you'll see.) And I want you to take particular note of that: it's very telling that the characters you mentioned are both dudes. This is something I have been thinking about for literally decades because it is a deeply entrenched stereotype in our culture: male abuse victims are angry, frustrated loners who lash out until they find that one (girl) person that gets through their facade, female abuse victims are portrayed as either anxious messes (more common in recent years) or as just... These smiling caricatures who continue to pretend to be happy because that's what our societies expect women to be. And this is something I took note of at a very early age, because as someone growing up with an abusive birth father I looked to the MALE characters as a guide book on how to act, because getting angry and lashing out was what made sense to me at the time and I resented the hell out of that unspoken implication that I was supposed to just suck it up and plaster on a smile when I wanted to rage against the injustice of what I was dealing with. In hindsight it wasn't great behavior, but it was what I needed to keep myself sane at the time. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I have waited my whole life for a character like Catra: someone who is reflective of my experiences as an ex-abuse victim, someone who is angry and wrathful and still allowed to be sympathetic. Now on to our two ladies.
First up: Vriska Serket from Homestuck. (I know, Homestuck is a huge fandom with a lot of assholes, but I do still enjoy the original comic. I just don't interact with the fandom.) Vriska and Catra both have similar vibes in the way they project their outward personas of being the badass bitch who takes no shit and is on top of things, but we all know that's a lie. And they both come from abusive backgrounds: Vriska was forced to become a killer at a very young age because her parental guardian (a literal giant spider) would eat her if Vriska didn't feed her other kids. Doesn't excuse her jerkass tendencies or her terrible actions, but that was how she started out. And Catra's deal with SW needs no explanation.
They both have developed very similar gadfly tendencies in order to maintain a sense of control around other people (though Vriska is a lot more mean spirited about it) and both have moments when the facade cracks and they show actual sincerity and frustration at themselves and other people. The main difference between them is that Vriska's actions are driven by a sense of grandiose self-importance that she has cultivated and fed into as a way to avoid looking at her own actions (because she's the best, so everything she does is awesome, right?) whereas Catra's primary driving motivation is pain: either making sure she doesn't have to hurt anymore or hurting those who hurt her. Plus Catra grapples with her sense of guilt a lot throughout Spop and maintains those sympathetic undertones while Vriska's moments of clarity are so rare that you basically have to keep a chart to locate them. But you could totally picture them both teaming up to make fun of their respective frenemies, assuming they didn't kill each other first for reminding themselves of their deep underlying self-loathing.
Second candidate: Anthy Himemiya from Revolutionary Girl Utena. And boy howdy, if anyone is interested in this show and wants to avoid spoilers, skip to the end now, because we're going on a deep and dark journey here.
At first glance, she and Catra don't have much in common. In fact, she seems to fit the stereotype I described above: the placid smiling doll who takes the abuse and keeps going. Key word: seems to. Anyone who actually watches the show knows exactly where I'm going here.
We're introduced to Anthy as the "Rose Bride": the prize in a series of sword fights between students at a very strange school, with the ultimate promise being that whoever owns the Rose Bride at the end of the duels will gain some nebulous ultimate power. And yeah, I said "own" for a reason: whoever possesses the Rose Bride effectively owns her and some of the most uncomfortable scenes in the show reinforce the fact that Anthy tailors her thoughts and actions to whoever currently controls her. And as you can expect, this leads to BUCKETS of abuse. Literally everyone in this show is culpable in some manner for this, no matter how well intentioned.
But remember that "seems to?" Because that's only one side of Anthy; the outward persona if you will. On the other side of the coin you have Anthy the Witch, and that's where the parallels with Catra come into play and why Anthy was my go-to abuse representation before Spop rocked my world. Because the big twist we find out at the end of the series is that Anthy and her older brother Akio (formerly Dios) are the former literal personifications of the fairytale damsel in distress princess and the noble prince on a white horse, respectively.
But the balance was upset: having to constantly go around saving people was literally killing Dios, because one of the major points of RGU is that you can assist people in saving themselves but doing it yourself strips them of agency and traps them in a cycle of needing to be saved again and again. The more people the noble prince saved, the more people needed saving. When it became clear that he couldn't keep going, Anthy took a stand and prevented the people coming for Dios (angry that he wasn't saving them anymore) from getting to him, and thus incurred the wrath of everyone and got skewered alive by an angry mob in the process. This isn't hyperbole: the role of the Rose Bride is to instinctively bring out the disdain and hatred of everyone on the planet. It's a punishment for stepping out of line, for not being the placid princess who needs to be rescued anymore.
Because we're operating on fairy tale logic, no longer being a princess means that Anthy became a witch, and no longer being the prince made Dios into satanic archetype Akio. So behind the scenes of the entire show, Anthy is the witch assisting her brother in orchestrating the duels, and their ultimate goal is to find someone pure of heart enough to embody those princely virtues Dios once possessed and to steal that power so Akio can return to being who he once was. All of the psychological torments and head games are designed to weed out the potential candidates to find that special someone... Except it's an impossible goal because no human being can live up to that standard. And with each atrocity they commit it becomes even more impossible to return to being that person.
Ok, tangent done, here's where it gets interesting: Anthy is a character with two sides to her, the suffering Rose Bride fated to endure the hatred of the entire world and the Wicked Witch who manipulates and orchestrates the torment of those around her. But here's the deal: she's a victim too. She's a victim of a system that won't let her be anything other than these two binaries; she's a victim of her brother who has all the power over her and has trapped her in a codependent incestuous relationship, and I don't care how awful the things she's done are: nobody deserves to go through the shit she does. So with all of that in mind, the actions that she goes through as the witch make perfect sense. Why shouldn't she torment these people who do nothing but abuse her and deny her of agency? Even the best hearted of the duellists (aka the ones who don't hit her or abuse her sexually) nonetheless fall into the trap of projecting their own biases and expectations onto her, biases that her role dictates she carry out. Her actions as the witch aren't right, but nothing about this situation is. That's the entire point.
And that's where she ties into being like Catra. Catra does some truly fucked up things, but it doesn't cancel out the fact that she's an abuse victim that has been literally tortured for most of her life for no good reason and has received zero acknowledgement of that abuse in universe. And much like Anthy, she can't begin to heal until the situation is acknowledged, because that's literally step one of breaking the cycle: confirming that this is not okay and that no one deserves the shit she's been through. Just knowing that herself isn't enough: it's acknowledgement from others that enables that process to begin, because no one can recover from abuse in a vacuum. You need outside people to be touchstones, because so much of recovering from abuse is confronting the way it warps your perception and thought processes. You need at the minimum one normal perspective to give you that, preferably more, but one minimum.
Hurting the people who care about her is definitely not okay and I'm not excusing her actions in that category, but it doesn't change the fact that she is justified in wanting to rage and lash out, because she is still trapped in that cycle. She can't heal or let go because the process hasn't even been started. She's not off the hook for the things she's done, but neither should she be automatically condemned without taking those factors into account (which is the entire reason why the distinction between an excuse and a justification exists.)
And if I can be a little pithy... The other similarity between Catra and Anthy is I can guarantee that in twenty years people will STILL be arguing over whether or not Catra "deserved" to be freed from her abusive situation.
Good God this turned into an essay. Hope this makes up for how long it took, anon. And anyone else who makes it this far, treat yourself. You earned it.
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Revolutionary Girl Utena 25-29
Hey we’re 10 eps away from the endgame and me actually properly compiling this into something comprehensible because ohgodi’mtryingnottothinkaboutcreepyfuckakio.
Sick flips on him though shit i’ll give him that.
Episode 25
So in light of the next episode preview, the opening is 100% more ominous.
Uh...Uh..Cars? Driving?Is...That Akio in the car?
WHO THE FUCK IS THAT. Akio?Uh...Uh...Am I reading too deep? That whole driving sequence felt...uh.
Goddamnit akio.
Holy shit the room is nice though. Like damn.
Wakaba...Ok, I get it.
Akio just god.
….Roses cutting between utena and anthy and family. Uh...hm.
Oh...Uh...Akio looked furious.
WHO THE FUCK IS THAT? Who are these people in the bck?
Rose duel place got...a gondola? Changed up?
The baseball metaphor suggests Saonji about to get blown the fuck out?
OH GOD NO FUCK PLEASE.
MORNING STAR? DERIVATIVE NAME? THIS FUCKER IS THE DEVIL
Anthy Framing is...uh...metaphro. Terrifying.
Is...Is anthy Jealous?
The Evil Laugh cinches any chance of this being ok.
….the Yin Yang thing? Again...
you seem familiar to me too? Uh...Anthy?
...Is that Dios?
THE TRUTH IS WHAT? WHATS THE TRUTH ANTHY?
Saionji played himself.
….Is...The car thing...What the hell? Why did his shirt fly open. And the Car...?
….What's with the horn...?
Akio, why do you look like a knock off dios...?
Is this a Touga Saionji centric ep...? Is this a bro moment? I mean fuck touga, he ain't trustworthy, saionji had it right.
Akio saved the Girl who is implied to be utena. But...He's been in the castle for years.
Akio where the FUCK is your shirt.
Ok, that was actually cool as hell, I just wish he wasn't you know...Him.
...Saionji feelin himself again after the ride with Akio. Which...God, i'm hoping it's just me reading too much into shit and not that what I think happened happened.
Saionji, what the actual shit. Why is it every time you drop further down?
Shadow girls old schoolll?
Half the suffering twice the pleasure...?
Oh shit is this a new Apocalypse? Yeah man. YEAH MAN SHIT LOOKS DOPE ABSOLUTE
WHAT THE FUCK UTENA YOU NOT GONNA REACT TO ANTHY JUST...ANY OF THAT?
What's with the tree?...Is the lipstick new?
But the flower bush through anthy's clothes...?
That car...?
….He's not wrong at the moment about the lack of will.
What the fuck is going on with these cars...?
Oh...Oh boy saionji that face. I just realized he shows up almost without fail when shits about to go wrong.
...The Sword...? What the fuck? Did Anthy...?
Is this a remix?
….Uh...Huh. That's...Utena's Sword? That 's utena's sword. I guess...Drawn from her by Anthy. For the first time really clearly showing volition.
….Oh god damnit. Akio. Fucking.
The Sword of Dios did not appear..?Huh.
Anthy hesitated and...Akio hm. Yeah, I mean no surprise but.
And Akios made of stars now.
OH SHIT NEW CLOSING?
On the elevator...And stars? Something BIG changed I think. That's what it feels like but fucking what? ABSOLUTELY NO DIOS here, no akio like, none of it. Just anthy and utena.
Huh. So is everyone fighting Utean again?
Episode 26
Oh hey, I guess the uncomfortable car ride is the new thing.
And now Akio want's Anthy engaged to someone else huh. WONDER WHY.
And Touga. Touga you being played. You don't even realize. Or do you?
...Kozue how did you...?
Birds?
Also, jessu you two please.
Chuchu what the hell are you doing.
Kozue. Uh...?
That person. What's the beef with their parents.
Also, why does Anthy know so much about birds?
The voice thing was....?
Akio, what do you think of her. Yee. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
ANTHY DO SOMETHING YOU'RE LIKE THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD!?
Also, is the sleeping thing a new repeat scene?
Harsh as hell indeed. Typical Anthy.
Defeat Utean for the good of the duelists.
Adults saying it's for their own good, not trustworthy huh.
Also that chair.
What the fuck is anthy doing at Miki's dads place...?
Is...Is that ACTUALLY anthy?I don't think so...Anthy as a symbol?????
What? WHAT THAT...can't be right.
GOD DAMNIT AKIO. Wait, isn't this the same shit Touga pulled?
Touga....Goddamnit. Wait. This is person 2 saying I reject being a duelist, and Touga shows up like some weird fucking devil.
THERE! CAN'T YOU HEAR IT!?
New Hellavator confirmed.
Kozue and Miki? MIKI HE'S DATING A SCHOOL GIRL ITS NOT OK
...Yeah the...disheveledness. This uh...Hm.
Become impure as well. Lose your purity. uh. Uhhhhhh....
The fucking rose? AGAIN?
Seduced Touga. Yeah, ok, the implication is uh...yeah.
Utena standing on the landmine. Utena's oh no is yeah.
Ufo Crash? Again? Gambling Shadow Girls...? This is clearly about Miki getting suckered.
So Absolute destiny time and...Yeah, some weird shit is going down here. And it seems like Utena is ABSOLUTELY fucking shit up for someone.
Oh wait, anthy's outfit full of pink roses. Filled up with thoughts of Utena? Huh.
BLUE ROSEBRIDEOUTFIT?...wait what? But it's Kozue. And no longer trying to draw anthy's sword huh.
Kozue...What the fuck?
And Miki, I thought you were over this shit.
Why are they...both in the car. oh..Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. And Anthy is just kinda dead.
Um. Uh...Kozue....? what the Actual fuck are you doing? I mean I know what it looks like so. But Uh...And Anthy, you wain't doing nothing?
Straight up called Miki a coward...Which..ok. I think I get why...? I don't get why.
Do you have any problems you can't tell people about...?
Episode 27
...Wait is this Nanami's Duel time? Oh boy...
What's with eggs though...?
Did...did she lay an egg....? Is...Is this a menstration thing....?
I can't tell if this is literal or a symbol because this series is just like that.
Full on ATE that ball to the face. God.
I'm not even sure if this is filler episode nonsense because it's just...
I mean we got the boy, so probably “filler” but...
...So it was actually laid. And it looks like a easter egg.
...Rose again.
THIS 100% reads like some kind of discovering new things about your body thing. Like I ain't familiar with young girls fiction so...
oh hey it's juri.
Making fun of me for being so late its...
this bowling ball thing is...what.
This
What the fuck I can't even.
Juri looking FRESH on the blowing alley.
So...What's even going on here. What's the...
These fucking Songs for nanami though.
I'm half waiting for the episode to reveal yeah laying eggs it's the thing that happens you know how it is.
JESUS. The Boy Hey if there's a problem I want you to talk to me. Which is Utena and anthy ALL over again. So...Nanami's reaction is...Anthy's...?
….Anthy. Anthy do you know what happened? With whatever weird bullshit I 100% believe you had something to do with it.
…............I prefer girls. I too prefer Girls
Touga: ITS ONLY BOYS AND GIRLS WHO GET TOGETHER THAT WAY. NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT FEELS.
Also, going against gods plan huh...?
is...what...is the what is the egg metaphor even DOING here. Like, pitty the family who's daugther lays eggs and...what.
Shadow Girls....wha...what the fu
treating this like an actual child which...ok...uh...what is...
Is the egg laying thing a saying that didn't translate?
Another song...?
Saionji what the fuck are you...doing.
Eggs are something you normally eat.
Jessu nanami got the blows.
Saionji, Hey you want some eggs I got eggs. Midnight Egg Frying. Respect for that.
...now utena and Anthy...wha...what?
Do you believe in reincarnation...? Elephants dying by themselves.
Yes utena, why are we talking about this.
...Wait, if Nanami is Anthy....did...wait...I...do not
what the christ is happening with this egg.
Oh hey, the chick broke the shell.
Was that a dream ANOTHER EGG?
Also, why are we getting a filler episode. We usually only get those after some hardcore nonsense.
….Why does anthy look so fucking sad.
Episode 28
Oh hey, it's a rose. ...Also, prefers girls, next episode is about Juri. uh...hm.
Who's this douchebag.
Why is this music so fucking ominous. Did Akio bring in a ringer.
...Did they draw? He won.
Ex Captain. Is this the dude Shiori was into.
Luka Suchi(spelling?). The Actual Captain. Ruka. Ruka.
He a duelist. And Juri doesn't sound happy about it.
Who is this douchebag. Touga 2.0 Better. Smoother(?) Bluer?
Is...Is he the only male fencer there...? Wait, are the fencers mostly women?
Tsuchiya. So it was the captain then who Shiori was into and did that whole thing. No wonder she doesn't like him.
Uh hold up, I mean you do you. Oh the two seem happy. Well...that's..fine...?
Oh here's Juri, lookin fucking pissed.
Keep your hands off Shiori.
Ruka is...suspect as fuck I mean that's a given but.
Hey it's the bed again.
OH YOU GET BAD VIBES FROM RUKA AND NOT AKIO? HOW. HOW HES 100000% LESS SUSPECT AND YET?
I mean it sucks for Juri, but Oh nope there he's doing it to piss off juri for some reason. What a douche. Damn.
Deffo Touga 2.0 Less overtly sexual though so...Improvement...?
What the...What the hell did Ruka do that she doesn't trust him so much?
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE TOUGA?
….Is...the Car? Juri? It's gotta be right?
Finally someone looking at him with sufficient what the fuck
…..You're an adult now...uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Where did your...shirt go..
AKIO AKIO WHAT.
THROB OF THE ENGINE
Car is 10000000% something about sex, but like...
Shiori feels...odd. Here.
Shadow girls. What...? god what? um...the...ok. That felt...weirdly uncomfortable.
The gap between these shadow girl duel car sections is getting smaller I swear.
Another Rose Bride huh.
That was oddly humble of a duelist admitting he might lose.
Homie is WEIRDLY humble and it is throwing me no lie.
So wait, the car is I guess sex or something so...wait, does that mean that Kozue and Anthy had sex at some point.?
And I suppose them crashing is the things didn't work out kinda thing. Kozue looks fucked UP.
Ruka failed because of his rose bride? Huh. And then we cut to Juri...? hooooooooooboy. Nope don't like the implications at all there.
Episode 29
Believe in Miracles huh...Yeah it's...Juri time.
Oh she wasn't polishing Ruka's sword huh...
Oh damn this looks bad. Shiori you got attatched FAST. What the fuck...happened.
And she's just devastated so that's uh...not...greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.
Juri is PISSED.
Juri, I am NOT INVOVLED IN THIS RELATIONSHIP DRAMA. NOPE NOT I.
Anthy. ANTHY PLEASE JUST SAY SOMETHING GOD. PLEASE.
Shiori. Kinda...Kinda stalkery there.
Uuuuuuuugh. Another schemer. But Blue. With I guess Akio inbetween.
Shiori does not look...well. Her reaction to Juri seems...Uh..Hm.
Juri. Fuck him upppppppppp.
….Wow this got a bit uh...REALLY RAPEY NEVER MIND. FUCK THIS GUYYYYYYYYY.
Is...that why she...hm. Ruka is A DOUCHE. Full on. Goddamn.
...You challenged him to a duel? Juri. JURI NOOOOOOOO.
Goddamnit. Can't you hear it. Fucking hell akio again.
Gooooooooooooooooooooooodamnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
DO ANYTHING I ASKED YOU TO. DAMNIT
Is...ruka driving? No. that is not the case.
Ruka: I make you better.
Hoboy. Believe in miracles and they'll know your feelings. JURI said this?
Juri..Actually seems pretty in control here. Ok. Not happy about it but...Objectives.
Does nobody question these cars though?
DESTINY TIMMMMME.
God, can we get Ruka punched in the jaw? Just...Rocked right across the jaw a couple of times?
Juri is 1000000% not feeling this. Like...not at all
Juri losing when she's off her game don't count. She got played. That was that touga anthy bullshit all over again.
Actually...yeah it is isn't it. Hm
The Super Move Failed. And Juri is uh...not handling it. At all. There goes that brooch and...hoo. This is painful to watch.
Took the rose off. Fuck this shit.
Its...raining. That's...weird. Just on the dueling arena.
Hit him. HIT HIM.
I swear i'll make it right? Fucking how? HIT HIM.
Juri don't believe it.
And Ruka...fucked off? Huh?
Did...did Ruka die. So he...did that for...Juri? And...
what?
And her unreaction to the shadow girls....hm
wish as hard as you can and they will know your feelings huh.
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Thoughts on Revolutionary Girl Utena
So, as a first step in my ongoing effort to detox from 800 episodes of card games and expand my anime horizons a little, I've spent the last month or so watching Utena. Wow, what a cool and fascinating series! It honestly felt to me like a really strikingly bold and subversive show even by today's standards, let alone for the time it was made. Having had some time to think on it, here are some tentative thoughts:
While I definitely enjoyed and felt engaged with this show the whole way through, I think the last few episodes were what really pulled it all together for me. Up to that point, I absolutely loved Utena and Anthy as characters and their relationship, and found the general surreal presentation and aesthetics of the show really consistently beautiful and intriguing in a way that made it always feel engaging to watch, but it also felt like a kind of episodic and disjointed show where the various characters' stories didn't really seem to connect with or impact each other in any meaningful way.
But the endgame of the series was where it really took me by surprise in how it went so far beyond what I would have expected! The way the show had been framed up until then, I was basically expecting the big finale to be about Utena definitively making the choice to be Anthy's "prince" and rejecting the role of the "princess" that Akio wanted to push on her - and I would still have really appreciated and admired the show even for that alone, for Utena's gender non-conforming presentation and relationship with Anthy being portrayed so positively in general and for the way her feeling pressured to be more like a "normal girl" was always so explicitly framed as the "wrong choice" by the narrative - but I felt like the show really took things a step further in not just upholding Utena's role as the prince but outright rejecting the prince/princess framework and the hierarchy of the dueling game system altogether. It felt like such a daring ending to me in the way it totally breaks down and reframes the whole premise of the series up to that point, and made me look at a lot of the characters and themes of the series in a whole new light! It honestly made me realise that I'd probably been projecting my expectations of this kind of story on Anthy in much the same way as Utena had, and it made the show end up feeling really intelligent and insightful to me in its willingness not just to overturn gender role expectations on traditional romantic narratives and flip the bird to heteronormativity (which it still absolutely does, and does very well), but also to really question and criticise the assumptions behind those narratives on a fundamental level.
And the more I think about the series since then, the more I feel like so much of the series' broader imagery and themes really clicks for me in that light? The whole system of dueling over the Rose Bride feels like a very apt metaphor for the way so much of mainstream society and media does present romantic love, as a struggle to "win" your ideal partner as proof of your self-worth and as a magic cure for all your personal unhappiness and insecurities, as a sort of contest where the “losers” who can’t “get” a partner look up at the “winners” with envy and resentment - and the way Akio ultimately pulls back the curtain on that system to reveal that the ideal castle that all those people were fighting to reach was just a false image he was projecting to them to serve his own ends, that their attempts to escape their insecurities and "revolutionise the world" through winning the duels were really just upholding and reinforcing the status quo, felt really powerful to me. While I was watching the show, a lot of the side characters and their subplots had sort of frustrated me at times with their frequent emphasis on unrequited love stories that felt really obviously shallow and unhealthy, but I felt like the last few episodes really successfully reframed a lot of that to me as a remarkably perceptive commentary on just how much those kinds of empty romantic ideals and societal conventions can constrain people and warp their individual potential on a systematic scale.
In that sense, I feel like I can really appreciate the show's portrayal of how even fundamentally decent people like Miki and Saionji can be warped by the system into people willing to objectify Anthy and fight to possess her as a way of alleviating their own insecurities, even when they wouldn't have been naturally inclined to be that kind of person, through the pressure of the people around them accepting it as the norm and the false promise of the ideal happiness waiting on the other side. How people like Wakaba and Keiko can be made to believe that happiness is impossible for them and to resent the people around them for "stealing their happiness away", because everything around them has led them to the subconscious belief that the only "happiness" out there is being noticed by a popular guy like Touga or Saionji. Even Utena, the one who most explicitly rejects the dueling system and specifically sets out to treat Anthy as a real person with her own autonomy, still ends up unconsciously projecting her own ideals on her and playing into the established system in the ways she goes about being her "prince", because the influence of those flawed ideals and norms is so deep and pervasive that it's almost impossible not to internalise some of it.
It feels like something I can definitely relate to as someone who absolutely did buy into a lot of that crap as a teenager and seriously hurt other people as a result - and while I did eventually manage to break out and see the toxicity of the system for what it was, it's also horribly easy for me to see how easy it must be for people to stay constrained by it and live out their whole lives without "breaking the world's shell", without even realising how the toxic assumptions they've inherited from "the world" are killing them and distorting the ways they interact with other people - how their attempts at escaping from their insecurities are hurting themselves and others, and ultimately just perpetuating the same system that's strangling them. Akio is a horrifying villain because the ways he insidiously manipulates and influences the people around him feel absolutely real - he's able to play to people's vulnerabilities and unexamined assumptions, to make them follow along with his script while keeping them always genuinely believing that they're making their own independent decisions and fighting for their own happiness and fulfilment. It's very hard to fight something that embeds itself on such a deep and unconscious level in people's basic assumptions and frameworks for viewing themselves and the world, where people don’t even see the ways it’s influencing them.
But I think Utena's ending feels very honest and hopeful in acknowledging that, while the system can't really be defeated or destroyed by individual people in any meaningful way, what people CAN do is make the decision to step outside it and not allow it to have power over them - and, hopefully, to inspire other people to be able to make that choice for themselves too. That part towards the end of the film where the other student council members came to the rescue and helped Utena and Anthy escape, wishing them well in the outside world - "We still haven't found our own way out yet, but we'll definitely get there some day" - honestly made me tear up a little! It really communicated a strong sense of hope to me in the idea that these kids might have made a lot of mistakes and still have a lot of growing up to do, but it's still possible for them to break free from Ohtori and everything it represents the same way Utena and Anthy did - that the present doesn't have to keep following the way of the past. It’s still possible for the next generation to escape it and leave it behind. The whole imagery around the film's ending - "it may be a world without roads, but we can build them" - felt really uplifting and beautiful to me as well; as ridiculously bizarre and surreal as the film was in a lot of ways, it felt like it capped off the series' themes really nicely.
All in all, I ended up feeling really fulfilled and satisfied with this show! It feels like a very deliberate series that's extremely conscious of everything it wants to do, and generally executes it well. I would say I probably didn’t really connect with a lot of the individual character arcs on a particularly deep level - Juri's resolution with that one guy who popped in completely out of nowhere felt particularly odd to me, and I wasn't a huge fan of Nanami or Touga either - but I think it really nailed the bigger picture in terms of its thematic project and the ideas it wanted to convey, and on the whole I feel like I just have a huge amount of respect for the things it had to say and the way it went about saying them. The whole imagery of the setting with the school as an isolated, self-contained world with its inhabitants unknowingly being overseen and controlled by Akio from his tower as "the highest place in this world" really feels like such a strong and vivid metaphor to me, and I honestly felt really impressed with just how perceptively and accurately the show manages to portray the subtleties of the various ways social and patriarchal pressures really do operate on people (and on young teenagers who are still figuring out how love and relationships work in particular). It's weird to say about such a surreal and often goofy series, but I honestly feel like I haven't seen a story that approaches those kinds of subjects with this kind of clarity, and I feel like this show's framework has honestly helped me to reexamine and better understand a lot of my own messy teenage experiences as well. Definitely a show whose whole feels like more than the sum of its parts for me, I think, and one that I expect is going to stick with me for quite some time!
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The Boy Princess
An analysis of Saionji that Saionji himself would hate. Collected into one post at the request of an anon.
Once upon a time all the girls of the world were princesses. But what does that mean?
Princesses are saved by princes. Princesses are cherished, not for any particular qualities they have, but by their nature1. A princess’ suffering is never met with indifference and they’re allowed to want someone else to solve their problems. They’re allowed to be passive and dependent, but not allowed to stop being those things. And they are devoted to their prince.
Once upon a time Saionji had a friend he thought the world of. Touga was stronger, smarter, braver, always ahead of him in some indefineable way, and none of this was a reason to feel anything but glad that Touga had singled him out for attention. Then, one stormy night, he was suddenly faced with the awareness of fear and despair, with things people might need saving from, things that could make a child younger than him want to die. Also, with the awareness that Touga had already known, that he could face these things without fear2.
Saionji’s distress, though, doesn’t matter. Touga declares himself an ally to all girls, but his best friend calling out for him to stop doesn’t affect him. It’s with the logic of a child in the throes of hero worship that Saionji concludes that Touga had something eternal to show and showed it to a strange girl rather than him. He’s not wrong, though, to think that Touga wants to save, specifically, girls.
Before that Saionji trusted Touga enough that Touga being stronger and more driven didn’t matter. If Touga accidentally hurt him he would bandage him too. Touga might keep them out late, but he’d be the one to get them home3.
Afterwards, he loses that trust. Whatever Touga gains by being stronger will not be shared with Saionji. Saionji cannot be weak and still be worth something.
As a boy, if he wants to matter to Touga, he has to be his equal.
Saionji’s career as a duelist is ignominious from start to finish. He’s trying to be a stoic warrior type4, which – since he’s a very emotional person – results in vaccillating between anger and vicious glee.
Being equal to Touga is now necessary to even be safe around him. Saionji isn’t, so he isn’t, and even his scrambling to gain equality has become something for Touga to use against him. The first time we see them alone together Saionji whips a sword at Touga’s face and Touga doesn’t even flinch. No matter how often Saionji takes his frustration with Touga out on others, Touga’s the one person he would never willingly hurt, and Touga knows it.
The person Saionji mostly hurts is Anthy, who he’s convinced himself that he loves. She’s everything he thinks he ought to want, and Touga wants her enough to duel for her which makes her irresistible. He tries to convince himself she loves him, too, but never quite manages to forget she’s only with him because he owns her.
Saionji’s duels are “friendship” and “choice” in opposition to Touga’s duels of “self” and “conviction”. The qualities he’s trying to act on, though, are Touga’s not his own. The result is that he doesn’t successfully show any. He craves emotional connection but is, for good reason, widely disliked. Yet his sense of who he is alone is muddled at best. He stubbornly sticks to the duels but has no plan for how to accomplish things within them and winds up manipulated by anyone who offers him an opportunity – whether it’s dubious letters or Mikage bargaining for Wakaba’s hairclip.
Saionji’s final duel isn’t the conclusion of his character arc, but his lowest point. In an arc where the duels are based around relationships he enters the arena alone and “his” duel is really Utena and Anthy’s5.
Touga talks him into the duel, a role which will later be the bride’s, but leaves him to fight it alone6. As the only one who doesn’t have his sword, Saionji’s heart is quite literally not in the duel.
Saionji enters the last duel as a lone warrior who lets nothing stand in his way, especially such petty considerations as decency or feelings, and is promptly flattened by the developing relationship between Utena and Anthy.
Finally Saionji has failed hard enough for it to stick. He accepts that he’s done. He won’t be Touga’s equal, he won’t win Anthy, he won’t gain eternity. But what will he do?
The woods in a fairy tale are always a liminal place. Even more so woods where an unwanted "child" has been abandoned. So it's fitting that Nanami stumbles across Saionji in a state of transition from duelist to outsider.
In a series where clothing and gender presentation are important, Saionji has decided to do some cooking in a frilly apron7. There's even a lacey table cloth under his hot plate. A lot of anger seems to have been shed with the role of duelist and, even though Nanami hits him, he seems mostly confused and worried about her. He even offers to cook her an egg.
While he keeps the slightly ambiguous presentation for camping out where he doesn't expect to be seen, Saionji does start taking on a role similar to Utena's early one as Touga draws him back into the duels. Utena never cared about the power to revolutionise the world. While it's not entirely that straightforward, she's been fighting for Anthy. As a result she's often been snarky as hell about it, able to see through some of the bullshit but not avoid it completely. A female prince, and therefore anomalous to Ohtori's systems, but still a prince, and therefore part of them.
Touga and Saionji also can't move outside Ohtori's systems. They meet on the student council balcony to discuss Touga's upcoming duel and letters from Ends of the World. Touga provides an ersatz car ride with his motorbike, following the pattern of the other duels deliberately. But, like Utena, Saionji now has enough distance to question the system even as he participates, and he's here solely for Touga's sake.
Like the other brides, Saionji is there to delve into his duelist's feelings and motivations, but he's not doing it to tempt or manipulate8. Touga needs to understand his own motivation if he's going to be effective -- it's the less metaphorical counterpart to pulling his sword. And they manage to leave Akio out of the process.
Touga takes Saionji more seriously in this role than he ever did as a rival. Feelings, especially his own feelings, are not Touga's area of expertise. He needs a bride by the nature of the duels and he needs a friend because he's in over his head. Saionji, for his part, seems content with being needed rather than being equal. In a way it's what he's always wanted.
Saionji drawing Touga's sword is animated with a real tenderness that both echoes Anthy drawing Utena's and contrasts Saionji drawing Anthy's, where his expression was angry and his focus on his opponent. It's fitting, in a way, that the pair that comes closest to what Utena and Anthy have is the other same sex couple9.
Saionji makes a good princess in the same way Utena makes a good prince -- although, unlike her, he'd certainly object if you told him that's what the role was. He's comfortable in it and it brings out mostly good things in him, letting him be insightful and supportive. It's a bad role in itself, though. Saionji doesn't need to fight for power over others, but he shouldn't let himself be completely passive and dependant, or rely on other people's goals to give him purpose.
Later, between Utena's victory over them and her final duel, we see Touga riding a bike across the balcony with Saionji on the back. Saionji seems more content with this than Touga, totally relaxed while Touga struggles to move forward providing motive force for them both. There's not much Saionji can do, though, even if he wanted to. Touga's bike has never been a tandem.
Maybe they should get one.
1I just pictured Dios on tumblr telling all the girls of the world they’re valid.
2Touga’s abuse backstory does a lot to explain his unchildlike reaction here. But even without that, Touga canonically shows less emotion when distressed until he dissociates altogether. He’s almost certainly more affected than Saionji thinks.
3Who drives is very important in Utena, and it’s Touga’s bike. Nanami has a picture of herself perched on the back, too.
4Only Utena and Touga frame themselves as aspiring princes. Saionji’s gender essentialism has a more Japanese flavour.
5Which is why Virtual Star Embryology becomes the new ending theme.
6And then complains about everything he did to be Saionji’s friend while in bed with Akio. Jerk.
7He's still wearing his student council uniform underneath, though, so he hasn't totally moved on yet.
8Although he probably gets some satisfaction out of brutal honesty.
9I wonder if this explains Ruka, since Juri and Shiori would have been another same sex couple either less effective or too early in the sequence.
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Letter for Chocolate Box 2017
Hello! Thank you for considering making something for me. I am not that great at letters, so please contact the mods or send an anonymous ask message if anything is unclear. Also! I’m probably not as picky as I sound.
In general, I like:
Femslash, slash, and gen (most of these prompts are f/f or m/m but I also like gen a lot!)
Pretty girls wearing pretty clothes
Supernatural creatures looking rad
Cool monsters
Humor and crack!fic
Supernatural horror, especially ghost stories and cosmic horror
Isolated or "outsider" characters finding true friends
Powerful people/beings who are unusually loyal and attached to less powerful people/beings
Pining
Sexuality angst, whether it concludes with gay/bi characters being hopeful or determined and more comfortable with themselves or getting further entrenched in self-destructive spirals
Women being really important to other women, whether their relationship is overall positive or negative or conflicted or whatever
Unconventionally attractive characters/couples
Domestic slice-of-life with a slightly weird twist
In general, I do not like:
Het as the main romantic pairing (unless it’s for Katanagatari)
BDSM (unless specified in a prompt)
M/f femsub. I know this is implied to be a DNW by the bullet points above, but this is a hard squick for me so I want to make sure that's made clear!
Romances where one character becomes a ghost over the course of the story (it's OK if they start out a ghost)
Issuefic
Onscreen rape/noncon (unless it’s Korse/Party Poison i guess)
Onscreen child abuse
Fandoms I requested:
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
“The Hound” (H. P. Lovecraft)
Katanagatari
Original Work
Revolutionary Girl Utena/Shoujo Kakumei Utena
Prompts/DNWs for Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
The only pairing I’ve requested is:
Korse/Party Poison -- Hero/villain! Post-apocalyptic dystopia! Mind control! Do Killjoys really never die? Has Korse ever captured Party Poison pre-music video canon? Is post-comics Korse imprisoned by B/L/I/N/D and does he then meet a brainwashed Party Poison? Or perhaps the characters have another past together, one that either or both have forgotten? (If you have a messed-up idea, please feel FREE to run with it for this canon.)
DNW: Child abuse. Also, although I am well familiar with the variety of ways that bandom and Killjoys canon have been integrated over the years, I would prefer it if the characters of Party Poison and Korse were kept separate from their bandom counterparts for any fills or treats made for me in this challenge.
Prompts/DNWs for "The Hound” by H. P. Lovecraft
("The Hound" can be read in its entirety here.)
Narrator/St. John -- When they're not busy stealing cursed amulets, examining the treasures in their underground collection of sacred objects treated disrespectfully as Goth memorabilia, or discussing the finer aesthetic points of their mutual ennui, what sorts of activities do these graverobbing hipsters get up to in that big empty house on the moor?
DNW: Necrophilia, guro, het (m/f).
Prompts/DNWs for Katanagatari
I fucking love this anime, occasional fanservicey shots of Togame and all. If you aren’t familiar with it, and you like or at least don’t mind anime, backgrounds that have more definition than characters(’ noses), borderline-supernatural fiction set in historical Japan, and outlandishly dressed people having slow, lengthy, at times philosophical conversations while ostensibly doing sword things at each other, then I recommend that you try it out!
In any case, here are my pairing-specific prompts:
Togame/Yasuri Shichika -- Togame and Shichika being happy and enjoying time together ;__;
Hitei-Hime/Yasuri Shichika -- Post-canon, Hitei-Hime and Shichika are set upon by bandits and must dispatch them. These bandits don’t know what hit them!
Togame/Yasuri Nanami -- AU where Nanami, not Shichika, accompanies Togame on her quest.
Hitei-Hime/Togame -- Hitei-Hime and Togame matching wits pre-canon.
I also just think Hitei-Hime is super super pretty, and I love her character design. So... If you feel inspired to draw even a small or sketchy picture of her? I’d totally be pleased.
DO NOT WANT: Hitei-Hime/Togame/Shichika that posits Shichika as the focal point of the triad.
Prompts/DNWs for Original Work
My likes and DNWs are well specified at the beginning of the letter, so here are just prompts for the pairings listed:
Female Non-Humanoid Robot/Female Humanoid Robot -- Uh. Anything, honestly! What do they do? How did they meet? How did they fall in love? ...Robot sex?
Female Cryptid/Female Human -- Female Human gets lost in the woods and is rescued by Female Cryptid.
Barista/Vampire -- Hardworking Barista just wants to take out the trash so they can go home and wash the scalded milk smell from their clothes, but then they are attacked on the way to the dumpster. Who to the rescue but that slightly creepy customer who orders their own weight in coffee and sits in the darkest corner of the shop all day? (Why were they loitering in that alley anyway?)
Necromancer & Demon Summoner -- What is the relationship between these two? Are they friends? Friendly acquaintances? Professional rivals? Do they set up shop in different suites in the same aged, sparsely populated office building, and gradually come to realize that they work in similar fields? Do they totally fight a monster or some aspect of city bureaucracy together? Is there a regrettable incident where a ghoul called by the demon summoner wanders off and consumes some of the necromancer's employees? Or do they just trade professional anecdotes over a cup of tea?
Female Demon/Female Human -- A female graduate student, lonely and bored with being single, accidentally summons a succubus. But it works out!
Female Alien/Female Human -- Female Human is exploring some strange ruins when she encounters Female Alien. (If you wanted to make Female Alien a more Lovecraftian sort of alien, tentacles or gelatinous shapeshifting abilities or POWER TO INSPIRE INDESCRIBABLE FEAR or no, that would be awesome.)
Prompts/DNWs for Revolutionary Girl Utena
I love Utena! What a great show and character. I love the movie too, and could happily expound on why I think it functions as a sequel to the anime series more than an AU, but this is not the time or place for that.
Some general likes for RGU fic and fanart:
Surreal tone
Absurdist humor
Roses
Beautiful uniforms and dresses /o\
RGU-specific dislikes/DNWs:
Explicit sexual content -- not for this fandom please. Implied is welcome!
Works focused specifically on how characters recover from abuse and trauma
Noncanonical character death
Juri or Utena paired with male characters romantically (though one-sided crushes are fine)
Prompts for each pairing listed:
Anthy/Utena -- Utena is an enthusiastic but inept barista; Anthy is her favorite customer.
Anthy/Utena -- Anthy, Utena, and Chu-Chu have a nice time at the beach. Or anywhere, really.
Akio/Touga -- Akio reveals to Touga that he is dead.
Anthy/Kanae -- Angst! I requested this pairing because of this fan theory about Kanae being a former winning duelist who chose to become Akio's princess, and Anthy having bitterness towards her because of that: http://rosepetalrevolution.tumblr.com/post/152521898992/ You don’t have to go along with the fan theory -- anything angsty with Anthy and Kanae would be great.
Juri/Shiori/Ruka -- (Please no Juri-->Ruka or Juri reciprocating Ruka's feelings.) Shiori cottons on to Ruka's feelings for Juri and suggests they all do an activity together, hoping to shame both of them with her knowledge. Things do not go as planned.
Nanami & Tsuwabaki -- Nanami rents a house for summer vacation. Tsuwabuki accompanies her. It turns out the house is haunted... or is it?!
Utena/Wakaba -- Wakaba gave Utena chocolate for Valentine's Day. What does Utena give her for White Day?
Touga/Saionji -- Touga is a ghost, and everyone has forgotten him. Then Saionji starts having strange dreams...
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How Utena Helped Me Understand My Queerness
As a queer person (and the word “queer” means so many different things for me), I can call upon any number of childhood moments where my understanding of the gender binary were constantly challenged. When I played Power Rangers with my friends, I always wanted to be the Pink Ranger. The breadwinner of my family is my hard-working mother. My favorite manga growing up were shojo and magical girl stories. These days, it’s easy for me to say I was always the way I am now, but for the longest time, I never had a reference point to help me define my conflicts over my queer expressions. Utena Tenjou was one such anime character who contributed a lot to that end.
As the titular protagonist of Revolutionary Girl Utena celebrates her birthday on December 29, I write this as a tribute to Utena. Her own experience with toxic masculinity and restrictive gender roles helped inform my own, and I consider her one of my major influences on my ongoing queer journey up there with Steven Universe and Bayonetta.
As a character, though, she didn’t start out that way. In fact, her entire worldview was centered around a very black-and-white concept of gender. Or in this case, blue-and-pink. It was her whole journey—tragic and surreal and cathartic as it was—that I was able to empathize with. Utena’s evolution beyond her preconceived notions of society became something of a cautionary tale for me and my voyage beyond the gender binary.
Utena’s story began after a seemingly-gallant prince saved her from a life of despair. When tragedy befell her at a young age, Utena had nearly resigned herself to darkness and isolation. It wasn’t until her prince came along and showed light at the end of the tunnel. From that point forward, she sought to become a prince herself.
While attending high school, she became a popular tomboy who proudly wore her princely demeanor, quite literally. She was known for preferring boys’ school uniforms as opposed to the girls’ and often bested many of the male students at sports. When it came time for her to fight the Student Council over Anthy the Rose Bride, she took on the role of a prince defending a helpless and innocent damsel.
As the title suggests, Utena sought a form of social revolution with her masculine expression. She refused to let her gender limit herself in both school life and as she fought for Anthy’s hand in marriage and did her best to shake up gender norms. I was initially inspired by her efforts to present her masculinity, but when I look back on it now, that mindset was almost self-defeating.
She rejected any notion of traditional femininity while also heavily conforming to displays of traditional masculinity. At a certain point when she loses the will to continue her fight, she resigned herself to wearing a girl’s school uniform and trying to act more feminine and delicate. This is almost as if taking on "feminine traits" was supposed to be a form of punishment. She both subverted and reinforced the gender binary and lived her whole life under this paradox.
Much like Utena, my own expression was also restricted by these guidelines. Growing up, I had no grasp of what was “for boys” or “for girls.” I wasn’t born with any particular notion on how to gender my behavior. I only learned about the gender binary through the lens of how other people structured their lives by it.
Being assigned male at birth, the world provided me with the recipe on how to act like a boy I tried desperately to fit into it. It became easy for me to feign masculinity and adjust my personality among my cisgendered friends. But I could feel my femininity trying to ooze out. I felt it through my favorite anime and choice of role models and the crushes I had and this growing desperation I felt to reject the manlihood I could feel infesting me. It would be a while until I realized how harmful this was to my emotional health, but Utena helped me along the path of revolution.
Utena went through a similar struggle throughout her battles for the Rose Bride. What began as a story of her, the gallant prince charged with protecting the helpless damsel, was deconstructed into something much more sinister as she dug herself further and further into the throes of toxic masculinity.
She eventually started interacting with Akio Ohtori, Anthy’s brother as well as an incarnation of the prince who had saved her. And from that point on, Utena’s principles on gender were constantly challenged to the point where she had to question everything she thought she knew about the world and even herself.
Her prince was nothing more than a manipulative abuser who sought power for himself. Anthy, while still a damsel in distress in her own right, was capable of cold-hearted cruelty as she remained in the thrall of her brother. And Utena’s efforts to embody a gallant prince were nothing more than her own roundabout way of allowing patriarchal standards to control her life as she continually fell into Akio’s clutches.
Eventually, Utena made a sacrifice that helped her accept the world for what it was and allowed her to achieve some small form of revolution. She fought until her last breath to save Anthy, disregarding all notions of princely duty or the expectations of a maiden. Though she disappeared in the process, her final efforts had touched Anthy’s heart and allowed her to leave her brother behind as she left to answer Utena’s love and find her once more.
As strange as Utena’s journey was, it contains a rather simple message that has since resonated with me: the gender binary is simply a construct and affixing yourself to it is poisonous. There is no right or wrong way to present your gender identity, but the necessity to draw that distinct line between how to be feminine or masculine is a strict and narrow-minded concept that all but destroyed Utena's life.
Utena helped me realize how I prefer to present more feminine. Whether it's through my cosplay or the clothes I wear every day or the way I speak, my femininity is vital to who I am as a person. I long for the day when I’m able to appear as girlish as I please and have people question the very nature of gender expression. But even when I feel as far from content with my gender identity as possible, Utena's story taught me that my queerness doesn’t change. My being trans and being femme is a constant, and even at my lowest points, she reminds me that I’m always as queer as I should be.
When I first watched Utena, I thought I wanted to be her. I viewed her as someone who challenged gender norms and shattered expectations. But as I saw her grow and change, I learned that that wasn’t the whole truth. Defining her whole life between being either a prince or a damsel was her downfall, and it wasn’t until those final moments that she realized that being herself was more important than fulfilling an idyllic yet flawed patriarchal fantasy.
In Adolescence of Utena, she does achieve a more fulfilling catharsis. After winning the right to marry the Rose Bride, she rejects the marriage entirely. Her only wish was to live freely with the girl she loved, and she fights tooth and nail and race car to achieve it with Anthy. True to the title, Utena more readily overcame her adolescence and rigid gender structures to come out and love both Anthy and herself more openly.
As for me? I suppose even in my mid-20s, I’m still in that same proverbial adolescence that Utena went through. This is still a world where people still adhere to that rigid binary and leave little wiggle room for people to safely explore themselves. And I still have plenty of days when I don’t feel nearly as queer or as trans as I want to be.
But Utena Tenjou’s story gave me so much guidance at a time when I really needed it. I learned alongside her that we have no obligation to fit into anyone’s molds but our own. As a queer person, I choose to be feminine and how I achieve that is up to me. Once upon a time, I would’ve called Utena Tenjou a role model. That isn’t the case anymore. More truthfully, we were kindred spirits who were, and still are, desperate for revolution within ourselves. So to celebrate Utena's birthday, I'll keep trying to revolutionize my own world. Happy birthday, Utena!
What's your take on Utena's tumultous coming-of-age? What's your favorite Utena moment? Comment below and let us know!
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Carlos is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. Their favorite genres range from magical girls to over-the-top robot action, yet their favorite characters are always the obscure ones. Check out some of their satirical work on The Hard Times.
Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!
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Binge-Watching: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Episodes 25-27
In which the third round starts with a bang, couple’s night brings out the best in Utena and Anthy, and Nanami leaves me in stitches. This is gonna be a good fucking arc, lads.
Round 3
And so the next arc of Utena begins! By now, we know the drill: once again we’ll be having a series of episodic encounters with the members of the student council, each duel serving as a vehicle to delve even deeper into their psyche. The visual motifs and repeated scenes the show uses to establish patterns will be shaken up, added to, and twisted into new shapes for the sake of the new overarching idea guiding this particular arc. We’ll spend the first episode in a chaotic daze trying to keep up with the changes to the formula, then slowly get more comfortable with it as we see it repeated over and over again for episodes on end, which makes it all the more impactful when Ikuhara breaks his patterns to make a point. Also, somewhere in the middle there’s gonna be a comic relief episode or two solely dedicated to Nanami finding herself in a bizarre situation no amount of logic can properly contextualize. New coat of paint, but the fundamental structure is mostly the same, all well and good. Except this time, I think it’s gonna end up my favorite arc yet. The way it builds off what’s come before and pushes it to new heights has resulted in possibly my single favorite three-episode stretch of the entire show thus far, all the surprise and subversion of the Back Rose arc charged with a raw emotional core that puts everything that’s come before to sham. Holy shit, y’all, these episodes were good. And if this is what I can expect from Utena’s final stretch, I think I’m gonna end up thinking very highly of this show indeed.
First, the fundamentals: Touga’s back in action, and he’s allied himself with Akio and the End of the World. The first scene of episode 25 shows Akio seducing Touga to his side over the course of a nighttime cruise, a pattern that will repeat as they draw the unwilling student council members back into the fray for one last bout with Utena Tenjou. At this point, most of the council has given up on the whole affair; after being soundly trounced many times before and beginning to suspect that the End of the World may not have their best interests at heart (”Adults who tell you something is “for your own good” can never be trusted!” Miki, I appreciate you.), they’re making the choice to move on. Why keep bashing their heads against this brick wall when there are so many better things they could be doing? But Akio can’t have that: for whatever reason, the End of the World has decided that keeping Utena as the Rose Bride is no longer in their favor. She must be taken down, and the Rose Bride returned to a more rightful owner. So Touga welcomes his former councilmates to a reckless car ride to see End of the World for themselves, telling them that as long as their souls haven’t fully given up, they can still hear its siren call. And waiting for them in that car is Akio, ready to deliver the finishing blow as he lets the steering wheel go, sits on the car’s roof, and welcomes their imminent crash with his bare chest buffeted by wind. Thus, the reluctant warriors decide to challenge Utena again, with yet another new rendition of the Apocalypse song accompanying her ascent toward the dueling arena.
So already, we’re playing with a hell of a lot of interesting pieces. Utena and Anthy have moved in right next to Akio, more under the enemy’s nose than every before. Our usual rouge’s gallery genuinely doesn’t want to get involved in this madness anymore, and they’re mostly content to actually try and treat Utena and Anthy as equals. Miki’s conversation with Anthy about the right way to feed chicks is the single most genuine connection they’ve ever made. Turns out, you make people like you more by just being cool with them than treating them like a prize to fight over! Who’d have thought? But then Akio and Touga swoop in, the two master manipulators working together. We don’t know what they see at the End of the World that makes the council members change their mind, but it’s clear the stakes have never been higher. Slowly but surely, the boundaries between what the characters know and what’s being hidden from them are being stripped away, leaving nothing but raw determination behind. And speaking of, holy shit, how about that new Apocalypse song sequence? Utena rides a freaking gondola up to the arena instead of taking the stairs, Anthy vanishes straight out of her uniform and shows up naked before her Rose Bride dress magically appears on her, the abandoned uniform sprouts into a freaking rose bush, and Anthy explicitly paints Utena’s battle suit directly onto her instead of summoning it from afar with a wave of her hand. I don’t even know half of what’s going on there, but god damn goes it get my hyped.
Utena’s Sword
But then we reach the gimmick of this particular arc, and things really kicks into high gear: the duels this time are freaking couple battles. After establishing the duelists’ most important relationship in the Black Rose arc, this arc is able to make that relationship itself the opponent Utena and Anthy must defeat, harnessing the power of their own relationship to do so. Well, not so much for Saionji, because he’s this show’s eternal jobber and is such caught in a perpetual loop of humiliation and irrelevance. But Jesus Christ, when Anthy saved Utena and pulled a sword out of her goddamn chest for the first time? I almost spontaneously combusted from how perfect it was. If swords represent the heart and/or will of the person they’re drawn from, and the Black Rose arc made the violation metaphors explicit in literally stealing someone else’s soul to fight for your bidding, this arc finally sees Utena weaponizing her own sword, her own soul, her own will to keep fighting. No longer is she relying on Anthy surrendering her sense of self to fight; now, Anthy is giving Utena the strength to seize hold of her own sense of self. And the phrase Utena’s always shouted to mark the start of her duel suddenly becomes a shared statement of purpose she and Anthy cry out together: ”Grant us the power to revolutionize the world!”
It’s the coolest fucking inversion this show has pulled yet. For the longest time, RGU’s relationships have been defined by characters who abuse or misuse each other, one party serving as a commodity for the other to make use of. Drawing the sword out of Anthy’s chest time and time again, or the violation of the Black Rose arc, it’s all been an exercise in watching people take those closest to them for granted, denying their personhood as they fight for their own ideals. But the moment Utena leaves Anthy’s sword behind and chooses to fight with her own, she finally achieves what she’s been trying to achieve all this time: a relationship of equals. Anthy chooses to help Utena. She chooses to pull Utena’s sword out. And Utena chooses to accept Anthy’s help on her own terms instead the autonomy-denying custums of the Rose Bride. Utena takes no one’s will but her own, and Anthy surrenders nothing of herself to push her partner to victory. And the same goes for their opponents; Kozue once again draws Miki’s sword out of him, but this time Miki wields himself for his own desires. There’s no coercion, no manipulation, nothing but a shared partnership that combines their strengths in mutually supportive fashion. I can’t think of a more perfect development as Utena and Anthy continue to grow closer together, rewriting the rules of the system they’ve been placed into one step at a time.
Side by Side
And speaking of Utena and Anthy growing closer, holy fuck do these episodes sell me on their relationship. I mean, I was already enjoying their camaraderie from pretty much the first episode, and their slow development has been a treat to watch. But my god, I was not ready for how close they’ve become. They’re actually fucking talking to each other now! Utena tells Anthy she wants to be there for her, so if she’s ever got a problem she needs help with, she can rely on Utena. And Anthy answers that request, rejecting her role as Rose Bride for the first time and transforming the very way the duels are fought. They’re not just awkwardly dancing around each other, or butting heads against an impassable problem; they’re finding ways to genuine connect. That repeated motif of them lying down in the mirrored beds facing each other, holding quiet conversations in the dead of night as they lock hands? Jesus, the tenderness they’ve developed is off the freaking charts. Utena even says she’s glad to be considered part of Anthy’s family, for fuck’s sake! And she’s still relentlessly determined to validate Anthy’s point of view as worth existing in and of itself, no matter how many times Saionji refuses to get the point. There’s so much warmth and kindness in how thy relate to each other now, and it’s just... beautiful. It’s something I’ve really been missing, to be honest; as fascinating as this show’s symbolism is, I’ve been dying for an emotional connection this strong to ground it all in. And god, I’m so fucking glad we have it now.
But as Utena and Anthy’s light grows brighter, it only makes the shadows that much deeper. There’s no getting around it: Anthy is in fucking trouble. The more she comes to realize her self-worth, the more dangerous Akio’s grip over her becomes. She’s starting to actively bristle against his control, and in response, he’s holding onto her tighter than ever. God, the fucking face he makes when he sees Anthy laughing at her friends’ antics... anyone with that much venom for seeing their family members happy is a walking, talking time bomb waiting to go off. He’s forcefully pulling her in when she holds back, and it’s fucking terrifying. Especially once it’s confirmed beyond any shadowy implication that the incestuous undertones of their relationship are very, horrifyingly real. He’s not gonna let her go without a fight, and he’s going to make it as miserable as possible for her to try. And Anthy’s still so terrified of him that she can’t bring herself to tell Utena what’s going on, even after Utena promised she could rely on her. All she can do is stare miserably into the distance whenever Akio puts on his kindly act for Utena, more aware than ever how dangerous her brother truly is. The vice is tightening on her, and all I can do is pray to god she makes it out safely. The consequences if she doesn’t are too horrifying to comprehend.
An exciting framework to base the battles in. A fantastic driving theme that builds off the previously established relationships and pushes them to new heights. A powerful emotional connection that makes me love and fear for these characters more than I ever have. On every conceivable level, this is the best Revolutionary Girl Utena has ever been. Let’s buckle up for a final stretch to remember.
Don’t Scramble My Egg!
But I’d be remiss if I left this session behind without talking about the latest iteration of Nanami Shenanigans episode. Because frankly, episode 27 might be the funniest goddamn episode of the entire show. Christ, it has been a long time since Utena’s made me laugh this hard, this consistently. I think what I appreciate about the Nanami episodes is that they take an idea and just fucking run with it as far as it can possibly go. She travels to India in search of a spice, and the foibles along her journey grow more and more absurd until she’s being chased by watersurfing elephants in the middle of the ocean. Her vanity and ignorance make her wear a cowbell as a fashion statement, and she gets so entrenched in her self-delusion that she literally turns into a goddamn cow. And this may well be the strongest hook of the bunch: Nanami wakes up with a mysterious egg in her bed, and her suspicion that she laid it herself spirals into an extended pregnancy metaphor that just keeps going and going. Seriously, that’s the entire overriding joke of this episode: let’s have an episode about Nanami getting pregnant, but couched in the surrealist metaphor of her nursing an egg instead of a swollen belly. And the show pushes that concept as far as it can possibly go, encompassing the full extent of your classic pregnancy subplot solely through egg-related symbolism.
And it’s fucking hilarious. Once I finally realized the angle the episode was going for, the escalating series of “how can we represent this plot point with eggs” had me cackling on the goddamn floor. We’ve got Nanami thinking her friends will judge her for “laying an egg,” but then once Miki assures her it’s a perfectly normal occurrence (at least, that’s how she reads it), she thinks her friends will judge her for “laying her first egg” so late. All the cool kids are doing it, and you’ve just started? What are you, a child? Then we’ve got Juri playing the “experienced girl who’s already gone through this,” and Nanami is awed by the immense size of her “balls” (”Well, I used to have smaller ones, but that’s the size I get now.”) Then Juri leaves her with a suggestion that she get comfortable “handling her own balls” because it feels good, and I think this is supposed to be a reference to sex toys, but I’ll be honest, I was laughing too hard at this point to process much of anything. And then you have Touga literally going full Adam and Steve on Nanami because he thinks she’s a lesbian (”Listen, Nanami. God created men and women for a reason.”), and Jesus Fucking Christ my sides are not okay.
But then he goes on to say he pities the family of any girl shameless enough to “lay eggs” and it’s only because Nanami doesn’t “lay eggs” that she’s so respectable. So Nanami has to fret over whether to keep the egg or not, which leads to this fucking gut-busting gag of her three male admirers cracking their own eggs and slurping them down noisily, and we actually just made a joke about Nanami being horrified by the prospect of abortion. GOD. Every time you think this episode can’t top itself, it finds even more hilarious ways to couch pregnancy metaphors in the language of uncracked breakfast food. This is absurdism at its absolute best, and it had me losing my shit effortlessly for its entire run. God fucking bless you, Nanami. I could use a couple more of these in my life.
Odds and Ends
-WAKABA NO GET BETTER TASTE IN MEN
-”It can never shine unless the sun sets.” Yeah, bet that’s not a metaphor for anything.
-Welp, that’s confirmation that Anthy met the prince as well. I can only imagine where that will lead.
-Oh, that’s a funky beat.
-”Akio is the one who saved her from her coffin.” ...I don’t believe that for a second.
-Alright, this new ED slaps hard.
-Damn, all that to save some birds? Kozue, you’re cooler than I thought.
-”Aw, are you worried about me?” Okay, concern over Implications(tm) aside, I like Kozue teasing Miki. They really do feel like siblings.
-”We don’t need parents. We’re wild animals, after all.” Hoo boy, I almost forgot how rough their parents were.
-And now, the sunlit garden itself is a memory. Lost to eternity.
-”Do you think mothers and fathers always love their children?” Man, if only that were true.
-...why was that Anthy with Miki’s father. WHY WAS THAT ANTHY WITH MIKI”S FATHER.
-”What’s with you?” “Coward.” Jesus, Kozue, what do you want from him?
-”Wait, her temperature is rising!” sdkfhskdjf Utena you absolute dunce
-”Even Nanami deserves better than to be compared to a chicken.” Anthy... be honest, how many of your farm animals did you name Nanami?
-”I just don’t have the courage to eat my own egg.” kdsjfhsjkfh HELP
-Okay, the hard cut to Saionji frying an egg out in the woods had me in stitches. Fuck me, this episode is great.
Good lord, this is gonna be great. See you next time!
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im so glad you decided to give utena a go! it's my favourite anime and there truly isn't any wrong interpretation of the events, themes, and characters. what are your thoughts on the individual student council members? as well as the black rose duelists, and the black rose arc itself? that part of the series always struck me as very important in the elaboration of themes that are important for the rest, even if its 'filler', lmao. and im glad you liked utena as well!
Utena is great! I’m very glad to have watched it. And I know what you mean about interpretations, haha; I’ve been looking up a lot of people’s meta and analysis about it since I finished watching it, and people really do approach it from so many different cool and interesting ways. I think it’s a really cleverly presented show in the sense that it doesn’t really directly push any particular lesson or moral to the story; it just sort of very accurately observes and portrays a lot of really relatable and recognisable social dynamics, and lets the viewer decide for themselves what they want to take from that. I really like it a lot!
Haha, gosh, that’s a lot of characters to cover! Well, let’s see how quickly I can sum them up… For the student council members, I really liked Saionji; I think they did a good job at balancing the portrayal of his sweet and childish side with his capacity for genuine ugliness when his insecurities cause him to lash out at people. He came across to me as someone who really did want a genuinely mutual emotional connection rather than just “possessing” someone (that exchange diary was very endearing in its ridiculousness) but didn’t really know how to go about that except by clumsily forcing it on people, which feels like a pretty relatable teenager thing.
Then there’s Miki…I felt like his fixation on his memories of Kozue and later Anthy as his “shining thing” was a pretty good portrayal of how idolising and putting people on a pedestal can also be its own way of dehumanising them, and I thought his episodes did a good job of showing how those sorts of feelings can easily get diverted into something ugly despite him being a basically gentle kid at heart. I wasn’t quite sure what to make about the stuff with his parents, exactly, and I felt like the whole plotline with Kozue was a bit all over the place, but I still basically appreciate the core of the character and what he adds to the series.
Juri was interesting! Her bitterness over Shiori felt like a pretty authentic and recognisable emotion to me; it’s certainly a very uncomfortable situation as a teenager to be in that position of having feelings for someone you know you’re not “supposed” to, and then having to put up with people giving you those empty platitudes of “oh, if you like someone then you should just tell them!!” without any real understanding of the situation. I thought her relationship with Shiori was pretty compelling in how messed up and dysfunctional it ended up being on both ends, but then her last couple of episodes with Ruka really didn’t do anything for me; it felt to me like he ended up sort of hijacking her plotline in a weirdly offputting way, so I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it in the end. I still like the character, but I felt like her overall arc had potential to be more interesting to me than it was.
Touga…I didn’t really like Touga very much! He honestly just came across as a very consciously manipulative asshole for most of the series, and the show’s eventual attempts to humanise him felt like too little too late for me. I think I can somewhat see and appreciate the idea of what they were going for in terms of a lot of his gross attitudes being a misguided attempt to emulate people like Akio as role models for what a “prince” should be, and that he was also a victim and a pawn of the system in the end, but on the whole I was pretty much inclined to agree with Saionji when he said “you’ve never actually cared about anyone”. Even after Utena supposedly made him doubt himself, he still seemed to keep acting in the same gross ways for the most part, which I guess was probably meant as an intentional deconstruction of the usual tropes in some respects (falling in love doesn’t actually magically make you a better person), but that still doesn’t really make me like him any more!
Nanami was just hilarious, haha. I expected her to be a really grating character from her introduction, but her comic relief episodes were so completely over-the-top ridiculous that they sort of wrapped around to being weirdly endearing in their way, so I couldn’t really actively dislike her. I also couldn’t ever bring myself to actually take her seriously as a character at all, though; bizarre comedy episodes aside, she seemed like a pretty standard clingy brocon character without a whole lot of nuance. But at least she was a very entertaining one!
Oh yeah, the Black Rose arc was really important, I agree! I wouldn’t really say it felt like filler particularly - I suppose it’s true that Utena and Anthy don’t do much in it, but thematically I think it does add a huge amount, and I enjoyed the way it established Akio as a sort of “wise mentor” figure in the background before really putting him into the spotlight in the final arc. It sort of made me sort of instinctively want to trust him even despite him being really obviously shady, which in retrospect was a pretty impressively complicated feeling for the show to be able to pull off. But yeah, the arc itself was really interesting! I think it was definitely a really effective and thematically important choice to put the focus on the “losers” of the system, giving a voice to people you’d expect to be background characters and giving them the chance to fight for themselves. I know Ikuhara said the Black Rose arc was inspired by him hearing someone on TV say something like “society is divided into the chosen and the unchosen; to be unchosen is to die”, and wanting to explore the feelings of the “unchosen”, and I think it achieved that pretty well; a lot of the Black Rose Duelists’ stories were pretty insightful in criticising the narratives behind that sort of artificial social hierarchy and what it does to people.
I think what left the most impact about it to me, though, was that it just had such a strong atmosphere! Those elevator therapy sequences really managed to be legitimately creepy and disturbing; the juxtaposition of the duelists’ big emotional breakdowns with Mikage’s weirdly impersonal, deadpan, scripted response struck a very effectively unsettling note for me. And the Black Rose Duelists themselves had such a cool and memorable aesthetic, too…it always felt really striking to me whenever we got to see them dueling, probably because most of them really aren’t the kinds of characters you’d expect to be fighting (as opposed to most of the student council members who have established fencing and Kendo skills), so it sort of added to the impression of these people who wouldn’t normally have any power within the system being given a chance to fight. So yes, on the whole I think it’s a really cool arc, with a really fantastic presentation in particular.
As for impressions on each of the Black Rose Duelists individually, hmm, let’s see…Kanae was a good enough introduction to the concept, but didn’t really leave that much impression. I felt bad for her being used by Akio, but she didn’t really get enough screentime for me to get invested. Kozue…I think Kozue never really clicked for me, honestly? Her being so creepily possessive of Miki was sort of offputting to me (this show already has enough incest, you know…?), and I felt like I couldn’t really get a good feel for her character or what drove her on anything more than an abstract level.
Shiori was really interesting! There was a compelling sort of raw desperation behind her panicked, uncomprehending response to finding Juri’s locket that really stuck with me; it’s sort of an ugly reaction but it honestly felt pretty sympathetic to me, I think? Like, if on the one hand your former best friend is totally off-handedly dismissing your attempts to reach out and make amends with her in person and acting like she never wants to see you again, but at the same time you find out she’s also secretly treasuring an old picture of you as her most prized possession and keeping it on her at all times…well, that IS actually pretty weird, you know?! I think most people would be at least a little creeped out by that. So Shiori’s kind of totally confused panic response and weird mix of vindicated elation and anger culminating in that accusing shout of “WHY DO YOU LOOK AT ME THAT WAY?!” honestly felt pretty real to me. I felt like they did a good job of conveying a real constant sense of deep-rooted self-loathing behind her more selfish and manipulative actions that made it hard for me not to feel sorry for her a lot of the time; it seemed to me like she was stuck in a sort of toxic cycle of trying to escape her low self-esteem by “deceiving people into liking her”, which inevitably just made her feel even worse about herself and just fed deeper into the initial assumption that no one would like her unless she deceived them, and so on, which was really painful to watch. I’m not surprised that she seems to evoke such visceral emotional responses from people within the fandom, because I think a lot of what she says and does really feels uncomfortably raw and real in a way that’s difficult to process. She’s a very good character in that way!
Tsuwabuki…well, he didn’t particularly grab me as a character, but I did actually enjoy his Black Rose episode quite a bit. I feel like it makes for a pretty strong illustration of just how little coherent and accessible information there really is out there for young kids trying to understand what sexuality and relationships are like, so it’s easy for people to end up turning to dubious sources and developing weird and messed up ideas about how things work and what “adulthood” actually means. It’s really no wonder that our whole cultural standards around that stuff have become so screwed up and dysfunctional when no one’s even really willing to talk about it.
Wakaba was great! I liked her a lot. She was a genuinely good friend to Utena and a good illustration of the unappreciated strength and value of “normal people”. The end of her arc with Saionji honestly made me really sad! I sort of wish there was a little bit more follow-up after her duel with Utena, though; I would have liked it if the whole thing had a bit more of a lasting impact on Wakaba and how Utena viewed her and their friendship, but it didn’t feel like that ever really happened, so her subplot felt a bit…unresolved, I guess? Well, I think it’s probably intentional that most of the characters besides Utena and Anthy don’t really get a firm “resolution” to their arcs - the potential for growth is there, but they still haven’t broken out of their shells yet, which is fine - but I think I would have at least liked to see her take a few more steps toward being able to see her own worth without needing someone “special” to validate her. (Akio can get lost with his whole “oh normal people only ever get to shine for a short time lol” nonsense, urrgghh.)
I liked Keiko too! Devoting a whole episode to a previously nameless bit character like that was a really cool way of hammering home the whole theme of breaking down the conventional assumptions behind social “hierarchies” even on a meta/narrative level. Keiko herself was interesting to me in the sense that her grievances and anger at having her chance at happiness “denied to her” when she’s no less deserving than anyone else actually felt legit sympathetic at first in isolation, but then you look at the unspoken assumptions framing that narrative and it suddenly becomes really disturbing (this person would make me happy, everyone deserves happiness, therefore I deserve this person).
Mikage…man, I really wanted to like Mikage - the basic ideas behind his character are really cool and fascinating - but I think his arc just felt too rushed for me in the end? It felt like we basically got dumped with his entire plot and backstory immediately before it got resolved, so I didn’t really have time to get emotionally invested in his story before it was already over. Revealing midway that half of his backstory was probably a lie didn’t exactly help things either, as I was left struggling to keep up with what was actually real and what wasn’t; I still don’t feel like I really have a handle on some of the basic points like why he actually set the building on fire or when exactly Mamiya died, which makes it hard for me to really connect with the character and understand what exactly he got out of the illusionary narrative that Akio constructed for him. Theoretically I feel like he should really be exactly the kind of character I absolutely love - someone detached from their own emotions who doubts their basic humanity, who keeps clinging single-mindedly on to his memories of the only people who ever made him actually feel something even after they’re long gone? Wow, sign me up - but the execution just didn’t quite do it for me. I feel like his story might have benefited from being more spread out across the whole Black Rose arc instead of shoved entirely into two episodes, so that we got more of a chance to get more gradually invested in him? As it is, I still think he’s a conceptually fascinating character, and I’ve read a lot of great meta about his place in the story and his parallels with Utena that makes him sound incredibly interesting, but I just couldn’t really feel it from the show itself.
Wow okay I sure did write a lot! Well, that’s my initial impressions on the Utena characters. I expect a lot of those impressions would change if I watched it again, though - like I said, I don’t think I really fully grasped the real aims and themes of the show until the very end, so I’d probably pick up on a lot more nuances a second time around. But those are my thoughts for now!
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Duel Patterns
I’m procrastinating so hard I wrote long, rambly Utena meta.
Miki gets the most straightforward pattern to his duels.
Miki > Kozue with Miki’s sword > Miki and Kozue
Perhaps because of this it feels like he doesn’t really change much, though? His duels start and end with the same problem, and the final duel just plays it out. Miki is easily convinced to duel, but irresolute while duelling because he feels (…fairly enough, I suppose) that the duels make him impure, and doesn’t want to risk his own invincible innocence. Kozue is unable to resist acting out to get Miki’s attention, even when she knows it’s only making things worse. Kozue distracts him by making out with Anthy, Miki can’t keep going in the face of that, and acting at cross-purposes causes them to crash — Miki is hit by the car Kozue was in.
Juri’s duels would follow the same pattern, but the addition of Ruka spreads the final duel out over two, with Ruka and Shiori, and Ruka and Juri. It’s hard to say whether the pattern disruption helps or hinders Juri’s arc. Considering Ruka had to first manipulate and then bargain to get her to duel at all, it seems as if she might simply have made good on bowing out without his interference. Ultimately, she doesn’t wind up so far from where she started either. She wanted to either confess to Shiori or be free of her — by the end she’s still struggling with that, even with the locket gone.
The badminton game takes Juri and Miki into trying to let go and form new relationships (with Utena) instead, which is good. In the post-revolution sequences, though, it seems to be Kozue and Shiori who are finding themselves and changing their behaviour. Although perhaps Miki and Juri letting up helped with that.
Saionji and Touga have a different pattern. Their Black Rose duels are almost irrelevant (Touga’s especially). Saionji might have been sincerely grateful to Wakaba, but she doesn’t have anything like the hold on him Kozue and Shiori have on Miki and Juri. Wakaba and Keiko more bring out the theme of the Black Rose arc itself — people who feel like they’re nobodies reaching for those who are somebodies.
Outside the Black Rose arc Touga and Saionji often echo each other’s duels. In the first arc the first and last duels Utena fights are against Saionji and Touga, and both end with the other with the Sword of Dios and her with a broken sword. Both boys fight her twice, too. There’s also the “the Sword of Dios has no special powers”/“the Sword of Dios has special powers and you didn’t know about them” echo, as Touga reveals what he knew that Saionji didn’t.
There’s also the unscheduled trip to the arena, which isn’t really a duel, and definitely not part of Akio’s patterns (he went surprisingly easy on Touga for how near that came to revealing a few key things about the nature of the duelling arena) but in a way it’s the centre of Saionji and Touga’s arc in the first set of duels. For one thing it reveals their connection to Utena and how much her own formative experience was theirs too. Even if the part she remembers of it has become distorted into a fairytale by time and she no longer remembers it clearly enough to see herself in the despairing girl they couldn’t save.
For another it lays bare the worst of them. Saionji may say he loves Anthy, and even acknowledges that fighting to own her is probably not congruent with that, but he’s still going to do it in order to defeat Touga. However much he wants it to be about saving either Anthy or the girl in the coffin, in the end he’s reaching for his lost friendship and tries to grasp eternity rather than helping Anthy when she appears in a coffin.
Touga manipulates the whole thing, willing to get his former friend expelled in order further his own chances of winning Akio’s power. He’s also willing to throw himself in front of a sword for it — never let it be said Touga doesn’t risk himself for his own ambition.
Saionji and Touga’s final duels are even more mirrors, and they wind up mirroring Utena and Anthy in the final arc too.
Saionji’s duel doesn’t fit the new pattern, because it establishes it. He’s the only one of the duelists to go on without a bride. But that’s because this duel is establishing Anthy as Utena’s bride. Until now, Anthy’s been giving the Sword of Dios to Utena as she would to any other duelist, but, when it vanishes, Anthy — acting of her own will in direct opposition to Saionji having just been convinced she doesn’t have one — draws Utena’s. And does so with great tenderness. The shadow play about teamwork seems to be aimed both at Anthy and Utena — who now have to rely on their bond to fight — and the future duelists who will have to try to do the same.
Saionji also learns a few things this episode, but they seem to take a while to sink in. He goes back to duel feeling special because he’s been singled out for attention by End of the World and doesn’t yet know this is the new pattern, but his motives haven’t changed. (I appreciate Utena and Miki both being like “You’ve changed? How exactly?”) It seems to sink in later both that he wasn’t special and has been duped once again, and that Akio saving the girl in the coffin means Touga doesn’t have any special access to eternity either and being equal to him doesn’t require duelling.
Having ended Saionji’s motivation for duelling to catch up with Touga, Touga’s duel episode explains Touga’s motivation for duelling to gain Akio’s power. Intriguingly, Saionji — amazingly the voice of reason by this point — thinks becoming like Akio is a terrible idea. There’s been a chain of toxic masculinity with Saionji imitating Touga who is imitating Akio, but meeting the actual source seems to have soured Saionji on the whole thing. Not that it stops him being a jerk in many ways, but he’s found some chill.
Their duel seems to highlight their relationship as much as Anthy and Utena’s. Especially with a shot of Saionji’s eyes as he draws Touga’s sword that’s very similar to a shot of Anthy’s eyes during the duel with Saionji as she drew Utena’s. They can’t defeat Utena and Anthy — their relationship is still very new and in attacking from the motorbike they’re still trying to duel from a shoddy copy of Akio’s system. Their motivations are also… not great. Touga thinks he needs to own Utena to protect her — to be fair, a mistake Utena herself has made with regards to Anthy — and Saionji doesn’t have a problem with this logic so much as he believes the duels themselves are a no win game with any motivation at this point.
The juxtaposition where they’re in Akio’s room posing half-naked on his car while Miki and Juri play badminton with Utena is one of the creepier effects in a creepy series. Miki and Juri are finding a certain amount of freedom through Utena. Touga and Saionji, in spite of the fact that they’re rooting for Utena at this point, are stuck with Akio. (In some ways paralleling them with Anthy, who is still very much not free of his influence yet.)
And, while the Student Council splits in half along those lines, Nanami isn’t quite in either half. She attends the badminton game but doesn’t join it and, rather than asking Utena what she will do, tries to warn her off as Touga and Saionji do later. She knows more than Miki and Juri, and isn’t as tangled up in it as Touga and Saionji.
Nanami’s duels follow an in-between pattern too. Tsuwabuki’s Black Rose duel doesn’t really add to the pattern, but he’s not as detached from her as Wakaba and Keiko are from Saionji and Touga. The fact that his initial motivation was to be a big brother like Touga makes him, maybe, a bit of a stand in, which is relevant because Touga is central to Nanami’s two actual duels.
Looking at the pattern of Nanami’s own duels what I mostly get is… fuckery. Nanami gets the weirdest and most disturbing push into duelling of anyone, especially the second time. I think there are two reasons for this.
First she’s being manipulated in two, not entirely synchronised, ways. If you look at her first duel, it seems doubtful that Touga knew why Anthy gave him a kitten, or that it was part of getting Nanami to duel. I don’t think he knew where the blood type compatibility test was going at first, either. His first reaction is to ignore it until Nanami starts rambling about how it has to be wrong, because she and her parents get along so well, and then snap that he’s not interested. If he’d known where it was going, I think he’d have either encouraged her or discouraged her more thoroughly. Instead, he just doesn’t wanna hear it.
Second, Akio’s also manipulating Touga and it’s in Akio’s interest if he can be pushed to burn his own emotional connections to the ground. I think this ties into the first one, in that Touga may not have known where the blood type compatibility test had gone until Nanami told him she wasn’t coming home because he wasn’t really her brother. And that’s right in front of Akio, who Touga wants to impress with his coldness, meaning that any chance of him comforting her or picking anything but the most cruel and opportunistic response was right out.
The lengths to which Touga goes to make it more awful than it needed to be, including staging that conversation with Keiko, are on his own head though.
Both times Nanami ends up in tears. The first time Touga comforts her, seemingly more for Utena’s benefit than hers, and the second time he just ignores her. Neither time did he expect her to win or want her to.
Nanami’s ending is also the most ambiguous. Miki and Juri have found a way to carry on caring about the people they loved without it being an all consuming obsession. Touga and Saionji have each other, and there’s at least some hope in that for them. Nanami’s a little close and a little distant, making tea for the boys rather than interacting with them. Given that it’s been three months I sort of hope the fact that she’s interacting with Touga at all means there was one hell of an apology somewhere in there…
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