in both the rgu anime + manga, there is a clear triumph over akio that necessitates anthy’s (and utena’s) liberation. at the same time some part of me does think the ending of rgu is more terrifying than the ep38 cliffhanger of the anime end cuz its so open ended… anthy liberating herself from akio is just the end of the beginning. who knows what anthy will see out there? u faced the end of the world and survived. to start anew requires ur creation of a new world. its the beginning of a completely different framework than the one anthy’s been a part of & internalized for an untold number of years. thats why the movie is such a great sequel cuz its just 1 of the many divergent paths these characters couldve gone on.

just looking at appearances for one. utena’s hair is short and her boy’s uniform, while being still distinct from the rest and a cue to the audience, is more archetypically “masculine”and less androgynous. yet she rejects the powerplay of dueling, the trophy bride for performing the “Man’s” role much quicker. anthy has much lighter skin and free falling long hair. unlike her show counterpart’s very dated, carefully pinned hair. ive heard ppl be rightfully upset that anthy was made lighter in the movie, but i find it shows how she further occupies even more of the engendered physical stereotypes culturally associated with the “feminine” in japan (&to a westernized viewer). she plays the role of a modern bride, less of the demure old school archetype & openly teases her husband with herself as the prize, yet she exposes her hollow soul and desire for the end, for death, much earlier. nanami, the broken prissy ojou sama archetype who once wanted to surpass everything bc she couldnt stand what becoming a “Woman” meant has turned into a cow. shes a complete non entity , since touga who she formed so much of who she was, who hurt her so, is dead in the movie. saionji is a complete caricature of himself literally frothing at the mouth. cuz touga saved juri instead of utena, and this time, he died for it. akio commits suicide bc being confronted w drugging and trying to rape his sister tormented him, but he was never alive. dios, who he was, was a hollow body: the prince of flies. touga’s backstory is all but said here: he was a child raped & tricked out by his own adoptive family, which explains his hypersexuality in the show. in the movie, he is a tragic secondary antagonist , a ghost haunting the main narrative of the movie in tandem with shiori, a character now more removed from juri in opposition to her more optimistic ending with juri in the show.

shiori with juri no longer as her beloved is a cruel thing. she ends up baiting utena in the notorious car chase, anthy the driver of the utena car up against the palace of eternity & the ghost of akio ohtori. everything is destroyed beside the framework of the car and utenanthy.

the outside world is in complete ruins. their uniforms lay tattered, gravestones marking the people that once lived here.

utena and anthy stripped bare, long hair tangled into eachother as theyre the only two ppl in these ruins. another beast has been overcome, another world has been destroyed. it is up to u what u make out of these ruins.