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It recently occurred to me that in Revolutionary Girl Utena, Miki’s ritualistic stopwatch gimmick might be a series of Japanese number puns.  So, since it (somehow) looked like no one else had bothered to do it, I’ve been trawling thru Utena to grab all of Miki’s stopwatch times.  Here’s what I got out of the first arc.  These are from episodes, 1, 2, 3; 4(4); 5,8,10; 11,12(2)

I haven’t bothered to really dig into the potential readings of any just yet; I’ve just been trying not to get so distracted by rewatching that I forget to take the screencap any time the watch shows up.  But just at a glance, I think the 3:12 from the first episode could be a play on “sa-i-(on)-ji,” and the 16:42 from the second episode very noticeably has 42 in it, which reads as “shini” as in  死に: “Dying”/“Dead.”  Not actually sure if this suspicion will pan out, but for now, back to scanning thru episodes…

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and someday, together?

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some thoughts about episodes 31 and 32 of revolutionary girl utena

this framed picture in episode 31 reminded me of a fairly well-known painting.

we were first shown it when we got into the episode with the kiryuu's residence. nanami took a phone call from a girl looking for touga. while talking on the phone, the picture on the wall next to her was moving.

this picture somewhat reminded me of this painting:

this painting is called "mystery and melancholy of a street" by giorgio de chirico (1914, oil on canvas). this painter founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists.

the girl in the painting rolling a hoop with a stick immediately reminded me of the framed picture from episode 31. based on reading, hoop rolling was a common child's game in the past. the goal is to keep the hoop upright for long periods or do various tricks. in this game, wooden hoops are usually driven by striking them with the centre of a one-foot-long stick. this game has been documented in ancient china and ancient greece.

in ancient greece, hoops, also known as krikoi, were driven by a stick called elater. the hoop held symbolic meanings in greek myth and culture. for example, hoop driving is an attribute of ganymede, often depicted on greek vase paintings from the 5th century bce. sometimes, hoop images are presented in the context of ancient greek pederastic tradition.

the girl in the picture frame is not rolling the hoop in the usual manner, whereby she was pushing it from behind with a stick instead of hitting the top. this method was normally used for metal hoops; instead of being struck, it could be guided by a metal hook. however, the girl wasn't using a metal hook, instead it appeared to be a plain stick.

the connection between the framed picture in the episode and the painting could possibly be scarce at best, since there were many paintings from the 19th century of children with hoops and sticks. i'm not particularly knowledgeable about art and paintings and their history, but i did several readings to assist in this write-up.

to describe the painting literally (based on reading): it shows an encounter between a little girl running while rolling a hoop and a statue/larger human entity present in the painting only through its shadow. the girl is moving towards the source of bright light coming from behind the building on the right, illuminating the arcades on the left brightly. the bright yellow stretched up to the horizon separates two zones: light and darkness. there is a waving flag in the distance. also notable is the shadow of a long stick-like structure next to the statue's shadow.

de chirico used two contradictory vanishing points (a point in the picture plane that is the intersection of the projections [or drawings] of a set of parallel lines), eliminating any resemblance to reality. all the lines of the fully illuminated building on the left meet slightly above the horizon; the alignments of the dark building meet at a point where the truck roof touches the yellow of the ground. one last detail regarding the perspective is an isometric depiction of a truck, or freight car, mysteriously lit by a light coming from nowhere. the juxtaposition of light sources and perspectives created a mysterious and impossible universe where spaces will never converge and the girl will never reach the statue.

interpretations of the painting (based on reading): the empty plaza is likely captured in the evening; it is not yet dusk, but there is a clear indication that the day will soon be over. the empty spaces, solitary figures, and distinct colour palettes depicted a mysterious, unsettling, and tense atmosphere, evoking isolation, solitude, and a sense of foreboding. the use of unusual perspective adds a sense of vertigo and disorientation.

relating to nanami: nanami's arc in the final arc of the series was about learning and acknowledging the true nature of her big brother and their relationship with one another, to accept and move on and away from him.

the point regarding the girl never reaching the statue in the painting feels closely reminiscent of nanami's situation whereby she tried to cling/hold onto the idyllic past and idealised perception of touga, and to connect these ideals to the touga in her current reality. however, the fundamental mismatch between the two perpectives would never unify her ideals and reality. nanami would never reach her idealised touga. besides that, the relation of the hoop to ganymede and pederastic tradition somehow suited the tone of nanami's storyline in episodes 31 and 32 where we learned touga had been grooming her into an incestual relationship much like akio with anthy (and the connection of ganymede to utena as akio pointed out in episode 17). the odd style of the girl rolling the hoop in the episode 31 shots may allude to touga's grooming upon nanami to establish sexual dynamics within their sibling relationship; taking the stick as a phallic structure and the hoop as a yonic structure. examples from episode 31:

to quote the director's commentary from episode 31: blood relationships are the only relationships we have where people want us exactly as we are. to a child, the daddy who affirms everything about her is her prince and the “world” itself. so the words, “when i grow up, i’m going to marry Daddy” mean the same thing as “i’m going to make the whole world mine.” in the process of becoming an adult, there comes a moment for each of us when we’re rejected by the “world.” the person we were so in love with dumps us. the school we wanted to go to so badly doesn’t let us in. the career we were trying for doesn’t pan out. everyone has a moment like that. and that’s okay. there’s no such thing as something which mustn’t be lost. everyone has the freedom to love someone or something. we are free. we mustn’t forget that.

nanami's whole world was touga, to have him was to have (a place in) the world for her, to belong, with no worry for ostracisation or ridicule because they're blood siblings, people who would accept you as you are. she lamented the growing distance between them as they grew older and yearned to bridge the existing gap. however, a curveball was thrown her way when touga convinced her they weren't blood siblings. another, much bigger curveball, which was the discovery of the nature of anthy and akio's relationship, hit her soon after. these two events were possibly nanami's early encounter with "adulthood," in which she was dealt with the terrifying truths of reality. it's possible that nanami had been worried about the loss of the sanctity of their sibling relationship after learning she wasn't blood-related to touga (hence, she moved out of their mansion). she believed this bond to be something she should never lose. seeing akio and anthy may have exacerbated the worry into fear of spiralling down the same path with touga. because this would mean she's "one more fly in the swarm." another face in the crowd of girls her brother barely regarded as something more than a fling. rejected from the world, her world. this rejection was presented when touga attempted to sexually assault nanami, but her losing the duel cemented this rejection. being a part of a crowd means no one cares for who you are as a person, you're nothing more than a passing face.

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framed by yellow roses

episodes 3, 4, 6, 10, 18, 27, 31

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🍷

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Utenakawa....

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Escape

Colored pencil, marker and halftone paper. 

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The bells are ringing

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UTENA x ANTHY 🌹

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Juri and Shiori in their middle school days…

Insta - Tiktok - Twitter

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Flowerbed

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Testing out Affinity as an alternative to Adobe Illustrator! RGU characters are good for vector art because their designs are so simple :3

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its fuwa fuwa time, yui hirasawa!

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And the gates of night open

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🌹⚔️ El poder para revolucionar el mundo ⚔️🌹

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🌹⚔️ The power to revolutionize the world ⚔️🌹