#THE GIFTENING 2019

[keyofjetwolf]

Jet Wolf’s Top Ten Rei Hino Moments THE GIFTENING 2019 Edition

#5: International Success Life (Episode 152, “Burning Passion! Mars’ Furious Deadly Attack”)

I feel it not unfair to say that an understanding Jet Wolf’s Top Ten Rei Hino Moments is central to any Rei-based educational foundation. If you don’t know that she will book a room at a haunted house because it’s cheap, how can you hope to attain mastery of so complicated a subject?

But if forced to drill down to one singular moment? This would absolutely be in running.

The girls are discussing Hikawa’s recent burst in popularity, thanks to Rei’s appearance in a magazine. She’s playing up the “mysterious shrine maiden” role pretty hardcore, and everyone’s wondering what’s up with all that. It’s Rei seizing opportunity, of course, and planning to ride this all the way to her next life’s goal.

What is that next life’s goal, you may ask?

E V E R Y T H I N G

Rei Hino plans to be absolutely everything there is to do in life. Among the things she imagines for herself, we have singer, actress, model, basketball player, flight attendant, race queen, explorer, astronaut, and president.

AND THAT IS JUST A SAMPLE

The determination is absolutely a core component of Rei in this moment, no question. But even more Rei Hino-ly important, in my view, is her CERTAINTY. It doesn’t occur to Rei that any singular one of these might be out of her reach, and she devotes an equal amount of consideration (read: NONE WHATSOEVER) to the idea that she maybe can’t be ALL of them.

There is literally nothing in life that Rei considers doing that she does not, infallibly, one hundred thousand percent, believe she CAN do. Nothing. And ALL AT ONCE. Of COURSE she can be a pop idol race queen basketball player explorer astronaut president! What, like it’s hard?

And none of this comes with any ideas of predestination or entitlement. Rei knows it will take persistence and hard work and even maybe a small dose of luck. She just also knows she can DELIVER on all these things.

“Rei,” you may be saying, “you can’t guarantee you’ll be lucky.”

“Maybe YOU can’t,” Rei would reply.

Because of course she can. She’s Rei Hino. Try telling her otherwise. The hell does luck know? Luck will be there, Rei will MAKE luck be there, and luck will not leave until Rei is good and ready to give it permission.

This is such an integral part of Rei, of how she lives her life, and of what she expects from the people she allows to share it with her. Rei’s standards are near impossibly high, but are no less high for herself. That core truth is at the heart of everything Rei is, and everything Rei does.

Plus, I mean, POP IDOL RACE QUEEN BASKETBALL PLAYER EXPLORER ASTRONAUT PRESIDENT REI HINO WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE

[keyofjetwolf]

And another GIFTENING door closed!

That concludes our Utena spillover, leaving the back half of the Rei Hino Moments, the last five minutes of PGSM ep 6, and Xena! All of which will be coming later this month, but first, today!

I hope you all enjoyed this gasp shock twist surprise ending we definitely did not see coming, and my liveblog of it. Thank you all for your patience while I wrap up our dangling GIFTENING threads.

I really DO have to go get cat food for Master Pocket, but I’ll return later this evening for Carmilla, sponsored by @cello-moon​! SEE YOU IN A BIT

[keyofjetwolf]

I want everyone to know how little sense this entire closing sequence even fucking MAKES with what we supposedly (SUPPOSEDLY) know, and I’m going to go leave my home and buy cat food and aggressively not think about it.

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

BUT PROBABLY NOT UNTIL NEXT GIFTENING

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

IT’S HER PICTURE IN THE LOCKET CUZ JURI GAAAAAAAAAAY

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

I am spiraling out of control here and that’s fine, I’m comfortable in this space. This looks sweet and nice and awww, but if we take into account that the roses aren’t roses, they’re EVERYTHING in this twisted fucked up hellscape that is Rosedick High’s extracurricular program, then this becomes so much more sinister. That this isn’t a gesture of appreciation or comfort or sympathy or acceptance, it’s a beautiful yoke. It’s inviting Juri to keep herself in the middle of all this, to wear the rose and keep dueling, even if she doesn’t believe, even if she doesn’t want the prize, even if the deck’s stacked against her. After all, what is a game if no one will play?

Keep dancing, little rabbit.

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

WHO WORE IT BETTER

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

PLEASE ENJOY THIS DEEPLY PHALLIC/YONIC IMAGERY AVAILABLE DAILY HERE IN THE VELVETY HALLOWED HALLS OF ROSEDICK HIGH

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

SO THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT

It’s the same dude we get a little glimpse of in the opening credits, and while it’s been three million years since I watched the first episode, I think he is -- or at least very much resembles -- the guy we saw giving Utena her Costco Membership Ring. So “her prince”, which Juri is particularly taunting her about at the moment.

But why the visual flashes? Isn’t it belabouring the point a little? Or is it meant to suggest that this isn’t just a feeling, but an actual thing? Did the prince fight in this arena? Were the circumstances surrounding some duel he had in the past much like these now for Utena? There has to be more going on here than just “Utena’s trying to be a prince” (whatever the fuck that means). She’s stepping into his shoes right now in a way we haven’t seen before, and I have no idea why here, why now, why that’s significant, but I do feel it IS.

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

I still don’t entirely get it all (and I can at this point only hope I’m not supposed to, as we’re down to a couple of minutes and there’s A LOT), but I do really like how the duel is cut with these flashes. Not of memory, but of emotion, full of symbolism I don’t know if I’m able to even try to get). It’s all very intentional and visually interesting, even as I’m wondering what the fuck it’s all supposed to mean.

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

Okay, Utena, but it’s ALSO West Side Story. Dramatic teenage shenanigans with swords AND finger snapping AND a 10,000 foot high dueling platform AND aggressive dance battles?

Huh? Huh???

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

The day may come when I understand literally anything, BUT THAT IS NOT THIS DAY

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

OH GOOD THESE GALS SHOULD CLEAR EVERYTHING RIGHT UP

I’m going to try to make something of this, though, feel free to laugh. Following on from the last post, with Anthy sitting alone in an empty classroom singing her little dancing rabbit song in a completely normal and not at all strange and off-putting manner, we cut to this, and I can’t help but draw a line between the uses of animals in both.

If Anthy’s song does represent playing with people (or at least distracting them), then this follow-through could suggest that it’s in fact only BY playing with people that they’re worth interacting with. A zoo, where they’re all kept isolated and distant, living their lives, is “boring”. Who wants to merely look, when you can fuck with?

Which then goes a step further in suggesting that at a zoo, the cages aren’t there for the spectators’ safety, but the ANIMALS’. That a cage may be confining, but it’s also secure, and isn’t that worth the trade? That itself is a MUCH more relevant argument that goes well outside the scope of what I’m prepared to get into today, but the talk of cages then puts me on another path, about how you have to break the shell and revolutionize the world, or die.

IS ALL THIS THE PRODUCT OF A VERY SLEEPY MIND THAT IS TRYING TOO HARD MAYBE SO. But it’s also not as difficult as I might expect to extract a couple of larger ideas, and that makes me wonder if there’s something in here somewhere.

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

WOW HEY THANKS FOR THAT INTERLUDE SHOW

Okay though, hold with me while I try for something. This can go a couple of ways, I think -- and maybe it’s not any one thing, but several? I get ahead of myself. Basically though, why do we have this at all? It could be Anthy with a dose of meta commentary, that they’re (the duelists? the student council? the student body? EVERYONE??) just bopping along like clueless little bunnies, dancing as directed to a tune they can’t hope to comprehend. Or it could be that Anthy has been slapped a few too many times. I’d buy both! But if she’s meant to be acting out the suggestion that they’re dancing to someone else’s tune, the next question has to be, is it HERS?

Is that even something I’m pulling out of the text, or just my own deep wish for Anthy to have even a drop of agency about her life? That she’s in this situation where she’s just a human kewpie doll because she wants to be, because it’s where the true power lies? Or, maybe she doesn’t WANT to be, but here she is all the same, and she’ll twist all the knobs and dials in the background while everybody’s fighting over her but not NOTICING her, make those rabbits dance so hard they’ll won’t notice she’s the fox until it’s too late.

OR IS THE SHOW JUST BEING WEIRD AGAIN IS THIS MY NEXT FUCKING KANGAROO

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

IT WAS A DOOR TO DOOR RING SALESMAN YOU SPENT THREE MINUTES WITH TWELVE YEARS AGO I NEED YOU TO LET IT GO

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)

[keyofjetwolf]

I can’t really make heads or tails of Juri’s reaction here, which I don’t feel too badly about, as I don’t think I’m supposed to be able to yet. The best I can cobble together is that Utena’s saying much of the same we’ve heard said of Juri herself (though mostly ABOUT her rather than BY her), and my next step there would either be that she’s overidentifying and saying to Utena what she wishes she could day to herself, or Utena’s somehow “doing it wrong” and sullying whatever it is Juri feels she’s out to prove.

I don’t know the specifics, save that I’m pretty sure it’s not actually about Utena at all, if for no reason other than the fact that I have trouble believing Juri cares overmuch about her and her precious Costco Feelings.

.

(I’m completely unspoiled for Utena and watching it for the first time. Please don’t confirm or deny anything in this post, give me hints or cautions or suggestions about future episodes, or try to explain anything going on. That includes if I should’ve been able to figure it out from previous episodes, or if it’s cultural, or if there’s no answer at all. Spoiling the experience only ruins things for everyone!)