#at one point I saw utena and wakaba and I could understand why it's a thing but I had an immediate visceral reaction jsjfjsjd

[caffeinime]

dammit I wish I can get into non canon side ships for yuri and bl

[number1villainstan]

episode 21, nanami and her girlies

"we're all so happy to be near you miss nanami" as if they aren't like ten feet behind her

small yellow rose in the back. also is this a flashback or smthn?

it's like a celebrity cult. "The Chosen" my ass, y'all were just lucky

and at least one person in Nanami's trio of bitches is crushing on Touga, this is gonna be fun

ten bucks says nanami's knows keiko's crushing on touga and sent her to do the paperwork so she couldn't make a move

why was anthy nodding in the background like that? is she tired?

anthy does look really tired. and miki calls Utena "tenjou-senpai" in the Japanese audio (instead of Utena like so many other characters)

winter constellations, huh? huh...

aaaand akio being manipulative again. and that shot, where it looks like akio straight up towers over anthy...

small white rose, top left corner instead of bottom left like the yellow rose was. is this another flashback? switched to top right and got bigger when the shot changed from Keiko to Touga...

we never once saw touga's face in the flashback--

alpha bitch cannibalism at its finest

evil elevator time!

"[nanami] monopolizes [touga's] love" HM I WONDER WHAT COULD BE CAUSING/ENABLING THAT. OR WHO

"that girl doesn't understand! she won't even try!" HMMMMMMM

and touga got sneak black-rose-bullshitted. and we didn't even see his full face anywhere, i don't think, probably because he won't actually look at her, or maybe because to keiko (and people like her) he's less of a person and more of a symbol, an idol

kill the 'evil bug' and kill the pretty ones too...also whaddya mean it was just air freshener

umbrella as the desk symbol. although it didn't show up a lot, didn't leave much of an impression. maybe it's because keiko is like wakaba, one of the 'unspecials' that don't merit strong symbols? or maybe i've just lost my sensitivity to episodic symbols after like 7 episodes of this

oh anthy's got her own umbrella huh? inchresting

a bunch of umbrellas flying up--including anthy's!!

on and on about the sword...like yea the sword matters, especially in how strong it is or its shape or its weight or w/e, but after a certain point (when you know it won't shatter on impact) the sword's wielder is what matters not the sword

we didn't see the desks moving together. i don't see the desks at all after keiko falls

"I don't even know her name" ouch

"why is she back with nanami?" i was wondering the same thing! did all of their memories get wiped??

"you keep lying to yourself for as long as it takes" anthy certainly seems to have a lot of experience with this... (poor baby :( )

Oh also, along with writing the December 2023 Monthly Short Piece today, I finally watched the first episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena after days of seeing a moot post about it and--

"I am the Rose Bride. From this day forward, I belong to you."

i am going to murder everyone in this damn school for anthy

[ladyloveandjustice]

Thoughts on Utena: Blooming Rose of Deepest Black (THE MUSICAL)

Saw the Utena black rose musical and it was great! did a ton of cool things and additions to the arc. Gonna list my favorites.

-They did this really cool thing where when the Black Rose duelists were on stage the person they took the sword from was on stage too and Utena would be fighting both of them (and sometimes they would cross swords with each other too). You’d have both duelists saying things and going into their issues at the same time, so you could see how they mirrored each other. This REALLY paid off at the end when Utena was fighting Mikage, Dios showed up and Mikage was able to see him and was fighting both of them. The theme of duality and parallels between people was just emphasized super well.

-It is WAY more obvious in the musical Shiori has feelings back for Juri (but is expressing them in a truly fucked up way because she thinks she can’t keep Juri’s attention unless she has power over her) than it was in the show. While she and Juri are fighting Utena near the end, they both just kind of have a breakdown and Shiori lets her vulnerability actually show, they pull close to each other and straight up kiss (!!) then they both break away frantically with Juri saying “I don’t believe in miracles” and Shiori saying “I believe in miracles”, honestly I’d have to watch the whole thing again to give a full breakdown, but it was really interesting.

-Shiori’s actress was SO GOOD, she could alternate between sickeningly sweet and truly unhinged, you could just always FEEL she was a second from losing it. Akio did really well at giving me the creeps in every single scene as well.

-Like in the last musical, Saionji’s dorkiness is amped up in a way that makes him pretty fun to watch despite still being hot garbage, my favorite bit was when Utena knocks on the door while he’s living with Wakaba, he just STRAIGHT UP IS TOO INEPT TO FIGURE OUT WHERE TO HIDE in his panic, and poor Wakaba has to frustratedly shove him into a hiding place. Also, he later pretends to be a statue when Juri sees him. Also at one point Miki and Juri just straight up shove him out of the way, such is their disdain, it’s great.

-during said incident where Utena comes to visit Wakaba, Wakaba not only does the “I’M PRAYING! I’M VERY RELIGIOUS!” thing but also pretends she was “practicing transforming like a superhero” and yells “HENSHIN!” Utena offers her Anthy’s casserole which she says “tastes like the inside of a kendo mask” wow how could she NOT want it when you sell it like that Utena.

- the musical also gets more into the fallout of Wakaba’s duel! At the end of it, Utena cradles Wakaba in her arms, sobbing and shouting “WHO WOULD DO THIS? UNFORGIVEABLE!” Afterward, she’s worried Wakaba isn’t coming to school and isn’t answering her when she knocks on her dorm door, and says “I’m sure like the others she doesn’t remember the duel, I wonder if it has something to do with Saionji coming back.” (WOW BABY MADE AN OBVIOUS CONNECTION! I’M SO PROUD OF HER! no i really am) 

but then Wakaba comes to visit with her own (better than Anthy’s of course) casserole all cheerful and Utena’s like “oh i didn’t have to worry!” (oh honey why must you always accept everything at face value) and they sing this WHOLE CHEESY SONG about the power of friendship while Anthy just sits there with her empty glassy eyed smile CLEARLY DYING INSIDE but near the end Utena nudges her into participating and she seems to kinda start to enjoy it, because she keeps singing it even while going to sit beside Akio on the couch and he looks SO ANNOYED. 

-THEY INCLUDE THE NANAMI COW PLOT BECAUSE HOW COULD THEY NOT. There’s a part where Utena asks Miki why he won’t just tell her and he’s like “well she’s so confident now!” and it’s a genuinely funny asshole moment from him, LIKE LACK OF OUTWARD CONFIDENCE WAS EVER NANAMI’S PROBLEM. 

I guess the main nitpick I have about the musical(s) is Nanami’s role IS pretty much completely reduced to comic relief, and the cow thing is her only real plotline in this- I was kinda hoping they’d fold her first duel into the Black Rose arc since it’d be pretty easy to, just have her be Touga’s duelist, but alas (I can see why they didn’t, it’d be a time crunch). Her arc was one of my favorites in the anime, so its a shame. Like yeah, a large part of her screentime were the comic relief episodes, but even those often gave us a look at the underlying insecurities that drove her. Even the cow episode has that sequence where she dreamed that now that she was fully a cow, her brother was sending her to the slaughterhouse. It showed that she was (rightly) terrified her brother would discard her at the slightest provocation, and was well aware of how he was. But even that part wasn’t in the musical.

There WAS a great moment however, when she ascended as student council president and Miki’s like “uhhhh are you a duelist? since when” and she was like “yeah I dueled Utena Tenjou last time” and looked at the audience and is like “JUST BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T SEE IT DOESN’T MEAN IT DIDN’T HAPPEN” so that at least confirms her arc still takes place in the canon of the musical it’s all just offscreen lol. I love that Nanami has the ability to break the fourth wall, she also thanks the stagehand at one point. There’s also an ongoing arc between her and Wakaba of all people, she kind of bullied her in the first musical, but in this one she got jealous of Wakaba during the moment she was “special” and tried competing with her as she sang. Then Wakaba successfully berated her into CARRYING A SETPIECE OFFSTAGE so they could change scenes.

- Anthy remains fantastic, she still has that super-lowkey creepy laugh that she did when Utena asked if the projector was her brother. You could also just REALLY see how uncertain and guilty she was about the whole Mamiya thing, and at the end there’s this part where while Akio is talking to her about her role in all of it, Utena’s running around looking for her, and then Anthy finally runs to her, and Utena says “I’ve got you” while standing behind her and kinda cradling her in that possessive/princely pose and Anthy just has this thousand yard terrified stare that’s full of guilt and conflict and a million other things and it cuts to black and it’s SO UNSETTLING, I got chills.

Anyway yeah, it’s a FANTASTIC show uttely fully of love for the story and good understanding of its themes, and I can’t wait to watch it again, there’s a million little things I missed or can’t remember enough to post about here, so maybe next time I see it I’ll try writing down some more stuff right after.

[lovahletmetakeyouout-blog]

Revolutionary Girl Utena thoughts

Okay so it took me till the movie for me to really crack this show open. Usually episode 1 I’m critically pulling the show apart but it was really hard for me to digest the symbolism past surface level to really pull everything together.

You have to accept that this is a fake fairytale . Illusions and symbolism everywhere. Take away the fantastic bits and accept the last episode that the planetarium made everything.

So with this we look at what’s happening and our players . Everyone has been drawn into being duelist for one reason or another they want the rose bride to unlock the power of eternity and miracles and to revolutionize the world .

You have touga the princely playboy. Saionji. Jury the princely woman , and miki . Then utena comes along .

What makes utena different is that she only thinks of others and not herself and in her world she doesn’t need a miracle to break the world she just needs to act as noble as possible until she meets her prince and he saves her. Her miracle already came .

Jury is playing the prince role same as utena. However they’re both stuck . Jury likes women. And knows she can’t be accepted. She wishes she could change who she likes but can’t . She scoffs at utena because she sees herself in utena and thinks there’s no way she can pass the wall she’s stuck at . Once utena does she opens up hope for jury.

Akio creates the duelist game because the world saw him as a prince as a kid. He was everything a prince should be . And even saved utena. However himemiya had to take the blame for something because she saw the way that everyone’s expectations were hurting him. The evil words of the adults hurt her so much that she completely shut down to the world . She was blamed for taking akio away . Akio couldn’t be the same after that. He was no longer the princely big brother . The childhood magic was gone. So he begin to mentally manipulate her so that he could always be a prince and maybe one day the childhood magic would return if he just used himemiya enough he could find his old self. But he was too jaded at that point . He lured the duelist in with claims of eternity so he could stand over their broken world view and made his the absolute . If he could trap these people in his world view he could forever be the prince .

Utena escapes from akios world at the end. She was lured there by the promise of the perfect prince but she embodied him already. The magic went to her. But she had to struggle to show himemiya that the prince she loved was in her now and could protect her from the world and shoulder all that pain that hurt her as a kid. With this utena removed herself from akios world view and into her own. She revolutionized the world and akios view was no longer king. And with that she freed himemiya from her coffin and gave her the power to look at the world through her own eyes and not just be a pawn to whoever’s world view wins her over .

There’s lots of sexual manipulation because if you can make people think their world view is childish and that they only have that view because they have no adult experiences then you win . This was most shown with tsuwabuki. He just wanted to be around nanami and he thought that was perfectly fine. He was her little prince. But once people got in his head that he was a pawn who knew nothing and he has no adult experience he turned dark. He couldn’t be appreciated for how he was anymore he had to be adult , he had to kiss, and have sex now.

Akio uses sex to turn many people dark. The black rose let misconceptions run rampant to turn them dark. If you change the facts then you were right all along and your world view is correct and others are wrong. “I’m the prince because i did what was best, i took the blame for your brother , me and your brother are saving the world “ no the fact is you set the fire, you led yourself to believe your delusions.

The black rose were harder to fight for utena because of how delusional they are, they’re more complex to beat. Making the stages they fight on more complex but simple if you understand the one object it all stands on.

Utena easily wins fights in the first arc because their world views are so simple . She shuts up all the duelist easily except for touga . Who sits back and observes . He sees he can’t go toe to toe arguing world views so he manipulates hers. “Hey aren’t i very much like that prince that your world view relies on. So if you’re right , then I’m very right “ he piggybacks off what she believes in and gets her to fold. Until utena realizes that was selfish and her memory of the prince is so old and easily corrupted and it’s started to mean something new now. Especially to her friend wakaba.

After this touga becomes depressed but he changes. He now thinks if he can work side by side with Akio he can beat him. If he lets akio work maybe utena will see how weird he is and then touga can come and be a new prince and protect her. That guy is your prince he’s weird, I’m different i really want to protect you . He doesn’t see her as a tool to play anymore but to protect but utena doesn’t play that. She’s sharp enough.

Saionji just gets used , he’s a tool. His world view of so easily manipulated . And it’s very shallow. Even though he plays himself up like this deep introspective prince who sword fights.

Mickey is interesting because miki just lives in a fantasy world. Miki kinda mirrors himemiya in that miki doesn’t want time to move forward. They want to be stuck in forever . If it doesn’t move forward it can’t get worse . Miki wants to be in that summer garden playing music forever. That’s why miki is constantly stopping time. If he hits his stop watch he can hold moments still in time. Kozue knows this about miki. How innocent he is and so she sleeps around . She takes on the dirt of the world to keep him innocent but she doesn’t feel comfortable around him anymore . Eventually she’s manipulated into wanting to break miki out of that world and hurt him.

So in all utena is an anime about people fighting with their narrow views of the world and trying to find the power to make their view a reality to make themselves comfortable.

[raguna-blade]

Revolutionary Girl Utena Episodes 30-34

Thinking the Next Time I do this, I’m gonna cut down on the reactions thing, and do more a recap after the fact. I should in fact, but for right now i’m just kinda going at it you know.

Came too far and all that. And also, I would like to scrub some of the events in these episodes from my mind because goddamnit they were setting it up for 20 odd episodes and you hoped they wouldn’t and they did and it’s exactly as horrifying (if honestly, put together in such a way that if it wasn’t as uh...Objectively horrifying as it’s played, it’d be a pretty lovely scene I think, but that just makes it worse honestly, cause it is not played as a good thing and yet...) as you’d expect with fuck face mcgee.

Well next time I guess.

Episode 30

First Kiss to do it...uuuuuuugh. Goddamnit

Akio. Noooooooooooooooooooooooo

Wakaba does not give a single fuck, she want's what she wants. However bad an idea it is.

Saying this for your own good.

God, he's everywhere this episode. I don't like where this is going.

Please for the love of god....the shading is ominous. Pls. Plssssssss.

Anthy sitting there staring. Um. Um....

“Her, no my very special friend” aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Seeing this car a lot lately. Uh...Uh...Wakaba.Where.

Stop stroking the car Akio.

WAKABA NO NO NO NO NO

WHY DO YOU NEED 2 HOURS. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

I mean points for her getting the dream, but also, like, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

It was just a drive don't overthink this.

Why for the love of god do you keep coming back to these birthday candles.

The fucking dread in this episode man. It's unreal.

Car....oh man. Maaaaaaan. OH FUCK where did it come from.

STOP THE JAZZ PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Ok, candle out. That's...It's fine. It's fine.

WHY CAN'T ANTHY COME SCUZZLORD

DON'T JUST WAVE HER OFF LOOKING HELLA OMINOUS LIKE THAT FUCKING ANTHY ANTHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Please stop talking like that Akio. You won't because you're the worst but

PLEASE STOP TOUCHING HER. JESUS.

YES HE IS A PLAYBOY.

I can do without

YES HE IS DANGEROUS. SIMILAR YOU AND I

As I was saying, I could do without this ominous intimacy.

Anthy. Jesus christ anthy that's terrifying.

OH SHIT HES KISSING HER FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Shadow Girls! Oh, the red shoes. I know this fable. Doesn't it end with her cutting off her feet?

But...Uh...Uhhhhhhhhh.

Last Candle.

No such thing as a love that's wrong...But there are people you shouldn't be in love with.

A PRINCE OF YOUR OWN HUH. DO TELL.

...What's with this music.

Kanae! PLEASE.

What's with the roses...and her mom....

Is he banging the mom too...?

Engagements can be canceled feels ominous as fuck.Goddamnit Akio.

Goddamnit Akio.

Last Candle out.  YUP. BAD BAD TIMES

EPISODE 31

oh goddamnit it the prince opening thing again. That's never good. I thought this was supposed to be a nanami episode (...have these only been on nanami eps aside from the opening? I haven't been paying attention)

...Shadow girls in the picture...? Also, what the hell is going on with thepicture....

God is this a nanami episode?

Obssessive brother blood bind

Touga akio apprentice for sure?

Taking a shower care to jin me...Nanami hot shut the fuck down.

So...is the thing about Anthy and Akio then...?

Yo wait, what. Is she just staring at her brother in the shower and this fucking rose again. They're just....Holding on this for like 10 seconds what the hell.

Jesus Nanami. Goddamn Akio. I mean Touga. Fuck.

...If this is reflective of Akio and Anthy uh...uh.......I'm not sure how to parse this.

WHO ARE THESE THREE DUDES. Are they ...what's the deal with...hm.

FUCKING HELL AKIO LEAVE GO AWAY.

PLEASE LET ME JUST HAVE THIS NANAMI EPISODE.

...And where did anthy go.

Please i'm just...

Nanami, most people don't want to fuck their brother.

And nanami just being the huge bitch here is...what is...

So I looked this up and type b parents should have a type b child. So...Uh.

She's looking mad torn up about this actually. One would think for her banging her older brother ambitions this would be a huge plus but uh...Uhhhhh.

Damn Touga getting booty calls in the middle of the night. Am I using that right...?

Uh...What the hell was that pose Nanami.

PUTTHAT ROSE AWAY. AWAY

...Nanami just kinda dipping the fuck out. You that traumatized.

….AKIO...FUCKING PLEASE LEAVE. JUST GO AWAY.

YOU WERE NOT KIDDING ABOUT THAT AT ALL YOU FUCK AAAAAAAAA

ANTHY STOP LYING PLEASE.

Do I sound like a mental case? Yes. Still savage.

...Shadow Girls what...? Parasitism.

THEY ARENT ON THE GROUND WAIT A MINUTE.

Nanami Shooketh.

HE IS YOUR BROTHER YOU DINGBAT.

Oh shit she just admited it. Though I don't know if it sank in.

So if the anthy nanami parallel thing holds her taking spot in bed is you know. Sensible.

Oh shit. Akio and Anthy and hooooooooooooooooboy nanami ain't taking this well.

I THOUGHT THIS WAS A NANAMI EPISODE. IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN. GOOFS AND GAFFES AND YOU PULL THIS SHIT AT THE END LIKE THIS.

DID SHE SEE IT ALL GOD DAMN.

EPIDOSE 32

Nananmi is traumatized as FUCK right now.

Anthy andAkio.

Nanami playing it cool.

Nope not playing it cool at all. She's...Ok, she's doing better. Nope she's just...Trying her best.

CALL THE POLICE NANANMI.

Nanami: You'd be eaten Alive.

She's not wrong but...THE POLICE NANAMI.

….Wait. Would it be fair to call Nanami a third main character....?

Yo touga what the fuck. Just

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. KEIKO

JESUS WHAT THE FUCK ITS ON.

This is fuuucked.

Why does kanae look so fucking gone.

Anthy keeping utena from walking in on some fucking shit.

Anthy: THANKS FOR ACKNWOLEDGING I TERRIFY YOU.

Nanami in the anthy bed,

NANAMI THANKS FOR SAYING WHAT WE'RE ALL THINKING JUST SAY SOMETHING GOD.

Also, it's like you're a part of each other or something. Given the yinyang thing in the intro I'm wondering.

Nanami, making choices.  Being...Duel time. And a ride in the Akio mobile.

Fuck. Goddamn. Uh..

Why is Nanami the fucking Realist Person on this Show. Like seriously. I'm actually kinda considering her as a third main character, which feels weird but....

Keiko Talks Shit, GOT THE SHIT KICKED OUT OF HER JESUS

SLAPPED ANTHY

Challenged ANTHY to a duel. That's..new.

Nanami just fucking coming out swinging.

Shadow Girls...What...What the fuck is going on....

Did...Did they change the openin? Thing again...no, it's not. Just been a while.

But for real, Nanami is not remotely fucking around in the LEAST. My vibe of Nanami as a third main character is interesting and I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Yo that pose though. Nanami, I wanna the best. Dunk you, dunk my brother, dunk me, I will be the best. Fuck ALL of this hot bullshit though. Fuck it all.

Nanami is whooping Utena's ass right now which is surprising.

I know where those feelings lead.

Oh they're both adopted. And what the FUCK are you two doing on that bed.

Can we just delete Akio.

Episode 33

THEY'RE DROPPING IT AGAIN? PRINCE INFO AGAIN LIKE TWO EPS?

But...none of the animation...Uh...hm

Why is it night.

Pattern broken. Some shit is about to happen isn't it.

Anthy...?

….Uh. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

SHADOW GIRLS ON THE RADIO?

Also, I didn't want to look at the real ones?

What DOES it mean to be eternal?

It'll work out so long as I don't get caught. YEAH I BET.

STOP STOP STOP I agree.

Wait a minute is this a clips episode.

I think it is. Guess they had to give us a space before the last hell ride.

….What if Green Hair wasn't just talking shit, and whatever he saw

King of Imposters...? That's Akio. Right?

Also, wow Utena.

So, Every Sibling pair is fucked in roughly the same way. Which...Concerns. What's the deal.

And what the FUCK is with Anthy. Saionji, what did you SEEEEEEEE.

...Wait, the teacher is actually important? I mean yeah of course she is. Recurring character. The Teacup...? Forgotten huh...?

What is Eternal: A Diamond, A Beautiful Memory, Canned Peaches

What is Miracles: Edisons Inventions, A Prince, Canned Coelecanth

Oh this dude again.

WHEN DID I START LOSING. Hoo boy. Hooooooboy.

Watching this repeat of everyones duels kinda homes in how much Utena REALLY doesn't seem to understand people. And hasn't changed in the LEAST. At least, nothing particularly dramatic. Which is...uh..hm.

DON'T.

FUCK. FUCK NO.

oh god this mad uncomfrotable.

The food thing....repeats like...4 times...

AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaSTOP SOTP STOP STOP

GOD FUCKING DAMNIT

In a fucking filler episode they would do this.

Akio just...

Anthy...Anthy did you set this up.

This is mad fucked. I am....not ok.

CAN WE PLEASE DELETE AKIO I BEG YOU.

Just...Why did they change the ending again.

God this is such bullshit.

Episode 34

GOD CAN WE NOT WITH THIS AKIO BULLSHIT.

Oh my god the stars are...

Must you still torture me...? Wh-what. Anthy...?

Oh hey the shadow girls are real.

Showering you with flowers has a terrible meaning now.

Stop that: Anthy to Akio. Uhhhhhhh.

The Shadow Girls...Play...Uh. Huh.

….Um.

A rose Prince...?

A Witch: Cut to Anthy uhhhhhh. Rose....Castle...?

Is...Is anthy the big bad?

Trapped the Prince in the castle.

The Witch is The Princes's Little Sister.

A girl who cannot become a princess is doomed to become a witch.

Uh...Anthy.

Wow, Akio just looks...Tired.

She's still around somewhere in this world :CUT TO ANTHY

oh Touga gonna duel.

I do like that even they're confused as to why they lost.

Shadow Girls...? Again. What was that all about.

Why is anthy's shadow so fucking huge.

Sacrificing Noble Souls huh.

Tiring to be friends with her.

God the dread is no longer here but...uuuuugh.

Anthy, why do you look sad...?

oh shit is this Utena's flashback on the scene.

Dios? Not an Angel of death.

And Utena' walking the same path as him..?

uh....uhhhhhhhhhh..That's a witch. The Rose Bride.

Lives on in agony as punishment for taking away the prince...?

Anthy....? um...

They're calling for the prince...That's a huge crowd.

Anthy sealed away Dios. Oh...

oh shit.

Little Utena noooooo.

The only one who can save her is the prince she believes in.

If you never lose your nobility even when you grow up, you may be able to save her.

May huh.....Does...Anthy remember her...?

Who are you really?

Well fuck shit's worse than I thought.