#ayu ohseki

[empty-movement]

GOGAI, GOGAI!!! COME GET UTENA KIBBLES

It's September 3rd. It's 1997. Princess Diana just died, and that's very important to lots of people. You, however, are chewing your nails to nubs waiting for the climax of Revolutionary Girl Utena's Black Rose Saga. It's going to air today.

But like any good fan, you're already one step ahead, because you've spent the last couple days thumbing through Animedia's September issue supplemental, the 100 page Duelist Bible. Strangely, it appears to be in English??? Wow! Thanks Nagumo for translating, Ayu Ohseki for Japanese editing, teasot for proofreading, and ME, FUCKIN' VANNA, for scanning and scanlating this massive booklet!

We've got duel summaries! We've got character design sheets! We've got a school directory! We've got THE DUEL RULES. We've got cast interviews! WE'VE GOT THAT CHU-CHU DOLL CRAFT GUIDE. Check it ALL out here, in the Something Eternal Bibliothèque! You can flip through it page by page here, or you'll also find on the page a link to a PDF version for your at home viewing/archiving needs!!

This gargantuan tome really gets it across that in 1997, you didn't have a fandom wiki or on demand viewing. If you didn't catch and record the episodes, a booklet like this becomes a critical tool for keeping track of everything that's happened up to now, and is also a way for the series creators to tap fans on the shoulder and draw attention to details they want seen but not explained in the show directly. For example, this drops at the close of the BRS, but points out Touga's sword isn't the same in Keiko's duel and in the opening sequence. A thing we don't see cashed in until MUCH later!

This has been a true and absurd labor of love on my part. I even rescanned the booklet from my originals because their quality (decades old lmao) was not worth scanlating. This took a ludicrous amount of time, and has been a main project of mine for over a year now!! I'm so happy to have gotten it done in time for the Something Eternal Watch-Along thread, and I really really hope everyone finds something cool and interesting about it! The really cool thing is this now completes the set of magazine supplementals by the big three magazines made for Utena during its run. We now have fully scanlated this, as well as Animage's June Utena Dossier, and Newtype's November Utena? (Oh My!) UTENA! Take a stroll through memory lane, be they yours or someone else's!

As always, if you like this kind of content, consider supporting us on Patreon! Especially right now, a holy grail acquisition is in the works that I will bleed to share with y'all. More on that later, lmao.

Revolutionize the World! Love, Vanna

[keyofjetwolf]

So if you're Dipper, who's the Mabel in your life?

Def the jillybug

[moonwhing]

So I was looking up names for original characters, and while looking around baby name sites, I saw Vivi suggested as an actual name/nickname. Curious, I look up its meaning. It turns out while Vivi can be short for a lot of names, it's usually understood to be short for Vivian, which means "alive." NOW CRY AS I HAVE CRIED.

IT’S SO GOOD RIGHT?

I’ve loved that about that name for a long long time. It hurts but it’s perfect and terrible and MAKES THE ENDING SO MUCH HARDER

But now my brother plays a Vivian in our D&D game so there’s a mix of “TINY PRECIOUS MAGE THAT CAN DO NO WRONG” and “DAMMIT YOU DRUNKARD STOP PISSING OFF THE GUARDS THIS IS ONLY DAY ONE AND A HALF” at the name.

[ruination-fangs]

For the drabble meme: Milla (with Leia, Elise, or Alvin as the secondary character if it's OK to specify), 25, "Need some help?"

“Need some help?”

The question is fairly quiet, but clearly audible in the hush of the school library, and Leia looks up. Late afternoon sunlight stripes the floor, slanting in through the evenly-spaced windows on the wall. In front of Leia’s table stands a young woman almost as radiant - long, wavy, golden hair loosely tied back, and several of her shirt buttons undone, revealing all of her collarbones and more skin than the school’s dress code probably allows.

Milla Maxwell. Leia swallows. She knows this girl, in passing, from several brief and professional conversations. She’s a TA in one of Leia’s classes. She’s probably a grad student. She might work at the library too, or at least she seems to spend a lot of time here, and that is definitely not a factor in why Leia has been coming here increasingly often herself.

“I, uh…” Leia falters, glancing back at her books. “Well, I am kind of stuck, but…”

It’s hard to look up. Milla’s gaze is always unflinching - maybe even intimidating, if her eyes weren’t so beautiful. Leia’s never seen a color quite like them, and she usually doesn’t have trouble looking people in the eye.

“What’s the problem?” Suddenly Milla is sliding into the seat next to Leia, leaning over to look at her notebook. Leia can’t help it - her face flushes and she has to steel herself not to flinch away from Milla’s shoulder almost brushing her own.

She focuses her gaze on her work. “Well, um, I’m writing an essay on the socioeconomic factors that led to the Battle of Fezebel Marsh, but I’m not sure if my sources are good enough, or the points are organized enough, or anything… I keep scratching things out and redoing them, heh.”

Her chuckle is weak, but Milla doesn’t seem to notice. She slides Leia’s notebook a little closer to herself. “Mind if I have a look?”

“Go ahead…”

Luckily Leia means it, because Milla has already started to survey the outline scrawled across the page. Oh god, Leia hopes her handwriting is legible. Jude often says he has trouble with it, and while that may be just an excuse half the time, Jude is a much better student than Leia is. There might be a reason he’s in a top-quality medical school and she’s still trying to figure out what she’s doing.

Milla nods a little, and Leia taps her pen against the open book in front of her, a frantic kind of nervousness. She glances at Milla’s face once, again. Suddenly Milla looks up, and Leia straightens, her eyes falling back to the table.

“It looks fine to me.” Milla leans back a little. “Just make sure you pick one topic for each section and stick to it.”

Leia’s whole body relaxes. “Really? I’m so glad you think so. Writing isn’t really my strong suit, so…”

Milla shakes her head. “Perhaps I’m not supposed to tell you this, but I’ve graded some of your papers. You do good work when you start with a clear outline. Just don’t let your writing get sidetracked and you’ll be fine.” Her eyes turn to meet Leia’s, and now for some reason Leia can’t look away. “Have some confidence in yourself. You’re smarter than you think.”

She smiles then, and Leia clearly feels her heart skip at least one beat. Her response seems to burn out under the force of her blush intensifying. Before she knows it, Milla is scooting her chair back and standing up.

Desperate to make the conversation last longer, even by just a few seconds, Leia manages, “Th-thanks. For the advice, and, you know…”

Milla smiles again, warm and somehow more familiar this time. “You’re quite welcome. Just ask if you need anything else.”

“Y-yeah, I will…”

Even after Milla has disappeared back around the bookshelves, it takes Leia several seconds to recover. Elation fills her chest as she realizes what just happened. Milla knows her - Milla recognizes her work. Milla thinks she has potential. Milla is actually quite approachable, and willing to help whenever Leia asks.

Maybe Leia will ask more often.

[azuresquirrel]

For realsies this time: Apollo Justice, the game

I REALLY GODDAMN LIKED WHAT THEY DID WITH PHOENIX IN THIS GAME (final five minutes aside) AND I LITERALLY WILL FIGHT EVERYONE ABOUT IT.

Look I just really like it when BAD SHIT happens to heroes and they don’t respond in an ideal fashion. How are they supposed to rise up again triumphantly if they don’t STRUGGLE first? I liked seeing Phoenix so openly fucked up after all the stuff he went through. And note that HE STILL IS A GREAT FATHER TO TRUCY (we don’t talk about the last five minutes), BECAUSE HE IS STILL HIM AND AN ULTIMATE DAD. I just like it a lot when heroes get messed up and do some fucked up shit because of it but they’re STILL good at the core and can come back from it.

Also, the soundtrack? MAYBE THE BEST OF THE SERIES, HONESTLY. 

[8bittheatrics]

SHE'S THE SWEETEST BABY Also the most chill kitten I have ever met, my god. Perfectly content just to hang out in her box bed. Which will hopefully work out in our favor with getting Neko used to her once Neko gets a little less grumpy over her territory being invaded.

[beafocal]

Characters: Tear, Natalia Rating: G Warnings: Mentions of past canonical character death. Wordcount: 2729 Summary: What’s a song, when you sing for fighting? Tear and Natalia find some quiet time to talk, in the months after Eldrant, on the nature of music, memory, and what the Seventh Fonon brings to such things.

Notes: Written as a pinch-hit for the Tales of Secret Santa 2018 ( @talesofsecretsanta2018 ) gift exchange. This one is for tumblr user @ayu-ohseki , and lord help me but Tumblr doesn’t seem to want to ping so I may be casting this into the wild blue yonder. I think I found your AO3, but please correct me if I’m wrong.

The prompt I jumped off of, aside from Tear and Natalia being favorite characters, was “The nature of song, the Seventh Fonon, and reality itself when all matter is based on sound.” It’s gone… a little astray, I think, but I’d need several thousand more words for the level of existential examination I’d want to hit with that. I hope it’s at least come somewhere near – I really enjoy Tear and Natalia, and it was a joy to write them.

[enigmari]

@ayu-ohseki said: Ahh, happy (belated?) birthday! Hope you had a nice one!

you still had fifteen minutes, don’t worry ahaha. and thanks!!

[synistersyrup-blog]

Doing an audio narration of “Strange Places”, by Ayu Ohseki! The artwork featured in the video is by TigyShark. 

Fanfic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5170448/chapters/11911172

Tigyshark: http://tigyshark.deviantart.com/

[feralphoenix]

ayu-ohseki said:

calling them “alolan frisk” from now on

fdjlksjflds

ALOLAN FRISK (? - [placeholder name until subject’s self-identification may be confirmed]) (height: 5′5″~5′6″ish / weight: too thin probably)

“this HUMAN TEENAGER has adapted to the harsh, strict environment of HOMETOWN by engaging in such coping mechanisms as sleeping a lot, getting teen drunk, consuming large amounts of their comfort food, socially withdrawing, and running away to an alternate dimension where photon reading is negative and colors get weird to be with other neglected things and thereby better simulate their natural habitat!”

[aroihkin]

ayu-ohseki “Stepped on solid, mirror-finish ice last night in the dark and...”

Oof, that sounds rough. Hope you feel better (for you, I mean) soon.

I hope so too because tomorrow I’m back to work and it’s my long day!

Even if it hurts the same as it does right now, I think I’ll be okay. I can take my time, and I have a heating pad in the car. But it’ll hopefully be better with more sleep before then.

[empty-movement]

Empty Movement's 2023 Revolutionary Girl Utena UPDATE

Fashionably late? As always. 2023 was a HUGE year for Empty Movement, so much so that to confess, we did a big fail in actually keeping up with sharing the stuff we did! OOPS. So finally, we proudly bring you: all the Revolutionary Girl Utena content we dropped in 2023. Essays, artbooks, CD information, you name it. Click below for the entire site update, or get it at the source, as always, at ohtori.nu.

In Analysis (Fan Essays): • seebee's essay The Power of Living an Embodying Narrative is about more than Utena, it's about the fandom--including us. We were both interviewed for this piece, and the result is an absolutely beautiful essay that has helped inform how we do Utena stuff going forward. Thank you so much for letting us be part of this! • seebee's VIDEO essay FILM CUTS BACK | transfeminism in utena absolutely blew our minds and it's so good we're listing it. Look at the title. Just go watch it, it rules. • Nicole Winchester's essay No Choice But To Become Witches: The Bishōjo-Demonic Phallic Mother Dichotomy in Revolutionary Girl Utena catches you up to speed on the academic discussion around what might best be described as the shoujo manga iteration of the Madonna-Whore complex. Then, naturally, it finds plenty to say about Utena. Great work that was well worth the coding!

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In From the Mouths of Babes (Translated Meta/Creator Content): • Cross X Talk, A Round Table Discussion Commemorating the Second Musical Utena GOGAI FUCKIN' GOGAI. Nagumo and friends bring us the final untranslated part of the 2019 Black Rose Musical's program guide: the monster interview with Ikuhara and the director of the musicals, Yoshitani. INCREDIBLE content here that 100% lives up to the first musical's similar encounter! A must read!! • The Rose Apocalypse's Ei Takatori Interview The director of the mysterious 1999 musical (yes the machine gun one, and YES WE HAVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT IT COMING) interviewed in The Rose Apocalypse book. This...is that. Thank you so much to iris hahn for translating, and I can't wait to bring you more of this mythology!!! • The Utena Dossier Animage Magazine's June 1997 supplemental, this 36-page Utena tome has ben translated by Nagumo with editing by Ayu Ohseki. Because so much of the content is in its visual presentation, I worked the translation into the original scans! Check it out! (PS. Yes that is an entirely different gallery on the emptymovement.com domain, no this won't stay there, yes it has been a weird couple years.) The Dossier includes two long interviews that are also worked into html pages for easy viewing! The Auspicious Joining of Manga and Anime: Saito and Hasegawa For Whom the Director Smiles: Ikuhara and Kitakubo

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In Historia Arcana & The Bibliothèque (Untranslated Resources): • There are a lot of changes happening in this arena!!! How and where to place different materials has been a moving target, so I'll do my best! The sites don't quite reflect this yet, but Historia Arcana will be for cover to cover Utena media, including special magazine publications. Something Eternal's gallery, the Bibliothèque, will be for magazine articles, clippings, and other things. Major artbooks will likely be in both places, cross referenced. New books in Historia Arcana: • The Rose Spiral: Reflections on the Mythology of Utena While not strictly official, this is a fan published book of in depth analysis of Utena, circa 1998! Yep, cover to cover. • Revolution Dictionary (OST 1 First Press Bonus) Cross-referenced from Audiology, this is the bonus dictionary you only got if you grabbed it early! Cool! • Revolutionary Girl Utena Making of Visuals Book Art of UTENA I am mentioning this for completions sake and because I already uploaded it, but this is a cover to cover high resolution, uncleaned scan of the 1999 Art of Utena artbook. I am going to clean the scans, and ultimately be posting the official artbooks elsewhere. • Revolutionary Girl Utena Photobook: Rose Memories This special Animage bonus could be purchased for 700 yen, and back then, was probably a great way to keep the anime in your pocket! It's entirely shots from the TV series, though, so there's nothing specifically new. But I scan it all, baby. New books in the Bibliothèque: • Chiho Saito's 1999 Revolutionary Girl Utena Original Illustration Collection HI THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL. Read more about why when you visit! TLDR? Here's some of the best artwork of Utena, rescanned and remastered by yours truly to be the best big big scans of big big beautiful Chiho Saito Art. This is a feast. I even made myself a calendar! (Note that the price is such that I don't make a profit on these, so if you're looking to donate, definitely go by other routes, haha.) You will find multiple ways to obtain the scans, and in more than one size. Either way you soak up the rays, enjoy 'em! New articles and clips in the Bibliothèque: • H! Rockin' on Japan Magazine Saito X Oikawa This fashion music magazine's July 1999 article has ALREADY BEEN TRANSLATED? Like, I am going to add the translation officially to the site of course, but holy hell Nagumo is amazing!! This article is actually the origin of a Saito art piece that uh, well. Now we know she went to a love hotel with movie Akio's VA. Cool! Anyway check it out! • Comickers Magazine, August 1997 This absolute monster find is an industry-focused magazine with this gorgeous spread and interview with Chiho Saito. It gets into how she does things. The making of Utena. All kinds of stuff. I'd LOVE to know more about this one!! • Comickers Magazine, June 1998 Again, an industry-focused publication, this time it's exploring the manga and the anime and how they compare. Again looks like a tasty meal!! • Volks Magazine, Spring 2022 YEP SCANS OF THE BOOK OF THE DOLLFIES. For a lot of us, this is at close as we get to these ludicrously gorgeous dolls. I included a few extra pages because they were just fuckin' cool and felt relevant. • Sega Saturn Magazine, December 1997 One of two grabs I got recently on Yahoo! Japan! This appears to be the first look announcement of the 1998 Utena video game! (Yes we have more on it, yes we will eventually post links.) • Sega Saturn Magazine, April 1998 This feature brings attention to the voice actors, who are all returning for the game! • Dengeki G's Magazine, January 1998 Another gaming focused magazine, with frankly a more adult edge, cheaply lets the readers know about Utena. These three game magazine moments are just a bizarre reminder of how we did things before the internet, LMAO

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In Audiology (Music and CD Information): • Complete information about the STAR CHILD - Girls Character Song Best album! You also definitely can't grab the two new remix tracks there. • Did you know there was a first press bonus dictionary for the first OST? I DIDN'T UNTIL RECENTLY. Now I know all about it, and so can you. Check it out! Obviously, scans available, both here and in Historia Arcana. • I FINALLY acquired a complete set of the Utena CD singles!! Check out complete track lists, scans, and information for ALL FIVE Utena singles. Yes. Including the movie Akio guy's one.

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In The Doujinshi Gallery: • Several dozen dounjinshi were uploaded earlier in the year, and can be found listed on the Site Update archive here.

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That's all for now, folks! There's so so so much coming. I have the episode 18 and 20 (!!!!) storyboards to scan, as well as a fully translated scanlation of The Duelist Bible. We're planning to do something for Anthy's rare LEAP YEAR birthday coming up, probably a musical stream or something! Love!

[keyofjetwolf]

Wait no can I have a Survival And Love based flood of Rei Hino fic and art in my name I WANT THAT ALSO

[moonwhing]

lemedy replied to your post “No wait! I found it”

Moon I am loving these designs

ayu-ohseki replied to your post “No wait! I found it”

Ohhh those Sailor Quartet designs are so good! I love them!

Thanks! Maybe I should try to do a more serious piece with them sometime. Now that I've seen them again, I really do like where they were going

[mars-flame-sniper]

ayu-ohseki replied to your post “I got an email from the letting agents today that I've passed the...”

Glow in the dark stars are the BEST, I was so thrilled when I put mine up in Persona 5

I just love glow in the dark stuff so muchXD I have a few stars stuck to some shelves and stuff in my current bedroom, and I enjoy watching them as I fall asleep. The logical extension of that being to cover my ENTIRE LIVING SPACE with them.

[azuresquirrel]

Sailor Moon Crystal, for that sweet, sweet snark

MOON PRIDE IS STILL A BANGER, FIGHT ME.

Also (and this is only PART snark) I liked that it taught me an important lesson in NOT OVERHYPING PIECES OF MEDIA FOR MYSELF.