#but! i'm also a prince. see chivalry + masculinity post.

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

van helsing's effortless prince charming slay does impossible things to me.

[walcutt]

assorted adolescence touga thoughts, in mock q&a format because that's how i've been organizing this in my head:

q: so he's dead, right, what was the whole deal there to start with?

a: as i see it, the literal events are: shiori and utena were both close to touga as children, and both idolized him. one day, juri began to drown in a river. touga saved her, but died doing it.

q: ok, but that seems like such a convoluted premise. why?

a: i think it very cleanly sets up shiori and utena as rivals and foils; they both share more than they differ by, and this is the connecting thread. they both are haunted by the ghost of touga.

for shiori, touga is what she could have had — the kind of person she was owed by the system. she plays her part and gets a good, honest man back. in this way she externalizes the loss, and places it on juri. if touga cannot be her prince, juri will have to be.

for utena, touga is who she could be. a selfless hero, the noblest prince. she internalizes the loss — rather than impose the role onto another, she takes it upon herself.

q: but why is touga selected for this? this seems like the role akio played in the show, not touga.

a: i would say that toga and akio play extremely similar roles in adolescence; dead princes who's absences continue to haunt the narrative.

q: but why have both?

a: they represent the conflicting halves of the prince; the prince is all of the noble masculine urges, the chivalry and protection and honorable defense. he is the gentleman. touga embodies this side. the prince is also the ultimate abuser — the embodiment of all horrible deeds enabled by patriarchy. akio embodies this side.

neither, however, are characters who get to live in this story. they are both memories of characters; post-images transformed through trauma and a desire to conform the world to the way one feels it ought to be.

q: so you're saying touga isn't real?

a: of course he isn't. he's not even a ghost. he is a self-projection of utena and shiori. he is a memory of someone who never existed. of course he haunts them. he is an impossible ideal.

q: what does this say about akio, then?

a: i think akio is played the same way, but with less screentime, and less oblique framing. we learn how he dies; we learn how his actions shaped a major character (anthy), and we continue to see him post death, at the end of the film. the akio at the end is not akio; it is the specter, the memory of him which still looms over anthy. utena must shake touga to realize herself. anthy must shake akio.

q: this is all well and good, but i feel like we've ignored actually talking about touga?

a: we have. we've simply talked about how others react to their projections of touga.

q: then what is there to touga himself?

a: the major component of touga's characterization comes in the field scene. it's a harsh scene, and one that feels distinct among the scenes of the movie as being very untied from the main show. it's not a reorganization of the visual language and structural form — it is it's own scene, played out in its worst detail.

q: why would they do that?

a: i first take a divergence to say that i don't like the time-loop theory. i don't like the theory that this movie is a direct sequel to the series; that this is the students reliving the world of ohtori. but such a reading gives a compelling way to view this scene. to tip my hand, it's the reason i'm making any of this post at all.

the scene in the field is one of extreme sexual violence. though it may be pushed out of frame, it is directly clear what is happening, to this kid. he is sold from his parents to an abusive man, and that man sexually abuses him. one might then note that in the show, touga and nanami are abandoned by their parents into the world of ohtori. you may note also how acutely akio grooms him. you may lastly note that he finally sees through the facade, and abandons his post as prince.

in such a way he dies.

in such a way, these closely mirror the events of the movie. i think the scene in the movie holds its own, but it also reinforces his arc in the show. it's so different because it is a masking of the former's events.

q: but you don't like that reading, generally.

a: no, i do not.

q: nanami is also abandoned by her parents. why doesn't she get such an upgraded treatment from the movie?

a: misogyny and hatred of me specifically. but also, her appearance in the movie is not just a throwaway. she appears as the cow, as she did in possibly her most iconic episode, in the form most heartbreaking to see, as it shows the way that women such as her are raised to be nothing more than effective livestock to the men in their lives. that she is only a cow now shows how deeply she has continued into that trap.

q: i don't think it's that deep. i think they just thought it was funny. why'd you have to go a whole paragraph on that?

a: because touga's trauma also occurs on a farm, among another species meant to simply be harvested and consumed. brother and sister both alike condemned.

q: why is shiori a butterfly, then?

a: because shiori is the reactionary feminine; the woman of and for the system. the system enables such violence against touga. she knows this, and does nothing. she simply remains a witness.

q: let's circle back. let's say you reject the time-loop reading. how do you interpret touga's trauma?

a: another lens to see touga here is to come back to his role as the dead prince. he is the haunting of utena, which sparks her forward into identity. this is the role that anthy plays in the show: in such a way, touga here becomes both parts prince and rose bride.

q: yet anthy remains. and she remains the rose bride.

a: because of course, none of these touga's are real.

q: can you be less pithy?

a: anthy and touga play the same roles, but anthy inspires real coming of age because she is real, and not a distorted memory.

q: we're about out of time. any closing thoughts?

a: water & death in the movie. touga drowns. akio poisons his own drink. and a third.... in the flower garden, just before the dance... anthy picks up the axe, and moves to behead utena... before bursting the water main. but in this moment, i think, there is a mini-death within utena. the mini death of the prince.

q: alright that's it, i'm leaving.

a: good bye. i'm stuck here forever