#by read between the lines i mean like how akio actively tries to lie to the audience by saying things like | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ninashiki · 3 months ago

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i feel like almost everything in utena has sort of already been extensively discussed in the last two (almost three) decades of utena's existence (not that there aren't new interpretations to be made, there always are) besides black rose arc (mikage+mamiya+tokiko). which is why they're so much fun to think about. i think the need to read between the lines makes it unfortunately easy to misunderstand or look past obvious stuff if you don't pay attention, but to me it's always been really obvious that mikage's arc is a literal representation of the erasure of queerness in ohtori (society?) by akio/everything he represents. and that's so fucking tragic! nemuro was never able to find a name for his desires. he lived and died as a puppet in the shadows.

#rgu #i think sadly that trigger warning list that people always passed around kind of stunted discussion bc of the assumptions it made #like. i think its okay to say that mikage/nemuro was always in love with mamiya and not tokiko #not that its impossible to interpret him as bisexual (similar to how people see utena as bisexual)#but his love for mamiya is what changed his life (same for utena/her meeting anthy)#one scene i never see people bring up is how #at one point mikage says that attaining eternity wouldn't even make 'her' happy #and then akio questions '''her'' you say?'#the only reason mikage thinks attaining eternity wouldnt even make 'her' i.e 'tokiko' happy is because he just had a conversation #with mamiya where he admitted the whole endeavor was making him unhappy #if anything it would have made tokiko happy to attain eternity and forever preserve her brother like a dead flower #which is what akio does with anthy! so fucked!#ALSO another thing #is that mikage sees utena as tokiko returned #just like how utena meets 'dios' - returned as akio #he claims he will finally beat tokiko - in this place (the dueling arena) - which is kind of foreshadowing utena fighting akio?????#anthy!mamiya says to mikage in the black rose musical:#“You can’t win against her. You will eternally lose to my sister who dwells in your memories.”#or “You will never beat my sister; who dwells in your memories.” in the nozomient translation #which makes so much sense because anthy couldn't believe utena could win against akio either #god i could literally keep going #by read between the lines i mean like how akio actively tries to lie to the audience by saying things like #'mamiya was created for you out of your lingering attachment to tokiko'#of course nemuro/mikage being gay isn't all there is to him bc like always everything in utena has 1000 layers #really love the general theme of becoming static and unchanged forever bc of our attachment to nostalgia/memories/eternity #(re: can't grow up)#tho in mikages case he is literally just a ghost summoned by akio. which the utena sega saturn vn confirms #also definitely people talk about black rose arc (i.e me right now) but i feel like the majority of the fandom kind of side steps it #on tumblr specifically at least?? im not on the fansite forums or discord #rgu meta

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