#honestly I love Tokiko and I think she's criminally underrated

[cafeleningrad]

I guess my personal interest in the Black Rose arc lies in the utter deconstruction of social roles, and meditation on power dynamics. But most of all how this arc demonstrates the ambivalence in simultaneously of everything.

Again, the arc is about the overlooked characters who're treated as if they were disposable or stock characters. The spotlight is directed away from our usual main characters. Even though the triangular constellation or even characters of Tokiko, Mikage, and Mamiya et rarely discussed, their relationships are a sign of what's to come: An adult who's unable to let go of what they adore and deciding they know better than their little sibling, a lonely teenager who's moved by younger sibling of the adult, and the sibling themselves who, unlike their older sibling can deal with mortality but gets ignored. This arc is also about the plurality of characters. If this arc is about demonstrating how perceived stock personalities are as deep as the candy-colour-highlighted people lavished in attention, by the story, by the audience, it's also an arc how people can be multifacetted, contain apparently opposed natures in them.

It's also a deeply existential arc. Whereas the real Mamiya was ready to accept that he was terminally ill, Tokiko wasn't. So she started an entire project to find a cure (with or without Mamiya's agreement). And even though Nemuro finally felt human connection through and thanks to Mamiya, he was swayed by Tokiko's ambition rather than letting Mamiya go. (I mean Utena's and Mikage's talk in the rose garden use the same construction as the cross at the burial of Utena's parents.)

In that way, Mikage is as well Utena's dark mirror image, a warning whom she might become if she can't deal with the death of her ideals and false memories. Mikage is simultaneously eerily similar in his fate of Akio's. To say, Akio also clings to his one and only childish role in which he had a sole purpose. The masses became faceless and impersonal to him as they served only the purpose to be his purpose. Without them, he would have none to save, none to praise him. With a falsified memory in which Anthy!Mamiya claims he desires eternity, Souji doesn't deal with Mamiya's death either. Instead he continue to serve a nefarious purpose, not caring about anyone but himself, and his own desire. (Also, Mikage's ending her contract is the precursor to Anthy's farewell to Akio.) At a certain point, the sacrifices, be it students seeking counseling, be it 100 classmates, are all acceptable collateral damage to Mikage, as long as they further his desire. But then again, like Utena, Nemuro was alienated by his peers, very lonely until he met Tokiko and Mamiya. Mamiya's certain death moved him so much, he made connections with both Mamiya and Tokiko. All his research was maybe done against Mamiya's will but carried out of the desire to help him, lead on by Tokiko's love and good intentions.

Tokiko simultaneously occupies the role of both Akio and Utena. She can't let go of Mamiya in spite of Mamiya voicing how futile Tokiko's endeavour is, how he doesn't actually believe in eternity. Like Akio, Tokiko moves everything in spite of her brothers wishes to even work against his wishes. She clings onto Mamiya, and burdens the reasons of her actions on him. Like Utena, Tokiko's method of denying mortality, entrapping her beloved in stasis is done with gentle violence. Utena wants Anthy to be a normal girl, meaning, she wants Anthy to have a carefree life. She means well. Tokiko wants Mamiya to rest, instead of spending his time in the rose garden. Her method of eternally keeping roses alive is by letting them dry or making sugar roses. It's a futile yet stubborn fight against decay but one with kind intention.

And in this method I see an interesting contrast. Whereas Tokiko's method of preservation is one with gentle methods, creating a Black rose can be done in two way: Either roses et artificially dyed, loosing their original colour. Which we see happening when the BR-duelists get "cultivated" with their respective prince's colour. Or the rose gets burned so hot, it's actually more charcoal in the shape of a rose than a rose. Well, if that doesn't resemble the big fire and death of 100 students....

But in that way, what I think what fundamentally makes Tokiko and yes even Nemuro different from Akio is that they both acted out of love. They made the same mistake ignoring Mamiya's desire, unable to cope with loss and grief. But unlike Akio they wanted to keep Mamiya in their lives more than anything else.

With Mamiya's death, the best of Nemuro died. Horrified how her brother's name was misused for mass murder, seeing what inability to handle loss did with Nemuro, Tokiko did face her pain. She lived on, she left Ohtori. She might still be sad, visiting Ohtori on occasions to contemplate her grief. Unlike Akio though, Tokiko finds the stasis unbearable to witness. In fact Tokiko is the only person Akio is incapable to act as cool or charming because she has advanced from his central conflict which shapes his character. His eternal youth is more unsettling than it ever was attractive. It takes Akio a massive reframing and rewriting of Nemuro's memories to the point Nemuro becomes Mikage, to alter Mikage's personality to suit his goal. And still, in the twisted, coldest, unempathetic version of himself, Mikage still thinks he found a way to be happy with Mamiya for the future...