#rgu never says outright that anything is about race and yet it's right there in your face

[utaoutauhito]

adding some of op's tags (I have cut them down so I recommend going through the notes on this post to read them in full)

#because i do see this idea that westerners have of women of color who face systemic oppression #who only seem to sympathise with them if their stories and personhood is palatable to a western audience

#there’s a lot to talk about about akio as a brown man who progresses in a eurocentic society (ohtori is in japan ofc but it takes heavy #influence from European culture and of course its a country where akio is a part of the minority in because he’s s brown man #another person pointed out that akio uses underhanded methods and is engaged to a woman of high social standing #in order to raise in ranks and reach his own position) #through the exploitation of a brown woman #and how race isolates akio and anthy with anthy’s bullying and hatred having that racial element—the way she’s dehumanised and slandered

#so utena explores what it’s like to love your abuser and not seeing any life outside of them #but when you consider anthy’s role as a brown woman #it’s taken a step further

#anthy’s not just a victim who loves her abuser. she knows her abuser in a way that others cannot because of their shared experience

#regarding race. other characters hold a privilege that akio and anthy do not so it will even feel a bit absurd for them to comment on #akio’s actions esp in regards to anthy because they don’t have that experience with race. they had privilege where anthy and akio did not #ofc this doesn’t change the fact that akio is an abuser. not just to anthy but to the students in ohtori. he is the main facilitator and #the physical manifestation of patriarchy

I want to add to all of this that generally speaking in Japanese media, female characters will tend to be lighter-skinned than male characters. if you eyedrop two characters from the same series, one male one female, with similar circumstances, backgrounds, personality tropes, etc, almost always the female character will be paler.

so I think the decision to make Akio paler than Anthy in RGU was probably deliberate.

Akio has the benefit over Anthy of being a man, but a dark-skinned man can be viewed as 'dangerous.' The other characters in RGU don't view Akio with suspicion. Being lighter-skinned, being a little less 'foreign' in his appearance relative to Anthy, may give him some access to being viewed more easily by the people around him as non-threatening, desirable, competent. He can be trusted, respected, permitted to marry a woman of the dominant race. This almost-acceptance can lead to the illusion that if he performs patriarchy well enough, if he upholds the system well enough, if he pushes the people below him down far enough, he can leverage the system to his own advantage and he can attain all the power and privileges of a man of the dominant race. (But this is not true--Akio's standing would always be incomplete and tenuous, he will never cease to be 'other,' and it feels as though Anthy understands this more than anyone.)

A lot of people talk about how Utena explores abuse through Anthy, and how she is not a perfect victim, she plays role in perpetuating the system that is built upon her oppression, facilitating her own abuse. But I’ve never seen anyone talk about the role race plays and the implications it has. Utena deconstructs the idea of a perfect victim and what it means to be ‘worthy’ to be saved from abuse and harm, but Anthy’s role as a brown woman who is being abused by a brown man adds a layer to her story and I think it’s extremely important and relevant to discuss