#touga being the Literal Worst

[transmascutena]

always thinking about how the only times we ever see utena wear dresses is when a man wants her to, even though she's clearly very uncomfortable with it. and also how each time it happens it's more horrific than the last.

the first time is because touga sends it to her, and she wears it despite saying she hates it, presumably for the same reason she tells him she came to the party in the first place: because she thinks he might be her prince. the bright side of this time is that she's (somehow) wearing her uniform underneath it, and is able to take it off.

the second time we don't get to see where the dress comes from or hear her thoughts on it, but it's pretty clear to me that she only chose to wear it because she thought akio would want her to. her own choice, but only by a technicality, the same way she doesn't actually get to choose anything when it comes to akio. (wonder what other relevance that has in this episode. hmmm)

and the last time may be the worst of all of them because this time she is literally forced into wearing it. she doesn't even get the illusion of a choice. and worse yet, it's the rose bride dress, the very symbol of the role akio has been grooming her into for the entire show.

something i really love about utena as a character is that her gender-noncomformity is explored and questioned throughout the show, but the answer it comes to is always that she is not comfortable with femininity, and that's something about her that never changes no matter how much certain people want it to. every time utena presents more femininely (other examples being the girl's uniform in episode 12 and the earrings in episode 35) it's always framed as something bad for her, something she is forced or coerced into against her will (to varying degrees.) and the show is not saying that being feminine is bad, just that utena isn't, that being gender-noncomforming is a key part of her identity, and that trying to take that away from her is cruel and violating.

[aroanthy]

thinking about nanami and touga both telling utena not to trust anthy at the end of the series. whilst nanami and anthy being friends is something that makes me bawl like a little baby and overjoys me immensely, ive never bought a reading of nanami post-32 that is anthy positive. like idk how you could get that impression when all she does is talk about how anthy is a terrible and dangerous person. she’s scared of her. and you know she shouldn’t be, but it’s understandable why a 13 year old living in ohtori academy might be scared of someone she already didn’t like after finding out something deeply traumatic regarding them and not having the tools to make sense of it in a compassionate way. and it makes me want to eat drywall

what’s really interesting about all this to me tho is how both kiryuus tell utena not to trust ‘the chairman/end of the world or himemiya anthy/the rose bride’. anthy and akio are a package deal of toxicity and harm to both of them and if that isn’t just the most fascinating thing ever. also the difference between nanami’s ‘chairman/himemiya’ and touga’s ‘end of the world/rose bride’ (nanami giving her warning during the badminton scene, touga giving his at the end of his duel. so much going on here wrt roles and settings and rituals and reality). but getting back to my real point isn’t it so cool (agonising) how nanami and touga are incapable of extending compassion or understanding to anthy despite the fact that they’re the two people who know the most about her other than utena and akio. and like. they don’t know a Lot, but theyve both had a smidge of insight into an abusive relationship that mirrors aspects of their own lives in myriad ways

idk something about the rose bride as a symbol who bears all of humanity’s hatred. and in the end all girls are like the rose bride yes, but key word here is like. an approximation; all trapped, all agonised, yes, but not all literally fucking crucified for eternity by a million swords that shine with human hatred. not abstracted in such a particular and insidious way. i always find anthy/kiryuu parallels compelling wrt issues of race and class and mannnnnn. nanami takes a step away from the duelling game. she’s not out, but she’s not actively partaking, not actively being exploited. touga, whilst a little more overtly involved in stuco business and still meeting with akio, does also take a step away. like, they’re both able to do that. it’s a bit of an artifice, sure, they’re still here, but oh my god oh my god oh my god. theyre not anthy. am i making sense can anyone hear me holy shit

i think what im trying to say is that for everything that both nanami and touga learn about ohtori academy and the people living in it, for everything that forces them to self-reflect and question the ground that they stand upon, they fail to break the chain with it. like, they too contribute to anthy’s abstraction. she’s an idea that they secretly embody/emulate (not sure which word works better for what im trying to say just yet), and not a person who shares experiences with them but is still wholly separate from them. this kind of compassion is like. it’s too hard, when you’re in the situations that all three of them are in. anthy too perceives both of them as nonhuman, but there is a crucial power dynamic at play here. how can you stomach such a kindness to someone you can only see as a poor imitation of the worst parts of yourself, whom you loathe??

^ THIS GUY loves it when characters commit acts of extreme violence against one another that they themselves have experienced. the nanamianthytouga brand

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Any thoughts on Nanami and Wakaba? (not as a pairing, unless you see it, then I'm very interested)

I've been watching Utena with friends and we had constant fights about those two, because "She literally kills kittens, what's wrong with you" for Nanami (I am witch apologist) and "Why is she even here" for Wakaba (I am girl enjoyer)

Pfft.

I don't see it as a pairing though in the world of Utena anything's possible.

But I certainly have thoughts on the characters as well as the world of Utena itself that's perhaps worth bearing in mind.

Utena as a Show

Utena is one of my favorite shows to have ever been created. However, it's something I also sometimes hesitate to recommend. It not only deals with extremely dark themes (albeit in a non-graphic manner) from murder, sexual assault, grooming, to rampant incest but also doesn't do so in a way that the modern internet can in any way handle.

What do I mean?

Every character has something seriously wrong with them and makes awful and sometimes outright malicious decisions.

Utena, our heroine, the prince, we learn later has forgotten the reason she wished to become a prince as an adolescent and at first pursues the goal simply out of a desire to be noble and embody this idea of chivalry and nobility without actually knowing what these things are. Miki is alright enough save that he has that thing going on with his twin sister and covets Anthy without ever truly wishing to know her.

That's not even getting to Anthy who I can only state is very complicated.

It's not a show that people can watch if they're not comfortable with the idea that there is something horribly wrong with everyone. The good characters aren't always good, the bad characters sometimes have reason to be bad (and sometimes are just pure evil), and you might not even know who the fuck the good and bad characters are because it turns out breaking the world's shell was probably a good thing.

Compared to say Good Omens which has the complexity of a thimble and people are still upset that Aziraphale made the wrong choice at the end of series 2 there.

But back to your question.

Nanami

I love all the characters in Utena, but Nanami might just be one of my favorites in that she's the beautifully executed dark horse of the series.

Because it turns out she's the only one who's fucking sane.

We start out and Nanami is presented as Anime Mean Girl. Oh, she's that type, the pretty rich girl who's going to bully our romantic lead. Okay, Nanami, I will suffer through you. But then almost immediately this goes awry when nothing every goes Nanami's way. She's crushed by elephants, stalked by an eleven year old, and she... really really really likes her big brother.

And as we go on we see her at first as someone who's truly a villain, she murders kittens as you note, and that is fucked up but then by the end we find out that despite all prior indications she is the only person who does not want to sleep with her brother and thinks this is a madhouse.

She's fascinating and I love her.

But more on the kitten--I think Nanami is excellently portrayed as a little girl who is severely fucked up (in part by Ohtori and in part by life itself). She has an unnatural devotion to her brother, which he also enables throughout the series, and... something weird is going on with the parents (in other versions, namely the movie, it's worth noting that Touga turns out to have been abused by his father).

I don't know if I'd condemn or laud her but she's the character who's at first presented as the worst but then it turns out everyone is just as bad/worse than Nanami is and actually she lives in a madhouse.

Wakaba

I mean.

"Why is she even here?" is the point of Wakaba's whole character arc, which I'd argue is very vital to the storyline of the anime. That's why she's great.

Wakaba's that girl who is normal, she's just normal, and she wants to be special without there being anything special about her. She's nice and kind, but only to a certain degree, and she wants to be like Utena and all these shining brilliant people in her life.

She serves as the catalyst of the plot, in Utena first engaging in a duel, and yet is never involved further in the events. She desperately wants Saionji, to be special herself, and we see her rejecting a very kind boy who genuinely cares for her because of this. We learn that she's not as nice as we, e.g. Utena, had previously thought and that Utena has this quality that Utena herself doesn't understand and that others envy without her realizing it.

Wakaba's descent is when Utena first begins to realize she's failed as a friend, despite all her attempts to do right by Wakaba, and that she doesn't understand those around her as she's trapped in her own world/idea of chivalry (a foreshadowing for what happens with Anthy).

Wakaba helps act as a foil for Utena and is vital to help slowly reveal why Utena struggles and has to grow as a person in order to free Anthy (and why Utena is betrayed by Anthy without ever seeing a hint of it coming).

[lavender-rosa]

Rgu Characters+ Customer Service

Touga: When he thinks a customer is stupid or annoying he starts talking slower and starts using smaller words in such an infuriatingly condescending way, but with plausible deniability of "he was just being helpfu!" so that he can never actually get in trouble for it. But they both know he was being the asshole!!!

Juri: She would be good at it and i think working customer service would actually be beneficial to her. Definitely would employ Touga's plausibly deniable tactics of condescencion on rude customers even though she has a lot more patience for people than Touga does.

Nanami: Would kill herself before that ever happened.

Saionji: Okay well I see him as a tea server and the reviews are mixed. I think the thing about Saionji is that if he's in a good mood he is a delight to have around and if he's in a bad mood he's a monster whose rancid vibes ruin every room he's in. So his proficiency at customer service is entirely dependent on how he's feeling at any given moment. I think he'd be happy serving tea when he's an adult and not so much when he's an angry teen.

Miki: When it comes to interacting with people, even the worst rudest customers he's very friendly. Even as a thirteen year old he's very patient and understanding (except when he thinks you're keeping him apart from a loved one, then watch out!)

Anthy: She pretends to be stupid on purpose with customers she doesn't like and when they try to complain to her manager she's like "I'm the manager" and when they question how she's still allowed to work despite being so incompetent everyone else vouches for her they are like "she's literally our best employee"

Utena: She needs to tell it like it is every five minutes or else she'll die. It's literally a source of air for her. She would have a tier ranking of all the regular customers in her head and she would treat them accordingly. I think Utena working at a coffee shop or smth is plausible and she would be very good at it.

[askaniritual]

wowowow 39 episodes in 6 days is a lot lol im sure im gonna be gnawing on this like a chicken bone for like. a month at least but wow!!!!!

a lot of my initial reads on things were validated in these last 10 episodes which was very gratifying. i love a show that just straight up tells me my understanding of symbolism is correct lol. anyway heres my notes

the things that are left unsaid

there's so much allusion and talking around things in this show. it becomes very clear in these later episodes that not being able to address a problem directly is a tool that those in power use to maintain that power. people who can't discuss the abuse they're experiencing can't put a stop to it and all that

anthy and the shaved ice 

i hadn't really thought about the shaved ice until this point but like. food that is meant to dissolve. colorless and flavorless except for the syrup that is placed on top of it. many have called it the rose bride of food

corrupted love

i feel like there are so many examples in this show of love (or the perception of love within patriarchal society) making somebody the worst version of themselves. people do horrible things for love, they hurt themselves and others and they justify it by saying it's because they care about somebody else. the apothesis of this is anthy's devotion (and the world's reaction to it) which created akio from dios

to love is to suffer, to suffer is to love, and suffering is eternal

related to the above and also related to the ongoing theme of eternity in the show. if there is one constant in the world, it is anthy's suffering, and her suffering is a manifestation of love. what's more real, love or suffering? can the two be separated? does love without pain exist??? maybe outside the bounds of akio's world

saionji and touga’s terrible horrible no good very bad sex life

i don't want to make light of this too much because obviously the nature of saionji and touga's relationship in the back half of the show is highly influenced by akio who as we all know is more than capable of taking innocence and warping it into something painful. that being said i do think the fact that they started fucking (for the plot!) and neither of them seemed very into it was kind of funny conceptually. this leads into my second point

metaphorical sex that is more real than the actual sex

this deserves like a way longer post but there's both metaphorical and literal sex in the show. there's also a strong emphasis on the dichotomy between the real and the illusory. a lot of the sex is metaphorical in the sense that there is nothing happening on camera that reads specifically as sex but "real" in the sense that it exists in relationship to emotions that predate or exist outside of akio's influence

manufactured consent 

again this really needs its own post but the show up to the last 10 episodes spent a lot of time playing with this idea of like. the difference between wanting something and believing you should want something, and the ways that those with power impose their reality on those with less power. this gets made extremely explicit when akio starts insisting that anthy chose her position as the rose bride, and that this is somehow a role she wants and enjoys. much to consider!

[blueiight]

noble fujoshi paladin... choose violence!!! for Utena (3, 9, 13, 19, 24, ik it's a lot so pick whatever u want)

3.) screenshot or description of the worst take u seen on tumblr

okay yk how tumblr will like throw random posts from ppl u dont follow on ur dash just cuz u post about a topic a lot? before i (somewhat) figured out how this app worked that feature tormented me. n i seen someone frame juri& shiori’s ending as if juri was being freed from some evil controlling abusive fake gay bitch when if anything, following the show’s ending juriori ends on somewhat of an optimistic note? u literally have ruka’s episode end with ‘wish as hard as u can, and they may know ur feelings’ with shiori walking behind juri and juri slowing down to let her catch up & shiori end up w/ a locket of her own in the badminton scene watching juri and utena play the game w/ envy. this isnt so much what that person thought so much as (read to me as) shiori coming to terms with her love for juri w/o wanting to ‘beat’ her at the game of vulnerability or ‘destroy the me in her glare’, and juri being open with herself in a way she before this never allowed herself to be. the juri we were introduced to dont wanna be saved, shes stewing in her own misery & simultaneously lords her own misery over other’s heads. she thinks shes better than the other duelists bc she has no immediate evident need for anthy, but believed her own feelings for shiori were so impossible to realize that a miracle (& anthy as the object of such, the facilitator of this ‘ miracle ‘) was needed to realize such. and that makes juri an amazing character. i find with juri especially that people tend to project their own pasts onto her which is fair but it dissuades them from analyzing her as a character in a narrative which is so sad cuz her arc w shiori (& ruka even) is so fascinating… the girls may have more in common w blueberry touga than they think in wanting to ‘save’ juri here lolol

13.) worst blorboficiation

i had to look up what that word meant LOL but i feel like fans dont talk about utena’s own arc w/ the same sophistication that they do the other characters which is crazy cuz its literally a show about her. its part of my own motivation for an eventual rewatch , bc her arc is so amazing but ppl just think shes a complete dumbass & a jock when shes really a teenage girl whos trapped n is the victor of all of the duelists bc she grows to become aware. of where she failed and is unafraid to face her flaws in a way very few characters r able to become cognizant toward. imo nanami was the closest to ‘revolution’ outside of utenanthy bc she was the closest to realizing her flaw but couldnt accept being ‘ordinary’ in a way utena did. and utena’s victory, their destruction of the castle + self deigned exit from the narrative in the finale spawns everyone else’s eventual path to liberation. shes just my little boy 🥲🥲🥲also everybody wants to be an anthy or utena girl but theyre more like juri or blueberry touga than they think. soz!

24.) topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

sexuality HCs + in a similar vein, racialization of these characters… also ppl who think bc their fav cartoon derived some aesthetic inspo from rgu or general shoujo looks that rgu is just a cute kid’s show lol. also also ppl who completely shit on the rgu manga& chiho saito like. do they know she worked on the anime??

[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

[palms-upturned]

.

[anolyso]

Utena thoughts...about 2 weeks later

I've been putting it off for way too long and so most of my thoughts stopped being fresh. On top of watching way too many analysis vids post-watch, but still I do at least want to put my 2cents of Revolutionary Girl Utena out there for the world.

Utena is perhaps one of the most famous "magical girl"/shoujo action shows out there for not only it's transgressive themes of relationship abuse and low-key pretty much being the poster girl for like actual feminist perspective on/in anime...but also just doing it all in both a heavily allegorical and understated, yet super over-the-top stylish fashion

But that's it's reputation preceding itself, is Utena worth while all these years? The answer is Yes, but it also really shows it's age and budget in pacing and repetition, tho as an appreciator for "behind the scenes" compromises in art, it's more showcasing Ikuhara's talent in working around both taboo and long-form budget constraints with just well-thought out and iconic imagery that - while episodic and formulaic - is just very good at filling the 39 eps with feasts for the eyes.

Utena broadly is about tomboy Utena with memories long ago after her parents died being "saved" by a princely figure like a princess...except she's so enthralled by the nostalgia that instead she becomes a full on Prince herself and receives a dueling ring to fight in the Ohtori Acadamy secret duels for "engagement" to Rose Bride Himemiya Anthy.

Utena is divided between 4 arcs, only the first and last being Manga adapted from hearsay:

1: Student Council Saga

2: Black Rose Saga

3: Akio Ohtori Saga

4: Apocalypse

From back to forth I'd say that Akio + Apoc is more just escalation into the finale while Black Rose being anime original comes off as a glorified side-character study which while complementing the secondary cast, feels like one of those Anime movies that has to say "but if you don't watch this part, it's pretty much optional for the main plot" despite it also actually introducing the most important antagonist within it's margins.

More importantly, it's the Student Council (arc and the actual people) that lay the foundation but also a large part of the show's focus which ironically puts Utena in the background until like almost the finale and some in-between developments, so it's less "Utena (and Anthy Himemiya)'s story" until the very end, but more like a showcase of how fucked up the system at large is (pin in that).

By the Council themselves is:

Kyouichi Saionji: The biggest jobber, like actually introduced as the most despicable loser ep 1 and proceeds to be a complete arrogant joke for the rest of the show. Honestly in another shojo "love" story, they'd find some way to redeem him but semi-compellingly they turn him into like an Aqua-lad type pathetic brat with an inferiority complex to the actual Student head

Miki Kaoru: the naive "nice, non-threatening soft boy" that also just never actually listens to the girls around him. Probably adds more complexity to the whole patriarchal idea on analytic reflection since yeah, the whole "nice guy finishes last" plays up better when the kid comes off as that "ally" energy of wanting to save Himemiya from being the Rose Bride but also low-key won't actually not just do the duels and win her cuz he's that sorta wishy-washy hypocrite. Arguably the least hateable guy in the cast (minus mascot Chu-Chu)

Juri Arisugawa: TRAGIC LESBIAN TRIANGLE LOVE. Probably the biggest point to of both "not-explicitly homosexual" but also really freaking obvious since her entire story is her girlfriend stealing her "boy crush" when actually she was crushing on her and being pretty much frustrated throughout her story as pining most of it. It's quaint by today's standards but also like damn girl, get over her she was like the worst back stabbing bitch (literally if Black Rose counts)

Nanami Kiryuu: SPEAKING OF QUEEN BITCH, it's been a long time since I've watched a High School girl bully and honestly it's kinda refreshing. If Miki is "soft-boy uwu" Nanami is a brat that gets her come-uppance often, featured prominently as an anime only with the MOST filler/comedic episodes but also not low-key, being the most out-spoken actual brother complex ironically spins perhaps the biggest twist and ironic relationships of "I love my brother but not-like-that but also like-that" by the end. Mostly comedic relief but I find her inclusion to actually add a lot more to juxtapose...

Touga Kiryuu: Big Student Council Prez himself, the first arc antagonist and also a strong foil to Saionji and later a stepping stone for Akio. Touga is THE image of a Princely Playboy Heart-Throb that in any other Shoujo romance would have the main girl win him over from all those "other girls" despite him being apathetic if not outright manipulative of them. Good thing Utena is better than that and really puts a spotlight on just not-actually-ok his power hunger for "the power to bring the world revolution" that leads him to heavily objectify Anthy, arguably even more than Misogynist Trophy Girlfriend beater Saionji, since he doesn't even see her as more than a means to an end despite professing and looking the Prince part but lacking all the actual virtues.

The Student council matters more since they're characters and subsequent tragic flaws are the ACTUAL meat of the show and on second rumination actual shows more how fucked up the system/gender dynamic/power hierarchy is since - while it blatantly fucks over Juri who can't just outright say who she likes - also show almost it's own sub-text of Masculine failings: Saionji desperately clinging to being TOXIC MASCULINE™ and completely falling short underneath Touga; Miki's "nice boy" act belying him trying to replace his low-key nostalgia for his sister (also a bitch, but apparently was more like Nanami in the manga); and best yet Touga being the quintessential "Prince in all but actual behavior" by emulating a cutthroat and Machiavellian world view but coming up empty because well, he's just an illusion of a prince...but that leads in way more to the big finale piece where I'll reintroduce the actual story's main trio

Utena Tenjou: Tomboy Prince with brain empty except for lesbian thoughts. Honestly probably what every western "STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN" archetype wishes they were since while having very tomboyish personality in athletics, blunt speaking and also VERY oblivious to the actual plot for REAL DRAMATIC IRONY, but also never actually demeaning her being feminine partially due to her love of an childhood prince and how she maintains her relationship with both her friend Wakaba and later Anthy. Honestly mostly a plot device after S1 until she gets ACTUAL development by the very end and instead kinda bumbles her way into undoing the entire REVOLUTION OF THE WORLD. I kinda wish she felt either more cognizant or at least felt like she was developing/properly rebuking the rest of the cast's power obsessions but I guess that's for the movie.

Anthy Himemiya: Actual Trophy Wife with a dark secret (darker than ski- wait no that's terrible scratch that). Set-up very much as an immediate princess in distress while also being the most femme Yamato Nadeshiko, Anthy being the Rose Bride as a literal prize who acts and behaves as whom she's "engaged" with desires while otherwise being quiet, wry, mysterious and noticably submissive, by the end it actually plays up into THE BIG REVEALS of just how abused she's been into a hopeless acceptance...like y'know actual abuse victims.

Akio Ohtori: Grade A Antagonist, probably the most insidious I've seen a villain in a while, Akio is notable for, back in 1997, being perhaps the big go-to of actual deconstructing the facade of a whole shoujo genre's "hots for a teacher/sexy man putting the moves" and highlighting how actually exploitative and abusive a person like that really is. Being Himemiya's brother (somewhat justified in the manga by both being a weird Sailor Moon-esque reincarnation of gods/godesses of Dios), despite how much of his motives are runing the background and how the entire back story is  uh...brought up in like barely in the last arc with little lead up (some scenes feel like they'd be a full melodrama season and they just have like 1 scene in the final arc episodes) he manages to one-up Touga (in the plot as well) by instead of "just" objectifying girls, not-just-flat out saying Utena looks best as a princess, but y'know the fact that he is implicitly yet constantly exploiting and victim-blaming Anthy for her own suffering for "the power of Dios/Revolution of the world" turns it on its head

I've spent all this time on characters but in truth a lot of the meat of the show relies again on the Council Members fleshing out the issues of system leading to outright divorcing "being a Prince" (heroic altruistic virtues) and "being a man" (considering like all but maybe the comedic relief have some deliberately misogynistic behavior) and beyond just the plot (or rather character) synopsis, the talent goes far more in how it's framed, the symbolic/allegorical shots, the repetition adding a good episode formula flow to character showcases, probably the most "tasteful" allusion to uh...*ahem* sexual abuse that so many other edgier/prentious shows fumble. Both in how intimidating yet understated it's foreshadowing is until they hard-reveal it despite never explicitly naming it even tho it sends Nanami into hysterics

Really it's both a massive blessing and reason for it's cult beloved status for it's aesthetics but also it's burden, for being a full 39 episodic season by season character development study of everyone BUT the main trio except for snippets and the very end that makes it greatly appreciable as a legitimate work of art.

What I wanted more to say however (long overdue) is that a large part of following is, visibly at least, western feminist critiques and yes while it almost seems like Utena fits the "deconstructing patriarchy" story like a glove...it's weird how almost none of them actually can give a good historical account of actual Japanese female/gender/sexuality norms nor Anime contemporaries actually were. Like Tenchi Muyo and Berserk came out the same year (Cardcaptor Sakura the next) and despite how you can "feel" the influence in lots of modern shows like SHAFT's signature visual imagery cuts or many WESETERN shows having straight scene references to Utena....almost no one has a similar feel to Utena until like Princess Tutu comes out.

Really tho probably should've watched Utena and then Tutu because while it's undeniable that Utena is a major pillar of shoujo re-codification - what with everyone before Utena was saying they thought it'd be like a Rose of Versaille or Lady Knight rip-off...whose laughing now? - it's almost like there's a missing link between it and it's major western fanbase (probably with what few anime did get overseas, this one probably rose to the top), or how very noticeable there IS an influence on it's genre in Japan

Almost none of the big analyst fans actually know A) it's not "a deconstruction of Magical Girls" since despite Ikuhara working on Sailor Moon just before this, almost none of the tropes line up and instead more with Shoujo genre as a whole. or  one of the major inspirations was Takarazuka theater.

And this is not to dismiss how inspirational it is to it's western fandom, but while I am notably cynical towards placing things on pedestals, there's probably something about cultivating the whole pop-culture feminist reading commune with people making weird time-loop theories while kinda most of it is just filling in a mad-lib mostly thanks to Ikuhara just keeping things on the vague and letting the audience take away their own perspective.

Again, most of the show is completely sub-textual or visually/symbolically depicted and never stated nor properly defines it's weird key words (End of the World, Revolutionize the World, Power of Dios, Rose Bride, all things said constantly but never really said what they "mean". But that's also perhaps its charm, in it's allegory and very Death of the Author approach, it has definitely allowed it's fan theorizing and appreciation to flourish so there's something there for that.

Ultimately I'd say Utena the TV series is great more so for what it isn't...or rather I should say it's great for not just subverting Shoujo tropes and archetypes for the Japanese audience but also that despite dealing with some very serious and heavy subjects in obtuse and perhaps understated ways for the time, people have allowed it to be put on it's pedestal because they can easily fit it in themselves.

Honestly though, not that a more "straight forward" approach wouldn't detract from Utena but I will say that the movie, Adolescence of Utena, is very much the best encapsulation of what Utena strives to be (for another big blog post) and while the TV series has plenty of time and flexes it's directorial muscles with budget constraints and season pacing UNrestrained, the movie will trim a lot of the fat

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Revolutionary Girl Utena, Episodes 28-30

In which everything is awful and everyone has a bad time. Also, I talk about some things I don’t like.

The Worst of Us

Today’s episodes were rough.

I don’t mean that in the sense that they were bad. I mean that on a visceral level, these episodes are not a good time. Bad things happen, our heroes suffer, everything seems to be going wrong and no one knows how to stop it, and all the while the bad guys just press their advantage more and more. None of the characters make it out unscathed, pretty much every situation seems to go south, and barely a minute goes by without me sucking in my breath in anxiety as I watch things get worse and worse. It is not a good time to be a student of Ohtori Academy, and now that we’re coming up on the home stretch, I can only imagine things are gonna get worse before- if at all- they get better. Buckle up, folks, because there are no more breaks on this wild car ride into the abyss.

Frankly, the blame for the bad shit that goes down in these episodes can be pinned on a single source: shitty dudes. As if Akio and Touga weren’t enough, Juri’s third turn round the dueling arena introduces Ruka, the captain of her fencing club who’s also working with End of the World. And he fucking sucks. He toys with Shiori’s feelings despite not giving a shit about her as a twisted way of getting Juri’s attention. Then he throws Shiori to the side the minute her power fails him and leaves her to wallow in a broken heart. And as if that wasn’t enough, he outright tries to force himself on Juri while claiming he’s doing it all for her sake. It’s the most concentrated display of monstrous behavior we’ve seen on this show, and by the time he’s twisted Juri’s arm into dueling Utena again I was seething with rage. This fucker’s the most instantly despicable asshole in the entire show; at least Akio has the decency to put on a decent front and give Utena some (very maniuplative and conditioning) support. But episode 30 firmly dispels any notions of Akio being “better”; he’s just better at hiding his inner monster behind a pleasant facade. And he’ll wear that smiling face all while wriggling his slimy way into Utena’s heart. Never before has someone calling someone else their “precious friend” felt so gross and terrifying.

No Prince at All

But at this point, I think I need to take a step back and talk bigger picture. Because the more I roll these episodes around in my head, the more I come to the realization that I... really kinda don’t jive with how the show’s villains are written. Like, it is just me, or does literally every single one of Akio’s plans boil down to “seduce every living creature in a ten mile radius with two x chromosones”? His fiance, Anthy, Utena, Wakaba, and now his fiance’s goddamn mother too? And back when Touga was still king of the hill, that was how he deployed most of his schemes as well. This show can write such fascinating, complex characters with messy feelings and emotions that realistically drive them down dark paths, but literally all their problems could be solved if the bad guys were less hot. And I don’t even find them that hot! I mean, considering I’m a straight dude, that’s probably no surprise, but is Akio really so good at playing the perfect dream lover that he can make literally anyone fall for him? All it takes is one girl with a bit more control over her emotions and his schemes wouldn’t be worth shit.

And I just don’t find that very interesting. Sure, Akio and Touga and Ruka are expertly crafted in terms of making me want to punch them in the fucking face, but the more I think back on them, the less interested I become in what they’re actually doing. Surely there were more interesting ways to show how they manipulate people? Surely there were more avenues of human connection they could exploit than just the affection matrix? I get they’re representative of exploitative authority figures, how people in power- especially men- abuse and twist the people under them to get what they want. I got that back in the first goddamn arc, and it was delivered effectively. But do we still need to be hammering it in this hard? Do we really need to see our villains have this many romantic and sexual conquests to understand how and why they’re bad? Once again, Ikuhara’s biggest flaw as a storyteller is that he doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone and stop belaboring the damn point. Time and again, the moments he stops surprising me are the moments I feel myself losing interest with his works. And my rage at the actions Akio and his ilk are taking is dimmed somewhat by the exhaustion of seeing the same scheme play out over and over again.

Where’s the Love?

But there’s another factor to this conflicted melange of opinions, and this one’s a lot more personal. I’m a self-professed slut for a good romance, and some of my favorite moments in anime are just spending quality time with my favorite couples. I think a love story done well can add so much to a piece of fiction, even if it’s not strictly “necessary.” But so much of Revolutionary Girl Utena’s drama is based on the characters’ feelings for each other, and so much of it just... does not grab me. And of course they don’t, most of them are just schoolkid crushes! Most of the romantic feelings people develop in their early teens- hell, even in their late teens- are unavoidably shallow and likely to fade within a few years. Utena’s characters stake huge emotional bets on their feelings for each other- Miki and Saionji crushing on Anthy, Juri crushing on Shiori, Shiori crushing on Ruka- thinking those feelings are the most important thing in the world, only for reality to slap them in the face. That’s the tunnel vision of youth, and that’s what makes more experienced assholes like Akio able to exploit them so easily. But there’s a disconnect there, isn’t there? Because I know from my vantage point of (relative) maturity that these feelings likely won’t ever amount to anything, and the characters themselves don’t. So for the characters, losing their crush or being betrayed by someone they trusted is this huge, devastating emotional wallop, but I don’t always feel that drama myself because, well, I already know better.

Like, okay, perfect example: Shiori’s feelings for Ruka. It’s obvious from the start she’s gonna get her heart broken because Ruka’s a prick, but that’s not an issue in and of itself. But when Shiori’s so devastated by him breaking up with her that she locks herself in her room and descends into a spiral of bitter jealousy, I just don’t feel the agony she’s feeling. Intellectually, I understand why this would be such a big deal to her, but emotionally, I’m not invested. We don’t even really know why Shiori had such a crush on him; best I can tell, it was just because it was he was her handsome club leader. Plus, it doesn’t even seem like it sticks once Ruka dies (side note, why drag yourself out of the hospital before you’re healed to try and inspire your crush if you’re gonna be that much of a fucking dick about it?). The final scene of episode 29 sees Shiori walking right behind Juri in her school uniform like always, so we don’t even get to see her getting over it. There was never any real emotional bond between them, just the shallow affections of youth. And when that’s all being broken, the horror Shiori herself is feeling doesn’t register with me. Same thing with Utena falling for Akio, honestly; she crushes on him because he’s smooth and handsome and is very good at playing a chivalrous gentleman. I’m not saying those are unreasonable reasons why anyone might crush on someone else, god knows I’ve had plenty of similarly shallow crushes myself. But I’m past the point where that kind of shallowness has any real emotional effect on me.

If I sound like I’m being overly harsh here, let me enrich my point by talking about a genuine emotional connection this show does really well: Utena and Anthy. The time we spend with these characters isn’t just time saying “Hey, they have feelings for each other,” and leaving it at that. We get to learn why they’re coming to love each other, what habits they form with each other, the comfort of being around each other, their nighttime conversations that reflect on the feelings they’re struggling with and keeping hidden from each other (”I think there’s a part of love you can’t control.”) We get to learn the specifics of what their connection means to them, and how that connection manifests in their actions and attitudes towards each other. Especially now in this latest arc, where they get at least some time every episode to just talk about shit together. I care about these two. I care about Anthy’s inability to share her fears about Akio with Utena. I care about the terrifying way she watches their tryst with the candles flickering out. I care about them because I know about them, because I’m given time to know about them. Their bond means something to me, just as much as it does to them. I can say the same about Wakaba and Utena’s friendship, or even the dry camaraderie among the remaining student council members. This show is not lacking for relationships that work. But it only makes it that less interesting when it drives its plot forward using the far more shallow feelings these characters experience.

Odds and Ends

-...is Nanami eating schoolwork and letters. But why tho.

-”For some reason, my heart’s pounding.” I cannot get over how tender this scene is, god damn.

-skdjfhsdkhfs god dammit why was the car in the fountain

-Okay, but make sure your seatbelts are buckled. Car sex can go wrong real fast if you’re not careful.

-Something I missed last time: Utena’s princely form now has very prominent lip gloss. I feel like that’s probably important.

-”What gives you the right to hurt her?” Kick. His. Ass.

-”Say your line, Touga.” Alright, this is one sin I can’t overlook. Actors are never supposed to directly cue other actors. Akio, I’ll see you in hell.

-God DAMN, the duel animation kicks ass! J. C. Staff’s really pulling out all the stops in this last stretch.

-Coolest moment in these episodes by far: Utena shatters Juri’s pendant, and she’s so broken with shock that she rips her own flower out in surrender. Goddamn, that knocked me flat on my ass.

-”Wish as hard as you can, and they will know your feelings.” ...that’s not quite the same quote, is it?

-”Lies like that are totally transparent. And they set a pattern of mistrust.” Wakaba, too good for this shameful world as always.

-”Girls should wear nice frilly skirts!” “Who thought that one up?” Utena’s in top form today.

-”Bu-huh-hye.” Okay, Anthy repeating that is somehow the scariest thing in this episode.

-”She’s the first girl to ever make me reconsider how I live my life.” And yet, you’re still helping the same assholes as always.

We’re getting close to the end now. See you next time!

[number1villainstan]

episode 28, whispers in the dark. I have no idea what's going to happen in this one

i keep forgetting to finish the previews at the end when i watch an episode lmao

OH WAIT THIS EPISODE IS ABOUT THE DUDE SHIORI 'STOLE' FROM JURI. ruka's his name. 'seriously bad vibes,' huh? "toy with [juri]"? oh this is gonna be fun. i have a feeling that the ship i half-jokingly suggested (with shiori and juri and ruka) is gonna get wiped out even more thoroughly in this episode

ugh tumblr is lagging with the typing

"feelings i've never put into words, but my heart is always whispering them" episode name drop

tsuchiya ruka is his full name

whoa, the shot paralleling miki--ruka being taller, with darker blue hair that's wilder but the same length as miki's. huh. i wonder what parallels it's supposed to draw

dark blue vs bright orange--they're opposite colors on the color wheel too. (so what does shiori's hair being purple mean--)

juri being ever so slightly worse than her rival at her chosen sport....being ever so slightly too slow to beat ruka to shiori?

ruka framed by white roses

what are nanami and miki eating...and why isn't juri sat at the table? (she's facing away, too--doesn't want them to see the effect he has on her?) plus she said she was just filling in for him. kinda like how nanami thinks of herself as just filling in for touga?

"i've only just recovered" from what??

it's papers on plates? and letters? huh?? representing bureaucracy?

ruka's a playboy like touga. tbh he gave me touga vibes from the start. i hope shiori dumps his ass

...shiori's hair is more pinkish-purple. and purple is what you get when you mix blue and red--ruka and juri, and shiori in between--

"someone polished my sword every day while I was gone" hey you know what "polishing a sword" is a metaphor for?

ruka is addressing shiori but he looks like he's looking into the camera. weird as hell

near-kiss and then the shot cuts away to a pan featuring akio's good old dick tower, with a white rose (ruka?) in the corner

shiori's usually 'so quiet', huh?

ruka on the other side of the bench (as the one juri was sitting on earlier) but juri refuses to sit down on the bench with him

present is blue, past is orange. huh.

"i'm just living a normal life right now" no duelist on ohtori campus is ever allowed to have a normal life

lmao i just realized the forest behind Dick Tower is like pubic hair

"for some reason my heart's pounding" probably because of ruka's aforementioned touga vibes

the fountain drying up when juri realizes "he knows", huh? another instance of ohtori responding to its inhabitants?

man, both shiori and ruka are real mean. juri's luck is the fucking worst apparently

oh shit touga showed up? in place of ruka i KNEW he was a touga parallel but what does touga want with shiori? or ruka?

also i'm half sure that the fountain flowing is supposed to be symbolic of ruka and shiori gettin it on, or their feelings or something--cuz the fountain dried up again as soon as shiori saw it was touga instead of ruka

ohhhhh motherfucker it's akio again. of course.

for half a second i thought the car didn't show up and was so ready to laugh at touga

"you're an adult now" given how much this series conflates adulthood with sexuality (even while satirizing that same conflation) THIS DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING GOOD

oh so they actually fucked in the backseat. bet akio liked that

white roses again. and shiori plucking (stealing?) one from anthy's garden

fishing up trash! i swear i've seen this exact shadow girl play before, in an earlier episode--

that little sparkle sound before anthy disappears in the new stock footage--hinting at her being literally magic?

half thought it would be juri stepping out in front of the car. just to fuck with everyone's head. but nah it's ruka and shiori, no idea why they're targeting utena and anthy (aside from maybe orders from End of the World, nothing personal)

ruka wearing a darker blue rose instead of a white one

oh so ruka's motivation is just to see what utena's skills are like, huh? interesting. but if he wins he gets the rose bride? does he not care about that? did he plan for that? there might be better ways to test someone's skill dude

"i will make the world androgynous" damn this duel song goes hard

ruka is still standing after (nearly?) getting hit with a car! unfortunatley shiori is. not. that looks like a bad crash

"I failed because of my bride." 1. cold. 2. juri look out

this time juri's sitting on the bench, where she was in the beginning, and ruka's the one standing and facing the opposite direction. investment in a relationship being signalled through sitting on or not sitting on the bench?

also wait. if that wasn't ruka's sword, or shiori didn't polish his sword or w/e, what actually happened? "you have a talent for ad libs" does that mean nothing happened? ...especially cuz shiori only got with him to fuck with juri (according to her black rose episode)

Oh also, along with writing the December 2023 Monthly Short Piece today, I finally watched the first episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena after days of seeing a moot post about it and--

"I am the Rose Bride. From this day forward, I belong to you."

i am going to murder everyone in this damn school for anthy

[sadlyafanofotomegames]

Rewatching Revolutionary Girl Utena a Literal Decade Later - Season 1

So the first time I watched Utena was back in high school, where I didn’t have the tools nor the courage to admit I was into girls.  So during that first watch I was very much that “they’re such good friends” kind of viewer.  But now its 2020, and I’m bi and maaaaaaybe there’s something more to Anthy and Utena’s relationship.  I don’t know its just a hunch I have.

Anyway this is just going to be me making disparate comments on the show that I didn’t notice (or sometimes just avoided noticing) during my first viewing.  So if you’re expecting me to explain what Revolutionary Girl Utena’s about...lol.  @vraik did an in-deph look into the show if you want explanations that makes sense, and you can also see the episodes on Youtube both subbed and dubbed if you just put the name in (i’m not brave enough to watch dubbed that will forever be a mystery to me) and there’s tons of videos talking about the show’s themes and what it means to them.  So this?  It’s just going to be nonsense in bullet-point form.  So let’s begin!

I have a penchant for liking loud girl characters that others pan as obnoxious and annoying, and Wakaba is no exception.  Only now I’ve been infected with vine culture so all I can imagine is the “He doesn’t deserve you” vine when her love letter is posted on the board.

Kale Sandwich man only washes his hair once a week and thinks drinking essential oils makes his breath smell nice no I will NOT be taking questions.

Spinach has quarantine hair before quarantine hair was a thing truly a man ahead of his time.

How did I miss all the rotating rose motifs in the show the first time I watched it?

Fun fact the shadow play was my favorite part first time watching it.  Even when I didn’t like the episode I’d watch for the shadow play.

You know what?  I’m going to say it - I LIKE CHU-CHU!  There!  I said it!  Take me to the guillotine for my annoying mascot lovin’ crimes!

Touga is funny when Utena brushes him off and he goes, “oh yeah Baby” but the moment his manipulations begin to take hold and he touches my child’s hair I want to spray him with holy water.  I’d report him to an authority figure at the school but HAH

Touga better watch his lovingly cared for hair because I got scissors snip snip.

Mickey mouse memes cursed me if I turn the sound off I imagine Miki’s voice being just like Mickey Mouse PLEASE tell me there’s a parody of that on the Internet somewhere.  Have Mickey Mouse talk about the meaning of eternity to me.

The realization that Miki’s sister was not as good as he thought and that he was only projecting that image off of her made the Sunlit Garden episodes really compelling to me even during my first watch.

Do you ever think on the fact that if Nanami wasn’t obsessed with her brother she’d have time to make and connect with real friends.  Like she gets along with Miki just fine!  They could be good friends and could connect with each other if they could only let go of their obsessions...

Anthy manipulating things in the background (funny how she just happened to start playing piano when its Miki’s turn to duel huh) completely flew over my head first watch, even in the last season.  Now going in with the knowledge that even when she’s forced to act passive she’s still active in her own way I keep going “oh.  OH.  oh.” every time she does a thing.

When Anthy showed Jury the orange rose like her “friend” once did HOW DID I NOT REALIZE!?

Vraik’s interpretation of Anthy giving the rose to Jury after the duel is that it’s a way of mocking Jury, but I’d say when Anthy was showing Jury the rose it was a way of showing how Anthy doesn’t spite Jury for hurting her the way Jury spites her “friend” (cough COUGH) for hurting her.  Anthy has already let go of what Jury did (because Anthy’s been through worse lets be real) so why can’t Jury let go of what happened to her?  Jury walking away without slapping Anthy like she did in the beginning of the episode, but not taking the rose, shows that she’s almost ready to move on, but not quite yet.

...Then again I like Wakaba AND Chu-chu AND that guidance counselor, so maybe I’m not the most trustworthy Utena interpretour

Anyway Nanami almost kills Utena and Anthy with curry.  And Touga won a match with a kangaroo.  Tell me a modern anime that’s funnier than the Nanami episodes that’s not gross.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

...I’m kidding I won’t wait anyway Seaweed needs to go in the corner and STAY THERE TILL HE THINKS ON WHAT HE’S DONE!

YOU TOO TOUGA YOU TOMATO PASTE

Did Cucumber ever realize that it was Utena who he met as a child?  Did the pink hair not give it away or...?

Touga’s the WORST.

Nanami killing the kitten as a kid?  Pretty awful.  But I don’t think she’s the only person responsible for the cats death, because I think Touga was fully aware that she was the one who did it, and didn’t care.  Maybe this is insensitive, but I think by the time we see a flashback to Touga’s birthday he was already manipulative and cruel.  The kitten wasn’t the pet, Nanami was, and he was already toying with her emotions.

Nanami was almost okay with what she did until the box opened, and Nanami was forced to see the life she was taking.  That’s why in earlier episodes its mentioned that when she hurts people she doesn’t do it directly.  Because if she did she’d be faced with what’s she’s done directly, and she might not be able to handle that.

Also its telling that Nanami thinks Anthy keeping animals is what’ll make others dislike her, but when it turns out that Utena and Miki don’t find it strange at all when Anthy keeps even the more odd kinds of pets around, Nanami can’t comprehend why.  I think that’s why even when she realizes that Touga is more interested in Utena than Anthy she still holds a grudge for Anthy.

You can’t make me unmute when Touga is being skeezy with Utena.  This is MY rewatch and I can avoid be grossed out by Touga’s attitude if I WANT to.

Utena realizing that the only reason Anthy is her friend and says she wants other friends and doesn’t want to be the Rose Bride is because as the bride she’d supposed to be what her “betrothed” wants her to be HURT ME.  

Get me the holy water I need to spray it into my EYES

You know what gets me?  Out of all the council members Touga is somehow the best person to be “betrothed” to Anthy.  Yeah, think on that for a second.  He’s not abusive, he’s not obsessed with her, he doesn’t hate her or spite her passiveness, and he also doesn’t treat her like an ornament.  He’s the only one who seems to see the engagement as what it is, which is a transaction.  Anthy doesn’t interfere with Touga’s life and Touga doesn’t ask much of her in return.  Anthy doesn’t love Touga, and Touga doesn’t love Anthy, so there’s no feelings being hurt.  She’s safe because there’s no feelings thus no reason for them to hurt each other.

But then comes the image of Utena who appeared in front of her, silently and without warning.  Utena does care about Anthy, and Anthy is starting to care about her, and that’s dangerous for both of them.  Maybe for Anthy, its better that Utena thinks that Anthy doesn’t care for anything except being the Rose Bride, so that they can just remain polite acquaintances.  Maybe in that sense, Touga is the better choice, which is why Anthy willingly gave Touga power when she never did with the Unripe Tomato.  Just rip the band-aid off.

All this to say that in my first watch I kinda fell for the idea that Anthy didn’t care about anything, that she really was emotionless and had no money in this fight over her.  So after Utena won the fight and Anthy returned to her like nothing happened, I wasn’t happy about it, because it felt like nothing changed since Utena first won the duel with Unmowed Grass.  Anthy still sees this as a transaction.  But watching it now I can tell that Anthy is glad to have a reason to be around Utena, even that reason is less than ideal...anyway ThEy’Re SuCh GoOd FrIeNdS HuH!?

SPEAKING of ideal when Akio did the summary episode and Dios moved his head to look at Akio...I like to imagine he gave Akio a middle finger.  Just a nice thought to get me through the next season you know?

[kvsmy-blog]

                                                    sibling bonding hour / @pyrrhe

               you remember the night your fingers were seared by your own quirk. when your skin blistered and cracked under the force of a quirk you never had the build or the temperament to take care of. the burnt husk of a monster that dragged you kicking and screaming into this shitty singed nightmare city two and a half decades earlier. truth be told you never thought that you would make it this far. though to be fair, until two years ago you had been under the impression you were going to smothered under that bastard’s inflamed fingers.

                 but you’re out. literally and figuratively. scorched touya todoroki until there was nothing left but dabi. just another miserable gay villain following the examples of the comic book villains of old, sleeping with heroes should be busy saving the world, wishing your dad was already dead like you were promised, and fighting your little brother because god forbid you let that dried out little shit lay a finger on him. or god forbid touga. like you love touga, but that’s a bad idea all around. 

                  speaking of shouto, you should really be doing your job. you’re supposed to be fighting kamui woods. that tinder box doesn’t really stand a chance against you, you even came up with a cool line about normally being against forest fires. but no, your babiest god damn brother had to show up at the worst time yet again and is stoppping you from doing what you’re supposed to doing, again. 

                ❝   i sure hope no one fed you after midnight.   ❞

[iztarshi]

Season 1 Flashbacks

I really love the ways Utena uses animation in various memories and flashbacks. There’s both an overall style to them that ties them together and different visual elements used to show the different ways different people remember, from traumatically vivid memories to memories of an event you know happened but no longer remember the details of.

So, I wrote some thoughts on all the season 1 flashbacks, although I’ve probably said a lot of really obvious things.

Episode 1 — Utena’s flashback

It’s very theatrical, right from the start with a curtain going up. The flat shadows on the background make it even more so — it’s not just that the silhouettes replace barely remembered people, the entirety of the scenery is false.

The sudden flashes of accurate animation seem to indicate the few real events that she remembers enough to have built the fairy tale around, but it would be reasonable to assume she remembers they happened rather than actually remembering them in the visual detail we’re seeing. Mistaking Touga for her prince makes much more sense if she doesn’t actually remember he had dark skin and white hair.

The silhouettes, too, are a stylish way to show only barely remembered people, but I don’t think they necessarily mean the only thing anyone remembers is hair colour.

Also, I just like that Utena remembers a totally non-existent horse. Princes have horses, right?

Episode 5 — Miki’s flashback

Miki’s flashback starts out framed like old sepia pictures. It’s a warm look and a very nostalgic one.

The colours become colder and the outlines firmer once it’s the specific story of the concert and not just a nostalgic memory of any and every time they played the piano in the garden, but it’s still heavily stylised. Miki and Kozue both remain silhouetted, suggesting he doesn’t know who either of them were back then. The colours get colder and darker still once Miki is ill and then when Kozue won’t play the piano again. The whole thing is more detailed and real than Utena’s flashback, but still suggests an event that Miki remembers remembering perhaps more than he remembers exactly what happened.

Episode 5 — Kozue’s flashback

Kozue’s image of them makes them both silhouettes, too, casting doubt on whether her memory is accurate either. Her picture is the very nostalgic sepia tone we started off with in Miki’s, even though she’s saying she never enjoyed it and talking about the concert. Her black rose duel kind of gets back into this, that she wants to return to those days just as much as Miki.

There are red rose petals in the background of hers, too, which… I think red can often be associated with desire for something. Red things in Utena are often desirable — the Akio car, Anthy when she’s playing the Rose Bride role, and Touga himself is desired and plays on that a lot.

Episode 6 — Mitsuru’s flashback

You know, I wasn’t sure whether to include this. But it’s still a flashback, it’s an important formative experience for Mitsuru, and it has a bit in common with the episode nine flashback in which some other boys also can’t save a girl.

It’s told in semi-shadows. Not the silhouettes of imperfect memory, but something more like the shock of not being able to take in everything at once. The background is very bright, whited out, and only the bull, Nanami, Touga and Mitsuru are really remembered.

Touga’s age seems a little wrong here for how small Nanami is. Maybe it’s Mitsuru’s hero worship colouring things, but he did apparently just punch out a bull, so who knows.

There’s also a parallel between Mitsuru and Utena, here, in that they’re very devoted to becoming a “prince” or a “big brother” which has nothing to do, really, with becoming royalty or literal family. Mitsuru’s sneakier than Utena, though, willing to put Nanami in danger in order to save her and fulfil the role he’s set himself, making him more — hilariously — a parallel to Touga who will do exactly the same thing to Utena herself.

Episode 7 — Juri’s flashback

Juri remembers the people in detail, but the background is stylised and black and white and the poses are often staged. She remembers everyone involved, but the exact events are lost in the general thrust of the developing love triangle.

This is the first time a flashback comes with an associated photograph. One of the memories takes place during a class photo shoot — did Shiori really whisper that exactly then, or is Juri imposing it on a moment she has reason to be especially well able to recall?

As a side note it feels weird to see the student council in normal Ohtori uniforms, a reminder that they’ve been in Ohtori longer than they’ve been in the duelling game. Given that Ohtori has an attached elementary school and Miki, Kozue, Touga and Nanami appear to live locally enough for their actual houses to be within Akio’s sphere of influence, I wonder if they have any sense of how weird any of this is? Have their whole lives just been mildly surreal?

Episode 9 — Saionji’s flashback

This and Nanami’s flashback are the most intense, probably because Saionji and Nanami seem actively traumatised by these events. To the point both of them attempt to lash out and kill Utena while caught up in reliving them.

The first thing that’s interesting about this flashback is that Saionji is telling it to Utena, who remains completely unaware that she appears in it. The two of them have made such different stories out of the memory that they can’t reconcile them at all — Utena doesn’t even remember Touga and Saionji were there and he can’t recognise her as the girl they wanted to save.

Saionji’s first flashback image is a warmly sepia coloured picture in which he and Touga appear as silhouettes. Incongruously it makes him scowl and declare he won’t lose to Touga. Like Miki’s sunlit garden, it appears to be a nostalgic image of something they did a lot rather than a memory of a specific scene.

They start out as greyscale faceless silhouettes, with Saionji’s bandage standing out white, and then are suddenly lit into colour when Touga sees the funeral and stops. It’s a neat effect, as they go from a general memory of something they’d done dozens of times, the hurt hand the only unusual thing about it, into the vividness of a specific and traumatic memory.

It’s only himself and Touga that Saionji remembers clearly, though. The adults in the memory remain silhouettes and Utena herself is one, recognisable by her pink hair.

It’s not clear whether the background is greyscale or whether it’s just the darkness of the storm, but the coffins are not, and the red roses on them stand out especially. Juri’s flashbacks tend to black and white with orange standing out, Saionji and Nanami both have flashbacks where red is the dominant colour.

Nothing about the memory is stylised or staged, though. Saionji may not understand the people involved, but he seems to recall the events very accurately. The fact that Touga spends the memory behaving rather strangely only makes it more plausible.

When Saionji flashes back again after hearing the word “kamikakushi” he can’t see anyone’s faces, as if he’s no longer sure who he and Touga were back then either.

Not a flashback, but I really appreciate the way the greyscale picture of Touga in bed with a bandaged chest echoes the grayscale picture of Touga and Saionji on the bike with Saionji’s bandaged hand.

Episode 10 — Nanami’s flashback

Oh, Nanami.

The shot of the birthday cake gives us a much more fixed time for this flashback than any of the previous ones. It’s Touga’s birthday, and you can count the candles to find out that he’s twelve. You can also see this is the same mansion they’re living in now, the vaguely threatening shot showing layers of empty halls and doors is virtually identical to the later one where Touga is telling Nanami why she shouldn’t be a lesbian. (If there’s a connection, I’d guess it’s that Touga is becoming one of the adults who shuts her out and doesn’t try to understand her.)

The adults are certainly threatening here, a faceless, colourless mob, where you can’t even really pick out Nanami’s parents. Touga and Nanami are the only ones in colour — they’re also the only children present. Touga seems to be both enthroned and surrounded, people are calling him Touga-sama and kneeling, but is this really the kind of party a twelve-year-old would want?

The way Nanami reacts when her father tries to grab her, and how quickly — and adultly — Touga intervenes just makes the adults seem more of a threat. You can see why Nanami misses being sure her brother was on her side when she’s never had anyone else.

Interestingly, when Nanami resumes her flashback for the more traumatic part, she and Touga are now greyscale. The only thing that stands out is the red of the apples he won’t help her pick. Something Nanami wants, but needs Touga to gain.

Honestly, I think getting angry with Nanami for hitting his cat is the most emotion we see Touga display, ever? Even in Saionji’s memory, his emotions are very guarded, here he’s reacting far more like you’d expect a child to react. Although Nanami’s response to it suggests that she’s not used to this kind of reaction from him. She’s taking it as a serious rejection, not as her brother being upset with her right now.

Nanami is now standing in front of her own memory, as if it’s a cinema screen and she can watch it all unfold over again.

In the last section of her flashback her dress and hair are yellow again, for the first time her own colour is the one notably present in addition to black and white. (She was in colour earlier, but wearing pink and red.) The part she most associates with herself is the worst part, the kitten’s death and her own remorse.

There are also a few flashes of green in bits of her memory, an adult’s suit and the leaves Touga was playing with the kitten with. Jealousy?

The way her killing the kitten and regretting it is interspersed with her attacking Utena suggests she really did intend to kill Utena but, like the kitten, would have regretted it immediately if she’d succeeded.

[retro-friki]

Shoujo Kakumei Utena Manga Recap: To Till or The Plot Actually Happens

Last time, we read the introductory arc of this manga, however wether you only saw the anime or this humble post is your first contact with “Revolutionary Girl Utena”  it doesn’t really matter if you haven’t read the introduction, the characters and most plot threads that appear there are never spoken of again so if the manga doesn’t care about them, neither should you (unless you want to take this quiz). The real story starts here. So first allow me to present you to the main characters:

Utena Tenjou: The protagonist, she was saved by a prince when she was little and now her dream is to to find him and emulate him. Not very bright, but at least she’s good at basketball.

Anthy Himemiya: She’s supposed to have a protagonic role but the manga often forgets that she’s a character. We could describe manga!Anthy as a total cutie with mysterious powers. What kind of mysterious powers? We’ll find out soon.

Wakaba Shinohara: Best friend ever, 1000 times better than Utena’s other “best friend” from the introductory arc. If the universe was fair she would be Utena’s girlfriend, but we are in the worst timeline and Wakaba has a terrible taste in men.

This douchebag (A.K.A Kyouichi Saionji): He’s a total asshole and would probably die alone unless he hooks up with…

This other douchebag (A.K.A. Touga Kiryuu): He’s the reason of like 69% of my frustration with this manga. I even wrote an essay about it.

These other two members of the Student Council: Are not important… yet. Let’s wait till next volume to learn more about them.

Anyway, let’s go straight to the story. Naive tomboy Utena Tenjou enrolls in the prestigious Ohtori Academy hoping to find her beloved prince that saved her many years ago. Meanwhile, the Student Council of Ohtori –– a very exclusive group formed by misguided teens –– dedicate their time engaging in sword duels in order to “win” the Rose Bride, a girl called Anthy Himemiya who has the legendary Sword of Dios inside her…. literally.

Quite, literally. (Also, what’s wrong with Saionji’s face?)

Legend has it that whoever possesses Anthy and wields the Sword of Dios will have the Power to Revolutionize the World. If you have never seen the anime and all this mess confuses you, let me warn you that this isn’t the weirdest part of “Revolutionary Girl Utena”.

At the beginning of the story, Anthy is engaged to Saionji (the douchebag), how did this happen? not even the most cultivated utenologists know for sure, so don’t ask me. As we have stablished before, Saionji is a total jerk and treats Anthy badly (he claims he loves her even if he slaps her frequently) however, this isn’t what prompts our local hero Utena Tenjou to kick his butt, turns out that her best friend, Wakaba, was in love with him and Saionji broke her heart and humiliated her publicly. Utena proceeds to challenge him to a duel which he accepts because he wrongly thinks that she’s after the Rose Bride.

The ring that the prince gave Utena when they met is actually a key that allows her to enter the very secret Dueling Arena where the Student Council hold their very secret duels. The place looks really cool actually.

(Notice the castle in the sky? This is normal in “Revolutionary Girl Utena”)

Even if she doesn’t know anything about this Rose Bride stuff, Utena manages to beat Saionji by using a broken wooden sword no less, because sometimes she can be a badass like that. Thanks to this, Utena earns the Sword of Dios, which causes her to go all Super Saiyan Pink.

(what? you thought I was joking?)

Touga –– the Student Council President and also a total creep–– was watching the duel in secret and gets very surprised when he sees Utena wielding the Sword of Dios. Apparently Utena is the only one that has managed to activate the sword’s enormous power. He gets so excited that he jumps into the dueling arena and declares that he could be falling for Utena. The girl feels flustered and gets out of there as fast as she can…leaving Anthy behind. Good job, hero.

However, running away doesn’t mean that Utena is free from all this mess, soon enough she learns that she’s now engaged with Anthy and that both of them have to live together in the East Hall dorms (alongside Anthy’s weird “monkey”). Anthy explains that now that they are engaged more Student Council members are going to keep challenging her to duels on an attempt to win Anthy from her. Utena wants none of that nonsense and she decides to investigate, however. she gets distracted when she finds someone that looks like her prince at the rose garden. Just when she tries to get to him, Touga appears out of nowhere and kisses her…

Ugh...

For some reason this particular kiss scene keeps appearing again and again in other iterations of the story like the musical and the light novels. In the manga there’s two pages of this and the second one is beautifully framed with roses. This is supposed to establish Touga as the charming playboy he is…but actually, the whole thing is annoying at best and gross at worst, not even the protagonist herself is happy with getting her first kiss from that guy…however, to be fair, it’s better than getting kissed in the seat of a car by a guy who doubles your age while your friend is watching… so yeah.

After that unpleasant experience, Utena asks Touga what’s going on. He explains that all the Student Council members get a ring just like Utena’s that helps them to access the Dueling Arena and fight in order to win the Rose Bride. They do this under the orders of a mysterious entity known as “World’s End” who only communicates with them via letters and who has assured them that having the Sword of Dios that lies within Anthy will grant them enough power to accomplish whatever they want. Yeah… sounds legit. Touga invites Utena to a dance and promises to tell her more about “World’s End”, however, the girl refuses.

Shortly after, Utena finds Saionji slapping Anthy AGAIN (this happens a lot in the story), she stops Saionji and tells him that if he has any problem with Anthy being engaged to her, then he should duel her again. Anthy is surprised that Utena is now getting involved in the duels. Utena says she’ll keep fighting until she finds out what’s really going on.

That night… (or some night, the manga isn’t good at telling how much time has passed), the girls receive a package from Touga with a pair of dresses for the dance, Utena still doesn’t want to go but she wants Anthy to socialize with more people and anyway, the plot needs them to be there so off they go.

Utena takes this opportunity to ask Touga about “World’s End” but the guy doesn’t tell her anything because he only wants to talk about how pretty she looks in the dress that he got her. Utena just wasted her time and she didn’t help Anthy at all since she left her behind. Meanwhile Anthy is being bullied and slapped, again. Look, if you’re taking an introvert to a party you MUST hang out with them and ensure that they are comfortable at all times! This is Handling your Introvert 101, Utena! Get a grip! To make things worse, Saionji appears, takes Anthy with him and tells her that he chose the dress she’s now wearing. Now I wonder if buying dresses for girls is Touga’s signature move and Saionji, being the big loser that he is, attempted to imitate him.

Our hero tries to rescue Anthy but, in a total dick move, Saionji keeps Anthy away from Utena and then proceeds to attack with a sword. Utena is defenseless because she can’t get the sword of Dios and also the plot has decided to turn her into a damsel in distress again. Now, I’m not expecting the hero to be a total badass who can win a fight with her bare hands (although that would be awesome), it’s ok if Utena is defeated sometimes, however, what really bugs me from this particular development is… well we’ll find out next time.

(If the manga can end on a cliffhanger so can my recap).

See you.

[werecat]

@killyfromblame said:

LITERALLY HES LIKE I KNOW BEING GAY/BI IS AWESOME AND FEELS GREAT WINK WINK BUT YOU GOTTA BE STRAIGHT OR ELSE OK <3

He’s the worst it’s so morbidly funny

THIS IS TOUGA

me: happily enjoying my allegorical fiction

touga: I am here to remind you that homosexuality is not only aberrant but also a sin