Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

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Alternative Titles

English: Revolutionary Girl Utena

Synonyms: Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Japanese: 少女革命ウテナ

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 39

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 2, 1997 to Dec 24, 1997

Premiered: Spring 1997

Broadcast: Wednesdays at 18:00 (JST)

Producers: TV Tokyo, Audio Tanaka

Licensors: Nozomi Entertainment, Central Park Media

Studios: J.C.Staff

Source: Original

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Psychological, Shoujo

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 8.20¹ (scored by 43,722 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #306²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #951

Members: 157,213

Favorites: 6,330

8.20

Ranked #306Popularity #951Members 157,213

Spring 1997TVJ.C.Staff

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Episodes: /39

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Synopsis

After meeting a traveling prince who consoled her after the deaths of her parents, Utena Tenjou vowed to become a prince herself. The prince left Utena only with a ring bearing a strange rose crest and a promise that she would meet him again some day.

A few years later, Utena attends Ootori Academy, where she is drawn into a dangerous game. Duelists with rings matching Utena's own compete for a unique prize: the Rose Bride, Anthy Himemiya, and her mysterious powers. When Utena wins Anthy in a duel, she realizes that if she is to free Anthy and discover the secrets behind Ootori Academy, she has only one option: to revolutionize the world.

Shoujo Kakumei Utena blends surrealist imagery and ideas with complex allegories and metaphors to create a unique coming-of-age story with themes including idealism, illusions, adulthood, and identity.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Childhood idealism, illusions, ambition, adulthood, sexuality, abuse, incest and identity are all prominent themes which are explored in what is essentially a highly metaphorical and symbolic coming-of-age story. Loss of innocence, both sexual and otherwise, is treated as a life changing event. Fairy tale archetypes such as the noble prince and the damsel in distress, as well as standard tropes of the shoujo and magical girl genre are incorporated, subverted, inverted, averted and deconstructed.

Shoujo Kakumei Utena won the Best TV Animation Award at Animation Kobe in 1997.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Shoujo Kakumei Utena
Alternative version:	Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Adolescence Mokushiroku

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Tenjou, Utena

Main

Kawakami, Tomoko
Japanese

Himemiya, Anthy

Main

Fuchizaki, Yuriko
Japanese

Arisugawa, Juri

Supporting

Mitsuishi, Kotono
Japanese

Kiryuu, Nanami

Supporting

Shiratori, Yuri
Japanese

Kiryuu, Touga

Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito
Japanese

Ootori, Akio

Supporting

Kosugi, Juurouta
Japanese

Kaoru, Miki

Supporting

Hisakawa, Aya
Japanese

Mikage, Souji

Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru
Japanese

Chuchu

Supporting

Koorogi, Satomi
Japanese

Saionji, Kyouichi

Supporting

Kusao, Takeshi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kobayashi, Noriko

Producer

Ikuhara, Kunihiko

Director, Script, Storyboard, Original Creator

Tanaka, Hideyuki

Sound Director

Igarashi, Takuya

Episode Director, Script, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"Rinbu Revolution" by Masami Okui

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Ending Theme

#1: "Truth" by Luca Yumi (eps 1-24)
#2: "バーチャルスター発生学 (Virtual Star Hasseigaku)" by Maki Kamiya (eps 25-38)
#3: "Rose & release" by Masami Okui (ep 39)

More reviews

Reviews

Jul 26, 2008

39 of 39 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

TrenchKamen (All reviews)

415 people found this review helpful

Admittedly, I'm biased when it comes to reviewing this anime. I started watching it at a very impressionable age, and the impact it had on me at that particular time in my life is astronomical. I also have a huge soft spot for anything surreal, gender-bending, absurd, existential, or psychological.

That being said, Utena fulfills all of those criteria beautifully. And it is enjoyable on multiple levels. I enjoy it as much now, at age 20, as I did at age 12. My understanding of the characters, the symbolism, and the message inherent in each episode has changed dramatically. At a young age I saw everything as Utena did; I viewed the series from her standpoint, agreed with her fully, and essentially played the role of the fool. In the final episodes when she does not understand what Akio was saying, I did not either. Now I do. Now I sympathize with him, understand his cynicism and manipulation of adolescence, and now I realize just how truly revolutionary and powerful one Tenjou Utena was. Now I understand Akio's shock. He's lost the ability to see things as the iconoclast--the fool who is an iconoclast without being self-aware of the full implications of what he or she is doing.

But then, I digress.

"Utena" borrows heavily from the philosophies of Carl Jung and Hermann Hesse, most notably the latter's incredible novel "Demian". I highly recommend that those who enjoyed this series read the works of both men. The anime incorporates a brilliant and deft weave of existentialism and psychological analysis with excellent characterization and a degree of slice-of-life realism. There is a running theme of the discomfort inherent in becoming self-aware, adolescent discomfort, budding sexuality, and dissatisfaction with the status quo that is inherent in these realizations. These are teenagers who look for the meaning in everything; they cannot yet except there IS no meaning in everything. They want to rebuild the world. In this sense, these turbulent, anarchic sentiments are a throwback to "Demian"; they are the same sentiments that had an entire generation of disillusioned German youth hailing the book as a voice speaking on their behalf for the first time. In many ways, that voice is universal. "Utena" does it justice.

From a technical standpoint, Utena is top-notch. The artwork is gorgeous, the music lush, and the direction lucid. It hearkens to the era of cel-based animation with a minimum of CGI, especially as compared to current offerings. The seiyuu all do an excellent job with their characters. J.A. Seazer's musical compositions are worthy of stand-alone acclaim. They are quite unlike anything else known in the anime genre.

I suppose I am obligated to warn of the exploration of various taboo subjects beyond homosexuality (Utena and Anthy being one of few canon yuri couples out there outside of hentai), including incest; if you are squiked beyond your comfort threshold by this, don't watch the show. Otherwise, I cannot recommend this show highly enough. I acknowledge it is not for everyone, but if you are that sort of twisted, abstract person who would enjoy this show, and if you remember the growing pains of adolescence (or are currently undergoing them), you can't watch it soon enough.

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Jun 7, 2008

39 of 39 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Venneh (All reviews)

287 people found this review helpful

Warning: Epically long review ahead, mainly because I love this series so much.

Title: Revolutionary Girl Utena

Manga, Anime: Revolutionary Girl Utena was originally a manga with story by Be-Papas and art by Chiho Saito that ran in Shogakugan's Ciao magazine from 1996 to 1997. It has been licensed Stateside by Viz Media, and the final volume, which covers the movie, was released on December 3rd, 2007.

Revolutionary Girl Utena has two anime incarnations. One is the original TV show, which is made of 39 total episodes, and was produced by JC Staff (famous for their work on Honey and Clover and Potemayo), and directed by read more

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Aug 21, 2011

39 of 39 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

kekekeKaj (All reviews)

252 people found this review helpful

First things first - "Revolutionary Girl Utena" (I'll just call it "Utena" for the sake of brevity from here on) is a weird anime. And I mean *really* weird. The surreal settings, the plethora of symbolisms that constantly assault the viewer, the sexual innuendos... the whole show is so bizarre that it's hard to know where to begin the review.

I'd heard a lot about "Utena" beforehand. Some say it's the shoujo version of "Neon Genesis Evangelion"; others say that Oscar from "Rose of Versailles" is Utena's spiritual grandmother; and many people consider it to be one of the greatest masterpieces in anime. Having seen it, read more

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Feb 7, 2008

39 of 39 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

Twickers (All reviews)

114 people found this review helpful

---The review contains spoilers---

It's been about five years now since I first saw this anime and still it's my definite favorite. I wasn't that interested at first, because it sounded rather pathetic with a bunch of people having secret meetings to duel each other over some girl. But I gave it a chance and watched the first four episodes, which ended with the first of a two part episode. Not really nice and the question "what happens next" haunted me quite some time and I was relieved when I got the DVD with episode five. I was satisfied afterwards and just didn't have enough time for the rest of it. But a few months later a friend of mine bought DVDs 1-7 (8 wasn't out yet) and so we sat there, three people, a weekend with nothing to do and we watched. 35 episodes in a row and there was no question, wether we should have done anything else. The last month waiting for the grande finally was emotionally painful.

The story may seem pretty strange (in fact it is), but everything falls in it's place and the driving force are the brilliant characters and their relationships. There is love, friendship, loyalty, adoration, obsession, disgust, hate and anything in between. If you like character driven drama, than this show is for you!

The series can be divided into four arcs and each lets us explore the whole cast in a different light. Everybody has issues and these issues are reflected on most everybody else. It's interesting to explore the goals of the duelists, who want the power of the Rose Bride, to revolutonize the world - even by the end you can't be sure what this phrase really stands for. A revolution means drastic changes in a short frame of time and in a way, these changes already start with Utena arriving. She sets things in motion in a world, where everybody seems to have a very definite place.

Symbolism is pretty high in here and even some of the corny comedy filler (usually revolving around a girl named Nanami) reveal pretty dark motives. Nobody is what he or she seems to be at first. Still the story by itself gets an 8, because the basis of all that's happening is pretty thin and you have to wait before the greater plan is revealed. But the characters get the full 10, since they are what it's all about. My favorite character still is Arisugawa Juri, to me, she's an alternate version of Utena herself. Both are strong and independent, but where Utena reaches for high goals, Juri has sunken into bitterness. But everybody gets defining moments thanks to the duels and with those duels comes another great strength - the soundtrack. The opening is pretty catchy, there are two ending songs I'd rather skip, the BGM sets the mood from easy going over dramatic to depths of terror, but the outstanding part are the 21 duel songs. J.A. Seazer composed a piece for every of these encounters and they not even set the tone of the action, if you have the time to look up the lyrics you found yourself drowning in yet more metaphors.

The animation is rather good, it can stand up to Magic Knight Rayearth and Slayers, which came out roughly around the same time. Even though there are lots of re-used scenes and images (Utena's walk to the dueling plattform is the counterpart to a Sailor Senshi transformation, yet more dramatic), the carefully placed colors and the great mimic expressions totally make up for it.

The entertainment factor is pretty high. I enjoy rewatching some of the comedy episodes occassionally or you can just watch the bunch of episodes that revolve around your favorite character. Of course rewatching the whole show is the best way to explore the world of the Ohtori Academy and after seeing the shocking finale it's refreshing to go back to the light hearted start again. I never expected the tragedy that unfolds from episode 34 ("The Rose Signet") onward. It takes a very dark turn.

If you plan to watch this, be prepared for all the characters you slowly start to hold dear been emotionally torn apart. Maybe all the roses and bishounen might scare you off at first, but you need the contrast of such a "noble" setting to embrace the twist and turns.

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