Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Is it possible to stay noble forever? From birth onward, reality batters at purity: those who wish to fly are pinned down by gravity; those who wish for harmony are lied to in a world filled with hateful war; and those who wish for love are perhaps given it, only to be broken by death or betrayal.

Sometimes the pain is so great, that the victim begins to fear never-ending misery inflicted by a disappointing world - one all to lacking in miracles. This fear becomes a barrier between the victim and the world. The mere thought of intimate connections triggers very strong anxiety, resulting ... in either total seclusion or a public, yet detached and empty existence.

Utena tries to be chivalrous. With that one notable exception, there is not a character in Revolutionary Girl Utena who has remained noble. Even more depressing, every single one of them continues getting injected with trivial, jealous rage. The plot of almost every single episode concerns one mentally unbalanced person following irrational negative emotions, courtesy of one very specific being’s machinations. Whoever receives the spotlight is consumed by an idea only tangentially related to their tragedy, convinced that breaking a poor girl’s spirit will make things better.

Once a fight, once an episode, someone asks for the power to revolutionize the world. As embittered as they are at the sad world, they are humans who will always try to find hope. Remembering the shattered dreams, a search begins for a strength which may be able to make a miracle; and, if a miracle can happen, then purity too can be reclaimed. It must be noted that the revolution is not for the sake of others, but instead born from a need to have the world exist as each duelist wishes they could see it.

It is possible that we the viewers are also watching a different world than the characters. No one says that Anthy has wonderful purple hair, or comments on unrealistic, noodle-like body proportions. When Utena sees Miki, perhaps she sees a regular boy, without the deep blue hair to remind viewers that he is calm, passive, and feminine. What Utena does see are faceless peers who flock from one newly introduced male to another. These drones exist to show that the men have something, and the series typically goes on to display the new man’s trademark talents. Despite that, every one of them cannot forget the things they wish for. Repetitive plots are fuelled dozens of times by this disregard for what is, and desire for what cannot be.

As a spotlight character’s motivations reach climax, they fight Utena in a sword duel, aiming to cut a flower off her chest. Each arc/season has only one duel choreographed, the only difference being the duelists involved. That detail matters little, however, as the typical fight is recycled stock footage of Utena striking poses and dealing the same finishing move, over and over. Luckily, the reused content is both fluid and interesting; and curiously, each fight has a unique song complete with thematically-relevant lyrics. The composer should be commended for not only surpassing expectations, but doing so in the face of such lazy animators.

Lacking the funds to animate fights may be understandable, considering the immense love put into backgrounds. Of course one could ask why writers would create so many fights without the money or time to draw them, but that is irrelevant at this point. Ohtori Academy’s architecture clearly received the bulk of attention. Complex, detailed wall patterns, sprawling arches and tall pillars pervade the exterior, evoking a sense of wonder. Inside, like so many things in RGE, we find a bland school filled with rows and rows of identical lockers, classes and desks. It is only after unexpected exploration that Utena finds, and we see, the hidden depths. These secret places conceal a power that can change the world. Whether that is good or bad depends on the world wanted to be seen.

The beauty of Utena is not the way it is presented, but the force with which it connects. Viewing it can be described as exploring the insides of a clock. The device toils away, going through expected motions in an expected manner, with a faint click heard before. As the cover is removed, stubborn gears continue turning the same way. When the pieces are separated, the clock all but destroyed, the first thing that springs to mind is how tedious the whole ordeal is. Still, by the time reconstruction begins, an understanding of how marvelous an invention and elegant a solution the clock is begins to develop.

Of course, the inner workings of a device are only interesting to those who liked it to begin with. In Utena’s case, the device is a magical teenage girl and her misadventures. I have remarkably little interest in the genre, so all the trappings left a bad taste. For those who find anything to love about RGE’s inspirations, and barring the hyper-formulaic plot, I imagine this is the best it will get.

Shoujo Kakumei Utena is a difficult beast to review. On one hand, it has one of the more interesting and heart-wretching plots in an anime I've watched ; on another hand, it sure takes its own sweet time reaching the good parts. Let's dive in, shall we?

The major problem I had with this anime is its pacing. The first episode set up this incredible tale of action and drama with a lingering mystery as to Utena's backstory and the identities of her prince, the mysterious End of The World character and the Rose Bride as well as their relationships with one another. However subsequent episodes ... instead stopped this focus on the main characters and instead introduce and shifted the focus onto the side characters and their arcs, which are also split in between several other filler episodes. While I did enjoy Juri's and Nanami's story arcs, they weren't enough to redeem the boredom and mediocrity of the other character arcs (Wakaba, that kid whose name I forgot, Miki and etc etc). Since none of these side characters play a huge role in the overall story between Utena, Anthy and Akio, the pacing is very messy. Basically, the pacing grinds to a complete halt after the beginning of a new story arc for the filler side character stories to take the spotlight, only to accelerate completely once the show remembers Utena is the main character of the series. It makes watching the series difficult and keeping track of the story becomes a chore.

The series can get very formulaic, especially for the episodes that do not focus completely on Utena. Side character, let's call him José , has problem, José angsts, José consults untrustworthy person, José challenges Utena to a duel for some reason (occasionally they don't have one), Utena kicks their ass with the power of stock footage, José get better until the next José-focused arc. It's a chore to grind through these episodes, especially if you don't particularly like the side character currently under the spotlight. Honestly, the series would have benefited greatly if it trimmed out all the fat and just focused solely on the Utena episodes with maybe a few episodes introducing the side characters and giving them some development.

As I said previously, not all the characters are engaging as they are. Juri and Nanami are standouts for me thanks to the character development they went through, and most of the student council is fairly likable, and Akio is fabulous as all hell, but I couldn't care less for the plight Utena and Anthy went through. While a good deal of this comes from the schizophrenic structure of the series, Utena herself isn't an engaging character to begin with, and her character development isn't anything to write about. Anthy is a bit better as she constantly has a mysterious aura around her, but the payoff comes so late into the plot, and the fact that she's a complete doormat failed to garner even the slightest bit of interest in her.

Shoujo Kakumei Utena does a few things right though, and while I may seem like I hate the series, I actually like several moments from the series. The Shadow Girls were an excellent addition to the series, providing some nice breaks in the episodes and giving a nice plot synopsis for the times I slept through the episodes. The animation is brilliant, mixing familiar real-world elements with abstract, surreal imagery, and the male characters are absolutely fabulous.

Is Utena worth watching? It all depends on your tolerance for filler episodes. Otherwise, watch the first and last episodes of each story arc (1,9,12,14,22,23,25,32, and 34 onwards).

5/10

Story: 7
Art: 3
Sound: 9
Character: 5
Enjoyment: 2


I must preface this review by saying that there is indeed a lot of depth to this anime. It is rich with symbolism and rife in philosophical and psychological intonations. I can completely relate woth anyone who enjoys Utena. However, that does not negate the fact that it is random, repetetive, repetetive, monotonous (lol :p) and painful to keep watching.

The story begins randomly with no clear explanation as to why highschool students are running around trying to bash each other with swords, and continues to introduce plot twists such as these which are never adequately explained -- even as the ... series ends.

What does the show mean by "the cracking of the world's shell"? How does the Rose Bride enable people to bring forth a revolution? Is such a revolution metaphorical? And what the freak is up with all of the references to watches, metronomes and time? Is that supposed to symbolise the passing of years as we grow up? Questions such as this remain largely unanswered throughout the entire series -- a fact that frustrated me immensely.

Anyway, I will give the story some credit. The characters show a lot of depth and were masterfully constructed, even if they never changed as the story progressed. Ninety percent of the time I could really feel what the characters were feeling and connect with each individuals' past. The other ten percent of the time I was left wondering how the hell this could ever wind up happening in real life.

At some points the character interactions were somewhat unbelievable and unrealistic. For just one example, refer to the episode where one character turned into a cow after wearing a Dior cow bell for a day or two day. I don't think they ever really explained that one. Maybe it was meant to symbolise how superficiality will turn you into a cow-like glutton? Or maybe it was just completely random, like the rest of the series.

I actually did a google search on what the references to time in the anime actually mean, by the way. It would seem that even the anime's director doesn't know, because he keeps giving different answers every time someone asks him in an interview. Maybe they don't mean anything? Maybe this entire show means nothing except what you choose to interpret from its absurdity? Wow... existentialism, much?

But the major problem with the story I had was not its utter randomness at points, but instead, the fact that certain things kept repeating themselves over and over and over and over and over and over again. I almost died! There was one part where the same fight scene repeated itself four times over several episodes.

Seriously. The music was the same, the conclusion of the fight was identical, the means through which the fight began was the same. And it was boring me to tears! If the music (that was repeating itself every fight scene) weren't so good then I probably would have considered dropping this anime and watching a new one.

Despite its inherent faults this anime did strike a nerve with me at several points. It eloquently and beautifully displayed the pain, the anguish, the joy and the angst that comes with teenage years. Over all, if you can ignore the problems, then Utena is an anime that is mildly heart-warming to watch and leaves you with something to think over during its conclusion.

Overall: 6

It's certainly iconic. Everything sticks to you and it's awesome at points, but I can't help but feel that it does not live up to the expectations created by others' impression.
Its directing and music make for a spectacle that lasts for the duration of the show, with memorable characters and locations. But this style of directing can make some episodes hard to understand, so I don't think absolutely everyone should watch the show.
At the end of the series, I felt like I still didn't know the characters despite spending 39 episodes with them, and thanks to the close to surrealist storytelling, I couldn't understand the ... story properly, despite there being a episode specifically for exposition.
It's definitely worth a watch, but keep your expectations in check. Have fun and enjoy the ride.

I have searched for an appealing part of this anime and came up empty handed. The main idea is not too flawed. Utena is a girl that meant a prince at some point in her life, and it convinced her not to be a princess but a prince. Okay she is given a ring and told the ring will lead her to the prince. Simple enough until you start watching. She sees a girl being mistreated (really a guy is beating a girl in school and no one stops to think what the hell?) and she tries to save her getting herself entwined in the ... student councils duels. Which as at the point I stopped watching was not really explained.

Questions like what exactly is the 'rose princess/bride'? Why is there a castle hanging over this supposed arena located somewhere in the school that only the student council knows of? What is the end of the world? Who is the prince? What exactly do the rings represent? How do they manage to keep a huge castle hidden from the school on school property? Had not been answered 1/3rd way into the anime.

The story is mediocre and repetitive. Someone comes with a reason they want the rose bride, they fight and Utena defeats them they waste time on things like like reason why the person want the rose bride and their dreams. Hint at other things and then repeat.

The art is pretty bad but it was the 90's. I especially dislike their ridiculously long legs with disproportional short skirts. really? But the art is not my greatest worry if it was the only problem I wold be excited.

The sound is ... wow don't know the word to use. I was unable to listen to any of the songs completely. The songs didn't fit the mood to me.

The Characters are the key-est element for me in every story. This was the greatest flaw here. The rose bride was emotionless and could have been replaced by a doll, or a robot and the story would be the same. She just did what she was told. The only people that act like that are people with broken spirits and if you spirit is broken and when you are in despair. I am assuming the image they are going for is not of a brutally tortured young girl that is tossed back and forth by the other characters with no dreams of escaping. Is it? Utena is too noble, I don't like ridiculously noble characters. Personally if a random stranger ever tries to help me with anything at all without something in return I get suspicious. The school girls are a waste of space. They just seem to be screaming at any 'hot' person that passes by and these includes Utena only friend Wakaba Shinohara. The anime tried to give body to the characters on the student council but they can still be describe in a single phrase.

The key things that turned me of was the characters; the repeated slapping of people (I have been to many countries and met many people there is no where that people slap others that much and the people are all fine with it); The shadows in the middle for no reason; and the horrible sound.

But I can see how it would appeal to some people the characters are unique, the concept is unique, there is gender bender, there is a female protagonist in a classic male role, there is some comedy. So you can try and see if you enjoy it but i didn't.


BTW These are just my fairly biased thoughts on the anime.

If you have seen „Mawaru Penguindrum“ or Ikuhara Kunihikos latest work: “Yuri Kuma”, you are well aware of the artistic presentations this director puts into his shows. “Revolutionary Girl Utena” is one of his earliest works and it has very similar styles of execution to it and it is by far more enjoyable to watch than his later works.

What makes Utena(for short) more enjoyable is that he didn’t rely on sexservice to get the attention to his shows, so you can enjoy Utenas artsistic style fully without any interference like in Penguindrum or in Yuri Kuma. But when you look beyond that the show ... reveals all the issues it has with its story.

Story wise it’s very simple. You got a bunch of characters, who, a few, even got depth to them, which makes them well written and likebale, who do the same stuff over and over again. It may sound boring, but it was actually pretty nice for the first 25 episodes, but without any progress in the story departure it’s quite hard to get a viewer to 39 episodes. And this show really can’t do it.
Like I said: All you need to know about the story for the first 37 episodes was presented in the first few, after that it’s the same thing over and over again, just with different characters. The execution, from artstyle,
soundtrack, the way the dialog between characters is hold, the location and what they say is very artistic and unique which makes it enjoyable, even if it is the same thing all over again. Also, like I said before, you are getting presented with lots of new characters all the time. But after around 25 epiosdes or so, you just sit next to the screen and hope that something is changing. It’s funny how the show can present nearly every “enemy” character so likeable and great on depth so that this character becomes more interesting than the main protagonist.

Also: This anime is full of symbolism like Ikuhara Kunihikos other works are as well. If you enjoy trying to interpret stuff on your own and form wild theories about the happening in a story, you will probably enjoy this one. I rather tend to not do such things the first time I watch an anime, I rather focus on the story and try to explain everything that is seen in terms of the story itself. But after you finished it Utena becomes a very nice material for self-interpretation.

The characters of the show are very nice. You start off with the main protagonist (the girl on the cover) being a strong female character, which I can imagine being a good role model for female viewers. She is really a relatable source at the start since she got in all this mysterious story aspects, like the audience, and like the audience she has to find herself around all the mystery. They did a nice job at the start leading the audience into the story. But sadly at some point, where you just want to find out more about the world and all its characters, the main character is left behind, being either uninterested in what’s going on, or doesn’t know stuff the audience already knows, so comes around either naïve or plain uninformed. In the later episodes she can’t really be any relatable character to the audience and falls short to all the other characters, which the show has many good once.

Soundtrack is very nice. They got many nice tracks with classical instruments and even pulled of songs where they sang in Japanese which I could endure (I dislike j-pop a lot). Artstyle has some nice backgroundshots, it may look a bit old, but this got a charm to it. Animation is quite normal for an anime. A lot of limited animation standing scenes and a few better (compared to the standing scenes) animated action scenes.

Overall I would say that Revolutionary Girl Utena is a show you should at least look a bit into it. You should have seen the way it is presented, even if you can’t endure the whole thing. Compared to Ikuhara Kunihikos other works “Mawaru Penguindrum” and “Yuri Kuma” who both have similar execution, this one is the only one I finished and that for a reason. Compared to the other this may not shined with a great story line, but it has a great set of characters (which the other 2 don’t) and has no fanservice included. It is a nice character story which becomes a bit boring till the end because its story, while introducing new character sadly only revolved around one thing, and that never changes and never progresses. That may not make it a close to perfect anime, but its enjoyable neither the less and overall ok.

I really don’t know much about what to say since the show really didn’t leave any impression on me, I really felt nothing while watching it. And it’s a viewing experience which I wouldn’t want to go through again, that being said there’s still some things about it which I like. Not like in the sense that “wow that’s an amazing aspect” rather something that I think was positive in relative to everything else. Utena’s last arc is easily the best part about it, it’s much more focused on what the show is trying to say about maturity, societal views, and about gender. I appreciate ... the dialogue more. And I kind of like the presentation and direction, as compared to everything else. There’s clearly more attention put to it. As for the characters Utena and Anthy are my favorite. Their relationship stands out in the last arc, and it’s a lot more built on. I like Utena and how she undergoes her growth as a character. And how Anthy is shown to be a trapped girl who finally decides to act freely.


The cast apart from Utena and Anthy aren’t it at all. I’ve never really cared for the likes of Touga and Saonji or Nanami, or Jury, or Mickey. Especially not Akio. And continuing on with the last arc. Akio isn’t that great. He works decent functionally in challenging Utena for her views and making her question stuff. But apart from that there’s nothing going on for him. I get he’s meant to be unlikeable, but as a character he’s pretty ehh. He doesn’t feel like a proper individual character in the show, more like a collective force of what society thinks. I think the final arc does a good job in showing how Anthy and Utena find themselves as who they are and how they progress. Also about both of them challenging their problems and maturing. I think the ending was alright, I won’t lie when I say I was a bit confused. But the ending felt very dissatisfying. But many of Utenas problems lie everything before the last arc.

Everything before episodes 33 felt as if they served no purpose. More than half of the episodes felt random. Not knowing what the show wanted to do, and a more messy segment which I did not appreciate at all. The show isn’t consistent at all in the slightest, like they don’t even add anything to the characters. There’s nothing about them which speaks about the themes of Utena like the last arc does, even the episodes which focus on Utena, are mostly about the duel battles to see who claims the rose bride. And that’s about it. It’s characters challenging Utena, they speak about how the rose bride is mine and that’s about it. The presentation is a lot worse in this segment. And it’s honestly not fun at all. It might seem hypocritical coming from me, since someone could argue how HxH has a similar situation where chimera ant is remarkably better than everything else, and while I do agree that chimera ant is tiers above everything else. Everything before still is building up to chimera.

Like it’s not episodes where complete randomness happens, like the curry spice or cowbell episodes which I’ll be honest have no value whatsoever. I could argue that Hunter exams, and heavens arena, and yorknew are really good in introducing HxH. Setting up everything for the show leading into chimera ant. Whereas utena has this awkward transition into the last arc and the writing suddenly improves remarkably. Without any consideration for everything before, like you know what I mean? Everything before the last arc of Utena serves almost no purpose to me other than the first episodes to introduce stuff. After that the show gives up, forgets about what the characters were meant to do, doesn’t representing anything for the said themes it’s trying to show. And bores you to death.

I had high hopes for this anime, but sadly I'm disappointed. I've always heard so much about how great and influential Utena is, however I don't think I can even finish it. With that said, I didn't hate it, I didn't label it as the scum of the earth, I'm just bored of it. The music is great, and I'm a sucker for old anime art, so that aspect was good for me too, but I just couldn't get into it. I'll probably finish it one day because I hate to leave something half done (just don't look at my on-hold anime pls, ... I swear I'm getting to them), but I know how it ends anyway. Was it unique? Very much so, but unique doesn't equal good. I love everything about it, except I just couldn't get into it. Something just wasn't sticking with me and I'm so tired of watching it. There weren't even enough cheesy clichés for me to love it because of them. Lots of anime are repetitive and predictable, that isn't my issue, Utena just didn't deliver in the entertainment department. Now, I'm terrible at writing reviews, as you've already thought to yourself by now, but I absolutely had to say something about this so-called "legend." I'm not sure if it's undeserving of that title because it has definitely left its mark, but I just didn't resonate with it. Sad, I was looking forward to psychological gay shit :(

Utena is a very stylistic but unfortunately also a very pretentious show while also having comic relief parts that destroy that and feel very out of place in the series.

It's a Sailor Moon kind of show in that it makes heavy use of high detail stock footage in every episode and tries to make up for that with fancy music to continue to hold the viewer's attention. There is also a monster of the week format but in this show all of the random enemies are characters who reoccur constantly who just become the enemy to fight for the episode. Unlike the disco music in ... Sailor Moon though this series has a bunch of weird pretentious kind of chanting songs (they sound like those typical Latin ones but except it's Japanese). And this show is so pretentious that when the name of it is showed it's always subtitled by a version of it in French (the show has nothing to do with anything French, that's just Japan's obsession of it to be the classiest place). Another Sailor Moon connection is that it was created by one of the Sailor Moon directors and like Sailor Moon it was an idea that an anime studio first came up with and then gave an author to create the story in a manga that the studio would later adapt.

Also some of the younger characters feel very out of place and ruin the seriousness of the story. The middle school boy (who I along with others thought was a high school girl at first) feels out of place on the student council, and the elementary boy who is the lapdog of one of the girls in the show also feels inappropriate to be shown in the series. I also think that elementary boy may be a self-insert for the director of the show since he had another character that looked like him for his self-insert in Sailor Moon.

I'm saying pretentious a lot but that's what the show is. And if you don't find things like Gendo talking about "opening the chamber of guf" and "terminal dogma" to be cool then you won't like this show at all, since all the main characters do is speak in riddles and it's another confusing kind of story like Evangelion where nothing about the plot is presented clearly.

There's lots of stylized aesthetic and dreamlike scenes but by the end they become too cartoony. I thought all the red cars appearing in the arena whenever there was a fight during the last arc to be boring compared to the visual motifs from before.

This isn't the kind of show I could enjoy watching again, which is my criteria for an anime to be a favorite for me but there are a few cool episodes that wouldn't be so bad to rewatch. My favorite ones were the enemies from the guy who would corrupt students with black rings and black roses to duel.

In my opinion, SKU isn't as good of a show as it's reputation makes it out to be. It has a LOT of weak spots.

The way the episodes seem to follow the exact same formula of introducing a new char, giving some back story and then following it with a battle really gets stale after the first 5 times . What hurts the story more is the fact that more than 80% of the introduced characters are unlikeable, shallow, or just do anything at all just to make others suffer for no real reason in particular.

I don't know if it's the time that ... held the romance back sooo incredibly much or if portraying some wlw just wasn't on their priority list. Because I can only recall 3 major scenes that stuck with me where at least Utena would try to show her love for Anthy, but she's never even expressed her love to be anything other than platonic (though its obviously implied to be just that even if she doesn't say it herself)

[↓this contains a minor spoiler, so skip this bit if u want]
For example, when she started falling in love with her f'ing fiances brother she only felt guilty for falling for someone whose not the prince she first met. (which minorly pissed me tf off. like, Utena.... even if the engagement wasn't arranged in a favourable way shes still your fking fiance)

ALSO if seeing abuse (physical or otherwise) is a turn off for you, this may not be the show for you, because I started getting uncomfortable with it just a few episodes in.
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Story: 6
i give it that rating because its usually so vague, the reason why any of the characters want to bring the world revolution is never really made concrete and it just seems like it could make any wish come true, no matter how silly. like i'm sure they could all find other ways to deal with their personal issues other than starting a freaking revolution. But it really isn't all that interesting tbh.

Sound & Art: 9
SO, the art may not be anything mind blowing but the aesthetic is absolutely gorgeous. I just couldn't stop myself from screenshotting almost everything. Both the art and music are striking, but the music's beautiful atmosphere really pulls me in. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with the op and the Apocalypse song at all.

Characters: 5
I didn't want to just give them a 3 because that's a bit harsh, but they really suck. Sure the existential crises were... something, but most of them just come off as having a really shitty selfish ideal with VERY little empathy for the people in their lives (the only exception is probably just the sad sword lesbian captain). You will keep thinking that you've found the peak trash character until the anime promptly shows you another and its just sad.

Enjoyment & overall: 6
The humor is still good at some points, but it's still never struck me as anything special. I understand why people would like this for nostalgia but I get the feeling that isn't the reason why most people like it... perhaps I just don't see it's charm but it's really weak in my eyes. I would have prefered if they incorporated each of the characters back story more naturally instead of so structured because it usually just left me a little bored.
If they cut out a chunk of the beginning all the way to episode 24 or further in, it would've felt less drawn out and actually get to the point of the story's plot.
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[lots of spoilers abt the end but mostly just me expressing my feels abt the show in general]
Im not being salty just to be salty, but I think I was mostly just disappointed because all the uncalled for abuse and unexpectedly hollow characters really put me out. I expected more of an emphasis on A and U's developing relationship but that wasn't very abundant. Though the ending really got me, it was really a point where things started to make sense and they started to (FINALLY) reach out and understand each other. Utena went from cold and not really giving a damn about Anthy to sacrificing herself for her (and I love how her ambition to be a prince was to save Anthy all along..! My heart is finally full :''')) I don't hate the series, in fact, I love it! with a generous dash of salt but I still love these troublesome chars (((and of course the real MVP of tormented lesbians is forever Jury)))


I will also admit it is worth seeing just to understand the RGU movie more because that is so much more impacting and the movie holds more emotional value than all 39 eps of this

Okay so take this review with a grain of salt because I didn’t completly finish this anime. I made it to episode 10 because the concept was interesting, the main character being more boyish and independent.

My main issue with this anime was the characters, I do have to give some credit with this anime being made in the 90’s but come on. So we overall Utena was kind of cool, but slowly became more weird about her feelings, losing her confidence for some guy. But that’s not the worst of it, Anthy, the supporting character was your typical docile girl. But for some reason the ... writers had a kink with slapping, and she was a main target. That’s one thing I didn’t like, she was treated so horribly and everyone literally ignored it. The last character I have beef with is nainama, whatever her name is. She was the most annoying, always attempting to physical/emotionally harm Utena due to her brother complex. Like she was actually kookoo (omg how do you spell coocoo?) and the other characters ignored it, Anthy would get slapped every episode and everyone was y’all see sumthin. Most of the characters are borderline crazy, showing some type of aggression towards Utena or Anthy for no reason, but aren’t really worth talking about.

This anime wasn’t my cup of tea, but I can kind of see the appeal. Also a note, there wasn’t much (Yuri)

I don't understand how this anime is rated so high. it's not that great of an anime.

maybe this is the deal with 90s anime in general, but the plot is repetitive and the characters are either uninteresting or annoying (looking at you, Nanami). there's not really any development

the next issue is the fight scenes. it's the same result every time and almost all of them were unnecessary. almost all of the opponents the protagonist faces don't hold a personal grudge against her and only want the reward for winning the duel

Positives:
the music and the animation studio

JC Staff did a great job animating. the music was ... great as well. the opening theme is enjoyable and catchy. the fight theme will get stuck in your head like an earworm. Zettai unmei mokushiroku! I didn't like the first ending theme, but highly enjoyed the second one.

the final episode was confusing and didn't make a whole lot of sense

ZETTAI UNMEI MOKUSHIROKU

I watched this anime with the "Utena is Evangelion for girls/shoujo" thought in mind because someone mentioned it on twitter and I later found out that there are considerable amount of people saying the same thing about Utena. Well, is it? I think it is, for me at least.

Is it good? In short, yes, it is good. BUT there are some things you should keep in mind if you're considering watching Utena because if these things bothers you more than it bothers me, you'll probably hate it. Hence why I put Mixed Feelings on this review.

The battle was quite good, Utena and the ... supporting characters were all interesting. Personally out of all the duelists, my favorite would be Juri and definitely not because of her entire character is driven by heart wrenching angst (definitely is). The music was INSANE by insane I meant I can guarantee you'll be singing the pre-battle sequence song. The last 10 episodes was oh my god I loved it and the ending felt worth it for me. The ending gave me the same feeling as NGE for me, if not, almost the same. This is VERY philosphical and you can find users on MAL disc. and YouTube pointing out the philosophical subtexts, allegories and all that. I myself, is interested in it, but I must say I'm not the brightest lmao so I had to see like two Utena video essay on YouTube to appreciate it even more.

All I can say about Utena (the good things) is that... *inhales copium* you need to kinda treat Utena like NGE. It's the type of shows that you don't need to understand the very technical and logical side of the plot and story, but rather just feel it. You don't see much endings like Utena and NGE in modern anime scene + you get to see classic shoujo style anime which is very cute!

Now that I got that out of the way, now for the part that made me finish this in like a month or so, which is considerably very slow.

Utena has this monsters (or rather, duelists) of the week formula repeated TWO TIMES... AND EACH ARC WAS LIKE 8 EPISODES-ISH (?) basically it was a chore for me to go through. It started right away from episode 1 all the way through like episode 8, and I thought, "Okay that was kind of a chore but it was necessary to show the depths and stories of each duelists, it's totally... fine". Then we got a recap with new contexts for us to understand, "Hell yeah! Finally new arc! Shits about to get serious!"

It did not get serious. Lmao

Right after the recaps (1-2 eps) we got a new whole arc with new characters (some are important) and... Another duelists of the week formula with different motives/villains. And hey, IT WILL REPEAT AGAIN ONCE AGAIN AFTER THAT ARC + RECAPS CONCLUDED. Finally after the third duelists of the week, you'll finally arrive at the final 10 episodes which were, again, insane. I'm gonna say this again that I ain't the brightest in philosophical subtexts and allegories, but people said that there are some philosophical shit that were important for the plot and shit that I... Didn't understand right away. Besides that, each time they start a new arc, they reused... No that's a bit too harsh... REHASHED... The pre-battle animation and song. The first time got me hyped af everytime (yes, every 8 episodes, I was hyped af it slapped), but the second and third arc... What ick-ed me the most was the song because... It's all the same song, but they simplified the drums like... WHERE THE ENERGY GONE TO?? (I'm a drummer I'm sorry I had to say this).

While going through those repetitive arcs, I couldn't help but think, "Is it the same like this in the manga...?" But assuming from what I saw from a anime filler information website, some are canon (?) So I suggest just... Go through it I guess and DO NOT SKIP RECAPS because shit went down on those recaps.

So, what I'm tryna say is that if you're willing to go through all that, then I recommend you to watch Utena and I can assure you the ending is WORTH IT. If not, then it'll be helluva chore for you.

But despite all those "necessary flaws", I still love Utena because in the end it still got rather summarised and pretty much even comprehensible for my monke brain. I think (again, this is my monke brain speaking) Utena is slightly more understandable than NGE...? BUT THAT'S ARGUABLE AND I UNDERSTAND IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE. I just wish that they'd make it more interesting and not just sprinkle foreshadowing context on repetitive duels.

Oh and I also have to warn you that Utena contains sexual abuse on minors, brother complex, incests, etc. so... Yeah.

Aaaand that's it, see ya' (in Charlie's voice).

Small spoiler in this Article. But not major spoiler

STORY:
Was pretty good the characters looked like very sex and the small monkey was cool. And awesome sword fighting was Unique. I like utena.. she is awesome and cute; to the extent in top 10. Im not love of lgbtq though so that take a lot of points (aproximately 8) from the show.but i like the sound of the monkey so its okay i guess. I like akio ootoori, hes so cool, so is the green hair guy. In my oppinon i think this remind me of steve universe which is a very awesome ... show. I think the fairy tale remind me of redo of healer and shield hero which adds back many points that it lose Overall

the story is nice but. Chinees. CRAFTMANSHIP:The art is ok they are sex; even despite even haveing hair very much like liberals. I like these old animes. The music they remind me of baptism, it is very good msuic...the characters also sound good and are good at japans language.

MY THOUGHTS AND SHOULD YOU WATCH
Some people say this show is lame to me to which i say. Shut up liberal. The show was fun i liked it, i watch it all in one night- THATS how good it was. The show is good even though they have weird ahir and Disappointing from have too much french fans services.
Overall if you like sword and shiping you will like. This show.very much, Recommended you may like this