Shoujo Kakumei Utena

In probably what was some of the longest 48 episodes I've ever had to endure in anime (asides from shonen junk), Utena is absolutely frustrating.

Now, let me just share my experience with this supposed "legendary" show.

I usually avoid analysis vids/posts at all costs, before, during, or even after first-time watches, just because I feel as if even the most abstract and symbolic works should be interpreted on your own.

With Lain, I rewatched it 3 times just to really get a grasp on what it all boiled down to, and even after those, I never really fully grasped the show.

But I STILL never ... looked at any sort of "theory" or analysis because I felt that my experience with Lain was worth it.

With NGE, hell even EoE, I've never looked at any interpretation other than some lore vids just to get a more whole understanding of the physical world of Earth post Second Impact.

And again, that's because even if I never really fully understood NGE and EoE, I've always felt like the experience was worth it (and in EoE's case, goddamn life-changing).

With any kind of abstract or opaque symbolic work, from Lynch's Twin Peaks: The Return to Tarkovsky's Mirror to Kubrick's 2001, Lanthimos' Lobster, etc, etc, etc, I've always seen a sort of anti-intellectualism with seeking out other's opinions and analyses, because it takes away the personal experience of you evaluating the art one on one, intimately.

Yet, despite that long, adamant history of mine, for the first time I felt COMPELLED to look for answers with Utena. Look for meanings. Look for reasons.

Meanings and reasons to what?

A meaning and reason as to why Utena is so fucking goddamn boring, that's what.

Because unlike any other high-rated, praised, and overall "prestigous" anime I've experienced, Revolutionary Girl Utena never failed to make me want to fall asleep or slowly make a rhythm with my head against a wall (both of which I've done during my first time watch, several times).

I just. Couldn't understand.

Yes, the music is absolutely on point. Yes, the art is gorgeous. Yes, the animation is pretty much timeless.

But everything ELSE that matters to me, is absolutely flat.

My main frustration is that even if it's flat, there are COUNTLESS articles, blogs, comments, videos online that try to dismiss that aforementioned flatness as intentional.

"It's supposed to be like a stageplay!"

"It's repetitive on purpose!"

"Characters represent certain ideals that tie into the symbolism that's everywhere!"

And so on and so forth, so I stuck with the show.

I stuck with the 49 episodes, waiting for the show to turn around and slap me in the face with a "Congrats fucker! You've passed the pleb filter, enjoy this elite anime made for anime elites!" and not ONCE did that congratulations come.

The gorgeous art QUICKLY lost its charm due to the recycled formula, the similarly recycled "duel of the week" framework for the main three arcs rarely (if ever) grew out of its mounting monotony, the characters continued to be bland one-dimensional mouthpieces that only very occasionally have interesting arcs/traits/development, the symbolism never pays off further than the initial visual shock and a few shocking plot twists that, ultimately, don't do much to really affect the main outcomes/revelations in the final 5-6 episodes.

It's flat.

Even its visual fucking composition and art direction (which, again, I understand because there's this sort of voyeuristic flair throughout the entire series, an obvious filter to further accentuate its stage play panache) never pays off; even after "understanding" what it's there for, its purpose in the overall symbolism, it's flat.

The funniest and most bitterly ironic thing to me is that apparently, Kunihiko Ikuhara is a BIG David Lynch fan.

Indeed, there are plenty elements and straight-up sequences pasted in as homage (the highway scenes with Akio are most blatantly inspired by Lynch's Lost Highway, right down to the music featured in each respective sequence), but the biggest difference in Utena and the intense visceral abstractions of Lynch's extensive is this:

emotion.

When I said flat, the thing that fell flat for me the MOST was Utena's characters and emotional core, which, in my eyes, are so interlaced that they're hard to pry apart and judge as singular attributes.

Throughout every analysis, every thing I scooped just to see if it'll give a better understanding and appreciation of the work, most if not all of them speak of each character's relevance in the overarching "themes". They are all plot/theme-driven slaves, and, with very, very few exceptions, most characters never gave a sense of pay-off, even in the end.

What's funny to me is that most of the emotional core and resonance I got was from the Black Rose arc, what's considered to be the "filler".

You can be as opaque as you want, as abstract as you want, as symbolic as you want, but for Christ's sake, there needs to be emotion. Even in fucking SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN, I latched on pretty goddamn quick to the characters, their conflicts, their inherent well-being.

And even WITHOUT those characters, most of my love for that quick yet profound cerebral mindfuck is due to its inimitable atmosphere, painted with the textures and eerie depth of its visual style.

Even now, as I wrap up this salty, frustrated stream of consciousness write-up, I want to get it, I want to understand the appeal. It's not that I don't "get it". Trust me, I do. I respect everything Utena wants to convey, hell I love it.

I fucking love yuri, denial of gender roles, deconstructions of old tropes and utilizing their husks as vehicles for more abstract/deep storytelling, visually-stunning and unique artstyles. This show seems to have EVERYTHING I could have wanted, and even with all of it, it falls flat because I can't for the life of me find its beating heart; it's just a beautiful cadaver to me.

I can't help but walk away feeling extremely disappointed, and feel as if I've wasted a lot of effort and time.

It frustrates me that I cannot appreciate this show as much as everyone else does, because I see the inherent quality and exactly what it's trying to do. The artstyle is sumptuous, the score is impeccable, there are legitimate moments that are wholly arresting.

But as a whole?

It just doesn't work.

I had high hopes for this Anime at the beginning because of the high global score, but I was quickly disappointed.

Story: There is very little story. There is an event which you are told about in the first episode and remains through the whole 39 episodes, but after the show ends it's still unclear. There are other mysteries which never develop at all and are never explained.

Art: Art was very poor, specially the characters are poorly drawn with girls who sometimes look like guys.

Sound: The music was actually pretty good. It has several songs which switch every few episodes.

Character: Character development was really bad. They ... barely changed at all through the entire series, besides some sudden and totally unbelievable complete change for no clear reason, just to be the same again the next episode.

Enjoyment: Some of the girls were nice so I enjoyed when an episode was about them. Also the fillers were somewhat ok.

Revolutionary Girl Utena was an anime that, when looking for yuri animes to watch, constantly came up in lists high-ranked, or even as a number one on the list. So, on a particularly bad evening when my spirits were low, I decided to marathon this anime in hopes that it would make me feel better.

As for if it did... I'm going to give a resounding "no."

(I'll try to keep spoilers as vague as I can, however, it's somewhat difficult to do so.)

I hear this anime praised for being "inspirational for young lesbians," when in reality I feel as if this anime serves to make pedophilia ... and incest look erotic and occasionally tease the audience with "sinful" shots of girls half naked and nearly kissing. If "exploring" your sexuality is being manipulated by your siblings into having some kind of twisted attraction towards them or being manipulated by an authority figure at your school into having a relationship with them and watching them get away with it with no conflict, I do not want any part of it.

Not only is its execution in what many others call "a heartfelt story for young girls questioning their orientation" abyssal, its pacing is absolutely awful. The arcs are incredibly repetitive and formulaic with reused animation and predictable outcomes to boot. Only one of the battles surprised me, but whatever damage was caused by it was quickly reversed in an episode after. I had to constantly skip chunks of episode because it was the same sequence over, and over, and over, and over again. They would use the same intro, cute at first, repetitively, to the point of where I started mocking it under my breath. The concepts were interesting up until they were reused 10 times for every irrelevant character in the cast. An arc of roughly 12 episodes finished with the entire cast being completely unaffected by the completion of it, with characters that apparently never mattered in the context of the story. There are numerous filler episodes centered around an unlikable, bratty high school girl, who manipulates an elementary schooler to date her, and constantly fawns over her ass of a brother, cemented with unfunny comic relief. Eventually it got to the point where every time I saw an episode with it centered around her I skipped it, not only due to the episodes being unfunny and unenjoyable, but they also brought the already snail's-pace plot to a grinding halt. There was very little comic relief that wasn't "random" humor, and even that can be executed well, which this anime did not do at all.

Maybe it's because I'm not one for symbolism, but it seems as if the "genius" symbolism everyone boasts this anime having was completely lost on me. In between being annoyed at nothing really exciting happening with the plot and wanting it to hurry up and get to the good parts already, and disgusted with the way the female characters are treated in this anime, I found this anime's attempts at symbolism jarring and confusing. Rather than seeming profound, they served as another piece to further blur the lines between if this anime was cemented in reality or some kind of separate, backwards world (a setting I usually enjoy) and make me more frustrated as to what I was actually watching. What the hell are any of these people saying, anyways? Revolution? WHAT revolution? Just give me some damn concrete explanation for all this wibbly-wobbly symbolic nonsense, because right now it just feels like a girl is battling people for no reason other than some apocalypse to not happen and a girl she doesn't even seem particularly interested in.

Speaking of characters, all of the characters in this anime either felt like wasted potential, uncomfortably inhuman, or ones I downright loathed to see on-screen. Utena was enjoyable to watch at first, but her motives and feelings slowly become confusing to understand, and her interactions with Himemiya range from showing no care for her at all and wanting to die for her, and it does not seem to progress in a logical way...unless I missed something? Perhaps it was due to the anime's jarring pacing in which Utena was shoved off to the side for 9 episodes in a row where we watched a bunch of characters that would end up having very little plot relevance at the end, which had potential for interesting character arcs if they weren't chopped up in the most awkward way possible. Himemiya is ...supposed to be emotionless? I guess. She's a very strange character to watch and I didn't like her characterization. Her motives were incredibly strange and the way this show writes manipulation and such feels very poorly executed and confusing to watch. A lot of the characters have incredibly confusing, unrealistic reactions to the events of the story and acted in ways I found awkward and detached. Juri was the only character I ended up really enjoying near the end, and her character arc feels hard to judge because I feel somewhat biased about it. I won't spoil any of it, but it felt very much unresolved, just like the rest of the cast of this anime. No surprise there.

Minor things... The artstyle is very pretty and I enjoy the character design and the general aesthetic of this anime. Again, the scenes that I felt should have been disturbing were strangely erotic at times.... and it made me incredibly uncomfortable. Other than that, the anime was pretty alright at setting tones when it wanted, but the way they finally executed what they wanted, it had taken far too long to get to the point and the end product did not live up to the way they had hyped it up. The music was...eh. Alright. It all seemed to blend together for me except for the first ED, which I absolutely adore despite my feelings about this anime.

I won't spoil the end, but it was incredibly disappointing.

***SPOILERS***

(Also, a minor gripe, but why are all the dark skinned characters evil or manipulated to be evil..or something... somehow? I feel like that's kinda gross.)

***SPOILERS***

Overall.... Revolutionary Girl Utena is an anime that was advertised to me as being "profound," and in my opinion was an anime that constantly teased me but left me high and dry. Maybe it's because I'm watching it in 2017 and not 1997. Maybe it's because I don't much enjoy symbolism and find it kind of obnoxious. Maybe I'm just being way too critical. Maybe it's just not my kind of anime. All I can say is, I had high hopes for it that were completely dashed, and finishing the anime made me feel.. betrayed?

That seems a bit dramatic, but then again, the entirety of Utena was overly dramatic, so it seems fair to judge it as such.

Revolutionary Girl Utena is a thinking anime at its core. Director and original creator Kunihiko Ikuhara (worked on Sailor Moon) makes excellent imagery and allegory ridden anime to say the least, and has great prior experience in the shoujo genre. Working with the fairly new studio of J.C. Staff (Slayers), Utena would basically become a major starting point for both the director and studio. J.C. Staff still creates well received and popular anime today as well as Ikuhara.

The story of Utena on the outside is very basic. Our main character and tom-boy Utena, met a prince and bestowed her a ring with a rose symbol ... on it. Utena then vows to become a prince herself which sets herself up for the trials years later. In the school she attends, Utena gets involved with duels over winning a woman called the rose bride, and he who has the rose bride will receive power. On the inside of the story are filled with illusions, sexuality, identity themes to name a few with a blending of countless imagery, metaphors, and complex ideology creating a very complex story overall.

The animation is top notch and music hits all of the right keys. However, if it were not for the crazy deep story that could easily go over a casual fans head, Utena as an entertaining anime falls very short. One can’t help but feel that this anime is geared more towards an ultra-specific group of fans. All imagery and hidden meanings are not too complex most times where with a little thought makes the viewer go ‘ah-ha’ and gets the message. Although, even with this, the anime suffers from the terrible re-hashing and repeat fights much that Sailor Moon suffered from, one such anime Ikuhara previously worked with.

The first 13 episodes is the introduction, followed by Utena dueling each person on the student council for the rose bride. Yes, the audience follows along and learns more about each characters personality and motivations, but most is revealed in the first few episodes or could have been much more condensed. Basically, Utena’s biggest flaw isn’t the intelligence factor but the entertainment factor. It is simply a boring over-the-top metaphor ridden anime with legendary pacing issues.

Much like what happened with Sailor Moon, most of the anime is skippable unless the viewer wants to experience every imagery and metaphor Revolutionary Girl Utena has to offer.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I was disappointed to watch a decadent show, not the great Feminist Fantasy that Writing and Fighting for Love and Justice claims as is. Aside from how repetitive and formulaic the story is, I found myself actually feeling Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy alongside my mother by the end of the show because most of the characters were either unpleasant or miserable without subtlety.

While I did like Juri and Wakaba, it didn't change the fact that I found none of the characters particularly relatable and that the show felt decadent much unlike the following works, all of which deal ... with The End of the World as We Know It, genocide, and/or the loss of loved ones. In fact, I found Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario, Scar from Fullmetal Alchemist, Anton Herzen from Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and Sigma from Tweeny Witches far more sympathetic than the boring Damsel in Distress Anthy had always been. I only continued to watch until the very end because I wanted to see Akio, who had made me angry to death, face poetic justice. The Grand Finale left me unsatisfied because I didn't get to see him subjected to a Fate Worse than Death where he loses all of his wealth, gets his beauty tarnished, can no longer speak forever, is run over by his own Cool Car, and gets a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by the Swords of Hate, the World's Strongest Woman, and the angry parents of his victims.

While I love Feminist Fantasy works like Moribito, The Beast Player, Princess Knight, and Tweeny Witches, I don't think that the show lived up to its fame as one of these because it seemed to believe that Real Women Don't Wear Dresses. Anthy is the weak one in a dress in contrast to Utena, a knight in a modified boy's uniform. Whenever Utena becomes feminine, someone weakens her by manipulating her into conforming to gender norms. Enforcing gender norms is bad in itself, of course, but Princess Knight and Brave show that a girl can be both feminine and strong. But when Utena asks Anthy about femininity, Anthy replies, "In the end, all girls are like the Rose Bride" — an Extreme Doormat Stepford Smiler Damsel in Distress who stands around looking pretty and obeying her master. No other character I've ever seen was that pathetic, not even traditionally feminine ones like Queen Elinor from Brave and Atelia from Tweeny Witches.

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/review_comments.php?id=18441

I'm sure many people have very passionate feelings for a show like this but mine are apathetic at best. There was a lot of anticipation and promise for the show from me. Much of it was from reviews and the misleading descriptions I've read. Regardless of how much I like Utena there was only a few other characters that made any sense at all and Anthy wasn't one of them. She had no personality or emotions and I couldn't see why anyone would care for her. Considering how big a part she has in the show its even worse. Also the motivations of the ... duelists were kind of boring and vague. Mix in the incessant repetition of nonsense dialogue, the unexplained origin of the power of Dios, and the silly and pointless background jokes, such as Mickey's stop watch or a baseball game going on behind the student council, you get a show that doesn't have enough direction to keep me interested. If that wasn't enough a few creepy relationships leave an uncomfortable feeling behind. Whether its the story, characters, or the nonsense this show didn't satisfy me at all and I can't recommend it to anyone.

Watched all 39 episodes with my boyfriend as we ate dinner. Neither of us cared for it. I was especially frustrated by all the loose plot. I feel like it was trying to evoke emotion but having almost no substance. Sure, I could dig deep and try to find every single instance of how events or objects are metaphors, but the overarching story doesn't come to any kind of meaningful conclusion and leaves so much stuff unanswered that it baffles me how well received this anime is.

As my scores indicate, it had a strong art style and I dig the music a lot. There's much ... to be said for that, it kept the experience from being a total letdown. Otherwise, from characters to story... it leaves so much to be desired. I don't want to get into spoilers but things get introduced and then dropped, never explained, or go nowhere.

As for the characters, absolutely everyone is horny on main all the time and we almost never see them do anything but talk about who they like or finding someone. It makes characters incredibly shallow and unbelievable when you give them nothing to do except pine over others. Like you can have a character like that, but it can't be every single character. There are perhaps two characters, but when the cast is an ensemble of almost a dozen it's a real problem when no one is personable in the slightest. There was not a single character I really cared about and I actually sort of wished Nanami would die at some point.

One of the biggest wastes of time I ever endeavored in. It's not without merit but this anime is way, way overrated.

I'm 10.5 episodes in and I don't understand the high praise for this anime. It seems to be going for style over substance without much explanation of anything. The viewing experience is much like a trip to the dentist - you just want it to be over.

Why is Utena so good with a sword? Why did she enroll at hoity-toity bitch slap academy? Why is this mouse wearing a tie and eating all the GD food? Seriously, why is the mouse even here? Who cares who wins the "rose bride" - why is this important? When is someone going to drag brother-loving Nanami into a ... dark hallway and administer the savage beating she so desperately needs? Who the hell is "End of the world?" Can we please get on with it? Ten episodes in and it's been nothing but bickering and people slapping each other.

This is really a day-time soap opera set in the 18th century (that somehow has electricity and automobiles.) All the characters are women or effeminate men and ALL of them are stupid. I guess this is "defying gender norms?" I'd rather watch Princess Nine if I want to see the girls beat the guys... and at least those characters were likeable. This has literally bored the sh*t out of me and I'm dropping it like a hot turd on a cold winter day. Thud.

Story:
It's made in a way you will get confused all the way through. The plot seems like this huge divine scheme and so, you expect for more and hold your breath at the possibilities. That was the beginning and I felt like I was in for a ride, though the big impact never came. Major stories go unexplained or not explained all the all through. The plot held a potencial of storytelling and it could have been worked on better. Nevertheless, one thing I really enjoyed was the constant interaction with the surroundings. It created an environment where the interactions seemed this much more connected ... and they all had meaning.

Art and sound:
It's presented a fine combination of sounds and views, they are well put together to emerge you in the scene. Like good, unique soundtracks, every time they come back it will bring the same feeling that attaches your attention to the show.

Character:
Honestly, did not see a lot of development here. Sure, some views are changed when presented with facts, but their reactions seem a bit off in this department, especially when dealt with heavy subjects that were just brushed aside. Also, there was - kind of - narrators, they will address the moment in such a humorous way I grew a little fond of them.

Enjoyment:
Most of it is due to humor or what I wanted to believe was made to be funny. Because there no other reason for some events, at some points it was just repetitive. It gets to a point the story is trying to develop and the loop is still going. I wasn't near the end when I wanted to get it all over with. Personally, I got very upset towards the ending. And so, it wouldn't please me to rewatch it anytime in the future.

Remember when Kunihiko Ikuhara used to produced anime and superheroics masterpieces through his work with the Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon franchise? apparently, as it happened with his friend Hideaki Anno from the second half of Evangelion on, after that period ended the guy was kidnapped by a pretentious alien hipster making a cosplay of his who could not make a decently engaging anime even if paid hard money, being this or his following works. Because this series is NOT a masterpiece nor engaging, all the contrary it's a total repetitious borefest with fugly animation that can't lick the soles of the R movie, S and ... SuperS even if the themes behind the lines are the same ones the director expressed there, meaning the feminist critique of the cold male logic etc. etc. etc., with one single but decisive difference: in Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon the message was complementary to the entertainment, here the message is the center of everything and the writing absolutely sucks in all regards. The writing, the asinine characters, the world, everything in facts sucks. Oh and congratulation for the recap at EPISODE THREE, that was really needed. It took 49 episodes of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon to get a recap, here you have it respectively at episode three and thirteen. A complete waste in all regards (especially of Seiyuu talent) and a sore disappointment from a director I expected better, but after watching the rest of his production I sincerely lost all hopes of him returning to the excellent quality of his first work. The only thing I thank this snoozefest of epic proportions is because of the catchy intro song that made me discover an excellent artist in the form of Masami Okui, but nothing else. Check the music of that woman and don't bother with this series in the first place, it's not worth it ESPECIALLY if you liked Ikuhara's previous work, of which the quality can't be denied even if Sailor Stars was a bit better IMHO.