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Reply to Etceteral
tl;dr: Confused after finishing the series? Don't worry, everyone was :) Now, go back and watch the first four episodes again, knowing what you know now.
Kind of like in The Usual Suspects, literally everything in almost every scene changes once you know what's really been going on: Akio and Anthy have been playing a game of chess, with each manipulating the naive Utena, not to mention everyone else, from the very beginning.
On the silly Nanami episodes: Anthy was a witch, and witches have familiars (Chu Chu) and are good with animals. After the harassment that Anthy gets from Nanami in episode 3, it should make a lot more sense why it looks like Anthy is having a blast during the whole scene at Utena and Anthy's dorm in episode 4 (and onward).
It should come as no surprise that almost everything in the series is happening because Anthy, Akio, and/or ChuChu have caused something to happen, or caused someone else to do something to cause something to happen.
Actually, here's a great litmus test for catching what was going on:
Did you fully track the movements of banana that Nanami slipped on in episode 31? Go check it. It's at 08:20 in on the episode. Watch carefully, then think about how carefully Akio and Anthy planned out those events in order to introduce the two of them, then to get her to move in, then let her idea of their "healthy" sibling relationship get traumatized, and then eventually duel Utena in ep 32.
In many ways, Anthy is actually the protagonist the whole time. At some point early on (either at the end of ep 2, by the duel in ep 5, or during ep 12), Anthy decides to start taking matters into her own hands. It's up to you to decide when/how Anthy strikes out on her own, and when/how Utena's own influence changes Anthy's desire.
Finally, think of Mikage in the Black Rose Saga was a sort of foreshadowing of the stakes for Utena's success or failure. By her own standard, Utena seems to have failed... But by having affecting Anthy so much, she elicited Anthy's freedom. Utena wasn't herself a "revolutionary girl" in the sense of *being a Prince* (she failed at the end), but she did in fact cause a Revolution to occur.
Kind of like in The Usual Suspects, literally everything in almost every scene changes once you know what's really been going on: Akio and Anthy have been playing a game of chess, with each manipulating the naive Utena, not to mention everyone else, from the very beginning.
On the silly Nanami episodes: Anthy was a witch, and witches have familiars (Chu Chu) and are good with animals. After the harassment that Anthy gets from Nanami in episode 3, it should make a lot more sense why it looks like Anthy is having a blast during the whole scene at Utena and Anthy's dorm in episode 4 (and onward).
It should come as no surprise that almost everything in the series is happening because Anthy, Akio, and/or ChuChu have caused something to happen, or caused someone else to do something to cause something to happen.
Actually, here's a great litmus test for catching what was going on:
Did you fully track the movements of banana that Nanami slipped on in episode 31? Go check it. It's at 08:20 in on the episode. Watch carefully, then think about how carefully Akio and Anthy planned out those events in order to introduce the two of them, then to get her to move in, then let her idea of their "healthy" sibling relationship get traumatized, and then eventually duel Utena in ep 32.
In many ways, Anthy is actually the protagonist the whole time. At some point early on (either at the end of ep 2, by the duel in ep 5, or during ep 12), Anthy decides to start taking matters into her own hands. It's up to you to decide when/how Anthy strikes out on her own, and when/how Utena's own influence changes Anthy's desire.
Finally, think of Mikage in the Black Rose Saga was a sort of foreshadowing of the stakes for Utena's success or failure. By her own standard, Utena seems to have failed... But by having affecting Anthy so much, she elicited Anthy's freedom. Utena wasn't herself a "revolutionary girl" in the sense of *being a Prince* (she failed at the end), but she did in fact cause a Revolution to occur.
| @Etceteral Cool post, this anime feel like it has so many details you would miss on a first watch |
| I'm not very fond of open endings so at first I was frustrated, but reading all the interpretations made me reflect on that and realize that, well, this ending being so different from what I expected doesn't mean it's bad. Funnily enough, it also made me realize that I actually got most of the symbolisms correctly, and the only thing that was truly bothering me was the lack of a true closure for Utena's character which I guess is actually the point ? After all, she's always stood out to me as a subversion of the classic protagonist with a savior complex as she never truly understood what was going on, constantly ignored warnings from other characters but also from the very situation, kept ignoring all the times characters were calling her out even when they were right for doing so, and overall just came off for a long time as a character who was simply being used as a tool without realizing it while the rest of the cast was getting more and more developed. Her ending just showcases it : she tried to be a prince without understanding what it truly meant, forcing herself into a role she never understood, thinking she had to be a certain way for specific reasons without being able to move on the way the other characters did... And at the end of the day, she failed because of that, but this doesn't mean this is truly the end for her : simply, maybe this whole time, she needed to be "saved" as well and now she can let Anthy "save" her. Plus, que didn't even truly fail : simply, instead of literally saving Anthy, her actions guided her into deciding to stand up for herself and become her own person. That's a very unexpected way of handling a main character but it's actually pretty fascinating. As for the rest, it was a great show ! I didn't find any arc to be bad and I don't think I disliked any episode, even if I initially didn't like the Nanami episodes all that much her character grew so much on me I found myself thinking back on them a lot more fondly. And that's true for the rest of the cast as well, most of them had such a great development ! It was awesome to see them try, fail, and ultimately achieve to move on from their trauma, from those who hurt them, from the situation that was harming them, and ultimately from their past selves that were afraid of stepping out of the coffin. Akio was also a great antagonist, very complex and intriguing to the point I can't say I have fully understood his character, but that's part of why I'll most likely do a rewatch someday, I really want to understand everything I need to understand about his character. On top of that, the art direction was great and there were a lot of ideas I just loved, like the shadow figures or of course the "Stairs/Elevator" sequences. Overall it really was a great show that really knew how to use symbolisms and subvert expectations in a way that makes sense for the story and its themes, I can't say I'll do a rewatch right-away because that's still 39 episodes which is a lot but I'm really planning to in order to understand everything. After a bit of thinking, I feel like it'd be unfair to give it less than a 10/10, it was pretty amazing. |
FafetteMay 26, 3:11 PM
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