Revolutionary Girl Utena Episode 29 Discussion

angelfire892 said:
I really need to know what Anthy needs to tell Utena and who Anthy loves! Agh! This is so frustrating! Must find out what is going on!

(I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this post to get as long as it is. Just ignore me, if you want. I'm just rambling on about chairs...)

If I'm not mistaken, the chair symbolism is a way of showing who loves who throughout that episode. Shiori's chair (the top right chair) faces Ruka's chair, (the bottom chair,) which faces Juri's chair (the top left chair,) which faces Shiori's chair.

At the beginning of the episode, we see Shiori's chair facing Ruka's chair, but Ruka's chair is facing away from hers. Later we see Juri sitting in her chair. She continues to look in Shiori's direction even as she tells Utena that she it's between Shiori and Ruka, and that she won't get involved. She finally looks away from Shiori's chair as she says, "I have no right to," meaning that the only reason why she isn't getting involved is because she feels that she feels as though has no right to. She walks away from her own chair as Utena asks if that's how she really feels, she is turning her back to her true feelings.

Later, we see Ruka sitting in his own chair. He faces Juri as she tells him to take Shiori back, but turns away from Shiori's chair as thinks over her request. He hands up and begins to walk in the direction opposite to Shiori's chair as he says mean things about Shiori. After Juri attacks him, he pins her to the wall. The interesting thing is that when the camera angle goes to a higher level, we see that Ruka is forcing her against the wall so that he is facing his chair, and not Shiori's.

During the duel with Juri and Utena, we see Shiori, sitting in her chair looking sadly at Ruka's chair. (I'm going to go ahead and add a disclaiming on this next part, because I'm not 100% certain that I'm right about this.) You'll notice that the way Shiori is sitting is identical to the way that Juri is sitting the commonly seen picture where Shiori stole that boy from Juri.

"Juri, she's a fool. She doesn't realize that you get miracles only by standing off the sacrifices of others. Yet miracles only come to people like her! Don't you find that unfair, Juri?!"

To be honest, I can't help but think that that line relates to Juri as well, what with the identicle way that they are sitting. If I'm correct, then "Believe in miracles" means to believe that her love will be received. Juri does not believe in miracles, but she yearns for them. In other words, she does not believe that her feelings will ever be returned, but she yearns for them to be. Her goal to obtain miracles means to have her loved be returned, and whenever miracles are discussed that is what it means. It is the "miracle of love."

So, what does Ruka mean? Think of it this way, each chair is facing away from one other. As long as each chair faces away from each other, none of their wishes have come true. However, if two chairs were to face each other, then someone among them would still be left out. It applies for the picture that it shows of Juri, Shiori, and that nameless boy as well. Shiori's love was returned by that boy, and so Juri was left out. Someone had to be sacrificed. In a way, Shiori was preventing it from being herself. She thought that Juri and that boy would face each other, leaving her alone in that chair that she sits in the first time we see her, but instead it was Juri.

It could also mean that someone's feelings towards another person must be sacrificed. That boy loved Juri, but instead Shiori made him look in her direction. Now, however, he says that she doesn't realize that her feelings are standing off the sacrifices of others. She doesn't realize that Ruka would have to sacrifice his feelings for Juri to be with her. Juri is like that to, in the sense that she disregards Ruka's own feelings for Shiori, even if it was to help her. They're all like this, actually.

When Juri's locket is shattered, the three of them gasp, including Shiori from her chair. In the next scene, we see Juri sitting in her chair as she says, "It will be alright, huh?" Now Shiori's chair is facing her own... I really do wonder why the broken locket caused her to face Juri's direction...

After Juri hears what the shadow girls have to say, the three chairs are shown once again. The episode ends with Shiori's chairs facing Juri's, which faces the direction of Ruka's chair, which is no longer there... I was very upset the first time I realized what this meant.

Carrottop11 said:


Nope Sadly Ruka did die. It's implied from the small dialogue between the shadow girls in the clinic hallway. You can still speak to /refer to a dead person you know.