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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- It was nice to see what Utena saw as a little girl and learn more about Anthy and the prince. |
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| Wow this anime just got a lot more complex than I originally thought it was |
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| I was so hoping they would show us what really happened. I am so happy this episode exists. |
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| So Anthy is the witch and her brother is the Rose Prince? |
| Nice to see how it all began |
| TIME TO LIVE FOREVER BABY! http://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=19549 Please join if you love Asian Cinema :) |
| That cleared some things up. It was adorable and creepy at the same time |
| 頭脳は子供、見た目は大人！ ƪ(˘⌣˘)ʃ |
| Great episode is great. This really put things in perspective. I guess that means that Akio is Dios? Unless Dios was talking about Akio when he mentioned the End of the World. |
| "Yes, I have been deprived of emotion. But not completely. Whoever did it, botched the job." - Geralt of Rivia |
| OMG. This show is freaking epic. What we know is: 1 - There was a time when Dios was a prince, and was his duty to save girls from something we don't know yet by fighting and putting his life on risk. 2 - Anthy, his sister was afraid of losing him and jealous of the other girls (maybe because she loves him incestuously), so, she locked him up in a house and the parents of the girls got angry and killed her and put her in some eternal suffering state of no-dying. 3 - Dios could not "save" her, because he was her brother and didn't wanted to practice incest, so Utena decided to become her prince to save her. 4 - Akio and Dios are not the same in a way, but the same in other way. 5 - Anthy was the one forcing Akio to sleep with her, and not the other way around. There are still many questions to be answered. My current theory: The Ohtory Academy is a illusion created by Anthy with her powers, that's why nobody get's old there and everything is so surrealistic. And Akio is the body of Dios with other person consciousness on it, or something like that. So, she can have sex with her brother's body. She also locked her brother soul on the floating castle, waiting to be ressurected, by joining with Akio's body. She created the dueling system for this purpose, but I don't know how one thing leads to the other yet. Maybe it was created to make Utena grow her powers to the point when she can sacrifice her to save Dios. But more likely, nothing of this will happen and I will be surprised with the ending anyways. And sorry for my bad english |
| all this while it was the little sister with no friends... |
| One of my favorite episodes so far. Not really sure what to make of it though and what light it sheds on the rest of the series. I wonder if the rose bride that Dios showed her (which is supposed to represent something eternal) was not actually Anthy, but Utena just dreamed it was her. While that is possible, it's probably more likely that this is what happened, as I feel the show wants to give us her background story now. But man is this a tough one to figure out, I can't make heads or tails of it, I guess I gotta just keep watching. |
| okay, this episode just changed the whole purpose of Utena.. as well as it cleared up the misunderstandings i had through the entire series.. unless there's more to it in the remaining episodes guess it's going to at least have an interesting end instead of a typical one.. still sad though that they made Utena seem like an easy girl despite the memory she has right now of wanting to meet her prince.. |
tag©.androgynous  |
| So many magic based revelations.. it's quite disappointing. While one would usually think he was light for only some, or everyone as far as Anthy saw things, it seems he was literally supposed to keep girls' important dreams alive through miracles that change the world for someone. The witch is eternally tormented for stealing eternal happiness, and the prince is eternal because he is sealed in the castle where eternity dwells. The castle's eternal nature is probably supposed to be clinging to hope it can return and the prince exists as a concept that can bring light to some, but because he can't bring it to everyone, in the end he can't bring it to anyone. The witch's only reason to stop any new prince is because she can't accept others being happy, even if it's not directly related to Dios now. I wonder which one the revolution will be. Either it happened once already when the light was sealed away, or completely sealing the light for good is the true revolution. |
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| Brilliant, it took some great talent to make a beautiful episode like this... So Akio really is Utena's Prince, but now, instead of being a prince, he is the end of the world? And Utena took his role as a prince to save Anthy from her eternal agony? hmm... |
| wow...just wow...so glad the plot is actually focusing on Utena's story now...up until now the show has seemed to focus on the student council members (especially Nanami...) but now the plot is really starting to pick up...brilliant episode...hoping for a brilliant ending... |
| This helped to understand some things a little better... but even then, this anime is a little complex lol |
| I really enjoyed all of the background information given in this episode via the shadow play and Utena's dream/flashback. I had wondered when they would get around to showing her first meeting with the Prince and it was handled very well - although it did play out rather differently than I had expected. Still, while this did shed some light on the events of the series it leaves me very curious as to how this will all play out. |
| I am officially confused. I thought the Dios died, that's why he always descends from the skies to help Utena. But Dios is Akio? |
| Even when I was in crowd, I was always alone |
| From what I gather, Akio is Dios, in some or another. Perhaps he's only a piece of Dios that Anthy keeps near her? If this is true, he got corrupted somehow - Dios even made the End of the World connection. Getting some backstory was great, but I think my favorite part was seeing the shadow girls as students. :D |
| A lot of awesome development in this episode! ...But I'm not going to assume anything because we still have a couple episodes left that could turn everything upside down. (Much like the castle ;) ) |
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| Wow; what an episode! Everything that didn't make sense; everything the series has been foreshadowing now comes into focus. The Power of Dios indeed; Utena has been pushed by a devil (Akio) and empowered by a god (Dios) to what end; I still cannot say, but I have faith that Utena can save Anthy. |
BdiahJan 19, 2015 7:39 PM
Kinryn said: haha this!Getting some backstory was great, but I think my favorite part was seeing the shadow girls as students. :D |
| Great episode. My favourite so far. Everything has cleared up for the final few episodes and I especially loved how the back-story was revealed through the play. |
| Well, the big mystery is about to be solved. A lot of stuff was happening in this episode. Pretty good. That ending freaked me out, Anthy is so creepy |
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| "Want to make it a threesome?" LOL Anyways this just got extremely dark and epic. Kind of gives me Madoka Magica feels with the whole witches and stuff. |
hancatJan 22, 2015 5:03 PM
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| Damnnn We were shown in a previous episode that Utena was depressed and had no will to live after the death of her parents. How did she regain her desire to keep living? By witnessing how Anthy was suffering much more than herself. That was the eternal thing Utena saw. It wasn't the prince that Utena has been living for; it was Anthy all along. |
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| very good episode. so my guess earlier that Utena is Anthy's prince was correct (I think?) when she mentioned it one night. so Anthy isn't necessarily evil, she just wanted to protect her brother by sealing him away or something? still confused about how Akio is the prince and yet he's so creepy |
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| Finally Dios enters the story, hope he can help Utena, not sure if it's Akio or Anthy that's the bad guy, I dont believe Akio is the prince at all, but we'll see. |
| Seems like Dios is a separate persona from Akio. Great episode. |
| Now we're going places! 5/5 |
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MaxVdub said: Bdiah said: Wow; what an episode! Everything that didn't make sense; everything the series has been foreshadowing now comes into focus. The Power of Dios indeed; Utena has been pushed by a devil (Akio) and empowered by a god (Dios) two what end; I still cannot say, but I have faith that Utena can save Anthy. huh. that's an interesting way of looking at it. akio does seem to be p evil compared to the prince we saw in the flashback who seemed to be a jesus-like figure. even the name "dios" suggests deity. actually, akio even said he was named after lucifer. is his "good" half sealed away in that castle? what about anthy? she doesn't seem to be in any kind of eternal agony when she's with utena. true, she DOES seem to get slapped around more than most, but that's a far cry from what we saw in the flashback. is anthy also split in two the way dios is? edit: come to think of it, a lot of the girls seemed to hate her because she was taking their prince away, just like the townspeople. that's precisely why she was the target of so much abuse. interesting! also, is she evil or good or just selfish for sealing dios away? she saw that if he kept going that he was going to die. so was it really wrong to try and save him? another thing, all the incestuous themes in the show now make sense as it's clear the central relationship of the show is a quasi-incestuous one. it's also telling that the incestuous feelings shown earlier were from a little sister to her older brother, and weren't mutual. someone earlier suggested that it was in fact anthy making akio make love to her, which would fit this model. also, this is probably a stretch but touga's hair is red, miki's hair is blue, blue + red = purple, the color of anthy's hair. touga and miki are, obviously, the desired older brothers. weird show, but i'm FINALLY starting to get some neon genesis evangelion vibes from it. i kind of wish they would've made it shorter and not wasted so much time in getting to the good stuff, because if i'm being perfectly honest with myself i was kind of bored with some of the earlier episodes. i'm not sure if i could justify recommending this show to someone else at this point. although ive heard the manga is better/more concise. Huh, I really didn't get that incest vibe here tbh. I felt that Anthy just was trying to save her prince (who may or may not be her brother) from destroying himself by helping others. I think that the townspeople's outrage is supposed to be irrational, maybe to show the foolishness of completely relying on a prince figure? All those parents and their children weren't doing anything to help themselves, it seemed like they were 100% dependent on the prince (in the shadow play, it shows the "Rose Prince" saving girls from actual monsters, and a small mundane thing) Obviously I can't make a final statement, but the message I was getting from this was that relying too much on a single savior figure, completely, specifically a prince figure is not a good idea. Anthy was trying to save The Rose Prince, who seemed too kind for his own good, and sacrificed herself before the enraged crowd. I reaaaaally don't think Anthy's forcing herself on Akio, considering the heavy implications that he was raping her, (her hesitance, him grabbing her, her expressions) it seems like it is indeed Akio being the aggressor. I get the feeling Akio is the one keeping her stuck in her eternal punishment maybe? Either way, I just want Utena to save Anthy from her prison, which seems to be just as much a mental as a physical one. |
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| Another great episode, we finally know the real reason why Utena wanted to become a prince. I'm still a bit confused over the whole Akio/Dios issue. |
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| Yet another episode that didn't increase the story but so much, but I liked it a lot more because it at least gave us a lot of backstory that like a lot of commenters I thought it might leave deliberately vague. The answers we got were pretty confusing and strange though. As expected and had actually previously been confirmed Akio was once Dios. Anthy became The Rose Bride after being sentenced to a horrible fate trying to save her brother from spending all of his life energy helping local girls/princesses. Utena saw Anthy in her miserable predicament and this is what inspired her to make her pledge to become a Prince. To me there are still questions. What was Dios doing to all of these girls? Was it actually positive/necessary? And above all when will Utena finally remember what we learn in this episode? I really liked the inclusion of the real life (in the universe of the series) Shadow Players in this episode. They are one of my favorite parts of a show I love a lot of things about, and it was nice that they were in focus in this episode after being conspicuously absent last time. It was an interesting meta set up that they approach Utena to join their club with free tickets to one of their shows. And I got a chuckle that we still got an aside with them even after the fact and they were amusingly celebrating the performance. I think these past two episodes which have slowed the pace down slightly, while still having some exciting revelations have been necessary to the buildup of the big finale. Still I'm eager to see the series get it in gear, and at the risk of seeming pettily critical I'm impatient for Utena to finally remember/realize just what's been going on. |
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| Wow plot movement! Only took 34 episodes. Fed with an eye dropper. But all the motivation is in place. Let's see where it takes us. |
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| That imagery shown of Anthy being pinned like that for eternal suffering... that was pretty chilling. And damn, finally becomes clear why Utena wanted to become a Prince... |
 Just this once, I'll fulfill whatever your wish is. |
| So, Dios literally was the light of the world who saved everyone and made all the girls princesses. The people became overly dependent upon him and heavily overworked him to the brink of death, at which point his sister intervened to save his life. The people "killed" her and placed her in a state of eternal suffering as a result. Meanwhile... Dios actually did become sealed away? This is the part the flashback didn't back clear. Dios wasn't actually sealed when Anthy was speared... So somehow his spirit/soul was acually sealed away and his body became what is now End of the World, Akio, and Anthy is left with nothing but torment in both states. Utena encountered the spirit of Dios somehow, who told her the story and gave her a means of reversing the situation. This still leaves a lot of major questions. After thinking about it more, here are my theories: 1. Utena existence appears to be separate from that of Dios and Anthy. That is, although the world she inhabited as a child had already fallen into darkness, it was still the real world. Although the question of how Anthy is existing in two different states simultaneously arises (and I'll address it more explicitly further down), I don't believe Anthy's problem is one that can be solved internally, by her own mind. She would have to be saved by an external force, necessitating that Utena's world is the real world. 2. I think what was sealed away in order to keep Anthy alive was part of Dios's and Anthy's wills, which is what led to the current perversions of their personalities. Nearly the entirety of Anthy's will was sealed away, leaving her in the near-empty state she exists in now, and all of Dios's morals and most of his power was sealed away, which is why he as he exists in the castle seems to hate End of the World. That could be completely wrong, and I'm still not sure what End of the World's true motives are even if it is, but that's the gist I got from this episode. Also, are we going to pretend the rape didn't happen? I know Akio referenced it, but if this show is going to pretend that there aren't any adverse psychological effects that would have then I'm still going to be mad over it. |
| Whoa... xD the shadow puppets came out of the shadows... Hoooolllly coooowwwwww....I was NOT expecting that!!! Usually they would give us bits of information along the way but this time they dumped a whole lot of new (and not so new) stuff and wow... Was shocked to see Dios and Anthy appear as children and seeing the past that they shared... A lot to take in. I still miss the first ending which had more meaning to the story than the one we currently have. |
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| I'm still not sure how we're supposed to feel about Anthy with all this new information. Is she evil/tormenting Dios, or is she a bride worth saving? Should Utena be with Akio or Anthy? Gee, so many questions... |
| "No, son, you may not have your body pillow at the dinner table!" |
| It was time Utena's past was unwraped. This show is getting pretty good, the best thing is that I'm understanding more and more things. This series' name should be Anthy's Martyrdom because I've never seen such a misfortuned character, not even Shinji from Evangelion or Nagisa from Clannad, but I really like her as a character because of that. |
| Around the gif~ "It's a big mistake to think you're the only one who can turn into a car" - Shiori Takatsuki |
| I just have some questions right now. I mean i grasped what was to be grasped but still what is the true nature of Dios and Anthy? Does Anthy, like, is she aware of who she is? What her backstory is? I am moved by the entire story, i am. |
 SEIZON SENRYAKU: Hungry 100% of the time.Vzla-IT |
| The reveal this episode hit me hard. I already enjoyed the episodic bits, but the plot has gotten so interesting that it became really great. |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
| That was brilliant. What else is there to say? I can't even guess what the conclusion of this series is gonna be like. |
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| That Godzilla reference in the shadow play |
| Oh. NOW I SEE. Happy to find out Utena's and Anthy's story. Now, what's with breaking the world's shell? |
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| Glad to finally get so much focusing on the "original" plot of Utena and the prince. The pacing before really bothered me but now it seems more focussed. |
| "This emotion is mine alone. It is for Madoka alone." - Homura or how I would descripe Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. |
| the way im desperately reading through this thread to make sure i understand everything- |
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