Revolutionary Girl Utena revolves around Utena Tenjou, a girl who dresses like a boy and dreams of becoming a prince when she grows up. The reason she wants to be a prince? Because she was so "impressed" by a Prince who had given her a Rose Crest ring and told her that they'd meet again in the future. Utena grows up attending Ohtori Academy, a very strange high-school where people fight for their ideals, and to achieve a rumored celestial something. Throughout the course of the story, Utena is forced into battles with the Duelists in order to claim the Rose Bride, which is said to be the key to becoming a prince and obtaining something eternal (celestial thing).
The entire series is divided into four separate story arcs. The first arc (Student Council Saga, episodes 1-13) focus primarily on character development, how Utena ended up having the oh so important Rose Bride (Anthy Himemiya), and the beginning of the mysteries lurking under the outline of the story. The second arc (Black Rose Saga, 13 - 24), more characters are introduced, the most important one being an 18 year old school psychologist who uses Black Rose Crest Rings to manipulative people. The third arc (Akio Ohtori Saga, 25-33) is the psychological trauma aspect of the show, where betrayals and truths are slowly unraveled. Promises are broken, friendships are severed. This is literally the Neon Genesis Evangelion-part of the story if you will. And the final arc is where the conflict, and entire point of the story escalates up to it's climax; and all the dark secrets are revealed.
Okay so this is a pretty tricky story to write a review for because it was just all over the place, and it's difficult to pinpoint the main storyline. Honestly though, this series was more of a live dramatic theater play than an anime story. Constantly the show is "telling" the story, "not being" one. You'll see what I mean by this when you watch the show. At the surface of the story, it'll seem like this is just another magic-school-tournament story with repetitive fight scenes, but oh no. That's just incorrect to it's maximum incorrect level. Although it may not seem like it at first, once you finish it, you'll realize how deep the story is, and how much of an impact it'll have on your psychological understanding of the world/human nature. The beginnings of each episode constantly make no sense. They jump from this scene to that scene, without explaining what happens in between until later. But as the story progresses, the writers did a fabulous job connecting each minor detail with each other to form a "bigger-picture"-plot. All in all a great story.
The character development was genius. One of the many things I loved about this anime was it's amazing cast of characters and the way they were used to portray a specific theme/archetype. In each arc, different characters were focused upon which really created a bond of understanding between the audience and the characters. Many others begin as stereotypes but flourish into complex beings during their respective character arcs. The most important character next to Utena would be the comic relief, Nanami whose capriciousness heads deep into slapstick terrain but stops just short of overbearing. Her theatrics represent her superficial behavior with substantial intentions. Other important characters include the male antagonists (for most part), Touga, Saionji, and Akio, who through callous psychological and emotional bullying almost cease to be human and become more and more like symbols of human vice. If they are not slapping their female cohorts into submission, they are coldly seducing them for their own gratification. They blend in quite remarkably with Utena’s melodrama/characterization. But moving on...
Utena’s an interesting character for a variety of reasons, but it all starts with the basics. As a little girl, she lost faith in the world when tragedies unfolded before her. Was there truly a divine being that watched over us? If so, then why is tehre suffering? Shortly later, a prince comes along and and gives her conviction, gifting her a [symbolic] ring and promising that they’d meet again, just so long as she doesn't lose her bravery and nobility. (Sound like a common fairy tale yet?) So captivated by the prince, she decides to become a prince but is that really a good idea? So goes the fairy tale the show comes back to time and again. Though the words remain the same, the message never does – in a show obsessed with performance and perception, the meaning of words can shift even as their base nature remains consistent. Words like “prince,” the traditional storybook male savior, a word that ultimately comes to signify both less and more than its stated definition. From the beginning, Utena’s desire to be a “prince” points to the serious bone this show has to pick with traditional gender roles. Even the show’s ornate style contributes to this effect – the flowery framing that’s typically a hallmark of “female-oriented” manga and anime is here used to convey traditionally “masculine” power, such as the seductive power of a potential male prince, or Utena herself. Utena is consistently cast in “masculine” terms, from her chosen form of dress, to her adoring female fans, to her athletic prowess and skill as a swordsman. However, to Utena, all these choices are a perfectly legitimate expression of self. In fact, whenever anyone expresses surprise about Utena acting like a “traditional” girl and “performing” girl, Utena responds with a defiant “but I am a girl” – to her, her standard behavior and representation is a completely valid expression of “girl.” Which all points back to the show’s obsession with spectators and performance – in the context of a show that emphasizes how much we all “perform” our personalities, the arbitrary, “performed” nature of gender roles is that much more apparent. Basically others insist on calling out her ‘weaker’ girlish facets to humble her but in the process deny the possibility that she is an inseparable compound of both. Her battle of identity (becoming what others wish vs remaining true to oneself) eventually becomes more salient and more interesting to follow than her duels.
Okay so the story is good and all, and the characters were all masterfully developed, and are all perfectly created characters. But they're not the highlight of the show, nor are they the reason why I like this show to the extent where I'm a fanboy. The greatest part of Shoujo Kakumei Utena is it's constant ambiguity (themes). The show presents to the audience countless numbers of psychological conceptions, societal values, human nature, through use of motifs/symbolism. Seriously, the amount of symbolism is overwhelming, and it's not like a "all up in your face symbolism" like Neon Genesis Evangelion, but it's subtle which makes it all the more impressive. Themes of Nobility and Strength. Gender Roles. Eternity of Youth. Freedom/World Revolution. Corruption of Power/Human Nature. Forbidden Desires. The series also focuses on sex, although it doesn't use any explicit imagery. Incest becomes a major theme, and the series explores it from numerous perspectives; loss of innocence (sexual and otherwise) also becomes very important. At its core, though, Utena follows the story of a friendship-turned-romance between two girls who never expected it; director Ikuhara has even said that the love between the two is the most important thing of all. I won't get into detail about each concept though because it'll be much better experiencing it for yourself than reading about it.
The art and sound are both magnificent in this series, although they aren't exactly the best. The art I think the show tried to use "old" art a little too extremely to make the show seem more "classic"-like (which it is btw). But I did really love all the portrayals of symbolism/art paintings, the beautiful castles/backgrounds, fancy uniforms, and each character's design, especially Utenas. Soundwise, this show is very well voice-acted, and the soundtrack is probably one of the best orchestrated I've ever heard. Seriously though, this show had probably the most appropriate voice actors - characters connection I've ever seen. Furthermore, the music fits the atmosphere well, and the songs they play during the duels added quite the "epic" feeling. There were those church-like chorus soundtracks that created a mysterious and sinister tone when necessary. Openings weren't great and all that memorable, but they certainly weren't bad; I will admit that I skipped the opening after like episode 7, but that's because I was crazy about watching more of the great show. All in all, I liked both the art and sound; somewhat high quality.
Stop wasting your time now, and go watch this series, it's one that you should definitely watch~
