Visual Storytelling: Breaking Down The Adolescence of Utena - Part 2
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ส.ค. 2024
- Talk on violence, drive, ascension and many, many roses.
What makes The Adolescence of Utena movie so great? Let's go scene by scene and think about it.
Sorry these get so slideshow-y. Fucking copyright law, man.
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Straight haired Utena's biggest flaw was that she was noble, but very stupid. She could be manipulated or manipulative very easely, and she would not notice because she holds up the idea of nobility without ever doubting it. Her almost never looking at Anthy in the duels is representative of that: she is so focused on righting the wrong, in punishing the abusers, that she does not see the one she wishes to protect.
Curly haired Utena's biggest flaw is that she is noble, but very insecure. She does things without believing in herself, without having the confidence to stand up in her own or standing up for others. Her not looking at Anthy here is representative of that: her ideals of what's right and not having the confidence to act on them make her look away in shame when she sees the one she wishes to protect being abused.
They both, eventually, realize that they are far greater than what everybody made them believe. Anthy does the same, too. One sad girl wishing for others to feel her pain, and who still longs for help at the same time; one sad girl wishing for nobody to feel her pain, and wishing to never be helped at all. Both stucked in their places, when they see how someone else's lives have been changed because of them, sudendly start moving forward, embracing the love they never believed to be worthy of.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is about discovering that you can't and won't allow yourself to be constricted by the limitations placed upon you by others.
Adolescence of Utena is about discovering that you can't and won't allow yourself to be constricted by the limitations placed upon you by yourself.
You make a good point about the difference between the show and the film. I think there's some serious evidence behind if not differing objectives than at least a refinement from the show to the film. I could use that take as a jumping-off point to talk about my own preferences in media and why I prefer the film, which I do kind of dance around in the final video.
Nobility, naivete, and Utena's flaw, I think, runs a bit deeper and I talk more about that in later episodes.
@@clearandsweet Oh, my, I certainly did not expect you to see my comment, given how the video is more than a year old!
I think that with Utena you have to see every iteration, even if they are completely different, to piece up what seems to be the whole story. The manga, while being my least favorite of them all, shows us a story of the drowning boy who saved the girl that recontextualizes all the others, how Utena ended up in the Academy and a bit of how the duels work. The series presents the biggest amount of information, but the movie still has some key pieces. I wondered during the entire series why did Touga chose to do the things he did, and what drove him to do them that way. The movie's answer would explain a lot of why Touga idealizes and resents adults at the same time. Can't explain why, but somehow that knowledge makes his character, specially in the coffin scene, acquire a different tone. Even if we take in mind that movie and series Touga are completely different, they still ad up. Same happens to everyone else, and that reflects the different versions of the story too: you need to know what they aren't to really understand what they are.
I want to read the Yuri and Miki novels for that reason, too. It's a shame they are only available in japanese.
Now, given how you read my comment, I want to tell you that I stumbled upon your content around two days ago, maybe even yesterday, and I really like your introspection. I've seen only three or four videos, but damn, your will to find and ponder every detail is astounding. I'll put the next in itallics: _I've only found out about your content a few hours ago and already respect the process in which you think._ The way you think and the time you take to do so is something difficult to both have and mantain.
So, I will be around here! My love for stories grants me a lot of things, and the desire to hear others analyze them is one of the brightest. I really enjoy your personal voice, you do know how to express yourself.
Saludos desde México, mi estimado claroydulce. Quiero escuchar lo que tienes por decir.
By the way, I also enjoy you briefly touching on Homura. Whether you wanted to or not, you just defined her entire arc and character. Homura is written to have the will and wish of a magical girl and fail miserably to be one. Her solution to ending the pain is to attack aggresively in order to destroy the menace, in order to live a happy life. Even she realizes that this approach is not going to lead her anywhere.
Madoka's solution to the menace is not to attack it, but rather destroy the pain that causes it. Her bow is a reflection of that: the most glorious "weapon" in the show is just a blooming flower, and it doesn't even shoot arrows, instead shooting light. She _has_ the will of an arrow, but hurting others in simply not an option. Madoka cares so much about the pain that she is willing to renounce her happy life to see a better world.
It's not a "I sacrifice myself because that's the only thing I can do", that's Homura's way of thinking. She believes that helping others is bound to your own personal mysery and sacrifice. Madoka, instead, believes that helping others does not require a sacrifice at all, and such is her strenght that in the must cosmic way she proclaims to her own dark self that she "will never have to suffer for anything".
That's why Madoka is the only one who breaks the cycle. That's why Homura has a bow of her own at the end. And that's why Rebellion is written worse that people believe it to be.
@@SirEriol Thank you so much for your kind words. I say it constantly but it really does mean the world to me when someone find some value in what I say or when it helps them figure out themselves or the media they engage with.
I've not read the manga! Perhaps I should, and I certainly do agree that, especially for something as deliberately obscure as Utena, it would be well worth engaging all the cannon content to find the overlaps.
I also quite like the idea of truthiness or revisionism, where the accuracy of history doesn't actually matter, only what the characters feel about it. Nobody does that type of thing better than Ikuhara, in purpose or in execution. It's all over Utena. I think accepting that is whyI didn't necessarily feel the need to dig for more behind the characters. I was able to understand and appreciate most of their motivations by how they feel about the past in the present. Well, for Utena and Anthy at least.
To your point about Madoka Magica, I wrote many essays and argued many a time for the true values of the magical girl genre and how those are challenged and manifest in the characters. Might can never win, nor will power like it's Gurren Lagann. Compassion and understanding and faith and love. Those are what triumph. I'll always love how those get attacked and warped in Homura's perception, and my favorite moment in all of anime is still probably Homura accepting Madoka's choice and the values that go along with it in the final episode.
Definitely check out the panel I gave on Grace vs. Glamour.
I think the gate is also a blatant Guillotine symbol
In the series all the roses are different colors. Soft pinks and whites and yellows and blues. The roses are friendly and pastel. Here, all of them are blood red. Angry. Trapping.
Another aspect I noticed during the scene where Utena is looking up at the Rose Garden is that, with the way the broken up pieces of the school are rising and intersecting and connecting, it looks like a cage. Anthy’s cage at that. In the series, I have always seen the Rose Garden as a gilded cage keeping the true breadth of Anthy’s pain away from the world, and it is a very similar case in the movie, only it’s more...broad. The original Rose Garden from the series is demolished and broken down, with this new one placed almost directly above it.
In addition to that is its size: in the series the garden is small, contained in a sort of solitary way that pervades even as others enter it. People see it, visit it, and use it to their heart’s content, but they never notice the flowers or, in this case, Anthy. She is a bystander, a non-entity to them, solely meant to serve their needs, ideas, and identities and nothing else. In essence, the garden is a reflection of Anthy herself; her lack of autonomy, her introversion and need to hide her true self from others by presenting a beautiful lie. But in the movie, garden is larger, more open, more sociable, much like Anthy is. Where series Anthy is soft, complacent, gentle, and seemingly lacking almost any overt feelings or self-awareness of her own, movie Anthy is very open and emotional; she is playful and mischievous with Utena in the dorm scene, fearful and dynamic in the prelude to as well as the first duel when she tries to remove Utena’s ring, or stop Saionji and help Utena by summoning the sword even though, as the Rose Bride, she physically cannot.
Despite this though, Anthy is still constrained and imprisoned. If we take the view that the red roses are symbolic of her pain, the sheer abundance of them speaks volumes of how much Anthy is held back by the past. But also, the number of roses, the size of the garden, and its general appearance all add up to the conclusion that the Ohtori Academy, or more accurately the world of Ohtori Academy, is now Anthy’s prison.
Very good take on the differences in the gardens that I hadn't considered. Thank you.
@clearandsweet you’re welcome!
With the roses representing Anthy's pain, her taking care of them throughout the franchise could take a new meaning with her blaming herself for the hurt Dios/Akio and her go through and continuing to stay/support Akio and stay in Ohtori in general
I just realized that Utena using a broom is a throwback to the show. In the show, Utena was a broom. I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. Other girls were swords, and Utena was a broom; that contrast was probably meaningful.
Good call, this was a very minor symbol in one episode and it's definitely a call back.
these are so masterfully created… as a person who is still mildly confused about specific symbolism/allegorical aspects of utena (it’s not exactly my forte…) these are so helpful. i can also tell that you carefully premeditated all these pieces and your script to flow in an intuitive way. im basically saying its really easy to understand what you’re saying even with how complex RGU is. i know for me that when i talk about it i turn into a jumbling mess
Interesting reading about how Anthy didn't want Utena to get involved in the duels because deep down she's a good person. I always thought she got upset about the ring because it meant shit was gonna get real and things were gonna potentially change and she had become so comfortable in her life as the Rose Bride so that anything outside of that was terrifying to her. That's similar to how Anthy stabs Utena in the end of the tv series. Love these videos btw, good stuff!
Yeah that's a good thought and maybe there is an element of that, but I don't think it precludes her wanting to support Utena. I'd probably say that it's a complicated thing where we fight against ourselves and lie to ourselves often, and by the time Anthy realizes what opening up to Utena is going to do for her world, she's too far down the path to turn back
The gate to me seems to show how saionji is aligned with the rose because it’s on his side. At the beginning of the scene, only his side shows the rose. But when she buys in to the duel, the rose appears on her side. The rose door also traps her, hence the bars.
22:41 well Certainly Utena wasn't thinking straight
😹😹😹😹
Came here after rewatching the show and movie. I also was reading an episodic analysis of the show while watching it. It’s all truly enhanced my viewing experience. Thank you for talking so much about one of my favorite pieces of media. I love Utena so so much.
I really can't understand how this has so few views and likes!! It's amazing!! I'm really hopping you do part 3 TvT
1:25 utena and anthony hahahaha
I'm rewatching this (i.e. listening to it in the background), and I just thought of something. During this first duel with Sayonji, when Utena picks up the broom in leu of the sword, it occurred to me this may have some symbolism/association to witches? Maybe a reference to the series, where Anthy is constantly alluded to be a witch, and witches are associated with broomsticks? Maybe, despite Anthy's protests and trying to discourage Utena from the duels, some part of her, consciously or not, manifested something to enable Utena to fight anyway.
If something like this had been shown in the series, I would chalk it up to Anthy's character in the show as a manipulator and a conscious conspirator with Akio. Anthy seems much less so in Adolescence. In the movie it's more like, though it's true that she doesn't want Utena involved in the same mess she's in, she's just seen evidence that Utena may be capable and willing to understand her as a person and not a tool, and subconsciously doesn't want Utena to leave, so Anthy gives her the tool she needs to stay in the game.
I hope that makes sense. mainly it's just me wondering if the broom was a reference to the Anthy-as-witch theme.
Also, I know that basically this is what Anthy does deliberately when she gives Utena the Sword, but I imagined that the broom was something she did without thinking, like maybe it was some subconscious way of testing Utena, and when that worked out better than she could have expected, that's when the real sword comes out. I mean, that kind of is a thing people do with other people, especially if someone's been abused the way Anthy is; throwing out small hints about what's really going on, to see how potential friends are going to react. You described something of the sort going on during the drawing scene in the tower, but that process may have begun as far back as this.
I like it! Or even a gender roles association with women cleaning the house. Nice pull.
I think Anthy's lines about "tending to the roses" in the rose garden scene are supposed to represent that she is truly captive to them. She keeps them alive, or she keeps the pain under her care. She clearly doesn't want others to suffer from the roses, so she takes care of them, resigning herself to not being able to escape them. In the series and the movie, Anthy is shown to be keeping the prince alive or at least the image/idea of him (think the scene towards the end of the series where the mob is demanding to see the prince).
Also, you mentioned how Anthy couldn't believe anyone else could be suffering from something as bad as she is (the rose), but I read it as she doesn't want to, not that she can't. I agree that she is a very compassionate person. She so desperately wants to believe that she alone is suffering from the roses that she ends up sort of tricking herself into denying anyone else could also suffer from the roses. She tries to forcefully take the rose seal from Utena because she's afraid of someone else falling into the same situation she is. Anthy seems to have this idea of "this is my cross to bear alone". She's in this situation, and she has to deal with the consequences alone.
I think I read it like this because it makes sense with her connection to Utena. The idea of someone already knowing how to deal with something and helping the character suffering from it, is like sympathy. There's not a lot of emotional connection. But what Ikuhara does with both Anthy and Utena suffering similarly because of the roses is empathy. They can connect through their shared pain, and can help each other and connect
24:43 suddenly we see the whole rose in the gate, where before we only saw half
I know that the theory a lot of analyzers have is Touga is dead, and I can't wait to hear your analysis of his interaction with Anthy later on. For me, this movie is sort of a redemption for Touga. Whether or not he's real, his metamorphosis and embodies the traits Utena most aligns with. He's calm and gentle; he carries a noble air. He's the fairytale prince--but also a kind of catalyst for Utena herself to embody. His example is one that Utena first utilizes in her fight (he saved a drowning girl; she saves Anthy)--but from then on out, it's her.
I love your analysis of the rose garden! It's hard to ignore the influence of the roses in this resetting, but after my third watch, I'm really into the idea of the roses' having their own will. I can't help but feel like the roses themselves are having a say in AOU's events. After all: they invite Utena into the dueling system itself with the ring and initiate that idea that the system can be transcended (i.e., the garden); they present Anthy to her (6:26); and during her first duel, give her the bamboo stick end of the broom (21:03). It's like they are, in actuality, *Anthy's will -- she can control them and bend them to her own wants--but she herself has forgotten that.
13:21 - Yes, to the Saionji analysis! I think the artist really drove home the idea of Saionji as the toxic masculinity of princeliness. I think that if the *emblem/mark of the rose represents the system/world itself, then it being in the arc behind Saionji (16:11) shows that system as broken and also that the world itself is working hard to keep things as-is since Utena's actions in the series.
18:32 - Yes. But it was inevitable--not just for plot. Really, the only way to destroy a system is to immerse yourself in it. But I think what makes this different from her last immersion in the system (the series) is that Utena's own ideals have shifted. When Akio was the prince, there were so many times when it felt like Utena didn't know what she was fighting for; she was so malleable to Akio's will. But here, Touga as the prince is just an embodiment of her own ideas. She carries what she believes would be Touga's air of nobility (him saving a girl in distress), but I think her fighting Saionji is more aligned with her kinship to Anthy. I think she really shows her idea of princeliness and I think they're less influenced by outside forces (the system/the prince/the world itself/masculinity).
24:02-24:29 YASS!
keep doing this dude
funny having only seen this movie once just yesterday day I missed so much. Missed seeing but not missed the feeling. The ability for this movie to overindulge seems like something lost in the west. The freedom to just...go buck wild in a movie.
I hope to see more videos on this amazing movie
Waiting for part 3 like a kid waiting for xmas
I think the symbolism of that split rose window is the structure that surrounds that. It’s a very phallic structure that’s been castrated. To me that points out that all of Saionji’s egotistical alpha male posturing is just a facade covering his insecurity
im loving this a LOT
this is a pretty solid analysis, really hope to see more in the future
I Have fear of height this school would be a Nightmare tó me, I love The video thanx for Take The Time to do it.
your love of magical girl anime matches my own i want to say this do to you off handly mentioning madoka
i do not view madoka as a deconstruction of the magical girl genre as it uses all the same tropes (hell id argue sailor moon get smuch darker than madoka) it just streamlines them for a more casual viewer (i love madoka by the way)
Hey thanks for the kind words. It is good that you mention Madoka and its role in the canon of magical girls shows. I am actually giving a panel on Madoka at Katsucon this February if you live anywhere near D.C. I really do think we need to talk about it more as a genre piece.
That said you definitely have the right of it Madoka Magica is no deconstruction and ultimately does empower Faith and Hope and love like a traditional magical girl show.
That said, the conceit of Madoka Magica is both very different and kind of the same as what Adolescence is doing. That is Madoka is continuously deprived of returning he showed to a traditional magical girls show by Homura, just as Utena and Anthony are deprived of realizing those values by their interactions with the prince.
Both shows are fighting to reestablish magical girl canon.
@@clearandsweetindeed and sadly i dont live any where near DC i live out in wyoming
@@ladyaceina ah that sucks. If you or anyone else would like to talk more about magical girls or anime in general, I'm always happy to have discussions over text or preferably voice in Discord. Here's a link to our community if you ever want to join: discord.gg/Ww56Hcp
@@clearandsweet ok joined the discord
@@clearandsweet oh who are you in the discord any ways
part 1 is blocked
Thanks. Filling dispute, it's viewable now. Will replace if I need
Yoy sound like cr1tical
Now that I've spent five minutes googling who this is...
1. I'm five years older. He sounds like me.
2. He only sounds like me if I try to do a real slow Goofy voice.
3. Where are my 3 million subs