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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- hey guys, hope you enjoy this latest installment to utena explained, and sorry it's been awhile. I've been meaning to make a video but got distracted, and I'd like to upload more frequently in the future, possibly some videos on other subjects besides utena as well.
I realized a few weeks ago that I started using the title "utena explained" probably because I was subconsciously remembering some videos on utena by a youtuber named crabe that used the same title. I haven't watched in a while, but from what I remember the videos were very good so here is a link: • Utena Explained Episod...
I'd like to keep using the title because I think it has a good ring to it, but if crabe ever sees these and wants me to change the titles I will happily comply
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I think Nanami's role in the show makes a lot more sense once you realize she's basically a younger, less subtle, more naive version of Anthy. Even if you don't go as far as deciding Anthy's the only real person in the show or breaking everything down to Jungian archetypes, just think about how annoying we all find preteens who remind us embarrassingly of ourselves before we "learned better."
Taken in that light, Anthy (and thus the world) forever dunking on her own cringy, naive and openly cruel early teen self (or just someone who strongly reminds her of her young self) feels very relatable. We're strongly taught that anything young teen girls like or feel is inherently silly or stupid or cringe, and many of us look back at our young teen selves with anger and embarrassment. Anthy punishing Nanami so relentlessly when Nanami is so very, very much like a younger version of Anthy makes a lot of sense to me.
Nanami is in a similar situation but an earlier life stage. Her brother/prince is still unstained in her eyes, and she doesn't see how she's been manipulated and used. She's open and clumsy in her vicious jealousy and territorialism because she hasn't learned Anthy's subtlety. What power she has comes very clearly from her ties to her brother/prince. And while Touga is manipulative and awful to Nanami, he hasn't laid hands on her yet. Nanami's view of their relationship and her brother complex is far, far more innocent than what's going on with Anthy and Akio. She's young and right on the edge of that fall into becoming someone like Anthy. I can't imagine anyone Anthy could possibly hate more.
Nanami's most powerful moment in the show is in her ultimate recognition of how messed up Anthy and Akio's sibling relationship is and that she doesn't want that to be her. She steps out of the duel club. She chooses not to play. I think that's actually why she's not in the movie - she got out of the Academy in her own way and is off on her own journey now on some other wheel of fate - or that piece of her inside Anthy has found peace and self-acceptance, if you prefer to think of it that way.
I agree about the movie--I feel like Nanami is one of the only characters who completes her story arc within the show and finds peace, so it wouldn't make sense for her to still be a student at Ootori
I disagree. I think Nanami is a younger version of Utena. Nanami seems to despise absolutely everything Anthy represents. Like Utena, she is obsessed with the idea of being a prince in this case embodied by her brother. For a while she believes that being Touga's sister is enough like Utena for a while thought that being loved by her prince might be enough to fill the void. When her brother loses his nerve and drops the prince persona she adopts the clothes and mannerisms of a prince much like Utena does.
I think the reason Nanami is not in the movie was because she isn't actually a human. She's a cow that was so impressed by Touga she deluded herself into thinking she was his sister. She does appear in the movie, as a cow.
Honestly, Anthy and Nanami share almost nothing in common other than having an older brother. Anthy is deceitful, manipulative, submissive, lustful, subtle and selfsacrificing while Nanami is honest, dominant, chaste, direct and selfserving.
i love the parallels between Utena and Nanami in regards to how they view the world around them. Utenas ambiguity and comfort with her gender expression and Nanami's focus on social status both directly relate to how they realize the world around them is wrong. the first instances we see of this both have to do with Anthy, too. Utena wants to save her, and Nanami wants to bully her (this also has to do with the men in their lives; the prince and touga). By the end of the series, they are both fully realized in the fact that they can deconstruct the world around them and it's values, and break the cycle. It's such a cool character arc and parallel to another character I never thought I'd see from the stereotypical mean girl!
Episode 24 is the only episode I skip on rewatches. I’ve always thought it unfunny and unnecessary to the show. Thanks for giving a different perspective and making me think a little bit more about it.
Greetings, fellow Nanami stan. Thank you and keep up the good work. I appreciate your comments on Japanese culture and language in relation to the characters you talk about.
Something I can't shrug off upon rewatching the show is that... in most Nanami episodes she is being set up by Anthy and knowing what we know about Anthy by the end of the show it feels like she is just being tortured by this vengeful witch who despise her probably for her naive crush on her brother. I think Akio was blindsided by Nanami's discovery but Anthy probably wanted it to happen either for Nanami to see what it would be like if her crush led to something real or to rub it in her face in some misguided weird way. Anthy is quite messed up and definitely has some strong feelings towards Nanami my interpretation would be that she thinks she despises her while relating to her as this innocent girl who can still be saved, unlike herself. On first viewing Nanami is bullying Anthy but on reviewing it feels reversed.
I would love to hear all the jokes explained! Great vid! Take your time, its worth the wait.
Maybe sometime! glad you enjoyed
I also think it's interesting how Nanami actually reaches Revolution. She decides the cows are much happier than humans, so she stays a cow. And, well, she's not wrong.🌹❤️💛⭐🌟✨
Love this breakdown. And it gets my head spinning with ideas.
Wow I watched the first two videos a while ago after youtube recommended it to me yesterday. Such a nice surprise to this upload in my feed! Really cool videos, they give me a deeper appreciation for my favorite show.
Just subscribed, Utena for life!
amazing video, nanami is also probably my favourite character in the show and the way you talk about her only affirms that. would love to see where you take your analysis of her character in partiuclar, but please take your time with uploads! they are entirely worth the wait
Thanks! Nanami fans unite !!
TYSM for this
Also while the music was a little loud at times I like the atmosphere . Brings a sense of uneasiness that really fits Nanami’s situation.
Nice analysis!
Unfortunately the music is kind of overbearing in the mix, at times it's hard to hear you or it's just distracting... Maybe compress it or duck it during the parts when you're talking? 😓
Looking forward to more!
Thanks for the feedback! I think I'd like to experiment more with doing background music in future videos, but with the aim of making it less distracting than this time, as it was a last minute addition
cackling at all the aliens in the background of these shots, great video as always! keep it up!!!
So Nanami is like Kaji in Evangelion? A character who we are given no reason to like, at least initially, but serves to uncover the secrets of the show to the main characters? But all the characters in Utena are horrible really, as are in Evangelion, just so much is wrong with all of them. When a situation is bad enough there are no good decisions left, and the cast of both shows evidently suffers from that. In that light Nanami isn't as bad really, but I always hated her with a passion for being so entitled. Great video, tho the music is a bit much at times.
I've watched Evangelion a few times but I don't know it nearly as well as Utena. I guess I can see that comparison, though in all other ways Nanami and Kaji are pretty different characters. While I don't aim to defend the many horrible actions of characters in both series, I think Utena and Evangelion are both shows that want us to think about the environmental factors and relationships which cause characters to act in certain ways. Utena is a character looking for truth who in the end realizes that she cannot find this in other people but only herself, because no one around her knows what the heck is going on except Akio, who uses his knowledge for evil. The story of a good person, surrounded by good people, who does good deeds does not make for much of a story. A heroic struggle requires that the hero finds power within herself to transcend the evil of her surroundings, though this evil can be a subjective "other" in many cases. Many of the characters in Utena search for truth, or hold onto an ideal, because it's absent from their immediate surroundings. I think Nanami doesn't realize she is looking for truth at first, but she is. What first appears as her idealized conception of Touga soon reveals itself to be something else through the unravelling of the events in episodes 31-2, something much more fundamental