Visual Storytelling: Breaking Down The Adolescence of Utena - Part 1
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 เม.ย. 2018
- What makes The Adolescence of Utena movie so great? Let's go scene by scene and think about it.
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When you read how Ikuhara said he tried to kill off Tuxedo Mask multiple times I about died laughing.
A note: notice how the chairman's tower is completely crumbled at the base, supported by another building? The prince is unsustainable at the core, and has to be held up by the system.
Good one!
Yes! I noticed this immediately as well! Perhaps it’s also a commentary on how while Akio may be dead and gone, Anthy’s trauma continues to hold her ideal of him up? She holds on to his ghost because she believes that is all she has.
@@les_edc As well as the idea that gender roles are a construction which can only be maintained by a system.
Another thing about the rose garden is it contrasts the rose garden in the show. In the show, it symbolizes Anthy's captivity as the rose bride- it's at the bottom of the school, is shaped like a cage to keep the roses in, and is even referred to as her birdcage. In the movie, the roses grow freely above the school and bury Akio, showing that Anthy has more free will than in the show and her power/importance to the school by placing it literally above the regular students.
The bells at the beginning make me think of wedding bells, which is why I think they’re uncomfortable- it represents what Akio has just done to Anthy.
A good reading, I like! I fear I don't talk enough about the bride part of the Rose Bride...
Also in the representation of the bells rung to signify a person passing, combined with the image of Anthy standing alone without Akio, is a visual indication that Akio has passed away, leaving Anthy "alone". Many characters are represented as children even when they are not, so to me, this is representative of Anthy's inner state of mind. Not only that Akio is dead and gone, but that her brother has "left her" and she is alone, still a scared little girl inside without her sibling. And also giving us some clue that the prison in which Anthy is located is only in her own mind, her inability to move on and heal from her brother's death and all of the trauma he inflicted upon her. Also, the bells are used in the show to signify the start of each duel, telling repeat viewers that *this* is the moment that starts off the current round of duels. In addition, bells are rung at church services to call the patrons to the church at the start of services. Considering the highly layered religious allegories in Utena, this could also be a visual nod to call in the audience to the start of the "sermon." As well as indicating the religious significance of the figures of Anthy, Akio, and Dios.
I haven't really seen this mentioned anywhere, but the rose garden where Utena talks with Touga looks exactly like a graveyard. And it seems very fitting with what happens in that scene. It's like going to the grave of a loved one to talk with the memory of them and that's what she does then. The rose garden being a graveyard also fits in with the theme of the academy being a coffin and the students merely walking corpses. I would also add how her running probably represents her chasing her ideal of the prince she wants to be.
This may be nothing, but I just noticed something about the way Touga holds the rose out to Utena (and i think other characters do it the same way at other points in the franchise) but he holds it with the bloom pointing at her, full-faced. It's kind of a weird way to draw it, because no one real hands off flowers like that. One would usually hold it more upright, so the recipient can take it by the stem. It could be just to showcase the rose, as the important symbol they are, of course. But to me, something in his posture, and the way his hand is drawn there, makes it look like he's holding it like a sword.
That's also how, in the series, Anthy handed the orange rose to Juri, which iirc is right before Juri's duel. So it's like a spurring to action as well.
@@emobiscuit6 Considering the symbolism of roses and challenges to duel being symbols for nobility itself, this moment could be seen as Utena's inner-Touga figuratively "throwing the gauntlet" down to her about her princely behavior. She's calling herself out, through her image of what a "prince" (or noble person) is in her mind.
Sometimes when I need *really* good Utena analysis I come back to this series.
00:46 is a chef's kiss
Personally, I think the movie leans towards the former. Another TH-camr Noralities argued that AOU is a sort-of continuation of the anime itself; Adolescence shows what happens *after Utena made her first revolution (to save Anthy) the world was changed in the anime -- specifically Anthy's reclamation of self. I mean, if what's established in the anime is still true -- that Anthy and Akio have repeat the same sequence of events -- then AOU is simply a reset. However, I think the structure of the school and its appearance showcases a divergence from what's familiar versus a whole reimagining. I think this shows a weakening of Akio's (or maybe "The World's) influence this time, which can then open Anthy to making events go her way for her sake than for Akio's. I mean, if death is a present thing in Utena, then can't reincarnation be as well?
10:17 - I thought the pictures were made small so we'd ignore them on purpose. I mean, at first watch, the paintings serve as a recap of the anime's story; did anyone really pay attention? Maybe not. But then they're used again when Anthy (re)tells her story to Utena. And the story's in her own words which not only counter Akio's earlier retelling, but force us to relearn what we thought was familiar. I think it gives further credence to the idea that the world has repeated its same sequence, but something changed after the last "resetting," so what we know is less-familiar.
14:22 - I think E-ko and F-ko are another showing of how the world has changed post-revolution. Their role is still the same, but their actions are different. They're still telling stories, but the medium they use is different. And they utilize allegory and metaphors a lot less, but still offer expository learning about the world (and foreshadowing).
22:06 - It's interesting that none of the analyses note that Utena basically rounds two corners to reach Togua (first time we see the hat fall and then, she rounds a second corner. She basically makes a revolution and takes the information she's learned (in this case, about the duels) as a catalyst for action. Now that she knows of the world -- how it works and its outliers (Jury, Miki) -- she can now be in it.
Regarding the pictures, I also feel that they are small on purpose to make the audience feel irrationally uncomfortable with their presentation. While the frames imply they are in a gilded gallery, their visual inscrutability makes us as the viewer feel both compelled to look closer AND feel driven away from accessing the meaning of the paintings' visuals. The meaning of this becomes apparent when we learn the sinister and exploitative nature of how the paintings came to be in existence. Its presentation is like trying to look at an actual sexual assault - you know something complex and disturbing is there, but you don't want to look too close. The gilded, elaborate frames make no difference to the disturbing meaning behind the content.
Rather than E Child and F Child, as you mentioned, it would probably be more accurate to refer to them as Girl E and Girl F; as while "ko" does mean child, name-wise, it tends to be used specifically to designate a feminine name by being placed at the end.
So it's not really a retelling, it's the next cycle of the time loop of this world that they are stuck in. At the end they finally revolutionize the world by breaking free of the cycle. The school looks disjointed and broken in the movie because the cycle is already breaking down due to the events in the series. At least that's my understanding. It's so fun to see how everyone has different interpretations though. Just shows how beautiful this piece of art is
Yeah I've heard this reading and I don't love it personally because it implies some sort of relapse, which I think hurts the ending of the original series.
I would definitely like to see it compared to the evangelion rebuilds though
@@clearandsweet That's a fair interpretation. I hadn't thought of it implying a relapse because to me, it seemed like the loop had happened hundreds of times before Utena came along and broke the cycle in 2 "revolutions" of the loop.
I haven't watched the rebuilds yet, but I'm pretty excited to compare those to the original and EoE
@@PARADOXsquared I'm 100% behind the loop interpretation! Often abusive cycles aren't escaped in one go, and the movie is different enough to make it feel like they're part of the way there, and like what they're trapped in is a more dream-like echo of old Ohtori; Anthy speaking more casually, the tower of old Ohtori is on a column like a gravestone, the cluttered scenery almost like fragments of a dream..
It's like Anthy has mis-stepped on her journey to find Utena, and the cycle has started again, but different. I definitely am fine with the "retelling" interpretation, but the "loop" one is my fave. 😄
PhD-level analysis, showing just how deep, complex and layered visual storytelling can be. Very impressive in how you break down all the symbols and the narrative told in their continuity, interplay and evolution throughout the film, brilliant stuff.
One thing i noticed on the scene when utena gets her ring..... that bed of Rose's looks like a grave. It is covered in crosses and has the shape of a coffin.... is it the grave of Akio? That stuck me right away.... what do you think?
Bdoll2 what struck me was the fact that the crosses looked like the swords of hatred but stabbing the grave. Did they end Akio in the end or did he escape the swords by dying?
Well, it IS the grave Akio will be found in later. So yes.
It also looks like swords stuck in the ground. Or like the remains of the birdcage/greenhouse that Utena first sees Anthy in in the series.
Additionally, if they are graves, it's interesting that this is roughly where Utena finds Touga.
-ko doesn't mean child, it's a feminine suffix for names (like -ette, -a, etc in English. Think of names like Aiko, Seiko, Yukako). E-ko and F-ko are placeholder names for unnamed women in Japanese script writing, which plays into the theatre & performance motif.
It does actually the kun reading of 子 is こ or "ko" . So for instance in kanji Yumiko or 友美子 is "friend, beauty, child"
こ = 子 = child. 同じですよね？
Exactly! @ the answers above, yes, the 子 literally means child, however, when you see it at the end of a first name, it's most likely (99%) a female name. So when you hear a name that ends with 子 it's pretty safe to assume it's a female name.
@@nusuth24 Yes! But the meaning of that character is "child" regardless of whether it's standalone or used as an phonetic ideograph within a name.
@@oberon725 I mean, sure, but a Japanese person wouldn't think of it as meaning child unless they were specifically dissecting the meaning of the name (which they would be unlikely to do). You hear "Smurfette" and you just know that character is female and you don't sit and think "Oh, that means 'Little Smurf' because -ette is from French and means 'little'."
Every now and then i fall back in love with this series. So I'm so glad i found a whole set of videos analysing it. Thank you so much for making and sharing these.
I'm happy there's someone doing a REALLY deep dive into this movie because it deserves so many more people talking about it than there is. I've watched through this video series several times now, because I love the way you really dive into each detail because there really is so much to unpack in this movie, and there are so many ways you can do it
RGU is by far my favorite anime, my number one. I could watch analysis videos on it all day and I refuse to stop referencing it in my videos and games!
It's funny how you said in the beginning that the Movie is not where one should start watching Utena because that's accidentally what I did, LOL.
I was probably 14-15, saw the VHS and was instantly attracted to the bright pink of Utena's hair and her strikingly saturated eyes, but most of all Anthy on the back was probably the first brown skinned anime character I had ever seen.
I took the movie as a standalone art film or something not knowing there was an entire series with it!
It took a few years (since anime was scarce back then) but I eventually watched it all!
When it comes to the movie, now that I understood the series better, I saw it as Anthy trying to find Utena after the series.
So bare with me and feel free to throw in stuff that disproves any of this.
All of this takes place sometime after the series, after Utena vanishes and Anthy breaks free of Akio.
Anthy has either returned to Ohtori (and Akio is DED?) or created a new "Ohtori" but for the soul purpose of luring Utena back. She's trapped the characters in this place (or made illusions of them) to put Utena, who has lost her memories of the school, through the same trials to try and "get her back".
When I started watching the series I noticed how different Anthy was to the one I grew up watching. Anthy in the movie has long flowy hair like the end of the series and seems way more extroverted and dare I say "in control". Plus she's not wearing her glasses as she discarded them at the end of the series. The times where she's not in control could be when things are getting too real and she's accidentally relived a trauma of her own.
And since Akio is dead or in some way "not here" only his memory is what is keeping Anthy down and pushing her back.
So in shorter words I like to see it as Anthy feeding Utena a bunch of "member berries" in a world she herself recreated to get Utena back.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I'll see myself out.
I like your reading, and thank you for sharing it along with your experiences.
The reason I tend toward retelling instead of sequel, and I think I mentioned this somewhere in the later parts of this series, is that Utena still clearly has character growth and issues within the film. If it were a sequel I think it would be just Anthy struggling.
this is my new asmr, thank you for this wonderful analysis
amazing set of videos, thanks for making these
This was very interesting and something about your voice puts the viewer into a calm, engaged state
your videos are so fun to watch i like how technical they are
I had no problems grasping the symbolism of the movie ... until the ending. I was left wondering what it could possibly mean.
In the last arc of the show cars are usually symbols for adulthood/trying to grow up. In the show that's a universally corrupting force, but in the movie, since Utena and Anthy have formed the only healthy relationship in the entire series, they're able to take on the world together and emerge as adults who understand the world around them without having become the literal devil like Akio was in the show.
Also, the castle appears as a trap to symbolize how fake the prince and princess roles are.
To me, the ending represents all of the obstacles Utena and Anthy have to go through to escape the prince, princess, and overall sexism of society. It represents how society fights back if you try to go against it. And they pop out on the other end, they find who they are, but have to build up the environment they want from scratch
Can't wait to finish your analysis of this movie and I really enjoyed your panel @ Otakon and had a lot of fun talking to you about Madoka and Utena.
Thanks! It was a pleasure meeting you all as well and I'm glad you find value in stuff like this.
Thanks so much for this I found the series by recommendation from twitter and just saw the movie yesterday!
Thanks for such a great and interesting video!
0:42 I saw that in tumblr!
XD
That was a DIFFERENT revolution!
The sliding around of the parts of the school at the very start also serve to remind me of the facades of a play being wheeled in, and that wouldnt be the first theater symbolism thats been used in Utena. Its another way it tells us this isn't all litteral, that more is going on than we see.
Also, you claim Touga didnt move, but that chamber is shown to be a square, one touga looks at Utena from accross. Utena turns three times, which should put her on a side adjacent to where she started. Touga did move.
Touga's physical location may have changed, but as he is a manifestation of Utena's guilt and grief, he never actually physically moves. The video is calling attention to the fact that we never actually see Touga move around the sets. He only ever stands in place, as the shots pan around him.
Personally I see the movie is a returning and establishing what wasn't aloud to be in the show
6:50 I’d like to point out that Japanese is read left to right. While it can be written in columns which are read up to down, right to left, it’s an antiquated way and is only used for fancy titles/poetry in the modern day. The movement of the camera being from the bottom up here makes me doubt this film is trying to evoke right to left column progression. But if anyone can find some information on directional progression in Japanese cinematography - I’d be happy to read!! I feel like there’s more to this and I’m eager to find out if I’m right
Japanese books and manga are still read up to down, right to left, and storyboards are drawn up to down (and not horizontally left to right like in the west),. So I think it’s still fair to say that in japanese visual media, right to left = progression, and left to right = regression.
And if you watch a lot of japanese visual media, that becomes abundantly clear. Or else, a LOT of scenes of characters moving from the right to the left of the screen wouldn’t really make sense.
@@etherealsky7078 I guess. But linking that convention entirely on which way Japanese is read might be a little... easy? I highly doubt that entirely explains everything. Also, in this scene the camera sweeps upwards, putting more distance between itself and this idea of reading the screen like a book/manga.
in regards to the bells at the beginning... when they rang at the end of the duels in the original series, I always thought of them as wedding bells, because a ceremony was just completed, to bind the Rose Bride to her partner once more. I think, because of the darkness inherent in Anthy's role as the Rose Bride, other more ominous readings work in tandem with this one... as funeral bells, something eerie and threatening, and the wrongness of how many there are and how loud they are... it kind of reminds me of how adolescence is described as death, but also birth. the death of the child, and the birth of the adult, through this tumultuous transitional period. something also referenced by the little speech about how, if the chick cannot break the world's shell, it will fail to be born. whatever life, death, change, or union is going to happen in this movie, it will be big and loud.
It was crazy as hell, but art-wise it was awesome.
Where do you buy DVDs of this movie.
DVD? Dunno. BD: www.rightstufanime.com/Revolutionary-Girl-Utena-Set-3-Blu-Ray
and
www.rightstufanime.com/Revolutionary-Girl-Utena-20th-Anniversary-Ultra-Edition-Blu-Ray
14:22 aren't E-ko and F-ko are the shadow girls?
I came here for his voice, my GAWD.
Your comment has reinforced my will to buy some audio foam for my new office.
@@clearandsweet Awwww! I'm doing research on one of my fave anime for a future project. Thanks for posting this, I really enjoyed it :)
@@sourcandydoll Awesome! Be sure to come back and share your project, I'd love to hear about it.
@@clearandsweet Absolutely
Never found the movie. Anyone could help me out?
Search for the title here on TH-cam.
Kiss anime
reject cycles of abuse by rejecting idealized archetypes that excuse abusive men
touga does move in the film, he walks away from miki during the duel with jury 0/10
and also at the swimming pool
I kind of got Matrix vibes watching this.
Have you read Vraikaiser's Utena anylasis?
I've not. Link it?
@@clearandsweet vraikaiser.com/2014/07/18/an-introduction-to-revolutionary-girl-utena/
..... *Slight internal trigger by the mispronunciation of U-TEN-A!!* 😊
I only came to the comments to comment the same thing
The entire sub of the anime: "yu-ten-ah"
This dude: "oot-na"
Same
He's not mispronouncing it.
In Japanese you do NOT read right to left.
It's either :
➝ ➝ ➝ ➝ ➝ ➝ ➝ ➝↵
➝ ➝ ➝ ➝ ➝↵
➝ ➝
or the more traditional and seldomly used (Manga, "traditional" seeming stuff)
↓↓
↓↓
↓↓
↓↓
⬑⬑