Broke: Utena couldn't become the prince because she is a girl. Woke: Utena couldn't become the prince because "The Prince" is a bullshit ideal that forces way too many expectations on the prince to be the savior of all regardless of how emotionally damaging it becomes to him and either kills him in his nobility (Dio) or turns him so bitter to the world that he becomes the End Of The World (Akio). And since a prince cannot exist without princesses to save, it also forces girls to be inactive in their own narrative whether they be witches or princesses. Utena didn't save Anthy. Utena showed Anthy the possibility of saving herself. Utena doesn't carry Anthy over the threshold of th school. Anthy must do that herlself to join Utena in a world with no predetermined narrative to limit them. Revolutionary.
Miscellaneous notes: - The girl who tackles Wakaba the same way Wakaba used to tackle Utena at the very end of the last episode is the same girl who teased Wakaba for waiting for her "boyfriend" way back at the very beginning of the series. - Way back in the first episode, Utena asks Saionji about the castle floating in the sky and Saionji dismisses it as merely a trick of the light. In episode 38 it is revealed that the entire dueling arena including the castle was merely a projection of the planetarium. - And in the second episode, Saionji warns Utena that anyone who defies the will of the Student Council (which acts as an agent of End of the World) will be expelled from this place. Again, Saionji is more right than he realizes. - The rest of the commentary for episode 23 makes this clear, but Utena and Mikage have the same character arc: they are seeking something that speaks to their idealized self image, a desire that is based on their warped memories, and when they come to recognize what they did wrong they are forced to leave this garden of children. Once they leave, the other characters quickly forget them but they clearly had an impact on this world. - When Utena and Touga went to have a late night visit to the dueling arena where he confesses his love, Utena wonders where Anthy was beforehand. It is heavily implied this is one of her "visits" with Akio, and now that we know the dueling arena was merely the chairman's office means that Akio and Anthy were likely watching this little scene. - Juri's story of the drowning boy has some similarities to other Utena media, primarily the manga where Dios meets Utena while saving her from drowning. Keep that story in mind if/when you watch the movie. - Anthy stabs Utena after she slips back into the princely role, declaring she will save Anthy from Akio. Anthy is finally able to break free from her coffin when Utena comes to her not as a savior but as a friend, offering a hand of support and encouraging her to make the changes necessary to escape her coffin.
I love the irony of Akio saying "without power you’re doomed to live life dependent on one another" when he's doing the same thing with Anthy, and it shows with how distraught he is when she leaves.
I don’t think Utena became a prince, nor do I think it would have been a good thing. This is how I see it: The Prince does not exist. It is a perfectionist ideal that demands too much of a person, and is what caused Dios to nearly die of exhaustion. Back then, it wasn’t his illusion keeping the Prince alive, but the illusion of mankind. “All the girls in the world were Princesses.” The Prince existed to save and love these Princesses, and so by that law they inherently could never exist to save themselves. There was one girl, however, who could not be a Princess. The Prince’s sister. Being loved by her brother, of course, would make her impure. Filthy. A Witch. But Dios, human or not, inevitably came to crash under the world’s illusion, no longer being able to be a prince out of a fairy tale. Out of a natural love for her sibling, she called upon her magic and sealed him away under the Rose Seal. The people deemed this to be an evil act and sealed her away as well under a million Swords of Hate. Not only did she become a Witch, but she accepted it. After all, she existed for the sake of her beloved prince. She couldn’t do anything for herself. “Girls are... in the end, all girls are like the Rose Bride.” With the two sealed away, mere humans could no longer keep up the false pretense of a Prince, Princess and wicked Witch. Eternity, that which shines, miracles - the power to bring the world Revolution - such things simply didn’t exist in reality. So Dios, now Akio, took it onto himself. While he couldn’t fool the whole world like before, he could create his own world, a threshold for misguided adolescents - Ohtori Academy. Most people never “graduated” from this academy, you see. Mikage Nemuro, for example, being unable to let go of his past, stayed a student and an adolescent for several decades. Such people would be easy to fool. Utena Tenjou had been fooled herself, as well, to the point where she forgot why she even wanted to be like the Prince. She was only chasing an illusion, at this point. By this point in time as well, Anthy had grown to act “witch-like” even, as a result of her continuous abuse. She participated in and helped set up these harmful duels, all so her brother could one day find a “sword” noble enough to break his seal. Not only did she participate, but she carefully manipulated countless other students into doing so as well(this can be seen a lot when rewatching, especially with Miki and Nanami). Everything was calculated. Utena, I suppose, acted like a “prince” too. She often fought for her own self-interest and image, treating Anthy as a “princess”, always delegating her to the poor damsel in distress who the Prince will come to save. That was, at first. Over time, she grew further and further from being a Prince. Anthy grew further from being a witch. Slowly, slowly, she came out from her coffin. When it came down to it, Utena couldn’t save Anthy without the humanity’s hatred finding someone else to project on, so she had no choice but to “graduate” from such a world, trusting Anthy to do the same. And she did. Anthy Himemiya wasn’t a Princess, she wasn’t a Witch. She wasn’t a Prince, and she most certainly wasn’t saved by one. She was a girl who chose to save herself. (This is just my personal interpretation)
The DVD box sets for Utena have booklets that include translated commentaries by the director Kunihiko Ikuhara. IKUHARA'S COMMENTARY Episode 38 There’s one thing I remained strongly conscious of since we were producing the opening sequence, and that was the final duel. When the prince awakened, the “dueling arena tower” would crumble. Right before the series began its broadcast run, we were producing a promotional TV spot, and so I was thinking up the narration for it. “I’m going to be a prince!” I had a premonition. I knew that line must have meaning. Episode 39 There are two meanings to the Japanese word utena. One is “the calyx of a flower.” That’s also the meaning of the title, of course. The thing that supports the beautiful petals; the one with the noble heart. And the other meaning of utena is “tall tower or pedestal.” We translated this into a visual: the tower at the center of Ohtori Academy, the one with the Chairman’s room on the top floor. And the dueling arena located deep in the woods is the same. In the early stages of production, when the story wasn’t firmly established yet, this was one of the aspects I most wanted to visualize and produce for the screen. A world where demons roam. In its center, a tower called the “Tower of Revolution.” Whosoever can remain victorious in his battles against the demons can reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution, and at the same time receive the power to revolutionize the world; the power that changes the rules of the world. However, when he reaches the pinnacle, he learns the world’s govering laws. He faces the ultimate choice: will he stay nobly, beautifully powerless? Or will he accept ugliness into himself and gain absolute power? He desired both. Or rather, perhaps he couldn’t choose either. His mind in anguish, he divided himself in two. His “noble heart,” and the “adult with absolute power.” And so. With one last wish that the day would come when someone would awaken him, the “noble heart” that had lost its body, in other words the prince, fell into a deep sleep. Early on in the series’s conception, I kicked around the idea of placing something like the above at the heart of the story. Later, after several changes, it became the tale as you know it, but without doubt, he did reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution. It was a place where “eternity” dwelled. And “eternity” turned out to mean perpetual sleep. The prince (Akio) who became an adult while in perpetual sleep lost something. What he lost was “the power to create an enjoyable future.” Revolution means gaining “the power to imagine the future.” The prince chose to sleep on, and the princess chose to wake up. At the top of that tall tower, the princess bid farewell to the prince. No - she wasn’t the princess any longer. She quit being “a person (thing) ruled by someone.” The victory bells rang, but there was no “tower (rule)” beyond them now. She’d learned where freedom lay. She crossed the threshold of that “Door of Revolution” which had always been closed for her before, and began walking. The “girls’ revolution” lay in the girl’s future. “Wait for me… Utena.” The world (the stage) is free and wide.
I chose not to post the last half of the commentary for Episode 23, but I promised I would post it now. It's easily the most interesting bit of the commentaries, gives a really strong explanation of the ending of the series, and I'd argue lays out one of Ikuhara's strongest themes across his works. IKUHARA'S COMMENTARY Episode 23 The story in episodes 11 and 12 about the dueling game. Episode 23 picks up where it left off in laying the groundwork for the final episode. Wasn’t Mikage’s fate the same fate that Utena would eventually meet? In which case, shouldn’t it be crueler? I tried making the person on the other end of the phone line Mikage himself. “The path you must take is no longer prepared for you. Now graduate from this place.” Those who reject that place are, conversely, rejected by it as well. This is the nature of systems: the moment you reject them, you are forced to realize that they’re the very ground you’re standing on. Mikage noticed the trick behind the system, and he hurriedly attempted revisions. But the adult who’d created the system just said “Let’s not,” and unilaterally brought the curtain down. The system of illusion was finished. Mikage could no longer exist there. That’s why he disappeared from the memories of those who’d interacted with him. People’s happiness or unhappiness shouldn’t be determined by struggles over the device called “the Rose Bride.” Utena rejects the duel system. However. In due course Utena will be rejected by the duel system and that place, and no longer be able to exist there. This foreshadows the final scene of the series.
After all, Utena couldn't get the power to revolutionize the world. However, Utena succeeded in revolutionizing the mind of a girl called a witch. Everyone in Akio's world seems to have forgotten Utena, but there is also a change in their minds, and they will eventually leave this world. The story ends when Anthy takes a step to find Utena in the outside world.
First of all, thank you for reacting to Utena. It’s quite possibly my favorite anime of all time and I’ve greatly enjoyed watching your journey through this wacky, incredible story. I think Utena is a show that has many meanings and each person can take what they found most valuable from it, but to me the most prominent themes are related to adolescence, the cycle of abuse, misogyny, and the stories we tell ourselves and the world. Maybe Utena couldn’t become a prince- but that’s only because “the prince” was a restrictive ideal that no person could truly embody in the first place, just like the princess/witch (aka the Madonna/Whore dichotomy in fairytale form). In the end, she couldn’t save Anthy; but with her selfless love and compassion, she helped Anthy to save herself and break out of the cycle of abuse she’d been trapped in for god knows how long. And now they’ve left for a world where they can be truly happy together- and keep their promise to drink tea and laugh ten years down the line.
Utena and Anthy have one of the most beautiful and complex love stories of all time, in my opinion, and the lesbian subtext definitely crosses the line into text at some point (the anime itself, the cut-off kiss in the end credits which does exist in uncensored form somewhere on the internet, director commentary, official art, and of course the movie, which I will not elaborate on because of spoilers). The ending shows that group photo they took where Anthy moved to get between Utena and Akio; it’s now framed, but they’ve deliberately cut Akio out of the picture, and you can see in the final shot that they were holding hands, even then. "Someday, together, we'll shine." Their relationship was so important to me as a young queer girl watching this and remains important to me to this day. Though I enjoy so many things about it, I would say that the two most meaningful aspects of the anime for me are that love story as well as Anthy’s journey to breaking free of abuse. I would also highly recommend watching the movie at some point in time. It’s definitely worth watching and can be interpreted as a retelling or a direct sequel depending on your interpretation. Sorry for the wall of text, haha. I guess I had more to say than I thought. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the series and hopefully we see you back for the movie at some point!
The prince comes with a white horse, kicks the door open and saves the helpless poor princess! There's clear "active" and "passive" within these two roles -- women are often (especially in Japanese culture) meant to stay passive, look after home and tend to her husbands needs. Utena can't be a prince. She's physically incapable -- her hand doesn't reach! So she needs to ask the princess, passive damsel in distress, to step in and take an action, to give her that hand. Utena couldn't save Anthy but she could help *her* to save herself. Much like in many other abusive relationships, you can't really force the help on the victim -- they need to want the help. That's what I've always thought to be the "revolution" (or at least part of it), for a girl stuck in endless relationship, to take step towards healing and help by leaving her abuser. With Utena's help, love and friendship Anthy has courage to face the world as independent person and seek her own happiness instead of sacrificing others. It's amazing story.
The photo in the end was the photo that they took in ep 34. It means that Utena and Anthy's love/friendship was tight at that time already, even though it seemed like Akio was in between them.
It was a very wonderful reaction until the end. Thank you for a wonderful time. And June 9 is the day when Tomoko Kawakami, who is a voice actor who played Tenjou Utena, died. I will never forget her.
2019年にウテナを視聴してくれてありがとうございます。 色々な解釈ができるエンディングなので、また時間が経ったら見返すと違う発見があるかもしれません。 39話の長い視聴、お疲れ様でした❗ Thank you for watching Utena in 2019. It is an ending that can be interpreted in various ways, so if you look back over time there may be different discoveries. Long watch of 39 episodes, thank you very much
binged your reactions in about a week, i've enjoyed every video! your commentary was always interesting and well thought out, and i'm glad you gave this old anime a chance. as to what i took away from utena, well... i watched it when i was a young high school girl struggling with internal bullshit, and while i don't know if i consciously took anything from it at the time, i can see now as an adult what an influence it had on my identity. live your life, bravely and with style indeed.
Glad you liked Utena, it's one of my favourites. As others have said, definitely watch Adolescence of Utena, it's a great film, crazy as it can be. Also you might be interested in checking out Utena's predecessors, like Oniisama e..., Rose of Versailles or Sailor Moon. While Utena stands perfectly well on its own, it's still interesting to watch these keeping Ikuhara in mind, you can find plenty of things that would later come up in Utena in some form or other.
Utena (the representation of Will) finally understands the pain that Anthy (the representation of Consciousness) has been getting for each of the duels that happened in the school. All of these duels are duels we have in our life; envy, friendship, love, complexes, wrath, etc. Who has been the one taking the hits for all of them? What are all these swords? Utena (the representation of Will) has finally rejected Akio (the representation of Idealism, the castle in the sky) as the master of her soul, and for a second, she made contact with Anthy (Consciousness). What we see at the very end ia Anth (Consciousness) going after Utena (the Will). It's an allegory of a human being that has revolutionized. A human that has been freed from the control of Idealism (Akio), a human that no longer duels with himself, a human that is finally free. Therefore a human driven by Consciousness. That is why Anthy is going after Utena.
ngl, it's a lot of reading (like well into full size book length lol) but vraikaiser's consulting analyst series on this show was absolutely vital to my understanding and grappling with the headier concepts and ways ikuhara likes to apply and make connections with metaphor. also the movie fucking rips once you (mostly, kinda) get it
also re: "In the end, all girls are like the Rose Bride," i think this is most strongly ties into anthy's role (in many ways she embodies *society's* idea of how women should act at the cost of becoming a shell she projects while living on in pain in her coffinDOYOUGETIT) specifically in how she "takes the swords in place of the prince" (think about how much abuse anthy takes from others throughout the series, even from well meaning characters like wakaba). anyways i don't know how to wrap this up and it's already longer than i meant for it to get but good show!!!! thanks for watching it
I think there are many reasons anthy stab utena. she is afraid of falling into the same power trope with akio all over again, she Also afraid the billions swords of hate and judge will torture utena for internal instead, so it may be better just die now. she think only prince aka someone who have romantic feeling for her will save her so a girl like untena will eventually leave her for another male. And i think she is holding sorrow instead when she leaves utena so we don't see her eyes
Just wanted to say absoluely wonderful and insightful commentary all the way through. Looking forward to checking out other series youve done. Keep it up!
Have you considered reacting to The Rose of Versailles? I see it isn’t on your MAL. It’s a classic that Utena draws a lot of inspiration from. If you don’t take recommendations, I apologize. Let me know and I’ll take down this comment.
The story Juri tells reminds me of the manga sort of, where Utena meets the prince when he saves her from her trying to drown herself. I kind of like how the manga ends more to be honest.
I hope you watch the movie! Or at least give a review on it :) Anyway, thank you for taking the time to react to this wonderful anime and getting so invested in it.
In my opinion none of the characters in Utena are hatable. Touga says and does some heinous stuff but in the next scene he's just a guy, he can make jokes and be nice to Utena occasionally. Even Akio to an extent, they all feel so multidimensional.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 85 | คู่เอก "ยอดเหล็กเพชร vs ผึ้งหลวง"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qq_19bnnxEo/mqdefault.jpg)
Broke: Utena couldn't become the prince because she is a girl.
Woke: Utena couldn't become the prince because "The Prince" is a bullshit ideal that forces way too many expectations on the prince to be the savior of all regardless of how emotionally damaging it becomes to him and either kills him in his nobility (Dio) or turns him so bitter to the world that he becomes the End Of The World (Akio). And since a prince cannot exist without princesses to save, it also forces girls to be inactive in their own narrative whether they be witches or princesses.
Utena didn't save Anthy. Utena showed Anthy the possibility of saving herself. Utena doesn't carry Anthy over the threshold of th school. Anthy must do that herlself to join Utena in a world with no predetermined narrative to limit them. Revolutionary.
that was cool as hell, i'm glad i scrolled down to read this!
Miscellaneous notes:
- The girl who tackles Wakaba the same way Wakaba used to tackle Utena at the very end of the last episode is the same girl who teased Wakaba for waiting for her "boyfriend" way back at the very beginning of the series.
- Way back in the first episode, Utena asks Saionji about the castle floating in the sky and Saionji dismisses it as merely a trick of the light. In episode 38 it is revealed that the entire dueling arena including the castle was merely a projection of the planetarium.
- And in the second episode, Saionji warns Utena that anyone who defies the will of the Student Council (which acts as an agent of End of the World) will be expelled from this place. Again, Saionji is more right than he realizes.
- The rest of the commentary for episode 23 makes this clear, but Utena and Mikage have the same character arc: they are seeking something that speaks to their idealized self image, a desire that is based on their warped memories, and when they come to recognize what they did wrong they are forced to leave this garden of children. Once they leave, the other characters quickly forget them but they clearly had an impact on this world.
- When Utena and Touga went to have a late night visit to the dueling arena where he confesses his love, Utena wonders where Anthy was beforehand. It is heavily implied this is one of her "visits" with Akio, and now that we know the dueling arena was merely the chairman's office means that Akio and Anthy were likely watching this little scene.
- Juri's story of the drowning boy has some similarities to other Utena media, primarily the manga where Dios meets Utena while saving her from drowning. Keep that story in mind if/when you watch the movie.
- Anthy stabs Utena after she slips back into the princely role, declaring she will save Anthy from Akio. Anthy is finally able to break free from her coffin when Utena comes to her not as a savior but as a friend, offering a hand of support and encouraging her to make the changes necessary to escape her coffin.
I love the irony of Akio saying "without power you’re doomed to live life dependent on one another" when he's doing the same thing with Anthy, and it shows with how distraught he is when she leaves.
I don’t think Utena became a prince, nor do I think it would have been a good thing. This is how I see it:
The Prince does not exist. It is a perfectionist ideal that demands too much of a person, and is what caused Dios to nearly die of exhaustion. Back then, it wasn’t his illusion keeping the Prince alive, but the illusion of mankind. “All the girls in the world were Princesses.” The Prince existed to save and love these Princesses, and so by that law they inherently could never exist to save themselves. There was one girl, however, who could not be a Princess. The Prince’s sister. Being loved by her brother, of course, would make her impure. Filthy. A Witch. But Dios, human or not, inevitably came to crash under the world’s illusion, no longer being able to be a prince out of a fairy tale. Out of a natural love for her sibling, she called upon her magic and sealed him away under the Rose Seal. The people deemed this to be an evil act and sealed her away as well under a million Swords of Hate. Not only did she become a Witch, but she accepted it. After all, she existed for the sake of her beloved prince. She couldn’t do anything for herself.
“Girls are... in the end, all girls are like the Rose Bride.”
With the two sealed away, mere humans could no longer keep up the false pretense of a Prince, Princess and wicked Witch. Eternity, that which shines, miracles - the power to bring the world Revolution - such things simply didn’t exist in reality. So Dios, now Akio, took it onto himself. While he couldn’t fool the whole world like before, he could create his own world, a threshold for misguided adolescents - Ohtori Academy. Most people never “graduated” from this academy, you see. Mikage Nemuro, for example, being unable to let go of his past, stayed a student and an adolescent for several decades. Such people would be easy to fool.
Utena Tenjou had been fooled herself, as well, to the point where she forgot why she even wanted to be like the Prince. She was only chasing an illusion, at this point. By this point in time as well, Anthy had grown to act “witch-like” even, as a result of her continuous abuse. She participated in and helped set up these harmful duels, all so her brother could one day find a “sword” noble enough to break his seal. Not only did she participate, but she carefully manipulated countless other students into doing so as well(this can be seen a lot when rewatching, especially with Miki and Nanami). Everything was calculated. Utena, I suppose, acted like a “prince” too. She often fought for her own self-interest and image, treating Anthy as a “princess”, always delegating her to the poor damsel in distress who the Prince will come to save. That was, at first. Over time, she grew further and further from being a Prince. Anthy grew further from being a witch. Slowly, slowly, she came out from her coffin.
When it came down to it, Utena couldn’t save Anthy without the humanity’s hatred finding someone else to project on, so she had no choice but to “graduate” from such a world, trusting Anthy to do the same. And she did. Anthy Himemiya wasn’t a Princess, she wasn’t a Witch. She wasn’t a Prince, and she most certainly wasn’t saved by one. She was a girl who chose to save herself.
(This is just my personal interpretation)
The DVD box sets for Utena have booklets that include translated commentaries by the director Kunihiko Ikuhara.
IKUHARA'S COMMENTARY
Episode 38
There’s one thing I remained strongly conscious of since we were producing the opening sequence, and that was the final duel. When the prince awakened, the “dueling arena tower” would crumble. Right before the series began its broadcast run, we were producing a promotional TV spot, and so I was thinking up the narration for it.
“I’m going to be a prince!”
I had a premonition. I knew that line must have meaning.
Episode 39
There are two meanings to the Japanese word utena. One is “the calyx of a flower.” That’s also the meaning of the title, of course. The thing that supports the beautiful petals; the one with the noble heart. And the other meaning of utena is “tall tower or pedestal.” We translated this into a visual: the tower at the center of Ohtori Academy, the one with the Chairman’s room on the top floor. And the dueling arena located deep in the woods is the same.
In the early stages of production, when the story wasn’t firmly established yet, this was one of the aspects I most wanted to visualize and produce for the screen.
A world where demons roam. In its center, a tower called the “Tower of Revolution.” Whosoever can remain victorious in his battles against the demons can reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution, and at the same time receive the power to revolutionize the world; the power that changes the rules of the world.
However, when he reaches the pinnacle, he learns the world’s govering laws.
He faces the ultimate choice: will he stay nobly, beautifully powerless? Or will he accept ugliness into himself and gain absolute power?
He desired both.
Or rather, perhaps he couldn’t choose either.
His mind in anguish, he divided himself in two. His “noble heart,” and the “adult with absolute power.”
And so.
With one last wish that the day would come when someone would awaken him, the “noble heart” that had lost its body, in other words the prince, fell into a deep sleep.
Early on in the series’s conception, I kicked around the idea of placing something like the above at the heart of the story. Later, after several changes, it became the tale as you know it, but without doubt, he did reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution.
It was a place where “eternity” dwelled.
And “eternity” turned out to mean perpetual sleep.
The prince (Akio) who became an adult while in perpetual sleep lost something. What he lost was “the power to create an enjoyable future.”
Revolution means gaining “the power to imagine the future.”
The prince chose to sleep on, and the princess chose to wake up. At the top of that tall tower, the princess bid farewell to the prince. No - she wasn’t the princess any longer. She quit being “a person (thing) ruled by someone.” The victory bells rang, but there was no “tower (rule)” beyond them now. She’d learned where freedom lay. She crossed the threshold of that “Door of Revolution” which had always been closed for her before, and began walking. The “girls’ revolution” lay in the girl’s future.
“Wait for me… Utena.”
The world (the stage) is free and wide.
I chose not to post the last half of the commentary for Episode 23, but I promised I would post it now. It's easily the most interesting bit of the commentaries, gives a really strong explanation of the ending of the series, and I'd argue lays out one of Ikuhara's strongest themes across his works.
IKUHARA'S COMMENTARY
Episode 23
The story in episodes 11 and 12 about the dueling game. Episode 23 picks up where it left off in laying the groundwork for the final episode.
Wasn’t Mikage’s fate the same fate that Utena would eventually meet? In which case, shouldn’t it be crueler?
I tried making the person on the other end of the phone line Mikage himself.
“The path you must take is no longer prepared for you. Now graduate from this place.”
Those who reject that place are, conversely, rejected by it as well. This is the nature of systems: the moment you reject them, you are forced to realize that they’re the very ground you’re standing on. Mikage noticed the trick behind the system, and he hurriedly attempted revisions. But the adult who’d created the system just said “Let’s not,” and unilaterally brought the curtain down. The system of illusion was finished. Mikage could no longer exist there. That’s why he disappeared from the memories of those who’d interacted with him.
People’s happiness or unhappiness shouldn’t be determined by struggles over the device called “the Rose Bride.” Utena rejects the duel system.
However.
In due course Utena will be rejected by the duel system and that place, and no longer be able to exist there. This foreshadows the final scene of the series.
After all, Utena couldn't get the power to revolutionize the world.
However, Utena succeeded in revolutionizing the mind of a girl called a witch.
Everyone in Akio's world seems to have forgotten Utena, but there is also a change in their minds, and they will eventually leave this world.
The story ends when Anthy takes a step to find Utena in the outside world.
First of all, thank you for reacting to Utena. It’s quite possibly my favorite anime of all time and I’ve greatly enjoyed watching your journey through this wacky, incredible story.
I think Utena is a show that has many meanings and each person can take what they found most valuable from it, but to me the most prominent themes are related to adolescence, the cycle of abuse, misogyny, and the stories we tell ourselves and the world.
Maybe Utena couldn’t become a prince- but that’s only because “the prince” was a restrictive ideal that no person could truly embody in the first place, just like the princess/witch (aka the Madonna/Whore dichotomy in fairytale form). In the end, she couldn’t save Anthy; but with her selfless love and compassion, she helped Anthy to save herself and break out of the cycle of abuse she’d been trapped in for god knows how long. And now they’ve left for a world where they can be truly happy together- and keep their promise to drink tea and laugh ten years down the line.
Utena and Anthy have one of the most beautiful and complex love stories of all time, in my opinion, and the lesbian subtext definitely crosses the line into text at some point (the anime itself, the cut-off kiss in the end credits which does exist in uncensored form somewhere on the internet, director commentary, official art, and of course the movie, which I will not elaborate on because of spoilers). The ending shows that group photo they took where Anthy moved to get between Utena and Akio; it’s now framed, but they’ve deliberately cut Akio out of the picture, and you can see in the final shot that they were holding hands, even then. "Someday, together, we'll shine." Their relationship was so important to me as a young queer girl watching this and remains important to me to this day. Though I enjoy so many things about it, I would say that the two most meaningful aspects of the anime for me are that love story as well as Anthy’s journey to breaking free of abuse.
I would also highly recommend watching the movie at some point in time. It’s definitely worth watching and can be interpreted as a retelling or a direct sequel depending on your interpretation.
Sorry for the wall of text, haha. I guess I had more to say than I thought. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the series and hopefully we see you back for the movie at some point!
The prince comes with a white horse, kicks the door open and saves the helpless poor princess! There's clear "active" and "passive" within these two roles -- women are often (especially in Japanese culture) meant to stay passive, look after home and tend to her husbands needs. Utena can't be a prince. She's physically incapable -- her hand doesn't reach! So she needs to ask the princess, passive damsel in distress, to step in and take an action, to give her that hand. Utena couldn't save Anthy but she could help *her* to save herself. Much like in many other abusive relationships, you can't really force the help on the victim -- they need to want the help.
That's what I've always thought to be the "revolution" (or at least part of it), for a girl stuck in endless relationship, to take step towards healing and help by leaving her abuser. With Utena's help, love and friendship Anthy has courage to face the world as independent person and seek her own happiness instead of sacrificing others. It's amazing story.
The photo in the end was the photo that they took in ep 34. It means that Utena and Anthy's love/friendship was tight at that time already, even though it seemed like Akio was in between them.
It was a very wonderful reaction until the end.
Thank you for a wonderful time.
And June 9 is the day when Tomoko Kawakami, who is a voice actor who played Tenjou Utena, died.
I will never forget her.
2019年にウテナを視聴してくれてありがとうございます。
色々な解釈ができるエンディングなので、また時間が経ったら見返すと違う発見があるかもしれません。
39話の長い視聴、お疲れ様でした❗
Thank you for watching Utena in 2019. It is an ending that can be interpreted in various ways, so if you look back over time there may be different discoveries. Long watch of 39 episodes, thank you very much
the last episode of utena is my favorite last episode of anything ever
You have to watch Adolescence of Utena next. I'd say it's worth watching for the visuals alone, but it is a great companion piece to the show imo.
binged your reactions in about a week, i've enjoyed every video! your commentary was always interesting and well thought out, and i'm glad you gave this old anime a chance.
as to what i took away from utena, well... i watched it when i was a young high school girl struggling with internal bullshit, and while i don't know if i consciously took anything from it at the time, i can see now as an adult what an influence it had on my identity. live your life, bravely and with style indeed.
Glad you liked Utena, it's one of my favourites.
As others have said, definitely watch Adolescence of Utena, it's a great film, crazy as it can be.
Also you might be interested in checking out Utena's predecessors, like Oniisama e..., Rose of Versailles or Sailor Moon. While Utena stands perfectly well on its own, it's still interesting to watch these keeping Ikuhara in mind, you can find plenty of things that would later come up in Utena in some form or other.
Thank you. This was a show I knew I needed to rewatch with an adult eye, but it was more enjoyable sharing that journey rather than doing it alone
by even saving only one person, you made a difference afterall
I never imagine foreigners watch Rinbu Revolution. This is 9 out of 10 master piece👍
Utena (the representation of Will) finally understands the pain that Anthy (the representation of Consciousness) has been getting for each of the duels that happened in the school. All of these duels are duels we have in our life; envy, friendship, love, complexes, wrath, etc. Who has been the one taking the hits for all of them? What are all these swords?
Utena (the representation of Will) has finally rejected Akio (the representation of Idealism, the castle in the sky) as the master of her soul, and for a second, she made contact with Anthy (Consciousness).
What we see at the very end ia Anth (Consciousness) going after Utena (the Will). It's an allegory of a human being that has revolutionized. A human that has been freed from the control of Idealism (Akio), a human that no longer duels with himself, a human that is finally free. Therefore a human driven by Consciousness.
That is why Anthy is going after Utena.
ngl, it's a lot of reading (like well into full size book length lol) but vraikaiser's consulting analyst series on this show was absolutely vital to my understanding and grappling with the headier concepts and ways ikuhara likes to apply and make connections with metaphor. also the movie fucking rips once you (mostly, kinda) get it
also re: "In the end, all girls are like the Rose Bride," i think this is most strongly ties into anthy's role (in many ways she embodies *society's* idea of how women should act at the cost of becoming a shell she projects while living on in pain in her coffinDOYOUGETIT) specifically in how she "takes the swords in place of the prince" (think about how much abuse anthy takes from others throughout the series, even from well meaning characters like wakaba). anyways i don't know how to wrap this up and it's already longer than i meant for it to get but good show!!!! thanks for watching it
I think there are many reasons anthy stab utena. she is afraid of falling into the same power trope with akio all over again, she Also afraid the billions swords of hate and judge will torture utena for internal instead, so it may be better just die now. she think only prince aka someone who have romantic feeling for her will save her so a girl like untena will eventually leave her for another male. And i think she is holding sorrow instead when she leaves utena so we don't see her eyes
Just wanted to say absoluely wonderful and insightful commentary all the way through. Looking forward to checking out other series youve done. Keep it up!
i kind of think utena and anthy are one person's two side
So Mawaru Penguindrum next? :D
Have you considered reacting to The Rose of Versailles? I see it isn’t on your MAL. It’s a classic that Utena draws a lot of inspiration from.
If you don’t take recommendations, I apologize. Let me know and I’ll take down this comment.
I was really looking forward to your reaction.
Thank you for watching Utena.
Great reaction! You really did this series justice.
Super hyped for Mo Dao Zu Shi!!!!!
don't forget to watch the movie
The story Juri tells reminds me of the manga sort of, where Utena meets the prince when he saves her from her trying to drown herself. I kind of like how the manga ends more to be honest.
The creator of utena wasnt allowed to do alot, like for example he wanted anthy and utena to clerly kiss and end up together, so im comes the movie!
I hope you watch the movie! Or at least give a review on it :) Anyway, thank you for taking the time to react to this wonderful anime and getting so invested in it.
In my opinion none of the characters in Utena are hatable. Touga says and does some heinous stuff but in the next scene he's just a guy, he can make jokes and be nice to Utena occasionally. Even Akio to an extent, they all feel so multidimensional.
Omg have you seen the movie? Director was finally allowed to have them kiss!
Attention！！！☆STAR DRIVER☆
So, when is the movie reaction?
What happened to your saiki kusuo reactions???
Please react to the Movie please!
Can't wait for you to watch Mo Dao Zu Shi!
Since you're done with the show, why not try Fruits Basket, the reboot?
Anthy wtf! 😂