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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ส.ค. 2024
- first "part" to this video: • is revolutionary girl ...
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patreon: / stushi
twitter: / stushixstushi
tumblr: @stushixstushi
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Unfinished: Short Creek (Elissa Wall's story): www.witnesspod...
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biggest thanks to leftoversalad for the camera/visuals/editing coaching, they make Good comics checkem: leftoversalad.com
and OBVIOUSLY my eternal gratitude to Empty Movement and the blessed community they have built: ohtori.nu
give them your money for being single-handedly responsible for 90% of Utena content that exists on the internet today: / empty_movement
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chapters:
00:00 prologue
2:28 what makes akio a Good Villain?
7:08 what even happened to anthy and dios?
12:12 why doesn't anthy leave?
15:42 anthy FEELS? (yes)
26:45 who holds power?
31:07 CANCEL CULTURE BAYBEE
36:24 who saves anthy?
40:24 anthy is free
43:37 epilogue
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#utena
#revolutionarygirlutena
#stushi
This is an anime video analysis video essay of the anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena, Shojo Kakumei Utena, RGU, SKU. Anitube, feminism, psychology, lesbians, gay, cancel culture, patriarchy, Ikuhara, etc.
"Let me know in the comments what you think about Akio, is he a good man actually?"
Okay! Challenge accepted! Let's give this a shot!
(the tl;dr is "not in the slightest" but also it's complex)
Something that makes me gag to even write - A Completely Lukewarm Defence of Akio;
The man Akio becomes is a manipulative, abusive monster, and imo entirely irredeemable. His death being such a small deal in the movie is important - he is just a coward who thinks he has power over these vulnerable teens, but when actually confronted, he just straight up dies rather than face accountability. So, yeah, fuck that guy. Terrible person.
But how he got there, I'd say, is a touch more... hm. Not sympathetic. But understandable. In the same sorts of ways that Anthy's eventual betrayals and backstabbings are understandable. Even if they're still kinda shitty things to have done.
So, let's maybe not look directly at Akio. Let's look at Dios. This boy - this "Prince" - is clearly trying to carry completely unreasonable expectations. He's supposed to be there for Every Princess (every woman), and to be eternally giving, eternally gallant, and eternally heroic - to fight everyone else's battles for them, tirelessly, until he breaks and can't do it any more. He breaks, and the punishment for failing to live up to completely impossible standards is Anthy's eternal torture, and his eternal failure.
I just wonder how the hell he was supposed to pull off this ideal of heroism - it was unsustainable, and self destructive. I question whether Dios even knew who he was or what his identity was, given that he is portrayed to be entirely giving himself to others, or living as a Prince to play to other people's expectations. Dios as the Prince is a masculine mirror to the Rose Bride; both aren't really autonomous humans, but merely making themselves into dolls to please whoever they're with.
If we take an even darker set of comparisons - Akio is playing a really bleak system, and engaging in that system, in order to break Anthy out of her coffin and "save" her. Utena engages in the duels - knowingly engaging in a really bleak and problematic system, in order to try to "save" her. Aren't they also both similar, in a way? Just, Akio is the darkest possible mirror to what being a White Knight Prince could be.
(this is a disingenuous comparison - of course they're both radically different, but what I believe it shows us is that Akio may not always have been this level of monster, and that he is, unfortunately, actually very human - and at times has "good" motivations. This doesn't redeem his horrific acts. )
So - what does that leave us with? A perverse mix of a man who is at once powerless and lacking in his own agency, merely a doll to the whims and wants of others, and also the most powerful and free character in the show - a man whose agency surpasses even Utena's. I don't think the text really indicates that he switched from one to the other overnight, either.
I guess the main thing I'm trying to say is; Akio is not *actually* an inhuman monster. I believe that we see enough of him to tell that he's been, at least at one point, a man who had a sense of human decency (albeit in a selfless, doll-like way), and took it to extremely self destructive ends. We've then seen him also go to extreme lengths to try to "rescue" Anthy, too.
But, "rescuing" someone, and actually caring about someone's wellbeing and agency are completely different things. At some point, Akio stopped caring for Anthy's best interests - or perhaps he never *truly* did. Eventually, his ideal of being a white knight to come to the rescue fell apart - and, in the same way he could no longer be A Prince for the world, he couldn't be A Prince for Anthy, and couldn't actually save her.
Perhaps he came to believe that the act of trying to save others, or look out for others' best interests was synonymous with the self-destructive level of Playing Prince that he once did? And thus, took to increasingly selfish acts as his version of "self care"?
Eventually he seems to abandon all pretences of trying to do good by others, and becomes fully selfish, abusive, cowardly trash. A liar and manipulator to the end. Irredeemable, and, ultimately, a failure. He never rescues Anthy; she rescues herself.
tl;dr -
My conclusion: Akio, for being the most despicable character I've ever seen in media, is actually not altogether evil. He's a man who was placed in completely unmanageable circumstances, bent over backwards to try to do right, failed, and became steadily more and more twisted as he gave into his worst impulses. He's a man with trauma - but instead of trying to handle his trauma well and reclaim his agency in a healthy way, he instead opts to try to regain a sense of control by coercing and controlling others, and eventually falls into the cycle of abuse - by becoming the worst abuser in the show.
Trauma and abuse killed Dios. Reviving the cycle of abuse and becoming the abuser creates Akio from Dios's remains.
He's a monster. And he's human. And the reason he scares me so much isn't because he's a supervillain. It's because of how *human*, how *real* he is. Anyone could become like him if they choose to engage in their worst possible impulses - and many, *many* men do.
Yes yes yes yes and yes!!!!!! This is a perfect encapsulation of my thoughts about him as well. I had a hard time writing in a nuanced way about how Akio is, in the end, just a human being like any other, because it very easily can come across as trying to excuse him of his actions (the internet does not thrive off nuanced takes, sadly.) But this is such a wonderfully thoughtful comment that does a much better job than I could have, so thank you for taking the time to put all this together!
I love this so so much!
that's how i remember feeling when i watched it.
Anthy’s scapegoating also seems rooted in her quite literally defying the whole idea of the prince: the myth of the prince is based singularly in him saving the girls of the world and making them princesses. So in Anthy saying she’s “killed” the prince, she becomes a girl, a princess, with agency in spite of-and even because of-not being saved by the prince.
Because of that, as is in real life, Anthy is vilified as a witch because she has power outside of the patriarchal power structure that governs society’s understanding of how the world should work.
Wow!
i feel like utena is one of those series that's best when you consciously try to distance yourself from the typical 'shipping' lens that's common within most fandoms. (disclaimer: i am a lesbian who likes utenathy). utena/anthy is great and their relationship plays a major role in the story, but i'd argue that the focus of the series isn't on romance. as you said, it's a story about surviving and eventually breaking free of abuse. utena and anthy are never really 'canon' gfs because akio's abuse, their own mental health, and societal norms do not allow for that. and that's okay, i think. it's actually a very realistic and mature way of portraying relationships, which in turn adds to the series' overall theme of transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. sometimes you just don't have the chance to explore your very real attraction to someone due to extenuating circumstances. sometimes the time isn't right for you to dive headfirst into a relationship, especially one that revolutionizes (heh) your life and overall view of the world. both of those scenarios are true for utena and anthy. i feel like if utena had directly saved anthy from akio by becoming her new prince and explicitly stated romantic partner, then that would have been an unsatisfactory conclusion that contradicts the themes developed throughout the whole series. in the finale, the focus shifts to anthy taking control over her own future for the first time since she made the decision to hide akio all those years ago. despite her initial betrayal and rejection of utena, she chooses a future that will eventually lead her to utena. it's a pretty beautiful ending, since it emphasizes anthy's autonomy while also acknowledging the important role that utena played in helping her break free from akio.
that's what i think sets RGU apart from other series with heavy gay 'subtext' that's never outright confirmed. RGU portrays implicit attraction between women without necessarily trying to cover it up or treat it as taboo. imo the reason why utena/anthy never become truly 'canon' is not due to network censors (though that may have admittedly played a role in it), but instead because RGU was never intended as a traditional romance story. RGU subverts a lot of expectations, including the viewer's assumption that the attraction displayed between anyone in the series will build into a legitimate romantic relationship. this happens time and time again with utena/anthy, utena/touga, juri/shiori, nanami/(the boy i forget the name of) etc. and even when it seems inevitable that nanami and touga will have to, uh... address their own sort of tension, it's still ultimately revealed that neither of them actually have romantic feelings for each other. the only hinted relationship that ever somewhat 'happens' is utena/akio, and the series does an excellent job of portraying just how disturbing and harmful their (disgusting illegal excuse for) ''''romance''''' truly is. seeing the abuse that akio inflicts upon her really drives home the fact that utena is just a teenager who doesn't know what she wants with her life, who hasn't had a chance to truly live yet, who has a curious longing for relationships but no knowledge of how to navigate them, and who above all isn't ready to become an adult.
TLDR, i wouldn't necessarily consider RGU 'great lesbian rep', but that's okay because that's not what the series was trying to do. it wasn't trying to tell a grand lesbian love story, it was instead a story of two girls who help each other through the most difficult time of their lives....while being a little gay in the process
uh. sorry for writing an essay in your replies, but i really liked this video. and your hair is also super cool. i've binge watched RGU video essays all afternoon so i appreciate all the work you put into this.
I always thought that at a story level what child anthy did to dios in the barn was steal his soul sword, like the black rose duelists do (i mean why else would the sword of dios be pulled out of anthy's chest?). Metaphorically i think it fits too, the sword-stealing in the black rose arc vaguely symbolizes identity theft to compensate a sense of inferiority toward someone who's higher in the hierarchy, with murderous and rapey overtones for extra wrongness. That would also explain why anthy feels so trapped, because she's literally sharing her abuser's worldview. Also the black rose duelists are never framed as totally guilty, their violence is justified by their unfair circumstances etc
That is such an interesting concept that I'm immediately adding it to my own interpretation
This rules
i think the fax machine is to convey the timeless ambiguity of when in time this scene takes place, and that it most likely didn't take place exactly how it's shown
Yep! The time period and style are intentionally bizarre and incongruent because it is a "fairytale".
Adding to that: we can see the machine is constantly receiving and printing messages which can be interpreted as the constant demands of humanity, endless requests for the prince to fulfill
@@javier10541 holy shit that makes a lot of sense!
I take it as the stacking list of helpless princesses due for Dios to save
look. akio is literally just the "sigma male archetype" and Utena predicted all the memes. similar to how the simpsons predicted trump, or evangelion predicted gay e-boy depression
sounds like a great topic for someone to make a whole other video about tbh
“Predicted”
Everything about Otori Academy is fake and our beloved main character just gives the finger to a manufactured reality by leaving Akio's grasp. The movie amplifies this idea.
For Evangelion, it didn't predict anything. The angsty male protagonist already existed in the original Mobile Suit Gundam and its sequels. Seriously, just count the number of times Amuro Ray angsts in the original MSG 0079 TV series and even the compilation film trilogy. But, of course, where Amuro grew as a person... only to become a PTSD-suffering veteran in Zeta, Shinji is... shall we say... brutally realistic in his reactions. Yes, it's annoying, but it's true. I doubt any one of us would truly react differently from Shinji if we were placed in his shoes.
Ok, so, your comment is older now, and I only heard about him in 2022, but Akio is the precursor to Andrew Tate, I think
Something not mentioned: it's hinted at that Akio believes his abuse of Anthy isn't for his own pleasure, but for her protection. It's likely she disassociates to the point she can't feel the pain of the swords in her, a constant, ever present agony she is living through on the regular. The constant abuse he tells himself is for HER, so she isn't in as much pain. That he is doing a good thing. Which actually makes it worse that he has convinced himself hurting her is the only way to protect her and help her that he has after he has failed over and over to open the door and change the world. You can also see the progression of abuse, she used to visit Akio on the weekends, because living with her betrothed was more important for the plan and being a perfect bride. But I'll bet Utena being around her and being caring towards her is pulling her out of her disassociation bit by bit. She wants things for herself. She feels things more. And that makes the pain worse and worse to the point Akio has to abuse her every night to try and keep it at bay, but her guilt and agony only continues to grow to supernatural levels that for a split second--even /Utena/ can see the swords pierce her at the edges of reality.
That's also probably another reason why Anthy doesn't want to leave him. His constant abuse numbs the pain, keeps her trapped and safe in her coffin. Outside it is painful, outside with Utena is scary and it /hurts/. Akio makes the pain go away and Utena brings it all back in to focus. She has given up on escape. Dios is dead. She genuinely believes the only one who could come close to helping her is Akio, who numbs her out to the point it doesn't bother her as much. But just like every other character, she has to wake up and leave her coffin eventually, even if it is scary and even if it hurts.
The whole video was great, but I absolutely died at the Saionji meme. All three of the main dudes, just the straightest straights sitting straightly on top of the sex symbol car shirtless posing straightly. So straight.
They should've made saionji develop a crush on touga that touga uses to manipulate him.
Wait didn't they kinda do that anyway.
she-ra was pretty good btw i just think hordak is really fun to make fun of
and you're absolutely right
The scene of Utana "cracking the world's shell" and Anthy reaching out reminded me of the end of She-ra. I'd be curious to know if the animators purposely alluded to Utana
@@rebekahsoliday8571 i'm pretty sure both the scene in the Princess Ball episode where Adora stops Catra from falling off the ledge and the finale Catra saving Adora things are inspired by RGU
@@rebekahsoliday8571 They absolutely did. There are side by sides of it that are quite damning. :D
wait! I just realized that Chuchu turns in his earring and tie at the end of the last episode. akio also wears a tie and earring! I don't know what this is supposed to mean, but the revelation I had realizing this blew my mind
I had the same reaction as you! So after some digging and thinking I came up with an answer that unfortunately had to be cut from the vid. But I made a whole thread about it here if you're curious!
twitter.com/stushixstushi/status/1410012699262554113?s=19
@@stushi oh ok, that's kinda cute at face value! I had an idea early on when I was watching it that Chuchu was secretly chibi Dios. If I had caught that he was doing an Akio cosplay sooner that would have definitely fed into it
I don't think kidAnthy had sex with kidDio. Her dress wouldn't show in that angle, that's all. What that scene represents is showing her loving her brother to the point it pained her to see him like that. When she says she "sealed" him away, I think she was just lying so they'd leave him alone. In truth he was just inside, resting. But because she made it sound like she had the power to seal him away, she was called a witch... And got treated as such, as punishment for "taking" their beloved prince away.
Btw, not sure if relevant but Dio sounds like Dios, which is the latin word for God. I always wondered if the Prince allegory wasn't how people expected God to solve all their issues, and this girl being like "I'm gonna save God from this abuse by saying he can't help them anymore".
But her being cursed into getting stabbed every year - and Akio just being there, as a former shelf of what he once were... and being and abusive shit... I don't know, the metaphor failed me there a bit. Maybe it's because God died, and the World "ended" because of it.
But I always took that phrase to mean the world ends because there's no time progression after that event: reality just loops. I just don't see the point in the Rose Duels. Why the hell were DiosAkio and Anthy so convinced the Champion's sacrifice would open Anthy's coffin and break the loop and... This show gives me massive mindfuvk headaches ngl.
That’s how I viewed it also
i dont think anthy "sealed dios away" by having sex w him or taking his virginity and im a bit confused where everyone's getting this from
sex esp non-consensual sex was portrayed in the show as a tool male characters (mainly akio) use to control girls and i dont see what purpose it can serve by flipping it around in the flashback to turn it into anthy's tool of exerting control
What Akio is to Utena is what Griffith is to Berserk. We hate them, we really do and it's ridiculous how well written they are that we end up ... Liking? Their character for how complex their villainy is
That's not completely a coincidence considering how much shojo anime/manga did influence kentaro miura w/ berserk.
Also brings to point that w/ both of those characters there are legit ppl who unironically believe neither did anything wrong and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Yeeee the Griffith/Akio comparison is one I was exposed to recently, u can see some of my thoughts in this thread: twitter.com/postitanyways/status/1425303152991948800?s=19
15:02 reminds me of a quote from Micheal on The Good Place that I always have applied to Anthy's reluctance to leave and better her situation. “The point is, people improve when they get external love and support. How can we hold it against them when they don’t?”
Not saying it's impossible to better yourself or leave an abusive situation on your own.. it can be done. But dealing with ANY of these situations is so much easier when you have someone in your life that truly cares and has your back. A truly supportive friend.
Ohtori main tower (where Akio lives) is also SOOO phallic. it literally looks like the thing.
And have you noticed in the prince/witch tale the shadow girls present, how the prince always expect a kiss after saving someone? Maybe that has something to do with the prince being "sealed" by Anthy. And the fax machine probably just represents how busy Dios was.
This video is concentrated Utena fandom meme action, including how you still end up crying in the end even though you started with hilarious dunking.
Also the transition from closet cosplay Akio to closet cosplay Anthy I SEE THOSE EARRINGS
@@emptymovement i wasn't even TRYING to be subtle
@@emptymovement also i like the idea of calling it a "closet" cosplay
In my view, the backstory is definitely from Anthy's perspective, and much like other Utena characters, her perspective is flawed based on the simplistic assumptions she had about the world. Hence why she views it as her perfect noble prince brother getting sealed away by her witchy impureness when she 'sleeps with him.' But outside her nostalgic/simplistic perspective, it's clear that this story is not so accurate. And I think what distorting Anthy's perspective is that she was probably groomed by Akio.
So like, although it's framed as her choosing to sleep with him to seal him off from the world, that's kind of a wild thing for a child to choose to do, especially since there's no logical connection between sleeping with someone and sealing off someone from the world. That sounds more like the narrative of a groomer. You see it a lot.
The groomer is a poor victim of their society, and they just neeeed your 'help.' But obviously you don't have to give it to them, but they're just sooo sad and lonely. And isn't the groomer so kind and nice to you?
And then you even see the 'stabbed by the wrath of the world' thing when people find out about the relationship. The groomer often acts like it's the child's fault for seducing them, you'll see them begging the victim to tell the world that it was the child's idea, that it was the child's fault, she's an impure 'seducing' witch, leading to the child getting shamed and 'stabbed' in place of the groomer.
It's taking advantage of the child's naivety about the world and shaping it so that the groomer can use them. So to Anthy, she feels so much shame and guilt about ruining her idealized prince, but the reality is that he probably never existed in the first place. It was just the facade of Akio to her naive child self, although it can be debated how much intentionality Akio had when he did this.
@tangent94 had a great point about this, that children often are physically affectionate and not yet aware of what's appropriate and innappropriate affection with family. "I can absolutely see a distressed child trying to comfort a sibling and it coming out as like, trying to kiss their neck or something. and then Akio, old enough to know it was inappropriate but at the correct age to make terrible decisions based on overwhelming feelings and a very confusing new libido, escalated because it made him feel better."
So it might not have been intentional grooming and scapegoating on his part with Anthy at first. He probably really was struggling with living up to an ideal, the same way 'nice guys' are struggling with male entitlement and being 'good' to women. But I definitely think that by the time he's pulling the shit at Ohtori, he is him fully leaning into it/not growing from it and intentionally doing it.
It's been years and i wake up everyday and I still find it hard to believe that Utena ever happening against all the numerous odds wasn't a miracle, i would say that it looks like it could have been written yesterday but rather it still feel, sadly, a head of our current times to the point it looks like the beyond "the ends-of-our-world" melancholic crowning of animation in the japanese 90s "gay boom", both in artstyle and storytelling.
it does feel that way to me too. every time I watch it my mind goes "how did this ever get made?". It really is one of a kind for that era and still is, otherwise it would have likely lost relevance over time as others surpassed it. For better or worse (probably worse), it still remains leagues ahead of anything else.
@@stushi For a long while, in my ignorance, i thought that Utena couldn't have happened the way it did if it hasn't had happened in Japan, but after some research, it still was also very unlikely to have happened in 90s Japan, they're not that better, what we see in TV oftentimes don't reflect reality, real Japan is not the Japan portrayed in "Cardcaptor Sakura".
Also the reason Touga is MIA for the second half of the show is because his seiyuu Takahito Koyasu had other obligations to attend to :33 but having Touga just fuck off to his room having a narcissistic breakdown was v in character
Great decision by the production!
XD
To me the barn symbolizes them taking "a roll in the hay" the fax machine is the never ended stream of work required of Akio.
I also take this scene as a bit inaccurate. I think Akio was probably actually to blame and Anthy blames herself, she "seduced" him is thrown at victims often and i can definitely see Akio gaslighting and turning the situation on Anthy (i mean there's still gotta be an age gap involved right?)
I see Akio portraying himself as small, weak and defenseless to Anthy's wiles.
The swords and the people attacking her feels like what happens to real life victims when their abuser is a successful, popular, powerful and handsome, they're almost always blamed.
Edit: The manga implies Dios always had a dark side (they call him Akio) and eventually he got tired of being good and just started doing whatever he wanted. They're also ageless, timeless implied gods.
Having interacted with young children before, i think it could be that she """"seduced"""" him in the sense of making a romantic/sexual gesture toward him without understanding what it actually meant. Small children are often big on physical affection and lack an understanding of the difference between romantic and familial love, and which kinds of gestures are acceptable in what contexts. Like it's really common for 4 year olds to ask to marry their family members, rub their crotches against anything and anyone until they're told not to, and think it's fine to literally kiss someone's ass. I can absolutely see a distressed child trying to comfort a sibling and it coming out as like, trying to kiss their neck or something. and then Akio, old enough to know it was inappropriate but at the correct age to make terrible decisions based on overwhelming feelings and a very confusing new libido, escalated because it made him feel better.
Yoooooo, amazing work! One thing I really think you should look into and do further analysis on, though, is the Utena movie, The Adolescence of Utena, and how it relates to the series. You mentioned that you felt like RGU isn't necessarily the best lesbian rep because we don't actually really get to fully experience them realizing their relationship, and I thought that too before I saw the movie, but once I saw the movie I was honestly so mind blown at how satisfying and positive the ending was and how realized the relationship became (and even how tangible it is, and how accepting Anthy is of herself and her desire for Utena, from the beginning), especially if you interpret the movie as a continuation of the show's story that follows a much more self-realized Anthy and it being more from her point of view and about her helping Utena find her freedom and truth this time around, and then Anthy and Utena finding freedom together in order to pursue their relationship outside of the confines of the school's constructed reality and norms.
Thank you for this thoughtful and empathetic analysis of Anthy. I feel some of people who dislike her underestimate how hard it is to escape abusive relationships.
I always assumed Aiko had never been a true prince from the start but that it was Anthy's power that helped make him a kind and good prince who saved others.
"[...] a godforsaken symbolism hellscape of a show." - stushi (2021)
very accurate. I look forward to exploring the links in the doobly-doo. Also please review the Adolescence of Utena! Or maybe one of the live action stage plays!
Someone else said it but my take on the fax machine was that it was also to make it unclear what era it takes place in. There's lots of moments where the show blatanty messes with what you would expect to be physically logical/consistent, and my theory is that it's to make you give up reading the show literally and to remind you to look at the symbolism and themes. By putting something weird like a fax machine, it could invite the viewer to think more about what the location/time means. Or that the time this is happening in doesn't matter, and what matters is the dynamic between Anthy and Akio.
Or Ikuhara put it there to fuck with everyone and I've been obsessed with this fax machine and thinking about it for a long time for no reason and just waiting to tell someone in a youtube comment that I've been thinking about the fax machine sooooo much
I love the not akio in the description. the only true answer to the question.
re: "maybe they killed touga off because they didn't like his VA or sometihng" actually pretty close to the truth. touga's VA was really busy with some other project during the black rose arc, which is why he has like 1/2 a voice line in those 12 or so episodes. I've seen it confirmed that they were going to put in tougas backstory (same as the movie.. 😰) but were unable to because of this scheduling conflict.
Great vid btw, will be checking out the previous one and the rest of your channel! love your memes :)
I love your sense of humor. Also, i love watching videos about utena. To me, thinking about utena is so much better than actually watching it (except for the last 6 or 7 episodes, those are wonderful).
This is so true lol
This video is a masterpiece of dissecting such complex characters.
This series hits me like no other, and listening to your analysis makes it hit harder. I really really appreciate you making these videos. I'm totally not crying pfft.
i think the fax machine in the old barn shows that we don't know how much time exactly passed - in the movie (maybe in the show as well, I'm not sure) there were people in modern suites for office jobs - and the point is: it doesn't matter at all. what matters is the fact that Anthy is suffering, not how exactly long
This is so gooood!!! I love the way you edit, and write your videos! Anthy's story hits me so hard, because of how hard I relate (abused and Brown etc). Your comments about time, and how it flows different in abuse stuck with me. It really is so easy (difficult to endure tho) for years and years to go by without change, and to keep enduring the abuse hoping for things to get better, or trying to be happy at small doses of good treatment/things happening. That's why Anthy walking away makes me so happy; that must have been so hard, but imagine how free she is (I hope that's me some day). Also, that ending quote "Someday, together, we'll shine" My (pretty gay) HEART!
Also your Saionji rant is really spot on, and I would love to hear more. Like, I kinda feel bad for Saionji, and I wanna like him, but why is he like thaaaat !!
But your earrings? I did a ctrl-f to see if anybody else had noticed them..... truly a god-tier detail
Hehe thank u! Empty movement noticed....somewhere in a comment thread, but since u can't find it let's just say u were the first 🏆
@@stushi yaaay a technicality!
I absolutely loved your first video so I had high expectations for this one, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed at all! Your editing style is so fucking funny and I love your analysis!
Hope to see more from you in the future!
this is so sweet thank you so much!!
He's probably the most evil character in fiction I have ever read, and simultaneously the most realistic.
I love the black Rose arc. You got to see more characters deal with more circumstances.
the fax machine is prayers for rescue from the princess, that is constantly running as the sheer number of people who need his help.
Literally cried tbh. Thanks
anytime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In no small amount I am subsisted from the trickle of thoughtful content created by Utena fans old and new. It is because of efforts from good people like you that I get to see another year to contemplate, and further obsess over my consistent addiction to all things Utena and Ikuhara related. The revolution of social progress will never end, so we must have the courage to imagine a new, better future to break the world's egg. For without that vision and courage a new world can never be born. I look forward to a day when works like theses become outdated because our social and political consciousness has progressed beyond the feedback loops of fear, survivalism and the general "dominator model" that we accept currently within structurers of power and control. In short, thank you for your work and for showing restraint by not mentioning Chu-Chu even once.
That last sentence broke me
@@stushi
Akio is one of my favourite anime villains! He's so realistic and fascinating, and watching this anime helped me recognise this type of person in real life.
If you live in a fairytale... real information is power. Most of the characters in Utena live in 'fairytale bliss' where they play their roles/parts in the story as written, take turns making moves/ 'playing the game', and don't actively seek out anything other than how to win the affections of their 'love'. In truth, Akio AND Anthy are the most powerful characters in the story because they know they are in a story; Anthy just believes she is incapable of leaving because she would have to sacrifice everything she knows and loves to leave.
Utena is Anthy's true 'Prince' not because of any part she played in the story, but rather because when Utena was not playing a part...when she was just being herself... Utena gave Anthy the strength to use her power and let go of everything she has ever known and just be herself as well. So Anthy finally changes her fate, kills the 'Prince' and leaves the story Akio has created to go on and create her own story...one where she can make Utena again if she so chooses or create a story completely different.
In the end, the choice is entirely, finally, Anthy's own; The princess gets to write her own story...that is the only way that the princess can be truly happy, after all... Who would want their life's story written entirely for them without their consent?
Thank you for this video and for the succinct explanations there-in; I adore Utena and I believe its messaging/themes should be shared, thanks for doing so.
Also your editing is incredible and your arguments are really well done leading to really, really high quality video essays! They’re just so good! Aaaaaa I’m sending them to my friends who have finished utena they’re so good ncnfkdkdk
Omg thank u so much!!
@@stushi also seeing you like, stimming in the video was great as a fellow neurodivergent person! I have a lot of anxiety about that and for you to do it so naturally really helped alleviate that somewhat! :)
@@aphroditeclown9034 haha do u mean my body rocking back and forth at certain parts?? I'm kinda amazed u noticed (or...is it super noticeable??) I guess I didn't really think about it explicitly since that's just kinda How I Be irl 🤷♀️ but happy to have unintentionally given u some anxiety relief!
@@stushi I meant like during a specific part you started moving your hands a lot and pressed them against your face and stuff. I don’t remember exactly when it was.
We love to see the Thanos shade.
18:06 head empty anthys spaghetti
this mini series of utena analysis you’ve done has to be my favourite i’ve seen so far!!!
Dude I have been looking forward to the second part for a looong time. Ever since I saw that there was a fairly recent video on Utena I had pretty high hopes. I highly valued your opinions and the very unique way you present them bc its entertaining. I also attempted to write a Utena analysis based around other analyses I've watched along with my thoughts, your analysis was very essential.
Thank you!! I hope you write your analysis, and pls share it w me if you do 💖
Both this and your last video were incredible! I just finished the show yesterday, and I'm happy I did. If I watched it a year earlier I might have missed this great channel!
That image you used on 13:58 is brilliant.
Ah I JUST got into Utena after putting it off for so long and I literally LOVE your analysis!!! I feel like you could literally analyze this show forever and there’d still be more to uncover, and that’s one of the great parts about it!!!
Come on anthy is mega relatable
Im just finished Utena few days ago and i discovered your content recently and aahhhh im in love with your Utena content so much.
both extremely fantastic videos, i've been an utena fan for almost 10 years now, it's so cool people constantly have something interesting to say about this show
Really great video, I'm happy to see that Utena has gathered more attention in recent years
Utena at any given moment: " No thoughts, head Anthy"
Akio: Excellent Villain. Amazing Writing. Genuine Fave as a character, and Unfortunately he does radiate coolness.
Also Akio: I hate this man with a passion and by god while he definitely had it rough in the past, in the present uh, wow fuck you dude. Just...Fuck you.
Always figured Demon for the Princess to Witch Analogue. Lord knows they throw enough Lucifer/morningstar/devil symbolism all over Akio and as i'm realizing as i type this witches are supposed to cavort with demons/the devil which is where they get their power which is a whole other symbolic minefield given that whole....
thing.
It's honestly something that makes it weird trying to figure out who hurt who and where blame lies in it because on one hand it's extremely obviously true that Akio is the source of at least the modern problems but then the show kinda implies that Very Literally Anthy has the power here but she's ceded it to Akio and that's why things are kinda fucked...Well HAD the power, but she ceded it (perhaps not realizing that the Brother She loved was dead (possibly literally, possibly figuratively? Probably both, because damn if the show doesn't also have this thing with patterns breaking inevitably causing things to go absolutely sideways and the way it's framed also suggests that the pattern of Prince fights until they die and that's part of why Anthy broke that particularly pattern but whoops like every other time a pattern breaks in the show something is about to go absolutely sideways somewhere for someone.)
Which, getting away from things a bit there. Cause then you have the movie which you can read as a straight sequel piece I think, and Akio just...Dudes a clown. He's still obviously a scumbag there, but in keeping with Ohtori as some weird fucked up time prison, Like he's surface level cool and then that bombshell vid drops and...Oh man it suddenly paints absolutely everything he's doing as someone trying desperately to seem cooler and more mature than they actually are. And that even kinda stretches backwards as I'm thinking about it what with the mimosa thing while your sister is getting turned into a pincushion, or how it kinda reads how anyone who has even a minorly nuanced reading of things has to get kicked out of the academy (Mikage by rights actually seems to understand things well /enough/ and thinking about it i'm wondering if he and that arc are supposed to basically give context to Akio/Dios....tangents)
But yeah, Akio, Cool Writing but Fuck that Guy.
Stushi is back!!!
even though i was really confused abt the ending (yk all that stuff abt utena's destiny) it felt so nice to see that anthy finally broke free from akio's hands
💛 i am really happy you made this video. Made my day today, and i really enjoyed your perspective
I watched this anime in the last year and it immediately jumped into my top 5. This series is beautiful, this is ART.
Your thanos roast at the beginning was beautiful.
So, this isn't my first time watching this essay. I've watched it before, as well as your first video on RGU. Both are really well scripted, well edited, and well mixed for that fine sense of "Existentialism, but funny." Well done!
That being said, I can't help but think about your thoughts on the end, how this is just one revolution that finds itself facing a new direction. So many don't, though. There are so many women (and men, and those in between) who still sit in abusive cultures, be it personal or professional. What happens when someone breaks free to never return? Who's next on the list of people that can be manipulated for the abuser's gain? How many still sit thinking that "this is just normal" and "this is how it'll always work?" It's a heavy topic to think about. Yes, Anthy broke the cycle, said enough is enough with encouragement by Utena, and decided to leave on her own volition. But who takes her place in the story, in the fairytale of Ohtori? Who becomes the witch after so long, does anyone step up and be that, or do we think that Akio is just...left alone? I wonder about this every time the ending is discussed, because for many abusers, they don't do the work to stop the hate and violence within them, for whatever reason. Many choose to not look at themselves critically, because that means looking at their flaws and their blind spots, and if they're so abrasive and open with their abuse, chances are they might have other tendencies for other neurological disorders as well.
So while I'm happy for Anthy finally finding her courage to step away, I'm also scared for the next person to fall into Akio's traps. Now, that doesn't matter in the context of this story, as it's Utena's and ultimately Anthy's to tell, but still, I always wonder.
Having just finished the show, one of my first impression of Akio was me thinking he's the closest representation of Drake (yes, the singer) in an animated show. The parallels are SO many that it's just so evident how much of a systematic problem it is: his unquenchable thirst for grooming underage girls, his status as this celebrity who is handsome, succesful and rich, how he tries to appear as if he's still young even though he's almost 40, how he ALWAYS gets away with it, and so on and so on.
YESSS rgu is such a wonderful story about abuse and breaking free of it and helping someone you love break free of it!!!!!
Ugh brb gonna watch utena again
This was awesome friend!! Watching this was just such a ride. Keep up the good work!!!
If I remember correctly, I read in an interview or something with Ikuhara that he put a fax machine in child Anthy's log-cabin house because he thought it'd be "funny."
The visual palate cleanser came at the exact right time, wow, I really needed that to keep from spiralling into a black hole of despair. Also this video is excellent and articulates so much about what I was feeling while watching
God I love listening to you talk about this show
Sidenote: ✨💛Your editing💛✨
I will say this about Touga disappearing for like 10eps, with a bit that I know nothing.
When he was away for 10 eps, to me, it suggested that the voice actor was sick, or dealing with issues that forced them to not be in studio for a time. Literally no recorded dialogue for those eps, but the voice added to the "Absolute Destiny Apocalypse" sequence 3 before he came back fully make me think that might be the case.
Utena is like Jojo's little sister at times with how bizarre (but brilliant) it gets. Also wonder if Utena being focused on the heinous acts of one dude in a small town like place is referencing pt4 a bit.
It comes full circle when you realize Touga is Dio's voice actor in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure :)
Bonus: pt 4 of Jojo's might reference Utena by only being 39 episodes long as well. If not, still a neat coincidence.
Double Bonus for fun: As a separate topic, Dios means god in Greek/Spanish/Itln, he mentions his duel role earlier in the series when talking about stars, a 'light in the dark' if we take the light and the series nod to darkness continuing to approach and grow, another reason for the world to hate Anthy is because they took the 'light' away from them, at the same time the brighter the light the darker the shadow. Morning Star, or coming of dawn represents his (Akio's) thought of being 'princely' saving ppl as his young/earlier incarnation?! self... Then Lucifer or fallen angel, fallen from light into dark represents who he is now. When he tells Utena flat out that he "HATES" stars, or the light, which is what she's slowly growing into for Anthy and the school he controls. =)
One more more more... xD
The series seems to share your sentiment in that you 'hope' ppl receiving justice becomes so commonplace that ppl forget the names of those who've earned it, well at the end... The ppl at the school forget who Utena is/was, just before (or after?!) Anthy leaves. Justice (maybe)
Final bonus... it's really fun to see how many things reference Utena that ppl, self included till I finally watched the anime to completion, yet to see the movie a few weeks ago, probably don't know about. From Kill La Kill's Mako referencing the Kashira Players with her "Mako Moments" (Mako and Wakaba sharing the same brain). The school being a construct for larger purposes, Ragyou and her almost being a direct 1-1 to Akio... in quite a number of ways. The "duels" Ryuko faces, the student uniforms... I can go on, it's basically Utena's daughter to me now.
Genshin Impact, Rider drawing her sword
Lots of Steven Universe
Owl House
Pokemon eps
Pink Haried Girls as tomboys/himbos
etc.
Thank you for creating this splendid video.
when the video is so good I went through a rennaisance of emotions that end in tears of joy for some reason
I didn’t know I needed this until I found your videos. More!
Have been waiting for this hehe
OMGosh! I'm so glad I came upon this video!! RGU is my life, it's found it's way into nearly everything I do and make and is such a huge part of "me"! I love the themes and symbolism and mystery and it seems that I'm still learning new stuff about it and also finding people who love it too!!
I was about 14 when I saw a bright pink VHS tape with a pink haired girl with a sword at a video store that no longer exists. My very first experience was the movie and I had ZERO idea what was happening but it was the coolest, most beautiful and intriguing thing I had ever seen! I'd wonder about the characters and if there was more to them but was content. And then I found out there was a whole SERIES!
with the movie and the cartoon of Beetlejuice, I watched the cartoon before I saw the movie and didn't like the movie that everyone loved because Beetlejuice was so mean. So when I saw the TV show it felt like all the characters were acting "wrong", especially Touga, I despised the TV show Touga. And while I thought Akio in the movie was just a silly weird guy who died, in the show he was an actual monster. But the biggest shock was Anthy!
In the early days of anime "brown skinned" characters where rare and her hair was my favorite color, I loved Anthy and saw her calm, unoffended demeanor as something to emulate. But to see the atrocities she does in the show threw me for a loop!
Over time and after many analysis videos I learned to understand her, but actually I began to like her foil, Nanami more.
Ah, sorry to ramble on but your video is so good and hilarious!
I love personal rants like this, thank you and very happy you enjoyed the video!!!
The series kills the archetypes of Princess and Witch. The movie kills the Prince. I see the movie as the next karmic wheel - everyone has either taken the next step on their journey or been left behind.
This is amazing!!!! I especially loved the part where you talked about information correlating to power in the world of RGU, I hadn't really thought of it in those terms before.
I love your Anthy earrings 🌹
Say thank u etsy 🙏🙏
Anthy is relateable to me. I kin her.
This video and your channel are SO underrated I wish more people knew about it 😭
Awesome video! I watch Utena for the first time this year and was a little baffled by the ending, but your explanation of looking at the series from Anthy’s perspective really helped me understand the symbolism of the ending. Thank you!
Okay also, this show was way more topical to me after being in an abusive relationship for 2 years. I didn't get any of it at 16. Jump to now, rewatching it is a big OUCH. I still love it though.
I love this! I love this so much! Very good video! It helped me put together a few things I didn’t realize about utena before. But I should probably sleep because yeah.
this video is amazing, a perfect analysis of the anime and a super funny person talking about it, i love you and i need other video about Utena
IT'S HERE!!!
this is really interesting :))) you're funny and smart and the editing is great
The idea that it's not good lesbian rep because it doesn't feature a relationship is... Kind of weird? They're both clearly attracted to women, idk the idea that all characters have to be "representation" is extremely damaging anyway, imo.
akio is the mastermind every anime villain could only ever hope to be. not to mention the sick ride
This is _incredible_ work,
thank you for sharing your art with us.
One of the best youtube videos I've seen. Thank you. This reminded me of why I love Utena so.
So I'm not sure anyone's told you this yet, but comics Thanos > movie Thanos. Comics Thanos killed half of the universe to try to impress his crush, who was the physical embodiment of death. She rejects him anyway and then he snaps himself out of existance, which restores the half of the universe that he had wiped out almost instantly.
Ngl that's pretty metal
This was great with A+ memes! It's helping me make sense of the series after my first watch.
9:14 it grosses me but knowing akio and anthy... she in the films clearly just know love as a sex related thing, she has never expeience true care and support of someone who didnt wanna do her.
and Akio seems really like all his false prince act its just his lust coverage so...i think its plausible that it was actually what happend, anthy felt so desperate to save her brother knowin godamn right he was doing this for a princess trophy and not for a real reason so...she give him what he wanted from everyone else...she didnt know better to save that kind of man
The work you put into these videos is excellent, THANK YOU
I liked how you showed the ending again with the added context. I don’t think that ending, anthy reaching out, had quite the same impact on me. I think showing her falling and Utena getting stabbed felt weird next to what looked like a happy ending (each of them breaking out of that rotten school). I think the film did that better and I liked how it was a joint effort, Utena providing the drive (or energy) to escape and Anthy being the reason and bravery to leave
can’t quite comprehend how anyone can be pro Akio. I never really understood the car bit in the show. I always assumed he was showing them something cool or some real understanding which is why the day after everyone decided to do his bidding. It seems weird that whatever happened in the car was a good motivation (eg the real end of the world) to betray the person they cared about (I think).
the concept of anthy having sex with akio is blowing my mind it never occurred to me before
This is one of my favourite videos about Utena because I just love this anime but I'm bot gonna lie when I watched it I was confused AF at the end. Honestly I loved a lot of it and a lot of it I just didn't understand, but some of it I hated it because I didn't expect it to be this dark. Definitely going to be one of my favourites from now on.
I wanna add to the symbolism of Dios becoming Akio, I lean to the side of Anthy did r-- Dios for her selfish reasons as a symbol for wanting to care for someone so much that you force them to get better. Also Akio’s sexual behavior is explained by this as a person who was r-- before, two coping mechanisms are to lean into sexual actions or be so repulsived by it. I flip between both to cope, for Akio it’s to feel loved again and to “show love” through this twisted mindset.
I feel Dios represents the purity of power, to show love be defending your personhood and Akio is the opposite, the corrupted part of power, his name is stated to be “morning star” a fallen angel corrupted into this horrible being. The manipulation and beauty of Akio also is reflected with how Lucifer is depicted since paradise lost
HEY! HEY! HEY! As a Marvel consumer I take umbrage, I am frankly outraged that you would outright say before even imply that Marvel set design is BEAUTIFUL. Marvel set design is above all else: lazy, boring, and farted out by pre-vis factories! None of it has anything to do with the story or the subtext. There is no drip, good friend, there is nothing there. It is bones, CINDY!
Lol damn u really had me in the first half, phew
This video cleared up so much confusion I had about the show’s meaning. Thank you!
Omg this was amazing! Thank you so much for this! I think that was the best analisis I have seen, and maybe the best video in fact, thank u so much , love ur analisis of Anthy mystery, and how she dissoces from herself to leaves bad things and be abused not cos she is bad or don't have charather but of how trauma and all the abused she was put through. Thank u for so much! U absoluty nail it, it is 3 am haha and it totaly worth it hah
"you have brain death" me @ utena