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See design - name - episode 19 shadow play.
Tatsuya is Wakaba’s Onion Prince. He appears in episodes 19 (part of setting up Wakaba’s duel) and 39 (with Wakaba in the epilog).
Tatsuya’s role in the story is to be the opposite of a prince. But the epilog hints that there may be more layers to him; maybe he is different in Wakaba’s afterstory.
Tatsuya writes a love letter to Utena. It turns out to be a lie, and he really desires his childhood friend Wakaba. At various points in the episode we see that he avoids approaching Wakaba but tells unconvincing lies to other girls like a bad pickup artist. He is cowardly, ineffectual, and dishonest, the diametric opposite of a prince.
Finally Utena talks him into asking out Wakaba. Even then he does it in a clumsy and cowardly way, not speaking his mind directly. But Wakaba’s chosen prince is Saionji, and she rejects him.
Before then, Wakaba’s reaction to him seems ambivalent. She tries to keep Utena away from him, which might be because she likes Utena or because she likes him, or both. When they’re all at the table, she shows indecision. Only later do we realize it’s because she is harboring Saionji. Overall, signs are that she still cares about her childhood friend the Onion Prince, even though she sees his faults. Impressions formed in childhood are a motif of Utena.
Tatsuya is crushed by the rejection and goes to Mikage for counseling, wandering in by himself when he is ignored. Mikage rejects him too, saying he is a good person. Mikage may be telling the truth; Tatsuya does not have the drive for vengeance that it takes to be a duelist. (Though even good Wakaba is instilled with that drive in the next episode.) But Tatsuya lies to girls as a regular thing, and he is certainly not a good person in practice. So it seems equally likely that Mikage is lying and only rejected Tatsuya because he had no use for him. But in any case, whether Mikage is trying to lie or not, I think he spoke truth. Tatsuya is good at heart. We're being shown that he avoided asking out Wakaba for fear of rejection—justified fear, as it happened. He lies freely to other girls, whose reactions he does not much care about, as part of playing his assigned male role. I think he unconsciously does it for exactly the reason Wakaba gives not to: His lies create distrust and distance, and he doesn’t want to be close to them. Akio’s system of control is at work.
Tatsuya appears briefly in the epilog. Wakaba is at a window, looking out—well, she’s not looking, her eyes are closed. She does not see what’s coming. Tatsuya stands nearby, looking at her. Wakaba remarks that the weather is nice, then her self-described “best friend” shows up and jumps on her back. Tatsuya says nothing, but just watches.
So Tatsuya still wants to get with Wakaba, and still has not succeeded. In my interpretation, Wakaba’s prince at this point is Utena. Utena is being forgotten, and I expect that Wakaba does not remember her clearly—just as Utena at the start of the series does not remember Dios clearly. The epilog of Utena’s arc is the start of Wakaba’s arc. It’s a safe bet that Tatsuya will play an important role in it.
Jay Scott <jay@satirist.org>
first posted 26 April 2026
updated 28 April 2026