少女革命ウテナ
I discovered a driving need to understand the classic 1997 anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, and these pages are the result, or as Lemony Snicket would say, the unfortunate result. Spoilers are a matter of course; this is an after-the-fact analysis. There is a lot to it. Call it Involutionary Series Utena.
It took me weeks to feel that I could grasp the main storyline with Utena, Anthy and Akio. Most of it is written up by now. The many contributing stories are important but don’t interest me as much. I expect to cover them at a lower level of detail. I’ve rewritten finished pages as I learned more, and will do it again when I discover how much I missed or misunderstood. Utena is designed to make you wrong the first time.
Click to expand small screenshots, like the ones here. Large images are already at their original size.
• Introduction <- most people can read this and then just stop • The big idea <- dropping the major conclusions from orbit • Glossary of the few jargon terms I made up. • Topic index for certain topics that are scattered through other analysis. • Episode titles, many with analysis. • Credit sequences - opening - first ending - second ending. • Character arcs - Aiko - Akio - Anthy - Chu-Chu - Dios - Juri - Kanae - Keiko - Mikage - Miki - Mrs. Ohtori - Nanami - nerd boys - Ruka - Saionji - shadow girls - Shiori - Touga - Utena - Yuuko. • Story arcs - Student Council - Black Rose (in progress) - Apocalypse. • The final showdown - the epilog (in progress). • Afterstories can be extrapolated for some characters. • The power of miracles. • The web of characters and paired character comparisons. • Duels - symbols - combat - handedness - swords - songs - Touga-Saionji. • Shadow plays, analysis for every episode. |
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Utena and Anthy, the ups and downs of their relationship.
• Overview of Anthy and Utena’s relationship. |
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Utena and Akio, the downs and downs of their relationship.
• An overview of their relationship across the series. |
Other important stuff.
• Akio and Anthy, their complex relationship.
• The prince story, its versions and their consistent unreliability.
• Celestial bodies projected in the window behind Utena and Anthy’s bed.
• Akio’s plot to take Ohtori. We can guess much of what we do not see.
• Doing away with Kanae. Anthy feeds her a poisoned apple.
• Sparkling transfers, a multi-way comparison and part of a complex of symbols.
Little things that don’t much matter, or that I haven’t worked out thoroughly.
• A cinematography gag in episode 31.
• Breaking the Kaoru family, because what could be more fun?
• Nanami and Touga issues.
• Chess queen in the greenhouse, an unexpected and probably unintended symbol.
• Utena as Musashi, another unintended reference.
• Mysterious light in the music room in episode 5 is just a visual quirk.
• Shoulders and epaulets, an idea that turned out to be false.
• Reality Star Adultery, a parody of “Virtual Star Embryology”.
• Loosely connected poems - Emily Dickinson - Heinrich Heine - Percy Shelley.
• outward influences - a few little-noted connections
• My favorite character.
Last but most of all, jokes.
• Terrible early AI-generated pictures, plus a couple that are less bad.
• Funny pictures that caught my eye.
• Who knows what evil? - Et in Arcadia ego - As you wish.
• Who should watch Utena? A simple test.
Jay Scott <jay@satirist.org>
First posted 14 November 2021. Since then I have written more every day without fail. Still at it after three years!
28 April Akio is Queen Nehalennia
23 April little Anthy’s arm and ankle rings, my first plausible theory
17 April Anthy is the goddess Nehalennia
30 March Claudine is a minor influence on Utena
29 March Aoi Hana refers to Utena
26 March references to Kimagure Orange Road
22 March Miki’s arc
12 February Gnosticism
5 February regression to childhood