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The picture is from the gallery at Empty Movement, a panning shot no doubt pieced together into one image by Giovanni, who deserves the credit.
Dios is a fictional character, a perfect all-capable fairy tale prince of the kind that appears in many stories for children. Akio invented Dios to teach children their patriarchal sex roles: A prince is an ideal boy, a princess is an ideal girl, every boy should seek his princess, every girl should seek her prince, and of course the prince is in charge while a princess is submissive and accommodating. They marry and live happily ever after. The stories are made to be appealing so that the patriarchy is appealing.
The prince story in all its variations is an origin myth that explains how Dios, Akio, Anthy, and Utena came to be. As a myth, it’s a made-up explanation, of course.
Anthy believes in the reality of Dios for the entire series. Utena believes until nearly the end.
• The children’s cartoon version of the prince story, repeated in many episodes, is what Utena remembers from when she (believes she) met Dios as a small child.
• In the present time, Utena calls on Dios in most duels, to perform a miracle and win. Utena wants to become a prince. She doesn’t believe that she already is, though symbols like her hair length and prince uniform epaulets tell us when she plays the role. She attributes her victories to the prince, and does not realize that they are her own doing.
• In episode 34, the prince (not given a name) appears as a character in The Tale of the Rose.
• Later in episode 34, Utena dreams a more complete version of her meeting with Dios. It’s plain that her dream is not entirely true to events, but it is informative. And, of course, she did not really meet Dios, who does not exist. It was Akio playing Dios, manipulating Utena in one of his plots.
• In the final showdown, part of Utena’s miracle is that the prince of her memory appears in person. He praises her loyalty to him, dismisses her because she is a girl, listens to Akio’s monolog, and finally walks off and disappears back into imagination.
Jay Scott <jay@satirist.org>
first posted 7 August 2024
updated 27 October 2024