Utena - epaulet catalog

The characters’ various dueling uniforms are reminiscent of military dress uniforms. To plagiarize the Tom Lehrer routine, this I know from NAHthing. At first I could not name the ornaments on the uniform other than epaulets (since then I’ve learned about aiguillettes (Wikipedia), which seem too bizarre to be real). With minimal epaulet research (Wikipedia) I learned a few points that may help me interpret them. 1. A fringe should indicate a higher rank. 2. A longer fringe should indicate a higher rank. 3. A gold fringe may indicate a higher rank, or maybe a different specialty. That’s everything useful that I know about real epaulets.

Basic meanings. Their epaulets point to the characters’ sexual feelings. According to the system of sex symbols, long and straight objects are male; curved and rounded objects are female. Characters can be roughly located on the Kinsey scale (Wikipedia) by their epaulets. Compare Dios and Akio, as well as Touga and Saionji. Shiori’s large round section says that her love of Juri is bigger than her attachment to boys.

Buttons. Domed “buttons” on the epaulets of Touga, Juri, Mitsuru, and Wakaba are female, though Touga and Wakaba have male epaulets. I think that the buttons stand for Utena specifically; Touga, Juri, and Wakaba show desire for Utena, and it would not be surprising if Mitsuru feels it too. In episode 18 he turns to her to ask about adulthood (though it might be due to Utena’s higher social status). The buttons align with the large domes of Utena and Kanae, which are Anthy’s breasts. Akio has larger buttons; they include Utena but I’m not convinced they mean Utena in particular.

Flat plates. Most have either flat plate-like epaulets (Touga, Saionji, Nanami, Wakaba, Ruka) or epaulets at the shoulder corners with an inner flat plate toward the neck (Anthy, Dios, Juri, Kanae, Shiori, Keiko). Except for Nanami and Ruka, the plates are yellow. Akio is an ambiguous case. I think the black between his epaulets and neck is the color of his uniform and not part of the insignia, though I could be wrong.

Arranged relationships. I think the flat plates refer to arranged marriages, or arranged relationships. Akio made all the arrangements, directly or indirectly. Akio takes Anthy as his de facto wife, though she loves Dios. Dios does not exist, and any relationship he has is due to fiction written by Akio. Akio arranges to put Touga and Saionji together. Akio seduces Nanami in episode 32, after manipulations much like those he puts Utena through. Kanae’s family arranged her engagement to Akio, though it was actually Akio’s plot. I think we can safely conclude that Akio had Anthy manipulate Wakaba into desiring Saionji and Keiko into desiring Touga, or he simply relied on the lure of stereotypes promoted by the system of control. That leaves Juri’s and Ruka’s plates unexplained. I expect that Juri’s family will try to arrange a marriage for her, due to Akio’s compulsory heterosexuality. Ruka I don’t understand. Could his plates be for the arranged relationship with Shiori, which presumably Akio was ultimately behind?

Utena, Miki, Kozue and Mitsuru do not have plates (except that Utena and Kozue do when princesses, because all princesses are to marry their princes), and Akio may or may not (it doesn’t seem to affect the symbolism). Akio’s attempt to marry Utena fails. Miki is relationship-free and Kozue wants only Miki. Mitsuru is a kid and may get plates when he has grown up more.

The thickness of the plates is probably meaningful. One theory is that the thickness of the plate points to the strength of the arranged relationship as opposed to a relationship the character would seek otherwise. It seems to work.

Utena has a small number of long white tassels. I think the tassels visually represent the hands of Dios on her shoulders, in white for the prince. Compare the white tassels with the long white gloved fingers of Dios.

Utena’s epaulets are similar to Kanae’s and are like breasts, representing Utena’s sexual desires. Compare the dome of the bell in Mikage’s building (picture at flowers - Kanae is a lesbian). If I’m right that the white tassels are the fingers of Dios, then Dios has his hands on the breasts of Utena’s desire—on Anthy’s. The red domes match sinful Anthy’s red princess dress. The gold rings around the domes go with the dueling rings; the gold color means Dios. Akio and Dios have rings around their epaulets too, and nobody else has similar rings (Shiori’s are different).

Akio gets gold fringes, which presumably identify him as the commander of Ohtori Academy. The fringes seem shorter than Utena’s (though it varies from shot to shot), suggesting that she is higher in some way. I haven’t checked the variations, but I expect they correspond to his varying influence.

The yellow fringes could refer to Akio’s envy of Dios’s, or Utena’s, power of miracles. But it doesn’t quite fit; compare Dios below.

Akio’s epaulets are round. The black field is for Akio’s darkness (black is his color), and presumably for his emptiness. The red rings are for sex and knowledge, and of course they are rings.

Dios has a small number of gold tassels about the same length as Utena’s, suggesting that they are connected and he ranks higher. According to the system of control, he’s a man and does rank higher if they are otherwise equal. If yellow means jealousy for Dios, I don’t see it. It may be gold for the sun, because Dios is the sun.

Dios turns all girls except Anthy into princesses, and his epaulets are almost entirely female. Dios the prince is good, in the sense that he obeys the rules of the system of control. He is imaginary, a made-up story, as symbolized by the pale blue ring. I see it as a hint that Dios did not realize that the dueling rings could or would be used for evil.

Anthy has plain gold epaulets with gold spheres on the ends and green or blue-green tassels from the spheres. For the basic idea, see Ganymede. In the Black Rose arc, one of the clues that Anthy is playing Mamiya is that Mamiya sometimes wears Anthy’s epaulets. When Utena turns into a princess, she gets epaulets matching Anthy’s as part of the Rose Bride costume, though Utena’s dress is pink rather than red—she is not as far fallen.

Anthy’s water jugs with tassels make her Ganymede too, as much as Utena is. For more evidence, see design 1 of the Student Council backdrop.

The friends Touga and Saionji have similar yellow epaulets with chevrons, looking particularly like military ranks. It seems appropriate for their personalities. Touga’s are slightly fancier, reflecting Saionji’s envy of him, and have a domed button. The button is Touga’s desire for Utena. Saionji doesn’t seem to have any indication of his declared love for Anthy. Touga’s chevrons point outward, Saionji’s inward: Touga is the man and Saionji the woman of the couple. Touga does not earn fringes for being president of the student council; he doesn’t command the members.

Touga must be yellow for envy of Akio, and Saionji for envy of Touga.

Nanami gets rectangular black epaulets with short purple fringes. Huh. She deserves fringes because she commands Mitsuru and her minions Keiko, Aiko, and Yuuko. Her command is corrupt and ultimately enforced by violence, as we see in episode 32. She’s the only one to have a dark color scheme. You might think the colors would indicate the darkness in her character, but I don’t know why Nanami would be singled out for that.... Akio is the only other to have a black field. The black means that she desires Akio, but the dark color is artistically important for visual contrast with her yellow uniform.

Juri gets thick round epaulets. They seem to refer to her locket. The button I take to be her attraction to Utena. Like Touga and Saionji, Juri and Shiori have yellow epaulets. Shiori envies Juri. I imagine that Juri envies the heterosexual, who get along more easily in Akio’s society. That’s parallel to Touga, who envies Akio. Possibly Juri envies Ruka.

Juri’s flat plates are most similar to Kanae’s, and Kanae has an arranged marriage with Akio. So a logical theory for the plates is that her wealthy and powerful family (parallel to Kanae’s) will arrange a marriage for her without regard to her feelings—which she presumably keeps secret from them anyway.

Miki gets front-to-back shoulder strap epaulets instead of side-to-side like most. I imagine they refer to his relationship with his sister. The straps are long but not straight; they are rounded because they pass over his shoulders. Compare Kozue’s squared-off straps below. His desire is for women (and he has buttons). It may reflect that “his sword is not for combat,” as Juri says. He is not aromantic (Anthy is his shining thing), but might be asexual, and in any case is not naturally aggressive (he has to be talked into dueling for Anthy). His mythical correspondent is Hermaphroditus, which fits all these details.

the Black Rose duelists and Ruka

Kanae. Flat plates with big domes. Utena is the only other to have large domes, and they’re similar colors (Kanae’s are shaded toward purple). I think the domes are breasts and mark them as lesbians; compare Kanae ringing the bell before her trip in the confession elevator. They are specifically Anthy’s breasts, which Kanae leers at (to repeat the link).

Kanae’s purple implies that she is corrupted, either by nature or by her relationship with Akio. Her mother is more corrupt, but she grew up in a corrupt family, so it’s not surprising. See flowers - Kanae for more about that.

Kozue. A set of squared-off front-to-back straps. The similarity to her brother Miki’s epaulets means that they do refer to their sibling relationship. The yellow triangles on her collar have been turned to point backward instead of downward. I don’t know what that means.

Shiori. UFO shoulders. They’re round like Juri’s. Does the black circle or slot refer to opening Juri’s locket? Is it the gap between her inner nature and outer appearance? Juri is Shiori’s true love, though she can’t grasp it.

Purple hair, purple eyes, purple uniform. Shiori seems to have been corrupted by her inability to understand either herself or the world around her. Though it could be the other way around; maybe her vision was corrupted first and destroyed her ability to see truly.

Tsuwabuki Mitsuru. The front-to-back straps probably indicate his relationship with Nanami. The yellow disks are similar to Juri’s though smaller. Maybe his epaulets will grow with him as he grows up. The thick red pieces presumably refer to his naive interest in sex. As he grows up, maybe the red pieces will develop into yellow plates along his shoulders.

Wakaba. She’s the least special character but her epaulets are as fancy as anyone’s. They’re interestingly more similar to Touga’s with the button, than to Saionji’s. The button is her desire for Utena, which is real. She has black tassels that are reminiscent of Anthy’s blue-green tassels. Black is Akio’s color. My thought is that the tassels point to her future as the next hero. Utena wears black because she seeks Akio, and the next hero should be the same.

Keiko. Flat with front-to-back straps. Hmm. If Miki and Kozue have front-to-back straps for each other, then I guess Keiko has them for her fellow Nanami minions Aiko and Yuuko. Just a guess.

Ruka. Double pyramids on a red field. Maybe the two pyramids stand for the two duels he was connected to, one with Shiori and one with Juri. His epaulets are male. They are arrows pointing to himself, like Saionji’s. I think Ruka is parallel to Saionji of Saionji and Touga: Ruka loves Akio, or (since his epaulets are plates) was put into an arranged marriage with Akio. And he is the woman of the relationship.

There is a mismatch between his epaulets and his sword guard, which (I conclude) means that he is telling the truth when he says that it is not his sword. Ruka is dead, and Akio controls his sword. See Ruka’s arc for more on that.