Utena - meaningful images
Meaningful images and shots that didn’t fit in elsewhere.
Students walking to school. It’s a shot that repeats frequently through the series. In episode 1, it comes right after the title card and shows Wakaba’s view, looking down from a bridge.
Utena wastes no time in subtly bringing up its themes. The students carry briefcases. Four of five boys carry the briefcase at their sides, one has slung it casually over his shoulder. One girl carries the briefcase at her side, and four out of five carry it in front in both hands. It is defensive body language. Anthy habitually joins her hands in front in the same way, without the briefcase. The boys are open and confident, the girls show a little caution or anxiety. They have learned their social roles. Both pairs are same-sex.
When we meet Utena shortly after, she carries her briefcase over her shoulder, like the most confident of the boys.
The dome where we first meet Utena, her shoes clicking on the floor. For a school, it’s a tremendous edifice. It seems like it should be the rounded base of Akio’s tower, but the windows don’t match and that looks like a skylight at the top. Well, we know that the setting is deliberately inconsistent.
There are no visible artificial lights; the building is lit by the sun (Dios is the sun). The dark stained glass is in unexpected bluish colors for the water of tears and illusions, modifying the white light of Dios and truth. Each window is an exclamation point with a rose and a stylized egg of the world. No two are identical—they are people. Each is a petal of the flower of the dome.
The dome represents the Academy as a whole, and the system of control. The huge thick-walled building looks unshakable. I think the six windows are the six duelists, with Dios as the top skylight and Anthy above the entrance in purple. The dome is a female symbol, the same shape as Anthy’s greenhouse and with a skylight reminiscent of its top: It is a cage for women. The dueling system falsely offers hope of escape.
Utena wakes up, considers whether her ring led her to the duels and the Rose Bride, and the Rose Bride herself opens the door. Then these roses appear. They stand for the duelists and the meanings of each duelist—in other words, for Utena’s situation, which she was just pondering.
Utena is the partially-opened white bloom at top right. She is an up-and-coming prince who has not yet come into her own. The colors are not entirely clear, but I think the opening bloom at bottom left is Miki. It looks blue. He is younger and even less mature than Utena. There is no green rose for Saionji, but the others are there.
The roses are alive and growing, despite seeming to be cut and placed into a vase. Part of Anthy’s role is to take care of them.
The shadow line outlines an exit. Touga does not know yet that Utena seeks her prince, but showing off his ring drew her in. It implied a closer connection than the two have, or at least Utena thought it did. His deception leads in a straight line to his later plot to play Utena’s prince. He is surrounded by darkness. In the foreground, Utena thinks he may be her prince. It’s the reason she gives for attending the dance party—supporting Anthy, she implies, was not important enough in itself. Utena is half in shadow and half in light. It is undecided whether she will be trapped in shadow, or make her way through the exit into the light.
The rose emblem above the exit is slightly pink, Utena’s color, hinting at the final answer.
A moment earlier, Anthy stood in sunlight as Nanami’s minions berated her. Keiko and Aiko made verbal attacks and had darkness behind them; Yuuko did not and stood on the light side of the shadow line. When Nanami intervenes, suddenly Anthy is in the darkness. Is Anthy in some way harming Nanami? She is, through Nanami’s love of her. As far as I can tell it’s no choice of Anthy’s, though the shadow line suggests I may be wrong. The arch has no vertical supports and is all female; only the two of them are involved.
Behind Anthy is a soccer goal. Anthy is Nanami’s goal; Nanami’s legs are positioned for a (wimpy) kick. Behind Nanami is the dueling forest. I think it means Nanami treats Anthy as an opponent to fight (maybe it’s deeper than that). But Utena’s ball is the one that goes farther than she expects; Nanami’s ball (pun intended) falls short.
Anthy and her alter ego Chu-Chu stare at the metronome, watching its pendulum swing back and forth like an over-regular tennis game. It is a symbol of Anthy’s eternity. The metronome measures time passing, and breaks it into identical small intervals. Anthy sees students come and go over decades (if not centuries) and, though she must fulfill Akio’s tasks, doesn’t take any personal interest in most of them beyond a bit of attention to her own comfort (like preferring Utena over Saionji because Utena doesn’t hit). This too will pass. She pays so little attention to the schoolwork that she still can’t do it right (episode 4). After so long it must seem all the same to her, and watching the metronome is just as interesting.
The grid of the window puts everyone in a cage.
Episode 9 opens with a kendou match between Saionji and Touga. We see this after Touga wins. All objects are under the shadow line. The left practice sword, slightly lower, is Saionji, and the right one is Touga. Saionji looks up to Touga. The text on the bucket says “kendou club”. In episode 35, Utena brings a bucket to Anthy which represents the illusion of the shining thing. This bucket is also full of illusions. Saionji uses it to clean the floor; they are his illusions about Touga.
The cleaning cloth goes with the bucket. What does cleaning mean? Anthy is the character most associated with cleaning, so it doesn’t mean removing corruption or the like. Saionji cleaning the floor puts him in a female role; it is another way to suggest that he is the junior partner, to be seen as the woman of his relationship with Touga.
The party scene is in subdued colors because it is in the past. It is on the road to turning into black-and-white history. Young Touga sits in a chair too large for him, representing the power he gained by being adopted into a wealthy family. The power has drawn adults to give him too many gifts. The cushions are purple for corruption—presumably the family’s corruption, though Touga is learning. The parents are the woman to standing left of the chair and the tall man to the right. The man in green for control must be significant, but I don’t know how.
The scene has Touga overriding his adoptive parents, learning to use his power. It is a step in forming his scheming, controlling personality. It illustrates that the parents favor Touga over Nanami: He sits on a throne at a special event for his benefit; she is admonished for bringing an inferior gift; Touga is allowed to override their judgment. It’s also a step in forming Nanami’s Touga-worship and needy power-seeking.
Twice in episode 12, Utena thinks back to Anthy moving out of the dorm in the previous episode. Left, early in the episode, Utena is in the dark (she does not understand) and sees Anthy leaving in brown for ordinariness, and framed in white spinning roses. We see from Utena’s point of view, but I think the colors describe Utena herself: We are being introduced, with spinning roses, to the Utena who has decided to be ordinary, but in fact remains a prince in her heart. Her hair length says so.
Right, as Wakaba tells Utena that this ordinary is not her ordinary, the light is on. It is green for control. Utena is starting to realize that Anthy was taken from her by manipulation. The wall is blue-green, showing that the manipulation has brought illusions.
Moon. Akio tells Utena that a sibling is like the moon; it serves no purpose, but you look up at it sometimes and it eases your heart. It’s nonsense, but here is Utena believing it. She repeats his words and looks at the moon. See moon catalog - episode 15. Utena is facing left and her left foot is lifted for illusion (see foot catalog).
Anthy is with Akio and Chu-Chu is asleep. The blackness stands for Utena’s loneliness. Akio is the moon (and serves no purpose), so Utena is looking up at Akio. That might be why Akio told her that; if so, he wants her to think of him when she sees the moon. Separated lovers look up to the same moon, so it is a symbol of love and togetherness despite separation (I think this is general across East Asian cultures). But that has a double meaning: The moon stands for siblings, and Anthy and Utena are twins. She is also looking up at Anthy. Being forced apart and coming back together—togetherness despite separation—is a major theme, called out as central in the opening sequence.
After this scene, we see Anthy with Akio in his room. You can’t tell from the subtitles, but Akio repeats his language: He says “Tonight too, I will ease your heart.” In his metaphor, Anthy is looking up at him. We don’t know it yet, but this also turns out to be nonsense.
Arches in the courtyard look different in different views. I like this clear upward view. The triangles at the top of each arch represent keystones. Fake keystones in Western architecture have been popular decorations for centuries.
See sex symbols - columns and arches. The curve of an arch is symbolically female. Male columns support the arch. The key part of the arch is the keystone—which is male and extends from a straight-line male ledge. The keystone is a penis inserted into the arch and claiming to be essential... even though it is fake, an illusion.
Kozue is supported by a male ledge, but only briefly. When she falls, androgynous Miki and Utena catch her. See other symbols - characters are variable for Miki’s androgyny.
From the epilog in the final episode. Left, borrowed from episode 17, running in the direction of truth, white sunbeams, from where the sun isn’t, seem to pick out the girl’s prince. Right, with elements borrowed from episode 6, running in the direction of illusions, one boy carries a briefcase as well as an elementary school backpack. Apparently like Mitsuru, he wants to be adult. But he’s a kid running with the kids.
Akio’s control continues in full force. Utena started a revolution, but it happens in stages over a long period of time.
Akio’s goal: 自動の児童 (jidou no jidou), automatic children.
