Utena - Student Council platform catalog

When the platform is seen from below, it always looks the same. The view from below is from a distance. I take it to be the platform’s real form; the other forms are altered by illusions.

Round, episodes 1, 2, and 12 in the Student Council arc. The view is flanked by fancy poles. The platform always appears round-ended when seen from below—the views from above and below match, except that the poles are not visible from below. We see the platform from a distance. It looks farther from the dueling forest than the other forms, and and it is correspondingly free of illusions, but it shows a pathway to the dueling forest. In two of these episodes, Utena was the challenger and fought duels for reasons outside the duel system itself: To avenge Wakaba, and to regain her “self”; the other was Saionji’s rematch. The duels presumably didn’t have to be supported with illusions. I can’t guess what the poles mean.

The dueling forest is distant, and the near background is a running track. I speculate that it compares the dueling system to a race; the duelists are racing to revolutionize the world. The episodes are key ones for Utena. In episode 1, she enters the dueling system. In episode 2, she takes on the role of a prince. In episode 12, she restores her “self” and passes Akio’s test as a candidate “winner” (meaning loser) of the race.

Square, episode 10. The square-ended platform appears only for Nanami’s first duel. Juri and Miki both wanted the rematch with Utena, but Touga overrode them without naming the mystery duelist. The corners have triple lamps on stout pillars. The straight-line end makes the platform more male.

The view is from a lower angle, and we see only the dueling forest, which looks close. Presumably the forest is big because everyone there at the moment wants to control who duels next. Touga is superimposed over it because he gets the final say. Maybe that’s why the end is squared off, cut short by Touga’s decision? If so, this is a key episode for Touga. It is the episode when he activates his plot, collecting information from Nanami’s duel that he uses to win his own duel.

Drooping, episodes 11, 17, and 35-36. Episode 36 repeats the scene from episode 35. Each of the three scenes shows us the platform from a different angle, and the views are consistent with each other (or nearly so). The point where it angles down has triple lamps at each side. The view from below shows stairs. The drooping end shows up once per arc: Once in the Student Council arc (Touga defeats Utena), once in the Black Rose (Shiori’s duel; Akio brings up Ganymede), once in the Apocalypse Saga (Akio sets up the Second Seduction for the following episode). The background is split between the forest, the city, and the ocean.

In episode 11, Touga defeats Utena with a sword. Episodes 35 and 36 cover the Second Seduction, where Akio defeats Utena with a metaphorical sword, after which “the door of night opens” and Utena becomes girlish for a long time. Both are major steps in Akio’s plot. I think the drooping end is the penis drooping after sex, and marks a victory for Akio. If so, there is a victory for Akio buried in episode 17 where I haven’t dug it out yet, and the drooping end labels key episodes for Akio the same way that the round end labels key episodes for Utena. The title of episode 17 adds another hint that it is a key episode.