By the magic of perseverance, I watched all 200 episodes of the 1990s Sailor Moon, plus the three movies and a few appendages. I can’t recommend it. The creative enemies and ridiculous attack names are not enough to make up for long tedious stretches of monster-of-the-week with predictable fights. The world is made up of vague elements like “darkness” and “energy”, and the various powers have whatever relative strength the plot calls for at the moment, with no underlying rationale. And, forgive the nitpick, it bothered me that Jupiter counts as an inner planet.
Stay away from the Sailors. Wherever they go, danger appears.
Ikuhara (Wikipedia) directed large parts of Sailor Moon (Anime News Network Encyclopedia) before Utena. It would be astonishing if there were no influence. Sure enough, Utena can be read as a direct answer to Sailor Moon. As I understand it, Sailor Moon was a progressive step in the magical girl genre, the first to give its protagonist a fighting role rather than a purely traditional female role. Utena carries that over and replies, “Oh, such a small step? What about the rest of the way?” Like The Rose of Versailles, it’s a work that was progressive for its time and is already out of date. Really now, “moon prism power make up”?
Sailor Moon’s message of working together to solve problems, aka defeat evil, is the same as Utena’s, depicted in a different context. Utena also equates solving problems with defeating evil. They share the same conventional, anime-standard thematic kernel of individuality plus teamwork as the ideal. And the same conventional structure of working up through a series of fights to a big fight at the end.
Did years of work on anime for a younger audience distort Ikuhara’s sense of anime humor? Is that why Utena’s comedy episodes contrast so jarringly with the serious episodes?
A question about the story. The villains have various teleportation powers, which they use easily and frequently. The Sailor senshi can teleport as a group, but it’s cumbersome (and destroys the pavement). How did the bad guys ever lose?
Magical girls. I read that Sailor Moon introduced the magical girl transformation sequence. Anthy’s transformation of Utena in the dueling arena is a magical girl transformation sequence. Utena’s transformation is not intrinsic to Utena but to Utena and Anthy as a pair, because the two are aspects of a whole. Anthy’s role in the transformation visually refers to Sailor Moon’s transformation (below). On the one hand, the transformation points out that Utena has the power of miracles, a kind of magic that acts for good. On the other hand, later we realize that the transformation is mediated by the planetarium projector, evil magic controlled by Akio and used by Anthy. Evil and the idealistic reaction to evil, or idealism and the evil reaction to idealism, are aspects of a whole—from an abstract point of view, the same whole.
And why not? Utena is fighting for love and justice, right? Well, justice as she sees it.
In the Apocalypse Saga, the rose Anthy sequence before a duel can be Anthy’s transformation sequence.
Chu-Chu can be the magical girl mascot animal, which I imagine developed from the witch’s familiar. Chu-Chu corresponds to Sailor Moon’s cat Luna... loosely. Usagi at first calls Luna her friend, and Anthy calls Chu-Chu her friend. Chu-Chu does not introduce Utena to her powers or act as a mentor, which are conventional magical mascot functions. From a story point of view, Chu-Chu is mainly an authorial convenience and a way to make the show richer, a character who can quietly update the audience and stay out of the way of other action. See Chu-Chu’s arc for my take on Chu-Chu’s true nature, which is not obvious on the surface.
Color coding. The sailor senshi are color-coded in a way that ties in with the Japanese names for the planets, which are derived from the Chinese five elements (Wuxing, Wikipedia). The color-coded hero team, and other points like the transformations, come from Sentai shows (Wikipedia). Utena characters do not make up a hero team, but they are color-coded as part of its thorough color symbolism. It is probably not a coincidence that both Sailor Moon and Utena are pink and associated with white (the sailor uniforms have a white base, Princess Serenity wears white).
Clockwise from the top:
| Venus | yellow | Yellow gold. Venus is the metal planet, and its name is includes the character for gold. |
| Mars | red | The color of Mars and of fire. Mars is the fire planet. |
| Moon | pink | Her white costume is formed of pink ribbons. The moon is not named after an element. |
| Mercury | blue | Blue water. Mercury is the water planet. |
| Jupiter | green | Green plants. Jupiter is the wood planet. |
Nail polish. In Sailor Moon, nail polish is standard. Nail polish gets fancy animation in transformations. In Utena, nobody wears nail polish. How curious!
Small stuff: Utena takes Sailor Moon’s knife-point noses and makes them more prominent. The sailor senshi are “chosen”, like Utena’s duelists. Tuxedo Mask’s cape is lined with red like Dios’s. A motif of Sailor Moon is controlling people through their romantic desires—not a big difference from sexual desires. Utena’s astronomy references might be inspired by Sailor Moon. The color purple is associated with evil. Plants are evil surprisingly often (compare Anthy watering her roses). In episode 30, Wakaba tells Utena “If you’re so uptight—” and the scene cuts to a teacher saying “you’ll never fall in love.” It echoes an event in Sailor Moon episode 2, where Chiba Mamoru (still a stranger) tells Usagi that she’ll never get a boyfriend that way. Is it a genre trope that I don’t know, or is it a direct reference? The locket in episode 42 reminds me of Juri’s locket, both in its meaning and its effect when destroyed. Saionji’s “I’ve got you!” in the episode 25 duel is from Sailor Moon episode 139; see Saionji’s television world.
The two series share genre elements that in Sailor Moon are atmospheric background, and in Utena are made meaningful. In the first couple episodes are flower beds, girls’ clothing with lots of bows and whatnot, and an exchange diary. There are thematic connections too. Rings worn on the ring finger like engagement rings are used to exploit people. Separately, Utena’s ring is a gift that comes with hidden obligations—it is a contract with Akio and entices her into duels. Usagi is given a compact that she is pleased with, and at first she is not told that it comes with the obligation to fight evil as Sailor Moon. Both gifts turn out to lead to good outcomes.
Hair hearts. Sailor Moon’s hair displays a thematic heart shape front and center, closed at the point by the jewel in her tiara. Her red-jewel hair buns can be the lobes of a larger heart shape. Anthy’s hair makes a heart closed by her bindi (Wikipedia), and the rolls of hair at the sides align with Sailor Moon’s buns. Both have a pair of hair wisps at the back of the neck; see character designs - hair wisps. Imagery of Anthy manifesting the Sword of Dios visually references Sailor Moon’s transformation sequence in Sailor Moon R starting in episode 51. Both are princesses. Both are bad at schoolwork. Sailor Moon/Usagi is a glutton, and Chu-Chu’s gluttony reflects on Anthy. It’s a surprising connection between characters that seem poles apart, hero and victim. It suggests that Anthy is a hero in her own way, a survivor who wins through in the end; after all, she and Utena are parts of a whole. And it points out that Anthy is ultimately driven by love. Her love of Dios was key in forcing her into the psychological trap she is in (in the origin myth), and her love of Utena is key in her escaping it. Anthy’s purple hair means that her heart is corrupted. Sailor Moon’s name is Tsukino Usagi, which flat out means moon rabbit—she is The Rabbit in the Moon. Tying Anthy to Sailor Moon makes Anthy the Rabbit in the Moon too.
To an American, a purple heart (Wikipedia) could mean she was wounded in combat, which seems sort of appropriate but is probably not intended.
Utena has her own parallels with Sailor Moon: Both are heroes low in insight who often stray from good action but believe in themselves and do the right thing when it most matters. And Utena is independently tied to the Rabbit in the Moon—see the constellation Lepus the rabbit. Usagi, Anthy, and Utena all suffer romantic jealousy.
Anthy resembles Lilica from the SuperS special episode. Lilica has purple hair with a central part, and teardrop earrings that are like Anthy’s princess earrings. She is innocent at heart, but is possessed by a malevolent vampire. It fits Anthy, who commits evil for Akio but is good at heart.
SuperS is the season that Utena draws thematic structure from. That makes me more confident that Anthy’s design is a meaningful reference to Lilica. It’s another clue that Anthy becomes good when she leaves the Academy.
Miki draws from Mizuno Ami, Sailor Mercury. Both are academically superhuman, short-haired, short in stature, and associated with the color blue. Sailor Mercury’s blue is specifically the blue of water; in Japanese, Mercury is the water planet. Miki’s blue means naive acceptance of illusions. Sailor Mercury’s water powers are related to obscuration and illusion; the complex of blue = water = illusions matches Utena. Both have a sense of justice and are slightly shy. Miki’s androgynous character design helps make the connection, and it connects Miki with Kozue. Ami’s earrings (standard in Sailor Moon) match the earrings worn by Kozue. Miki corresponds to the mythological Hermaphroditus. Miki lacks the aggression of most male Utena characters and has to be manipulated into fighting for Anthy. In episode 5, Juri tells Miki that his sword is not for battle. Her character is about knowledge and information, and her powers are initially about denying information to the side of evil (though during Sailor Moon R she gains attacks as well).
Nikita Chestnov wrote to me to mention that Miki and Mizuno Ami are played by the same voice actor, Hisakawa Aya. I have to imagine that the audience is meant to notice that! But it went over my head. It makes Miki’s gendermixed nature unmistakable, which ties him to gendermixed Utena. In other words, not only Utena + Anthy = Kozue + Miki holds, but Utena + Anthy = Miki + Kozue as well.
Utena draws from Tenou Haruka, Sailor Uranus. Their names are similar, and both refer to the sky: Tenjou (天上) heaven above, Tenou (天王) king of heaven (Uranus (Wikipedia) is god of the sky, though in Sailor Moon it is called the planet of winds). Both are heroes. Both excel at all sports. Both mix male and female aspects. Both have a close relationship with another woman. Haruka is the wind, which in Utena is associated with the prince and therefore with Utena.
Utena shares traits with Kino Makoto, Sailor Jupiter. Both are seen as boyish because they are tall and strong, and both are good at fighting. Both avoid wearing the school’s uniform. Both are gendermixed: Kino Makoto likes traditional female things like cooking, and aspires to be a florist and cake shop proprietor (apparently one shop with both) in a happy marriage. She seems to show romantic or sexual interest in another girl in episodes 31 and 96, at least. She wears rose earrings that might be related to the earrings Touga gives to Utena. In the Sailor Moon R movie, she wears green shorts that might have inspired Utena’s red shorts.
Utena is associated with Tomoe Hotaru, Sailor Saturn. Utena is independently associated with the planet Saturn, which stands for destruction and renewal—that is, for revolution. When we first meet Hotaru, who has the power to destroy and recreate, she wears a white rose on her black outfit. It’s part of the symbolism; her black outfit is the clothing of death, and the rose is a living thing and points to future renewal. The reference makes that meaning echo in Utena. Like Utena, Hotaru has only one friend.
Akio draws from the villain Nephrite, introduced in episode 14. He guides himself by the stars, he drives a red sports car, women fall for him on sight (and he makes use of it), and he leaps over a fence with a flip similarly to how Akio leaps over his car’s windshield. Nephrite is cooler, though: He does the flip with his hands in his pockets.
Nephrite’s home base, where he chooses his targets according to the stars, looks somewhat like Utena’s church, with a cathedral-like air and similar stained glass windows.
In episode 21, Nephrite calls on his monsters Castor and Pollux, whose strength is the teamwork that arises from their friendship. They are defeated when their friendship and teamwork fail. Utena draws directly on that meaning of friendship and working together—and their breakdown. See Castor and Pollux and the episode 25 shadow play.
Nephrite’s epaulets look like fried eggs. He has hot shoulders. They are curiously similar to Utena’s dome-and-tassel epaulets. The asymmetrical military-esque uniform with the cylindrical collar is broadly in the same tradition as Utena uniforms.
Wakaba draws from Nanako, starry-eyed guest character of episode 152 in Sailor Moon SuperS. At least that’s my conclusion. Nanako sees her own dreams as impossible and follows other people’s dreams instead. The lesson of the episode is that it’s a poor idea. Wakaba dreams of being special like Utena or Saionji, and considers it impossible until episode 19. Wakaba borrows Nanako’s hair color and forehead curl. And shows starry-eyed behavior, following others instead of seeking for herself.
The nerd boys call back to three anonymous staffers of a sport center in episode 117 in Sailor Moon S. They share heavy-framed glasses, nearly identical appearance with differences in their hair, and coordinated actions. The staff members enforce the rules. The nerd boys follow Akio’s rules and thus reinforce them for others. Both stand for conformity and its enforcement. The uniforms are part of the message.
Trailing hair. A meaningful reference. Usagi passes by an advertisement for the Sailor V video game, and her hair trails behind her. It foretells her future. She is destined to become the hero Sailor Moon, but she coincidentally meets Luna and at first is pushed unwillingly into the role.
Utena charges Saionji with her stub of a bamboo sword. Her hair trails beautifully behind her. Utena will become a hero. She seems to coincidentally fall into the dueling game, but behind the scenes Anthy manipulated her into it—she was pushed into the role. The aspects line up fairly neatly. Utena gets more mileage out of the image than Sailor Moon.
Trailing hair shots are not rare in Sailor Moon, and I’ve seen them regularly in more recent anime. I feel they’re a kind of punctuation as a long-haired character leaves the frame. That is not how Utena uses it, so it’s another trope subversion.
Flowing hair. I’ll call it that to distinguish it from trailing hair, though it’s similar. Minako (Venus) is singing in an idol competition, trying to achieve her dream. She wins the competition but shelves her ambition, saying that now she knows she can become an idol when she wants. We see Utena’s flowing hair (which unlike Minako’s is also trailing hair) in duels when she is trying to achieve her dream of becoming a prince. It comes up at points of tactical victory for Utena and strategic victory for Akio. Utena eventually gives up her ambition.
Another meaningful reference. Usagi looks out the window at night, and some stars sparkle brighter. Then she picks out constellations, including imaginary ones. In Utena episode 36, Utena and Touga arrive at the arena and some stars sparkle brighter, then the imaginary castle in the sky appears.
It is the episode when the Sailors defeat the first mid-level enemy, Jadeite. Jadeite’s evil boss Queen Beryl gives him one last chance. In the fight he is forced to flee, and Queen Beryl disposes of him. In Utena, it is the night with Touga. The evil boss Akio (via Anthy) gives Touga one last chance to gain Utena. But to spend the night with her, Touga must promise it is the last time, and Utena enforces it—as Akio planned, she finally defeats her first mid-level enemy. Akio sidelines him.
This lighthouse resembles Akio’s tower, which also projects light. The tower visually divides the newly-introduced Sailor Venus from the four established sailor senshi. Compare the obelisk in episode 2 of Utena. In general, I felt that this Sailor Moon episode made heavy use of visual framing devices of the kind that Utena likes. And, well, it’s episode 33. The episode number alone may have earned this Sailor Moon episode extra attention from the Utena crew. (The Rose of Versailles episode 33 definitely got extra attention.)
In the following episode 34, Sailor Moon’s tear of love and compassion activates the MacGuffin and undoes a tremendous amount of work by the bad guys. She awakens as the moon princess. It’s the model of Utena’s tear in episode 39 that opens the Rose Gate and undoes a tremendous amount of work by Akio. Utena soon awakens in the Buddhist sense. Having become Princess Serenity, Usagi wears shoulder puffs that remind me of Utena’s puffy shoulders, especially little prince Utena.
I see a lot of similarities in this run of Sailor Moon episodes. On the right is a view from the palace on the moon, Silver Millenium. The Earth is reflected in the water and seems afflicted by a dark cloud representing the threat of the Dark Kingdom. The pillars remind me of the pillars in Utena’s architecture, and the crenelations are like those at the edge of the dueling arena. The Academy is a fantasy palace on the moon, which Akio rules as a dark kingdom.
Is there a connection between these two pictures of supporting the fallen? Mercury is holding Usagi up, but only with one hand.
This I read as visual influence. Imaginary spotlights cast unreal dark pointy shadows. Both have diagonal compositions across the frame, with a prominent triangle in the middle. Both emphasize the person at the top vertex of the triangle. There is a reference in the Utena image, but it is to Nadia (three versus four points), not to Sailor Moon.
Spotlight shadows are a motif of Sailor Moon. I notice them in episodes 54 and 154. They seem to be associated with apartness, including the apartness of loneliness and the apartness of being special.
A meaningful reference. Usagi/Princess Serenity is equated with princess Utena, and Tuxedo Mask/Prince Endymion (Wikipedia) with Dios. In both, wind blows in two directions at once. Sailor Moon depicts an idealized relationship, an ancient true love unbroken by minor setbacks like reincarnation with loss of memories. Keyword “eternity”. I think Utena reverses the characters’ positions to reverse the meaning. Utena loves Dios due to trickery by Akio; Dios is not real when little Utena meets him, he is played by Akio. The aspect that is ancient and true is that Akio controls and exploits Utena, as he does all women.
After this, Tuxedo Mask/Endymion is corrupted to the side of evil (temporarily). Compare Dios and Akio. Utena becomes corrupted too. When evil, Tuxedo Mask’s red rose turns black.
The ice rink shutters slamming closed in episode 39 reminded me of the shutters of Akio’s tower. The ice rink was a trap intended for Sailor Moon, so it’s a meaningful reference. Less extreme shutters appear in episode 121, also as a trap. Akio’s phallic tower, which is equated with the dueling arena, is a trap for Utena. She does not escape the duels until she has fought all of them.
The images are for very different events, but they look so similar that I doubt it is a coincidence. Sailor Venus is under attack by a butterfly monster. She is trapped and in pain. Nanami is in Akio’s arms, just saved from falling down the stairs. She is lost in admiration. Both have narrowed, glassy eyes with oversize reflections.
Akio’s rescue is an attack on Nanami; he engineered her danger through Anthy. Nanami faces left for delusion. Venus’s butterfly monster took over her dear friend, a woman who is in a relationship with the man Venus loves. It seems to be about Nanami’s jealousy. Sailor Venus soon comes to terms with it. Akio is isolating Nanami and setting up her duel with Utena. Nanami is trapped and will suffer for it.
Utena, the first season of Sailor Moon, and Sailor Moon S all associate climactic tragic moments with the crucifixion of Jesus, though they don’t take details literally. The tragedies are followed by rebirth, like the resurrection of Christ. This is the point at which it makes sense to equate the Fenghuang bird with the Western phoenix.
Queen Serenity dies on a cross formed by the fallen columns of her palace. In Sailor Moon S episode 123, Hotaru is shown bound to a cross. Akio turns Utena into a princess (murdering the prince) on a cross of shadows.
In Sailor Moon R, episode 74, four sailor senshi are immobilized on crosses. It’s a lesser climactic moment. In the Sailor Moon R movie, Sailor Moon is visually crucified during a plant-based attack.
Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion reach hands toward each other, and then are forced apart. Utena echoes the images when Utena and Anthy reach hands toward each other in Anthy’s coffin, and then Anthy falls away as the dueling arena crumbles. Anthy is reaching with the opposite hand, but her fingers are splayed similarly. Anthy reaches with her left hand, the hand of illusions, because she sees Utena as her prince.
There’s another key image of parting hands in episode 164.
Left, a kiss of true love. Middle, Makoto dances with villain Tiger’s Eye. She fell for him at first sight, and imagines that he is her prince, complete with an imaginary sequence where she wears a frilly white dress. Right, Akio has captured Utena’s love by trickery. For the kisses, the girls lean forward, right leg behind. In all three, they have a hand on their partner’s heart. Utena’s hand is grasping. Tiger’s Eye and Akio put hands on butts seductively. The kisses, and the imaginary sequence, isolate the characters from the real background; they are absorbed in the joy of love. Episode 173 has a similar kiss.
Gravity attack. Episode 74 is a showdown with villain Rubeus. He flattens Sailor Moon with a high gravity attack. Utena compares it to Utena fallen after the backstab in the final showdown.
Above, Sailor Moon comes under attack and sinks to the floor. She is in agony, struggling to resist. It visually matches Utena at the Rose Gate. Sailor Moon succumbs for the moment, but will soon stand again. Utena weeps in frustration because she cannot help Anthy, but her tear opens the Rose Gate and she progresses to Anthy’s coffin.
Below, Sailor Moon is strong enough to overcome the attack. She pushes herself up with her fists and is able to stand, though shakily. Utena’s visuals are different, but the events match closely. It is determination resisting oppression.
Utena’s references are time-reversed compared to Sailor Moon. (Utena must stand before she can stagger to the Rose Gate.) I think it is because Sailor Moon succeeds in her chosen heroic task, while Utena fails and must transcend her role as hero to reach her victory.
When Usagi and Mamoru are told that Chibi-Usa (with pink hair) is their daughter from the future, they run through a range of reactions. After several seconds, they realize what it implies and are deeply embarrassed. Never mind that they both dream of eventually marrying, for now neither is anywhere close to ready to advance the relationship that far.
It’s a gag, but it’s about right. Usagi and Utena are 14. Utena is at a similar level of emotional readiness when Akio maneuvers her into a sexual relationship in the First Seduction. Utena is out of her depth, and remains so at least until the middle of episode 37 when she looks outside her coffin and starts to make sense of the world—and perhaps throughout, considering her temptation in the final showdown.
Left, Chibi-Usa’s pure heart has been taken by the enemy, leaving her unconscious and dying. It is part of a plot to bring the Silence to destroy the world. Right, Akio has taken Utena’s sword—her heart. Prince Utena as Jesus dies on the cross; Utena as prince is pure-hearted Jesus. It is part of a plot to silence all dissent and render the world static and metaphorically dead.
The comparison makes Utena a small child. Chibi-Usa was captured when she rushed in alone to try to save her friend Hotaru, a princely action in the Utena sense. Utena is captured because she became a prince—ultimately because she tried to save Anthy by herself, a mistake.
A few shared elements are meaningful references. Some look like Utena borrowing either from Sailor Moon or from the wider media universe that Sailor Moon and Utena are embedded in. Some may be bits that Ikuhara likes, or came to like. I imagine that most came to the minds of the creative team because they’d seen them not long ago. Utena’s big reference is to SuperS, which it borrows thematic structure from.
Elements Utena shares with the first season of Sailor Moon. Episode numbers are in parentheses.
adulthood = love (23, the equivalent of Utena’s adulthood = sex), amusement park (11), apple as control device (11 - remote controller), boxing (26), cuckoo clock (9), evil due to love (23), exchange diary (2), falling from a building (33), force field repulsion (3 - Jadeite repels Sailor Moon, little Utena repelled from little Anthy in episode 34), hero’s tear of love and compassion brings victory (34), makeshift bandage (24), math II book (20), merry-go-round (11, second ending song), no one will marry me now (2), roses scattering (opener), Saionji (14 - Saionji Rui female tennis star), seduction and control by evil (22 - Nephrite and Naru-chan), stars and constellations (13), you don’t have to apologize (9 - Usagi to Ami; Utena uses the same wording to Anthy in episode 26)
Elements Utena shares with Sailor Moon R, the second season of Sailor Moon and the first that Ikuhara (mostly) directed. A shared theme in the Makai Tree arc is that the villains An and Ail (aka Eiru) claim to love each other but betray each other constantly.
aloneness versus family and friends - Andromeda and Perseus (47) - badminton - barely able to walk - basketballs (see Luna-P dribbled like a basketball) - clocks striking the hour - cracked picture (69) - dipping a hand in pool water (97, like Kozue in episode 15) - dream control - exchange diary - fairy tales - forget-me-nots (R movie) - free will versus control by others - illusions (80, also Sailor Mercury’s powers) - miracles - one rose petal falls to signify love ended (61) - pink hair for a key character (starting in episode 60) - pinned in place by thrown syringes (77) or umbrellas (85, cf. knives) - rabbits - recovering lost memories (48), redirected love and the power of seduction - red-background silhouettes of violent actions (R movie) - sleeping drug in the tea (60) - splash of a water drop (Sailor Mercury) - stress eating (like Chu-Chu) - time travel - UFO
Utena reuses the Andromeda and Perseus reference in reverse: Female enemy An has long pink hair like Utena and is Andromeda. In Utena, Anthy is Andromeda. Well, in Sailor Moon Andromeda and Perseus are the monsters, so it was reversed already.
In episode 77, the villain attacks have a ring theme.
In episode 83, evil Prince Dimande (why did they spell his name that way in English?) takes physical control over Usagi, who he desires. It contrasts with Akio’s mental control over Utena, who he wants to exploit.
But the way Prince Dimande holds Usagi by the jaw (intending to kiss her) reminds me of Akio holding Kanae’s jaw open in episode 32 as part of murdering her. They are pictures of helpless women under the physical control of a powerful man working against them.
In Utena, a hand on somebody else’s face seems to always mean manipulation or control.
Elements Utena shares with Sailor Moon S, the third season of Sailor Moon, directed by Ikuhara. Cars are prominent this season. There are more items, I left out some minor ones that I noticed.
acting - birthday cake (101) - car of the villain breaking glass to enter a building (107) - car standing on end - Cinderella (101) - comet (movie) - corruption as losing your pure heart (from 90, especially 94) - distracted from studying by battles - donating blood - elephants - gang of three mean girls (112) - grasping pool water (97) - handkerchief as hand bandage (96) - hands reaching and parting (127) - harassment by snails (110) - hatching from an egg (from 90) - listening in with fancy equipment (120, compare Nanami listening in to Mitsuru in episode 6) - locker messages - love as an attack (111) - lured into a car ride (96) - objects extracted from the heart (from 90) - octopus balloon - Old Maid card game (118) - opera glasses - planetarium with projector (119) - Princess Kaguya (movie) - romantic car ride by the sea (106) - rose garden and greenhouse (116) - stained glass windows around the base of an upper dome (123) - streetlight blinking on - sword fight (101, 102) - Takarazuka (96) - two characters as one person (123) - underage car driving - underground professor character (from 90) - winning by caring for another (125) - witch (Witches 5 arc from 103)
The mid-ranking villain of one arc makes a mass cupid-arrow attack in episode 111. It’s not a new idea in the series: Sailor Venus has a Venus Love-Me Chain attack. Tuxedo Mast attacks with a rose representing love, and Chibi-Usa makes a Pink Sugar Heart Attack. Akio’s love attack on Utena reaches its full force in the Second Seduction.
Impossible moons. In the Sailor Moon image, the sky is twilight blue and stars show faintly. But the crescent says that the sun is above the moon in the sky; it can only be full day. Keiko’s impossible moon is similar but more extreme.
The shadow doesn’t look like it covers half the moon. Maybe the shadow is only to better compose some of the images this moon is used in. Or I guess it may represent the dark Silence overtaking the Sailor senshi... though in views of the Earth destroyed by the Silence, it spreads from above to below instead. If the guess is right, then the shadow on Utena’s impossible moon stands for the black rose taking control over Keiko.
Elements Utena shares with Sailor Moon SuperS, the fourth season of Sailor Moon, directed by Ikuhara.
Utena borrows some of its thematic structure directly from SuperS. The Crystal Forest, located in the World of Dreams, is a fairy tale enchanted forest and corresponds to the dueling forest. The unicorn/flying horse (Wikipedia) Pegasus with alter ego Helios corresponds to prince Dios. Helios is god of the sun; Dios is the sun. Dreams, children’s dreams, and immaturity and wishing for adulthood are themes of the season; compare Utena’s childish dream to become a prince. Episode 157 has flying, which Chibi-Usa calls a miracle brought about by belief, or what Utena calls conviction. The villains examine a victim’s dreams by calling forth a mirror from their heart, like drawing a sword from the heart to reveal a duelist’s patriarchal beliefs. Calling on Pegasus to protect dreams matches with Utena calling on Dios during a duel—Pegasus powers up Sailor Moon’s fancy weapon (the Moon Kaleido Scope), which is not sharp but resembles a sword. Utena might wish her dreams were protected. The villains believe that a child who destroys their dream becomes an adult who cannot use magic. (Episode 164. Sailor Moon answers that a truly beautiful dream cannot be destroyed.) It corresponds to Utena becoming an adult and losing her power of miracles. Pink-haired Chibi-Usa corresponds to Utena, starting from the kiss by Helios/Pegasus (episode 158) that matches Dios kissing little Utena’s tears away while bestowing a dream, all the way to Queen Nehalennia and Akio saying (in different words) that a child like you could not understand. Helios is guardian of the dream-powered paradise Elysion, which is the original Greek for what is latinized in English as Elysium, an eternal paradise for the virtuous and the heroic. It sounds like the castle in the sky. In episode 164, Queen Nehalennia takes Helios’s Golden Crystal and breaks the seal placed on her, which is sort of like breaking the seal on the Power of Dios, if Akio had opened the Rose Gate. Akio, like Queen Nehalennia, is defeated by a combination of heroism and dissent among his followers.
In the final episode of the season, Queen Nehalennia says that devouring the dreams of others is the way to immortal youth and beauty. She recounts that she devoured the dreams of her subjects and lived on among their living corpses. She vows to never become an adult (and lose her dream, as she sees it), and stays sealed away, unchanging. It’s exactly like Akio: He imposes roles that come with their own overriding aspirations; his victims are metaphorically dead; he has immortal youth and beauty. He stays at the Academy, unchanging, and never becomes adult. Queen Nehalennia temporarily escapes her imprisonment; Akio never does.
Anthy is Nehalennia, the obscure goddess who Queen Nehalennia is named after. See myths - Nehalennia.
Besides the numbered episodes, there is a special episode, a movie, and a movie bonus episode.
age difference in lovers (159, like Utena and Dios/Akio, among others) - becoming adult in a moment of realization (150) - boxing kangaroo (133) - black roses (165, standing for the loss of dreams) - breaking a long-standing seal (164) - carrot as unicorn horn (129) - corruption by temptation (156) - cuckoo clock (movie) - dance party as a trap (147) - family photos scattered in disorder (130) - crawling on the table (143) - finding thematic love/adulthood after many experiences (141) - impersonation, imitating another (148; see the TV impersonation contest in episode 33) - immortality by consuming the dreams of others (166) - jumping to conclusions (138) - koi pun, fish and love (159) - light flickers on (128) - merry-go-round (143) - miracle brought about by belief (157) - mirrors show the truth, people’s hearts distort the image (though in the season’s final showdown, mirrors are associated with illusions) (156, 166, and movie; 166 is the truthful mirror from “Snow White”) - naked are clothed in the opener - octopus balloon (146) - pinned in place by thrown knives (132 151 153, thrown cards in 147, thrown letters in the movie bonus episode) - purple hair with earrings similar to Anthy’s (Lilica the vampire in the special) - samurai sword duel (139, matching “I’ve got you!” dialog from the episode 25 duel) - silhouettes (130) - snake enemy with shadows aims to capture dreams (135, like Akio) - stealing the power of others for evil (164) - tear falling into water, with ripples (128) - third eye (Dead Moon Circus villains and Pegasus, like Anthy’s bindi) - time stopped by falling in love (159) - trapped in coffins (movie) - unfree princess (146, princess Rubina) - victims chose it of their own free will (movie) - world where children never grow up (movie)
The sky of the World of Dreams glows with aurora-like light, and in battles Pegasus appears on a background of aurora light. So the aurora is associated with dreams. The meaning must carry over to the false aurora when Utena spends a night with Touga. The false aurora is projected, and the projector is a source of dreams, like the dream of the prince—it is part of Akio’s control over dreams (in the sense of aspirations).
It is Pegasus who says in episode 156 that mirrors show the truth and people’s hearts distort the image. Of course, it’s literally true that mirrors show the truth—only reversed. Maybe a closer analogy is to the Utena metaphor that cameras record the truth, but can nevertheless be used to tell lies.
Episode 138 has a car theme. The villain’s car arrives with a skidding stop much like Akio’s car. It crushes a blooming dandelion; you can see it under the wheel. Akio’s car is worse: If its destination is inside a building, it breaks in.
The Sailor Moon image emphasizes the villain’s uncaring nature and gives some prominence to the background. The heroes win with only one episode’s worth of trouble. The image of Akio’s car emphasizes the car’s coolness and power and obscures the background, representing Akio’s dominance.
The Amazon Trio of mid-level villains call themselves male, but all have some gender ambiguity going on. Fish Eye is especially blatant about it, even to the point of showing off Utena-like variable character design. In episode 137 he plays a woman, and keeps looking like a woman even after leaving his victim and taking a shower. In episode 140 he plays a man. Both are disguises. They’re seduction plots of different kinds.
Fish Eye is decorated with a fish skeleton like Utena’s fish skeletons, and a spherical hair tie like Akio’s (visible in the right image).
Queen Nehalennia forces apart the hands of Helios on the left and Chibi-Usa on the right. It doesn’t correspond concretely to anything in Utena, but the similarity of the ideas is obvious. It is like Akio taking Utena’s love to himself, overriding her love for Dios.
Elements Utena shares with Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, the fifth season of Sailor Moon, directed by Igarashi Takuya (Wikipedia; not Utena’s Ikuhara). This season finished less than two months before Utena started to air, so I expected limited influence. I may have been wrong, but there are fewer shared elements.
Queen Nehalennia redux arc. The enemy Galaxia is a former hero, like Dios turned into Akio. The season opens with an arc where Galaxia (though not introduced yet) brings back Queen Nehalennia for another round. The arc draws on Sleeping Beauty, but reverses the prince and princess roles. Nehalennia puts Mamoru into an endless nightmare in her palace and sets about sealing away the Sailor senshi in dreams, and then in mirrors. When Usagi approaches, Nehalennia defends the palace with a lengthy path of briars. Utena draws on it too: Akio puts Anthy in her coffin and keeps the Academy asleep with illusions. Utena must overcome briars at the Rose Gate to reach Anthy’s coffin.
Akio is Queen Nehalennia. As a child Queen Nehalennia was lonely, but her magic mirror cured her loneliness illogically with eternal beauty (but still no friends). She rules from a high palace, and she works with mirrors to separate people and force false dreams and nightmares on them. Akio is the same: He rules from his tower, he has no friends (he trusts Anthy only because he controls her), he has eternal beauty, he isolates people, and he controls them with nightmarish illusions. His world is reversed, like a mirror image. In contrast, Anthy is the goddess Nehalennia, very different from the queen named after her.
The story of the arc matches too. Sailor Moon wins in the end when her love miraculously frees her companions and Queen Nehalennia in the bargain. But the story goes on: The last scene is the mocking laughter of Galaxia (still not introduced). Utena’s love frees Anthy; other good characters end up better off; the story continues with the sequence of heroes. This short arc of Sailor Moon (6 episodes out of 200) determines a notable part of Utena’s structure.
ball to the face (187) - betrayal, no true friendship (197) - discovering a comet (177) - dunking a basketball to cheering fangirls and other sports superskills (174) - exchanging thoughts wordlessly (189) - ferris wheel (190) - flowing hair (192) - forced forgetting through dreams (171) - handkerchief as hand bandage (179) - jumping to gain vision from behind a crowd (173, like Wakaba in episode 20) - making decisions for others (190) - movie scene with camera, fill light reflector, boom microphone (173) - pinned in place by thrown weapons (180 for the nth time) - princess tempted to cheat on her prince (181) - refusing to give up hope (200) - tears gleam on a black background (191 and others) - train vendor (183) - “who are you?” (200) - winning by forgivenness (172)
The lighthouse of Sailor Moon episode 33 returns in episode 179.
The ball to the face doesn’t seem to be a meaningful reference. Usagi the hero got it by incompetence. Nanami the loser got it maybe by bad luck, or coincidence, or evil miracle. It’s just a shared trope.
Figurative sparkling tears for the past destruction of a world. They are for Usagi’s sadness. See sparkling transfers for similar images in Utena. The most similar image is Utena’s tears that open the Rose Gate. I think the reference is likely meaningful. Utena’s tears are tears of frustration for being unable to rescue Anthy. They can represent her sadness for the upcoming destruction of her fairy tale world where she is a special rescuing prince.
Galaxia. Unless both borrowed this from somewhere else, it must be a meaningful reference. Galaxia is a hero who knows that she will be corrupted by evil and prepares for it by releasing the means to defeat the evil. The color is pink for love. Utena is a future hero who does not know she will be corrupted. The color is shaded toward purple for corruption. The Utena scene tells us that Utena wants to be a princess and marry the prince, which is the handle that Akio grasps to control and corrupt her.
Both are looking upward. As in the princess-prince reference above, Utena flips the picture left-to-right to flip the meaning: Galaxia looks forward toward a realistic hope. The flower petals are constantly moving, but in many still frames, as here, they give Galaxia wings. Utena looks left toward an illusion—she’s looking toward the castle in the sky, where the prince and princess will live happily ever after (though the castle is not visible from where she is).
There’s a similar image in episode 151 with Ami (Mercury) next to a column of light, looking upward, surrounded by falling ginkgo leaves. Other than the visual similarity, I don’t see a connection with these two images.
Galaxia is defeated when she is corrupted by evil, but planned ahead and won through in the end thanks to the help of Sailor Moon. Utena is looking toward an illusion and cannot see what is coming—her situation is worse than Galaxia’s, and her column of light is narrower and dimmer. Utena is corrupted by evil, and defeated in Akio’s eyes though not her own, and wins through thanks to the betrayal and the help of Anthy.
The picture makes Galaxia=Utena. But Galaxia is a hero of the distant past, and it makes sense to set Galaxia=Dios. It makes the parallelism closer in two ways. First, Dios like Galaxia changes from hero to villain. Second, it suggests that Dios knew he was to be corrupted by evil and performed the miracle of creating the Rose Gate and the dueling arena, with their rules of admission, to prepare for a future hero to defeat the evil. Dios’s interaction with Utena in the final showdown implies that he wasn’t expecting the future hero to overturn his sexist world order. Dios’s goal is to save all girls, so under this interpretation the dueling apparatus will continue to exist down the sequence of heroes until all girls are saved, which requires that Akio is defeated.
Anthy and Utena’s dance in episode 3 comes with a somewhat similar image with a column of light and flying petals. The effect is quite different.
Nothing to do with Utena, just a funny point. I can’t overlook what’s alike: The sound, the rabbit, the cool pointing poses, the horizontal slices. And the pink. Sailor Moon’s white costume is counterintuitively made of pink ribbons. We see it in her transformation (including when her transformation is undone in episodes 51, 90, and 193), and it’s alluded to in openers.
Jay Scott <jay@satirist.org>
first posted 20 January 2022
updated 18 May 2025