Re: [In Which I Watch] Utena AND Madoka
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Opening
Masami Okui: "-rinbu- revolution"
First, the OP! Judging from Ikuhara's reputation, there's probably
lots of Significance in here flying over my head, but I'll do what I can.
First, silhouettes of Utena and Anthy spinning in front of abstract roses. In fetal positions, for what that's worth. Some other stuff, including their faces turned toward each other twice, as though for a kiss, ending with their hands being forcibly removed from gripping each other.
Ah, the old "walking from behind, face camera" bit to introduce your couple. I have no idea how old it is, but it's also been seen in the first-season
Haruhi Suzumiya opening. Utena's shown with the boys (of course), Anthy with the girls. And I'm sorry, Anthy, but the poofy sleeves look goofy.
Really goofy.
Various romance-type shots of U&A -- greenhouse, lying in autumn leaves, blah blah... then Anthy hands Utena a white rose, and they change into their "PLOT!" clothes, which consist of some extra frills and accessories for Utena and a total wardrobe change for Anthy. Dunno what the point of the red dress is, but it's probably connected with that "Rose Bride" thing I've heard about. So is this "violence" red, "lust" red, or is the difference not important? And is it significant that Utena gets up at this point, while Anthy just lies back?
The scene shifts to...
something, and we get shots of the cast:
- Utena, being stabby.
- Someone with long green hair.
- Someone with curly orange hair.
- Someone with short blue hair.
- Someone with long blonde hair, dressed in yellow.
- Someone with long red hair.
- Utena again, turning amidst an updraft causing the infrastructure around her to crumble like it's American.
- Anthy, possibly causing everything to break apart.
- A horse and another horse (of course and of course).
- Somebody else with dark skin like Anthy's (and pale hair), opening his eyes.
Truck driver's gear change, and...
Utena and Anthy jousting... on flying horses... under an inverted castle. Yeah, I've got nothing, except that I'm assuming if it looks phallic, it's supposed to be. Since Utena's being clearly set up as "THE BOY" and Anthy as "THE GIRL," this bit is weird in that regard. (On that note, Haruka and Michiru had that going on too, especially in the anime, directed by you-know-who. What's up with that, seriously? If you're going to have your couple be two girls, why not just have them be
two girls?)
The OP ends with a frantic Utena losing her grip on Anthy's hard, followed by another double-spinning-rose shot with Anthy conspicuously absent. No, that's not ominous AT ALL.
The lyrics:
Let's live heroically, let's live with style.
Kamina approves. I note the word "
kakko" in the Japanese, which usually gets translated as "cool," but that's never seemed right to me given the way it gets used -- "cool" doesn't really have masculine associations. I dunno, does "
chou nekutai wa kakkoii yo" correspond well enough to the English original?
Even if the two of us are torn apart...
...take my revolution.
What, is that supposed to mean "if I can't fight, do so in my place"?
In the sunlit garden, we both joined our hands.
Drawing close for comfort, we both swore...
...never again would we ever fall in love.
With anyone else, you mean? If so, that's an odd way of phrasing the vow. And Nozomi, while I approve of different colors for English and
romaji, can you at least be
consistent about which is which?
I see that photo of us standing cheek to cheek...
...and place a bit of my loneliness in our smiles.
...How do you
do that? With tape?
Even if I dream, even if I cry, even if I get hurt...
...reality keeps on coming recklessly.
Yeah, it does that.
I wanna find my own place, the value of being...
...the person I've been until now...
Let's find the strength to throw it all away.
Strip down to nothing at all.
Huh?
Become like rose petals, blowing free!
Even if the two of us are torn apart...
...I swear that I will change the world.
So a bit of love song, a bit of coming-of-age, and a bit of
shonen yo shinwa ni nare. All right.
To the best of my memory, the only anime I've watched the OP on for every episode is
Evangelion; I even skipped "Tank!" a bunch of times. But rest assured, I intend to watch every second of every episode of this series.
Without further adieu...
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Episode 1
"The Rose Bride"
My DVD player defaults to Japanese, but VLC to English. Za?
Fairy tale time! So
that's where
Princess Tutu got the opening shtick from. This is after the OP, though, and ith a little-girl storyteller instead of an old-lady storyteller. Also features a theater curtain in front of a rose-styled picture frame. This is clearly Utena's origin story: a pink-haired princess (?) loses her parents and is sad for obvious reasons, but a
samurai who smells of sunflowers Prince Charming who smells of roses and is passing by on a white horse for... some reason... hugs her, dries her tears, and says:
Prince Charming: "Little one, who bears up alone in such deep sorrow.
Never lose that strength or nobility, even when you grow up. I give you this to remember this day. We will meet again. This ring will lead you to me, one day."
Already we've got questions. Firstly, princess? Who exactly were Utena's parents? How'd they die? What was Prince Charming doing there? Does he have a bag of rings that he pulls out whenever he runs into a crying girl? What's his interest in seeing Utena again? Why does the picture-book animation style occasionally shift to more realistic flashback shots? Why does the rose frame, which vanished early in the story, now return with white roses instead of red? What strength/nobility is he talking about? Maybe Utena's crying silently and he's talking about that? What's so strong or noble about that? Yeah, this anime's still a few months away from the debut of
One Piece, but still. And where on Earth is the narrator getting the idea of the ring being an engagement ring from? I mean, it can hardly be an engagement ring if nobody got engaged -- it's the latter that causes the former, not vice versa.
The roses turn pink, and we get to the most famous part of the story: the princess, now in poofy sleeves and pants (the sleeves resembling the OP's
girls' uniform), vows to become a prince.
Narrator: "But was that really such a good idea?"
OK, let's face this head-on. At the risk of stating the obvious... princes are
dudes. Why does Utena want to be something that explicitly involves being male in the definition?
And related to certain people? Living one's life by certain principles that she idealizes and saw in this guy, that I can get. Choosing "princely" virtues to follow, cool, though A) I wouldn't know what would make them "princely" and B) such virtues might conflict with my own, which would not of course make her a bad character, just one I would disagree with. But while "I was comforted in my hour of need, so I wanna comfort others in turn" makes sense, "I was comforted by a guy, so I wanna be
the a guy" doesn't. Of course, my question has almost certainly been anticipated.
Oh, and now the roses are pink. Is all this significant? How many kinds of roses are there going to be here, anyway? Is Utena going to be weakened by green roses, permanently depowered by gold roses, and so on?
Title card. Apparently, episodes are "duels" in this show. What's with this kinda thing? Seriously, Japan. Well, to keep a semi-logical order to this, I'll leave the header for this episode as it is, but use "DUEL:##" for the rest.
School time! It's the beginning of the semester, and a girl named
Wakaba (don't tell me her first name) is waiting on a bridge for someone. She says it's her boyfriend, though the subtitles clearly say "she," and it seems the other girls who talk to her already know the "boyfriend" is a "she." Hmm, who could that be? I don't hear a "
kano" in the audio, though, so maybe we're supposed to assume a male boyfriend. You know, like the word implies. (Again, if she considers herself and Utena to be
koibito, why not just say "girlfriend"?)
Some establishing shots show that this school, Ohtori Academy, is
big. Like, Mahora big. Or at least some shots make it look that way; not clear what is and isn't part of it. Who funds this thing? Whoever it is, they -- big surprise -- like roses.
We are now properly introduced to Our Heroine,
Utena Tenjou, turning heads as she walks to class. An adult with a pointy face, green hair in a bun, and terrible glasses accosts Utena regarding her outfit.
Utena: "It looks good enough on all the boys here."
OK, no. Not that I mind it, Utena, but that is
not the boys' uniform you're wearing. Your jacket is black, not light green, and I don't know any guy who would wear those shorts instead of the trousers your classmates have on. (Seriously, you're wearing a miniskirt with legs. Long pants won't make you a
sukeban, y'know. Did Prince Charming wear shorts?) And then there's the shoes... nevertheless, Miss Crab continues to call it a "boy's uniform." Ugh. (I do like her outrage being accompanied by a series of shots of Utena posing dramatically. Pink rose frame, too!) Utena just flips through a rulebook, pulls out the "ain't no rule" maneuver, and cheerfully bids Miss Crab farewell.
Miss Crab: "Why, that... She's going to make a fool of me for another term?!"
No, I think you're doing that fine on your own. So Utena's been here at least a semester already? If so, I think she should've said "There's
still no rule that says a girl can't wear a boy's uniform." Eh.
Against a rose-petal background, Utena's further established as a basketball ace (the only girl on the court) with a huge female fan club that calls her "Utena-sama." If you say so.
Some guy: "C'mon, Tenjou. If you join my basketball team, winning the regionals would be easy!"
Utena: "Excuse me, I happen to be a girl! (
Boku wa joushi!) I'd be embarrassed to get all covered with smelly boys' sweat!"
Some guy: "Oh, come on! You act like a guy anyway, Tenjou!"
Utena: "Would you quit insulting me?!"
Wait, she's not on a team? So she was taking that whole team on her own? I can't decide whether my disbelief remains suspended or not. Regardless, if she's cool with playing against guys, what's wrong with being on their team? Their sweat? How's that aspect any different? And what's wrong with our sweat anyway? And how is it an insult to point out the foundation of her entire image? Anyway, SG points out the uniform, and she explains:
Utena: "I want to be a noble prince who saves princesses."
Some guy: "And what's that supposed to mean?!"
No kidding. You want to save people? Become a doctor. It's the 1990s, princesses can take care of themselves outside car crashes. Forget the years-in-the-future
Princess Tutu, haven't these people ever read
The Paper Bag Princess? And again, "prince" means "bloke." You're trying to be a bloke. Deal.
Utena smells roses and stops in her walking at a greenhouse we've seen in the OP and the establishing shots. In the greenhouse, shown with another pink rose frame, is someone who hasn't yet been introduced but who we all know to be
Anthy Himemiya. (Her dark skin, by the way, has been seen on exactly one other character: Prince Charming.) She's watering flowers (pink roses?) and seems to be enjoying herself. So a more sedate Freya, then? (And how sad is it that she's the first flower-loving girl that comes to my mind?) Utena looks at her ring, which fits much better than it did when she was a kid.
Utena: "Why does the scent of roses always make me think of the past?"
Bzuh? OK, smell is more closely tied to memory than just about any other sense, and you've crafted your
entire identity around that encounter. Please don't tell me you've forgotten.
Later, Utena's looking at the greenhouse from the window, where Green from the OP is talking to Anthy. He looks angry, she guilty.
Utena: "A lover's quarrel? They should do that where no one has to see it!"
Dude. You're spying on them. That's not their fa-
...
Green just slapped Anthy in the face. With the back of his hand. Leaving a mark. While she was wearing glasses.
Who the hell is this arse and how does he face himself in the mirror?
He grabs her right wrist with his left and is about to slap her again when Red materializes and grabs
his right wrist. Now we just need Utena to grab Red's wrist and Anthy to grab Utena's and we can have a circle dance. (These guys aren't wearing the standard green uniforms, but fancier white ones, by the way.)
Wakaba's kind enough to drop by, glomp Utena in revenge for ditching her that morning, and inform us that Green is (blue rose frame) student council VP
Kyoichi Saionji ("Saionji-sama"). Utena already knows that (white rose frame) Red is President
Touga Kiryuu. Wakaba also introduces us properly to Anthy, dismissing her as "weird" due to introversion. Uh, what? Speaking as an introvert, that's not weird, you are. Oh, and she's in the same class as Utena and Wakaba this semester, and only with Saionji because of council stuff.
Wakaba: "Someone as cool as Saionji would never fall for a girl like that!"
Uh, Wakaba? You might want to double-check the OP and who you're talking to. Anyway, she somehow misinterprets a teasing tone as jealousy and reassures Utena: "You're WAY cooler than any of those guys can be!" Love-interest irony aside, I note that Wakaba's word is the loanword "
kuuru" -- see above note on
kakkoii.
Oh, and she's still on Utena's back. Dude, let your boyfriend breathe.
Dramatic organ music as we cut to a StuCo meeting with Anthy, Saionji, Orange, Blue, and Touga Kiryuu. (No, I don't know which name I should call him by -- I've seen "Touga" more than "Kiryuu," but nobody's used just one yet.) The white fancy-pants uniform does appear to be the StuCo uniform. (Is this a thing? I think
Special A did it with the title group, too. Do uniforms automatically produce a desire for someone to be more equal than other people?) Here's what's what:
- StuCo girls who aren't Anthy wear the pants too, but everyone gets their own color.
- Blue (blue rose frame) says those "who wear the rose seal are all chosen members." Chosen by who? Prince Charming?
- Orange (orange rose frame) mentions a "most important rule."
- Saionji is "currently" engaged to Anthy, now called the Rose Bride for the first time, but even the rest of the council doesn't like his arsing. Prez says that the engagement "doesn't mean you're free to treat her as you please." Uh, duh?
- Blue writes stuff down and times stuff with a stopwatch. This is the one that holds the secrets of the universe, then?
- "The student council exists by the will of End of the World. If he learns of this [bride-beating], he won't let it go lightly." First mention of (the) End of the World! And it's a "he"? Or is "he" someone else?
- Saionji considers himself and "the Bride" to be "a happy pair of lovebirds." I do not think that means what you think it means. He says this while Anthy's wearing a clear "please stop" facial expression. Anthy herself, in her first line, just says that she's "Master Saionji's (Saionji-sama's) Bride" and that she'll do whatever he tells her to. Uh, what? Since when does "bride" entail that? I may not have ever seen Kill Bill, but I already like its meaning of "Bride" better.
- According to "the rules of the rose seal," Anthy can be traded as stakes in a duel. Again, what? And she doesn't get a say in this?
- A new Duelist is coming, presumably not the kind who duels with children's card games; Saionji's looking forward to the challenge.
Eyecatch! "UTENA: la fillette révolutionnaire." Or
LA FILLETTE REVOLUTIONNAIRE U
TENA, it can't decide which. Didn't know it did the title in French.
Wakaba and Utena are lying on a hillside in... I guess the afternoon? I dunno, I have no clue how the timeline for this day works out. Wakaba admires Utena's ring, which apparently bears (white rose frame) the Ohtori Academy crest. That explains why Utena's here -- how'd she get in, though? Is it a private school? Do you test in? Anyhoo, Utena recounts the story of Prince Charming, saying, "I was so young that I can hardly remember it." Well, that's some info.
When
Wakaba was little, on the other hand, her mother told her she was a princess from the Onion Kingdom. Just so long as they don't chop them in public there. Is Utena's quip about Wakaba's big forehead supposed to be a pun?
Cut to a bunch of guys (no girls) crowding around what turns out to be a love letter attached to a bulletin board, written to Saionji according to the guy who reads it out. Utena chews them out and shreds it.
Some (other?) guy: "What's wrong with reading something that's tacked up?"
Utena: "In this case, a REAL man wouldn't read it!"
Uh, Utena? Not that it wasn't a stupid question (answer: consent of relevant party, the writer, unknown), but that's a bit of a no-true-Scotsman answer. Turns out Wakaba wrote the letter, and now Utena wants
blood.
She confronts Saionji, apparently the Kendo team captain in addition to the StuCo VP (isn't that like an insane workload?), who says, "I don't know. I throw a lot of letters away." OK, if he just discarded it like the rest and nobody had ever intercepted one before, it might be understandable, though he'd probably owe Wakaba an apology. "I can do whatever I want with my own letters"? Uh, writer's privacy and consent? Come on, this is not AP Ethics! And then he goes back into puppy-kicking:
Saionji: "For that incredibly stupid... I mean, for that cheerful letter, the best thing to do with it was use it to give everyone a nice laugh."
Not so
kuuru now, is he, Wakaba? Utena's incensed enough to challenge him to a duel, leading him to conclude that she's "the new challenger," though Utena has no idea what he means. Another question: Why does she expect this to accomplish anything? If she wins, she wins, if she loses, she loses, and there's no reason he has to agree to any stakes or even to the duel. Is there?
Saionji: "Very well! I'll meet you behind the school after classes today, in the dueling arena forest."
So it's not "after classes"
yet?
Nobody's allowed into the "dueling arena forest" -- and why do you need a forest for dueling? Visual cover?
Shadows of girls on a wall! Shadow puppet chorus?
"Do you know? Do you know? Have you heard the news?"
"There'll be another duel today in the forest behind the school."
"Oh, brave hero (
yuusha-sama)! Brave hero, who fights for her friend's sake..."
"But, be careful, brave hero."
"There are rules in the forest."
"Do you know what they are?"
"Do you know? Do you know?"
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY ARE?"
NO I DON'T. And should I read something into "
another duel"?
Nighttime. Utena goes up to the forest with a wooden sword she picked up challenging Saionji. She's blocked by a wall, but then comes a water-ripple visual effect I
know I've seen before, and a drop comes out of a tiny sideways pool of water on the wall, striking her ring. Yeah, sideways. And the drop moves sideways through the air, leaving the tiny pool like a backwards video of a drop falling
into it. Physics is apparently out to lunch.
And gates open! The way before Utena is clear, which brings us to the very first instance of...
ZETTAI UNMEI MOKUSHIROKU!
I deliberately avoided seeking out this song before watching this episode. Ominous minor-key chanting that I can't make heads or tails out of -- hm, not nearly as fun as "ROCK OVER JAPAN," but not bad. The really important thing is the visuals. Remember what I said about physics being out to lunch? I was wrong.
Now it's out to lunch.
There's a spiral staircase in the forest that doesn't appear to be connected to its central spire. It's hard to judge size or slope from our initial perspective, but shots of Utena climbing it show it to be absolutely MASSIVE and tilted at like a 60-degree angle, though the top looks more lke 45 degrees. How tall is this thing?! Have they ever heard of elevators at this academy? At the top is the
something from the OP: a ginormous platform floating in midair underneath an upside-down technicolor rotating castle.
What.
Utena somehow isn't even out of breath. She's sane enough to ask what the hell is up with the castle, to which Saionji, already there, says, "Think of it as a trick of the light." I notice he doesn't actually say that's what it
is. He's also surprised that Utena, a non-council-member, has the rose seal ring. Guess Prince Charming
doesn't just give those out like candy, then. And is it an actual seal, then? Like you use on wax stuck on envelopes?
Saionji: "Anthy! Prepare us!"
And at last, with a pink rose frame, we see Anthy in her famous Rose Bride outfit!
Utena: "Himemiya, what are you doing here?"
Saionji: "It's the Bride's place to be here, so she's here."
Thanks for the total non-answer, pal. Utena, in close quarters with Anthy for the first time, realizes that she has the same rose scent as Prince Charming did. Yeah, spending all your time tending to roses will do that for you.
Anthy sticks a rose in the chest pocket of each duelist -- green for Saionji, white for Utena -- and lays out the rules for Utena: you lose the rose, you lose the duel. And for her following "
ganbatte kudasai ne," Saionji
hits her so hard she falls to the floor. Ex
cuse me? Was this arse brought up in a barn? Utena continues to be the sanest character in the show, which is honestly saying something:
Saionji: "How dare you, Anthy! You are the Rose Bride! That means you belong to me! What's the meaning of you wishing good luck to someone else?"
Anthy: "Forgive me, Saionji, my master."
Utena: "Are you nuts?! Why would you take that from this guy?!"
No kidding. Apparently, the champion Duelist basically owns the Rose Bride. Who thought
that up? I wouldn't even treat a pet like he treats her. Utena concludes that she just has to do what she came here to -- kick Saionji's butt -- and walks away while Anthy stares at her, wide-eyed. (I don't think she's blushing, but the mark on her cheek is clever that way.) They take their places, with Anthy in the middle.
Anthy: "Rose of the noble castle." /glowing energy ball, bigger than her head, appears in her hands and causes an updraft
Utena: "Now what? Another 'trick of the light'?"
Anthy: "Power of Dios that sleeps within me. Heed your master and come forth!"
The ball of light, now about the size of a grapefruit, hovers over Anthy's chest as she leans back, Saionji holding her up by the waist. A blatant shot of her "assets" later, and the hilt of (of course) a rose-themed sword appears from her chest. Well, we all knew that was coming. Saionji removes it, and pronounces the famous line...
Saionji: "
Grant me the power to bring the world revolution!"
I think most people have wanted something like that on occasion -- I know I have. Of course, this is Utena, so it's probably way too early to be making definitive statements. (I notice this whole bit is set up so that Anthy
has to be held in the Standard Romance Pose unless you've got a second person bracing her while the champion pulls out the sword.)
Bells gong -- from
where? They're
on a big blue ball in a big blue void! -- as the duel begins to Engrish question-word chanting. Even if Utena weren't the heroine, you'd already know Saionji was going down, thanks to him pulling out the "pretty good for a girl" line. Seriously, there's being an arse, and then there's just plain genre-blind. Still recognizes the whole "prince saving damsel" thing, though,
and he manages to total her wooden sword, surprising her with the "Sword of Dios's" realness even though she's been striking it for... what, 20 seconds?
A bit of taunting and a Prince Charming flashback later, a mostly disarmed Utena charges across a rose-petal background like the one from the basketball game. Saionji seems surprised, Anthy alarmed -- has she already taken a liking to Utena? Saionji charges back, and...
...OK, not that I'm complaining about the outcome, but how on Earth did Utena chop that thing with the bottom foot of a wooden sword?
Anthy: "Cheer up, Saionji... my schoolmate (
Saionji-sempai)."
Am I imagining it, or did she enjoy saying that?
Prez is watching from the same place the bells were, intrigued. He proves one of my initial beliefs mistaken by IDing Utena as a middle-schooler. "Oh, yes,
Baby (English)... You've lit the fire to my heart." And now he has ceased to be impressive.
Utena's back on the ground, presumably after an offscreen rendition of "ukorihsukoM iemnU iatteZ," deciding that she should just forget about all the weirdness of the night. Pardon me while I cackle evilly. ... *hold music* ... OK, done. Anthy somehow got down ahead of her -- what, did Utena have Champion paperwork to fill out? Or are they hiding an elevator from her after all?
Anthy: "I've been waiting for you, Miss Utena (
Utena-sama). I am the Rose Bride. From this day forward, I belong to you."
Utena? You're doomed.
(Really should be "Master Utena" for the symmetry and consistency with "boyfriend" and everything, but I can forgive Nozomi for that.)
Roll ED! This shows Prince Charming holding Utena in a pink princess outfit that looks like a palette swap of the Rose Bride dress. Makes me wonder just what her feelings about Prince Charming are, and how they play into all the gender-role nonsense. Interspersed are similar shots with Anthy herself in Utena's place, clearly involving some cel reuse. The background? Daisies, what else? (No, I'm kidding, it's roses.) I'm having trouble parsing the lyrics, partly because it's almost midnight and I've been working on this post for hours, but the bit about angels and wings seems "Defying Gravity"-ish.
Episode 1 complete! The episode preview has a pink rose frame and features Utena apparently finding Anthy cleaning her room and learning that she has to fight a rematch against Saionji (which she intends to lose -- uh, and give Anthy back to him? Please don't). And that "no one who defies the student council can stay here." Oh, and Saionji hits Anthy AGAIN. Ugh. Can we either kill him off or put him on a long, painful redemption arc already? Lastly, there's a cartoony mouse with a necktie, an earring, and a fork. Meh, penguins are awesomer.
So, there's lots of questions now. Who were the Tenjous? Who brought Utena up after their deaths? What was up with Prince Charming? What's up with the End of the World and why is StuCo involved the way it is? Who thought up all this Rose Bride bullcrap? Has there ever been any Rose Bride other than Anthy? What's with the Sword of Dios? Who failed spectacularly at raising Saionji? Who built Ohtori Academy and what the hell did they put in its forest? How long has Utena been there? Will Shadowjack's observation about how in Sailor Moon, someone "wears the skirt" in a couple, not the pants, ever be relevant? What's up with the shadow girls? And has Utena thought through the whole "prince" thing at
all?
Some of these, undoubtedly, will be answered. Others, equally undoubtedly, I will still be pulling my hair out over after episode 39. Time will tell; till then, feel free to snicker behind my back. (Man, now
I have to be the one struggling to resist walls of black bars. Bummer.)
And finally...
ZUM count:
1
Hitting Anthy count:
2
And now, bed.
