Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

When I wrote my criticism of Neon Genesis Evangelion, several readers commented that they would like to see Revolutionary Girl Utena written about in the same way. So then I watched Revolutionary Girl Utena. I was keeping Evangelion in mind as I watched it, but my impression was quite different.
-Mari Kotani

Kotani goes on to discuss the nostalgic shoujo art style of RGU, but by no means does she imply that this is the series's only difference from NGE. she never returns to the topic herself, but a look at her criticism of NGE might be instructive.

in it, Kotani argues that NGE portrays a "gender panic." Shinji is "feminized" even as he strives to be "phallocentric." the masculine order represented by Gendo and Nerv falls apart. Lillith takes center stage rather than Adam. thus, Kotani claims that in NGE, "The dramatic leak of the feminine jeopardizes and even melts the outline of the male body politics."

what I want to propose is that RGU does not follow this kind of dissolution of the male order. that's not to say that the series portrays no male order--that would be Akio and his tower. however, I don't think RGU starts from a basis of "male body politics" at all. in fact, RGU portrays a "female body politic."

this distinction is subtle but crucial. first of all, let's look at RGU as a shoujo. it's not just that it exists within a genre, but that it takes on an entirely feminine sensibility. every aspect of the storytelling is geared towards a female audience, what girls find entertaining and appealing. this includes Akio, villain though he is. Utena herself notes that he is talented at "making girls feel good." Akio is thus male order as perceived through the eyes of the female body politic--or male order which is only empowered by its relation to female desire. .

here's an exchange from the Kotani interview that I've been thinking about for a long time:

Kotani: ...When female authors want to write about deviation, about jumping out of the system, the form that they choose surprisingly often is stories dealing with the bondage system.

As a concrete example, when you pick two male characters from an existing work (a manga, novel, TV drama, or phenomenon) and depict a love story between them, we call that "yaoi", and it is extremely common for yaoi-stories to take place in schools. Utena is set in a school too, right?

Ikuhara: The reason for that is extremely simple. For girls, places like schools are the only social communities that have any reality to them.

at first, Ikuhara's statement almost offended me, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. in patriarchal contexts, women are excluded from civil society. they live a marginal existence. they watch important events occur from the sidelines, if they get to watch at all. they concern themselves with the doings of their immediate community, kith and kin.

not only does RGU have a feminine audience in mind, but the world it portrays is a girls' world. a world of gossip and intrigue, of relationships forming and ending. throughout the show, the audience is privy to private conversations between school girls. faceless and nameless, these girls are nonetheless powerful: they take part in creating the social world around them.

and of course, the character who ultimately keeps the world running is Anthy. at the end of the day, I would argue that Ohtori is Anthy's world, both because she herself generates it, and because its logic is rooted in her psychology.

it is a mistake to believe that Ohtori is Akio's world, whatever his family name. Akio only has power because of Anthy. he is very concerned with maintaining that power, but he's only able to do so because one of the rules of Anthy's world is that she is subjugated to him.

RGU is a show about women's power and strength. Utena comes from outside Anthy's world and demonstrates that there's another way of being. but it's not that Anthy needed to become like Utena. it's not even clear that it was a good idea for Utena to try to become a prince, much less Anthy. the show follows a different trajectory, one concerned with uncovering the truth. and the truth is that Anthy was powerful all along.

I'm not even referring to her status as a witch. to expand on earlier statements, I am 100% convinced that every single "magical" thing that happens in the show is her doing (though not necessarily as a result of conscious effort on her part). Akio's projector only works if Anthy is there to run it for him, and I think there is plenty of canon evidence to support this.

however, Anthy's power as a witch comes at the cost of her sacrifice. that kind of power, a dark feminine power, is wrapped up in too many layers of harm and prejudice to be seen as a positive thing.

the real power of girls, as portrayed throughout the franchise, is their ability to subvert systems, to deviate and go free. Anthy had to crack the shell of her own world to do so. it wasn't easy, but it was within her power all along.

to return to my original point, I think that many fans confuse RGU as a story about male body politics. I see this in people's obsession with the idea that Akio is all-powerful and controls even the way the show itself is presented to viewers, which doesn't make much sense to me. this stance is outright disempowering when it comes with a pedestalization of the Rose Bride, of victim status.

Anthy, of course, is a victim, and that's why her world is so oppressive. but we see that in the film, even when there is no one to hold her back any longer, she continues to keep the duels going. RGU is not only a show about being constrained by outside forces, but also about how we learn to constrain ourselves, how we choose to stay in our coffins. I think that this is the most challenging and exciting aspect of RGU, which is why I spend so much time harping on it. using Kotani's language, perhaps RGU portrays a melting of the female body politics, and then a reformation of it into something new, something fluid and dynamic. there's no reason to stay in the old definitional molds--there's a whole world outside them, one which can never be pinned down or exhausted.

re: that last post, I was thinking about including something on why girls have the power to deviate and subvert, but I thought it would just bog the piece down so I left it out. I do want to say a little on it though.

first of all I don't think that it's true that girls are inherently more revolutionary than boys. everyone has the power to deviate. but RGU is a show specifically concerned with a "girls' revolution." Ikuhara has said (in the Kotani interview of course) that he wouldn't have been able to believe a story about transcending conflict and possession with a boy as the main character. we can see that as 100% understandable or we can see that as a result of his own hang ups, it's really a matter of perception.

something that Ursula K. Le Guin said that comes to mind is that "when women speak truly they speak subversively." maybe it is in the very fact that women exist outside the male body politic which gives them their power. once the spector of patriarchal rule is excised from a woman's mind, what investment can she really have in it? a woman might have to struggle twice as hard as a man to get by in this world, but I'm not sure it's actually harder for her to attain mental freedom. there are blessings to be found in every curse.

When I was a child, it was clear to me that life was not worth living if we did not know love. I wish I could testify that I came to this awareness because of the love I felt in my life. But it was love’s absence that let me know how much love mattered. I was my father’s first daughter. At the moment of my birth, I was looked upon with loving kindness, cherished and made to feel wanted on this earth and in my home. To this day I cannot remember when that feeling of being loved left me. I just know that one day I was no longer precious.