Chapter Text
How this fic will be structured is I’ll, seriously or otherwise, summarize what’s happening, occasionally write the dialogue characters say and in parenthesis I’ll write my personal analyzing or commentary ex. ((That scene was interesting because of reasons.))
Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of my favorite anime series. It masterfully brings us into a world combining reality with fairy tales and deconstructs gender roles, romantic ideals, and abuse by slowly showing how easily one can fall into the trap of enforcing gender stereotypes, romanticizing sexist men, and how victim blaming comes to be especially since abuse can easily be hidden. It’s also a show where a girl turns into a cow and guys randomly take off their shirts, but we’ll get to that later.
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Our story begins with Utena as a child, who at this point is a princess in this story, telling the audience the story of how after her parents died she met a kind prince who comforted her and said that she should never loose her nobility as she grew up, giving her a ring saying that they’ll meet again one day.
((Aww what a sweet simple story. I’m sure that no important details were left out.))
Utena: Perhaps the ring the prince gave her was an engagement ring.
((That sounds like something I’d want to know for sure.))
Utena: …but so impressed was she by him that the princess vowed to become a prince herself one day.
((I’m happy that the show tells us from the beginning that Utena growing up as “a prince” or doing things more associated with boys is a conscious choice on her part. The works Princess Knight and Rose of Versailles while amazing shoes in their own right and show action heroines defying gender roles battling in a way that girls who don’t relate to the roles assigned to them by birth have a hero to look up to, a fatal mistake that I personally don’t like is how in those series the father is the one who decides to raise the girls “as a boy” from the moment said girls are born. It unfortunately carries the implication that girls can do awesome heroic battles but only if a man lets them do it first.))
Cut to the present where Wakaba is waiting for her “boyfriend”, Utena. Wakaba hears that Utena already left the dorms so she runs to school in the hopes of not being late.
((A moment of silence for all anime side characters who have to deal with the main characters’ foolishness.))
We get a look at the scenery of Ohtori academy, a large boarding school with a k-12 school system, a dueling arena forest, and the chairman’s tower, which resembles a giant dick taking after its current owner.
Utena shows up in her iconic black jacket and red booty shorts standing out from the sea of white and green. A guidance counselor shows up trying to get Utena in trouble for wearing a “boy’s uniform.” Since there’s nothing in the school rulebook about dressing like a guy Utena just goes on her merry way.
((What interests about exchange is when Utena looks back saying “it looks good enough on the boys here” we get an explicit shot of the uniforms the guys are wearing and they look nothing like hers. At first watching I assumed it was because Utena’s the main character so obviously she’d look different from everyone else, but given the rampant symbolism in the show it’s more like an early warning to the audience, “what you see isn’t exactly what you’re going to get.”))
Utena spends the day being her usual cool self: scoring baskets in basketball, being surrounded by adoring female fans, and is even asked for a permanent position on the school’s basketball team to which Utena says she’s a girl so getting covered in guys sweat isn’t her thing. When told she already acts and looks like a guy anyway she replies
Utena: [It’s] to become a prince… I want to be a noble prince who saves princesses.
((Utena makes it clear that by acting like a prince she doesn’t want to be like a boy. Instead she wants to be what the prince archetype represents: a strong, noble, and brave individual who saves others, mostly girls, from the evils of the world and from themselves.))
Utena smells the scent of, you guessed it, roses, and the camera pans to the school’s rose garden where we see Anthy.
((The way Anthy is introduced is different from how the other named female characters have been introduced so far. Wakaba was introduced face first, albeit indirectly. Utena walks in with the camera panning upwards from her feet to her head in a heroic and makes her look badass. Anthy however is introduced the same way as Utena however Anthy is facing away from the audience indicating Anthy’s passive nature. However while the last thing we see from these two are their faces Anthy’s face is the one we get a close up on. It’s to show that despite Anthy’s passiveness we should not underestimate her and this show is every bit of her story as it is Utena’s.))
The scent of roses makes Utena start remembering the past so as time goes by she heads upstairs to stare wistfully at her ring. Snapping out of her funk, Utena looks down and sees Anthy being lectured by dickhead. Utena really starts paying attention after dickhead slaps Anthy, only stopping when Touga grabs his wrist.
((Anthy and dickhead a.k.a. Saionji’s “relationship” is pretty much a cut and paste example of how most abusive relationships are portrayed in media. Saionji is the big bad man who always hits his girlfriend for no reason, and gives the audience very little reason to understand why anyone would date that jerk in the first place. Anthy is the good little victim who never gets angry with him despite constant cruelty and is always sweet in the face of abuse, leaving the audience to both feel sorry for her while simultaneously wondering how stupid this girl must be to date him in the first place. Anthy’s situation is more complicated than that, as seen later in the episode.))
Wakaba springs into the picture jumping onto Utena’s back to tease Utena about leaving her behind that morning, and also to give the audience some exposition. She gives the official names of Anthy, Touga, and unfortunately Saionji, meaning I can no longer call him dickhead. The guys are popular and the leaders of the student council, while Anthy is just “some weird girl in their class.”
Utena: So is Saionji going out with Himemiya or what?
Wakaba: No way! Someone as cool as Saionji would never fall for a girl like that! They’re just together because they’re both on the student council
((What the series subtlety does with Saionji is that even with his apparent dickishness he’s still a popular guy, a quality that is important for many a high school student. The common core of abuse is control and power; Saionji’s popularity means that he has the social control to get away with being openly abusive or, as evidenced by Wakaba’s statement, deny the relationship altogether if confronted about it.))
Utena easily guesses that Wakaba’s instant support of Saionji means she likes him.
((Well that won’t cause problems down the road.))
Later the student council gathers to discuss Saionji’s treatment of the Rose bride, Anthy.
Touga: True you are currently engaged to her, but that doesn’t mean you’re free to treat her as you please.
((You tried to slap her twice in one episode, when we all agreed to a one slap per episode rule. We may be dysfunctional assholes but even we have standards.))
Miki: *upset* As he pleases
Juri: *smirking* As he pleases
((As established in later episodes Miki projects the feelings he once had for his sister onto Anthy and because of that he idolizes her, thus the abuse Anthy faces horrifies him. Juri on the other hand projects the feelings for Shiori onto Anthy and given Juri’s complicated feelings for Shiori seems pretty ok with Saionji doing whatever the hell he wants.))
Touga reminds Saionji that their leader End of the World might not be ok with slapping Anthy Saionji dismissed that concern saying “the bride and I are just a happy pair of lovebirds.”
Anthy: *Oh, whoa is my life! tone* For now I am… Saionji-sama’s bride. I will do whatever Saionji-sama tells me to do.
((Anthy: *internally * Can we make this quick I’m missing some quality rose watering time, 3 of my pets have to be fed, and class is about to end which means I’ve been dealing with people for far too long.))
Saionji says, hey if you don’t like it then fight me, and he looks forward to the new duelist Touga brings up.
((At this point, I’m looking forward to it too.))
Around the time of the meeting Wakaba and Utena are chilling by the school, and Utena gives a condensed version of how she got the ring, Wakaba, unsurprisingly, is a little confused. Wakaba relates by saying she thought she was princess of the onion kingdom when she was little because her mom told her that.
((Children are highly impressionable.))
Utena sees a love letter posted on the class bulletin board, and *gasp* it’s Wakaba’s love letter to Saionji.
((Oh Saionji you are going down!))
Utena confronts Saionji who’s just “meh” about the whole thing until Utena challenges him to a duel agreeing to meet in the forest arena.
Cut to the shadow girls
((Oh god this is going to be one hell of a trip.))
Shadow girl 1: Do you know? Do you know? Have you heard the news?
Shadow girl 2: There’ll be another duel today in the forest behind the school.
1: Oh brave hero! Brave hero who fights for her friend’s sake
Both girls: 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 really know?
((The shadow girls’ role in the story is pretty simple; through the use of symbolism they tell the theme for the episode. In this episode they’re saying to Utena that while she is admirable for helping her friend, her rash decision to decide to duel without knowing the consequences of that action are going to cause problems down the road.))
Utena heads to the forest and after getting a drop of water on her rose ring realizes her ring is a key to the dueling arena.
((How convenient))
After a minute and a half of stock footage Utena climbs the 70 flights of stairs leading to the dueling arena where she sees a castle floating above her. Saionji shows up and says not to worry about the castle.
Saionji: [The castle is] a kind of mirage. Think of it as a trick of the light.
((Damn in episode 38 I was shocked when it was revealed that the castle that grants whatever wish one desires was a fake image created to manipulate others to do Akio’s bidding, but they outright tell us it’s an illusion in the first episode.))
Utena becomes more confused when Saionji shows he wears the same rose seal as she does and even more so when Anthy shows up in a red dress to put roses on their shirts. Anthy’s said to be the rose bride whose role is to watch the duelists. Once the rose is knocked off then the duelist looses.
Anthy: Good luck *Saionji immediately slaps her*
Saionji then reminds her that as the rose bride she is basically his possession, and he’s entitled to all her affection.
((So going by the plot of just this episode, Revolutionary Girl Utena is a show where a bunch of lighter skinned characters battle so they can own a darker skinned girl… I can understand how some people would be turned off by this premise.))
Anthy: *dramatically* Forgive me Saionji-sama
Utena: Are you nuts? Why would you take that from this guy?
Anthy: Because Saionji-sama is the current champion duelist I have to do whatever he wants me to.
((Anthy’s shown herself in later episodes to be calculating in her actions, and through the entire show, including this scene, reminds Utena she’s the rose bride and her role is to *insert specific rule*. So why would Anthy wish Utena good luck when she’s supposed to say “Oh Saionji you’re the greatest please fight and win me in this valiant battle” while internally screaming. Well two reasons, the first is that Akio’s plan is later revealed for Utena to fight and win battles with all the duelists, and she knows she’ll have to be faithful to Utena in a couple of minutes. The second is more personal. Anthy wants to see how Utena will react to the slap since the two of them will have to live closely for the rest of the series. If Utena is indifferent or ok with the slap then Anthy will know that things will be more or less the same with Utena as it was with Saionji, if Utena is horrified by the slap then hey at least that’s one less person slapping her.))
Utena: I don’t know what’s going on here, but I just have to beat him right?
The camera cuts to show Anthy is genuinely surprised by Utena’s statement.
((We rarely if ever see Anthy’s internal thoughts through the show, and most times she’s on screen she has a neutral face or showing off an empty smile so any other expression Anthy makes through the series is extremely important. Question is, why would Utena having no idea about the duels surprise Anthy? Simply put Anthy has been the rose bride for years, most likely centuries and from what we’ve seen from all the duelists in the series while each duelist has their own motive for fighting their underlying goal is to possess her in order to obtain whatever it is they say their fighting for. Utena genuinely doesn’t know that Anthy is the duel’s prize and her motive for fighting is that she wants to take Saionji down a peg for hurting her friend. Of course this being Revolutionary Girl Utena, a show where characters have complex good and bad qualities, another hidden motive for Utena is to protect her honor as a “prince” to satisfy her ego. Still her intentions are good, and this is likely to be the first time Anthy has seen someone selflessly fighting, for the most part, since her brother was still going by Dios.))
Anthy calls forth the sword of Dios so Saionji can grab it from her boobs, and once the bells ring the duel officially starts.
Saionji insults Utena through the duel saying she’s good for a girl belittling her desire to be a prince, knocking her down and destroying her wooden sword.
Utena: That trick sword…is it real?
Saionji: (paraphrased) No sh*t Sherlock
Utena isn’t willing to back down causing Saionji to dismissively say he’ll just cut her rose off so she can go her pretty little way. Utena charges at him remembering what the prince said to her when they met. With one fatal stroke Utena wins the duel with her blunt wooden sword and Saionji collapses in shock.
((Throughout the duel the song playing throughout represents the point of view of the challenging duelist so the song is about Utena’s role in the duel thus far. It starts by questioning what the hell is going on, which no doubt is a question going through everyone’s mind in this scene. The song goes on to say that over time she’s grown to repress her memories because they have brought her great pain and wants to live her life in bliss, because she’s living her life as “an actor” playing the part of prince as a result of the sadness of the deaths she’s seen, namely her parents. Nevertheless she’ll continue to “brightly burn” and will live her life as free and full as she can, being reborn through powerful moments that she will hopefully cause.))
Saionji looks up at Anthy to gauge her reaction
Anthy: Cheer up Saionji… senpai.
((In Kill bill there is a scene where O-Ren-Ishi refers to a guy by his name and adding the san honorific at the end. Once he insults her nationality she removes the honorific from his name before brutally murdering him. Metaphorically speaking this is what Anthy does to Saionji in this scene. By removing the -sama honorific she’s either telling him that he no longer has the respect she had for him when she used that honorific or, more likely, that he never had that respect in the first place.))
((On a wider scale this one line connects with the show’s theme of abuse. Abuse is often a very restrictive and controlling environment where the victim is often afraid of their abuser while simultaneously afraid of leaving the abusive environment. Anthy gives as much thought to leaving Saionji as one would give to swatting a mosquito, showing that while Saionji definitely has the qualities of an abuser and is the last person I would want anyone in the series to date, he’s still not Anthy’s primary abuser in the sense that when all’s said and done Saionji is just a tool used to hurt Anthy directly.))
Pan to Touga who has been watching the duel the entire time.
Touga: Oh, yes, baby. You’ve lit the fire to my heart.
((Well you’ve just gone from mildly ok to extremely creepy in .2 seconds.))
Later that night…
Utena: Man, this has been one truly weird day…. better to just forget about it.
((Oh honey you’ve got a storm coming to you))
Anthy appears to tell Utena the condition of the duel she just fought earlier.
Anthy: I am the rose bride. From this day forward, I belong to you.
((If you listen closely you can hear the sound of 1000 fanfics being written.))