You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience and security Unfortunately we are unable to sell this to: Germany Not in Germany? Coop and Steve experience the ultimate destiny apocalypse with Revolutionary Girl Utena Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead CONTENT WARNING: This edition of This Week in Anime features allusions to sexual violence and other potentially upsetting subject matter no show completely embodies the ephemeral vibe of Lynch’s opaque-yet-piercing style of storytelling quite like the similarly influential shojo anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena is a 1997 anime adaptation of Be-Pas and Chiho Saito’s manga series of the same name The story follows a tomboy princess named Utena Tenjo who encounters a prince who gifts her a rose ring and promises to meet her again in the future Rather than resign herself to being a princess Utena decides to live up to the idea of being like the prince who saved her This inevitably leads Utena to become involved in a series of duels with student council members at her school for the right to the Rose Bride While her classmates squabble over ownership of Anthy to gain the power she wields to achieve some ambiguous notion of world revolution (objectifying and abusing her in the process) Utena takes up arms (by drawing a sword from Anthy’s chest) to liberate the Rose Bride from her cruel destiny Revolutionary Girl Utena appears to be a flowery fantasy series with much of the rhythm in the first half of its season devoted to repetitive weekly battles each episode features her adversaries grappling with a vice emblematic of a deadly sin before challenging Utena to a duel ascends a lavish spiral staircase to a caucus anthem with lyrics proclaiming birthrights and destiny; undergoes a fantastical magical girl transformation; and defeats them (most of the time) Sandwiched between and behind these beats are goofy verging on absurdist anime-isms: eating spicy curry results in a Freaky Friday body-swapping; Utena dunks on the boys in basketball as onlookers judge her for being a boy-girl; and the student council schemes while glamorously exposing their peacock chests to the heavens while ghost-riding the whip to the tune of sensual jazz Utena establishes a comforting yet off-kilter rhythm that threatens to become aimless Its overarching mysteries give way to non-sequitur antics removing any sense that the show is pressed for time to answer anywhere it’s going When Utena really starts feeling like it’s one of those “It’s about the journey and not the destination” romps it cranks things up to 11 with a genuinely revolutionary final stretch of episodes Similar to Agent Dale Cooper’s arrival in the sleepy town of Twin Peaks as it grapples with the mysterious death of Laura Palmer Utena’s volley of duels serves a double meaning Each duel is a character study unto itself where the students of Ootori Academy are stuck in time and forced to adapt or die but in the metaphorical way of letting go of idolized memories of people and the past they wished would last forever and move forward preventing them from confronting the illusions proliferating their nostalgia-rich school terrarium Rather than have Utena play prince by saving Anthy and her adversaries Going from a fluttering shojo fantasy series to an existential meditation on par with Neon Genesis Evangelion is no small feat How it achieves this feat comes from the anime relaying its themes in an evident and roundabout fashion Much of the former occurs in repetitive line deliveries accompanied by a YouTuber-esque red arrow pointing or dinging at objects the show wants audiences to focus on in a given scene The latter goes full theater through a play-within-play interlude where silhouettes of two ladies act out seemingly tangential asides that tie directly back into the anime’s themes of love and revolution While the show gives viewers much to chew on with its heavy-symbolism approach to doling out information it is also heady with its interpersonal dialogue Whenever characters in Utena feel some way They’ll shout all the air out of their lungs callously jab at each other’s insecurities or hold their tongue in such an obvious way that their silence speaks volumes Although the English dub can easily be accused of being as wooden and awkward as the actors in Twin Peaks you’re never confused by the truths and motivations that drive its characters to achieve their goals even if the players don’t realize the truths staring them in the face As the series treks out of its mid-season lull and barrels toward its “Who Killed Laura Palmer” arc in its Black Rose arc the show pulls off an astounding feat: transforming irritable and bratty characters like Nanami into some of the series’ strongest characters Visually, Utena has been referenced in anime, Western cartoons, and comic books like Sailor Moon, One Piece, Code Geass, Fullmetal Alchemist, She-Ra, Steven Universe, and Scott Pilgrim. The series also served as the core premise of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury which is evident when you consider that anime writer Ichiro Okuouchi contributed to both anime (and Code Geass) Utena‘s unassuming character design and premise are one of anime’s best honey traps. Despite its modest appearance, Utena is a shojo series that stands shoulder to shoulder with prominent josei and seinen series like Nana and Berserk Utena does not shy away from exploring abusive relationships many of which are rife with brother-sister complexes The entire series is overwhelmingly captivating and teeming with gripping twists and revelations ' + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.webview_notification_text + ' " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_title + " " + scriptOptions._localizedStrings.redirect_overlay_text + " The special closed-end real estate investment company AB Tewox has signed a general contracting agreement with UAB Baltijos Pašvaistė for the development of approximately 5,000 sqm retail park located at Kupiškio st The project has already secured lease agreements for more than 50% of gross leasable area Construction is scheduled to start in April and be completed by the end of 2025 paulius.nevinskas@lordslb.lt https://lordslb.lt/tewox_bonds/ You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience and security. Japanese electronic artist Utena Kobayashi and Motion Graphics, the project of NYC electronic artist Joe Williams, have announced a collaborative EP titled Glossolalia, due out March 21 digitally and May 16 physically on Domino.  Today they release the singles “Glossolalia” and “Sanka,” both significantly influenced by Japanese culture and music, with lilting grooves, tender melodies and acoustic flourishes. It’s not hard to hear echoes of Japanese art-pop acts like Dip in the Pool and Yasuaki Shimizu.  Utena Kobayashi says of the project, “Collaborating with Motion Graphics has been one of the most magical and mystical experiences of my life.”  Joe Williams says, “Utena originally inquired about doing a remix and the collaborations just evolved from there and we came up with these two songs that we’re both really proud of.”  A transcontinental collaboration made entirely without Williams and Kobayashi ever being in the same room, Glossolalia, which also features remixes from Portland ambient/new age duo Visible Cloaks and Japanese electronic music veteran Kuniyuki Takahashi, explores a delicate strain of ambient pop, its nuanced contours reflecting Williams’ unique ability to wield production technology in a way that feels not just poignant, but deeply human.  Officers were notified early Wednesday morning that a 21-year-old girl had been placed in a car in Utena against her will and was being driven around the city. Police officers stopped the car shortly afterwards and found the woman and the driver, a 28-year-old Argentinian national. A pre-trial investigation has been opened into the incident. According to preliminary data, the victim and the suspect work and live in Utena and were in a relationship for some time. They provided different accounts of the circumstances of this incident. According to the available information, no physical violence was used against the woman. The suspect has signed a written notice not to leave the country and his documents have been taken. He is also forbidden to communicate with the victim. What it is: Revolutionary Girl Utena Revolutionary Girl Utena, or “Shōjo Kakumei Utena” in the original Japanese, is an anime and manga series that stands out for its complex narrative and deep symbolism. Created by Kunihiko Ikuhara and produced by Gainax, the work was first shown in 1997 and quickly became a […] The production of Revolutionary Girl Utena is marked by a talented team who contributed to its unique aesthetic and engaging narrative. Key production details include: © 2009 - 2025 AnimeNew, All images on this site belong to their respective owners. by Toussaint Egan, Susana Polo, and Polygon Staff LinkGraphic: Toussaint Egan/Polygon | Source images: VariousPolygon covers anime pretty consistently all year round, from our running list of the best shows of the year to the minutiae of the year’s best anime openings and we earnestly want to share that love with our readers while putting a spotlight on our favorite creators and their work we’ve put together a list of the best shows to get to know our respective anime tastes and where to watch These aren’t necessarily our “favorite” anime per se but rather the ones that have particularly moved us and exemplify the very best of what we look for in the medium and what it can offer Feel free to chime in on the comments and share the anime that mean the most to you Genre: Magical girl romanceEpisode count: 39Where to stream: N/A the surreal toxic yuri masterpiece Revolutionary Girl Utena just happened to be my favorite anime when a show about youth anxieties blown out to operatic proportions would naturally hit hard But what really seared it into my mind was the series’ use of symbolism instead of direct visuals — its demand that I pay attention and infer rather than simply listen and watch and how it was my first experience being a part of a group of anime fans scheduling our Utena watch nights around one person’s precious DVD set Genre: Sci-fi actionEpisode count: 48Where to watch: Crunchyroll Assassination Classroom was recommended by my friend and colleague Julia Lee and it is now a piece of media that is very It is the first anime series I watched from start to finish it’s the first that I got physical merch for (a Koro-sensei plush figure and it hits all the notes I want from ridiculous fiction The show follows a superpowered yellow octopus man who destroys most of the moon and threatens to destroy the Earth next But he makes an offer: Let him teach a class of junior high rejects in the ways of the world (and of murder) and if they can assassinate him before the year is up It’s an outrageously silly setup that naturally lends itself to hijinks (I’m a big fan of those, personally), but Assassination Classroom has more layers than you could anticipate, and they all line up with my personal interests. Packed with action? Check. Even more heart? Check. Bizarre humor? Absolutely. Baseball episode Genre: Cyberpunk proceduralEpisode count: 52Where to watch: Sling TV When I think about anime that’ve had a profound impact on me, I think of Ghost in the Shell. I’m literally looking up at a framed poster of Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 feature film above my desk while typing this Both that film and Masamune Shirow’s original manga have had a profound impact on my life introducing me to the genre of cyberpunk and all the exciting stories it encompasses But when I think of my personal favorite iteration of Ghost in the Shell my immediate next thought is of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex without hesitation it’s an anime I frequently find myself returning to Genre: Sci-fiRun time: 2h 4mWhere to watch: Crunchyroll All of these things are core to what really excites and engages me in film and in animation Genre: Supernatural adventureEpisode count: 152Where to watch: Netflix I was hooked on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure immediately — it’s a tribute to masculine power and being absolutely high on your own bullshit since there’s a whole rotating array of JoJos and each one is both hugely resilient and capable of great heroism It’s easy to imagine a compromised version of JoJo where Hirohiko Araki trimmed out some of the ridiculous plot elements like vampirism long monologues explaining each battle sequence pushing into new ridiculous realms and dizzying stakes It’s a great reminder to never be timid or restrain yourself when it comes to fiction and it’s a lesson I try to apply to my own creative projects Genre: ComedyEpisode count: 51Where to watch: Netflix Have you ever had a moment at work, or picked up a phone call from a parent, and been overwhelmed by an all-consuming fury that could lead you to self-immolate in animated flames? Well, I have, and that’s why I think Aggretsuko would be the perfect show to get to know me Aggretsuko follows the story of Retsuko, the Sanrio character that looks like an anthropomorphized red panda. She is also a young woman who is learning to navigate her professional and personal life. As a 20- or 30-something, she has to deal with nagging parents, inconsiderate bosses, and ratty love interests She tries her best to be agreeable and put on a good face and just take each challenge as it comes she sings screamo metal alone in a personal karaoke room Genre: Apocalyptic actionEpisode count: 26Where to watch: Netflix For some people, their first anime was Naruto, or Ranma ½, or Dragon Ball, but mine… mine was getting thrown off the deep end into Neon Genesis Evangelion not Evangelion the TV series — my first experience with watching the 60-minute clip show/series summary Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death on my friend’s PC monitor while he filled in the missing plot points and emotional beats The fact that I continued to watch and enjoy both Evangelion and other anime after that baffling afternoon says more about me than any other experience I’ve had with the medium Genre: Paranormal mysteryEpisode count: 100Where to watch: Crunchyroll Prime VideoI first watched Bakemonogatari after watching an AMV for it set to Katy Perry’s “E.T.” over 10 years ago (lol) The animation in the video was just so next-level that I knew I had to watch the show and Shaft (the animation studio) never disappoints While some parts of the series are unsavory to say the least I’ll never forget the feeling of shock and dread that poured over me during the Sodachi Lost arc of Owarimonogatari I was worried that listing this anime would get me labeled as a weird gooner Genre: Slice-of-life foodEpisode count: 12Where to watch: Crunchyroll I’ve watched and loved a variety of food-centric anime — Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma Delicious in Dungeon — but 2015’s Wakakozake is a particularly special one to me Its bite-sized (ha) two-minute episodes about a 20-something office lady going out in search of good food and a good drink speak to me more and more the older I get Wakako often goes out alone after a long day at work and finds joy in the little things: a bite of salted salmon skin She loves when her drink perfectly complements her meal This isn’t a slice-of-life series with a strong narrative thrust centered on character relationships It’s about one woman and her relationship to herself and the things she enjoys Genre: Fantasy comedyEpisode count: 24Where to watch: Netflix Delicious in Dungeon has its fair share of fantasy adventure: fighting beasts The heart of the show lies in the moments between battle when the team bonds over a hearty dish cooked up from whatever creature they last defeated and both of them can be found in Delicious in Dungeon has an impulsive streak and hyperfixation on monsters and fairly squeamish about all of these new dishes she samples I’m intrigued by the larger meta-mysteries of the setting and the quest to save Falin but I’m at my happiest watching Laios and Marcille bounce off the other party members the conversation around a hot meal can be the most relatable part of a show Carole & Tuesday tackles what it means to be an artist and how art can be a powerful tool in the face of oppression. But most importantly, it focuses on the friendship between Carole and Tuesday and the small moments that shape them. —Petrana Radulovic Genre: Dark fantasyEpisode count: 12Where to watch: Netflix Before Dorohedoro, a grungy fantasy hangout action comedy with Clive Barker vibes that’s as difficult to describe as it is easy to recommend, it had been years since I’d followed a currently airing anime series. I mean, not since I was catching 4Kids-bowdlerized Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes on Saturday mornings. Years. What was it about this show where all the characters wear elaborate masks, struggle to make it through their shitty day jobs in a highly stratified society, and navigate a world filled with harmful miasma that hit home when it premiered in 2020? We may never know. But it’s become my number one like-minded-weirdo detector: If I find out you like it, we are instant friends. —SP The best of Polygon in your inbox, every Friday. at one point moved from his native town to Vilnius after living there with his family for a while he decided to return and open a dance studio the tenth biggest town in the country with a population of over 25,000 people seemed like a suitable place for it because there was hardly any competition Aidas faced another problem – he struggled to find a flat for the family to buy and settle in we have a baby and we want something newly-built The problem we had was that there was no housing We decided that we’d rent and then build a house for ourselves,” Aidas tells LRT TV which lies some 90 kilometres north of Vilnius The last apartment block in Utena was built in 2008 The municipality has started looking for property developers to start building apartment blocks again public authorities are offering attractive locations and other incentives “This means that if a business comes up with the idea of building an apartment block the municipality can contribute to improving the infrastructure connecting the plot to communications networks So we are looking for ways to make the conditions better so that they will build here,” Kaukėnas says Two apartment blocks are currently under construction The municipality promises to provide even more plots for development it is necessary to take action as soon as possible – the town is building the Industrial Park which will employ several hundred workers “If people who work in our companies reside outside of Utena come for work from other districts or towns then their taxes also go to those districts It is in our interest as a municipality that the employees of our companies settle here because of the future Industrial Park,” Kaukėnas insists Former residents of Utena have also decided to contribute to the town’s development is currently working for a construction company in Vilnius building three apartment blocks and twenty-seven individual houses “Let me put it this way: one more apartment block in Vilnius is just another building and for Utena it is both new opportunities and new investments into the town’s growth investment would create living space for young families and we found this very interesting and attractive to the town where I grew up,” says Diktaras The municipality of Utena has pledged to purchase some units in the new blocks as social housing and therefore takes place after the events of the series therefore I will be spoiling the ending to the anime to discuss this book the manga has a few elements from the movie so it’s highly recommended that you finish both before attempting to read this book the anime version of Revolutionary Girl Utena turned 20 years old and so the author of the original manga version was approached with an idea to make a new manga Chiho Saito admits that she struggled to come up with a fully-fleshed story at first but after bouncing ideas off the editorial department she eventually came up with three short stories centred around the student council members The afterword isn’t shy about the fact that there was with pushback on whether the audience would want to see older versions of the characters Despite a quote from him in the last pages of the book there’s no word on whether the original creator had a hand in or even approved of this new story what does life after the revolution look like for our favourite characters The first story centres on Touga and Saionji both now adult men who happen to be buying expensive art for their clients when they suddenly get an invite to come back to Ohtori Academy as a ‘secret room’ containing the former deceased chairman As the pair investigate his private chambers who says that the one who can find his greatest painting – The Revolution – will be granted his entire collection This story has the closest ties to the academy and the main villain Akio which isn’t surprising considering that both Touga and Saionji spent the most time with Akio outside of the main female characters Utena and Anthy This story is the strongest as it plays a lot more into the symbolism and metaphors that Kunihiko Ikuhara is known for It’s fascinating how Touga’s memory and perception of Utena has changed in this volume; instead of Touga seeing Utena as the one girl he cannot have (someone who he could not convince to leave her coffin and also one who does not seek out his affections) she now symbolises the one person who was able to get herself out of the coffin who sought out her own freedom with no one’s help or permission This expands across the manga as Utena is effectively taking the place of Akio and showing up within everyone’s duels But instead of playing her opponents by bestowing temporary power on them only to ultimately grant his revolution alone Utena appears before them and empowers the character to seek out the source of their pain and grant their revolutions It’s a brilliant move and one that feels the most satisfying in the first story as Touga and Saionji’s relationship has always been the one most captivating to discover with all the subtext unfolding as the series goes on now a professional fencer and in the finals for the Olympics when she’s suddenly haunted by the face of Shiori’s/her manager’s former boyfriend a familiar duelling ground comes to life before her once more that the manga and anime of Revolutionary Girl Utena are not one and the same so her alpha bitch attitude and popular girl status were given to Juri who also in turn showed a lot more interest in Touga which it’s apparently trying to cater for anime and manga fans play it both ways; she is still in love with Shiori but is far more forthcoming with her emotions and frustrations in this manga whereas in the anime she kept a lot more things close to her chest (in the case of her precious locket this story doesn’t really feel like a continuation of her character but more of a re-tread of her arc but in a new context; the ‘boy saving girl and eventually drowning’ story that featured heavily in the movie is re-used here now with Ruka being the prince in question Ruka was an interesting addition in the anime as he came late into the story before disappearing again as soon as he appeared but the framing of the revolution Juri has makes it seem like it’s all thanks to a boy that she’s able to find the strength within herself to continue on which feels disingenuous to her character and what the original story was about The final story revolves around the twins Miki and Kozue; when Touga calls Miki and says that he saw Miki play his famous piano piece at a party last night who has been in a coma for the past few years he discovers that Kozue is not only sleep walking but also playing the very piece that they used to play long ago As much as I am fond of Miki as a character I cannot say that I particularly enjoyed this story There was a lot of incest subtext to Miki and Kozue’s relationship but it was always framed as a toxic relationship and one that they seemed to have worked through (mostly) by the end of the series This story however not only makes the subtext now full-on text but it now frames it as a tragic love story and tries to give it a happier ending There are hints on the page that Kozue’s love stems from the fact that in this timeline they lost their parents young and therefore her unhealthy way of dealing with it became an erroneous love for Miki but still overall the story baffled me more than anything The last few pages are then dedicated to Utena and Anthy but it’s not a story or a flash forward to their futures after the revolution but merely their kid versions finding each other and embracing for a (admittedly lovely) final shot It’s a disappointment as I think a mini story of the two finally finding each other as adults would have been a lovely one shot for fans who followed and fell in love with their characters for the past 20 years Chiho Saito also provides the art for the book and despite a large gap between when she first drew these characters and when this book came out she illustrates them very clearly and delivers some beautifully detailed art in between each chapter such as child Utena dancing on piano keys during the song the twins perform together towards the end The way that After the Revolution sells itself from the cover art to the blurb on the back is quite different to what we eventually get From the back and forth of story edits that apparently Chiho Saito went through it seems to have resulted in static characters that mostly re-tread arcs they should have moved on from as teens like the editors themselves who did not think fans wanted to see the characters change too much from what we know and love The book has some nice imagery and story beats but potential to be great isn’t the same as being great but not what all fans are going to be expecting for the series’ 20th anniversary editor and director with a love for video games Kimba the White Lion and Princess Knight are among the latest batch of Nozomi Ent anime titles coming to UK & Ireland for legal streaming Revolutionary Girl Utena is a unique experience like no other a shojo series that continues to be one of the best in the genre It’s not uncommon in the anime industry for popular franchises to have a movie release that tries to summarize the original manga or TV story into a 90 minute timeslot. It’s also not too rare of a sight for UK anime companies to release the same movie instead of the longer-winding TV series to test … Continued Join the writers at Anime UK News as they look back to the classic titles that first inspired them to investigate anime and ask Does it have to have stood the test of time?’ Find out what impressed the writers Anime UK News – and let us know what your favourites are too Having been established since February 2004 Anime UK News is constantly striving to deliver high quality UK anime news and reviews to your computer screens each and every day being sure to maintain high standards of writing and reliability Designed and maintained by devoted anime fans Anime UK News and it’s fledgling forum community is growing with each passing month proving we are an ambitious and trusted resource for UK-based anime fans and beyond A question I see posed frequently in fan groups from Star Trek to Gilmore Girls to Shoujo Kakumei Utena is like the climb up the stairs to the dueling grounds putting down a book or leaving a listicle unfinished but if someone wants to watch something else regardless of how into the show I may be in the moment I sometimes worry I do not love programs or works enough the opening credits of a program feel like part of the program to me but I also love it if there is a sense of ritual to the reuse the visuals and visual style can feel religious Who is ready to see Dorothy and Blanche and Rose and Sophia if nobody thanks us for being a friend first Do you really trust anyone in Law & Order if nobody tells us the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups” You have the sounds you most often wake to A relative of mine uses cricket sounds as her alarm and I would never wake up to cricket sounds Cricket chirps are what you try to sleep through I used to have breakfast with a friend on the other side of the planet and if I slept through it – a nap that turned into the real deal an early night in – it threw their morning off It could be that it is better to embrace them than to buck against The biggest part of repeated imagery or sound in animation especially in the pre-digital/early digital era comes from reuse that is financially and temporally forced recycling sound effects into dubbing are were most often not aesthetic choices or Neon Genesis Evangelion were created at breakneck speed with a show like Evangelion pushing the completion of episodes against their televised debut so closely that the episodes sometimes could not be prescreened by the debuting station at all Releasing in the post-Evangelion difficulties meaning that animation was more tightly controlled but also more subject to abrupt alteration increasing the difficulty of the production schedule “I’m tired of reusing cuts and depicting using freeze-frame rhythm,” Neon Genesis Evangelion and Love & Pop director Hideaki Anno told the Utena director in a 1998 conversation recorded for Newtype magazine the methodology that shows things most effectively is exactly that settling into creatorhood may let you stay alive in life but I just can’t stand the thought.” What makes the difference between Evangelion and its auteur Ikuhara – long-time friend and influence on Anno as Anno to him – replied to Anno’s admission “[W]hat the media talks about as creatorhood[…] that’s just an illusion and actually in the anime business no such thing as a creator is anywhere to be found are people who were brought along by the founding of the system.” How do two formative shows of the 1990s have recycling and reuse forced on them affect the world in which one of those shows exists at commentaries on the world in which the creators and talent find themselves much of the world had found itself developing the bingewatching culture of today as cassette tapes and laserdiscs made replay of entire series suddenly plausible While many markets would not take advantage of the enthusiasm of marathon-watching a show the anime industry did latch on in a big way The talent making programs like Evangelion and Utena were more than aware that not only would the show be seen in weekly broadcasts but that even before the commercially released home media recordings arrived in stores this becomes difficult in respect to Evangelion with its lengthy preproduction schedule and aesthetically-innovative crew is able to take standard recycling and deadline-crunching financially-strapped reuse and turn them into something operatic and magical Evangelion had barely coded cannibalism & that gets you preempted such as the trek to the dueling grounds or the naive selling of ones soul to Mikage and Mamiya which follows a repetitious confession in elevator establish themselves as reuse but also as flow Just as in your life you had to walk the same steps to attend a class or have taken the same path to work or to visit a friend the most-repeated segments of Utena are journeys they allow for variations to have significance When an agreement with Mikage is greeted with refusal or detour it is given potency by all the times which did not vary that music being more than background accompaniment than in usual television soundtrack use directing and framing the motions of the scenes Be-Papas’ founding members are all fond of The two primary composers to work on the television series’ soundtrack have profoundly different styles which are anchored warm by reuse of footage or imagery heterodyning and balancing one another with their aesthetics in a way that allows both to come to define to Utena Most of what the people living at Ohtori believe is their freewill the children and adults perform trained dances Miki’s incessant timing of seemingly nothing in particular with his stopwatch befuddles fans who look for him to be timing something emic or diegetic but what significant accomplishment does Miki clicking his stopwatch have Having to satisfy a variety of very different audiences Utena trains its audiences the way the characters in the world have been trained While the culture and educational program of Ohtori stratify reality and impose limitations on expectation all in their own ways limit and impose a structure of anticipation onto the audience Akio’s pick up artist and cult leader techniques are purposed as nudges and implications which leave us more comfortable with certain perspectives and not even trying others Utena educates its audiences on sets of symbols drawing attention to their significance but not their purpose the audience are unified in acceptance of the Shadow Girls and their dadaist morality plays the hyperreal gag episodes focusing on Nanami or making magic explicit while deniable and non-diegetic visuals like the spinning rose animations or arrows and inserted emphasis shots Utena does all it can to enhance our awareness of the artifice of show and world while playing the world as real as a set on a stage is played Just because a musical is staged does not reduce the significance of the emotions portrayed nor alter the audience’s reception of the show’s truths Utena makes it maybe more comfortable to accept the emotions and the social politics portrayed than a naturalistic approach could afford us The reuse and re-emphasis of symbols as symbols like the classical arrangements and mise en scene or the homaging of fairy tales human truisms to have the resonance and elevated significance of religious art that fart and poop jokes in Shakespeare attain their resonance as universal impacts Utena infamously achieved a level of sophistication and mature content to the exiling of programs to midnight and post-midnight showings the post-Evangelion broadcast world was fraught with cancelations and Utena goes full on with sexual cruelty show a homosexual kiss or deal with a homosexual relationship in clear terms “The rhythm of the kitchen knife,” sing Utena “the rhythm of the boiling pot,” a dance and song from one of the recent musicals who feels cut out from their performing about cooking and their sharing in the love of food as he fumes with his charts and exercise sheets his math and his insistence that study is important Utena is so intrinsically and complexly queer-coded it has its own queer-kanji of visual and scenario Utena does not need to show us much explicitly but the structure of scenes and sequences in Utena are mimicry of other mediums Utena escaped the threat Miki and Saionji present in breaking up the homosocial bonding by accepting a drink from Wakaba it is difficult for anyone to parse the separation in any way except anxiety By mimicking the traits which tell an audience another mode is harmless the elegant artifice of fairy tale imagery the gardens and grassy hills of the pleasant schoolyard Utena circumvents the censorious eye and restraining hand into an ally By mimicking traits that feel familiarly passive or socially accepted are performed as routines and expression is allowed Ohtori and the Utena world give themselves form by mimicry and mimesis but the show and the world behind the show of the world are concocted and defined by echoing themselves until the variations and themes resonate so strongly as to form radiant Utena shaped pingback bodies and spiritualities with reaffirmations reusing elements until they gain their own traction and tractive meanings beyond first exposure or what they resemble from pre-Utena exposures but Utena also winks so often the audience is unsure how much winking to take seriously Fans have consistent debates over the minutiae but also the major aspects of Utena The most blatant and laboriously explored aspects of Utena retain so much potential for misinterpretation and misunderstanding An uncertainty of meaning and metaphysics on the level of Utena’s can sometimes infuriate an audience characters will be inserted into later seasons or sequels to acknowledge the frustration Money makes no sense in the Gilmore Girls world – people are broke but spend lavishly – and characters like Kirk either only arrived in town during the first season or have lived in town their entire lives Religiously-termed elements of Evangelion may have no religious significance or maybe they do The friends in Friends do not age causally or as we do a character walks up a set of stairs in a house and they are never mentioned or seen ever ever again Like Saionji we keep our interpretations close to our heart if the fans wish to treat those worlds as causally close to our own Utena’s world is not causally close to our own So long as there are schools and their are children Utena is able to copy aesthetics from Dario Argento movies the Year Twenty-Four manga of Riyoko Ikeda Echoes of the the Candy Candy short films are quite loud in the prince on a white horse milieu of Utena People watching these out of order are ready for Candy Candy to get dark Utena is a radical demonstration of how to approach media The television telling teaches us television reflect their mediums and reflect on their mediums Future Earth Magazine & Platte Valley Review Author of Us Living in Fictional Cosmogonies & There is Nothing Left to Say (On The Invisibles) and website in this browser for the next time I comment Post comment Δdocument.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Touga Kiryuu: If it cannot hatch from its shell, the chick will die without ever truly being born. We are the chick; the world is our egg. If we don't break the world's shell, we will die without truly being born. Smash the world's shell, for the Revolution of the World. Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb The series (and accompanying anime movie) is notable for its psychological symbolism Not only was it inspired by classic anime and other influences like shadow puppetry and fairy tales it has gone on to influence many anime that came after it Check out these anime series influenced by Revolutionary Girl Utena Hikari and Karen repeatedly challenge each other as they strive toward their respective dreams Since Revue Starlight’s director Tomohiro Furukawa apprenticed under Utena’s director Kunihiko Ikuhara it is no wonder that this anime’s premise expands on certain elements of Utena’s One of the most visually striking parallels is that of Utena’s duels and Revue Starlight’s While Utena prominently featured swordplay Revue Starlight has each girl using a different weapon and singing a musical number that embodies their inner desires A shared element of Utena’s and Revue Starlight’s duels is how various background objects symbolize each character’s personality Another feature that Utena and Revue Starlight have in common is the devotion between the main leads For the titular Utena and the Rose Bride Anthy Himemiya their relationship is complicated because of the insecurities and secrets they are keeping from each other the two work through them and inspire the best in each other in the anime series as well as the movie Adolescence of Utena experience something similar once Karen literally drops into the duels Hikari initially tries to discourage Karen from participating and push her away but Karen’s determination allows Hikari’s personal dream to be seen in a new light the girls try to undo the damage caused by their abilities Madoka Magica might just be one of the darkest magical girl anime series out there One reason for this is that both shows feature wish fulfillment gone wrong in horrible or tragic ways Utena’s desire to be a prince negatively impacts Anthy while Madoka and the other characters unintentionally hurt others or themselves by taking up the mantle of a magical girl to make their wishes come true there are parallels between the dynamic of Utena/Anthy and Madoka/Homura Utena and Madoka are idealistic and hopeful about their roles while Anthy and Homura are pessimistic and resigned One of them also desires to save the other from their tragic fates through any means both girls are tasked with fighting monsters and retrieving fragments that are said to grant wishes Both Utena and Flip Flappers feature surreal settings that metaphorically represent the inner psych of the main characters this is demonstrated in not only the school setting but also a castle that appears whenever Utena has a duel both of which represent how Utena and Anthy are taught by various people to aspire to unrealistic expectations and stifling roles as girls Pure Illusion lives up to its name by taking the form of different dream worlds that try to trap Cocona and Papika some of these dream worlds are a tempting lure to invite an indecisive Cocona into avoiding her problems Another feature that Utena and Flip Flappers share is the romantic tension between its female leads While this is only hinted at in the Utena anime series the anime movie Adolescence of Utena lets Utena and Anthy fall in love with each other In one of the most visually stunning scenes from the film Utena and Anthy dance in a rose garden with a starry sky reflected beneath them Flip Flappers has Papika fall in love with Cocona at first sight while Cocona gradually develops romantic feelings for Papika When both of them finally admit their feelings it results in a literal transformation that embodies both characters’ self-actualization also seeks the Jewel Seeds for her own reasons Nanoha and Fate frequently clash until a startling secret about the Jewel Seeds and Fate is revealed Both Utena and Nanoha feature a character trope known as the “dark magical girl,” a magical girl who has a troubled past These characters sometimes exist as a foil and rival to the magical girl heroine because the dark magical girl lacks the friendship or familial love that the heroine has and must combat them for their own agenda Anthy Himemiya is the dark magical girl to Utena’s magical girl heroine while Nanoha features Fate in the dark magical girl role Anthy and Fate are dark magical girls for similar reasons; both are friendless and have abusive family members In order to try and escape their respective traumas they eventually clash with the magical girl heroine because they feel they have no other alternatives It isn’t until the offer of friendship and trust from the magical girl heroines that Anthy and Fate “switch sides” to help the heroine and save themselves in the process Inspired by ballet and fairy tales, Princess Tutu is the story of Ahiru, a young girl who magically turns into a duck whenever she gets embarrassed and falls in love with a mysterious, lonely boy named Mytho Ahiru receives a magical pendant that allows her to transform into the mythical ballerina Princess Tutu When she learns that Mytho is missing pieces of his heart she resolves to collect them to save him and help him remember his true self Both Utena and Princess Tutu share a strong influence from fairy tales either specific ones or character archetypes the anime series and animated film feature the character archetypes of princes and intertwine all three in a story within a story that is revealed as the series progresses Although certain characters appear to embody only one specific archetype it is shown that they both embody and subvert different ones Utena aspires to be a prince but also has a part of her that wants to be protected like a princess the characters and overall series draw from a variety of fairy tales There are nods to classic stories such as Swan Lake and The Nutcracker with Princess Tutu representing Swan Lake’s Odette and the series antagonist sharing a namesake with The Nutcracker’s antagonist There is also the fact that Princess Tutu and Utena both use fairy tales to interrogate the roles that people are expected to play and whether or not it is possible to break free from them This manga-faithful anime series is a remake of the original ‘90s Sailor Moon series, and centers around Usagi Tsukino a 14-year-old girl who becomes a magical warrior she meets a black cat named Luna who gives her the transformation item to become Sailor Moon Usagi must defeat alien monsters invading the earth Sailor Moon was one of the first modern magical girl anime to feature LGBTQ characters… in its original Japanese version The ‘90s English dub would infamously censor these characters; they wouldn’t receive proper English adaptation until the Sailor Moon Crystal anime as well as the 2019 redubbing of the original ‘90s anime This makes Sailor Moon Crystal’s characters significant especially in the series’ third season the opening and ending credits of Sailor Moon Crystal season three have strong parallels with Utena’s opening Utena’s opening features Utena and Anthy lying opposite each other Anthy gives Utena a white rose and they both transform In Sailor Moon Crystal’s season three opening the female characters Chibiusa and Hotaru lay opposite each other with their hands touching and their bodies framed by roses The ending credits take a similar approach for the characters Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus They are shown lying opposite each other in a bed of roses and cupping each others’ faces Twenty-five years after the series first premiered Revolutionary Girl Utena has lived up to its name in more ways than one Not only have Utena and Anthy inspired other compelling female characters like Fate and Cocona but the anime’s motifs and action can be found in anime like Princess Tutu and Revue Starlight Revolutionary Girl Utena truly revolutionized what psychological anime and magical girl anime could be; hopefully its influence will be felt for many more years to come FANDOM is the ultimate destination for celebrating your love of anime Visit the link below for all of FANDOM's anime coverage From ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution’ Revolutionary Girl Utena—originally written by Chiho Saito of studio Be-Papas in 1996—has all the tropes of a classic teen-girl comic It is a high school drama that unfolds with Utena Tenjo guided by her strong personality throughout the many conflicts and romantic encounters of her classmates at Ohtori Academy From original manga to anime adaptation and feature film the franchise was rendered a queer masterpiece by the Be-Papas collective who previously directed the Sailor Moon series and introduced its gender-bending characters Connecting his ambitious heroines to the struggles of real individuals who abandon personal desires in the face of societal expectations Kunihiko Ikuhara lamented a ‘lack of imagination’ in Japanese society In adaptating Utena from manga for the screen his personal direction further develops his characters pushing allegorical relationships to further the fight for untraditional love Psychedelically bridging the otherworldly elements of both anime-fantasy and experimental culture Revolutionary Girl Utena provides a vibrant utopia for the collective imagination of Japanese youth The original manga for Revolutionary Girl Utena (1996) is available in English on VIZ media. The anime series is available for streaming on Prime Video From ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution.’ Courtesy of Be-Papas and VIZ Media LLC Celebrating Nature Through Cuisine in ‘Wild Herbs’ Immerse Yourself in Literature and Western Cuisine Traditional tattoos were strong signifiers; murderers had head tattoos The series 'Hysteric Ten' by photographer Sawatari Hajime revisits one of the most sulphurous relationships in Japanese art Nagisa Oshima made Sada Abe the heroine of his film defying the codes of 'pinku eiga' that make men the focus of attention This rice soup seasoned with miso is served by a monk to Ashitaka one of the heroes in Hayao Miyazaki's film we interviewed its founder and chief representative Eighty-five cars started in the rally in Utena on Friday night that was interrupted by a tragic accident skidded off the track and crashed into a crowd of spectators The reason why the racer failed to negotiate a sudden turn and drove off the road is still under investigation speculated that the driver might not have noticed the hay bales with arrow signs near the turn In fact it was like this: there were rolls [of hay] everywhere and another crew of rallyists knocked them down and it was either the Latvian’s fault for not seeing that the turn was sharp or he was braking but not fast enough,” the witness told LRT TV She believes that the spectators also failed to choose a safe spot to observe the race Motorsport expert Arnas Paliukėnas says that darkness should not be a factor when it comes to the safety of rally participants and spectators The drivers follow pacenotes describing the route so they know where the sharp turns are “The specifics of the rally is that you don’t just drive as you see it you have a steward by your side who reads you the pacenotes where everything is written down all the details of the route are marked,” explains Paliukėnas says organisers had done everything to ensure safety at the race He said racers study the turns and therefore do not need additional signs The accident occurred at a 90-degree left turn the driver had to brake and drop speed while approaching it they didn’t see very well and didn’t appreciate the situation that the turn was coming and either made a mistake or perhaps there was also a technical fault,” says Notkus the organisers of Samsonas Rally Utena are refraining from extensive comments they say that the security of the event was ensured by a large security force “The circumstances of the tragic accident are atypical due to a possible error by the crew instead of slowing down considerably and negotiating a corner went straight and went much further off the road than could have been anticipated,” they said on Saturday A pre-trial investigation has been opened by the law enforcement The Lithuanian Motor Sport Federation launched its own probe this almost 43 km long section – from the Nemenčinė–Maišiagala intersection to Molėtai (21,5–64,33 km) – will be reconstructed into a safe and modern 2+1 category road Driving on this type of road reduces the risk of unsafe maneuvers and maintains a more even traffic pace even in mixed traffic when vehicles move at different speeds.  During the maintenance work on the highway It is planned that the traffic lanes will change approximately every 1,5–2,5 kilometers The width of the main (two) traffic lanes will be 3,5 m metal barriers will separate the opposing lanes it is planned to install 0,50 m wide edge safety lanes a 2,5 m wide dividing strip; the width of the roadsides will reach 1,5 m.  "I hope that after implementing these plans the Vilnius-Utena highway will become more convenient for drivers and much safer," says Minister of Transport and Communications Eugenijus Sabutis.  The decision to install alternating lanes was made based on traffic data on the section from 16 to 25 km (to the Nemenčinė–Maišiagala intersection) and from 21,5 to 28,4 km – 7,6 thousand cars; on the section from Molėtai to Utena – only 4,3 thousand vehicles per day.  According to the interim head of Via Lietuva the "2+1" road is not new in Lithuania - the Panevėžys bypass is a road of this category the number of accidents in which people died on this section has decreased by as much as 75 percent although the average number of cars driving on this road has almost doubled since 2013.  "Taking into account the traffic intensity and having performed a future traffic flow modeling it was chosen to reconstruct this section of the Vilnius-Utena main road it will be easier to overtake slower vehicles and the interim director of the company.  The Vilnius–Utena highway was built in 1979–1985 and is the only road in Lithuania built of concrete blocks it caused many problems for drivers: the highway was constantly riddled with potholes The "2+1" system originated in Sweden in the late XNUMXs the country was facing a serious safety problem on its national roads - many people were killed or seriously injured while overtaking This problem was especially acute in the more remote areas of the country where there was a lot of mixed traffic: cars Swedish engineers had a limited budget to solve this problem so they proposed a solution that was unprecedented at the time: a three-lane road with a middle lane that changed every few kilometers The “2+1” road system consists of three lanes: one lane in each direction and one additional turning lane that periodically changes direction every few kilometers traffic flows in two lanes (one for driving straight there was no shortage of skeptics when building the first kilometers of the “2+1” road There were doubts whether the solution would work whether drivers would understand how to use such a road the data is undeniable – deaths and injuries on “2+1” roads occur as much as 70 percent less than on regular It took some time for road users to get used to the unusual traffic organization procedure but proper marking helped prevent misunderstandings and accidents the “2+1” system is common on Swedish roads.  The three-lane system not only protects road users The practice of Sweden and other countries shows that such a road can be driven more smoothly and safely This is because slower vehicles can be overtaken every few kilometers and they do not stop the entire traffic flow an average of 2-1 percent more cars pass a section of the same length on a “15+20” road than on a regular “1+1” road.  2 to 1 thousand vehicles pass through the "8+15" roads per day This is twice as many as on the currently reconstructed section from the Nemenčinė–Maišiagala intersection to Molėtai therefore the traffic flow capacity situation on the Vilnius–Utena road will change significantly after the reconstruction.  The construction of a "2+1" highway costs as much as 40–70 percent cheaper than a four-lane road ("2+2") and only 30–50 percent more expensive than a conventional two-lane road ("1+1").   After assessing traffic flows on the Vilnius-Utena road a solution was adopted that was not only cost-effective but also the safest for everyone.   So far, "2+1" category roads are rare in Lithuania, but in Sweden there are as many as 2700 km of them, and they make up 14 percent of the entire national road network. Having noticed that "2+1" worked in Sweden, Finland also began to apply it, Poland the traffic safety situation has improved – the number of deaths and injuries on this type of road is statistically reduced by 60 to 70 percent.  Really liked it7Surprised0Accept6Boring0Nonsense23 Subscribe report about new commentsnew replies to my comments " name="wpdiscuz_subscription_button"> Label Name * Email Label Name * Email 11 comment(s) Recent The oldest Hottest Embedded reviewsView all comments Local 2 day ago This stretch of road will require a lot of speed limit signs and an average speedometer as there are many off-road vehicles and flying holidaymakers 0-1 Reply Arvydas Norkūnas 3 day ago I had to use this Swedish system Passenger cars mostly overtake each other and the speed of overtaking reaches the speed of a motorway this should be foreseen and the system should be adapted to these cases It is necessary to know in advance that the speed of 90 km/h will be exceeded en masse on these sections will speed cameras be installed on all of them 00 Reply Renaissance 3 day ago Everything is elementary Watson 🙂2+1 means that in a few years this road will not meet the future traffic flows at that time and it will need to be completely rebuilt I think the prices at that time will be double which will allow the future coalitions to live quite well So the conclusion is that if one hand greases the other 10 Reply vilius 4 day ago And where is the Vilnius eastern bypass from Santariškės - via the bridge over the Neris - crossing the Nemenčinė highway - N Vilnius - Rokantiškės (new military town) - Skaidiskės - Vaidotai - A 30 Reply Ashe 4 day ago If they make the road Vilnius - Molėtai smooth it definitely won't be able to be called a highway and when they built a new road Molėtai - Utena the car shakes and jolts when driving on the road I wonder who drives with a sports suspension they probably drive like they're on a grater.. elsewhere where the asphalt was laid 20 or 10 years ago 10 Reply Snowflake 4 day ago There is a lot of injustice The traffic intensity up to Molėtai should not be considered 7000 but probably at least twice as high So it should be considered that way when designing and the expected intensity should be added Insurers informed that one of the biggest causes of traffic accidents is lane changes about 10 km of asphalt was laid on concrete It lasted 10 years and would last that long without repairs everyone complained only about the smoothness of the surface 6-1 Reply Lol 4 day ago I guess there's no money left 00 Reply Amber 4 day ago This A14 road was not built from concrete blocks The Panevėžys northern bypass is a very bad road it is embedded in private land and in winter but the new director of Via Lietuva will have to be able to explain to people why such a road is good and why it was built 10 Reply Grieving 4 day ago Idiot decision The Panevėžys bypass has already proven this now it will be converted into a normal 2+2 road If an accident occurs or a vehicle breaks down where there is only one lane because metal barriers prevent people from going around it This has already happened more than once on the Panevėžys bypass What this means in terms of military security 10 Reply anti-beet 4 day ago Answered  asdv What good has he done for you that you are so grateful for killing one and injuring 13 in September last year a Latvian citizen born in 1987 appeared to have lost control of his Ford Focus racing car in a turn and ran off the road targetting the crowd standing on the roadside A man born in 2022 was killed on scene and other 13 people sustained different injuries They were hospitalised or given outpatient treatment The pre-trial investigation interviewed around 40 witnesses and consulted experts who have already provided their findings Nine people have now been recognised as victims in the investigation The allegations of negligent homicide were brought against D.L. after investigators found a breach of specific safety rules The Criminal Code provides for imprisonment of up to seven years for negligent homicide in violation of special safety rules established by law When we initially went to see Revolutionary Girl Utena: Bud of the White Rose the new musical that played in Japan for ten days We were going to Japan for the Utena Exhibition that was happening in Osaka and it just so happened that the musical was slightly before it we decided we would also go see this performance but it's the kind of love you have for a broken old misshapen teddy bear — you know it looks stupid and old we expected to love it and sort of despise it at the same time When Nanami yelled at the audience to clap harder I knew it was the best version of Utena's first arc I'd ever seen I can't emphasize how well this production captured the essence of RGU; they had everything down Juri was the elegant panther we knew so well her voice a growling purr that broke when she clutched at her chest where her locket would be Miki was the naive young duelist conflicted about his sister and his struggle to be with or possess Anthy Saionji stole the show whenever he appeared with his over-the-top angst countering Touga's languid manipulations I'm still not convinced that she didn't just manifest into reality to play herself Utena's bravery and confusion and determination made me love her more than ever her friendship spurring Utena on to take herself back after Touga's victory wearing a smiling mask of humanity and keeping her distance from the world until the moment Utena finally broke through to her The story covers the first arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena from Utena's first meeting with her Prince to the duel to take back Anthy and all the action happens within the spinning roses frame we all know and love there are shadows projected on the screen at the back taking the place of a real piano or a visible inverted castle The Shadow Play Girls as well as Young Touga and Young Saionji use cloth flags to signify Dios manifesting in Utena or to illustrate movement in their surroundings such as when Touga breaks the wall surrounding the dueling arena These four also become crowds or other students when necessary the Shadow Play Girls re-enact the memory of Kozue and Shiori in Miki and Juri's minds and Young Touga and Young Saionji get to re-enact the scene where they find the girl in the coffin We don't get Nanami's animal escapades or the curry body-switching story What we do get is the most focused form of the story -- Utena stumbles into possession of the Rose Bride and enters one final duel to take Anthy back Nanami does get the spotlight when she interrupts the story for a song about how awesome she is playing air guitar along with shadow band members and Miki and Juri's duels are compressed into one beautifully staged dance where Utena defeats both of them with the lights alternating between blue and orange depending on which duel she's in at the moment Each duels is beautifully interpreted; Utena's flying leaps are replaced with high kicks the sound effects are timed to make the clashing swords feel real and Utena looks genuinely injured when someone scores a hit Interspersed with all of this are captivating moments where Shiori dances across the stage only to be wrenched apart from her boyfriend by Juri and Kozue plays the piano as Anthy distracts Miki from his goal but the musical never feels overwhelming or rushed While Utena sings about remembering the scent of roses Saionji looms menacingly over Anthy in the background and the Shadow Play Girls dance with Young Touga and Young Saionji in the foreground the singing is more than passable for a production this small with a couple of standout voices from Wakaba and Anthy With the amount of intense emoting most of the actors have to do it's hard to believe that they put on this performance twice a day The casting is perfect at all times; there's never a moment where you don't believe that's really Touga standing there with his knife-sharp cheekbones and his perfect hair watching the rest of the cast dance around him The musical element takes a few moments to get used to The only song of his that's used is "Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku" The numbers we do get are very catchy and at times beautiful; the major theme song was stuck in my head for days after hearing it and Wakaba's songs are so convincingly emotional that at one point I had tears in my eyes — and so did the actor playing Utena The best news of all is that even though it isn't running in Japan anymore, you can own this musical for yourself! Revolutionary Girl Utena: Bud of the White Rose is on sale on amazon.jp and the English version of Animate. We have full details on the Empty Movement tumblr. It's absolutely worth owning Utena Tenjo has won all her battles against the student council and remains engaged to the Rose Bride Just as Anthy decides to introduce Utena to her older brother who is acting-chairman of the school; a new wave of duellists wearing a black rose ring come forth to challenge Utena But these duellists are much more sinister than the student council; instead of wanting to own Anthy But with the black rose seemingly possessing innocent people across the school This set, covering the Black Rose Saga, contains Episodes 13 to 24, and, like the previous set, it seems to take the first episode of the next arc into this set, so these episodes basically top and tail it with clip/montage episodes. This seems like a weird choice on paper, but after watching all the episodes and considering the symbolism so far, it’s clear what it’s trying to do. In my review for Part 1 I noted that the series’ first sets of duels deconstructed the outward/physical demonstrations of what Utena considers a ‘prince’ should be which recaps each of the duels and gives them all names and defines their purpose in similar ways This clip show episode not only lays out where we’ve come so far but also gives us our first glimpse of ‘End of the World’ and the ‘Power of Dios’ that have been mentioned frequently but not shown It’s a foreboding clip show that not only catches the audience up showing that everything Utena has gone through so far has has a very different vibe to it; it’s another clip show but with a more comical twist with Tsuwabuki – the loyal young boy who’s at Nanami’s beck and call – suddenly injured and his secret diary is read by the main cast out loud recapping Nanami’s actions up to this point to be nothing more than just a summary of the more comical episodes of the show but it plays into this arc’s theme: our memories it’s dangerous to allow them to become the sole reason for our identity On one side it plays much more strongly into typical Magical Girl/Shojo tropes; we have the new villain who resides in the shadows and manipulates the students who are suffering emotionally and persuades them to become duellists to attack Utena and kill Anthy where the villains use ordinary people to plant enemies inside them or use them as resources to power up the ‘monster of the week’ type of deal It also has Utena not simply rely on her own sword skills and physical strength to defeat her opponents Since she’s now up against possessed students and people she cares about we see a lot more of her quick thinking and prowess in order to strike the black rose from their chests and set their minds to normal again this saga is noticeably darker than the first; the music is more sinister Anthy and her brother Akio seem to have something between them that’s far bigger than the picture we’ve been shown so far and having the arc villain whispering in the student’s ears to ‘go deeper’ as they bare their souls only to be taken advantage of and find themselves in the heart of the villain’s lair that they’ve clung to their whole lives and when it’s challenged or suddenly about to break it’s then that Souji twists their perceptions and promises them they can ‘Revolutionize the world’ if they become a duellist It’s not too dissimilar to Utena; she’s become a prince due to a memory of someone comforting her and it’s the basis for her whole identity so far with Episode 11 of the Student Council Saga where Touga manipulated Utena into thinking he’s the prince from her memories It’s this inner conflict that takes a while to put the pieces together it feels cathartic that we’ve now looked deeply inwards and outwards of what it means to be a ‘prince’ and now it’s time to see what the final saga has in store for us given Kunihiko Ikuhara’s track record for surrealism and outlandish symbolisms I’ve probably missed a ton of information or themes on the way but that’s also part of what makes Utena not only highly enjoyable just to watch for the story but also enjoyable to deconstruct on repeated watches a couple of slip-ups and low points in this arc One is due to the symbolism itself in places such as in Episode 16 where Nanami is so desperate to be the centre of attention that she wears a high-priced cowbell thinking it’s the latest fashion accessory and turns into a cow as a result (Get it Get it yet??!) and in Episode 22 where we’re given a flashback into the arc’s villain’s backstory and Mr Ikuhara felt it was necessary to have actual hands pointing at various parts of the scenes he deemed important but even to someone who isn’t quick to pick up on symbolism I felt a bit too handheld during the episode and it took me out of it rather than immersing me in it and there’s less noticeable instances of recycled backgrounds and looped animations but there are a few instances where the budget was spread thinly or a trick didn’t work the way I think the show intended For example: there’s a scene where the villain turns his face very slowly and menacingly towards Utena but the animation itself is too stilted and it looks more like a mistake But considering that the combat segments do get more complicated and fancier in this saga the animation and on-screen action continues to be smooth and elegant It should be noted that when this series was first licensed in the US the first 13 episodes were dubbed and released in 1998 but the following 26 episodes weren’t released until 2002/2003 That means that there’s a big gap in between releases for the voice actors to gain more experience and you can hear it in the performances in this set Although I still prefer the Japanese dub overall the English cast are certainly much more in-tune with the characters they are performing and less rookie mistakes are made as well On-disc extras include a gallery of the concept art and there’s an interview with the director himself on the last disc There are two parts of the interview but they seem to be part of an even larger one that I hope continues into the next set because both parts of the interview we’ve got are a mere 3 minutes’ long each If you ordered the collector’s edition of this set you’ll also get 5 new art cards and a poster; the art cards are the same as the menu characters across the discs whilst the poster is over the box-set cover art The Black Rose Saga is a darker turn for the series and leaves in its wake a huge question mark drenched in ominous music for where the series could go next There are a few stumbles in this saga’s run but the series continues to prove why it’s a beloved classic to begin with Don’t miss picking up the gorgeous Blu-ray today The influential series Revolutionary Girl Utena is finally here in the UK and Warning: Contains very strong language from the start. “I wrote, I wrote to the- the Council of Churches and I said, ‘This fucking Bible… especially, erm, Paul,’ I said, ‘This fucking Bible really gives me the horn.’ And er, I wrote, you know … civilly to them at the World Council of Churches, I wrote, … Continued Rune Soldier is a fantasy based anime in the classic sense; big swords, big egos and a bunch of elves. However, instead of taking the ‘sweeping epic’ route perfected by the likes of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, this is a fun, character-based comedy. The fact it happens to be set in a fantasy world … Continued Having been established since February 2004, Anime UK News is constantly striving to deliver high quality UK anime news and reviews to your computer screens each and every day, being sure to maintain high standards of writing and reliability. Designed and maintained by devoted anime fans, Anime UK News and it’s fledgling forum community is growing with each passing month, proving we are an ambitious and trusted resource for UK-based anime fans and beyond! Via Lietuva said that contractors will initially rehabilitate the road surface of the stretch as well as install drainage inlets to collect water and road exits three lanes will be made along the entire road The project sets out that the lanes will change approximately every 1.5-2.5 kilometres Transport Minister Eugenijaus Sabutis said the roadworks are scheduled to be completed in April next year (...) with the right people assigned to that," the minister told reporters on Tuesday Sabutis also noted that the previous section of the Vilnius-Utena road needed further work after repair due to objective circumstances at the time The works were carried out at a time of year when it was only later discovered that they were not done as good as we would have liked and the contractor had to remedy the defects," the minister said The roadworks across the five sections will be carried out by HISK and Fegda The total cost of the works is almost EUR 98.8 million (excluding VAT) It is one of the country’s main transport arteries leading from the capital city to the surrounding municipalities Most anime is adapted from manga, often produced by the manga publisher to raise awareness and sell it overseas. But what about the anime shows or film that go the other way, adapted from the screen to the page? How do those works hold up, and what changes or stays the same? That’s what Screen & Page aims to explore For Pride Week, we're hopping in the Wayback Machine and smelling like roses to talk about Revolutionary Girl Utena Revolutionary Girl Utena is the oldest series we've covered so far and the show's look hasn't aged well I mention these things because they're inescapable and will undoubtedly color your perceptions Created by the production supergroup Be-Papas written by Yoji Enokido and animated by J.C Utena ran for 39 episodes and spawned a theatrical movie Adolescence of Utena (more on that in a bit) It's bounced around various American licensors over the years most likely because this is a deceptively hard show to market It starts out as typical shojo (girl's) fare but then becomes something a lot stranger and a lot more compelling Utena Tenjo is adored by every other girl student due to her caring nature and inclination for wearing a boys' uniform Utena swore long ago after being saved by a prince that she'd be a prince herself Utena's life changes drastically when she gets swept up in the duels of the Student Council over the Rose Bride: the demure Anthy Himemiya The duels break down like so: two duelists each have roses pinned on them by Anthy Whoever knocks off their opponent's rose wins and becomes the new Champion and Engaged of the Rose Bride Anthy also gives her Engaged a sword that emerges from her chest which has "the power to revolutionize the world." As Utena duels the Student Council members she gets swept up in a vast conspiracy involving her own past a mysterious organization called End of the World and That critique Napier mentions is even more obvious in 1999's Adolescence of Utena which is more sexually explicit in addition to being And she goes through a giant car wash that is I saw this movie at a 24-hour anime marathon in college and I thought I was hallucinating Bottom line: don't watch Adolescence without watching the anime first It will not make even a shred of sense otherwise While most of the series we've talked about in this column had the manga begin after the show or just before written and drawn by Chiho Saito (the sole female member of Be-Papas) the manga stands at just five volumes (with an additional one adapting Adolescence) Saito's art reads like a less complex version of Naoko Takeuchi's It very much has the same aesthetic as Sailor Moon and a thousand other shojo titles Even with some confounding layouts and battle scenes that are hard to follow if you're not used to this style A couple of notes on the series' English publication by Viz and the volume covers look very similar to manga volumes put out by Shogakukan and Shueisha the two Japanese publishing giants that own Viz I'm not sure if this was standard back then and I get why the market moved away from these covers but still the collected volumes don't have chapter breaks the page count is split between the main story and side stories collected towards the back This is a pretty smart way to present things actually --- after some of the crazy twists Utena goes to it's nice to break things up with something about Chu-Chu The manga tones down the relationship between Utena and Anthy but the queerness of it all is still there It's a quick read and absolutely worth reading if you want to read a shojo story with a bit more bite and edge to it Bottom line is, while it looks real dated to modern eyes, both versions of Utena are worth exploring. The ultimate conclusion of both means you get to join a critical conversation that anime fandom has been having since the late '90s Revolutionary Girl Utena is streaming on Hulu and is available on DVD from Nozumi Entertainment The manga is available in print from retailers and your local library often produced by the manga publisher to raise awareness and sell it overseas But what about the anime shows or film that go the other way For Pride Week, we're hopping in the Wayback Machine and smelling like roses to talk about Revolutionary Girl Utena!\nRead More Most anime is adapted from manga, often produced by the manga publisher to raise awareness and sell it overseas. But what about the anime shows or film that go the other way, adapted from the screen to the page? How do those works hold up, and what changes or stays the same? That’s what Screen & Page aims to explore For Pride Week, we're hopping in the Wayback Machine and smelling like roses to talk about Revolutionary Girl Utena Saito's art reads like a less complex version of Naoko Takeuchi's Bottom line is, while it looks real dated to modern eyes, both versions of Utena are worth exploring. The ultimate conclusion of both means you get to join a critical conversation that anime fandom has been having since the late '90s they go on similar journeys to self-actualization Despite this, Utena: After the Revolution is a work for preexisting fans of the series only While it seems to have hit a reset on at least some of the characters' emotional journeys from the anime it still builds on prior knowledge: There are little in-jokes that you won't get if you aren't familiar with the anime it also doesn't spend much time investing you in the characters Utena: After the Revolution assumes that the brief introductory bios at the beginning of the manga are all you need to re-acclimate yourself It's designed for those who are already deeply invested in this franchise—a group which absolutely includes myself—and particular in the supporting characters of the student council and the idea of them forging their own revolution like Utena and Anthy each story is a bit like if each character (or characters in the case of Touga and Saionji's story) were the protagonists of the show the ones taking the last stand against Akio and in favor of changing their world So I will approach this review assuming the reader is familiar with the original Revolutionary Girl Utena anime referring to it without spoilers and occasionally making nods to the original manga and feature film continuities as well So let's go through each of the individual vignettes returning to Ohtori Academy in search of a famous painting called "The Revolution." Along the way they're met with the now largely powerless ghost of Akio who is guarding the painting and tries to ensnare them back into his control another shadow—a young Utena—encourages them instead to fight against him What makes this story so fascinating is the push-pull between Touga and Saionji They've seemingly grown apart even though they fight each other on the auction stage they've resettled into the same relationship they had early in the show Touga is the star with a new woman on his arm every night; Saionji is petulant and jealous it becomes clearer that perhaps Touga should emulate Saionji rather than the other way around Saionji is the one who truly appreciates the art they both deal in; Touga only sees it as a means for profit Touga is more easily tempted by power—by Akio—but ultimately they'll need each other if they want to revolutionize the world if you're like me: it doesn't explicitly ship them together The way that art interpretation functions as a mirror to understandings of power and shifting expectations—including a painting literally changing in front of their eyes—is also meaningful and helped me to better understand why these characters were in a career path that didn't seem like a logical way forward from where they were in the original storyline Every version of Revolutionary Girl Utena is about the ways we will only see what we want to see until we're ready to face up to the biases society has imposed on us Using visual art just makes the metaphor all the more apparent And there's a gorgeous poetry to Touga and Saionji literally selling these illusions while also being trapped in them The second story focuses on Juri, Shiori and Ruka in a future where Juri is a fencing champion and Shiori her manager. And of course it also deals, in its own way, with illusions and mistaking them for reality. There was something powerful for me about seeing Chiho Saitō explicitly confirm Juri's romantic feelings for Shiori In Saito's original manga version of the story Juri is seemingly heterosexual and in love with Touga and that version famously tends to play the queer themes closer to its chest (though they're not nonexistent Yet not only is Juri's love for another woman made clear here but just like in all of her anime episodes Juri is in a women's fencing championship where she learns that her opponent is not another woman but in fact As Juri is considering retiring from fencing Shiori threatens to leave with Ruka and manage him instead breaking Juri's heart; she can live without the sport If Ruka in the anime seemed to exist to encourage Juri to move beyond her destructive love for Shiori Ruka in this story represents Juri's fear of losing Shiori to a man—and that she can never truly be her "prince" because of her gender We finally get a glimpse of what led Juri to initially fall in love with Shiori The story of how Ruka entered and exited their lives is also altered for this continuity Ruka's presence turns out to be another illusion only revealed after Utena shows Juri how to be a prince in her own way Relevant to this discussion is the role Utena herself plays in all of these stories Having moved beyond the reality of Ohtori Academy she seems have taken the role of Prince Dios in the original story Dios was always there to push Utena on in her moments of doubt—creating the miracle that Juri doubted would happen in her first duel with Utena or giving her the strength to fight on in her second duel against Touga what Utena attributed to Dios was also sometimes spurred by Anthy's feelings (particularly in the second of those examples)—that was part of the illusion that Utena created for herself—but he represented her belief in the ideal of a prince if not in quite the way she expected in the beginning of the story Having visions of Utena as an illusion to push the duelists further seems like a completion of that arc for her giving their revolutions value outside of better understanding themselves and freeing them from the societal biases imposed on them Each duelist has to help push Utena toward her goal of rescuing Anthy involving Miki and his relationship with his twin sister Kozue and will likely be the most controversial since it goes further with the incestuous bond between the twins than previous versions of Utena have There is a reason why Miki is generally the least popular of the original duelists and usually the one people struggle the most to "figure out," especially regarding his relationship with his sister While one can read it in the literal sense of two siblings having forbidden sexual feelings for each other I've always seen the Miki/Kozue relationship as in the gothic-romance tradition of incest-as-metaphor: metaphor for what your sibling symbolizes to you it was the loss of their childhood bond and the desire to return to that idealized past together (Kozue's duel theme even references time machines) it is mixed with the lack of desire Kozue has for her husband and for her traditional but unfulfilling marriage it's jumbled in with her jealousy toward Miki's success—in this case through literally mimicking his actions in her sleep The fact that Miki remarks that their relationship is still taking form like their music seems to open it up further to a multiplicity of interpretations about what specifically is going on between them And what is Revolutionary Girl Utena if not all about that multiplicity and about the multi-variant nature of relationships It's their story that gives a child version of Utena the final push to reach a child version of Anthy This last moment between the girls is another reason why it's hard to read the manga as a straight sequel even if the other characters are older and tell us that 20 years have past where each character is transported in their final scenes exists outside notions of linear time—and the story the manga tells follows suit This may leave you frustrated on first reading if you're expecting these 30-something characters to have grown beyond who they were in the original story Miki and Kozue were all on the way to smashing their own respective eggshells by the end of the anime especially in the case of the former three the erasure of their memories seems to have reset their personalities Miki and Kozue seem like echoes of their arcs within the anime what was the point of everything that happened to them then—especially when in the final minutes of the anime it seemed like they were still moving beyond their coffins even without Utena there to guide them I can't find much fault with this volume other than the suspicious lack of Nanami (She gets a brief moment in Touga and Saionji's volume but I would have loved for her to have her own story and I'm kind of puzzled as to why they left out such a popular character.) The way that time folds in on itself and that these characters are simultaneously older and yet not changed at all from their teenage selves It makes it a much more fitting 20th anniversary present than a straight sequel This manga forces us all to go back into the headspace the original work put us in and reexamine the ways in which we might not have changed as much as we think from when this series first took us for a ride the way to revolution and genuine satisfaction and one we need to keep reminding ourselves of throughout our lives about the concepts he had for this 20th anniversary special and the need to look backward as well as forward in building the future That seems to be the central theme of the manga: the way that the duelists' pasts still impact them and particularly the loss of people important to them (especially in the case of Juri and Miki's stories) have impacted their present-day relationships and truly accept them as parts of their lives The way the storyline has one foot in the past and one in the future (present?) is the perfect shape for this story So if you go into this manga expecting an ideal happy ending for these characters to see how they've blossomed into their true selves away from Akio's influence you're used to letting this world and story take you for a ride You're used to divining the message of the story not from what literally happens but from all the colorful symbolism around it this is a richly satisfying little anniversary present for all of us Utena superfans Full encyclopedia details aboutRevolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution (manga) killing a 21-year-old man and injuring 14 others a Latvian citizen born in 1987appeared to have lost control of his Ford Focus racing car in a turn and ran off the road hitting the crowd standing on the roadside A man born in 2022 was killed on scene and other 14 people sustained different injuries three women and one minor were injured in the crash,“ said Asta Šuminienė head of communication at Utena County Chief Police Commissariat A pre-trial investigation has been opened into manslaughter The Lithuanian Automobile Sport Federation said it is investigating the incident „The rally community and the organisers of the rally convey their deepest condolences to the victims and their families of this tragic accident We wish the injured s a speedy recovery and we mourn with families of the deceased,“ the organisation wrote on Facebook Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution is a partial sequel to the groundbreaking 80s manga and anime series Revolutionary Girl Utena unless you've followed the original series you'll probably feel lost at sea with After the Revolution The original series was a groundbreaking LGBTQ fantasy epic where themes and meanings were expressed as symbols and allegory Tenjou Utena fought the oppressive student council of an elite academy school to rescue an abused girl named Anthy who was offered up as the prize in a fencing tournament Utena became a prince and fought off all comers to save Anthy in an epic (if chaste) allegorical lesbian love story that opened up Western fans to the possibilities of LGBTQ representation and storytelling in Japanese manga and anime That's how Utena became the Revolutionary Girl – she fought the system and exposed its flaws She became the catalyst that changed the world and the people in it The cast of supporting characters with their own stories and journeys were affected by her actions Some of them were friends; most were enemies or rivals; their lives were never the same again The series ended on an enigmatic note: Utena disappeared leaving fans to wonder where she went if she would ever return or find Anthy again Revolutionary Girl Utena: After the Revolution isn't so much a sequel as a coda to the subplots about the supporting characters in the series Touga and Saionji are still bitter homoerotic rivals but now as art dealers chasing a mysterious rare painting for their clients Juri is now a professional Olympic-grade fencer but still in an unhealthy and unequal love affair with the reluctant Shiori Miki is still dealing with his twin sister's incestuous love for him while she deals with the abusive husband she married to resolve her feelings None of these characters have moved on from their situations at the end of the original series but a dream encounter with Utena's spectral form helps them start their own revolutions to move forward with their lives For a reader who doesn't know the original series it would feel like coming in during the middle of the story without knowing a lot of the initial details It's not a proper sequel to the original story at all more a series of fanfic codas to the supporting cast's plotlines Original series co-creator Chiho Saito couldn't really figure out how to write a sequel for the 20th anniversary of the series and chose to write short stories about the supporting characters as a kind of gift to fans The original ambiguous ending of the series was what the creators wanted and it would have been difficult to undo or resolve it This 20th Anniversary coda that feels minor and inessential and fans can imagine the ending they like best