Utena, final post!

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Episode 20:

Ohhhh, so they're pulling swords from all the student council members. Saionji continues the trend established in the last few episodes, and becomes suddenly more sympathetic just before losing his. (Who'll pull Touga's? How do you make that sympathetic?)

Wakaba angst = barely angst. She is INCAPABLE of angst.

First time Anthy shows concern!

***

Episode 21:

Guess reforming Touga is asking too much XDXDXD.

Nanami's lackeys have names! Who's have thought.

"It's amazing how much hatred can rest just underneath the surface."

***

Episode 22:

It's like, oh my God, Ikuhara has no idea what he's talking about. The disconnect is just. HOW IS THAT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH?! There's no resemblance at all! XD It's pretty funny actually.

"You just can't solve the equation, can you." <-- as if it's a question of mindless drone work!

This super-secret investigation into perpetual energy thing begins to look shockingly familiar. Are we back in WWII again?

ONE HUNDRED YOUNG MEN ARE THE FUEL OF THE NATION. (Guess that answers the question.)

This episode is shota-riffic. ^^ Pointing arrows later used in Ouran!

"So long as they stay in these gardens called schools, people will never age."

That's. WHAT?

***

Episode 23:

Secretary finally takes the chance to say what's on her mind when she's leaving. XD

Quote from "The Flower Garden" (a side-story at the end of the second volume of "Land of the Blindfolded":

"Do you know what those in power want from young people? Not their "vision" or sense of social justice or anything like that. All they want from young people is their youth and power. Oh, I suppose a few noble-minded people still exist, but by and large...all they want is empty heads and study bodies to exploit."

This episode reminded me of those lines. Though I think Utena is more likely to go the route of "the world wants your spirit SO IT CAN CRUSH IT."

Does it mean something that Utena doesn't have to climb the stairs for this duel? She's acting awfully out of character, getting that upset. Though the professor is the evil villain of this arc, he's really not very threatening.

So:

You loved Mamiya but you were confused and thought you loved his sister instead. He died, you went nuts and burned down a building, in your deluded state you thought he'd done it, you treasured the memory so much that it stopped time (what), because you were ALSO dead (WHAT), and Anthy was pretending to be him all along. That makes sense.

(WAIT.)

I choose to believe that 100 students DID die, but the school covered it up and that's why Miki doesn't know. Interpretations like that keep my conspiracy-theorist soul warm at night XD.

***

Episode 24:

So we are even recapping the NON-SERIOUS episodes now? Also why is Nanami the designated comic relief?! Nanami is evil and her only virtue is that she's REALLY BAD AT IT. What other show would turn the evil ojousama into the cute mascot? (Come to think of it, Goldfish Warning! did this too.)

***

Episode 25:

Back from Black Rose, NOTHING'S CHANGED. I wasted three hours of my life!

Akio is an ALIEN? Are you kidding me?

More signs of caring from Anthy. Saionji was the only one to really have a reason for dueling it seems. Too bad that made him everyone's (or at least Touga's) first choice as a pawn.

Can Touga be in a scene for more than five seconds without his clothes falling off XD.

Does Ikuhara-sensei REALLY hate Rocky Horror? Because from where I'm sitting...I mean the spaceship and the two side characters who narrate and seem to know what's going on...

***

Episode 26:

Pawns, pawns, yawn, yawn. Akio and Anthy, they really get around. I have to say, Miki is the least interesting character in this show.

Ahhhh it's going to be another series of similar episodes? People don't ACTUALLY like repetition, you know.

Seduced Touga? Really?

***

Episode 27:

The egg episode. Nanami assumes everyone else is exactly like her.

Chu chu is an alien! XD

***

Episode 28:

When Ruka strides into the student council meeting like a returning hero I thought, finally some real leadership! Someone who'll show these women and children how it's done. orz. But it IS true that the student council hasn't been very menacing lately. Jury is passive, Nanami's comic relief, Miki is naive. Touga and Saionji were at least more threatening, although Touga is turning into a joke and Saionji was always a pawn. (Just because they're big stong men?!)

The student council doesn't seem to do much for the school ahaha.

OMG the End of the World is a METAPHOR FOR SEX. So then...Saionji and Anthy...and Miki and Anthy...and Touga and Akio...argh!

So at this point Akio's like, must fight fire with fire?! Beat Utena and Anthy at their own swords-from-chests game?! Ahahaha. Ha. The winner is whoever's bride is more into it? Hmm.

***

Episode 29:

Whether or not she was in it for the headrush it's pretty horrible to dump her right after she slept with you.

"Pushy, spoiled, self-centered. Not to mention a liar." <-- He nailed it.

Oi oi. If you can recognize it's hopeless to fight Utena you can SURELY recognize it's hopeless to go after Jury.

(That's why it's a miracle! He says.)

Just me or does Ruka look an awful lot like Izukani-sensei?

Operation: Make her hate me if I can't make her love me, a success?!

"You can say your line now, Touga." <-- even the characters know the script by now. XD

Ruka's not in the backseat...is Jury going to have sex with herself, then?

No shadow puppets either. Not enough sexual enrgy to power the spaceship?! (OMG help, I'm trapped in the seventies.)

...ouch.

***

Episode 30:

Friends who spend a lot of time together will often say the same things, it's true.

"Girls should wear frilly skirts" "Who thought that one up?" Yes, let's rage against the patriarchy!

Utena's voice gets kind of higher when Akio's around. (Aha.) She actually sounds like a middle schooler in this scene.

Implication: If you were more grown-up you KNOW WHAT THAT CAR SYMBOLIZES. (Just a drive, oh Wakaba.)

Do you normally support an invalid with one hand on her chest.

Hey now this is really erotic. Is it okay to put a scene like this on television?

One flame left burning for Anthy!

"No such thing as a wrong love" <-- if only.

It's cool how the other people in the room just kind of quietly disappear when the camera pans away, leaving Akio and his fiance's mother alone together.

***

Episode 31:

Akio really does use that move on every girl.

Nanami's unexpectedly sharp...well, you have to be one to know one, I guess?

Cuckoo metaphor for the win!

Akio acts just like Touga, is this to win Nanami over? The previous epsiode started with a discussion of transparent pickup lines, didn't it.

WHAT WAS THAT. (I mean the part where Anthy's back had Touga's hairdo.)

***

Episode 32:

"Are you stupid? Don't you know what's going on?" <-- Go go Nanami!

"Just kidding! A nice guy like you would be eaten alive by that bunch." <-- where's the Nanami fanclub and where do I sign up XD.

Finally someone who can stand up and say, ARE YOU ALL CRAZY! *cheers some more*

...Anthy with a hacksaw is pretty scary, yeah.

Touga's evil, but we all knew that already.

***

Episode 33:

Siiiigh a recap episode.

"Eternal" = Saionji and Anthy

"That which shines" equals Miki and Anthy

"Miracle" = Ruka and Juri (lolol)

Once again car = sex, and

THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THIS EPISODE WAS TO ALLUDE TO THE ACT. Wow. Very classy. I hope against hope that finally having the experience makes Utena a little sharper.

Anthy setting the two of them up = ouch.

***

Episode 34:

ANTHY is the evil mastermind? Are you serious? (Woah, the shadow people are in the drama club!)

Chu chu messes up the photograph, Anthy takes the opportunity to position herself inbetween Akio and Utena, and Utena asks if it should be a threesome. SO MUCH FOR WISING UP.

The play. Making all the girls in the world your princess, is that really a service to them?

The jealous younger sister, is she really the villain here?

The prince is the one who doesn't show and the sister is the one who's punished.

So the moral is: Life sucks, girls take all the hard knocks, and then they don't die, even though they really really want to? What a message.

Utena asked Dios to help, he woouln't, so she decided to help Anthy herself...Okay, it IS a love story.

***

Episode 35:

What's with this erotic photoshoot geeze.

"The fish only exist for me to exploit," oh bravo!

Save her from what, Touga?

White horse is a little much, she says, but in the next scene sits demurely side-saddle.

Touga's motorbike is a pretty poor substitute for the Ohtori sex machine.

You're so transparent Touga! Kissing her hand, is that your version of the Akio foot kiss(tm)!

***

Episode 36:

Touga and Saionji corner Utena and Anthy in a typical school scene, the music stays ominous.

...Touga and Saionji. I'M SURE THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WERE EXPECTING THIS BUT I REALLY WASN'T.

This is seriously the FIRST male/male duel in the series! For realz.

For an Ultimate Villain Touga is really lame. Seriously! Messing with Nanami, where's the sport in that?! She's easily messed with. Sulking for an entire arc. Discovered by Nanami and Saionji, who abandon him. Running around after the Chairman's scraps. No matter how you look at it, he is LAME. Everyone else's arc had more emotional resonance.

This is supposed to be a showdown but it's more like a comedy. XD. Likewise the victory doesn't feel like a victory.

Fate of the Kiryuu siblings to be the comic relief?!

Utena walks in on Anthy and Akio. I have to say, I was hoping she'd put two and two together before this.

***

Episode 37:

That sounds so fake.

"Of course you'd say that" <-- Utena's finally learned about knowing and not saying, I see. And with the way she kept quiet earlier, too. Of course, we already knew (even) Utena could put on a different face, as early as the body-swap episode.

"In the end, girls are all like rose brides" <-- BRING ON THE REVOLUTION.

Snapshot before the end of the world. Last moment!

"I wish we could all stay like this forever" <-- I don't. It's a fantasy, like the prince is a fantasy, and Touga's lines are fantasy, and harmony is a fantasy.

So the real lesson of this show is that the world is false but having sex allows you to see the truth?

"I purely...not to say your feelings aren't pure, Jury-sempai." Liar. If there's any real lesson to this show it's that "pure" nonsexual love does not exist.

Miki and Juri don't hit the birdie to each other, but each back to Utena. XD

So the pure friendship between two girls, which involves kissing, is broken when the (male) judge needs to be courted for material gain, AND he'll be judging between them. Geeze, that's subtle.

"In pain, Anthy? Well, I'm not the one who causes it. The world does." <-- You help, though.

Creepy. It'd be nice if Utena and Anthy made those promises in the bedroom since that's like the only place where neither of them lies. Coming after a discussion of poisoning though...

***

Episode 38:

The eternal is fake, happily ever after is too.

"I am the prince, and you, the princess." <-- more gender-role commentary. So girls grow up and lose the chance to be boys?

Allow me to translate:

Akio: Instead of aspiring to the real world, you aspire to a fantasy.
Utena: I don't hate the real world, I just hate the fact that you're making your sister sleep with you.
Akio: You're still mad about that? Everyone does it. Plus, you're sleeping with an engaged man.
Utena: ...
Akio: Those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

And so on. But you know, just saying "that's the way the world is, it can't be helped," how is that any less false than saying "I'm going to do what I can to help the person right in front of me"?

In the end it all comes down to "she wanted it," then?

Game combat, real combat. Child, adult. Fantasy, real world. Blah blah blah.

So the black rose arc was a previous attempt at revolution? (That went horrible awry.)

Betrayal!! The previews for this show are so oppressively cheerful. -_-

***

Episode 39:

Agreed with Nanami, that's a pretty awful story.

How can Akio revolutionize the world when he's accepted it?

What does free choice mean in Anthy's situation?

Stop hacking at that door and help Himemiya! She says.

Two sides...the caring side and the callous side, same person. As Akio himself says. If Akio had to write an essay on how he overcame a significant obstacle, what would he say? I gave up totally and became a bitter, twisted person?!

I thought persistence was the best way to change the world, but now I am all cynical and know that you must have power, because otherwise you are forced to depend on others. Therefore I will sip this fruity drink while 10,000 flying swords use my sister as a puncusion. Something like that?

Utena: I don't want the power to change the world, I just want Anthy.

...

GO GO ANTHY!!!! *cheers*



Somehow I doubt this show has the power to convert anyone who is not already converted.

So in the end what I learned from Utena was:

1. If you think the world doesn't revolve around sex, think again.
2. Real strength is holding on to your dreams even after being stabbed in the back.
3. If the world is a prison, make your own world!
4. Girls can't be princes. But, that doesn't mean they have to be princesses either.

***

I'll be gone from 8:00am tomorrow till Sunday night. Spring break!! Florida Keys!!!! Fun in the sun here I come XD.