So I am watching "Revolutionary Girl Utena" finally!

[terajk]

...And, okay, I'm only three episodes in, but I'm following it so far! (I hear it's very deep, full of symbolism, and confusing. Although maybe the movie is even more confusing?) But I have the ENTIRE INTERNET at my disposal to explain things to me.

So far I ship Utena/Wakaba and Anthy/Utena, even though Anthy/Utena has the potential to be all kinds of Wrong.

My favorite thing is the song that plays before the duels, when Utena opens up/climbs that tower-y thing! At first I figured they'd only play it the first time, but no!

I actually put "utena 'dueling song' " into a search engine and the name of it came up right away, which is kind of awesome. (It's "Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku.")

I'm watching it with Azula in tow because esmenet asked for a story where Azula goes to Ohtori. She approves of the 'winning princesses in duels' business (and also, Utena's uniform) but is not so sure about the actual princess you win.

Comments

[umadoshi]

Utena is AMAZING. IMO it's a particular treat because it starts off interestingly and then gets steadily better all the way through.

(The movie is much more confusing. It's very pretty, but otherwise dreadful--although to be fair, that's not a universal opinion. I know people who love it. I just don't understand why.)

[esmenet]

Personally, I love the movie for all the architecture and the way things move and the little visual tricks (the Shadow Play Girls playing car-race commentators! the roses! the ring! the stairs! the whole damn car chase scene!). Narratively, I honestly couldn't tell you if it was good or bad as a whole, but good god everything LOOKS (and sounds, ugh, perfect soundtrack + sound effects) fantastic. I kind of want to compare it to Tokyo Drifter, except I still haven't seen Tokyo Drifter all the way through yet, in that most of its substance is in the visuals rather than any actual plot or narrative structure.

[umadoshi]

The visuals really are amazing (although I don't know what's up with Utena's hair when it's long), and I do like a lot of the little thematic touches. But the actual plot and characterization make me want to run away. :/ (Undoubtedly my feelings are colored by how much I love the TV series, which is my favorite anime, and how excited I was for the movie before I saw it. I wanted SO BADLY to love it.)

[nenena]

Agreed completely about the movie being dreadful. It represented a huge creative falling-out between Chiho Saito and Kuniko Ikuhara, though, so that's probably why.

Ikuhara being directly responsible for deciding that the movie should portray Touga sympathetically, that Anthy should be unequivocally sexed-up, and that there should be no room for interpretation as to whether Utena and Anthy are in a sexual relationship because LESBIANS OMG SO HAWT... I can see why Saito was so famously pissed at him, since those are exactly all of the things that pissed me off about the movie.

But that dance scene in the rose garden was really pretty, though.

/damning with faint praise

[umadoshi]

I literally can't think of a single plot or characterization change in the movie that I liked. :/ So sad.

[gemais]

I've meant to see Utena. It'll be good to see your thoughts on it. I like an anime with some head-screw in it.