I just finished Revolutionary Girl Utena yesterday, and I really appreciate how you talk of how it is hard to interpret and how it has good and bad in it. It seems to me that a lot of people put ridiculous standards on both the quality of works of fiction and the messages or morality connected to them. People are messy and do both good and bad, so what are we to expect from stories they create? I will say I liked the show, but that once we got past the first third of the story-around ep 13- I spent a lot of time feeling upset and disturbed and shouting at the screen, as it went past Utena fighting the obvious asshole student council members and some basic-ass, oldschool, but still very bad patriarchal bullshit, with the idea that Anthy was obliged to do whatever the engaged tells her to do, to the even more sinister implications with Prof. Nemuro that the engaged had the right to decide whether she lived or died, to her brother raping her and her being conditioned to being hypersubmissive and subservient to everyone around her.
It seems to me that the show made attempts to make the student council members sympathetic and redeem them, and while that KIND OF worked for me with Jury and Mikki-though they are still assholes- it didn't work for me with Saionji, and DEFINITELY not with Touga. He was never sympathetic to me, and for redemption, it was one thing when he was a jerk doing nothing to disuade his younger sister's incestuous attention, but when he was making those cruel "jokes" to mess with her and I realized through his comversations with Akio that he was actually conditioning her so that he could perpetuate this cycle of abuse on her, that crossed the redemption line for me.
Similarly, they did make me sympathize with Nanami once her brother started blatantly treating her like shit, but she missed the redemption mark when she failed to converse with and help Anthy and Utena, after having seen Anthy right after Akio had raped her. Nanami just assumed that it was a totally consensual case of incest, and never talked to Anthy about it, nor did she talk to Utena. It was just "Don't you know what's going on!? [no? Well, to hell with you anyways, Utena]"-also, just too much with characters wanting to engage in incest.
I have very mixed feelings about the continuation of Anthy and Utena's romantic relationship/friendship. I was pretty upset at how Anthy betrayed Utena, setting her up to be raped by Akio, but I did understand that she very much did not want to do that, and as someone said in the comments of the episodes on Youtube, it seems that she resists when she believes she can. After she and Utena have their heart-to-heart post attempted suicide, I was feeling better about their relationship, but then in the final duel, Himemiya stabs Utena in the back, quite literally, it seems, and it there didn't seem to be any indication that she wounded Utena to save her from a worse fate, in a parralel to the story of the prince and his sister/the witch. It just seemed that Anthy once again gave into her conditioning, and decided to remain subservient to Akio.
I do love the last scene where Anthy goes away, though. I was very much in the mindset of Akio being vile and that he need to be taken down, but the way Anthy tells him that he is pathetic and not worth her time, and then immediately walks away with the happier version of "Rinbu Revolution" playing was awesome.
Finally, I am concerned about what it showed of the students of the school at the end. Is it implied that they are still subject to this ongoing cycle of abuse that was never revealed to them, and that anyone of them will be the next generation of victims and abusers under Akio's maniplative control? Is it that once Anthy threw off his hold on her, his sick confidence, ego, and framework of manipulation fell apart, and without someone so tied to him to assist with/be a central chess piece in his schemes, he is just unable to successfully prey on the people of the school in that context? It was very unclear too me.
Thank you very much for your time and for posting your review, which I greatly appreciated.
A quick and Late Resonse
It seems to me that the show made attempts to make the student council members sympathetic and redeem them, and while that KIND OF worked for me with Jury and Mikki-though they are still assholes- it didn't work for me with Saionji, and DEFINITELY not with Touga. He was never sympathetic to me, and for redemption, it was one thing when he was a jerk doing nothing to disuade his younger sister's incestuous attention, but when he was making those cruel "jokes" to mess with her and I realized through his comversations with Akio that he was actually conditioning her so that he could perpetuate this cycle of abuse on her, that crossed the redemption line for me.
Similarly, they did make me sympathize with Nanami once her brother started blatantly treating her like shit, but she missed the redemption mark when she failed to converse with and help Anthy and Utena, after having seen Anthy right after Akio had raped her. Nanami just assumed that it was a totally consensual case of incest, and never talked to Anthy about it, nor did she talk to Utena. It was just "Don't you know what's going on!? [no? Well, to hell with you anyways, Utena]"-also, just too much with characters wanting to engage in incest.
I have very mixed feelings about the continuation of Anthy and Utena's romantic relationship/friendship. I was pretty upset at how Anthy betrayed Utena, setting her up to be raped by Akio, but I did understand that she very much did not want to do that, and as someone said in the comments of the episodes on Youtube, it seems that she resists when she believes she can. After she and Utena have their heart-to-heart post attempted suicide, I was feeling better about their relationship, but then in the final duel, Himemiya stabs Utena in the back, quite literally, it seems, and it there didn't seem to be any indication that she wounded Utena to save her from a worse fate, in a parralel to the story of the prince and his sister/the witch. It just seemed that Anthy once again gave into her conditioning, and decided to remain subservient to Akio.
I do love the last scene where Anthy goes away, though. I was very much in the mindset of Akio being vile and that he need to be taken down, but the way Anthy tells him that he is pathetic and not worth her time, and then immediately walks away with the happier version of "Rinbu Revolution" playing was awesome.
Finally, I am concerned about what it showed of the students of the school at the end. Is it implied that they are still subject to this ongoing cycle of abuse that was never revealed to them, and that anyone of them will be the next generation of victims and abusers under Akio's maniplative control? Is it that once Anthy threw off his hold on her, his sick confidence, ego, and framework of manipulation fell apart, and without someone so tied to him to assist with/be a central chess piece in his schemes, he is just unable to successfully prey on the people of the school in that context? It was very unclear too me.
Thank you very much for your time and for posting your review, which I greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
JMIA.