non-binary cú chulainn

My thoughts on race in Utena essentially boils down to that I think that through conceptualising Akio and Anthy as Indian (most likely more so to visually set them apart from the rest of the characters, thus furthering their otherworldliness, Akio’s mythos as a fairytale prince and Anthy’s isolation and othering), RGU facilitates room for discussions on race and the racialisation Akio and Anthy face (Akio depending on his relationship with Kanae for social mobility and power and his preoccupation with European aesthetics that Ohtori is pointedly influenced by, Anthy’s othering and the abject sexualisation she’s subjected to, the commentary on Akio as a racialised man gaining power through Anthy’s, a racialised woman, subjugation and abuse), however it is a work that afaik doesn’t attach itself to specific real world events, situations, histories, circumstances, etc, so it’s engagement with race does mostly exist in a vacuum and whilst not entirely, is still often incidental (whether you think the show should’ve gone further or if it’s self-containment is a neutral to positive feature)