each in our coffins

I'll never stop grieving the fact that there apparently was an utena musical that had a lot of zombies which would otherwise make an interesting piece of symbolism for the show but the musical apparently used that to make the worlds most unhinged rgu adaption and that musical apparently being lost media. I need to find the screenshot describing the batshit insane plot again hold on

I actually think the lack of race politics is probably the weakest factor in rgu (as well as the fandom) bc like. the dynamics of patriarchy are in fact inextricable from the logic of colonialism in many ways? and so it makes me feel crazy that everyone in ohtori is always like “let’s kill the one brown girl we know with knives for no reason” and then nary a single fan is like “this is surely not motivated by any sort of visual signifier of alterity that she may be assigned by a racializing gaze” and in fact some of them are even like “everyone who wants to kill her is right for that probably bc she’s evil”

thats because rgu's race politics is frankly bad and orientalist, see nanami goes to india to find spices episode. it is racist in a way that sort of beggars belief that the show actually intends to say something coherent about racialisation instead of just uh assigning the incestual sexual violence to the brown people in the show.

yeah, okay, maybe “lack of race politics” wasn’t the best wording when what i actually meant was lack of meaningful and productive race politics. because obviously making anthy and akio brown is itself a meaningful choice whether or not the creators intended it as such, and yet their racialization is never addressed, and the crass orientalism of that nanami subplot (in an episode that i would argue is one of the least significant of the entire show) being the only example of any sort of racial commentary whatsoever is clearly a bad look. i completely agree that the writers did not intend to say something coherent about racialization; it’s pretty clear to me that any sort of reading that can be inferred from anthy and akio’s racial alterity is one that lies beyond the scope of authorial intent. but i also think those readings that have been made over the years by brown and black women in particular regarding anthy’s role as a racialized subject are no less valuable for drawing conclusions and making connections from implications that are clearly present whether the writers intended it or not. im not saying that the text of rgu is itself anti-racist and performing such commentary — another example of rgu’s racism and orientalism is the egregious lightening of anthy’s skin in the movie, which serves no narrative purpose other than to piss people off! but i also think it’s a bit unfair to suggest that anthy and akio are depicted as brown due to their incestuous relationship when there are multiple pairs of incestuous siblings in the show, and their parallels to one another are central to the show’s themes. i do think the narrative choice to make anthy brown was intended to otherize her, and while you can certainly argue that this choice was implemented for orientalist reasons on the parts of the creators, i also think that reading further into a text that invites a multiplicity of readings and truly parsing through the implications of what such racialization suggests and entails can be a useful analytical endeavor, even if the writers may have been too myopic to understand certain implications of their own narrative.

oh and so back to interesting readings, when anthy and akio are about to be lynched by their neighbours in service of divinity it is very much like everyday scenes of caste violence in india. its resolution is also via the dedication of a woman to the temple who performs constantly which is very akin to slave dancers or devadasis in service to the temple.

devadasis go through a ceremony at puberty where they are marked as "temple property" held in common by the community by marrying them to god. they acquire some financial and social power that is denied to other women through the gifts of their patrons and were freed from the dangers of being widowed even if they tended to live much shorter lives. upper castes often mandated that dalit families give up atleast one female child to the temple. by the late 19th century devadasi was indistinguishable in colonial writing from prostitute. in many ways the 20th century creation of bharathnatyam was an attempt to make temple dance respectable by excising it of its eroticism and an attempted transformation of the social status of nautch girls from lower caste prostitutes to upper caste artists.

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)

I actually think the lack of race politics is probably the weakest factor in rgu (as well as the fandom) bc like. the dynamics of patriarchy are in fact inextricable from the logic of colonialism in many ways? and so it makes me feel crazy that everyone in ohtori is always like “let’s kill the one brown girl we know with knives for no reason” and then nary a single fan is like “this is surely not motivated by any sort of visual signifier of alterity that she may be assigned by a racializing gaze” and in fact some of them are even like “everyone who wants to kill her is right for that probably bc she’s evil”

can we stop comparing white men to anthy himemiya already

also rewatched the first episode of rgu last night and was thrown off by the mention of a regional basketball tournament. can you imagine being a regular school basketball team and having to play against the surreal psychological horror metaphor and allegory school team