the word utena itself means "calyx," the part of a flowering plant which protects the bud and supports the blooming petals. i had heard this before in a fun fan fact kind of way but heard it from Hiroshi Nagahama-san, rgu's art director, whom i had the privilege of hearing speak at otakon years back.
he also mentioned something i had not heard; he said the show's english title is not terribly accurate to the intent of the creators, but a poor translation problem on their part. he said a better translation is Utena: Girls' Revolution.
i get chills thinking about this distinction. he elaborated that the title wasn't referring to utena tenjou herself, or at least not Just to utena; nor any singular character for that matter. there's no Revolutionary Girl. its about the revolution of and for and by girls. and "utena"...the Support.
anyway tldr you could say the title as Support Girls' Revolution and that makes me crazy
so glad folks enjoyed* this! ^_^
a little quote from Enokido Youji's rgu script notes i was reading today (you can read the rest of them here):
"The 4th Arc, the “Apocalypse Arc”, starts from episode 34. From here on out, the story will be progressing towards something (alt trans: an end point) that we’ve decided on from the very beginning. The Girls’ Revolution. [...] By the way, a revolution is when the oppressed destroy the system that oppresses them. A girls’ revolution then, because it is referencing girls, is a story about girls becoming free of what oppresses them. The “prince” that appears throughout the work is, in fact, created as something that oppresses girls."
