#rgu analysis

yes rgu depicts racism

no, none of the characters are white

"do you mean these japanese people are being racist to these south asian characters?" yes

do you know anything about japan outside of popular anime and the image it presents to international tourists? it was racist in 1997. it is still racist in 2026. the conservative government (the so-called Liberal Democratic Party) are leaning into Japanese nationalism and whipping up hate against foreigners, using them as scapegoats. people who are ethnically Korean who have lived in Japan for generations are treated as second-class citizens. to be not ethnically japanese is to be foreign. to be foreign is to be other.

racism, xenophobia, and prejudice against foreigners (especially people with darker skin) are everyday realities in japan. children who look different (especially bc of darker skin) deal with bullying in schools, and getting treated differently does not stop after they graduate.

"are anthy and akio presented in ways that are somewhat limited and stereotypical?" yes. they're both clearly depicted as indian. anthy wears a bindi. (she's the rose bride, associated w/ the color red, red the color brides wear at Hindu weddings.) akio also wears a bindi. this is something that indian men don't do. the creators got some very basic cultural details wrong.

i believe anthy & akio's inclusion is well-intentioned, despite being imperfectly executed, and apparently formed with no expert input from Indian creators or sensitivity readers. still, the creators know what they're doing when they're including these differences in two characters who are so integral to the plot & message of the show.

anthy's character was inspired by the indian (south asian) character in the original gundam series, which takes place in an era where space colonies are a metropolitan mix of people from all over the earth.

rgu, as it is with its flaws, is still better for having dark skinned indian representation. anthy is one of the most iconic and recognizable characters from 90s/00s anime. she is also one of the most beloved.

(and it is a big deal for dark-skinned girls to have an anime character they can relate to. a character they can cosplay and get recognized as.)

i will say one of the things that made images of utena and anthy so visually striking was that i had never seen an anime that depicted an interracial couple as the main pairing. an interracial couple between a japanese character and a dark-skinned, non-japanese character. i have not seen it since.

anthy's plight being ignored by everyone else in school makes sense in the context of racism and xenophobia. she's not like the other girls. she doesn't fit in because she's not 'really' one of them, not 'really' japanese.

anthy is bullied in school not because the creators of RGU nefariously wish to punish her. they are realistically depicting what it is like to be dark-skinned and not japanese in an elite japanese prep school.

she has no friends. she's caught up in this odd 'rose bride' thing that apparently forces her to date members of the student council. she is repeatedly slapped by members of the student council, and other students. no one ever tells a teacher.

when anthy is not forthcoming about why she endures this treatment, people quickly get frustrated. they stop asking questions, they stop trying to help. utena does this, very early in the series. it's hard to watch, because once you've seen the entire series, you realize how cruel it is. (unintentionally, of course. utena's incurious ignorance is still cruel)

the sterotypes anthy and akio play into reflect how people like them are really perceived in japanese society (and often, in the world more broadly. but utena is a show about japan. ohtori academy, for all of its european-style architecture and trimmings, is still a japanese school in japan. stylized and fantastical--still japan. terrible things happen at this school. do you think that perhaps this is a societal critique?)

anthy and akio are both perceived by other characters in the story as exotic. many people find them alluring and seductive. their different sexes mean that this plays out differently for each of them.

as a man, and as a legal adult, akio has choice in who he decides to pursue sexual relationships with. he leverages his appealing exoticism to move up socially and assimilate. he becomes acting chairman of the school by becoming engaged to the chairman's daughter (and by fucking the chairman's wife). No one coerces Akio. He's firmly in control. he coerces others. (and his leadership role at the school makes this a lot easier to do completely unchecked)

the horror of akio comes primarily from him being a patriarchal figure. he is acting the way a powerful man is supposed to act. we SEE that! we see japanese teachers sexually harassing their students! (Juri and Mikki both narrowly avoid getting preyed on by teachers. Juri outwits her harasser. Mikki's sister PUSHES HIS TEACHER DOWN THE STAIRS and CALLS IN DEATH THREATS.) it is blink-and-you-miss-it, but it is THERE

akio being an abuser is not one of the ways in which he is othered. his abuse of students is what makes him THE SAME. he is a patriarchal abuser who looks a certain way. but there are many others like him. he's the most central to anthy and utena's story. but even within the small world of this school, he is one of many.

anthy does not get to make choices about who is allowed to have access to her. she's a girl. she's a child. she is not independent--she's entirely reliant on her family (which consists of only one person). she is young and trusting. she wants love and acceptance from her family. it takes her a while to accept that there's something wrong. (that's part of her resentment for utena--utena isn't trapped in the same system she is. utena is ignorant of what anthy has to deal with. but utena's outsider perspective in her home w/ her brother forces anthy to realize that there is something twisted and wrong about how her brother treats her)

even before we begin to understand the extent of the abuse anthy goes through--we see, very early on, how the rose bride is treated.

if someone tried to treat utena the same way, she would speak up. if someone tried to treat nanami this way, it would cause more of a scene. people would try to intervene more.

anthy's self-defeatism comes from living in a society where her worth has already been clearly communicated to her. there is a heartbreaking logic to it even aside from the surreal, fantastical, mythical, mysterious origins of the rose bride and the prince.

i do believe rgu ends with an uplifting message for anthy, and girls who look like her. utena didn't give up on her. utena loves her unconditionally. loves her dearly for who she is. and with that affirmation from utena, that steady support from her, it was easy for anthy to leave her abusive family and to start a new life with her lover and friend. utena showed SOLIDARITY for anthy's struggle, even though their struggles were not exactly the same. utena refuses to live in a world where anthy is left to eternally suffer.

TL;DR:

"wait, are any of the characters in utena white? because there are themes in this show that seem super-racist" DID YOU THINK YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE WHO COULD TURN INTO A CAR?

POSTSCRIPT: Revolutionary Girl Utena, in addition to taking strong inspiration from Funeral Parade of Roses, is also heavily influenced by the student revolts of the late 1960s:

so egg on the face of every casual anime fan who says that revolutionary girl utena was not about or inspired by real political revolution. just because you're ignorant of context and history doesn't mean that an animated television show from Japan is shallow and apolitical.

the creators of RGU want you to learn revolutionary history and read theory. they're not going to hand you all the answers to what a future society will look like while we sit on our asses and watch tv.

the ending of Adolescence of Utena is a world of possibility. the show's intention was to allow us to imagine a world where utena and anthy can live freely.

if you watched RGU and thought: "there wasn't a political message: only one girl was saved." THAT IS A POLITICAL MESSAGE! Anthy Himemiya being a girl who COULD be saved, a girl who WAS saved, is a huge political statement when you stop to remember the context she exists in!!!!

"take my revolution" means fighting against oppression. fighting against racism, fighting against misogyny, fighting against homophobia, fighting against exploitative systems that harm and disempower children and students.

Putting aside the practical reason he uses it, do we think Miki’s stopwatch is his equivalent to Juri’s locket? Both represent time passing, specifically their strong fixation on a version of the past.

Unlike the locket, Miki’s watch has no direct ties to Kozue because he’s still trying to find his “shining thing” while Juri’s already kind of resigned herself to yearning for Shiori. Stopwatches are reset every time they’re done recording a (usually short) interval of time passing, so that could possibly symbolize how the ideal of a “shining thing” only lasts for a short amount of time until the rose-tinted glasses break, “resetting” the cycle afterwards in pursuit of a new one.

Juri’s motive for dueling is more pessimistic in nature. Her locket is worn on a chain around the neck, which is a more vulnerable area. It acts as a leash, giving her respective item a sense of both control and strangulation. These don’t apply to the stopwatch since it’s always held in the hands, which is one of the most externally active body parts. It’s light, functional, used openly, and unless it’s a super luxury stopwatch, has less monetary value. This is all in contrast to the locket which is heavier, hidden away, not particularly functional, and probably more expensive.

So while Miki’s stopwatch represents time moving in a cycle that always returns to one moment in time, Juri’s locket represents staying in and being exclusively focused on one moment in time. Both items represent stagnancy in different ways. In the end, neither of them are really moving forward.

the entire series is a deconstruction of the idea of the prince who can swoop in and save the princess. a rejection of the idea that the prince can save the princess. a revelation of how the series /shows/ what happens when princes have complete control of their princesses. Akio and Anthy. Saionji and Anthy. Touga and Anthy. Touga and Nanami. Nanami and her little would-be prince protegee. even sweet little Mikki has his own selfish motivations for wanting to 'protect' Anthy. he projects his own fantasies onto who Anthy is and what she really wants.

utena fails, repeatedly, to save anthy.

ultimately, her own efforts are insufficient.

Utena's entire character arc is about her motivation to become a prince in order to save princesses. throughout the series, we see her fail in this quest. she fails to understand how much anthy is in need of help and support. she fails to see anthy. she gets frustrated with what she views as anthy's own passivity, and acceptance of the abusive system she is trapped in (which seems so artificial to utena, an outsider). even after witnessing saionji slap anthy, utena still states her intention to lose to saionji in their rematch, simply so she won't have to deal with this strange girl and the esoteric rituals of the student council's secret dueling society. she says this /in front of Anthy/. Anthy maintains a blank, pleasant mask. and it fools people who see her as an idiot who is content with the role these mysterious forces have placed her in.

eventually, by the end of the series, utena inspires anthy to use her own powers to leave her abuser. to quit being an ally and a support to her abuser.

the conclusion of the series is about them saving each other

the entire point of the story is that when utena attempts to be a valiant, chivalrous prince who saves the damsel in distress, that the girl being abused cannot be saved through violence. when utena participates in the dueling system, even though she does not realize it /acknowledge it, she is the one who now has power over anthy.

utena inspires anthy to leave her abuser. she keeps believing in her, loving her, and wishing for her suffering to stop, even after anthy has stabbed her in the back

utena is going to build a life with anthy after anthy leaves the world that she knows behind.

when utena is running around, brandishing her sword, trying to solve her problems with dueling and violence, the narrative proves her wrong every time.

it is utena's TEARS that open the magic door. not her rose crest bestowed by the prince. not her sword. not her physical might. it is her unconditional love for anthy.

initially, acting like a typical duelist, utena drew the sword from anthy, and said "i will revolutionize the world."

as the series progressed, anthy drew a sword from utena

TOGETHER, they said "WE will revolutionize the world"

anthy called out warnings or advice as utena fought. she chose to bless utena's sword--a stark contrast to how saionji (or touga, whichever) coerced a blessing from her (in a heavily coded and symbolic scene)

the latter--half? third? of the series is about them fighting together. every detail of the dueling scenes (and the final battle) is laden with meaning

anthy is an active agent in the battle for her fate

ANTHY'S participation is what tips the scales

ANTHY is the one who quietly walks away from her brother.

Utena does not sweep her off her feet. she does not princess-carry her. she does not pull her across her lap as she sits asride a white horse.

no wonder she wears such an unfittingly small and vibrant uniform as a black rose duelist. her idea of reclaiming the power taken from her is being a child again; no longer having to carry the burden of the adulthood that has been pushed onto her, she can become something that nothing is expected of. her dueling item is a lily, which of course represents death and lesbianism, but also innocence.

Throughout the first arc, Anthy is slapped at least once per episode, often more. With the synopsis I give people about RGU as a master of subtle manipulation, they’re usually like, “Subtle???” (because this show cannot be recommended without discussing that aspect. “Oh, but spoilers—” nope. Ensuring people aren’t triggered comes first). This is also coming from someone who nearly dropped the show because I was tired of seeing a brown girl get physically abused every thirty seconds. The student body (mainly Saionji) slap Anthy, say she’s worthless and publicly humiliate her, to which Utena steps in as her prince on a white horse to defend her honor. Anthy is treated like shit, Utena saves her, repeat.

Then she loses the dual to Touga, and the vibe completely shifts. There’s sort of a running bit amongst live-bloggers where they keep tally of the number of times Anthy is slapped, but that only really happens in the first arc. Anthy accepts Utena’s kindness not because she believes she deserves it, but because Utena tells her to accept it. Even the cathartic moment where Anthy slaps back is revealed to actually be Utena. With this revelation, Utena wins back Anthy, and though the episode most definitely marks a turning point in their relationship, Utena still, and I cannot stress this enough, wins back Anthy to regain her own confidence.

The second arc begins, and Akio enters the stage. Saionji, the show’s biggest encapsulation of Anthy’s overt physical abuse, is expelled. Touga, the big bad of arc one, is completely absent. Utena thinks she finally has a handle on the situation, that her and Anthy are now on equal footing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. This big, heroic, “I know exactly who I am” moment against Touga only marks the end of the first of four arcs.

The first arc sets up a type of abuse you clearly see and object to, only to pull the wool over your eyes with Akio. Akio, who never publically mistreats Anthy. Akio, who invites the engaged into his home, into the trap he’s spent years setting up. Remember when Anthy used to stay up late in the dorms watching infomercials and eating chips? I do.

It’s probably super unrealistic of me to believe in their ability to effectively communicate😭but I like to think Utena and Anthy escaping (both in the show and the movie) opens the door for others to learn and grow in their footsteps. May they all escape ohtori one day</3

I have seen various opinions presented on what happened in Anthy and Akio's childhood, and how this intersects with the story told by A-ko and B-ko, and at some point, I was met with something that really shocked me. In a video analysis of Utena, it was argued that what lay under the metaphor of Anthy stealing Dios away and keeping him "for herself" was that Anthy had sexually abused of Dios. Not only that, but a number of people in the comments supported this idea, and mentioned it being a pretty common interpretation of the scene. Now, I can see why one may form that opinion, considering we know Dios became Akio through some form of corruption, and the main corrupting force in RGU has always been the patriarchy, frequently through the tool of sexual assault. Furthermore, the Shadow Girls' play can be read as hinting at Anthy being jealous of the princesses, a role she could never have because she was the prince's sister, and the flashback scene itself sometimes seems to show Anthy with little to no clothing (to be fair, I think that may just be the angle but ok).

That said, I dont think Anthy "saved" Dios through COCSA.

Firstly, let us look at the flashback scene. Considering we are given the Shadow Girls' play's retelling before it to better interpret it, it is only fair to assume that the flashback is supposed to be a more accurate account of what really went down. We can never be sure, of course, this is RGU we're talking about, but I believe we are supposed to see the flashback as more truthful.

Now, I don't believe Anthy was blameless because she was the younger sibling (also to be fair I don't think she originally was, perhaps her age got stuck earlier because of the dynamic established) or because she was the female sibling, but because intimacy between children, especially siblings, is that hard to define.

Frequently, COCSA happens because of external influence. The child that involves their peer in sexual acts is usually one who has been physically assaulted themselves, or has been repeatedly exposed to other parties having sex, directly or through pornography.

From what we may assume given the living arrangements of the siblings, it is I believe likely that the one who most interacted with the outside world was Dios, and the only way the two could be exposed to the type of trauma that normally leads to children abusing their peers would be Dios' contact with the princesses and the adults surrounding them. We see this often: two children, not related, a boy and a girl, interact, and immediately the adults around them insinuate that they must have some sort of romantic interest in one another. These are the same adults who will go on to denounce child molesters, but they see nothing wrong in what is generally teasing, because they do no see children as capable of sexual relationships, and do not believe abuse within a solely romantic context may be an actual problem. This is not to say that children generally have an understanding of sexuality that may disprove the above thinking pattern, but when a child is repeatedly exposed to that line of thinking, it is not impossible to believe that they may develop a deeper though warped perception of relationships, and be introduced to patriarchy as a natural thing. Also, this leads all parties involved to be completely blind to the possibility of COCSA.

Now, imagine Dios. He is a prince. A prince. Whose role is to save princesses, in a world in which every other story is about a princess who is saved by a prince and, as a result, marries said man. He says it himself, for his services he was promised a kiss. I have no knowledge whatsoever of japanese so I do not know who is implied to have promised said kiss, thought two are the possibilities: the princess herself (probably through mediation because if she's in danger it's more difficult for her to communicate with the prince) promised she would kiss the prince upon being saved, or the adults surrounding the princess promised she would kiss the prince as a reward for her safety. Regardless of which it is, it is a pattern that repeats itself constantly, both because of the nature of the type of storytelling that surrounds fairytales, and because it must have been a common occurrence. It is likely that Dios came into contact with various princesses, and across time some of them, or their parents for them, promised Dios he would get a kiss out of it. He was thus exposed to patriarchy even more than his role as a girl-saver already had.

It is not unlikely that Dios was, at some point, exposed to the concept of sex. He had already been exposed to what kisses were, what is one step more? What then? What if it was made as a passing comment, what if he accidentally caught sight of it, what if people asked him for whatever reason to have sex with the princesses he saved, what if someone else forced sex upon him. What if?

Let us consider pre-witch Anthy. She is powerful as well, but the crowd doesn't seem to recognise her. The crowd specifically asks her "who are you?", showing the people around her really don't know who this girl is, perhaps they don't even realise that she is Dios' sister. Perhaps, Anthy has always lived in the shed, just as she always lives in the rose garden later. Perhaps the people around her did not even know she was also capable of magic. At that point, we may assume she did not have much of a social presence. If that is the case, we may assume she did not have too much contact with the outside world.

At that point, what is most likely? The solitary girl walks into town one day and is exposed to sex, or the people around her seek her out, and that is how it happens? Or the prince who wanders the world, meets people from all paths of life and is the embodiment of patriarchy, is the one being exposed to sex? Both are possible, though considering the type of story that RGU is and how blunt it is with certain elements, I find it difficult to believe that Anthy would have had the conditions around her to lead her to be the one who introduces sex in their dynamic.

That is not however to say that I believe what is implied in that scene is that Dios was the one to assault Anthy. He was laying on a bed half dead, the only thing he managed to do was be in pain, try to get up an fail, call Anthy's name. I don't believe he even had the strength to do something like that.

Then, if no sexual acts were carried out in that shed, what did happen?

As I said before, intimacy between children is hard to define. One of the reasons why early sibling incest is that horrifying to the majority of cultures is exactly because it's is difficult to notice when a line has been crossed, and thus difficult to intervene or prevent it.

When Anthy locked her brother up, saying she would "keep him for herself", I don't think she herself thought it with a sexual connotation. All we see of pre-swords Anthy is someone who cares for her brother's safety, and every time she complains about his role as prince, she says so relating to the threat it is to his life. I don't think Anthy was jealous of the princesses because she wanted to be one, she was irate because to save them, she would have to lose her brother.

That being said, Anthy locks Dios up, and as he lays there half dead, she... sleeps on him? I believe that is one of the main reasons why people think she assaulted Dios. And now is the time to go back to intimacy between children siblings! Now, let us establish some things.

It's true that we can never trust the ages of characters in RGU, because some of them have been that age for hundreds of years, but I believe that while Dios is more nebulous of a figure (as we see for example when Akio "saves" baby Utena, at that point yeah it wasn't totally Dios but he was definitely older that the Dios in the origins flashback) Anthy appears the same in the two flashbacks we see, both in the orgins and in the saving of baby Utena. We know Utena to be seven (?) at that point, and considering that they look fairly similar and that they end up being the same age in the main timeline, I am inclined to believe Anthy was the same age when Dios died, and honestly, I'm starting to think they were twins, originally (Dios in flashbacks alternatively looks the same age as Anthy or Tsuwabuki, so it may be). Current Anthy is younger only because she is stuck, by the swords and by Akio. Considering the above, Dios may have been between seven and ten.

Now that we have established them as both being children, not preteens, not teens, but children, I will make a disclaimer: my knowledge of both japanese and south-asian culture is very limited, so the inferences I will make come from my experience as southern european. I am however convinced I won't be too far off, considering RGU was produced in the 90s, when globalisation had already commenced, and because, though perhaps delusional, Touga and Nanami say it themselves: when they were younger, physical contact between the two of them was never seen as weird. In my experience at least, nudity or affection between siblings (of which at least one is male, let's remember women are generally not seen as a sexual threat in these cases) starts being seen as weird between 10 and 12. Small children bathe together without issue, they share a room and frequently also a bed without issue, hell, when you're that young people don't question you sleeping with your parents, and normally these are adults. At this point, being Anthy seven, we can at least consider the possibility that there truly was nothing sexual about her sleeping close to her brother, especially considering he was dying of exhaustion, and she was the only person present who could notice and do something about it. Before the swords, Anthy's main goal is always to keep Dios safe. Anthy never mentions anything about wanting to be Dios' princess. What she does mentions is why he has to go around and save other when that comes as a detriment to him. In my view that is being weary of his health, not indication of sexual desire.

At this point then, why does she lay on him? From that moment of the scene, Dios seems to be unconscious, probably from exhaustion. We may assume he did not die, because he is later shown regaining his senses, but it may also be that Dios did temporarily die, and the one who woke up right before Anthy was pierced by the swords of humanity was already a small Akio. two roads open up before us, then: the first, Anthy killed "Dios". She lay on him, waiting by his side for him to die, wishing for him not to do so alone. She waits, and the exhaustion we see on her face is the result of her performing some form of magic that, in due time, would bring her brother back. The cost, of course, is that to save her brother from the dangers of being a prince, he must no longer be one, and the only way that can happen is if he becomes someone else, Akio. She revived him, and he, by design, "came back wrong". The other possibility is that she simply waited for him to pass out from exhaustion, not wishing for him to do so alone, and once he was asleep she felt comfortable leaving him behind and facing the crowd outside. The one who woke up before the swords was still Dios, but was to become Akio as soon as he opened the door. Because they essentially killed his sister, and because there is nothing he can do about it. I will come back to this later.

Now, Anthy. When she walks out of the shed, we have the last bit of evidence of what she may have done to Dios. She say she has made it so that he will no longer be the prince the crowd craves, which may imply that she became the twisted version of a princess: as the play says, when there is only one prince, and the prince's sister wishes to become a princess as well, the closer she can get is to become a witch, and that is exactly what the crowd calls her. Yet, the crowd doesn't really seem to acknowledge that she is his sister, so it may be that they name her a witch because of the effect of her actions, not because the witch is a role that can only be occupied by the sister of a prince. However, she never calls herself a witch, differently from what we see in the play. She simply says that she has locked her brother up, and that is in fact enough for him to no longer be a prince, because there is no girl for him to save. Because he cannot be a prince for his own sister.

To me, there is no reason for Anthy to have assaulted Dios. not only that, but it would make much more sense if the dynamic we see today is the product not of Anthy "corrupting" Dios, and then him taking the upper hand on her once he realises what has happened. What I do believe is that the patriarchal mindset that transformed Dios into Akio, this only after Anthy has "saved" him, came from Dios' experiences.

When Akio/Dios wakes up, and finds his sister is trapped in torture forever, he tries. He is a prince, she is a girl, he must be able to save his sister, no?

I believe, the very first time, when they realise that Anthy can exist on different planes, and in one of them she is illusionarily free, Dios/Akio tries to save her. But her realises he can't do that, because she is his sister, and so he must find another method. Akio/Dios assaults Anthy because he wants to save her, though he cant. The only people he can save are princesses, and he has been taught that the other thing connected to being a princess, aside from being saved, is kissing the prince. Because the kiss came as a consequence of the saving of the princess, then perhaps he thinks it may work the other way around. If he makes Anthy his princess though a kiss, then he may be able to save her. Kissing Anthy is something he can do without issue, it is a simple act, much more than opening the Rose Gate, especially if it means saving his sister. So he tries. And he fails. He tries again. The result is the same. At some point Akio must have come to the conclusion that perhaps a kiss was not enough, and sex was the answer. He assaulted Anthy. It didn't work. He tried again. The result is the same. Despair turns to anger, not only at the circumstances, but also at Anthy, for being impossible to save.

Initially, you’re meant to side with the protagonist. You’re meant to believe Utena becoming a prince is the best possible outcome because you see things from her perspective before you see how fitting this role is only complying further with the patriarchy. You see how Shiori’s actions affect Juri before you see how Juri herself is an active enforcer of the system responsible for both her and Shiori’s suffering, and before you’re able to put the pieces together for why Shiori chooses to act the way she does.