#runawaytalks

Before the Nutcracker’s first battle with the Mouse King, Marie gives him a ribbon from her dress:

“You must notice, very gentle and excellent readers, that when Nutcracker had come alive, he had quite clearly felt all the love and kindness that Marie had shown him. It was only because she had become so good that Fritz did not even want to accept and wear Fräulein's ribbon, although it shone brightly and looked very lovely. Good, loyal Nutcracker preferred getting all spruced up with Marie's simple little ribbon.”

This obviously parallels the passing of Madoka’s red ribbon to Homura.

It’s also mentioned that a big gilded owl perches on the clock to muffle its noise. Right before Homura realizes she’s a witch, the clocks on the bus grow louder and louder as they are swarmed by owls:

“Marie looked up. The big, gilded owl perching on the clock had lowered its wings, covering the whole timepiece and poking forth the ugly cobblestone with the hooked nose. And the noises grew louder, and words could be made out: "Clock, tick, tock, clock, tick, tock! And everyone has to hum softly, hum softly. After all, Mouse King has a fine ear.”

I think another possible parallel for Madoka is Princess Pirlipat. In Hoffman’s original story, which the Dumas retelling and the ballet were inspired by, we learn the story of a princess who was half eaten and cursed by rats. She remains in a cradle being heavily monitored by her mother and servants. The only cure for her curse is a Krakatuk Nut chewed up by a man who has never shaved and has never worn boots. With closed eyes, the man is meant to head the princess a kernel, and then reopen his eyes after taking seven steps backwards. The man is cursed because he slips on a rat, killing the Rat Queen, but also turning into a Nutcracker as punishment.

Now hmmm… princess being kept in a cradle so she can be protected from rats. I wonder what that sounds like.

Oh god, where do I begin. I should preface this by saying I've only watched the series once, so my understanding of Anthy's character is probably less developed than it could be!

I am currently working on a post where I read Anthy as commentary on ornamentalism and Asian inscrutability. Ornamentalism was coined by Anne Anlin Cheng to talk about the specific ways Asia itself, goods imported from Asia, and the bodies of Asian women, continually blur the lines between personhood and thingness. Where Asian bodies are reduced to objects, porcelain bowls are personified as delicate and feminine. This is the lens through which most of the cast views Anthy.

- Ornamentalism: A Feminist Theory For The Yellow Woman, p15, Anne Anling Cheng

Asian inscrutability, on the other hand, is a much more complicated term to define. Asian inscrutability has historically been used to prop up the Occident as uniquely enlightened mastery over the Orient. The Occident renders Asia knowable through surveillance, study, and categorization. While the narrative of an exotic, wild, and unknowable Asia is rooted deeply in orientalism, the term is being reclaimed by some queer Asian scholars. Anthy is deliberately playing up the idea that the Engaged is uniquely capable of understanding her as a means of manipulation. If to be known is to be controlled, to be unknown is freedom. I believe Anthy is such an inscrutable character precisely because it is her only means of resisting the extended cast's, and by extension the audience's, gaze. This is why the Adolescence of Utena movie ends with Anthy and Utena escaping the narrative. We can no longer perceive or control her.

-Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability, Introduction p3, Vivian L. Huang

- Surface Relations: Queer Forms of Asian American Inscrutability, Introduction p15, Vivian L. Huang