#trans anthy

I grew up watching shows like Utena, then when I transitioned I couldn't find any representation that "felt" right, so I guess I'm about to go on a journey and trans all the girls I used to relate to

I'll start off saying that this is only a theory and that none of these things mean it's canon. I personally love the headcanon of transfemenine Anthy himemiya but y'all are free to have your own opinions! ^^

WARNING: Mentions of abuse (physical, sexual and psychological) as well as mentions and criticism of internalized and structural transphobia, misogyny and transmisogyny. TMA people i strongly encourage you to tell me if I said something wrong or odd.

Points i think would have another explanation from this theory:

•the scene of her in her childhood with the prince is actually her with Dios and not with Akio, it's her watching her former self, made by people's expectations about her gender, die in her arms

•before getting impaled in the swords of hatred, Prince Dios last words were Anthy's name, which makes it actually more powerful. It's the name she choose herself, it's her saying her name outloud while the personification of the people's expectations dies.

•"Dios is no longer here" line, knowing damn well Dios is a personification of princehood, hits different within this theory. Dios is no longer there because Anthy has rejected princehood, Because she never was a prince, people forced a part of herself to be one. Once she confronted the people with her real self, they're furious, they blame Anthy of killing Dios when he wasn't even real, he was a mere illusion. The only real person there was Anthy, but in disbelief people decided to hit Anthy with all of their hatred.

•Dios after Anthy grows up exists only as a concept, a ghost that appears to push utena to do the impossible, and that feels oddly similar to Anthy. An idealized "man" that never existed ("princes aren't real") who actively tries to help girls (a thing that you shouldn't do, since "all women are like the rose bride, in some way or another" aka all of them are doomed to suffer). Meaning that Dios was the first one to stand up and go against these established structure, inspiring Utena to change the world

•This actually gives Utena a whole other twist: the reason she thought Akio was her prince was because she met Anthy when she was still Dios. The prince, as former Anthy self, showed Utena Anthy's true self, which was shut down by hatred and gender normatives.

•Dios saying that Anthy killed a prince could be interpreted as Anthy still struggling with self acceptance. She's still blaming herself for her identity, seeing it as some sort of betrayal towards society. This means that the person who saved Utena, the person who made the first contact when she was a child and showed her how much Anthy was suffering was no other than Anthy herself. Or, well, Dios, her former self.

•Anthy then is pushed towards conformity within the femenine rose bride role. She knows the most small mistake she makes will put her life in the line. That's why she accepted every order and still got a lot of backlash from everyone. She's seen as the lowest and some sort of witch people are allowed to abuse because she had the prince role in her hands and actively rejected it. For everyone, whether it's Akio or the rose crest, it doesn't matter if her identity didn't fit within princehood, she should have been the prince, but since she decided not to, she deserves to be shamed and abused because of it.

•The sword symbolism plays a strong role within this theory because Anthy is the carrier of "the sword of Dios". A sword that is supposed to belong to a prince with pure heart and Anthy does have a pure heart but it's not a prince. I honestly have been seeing people say that the sword of Dios is Akio's sword but honestly it doesn't make a lot of sense to me because the one who carries it is Anthy, the only who releases it is Anthy. And when Akio takes the sword of Dios, it just breaks, showing that the sword does not belong to him.

•In the black rose arc, the whole arc is led by Mamiya and Mikage. Mamiya, who is later revealed to be Anthy, dressed as a man who looks oddly similar to the personification of Dios/illusion of Dios, and successfully deceiving Mikage and everyone else with that stolen identity, might be a key piece of Anthy being an androgynous person, which by itself doesn't mean she's trans (trans people can or cannot be androgynous) but it's an important point too;