hi! I love your metas and utena is one of my favourite series so I'm so happy you got around to watching it! what are some of your favourites themes/characters from it? are you planning to make some other analysis posts about it? I'd love to hear some more of your thoughts on this wonderful anime!
I would love to write more for the series. Feel free to send me asks about what you want me to cover. Asks are truly helpful to motivate analysis ahah. I will warn you that I am slow, so I may take a while before I answer :''')
Anyway, as for your questions.
All of them honestly. I think RGU succeeds at basically everything it sets up to explore and it is to this day an incredibly powerful and original series for the way it tackles many difficult themes.
My three favorites are probably these:
1- You can't save people, but people save themselves. My favorite twist is that the Prince did not save Utena, but Utena saved herself. This idea is re-affirmed in the ending, when Utena can't save Anthy, but Anthy herself can. It is also something re-affirmed throughout the whole series. You can be helped (and frankly sometimes you need help), but overall you have to grow up and save yourself on your own. Something must click into you. This is why Akio who keeps on relying on others' pain to feel "big" will never grow up.
2- The way growing up is portrayed in general is great. Many times when characters grow up it is portrayed as a triumphant moment. However, RGU shows it for what it is: painful. Sure, Anthy's growth in the final scene is wonderful and inspiring and triumphant. However, Anthy is also a victim of horrid abuse that finally realizes she does not have to be. When it comes to other characters that come from (relatively) less traumatic childhoods the realization is harsh as hell. Like, Nanami grows up when she starts desperately crying and saying that she is just vermin. Utena grows up when she melancholy says she is not a prince. That is because there is pain in giving up on childhood dreams. Children are often a little narcissistic, after all. It is actually natural. However, to grow up means to realize you ain't that special. You are just a person, like others. This can be painful, but it is ultimately also healthy and freeing.
3- Victims. The way the series deals with abuse is JUST GREAT. It is probably one of the best depiction of the cycle of abuse ever. That is because it shows how abuse is often invisible. Akio has been literally manipulating and raping Anthy for years and nobody knows. All people see is that Anthy is SO gloomy and weird, oh my god! Nobody stops to investigate why she is this way. When Nanami and Utena finally see Akio raping Anthy it ultimately changes nothing for Anthy. That is because both Nanami and Utena are lonely kids themselves. They do not have the instruments to fully understand what is going on. They do not have trusty adults they can report Akio to. I think Nanami seeing the whole thing and being traumatized and unable to properly understand it or address it is one of the most powerful scenes of the series. And I love that once Utena sees the same thing she basically reacts just like Nanami. After all, the point is that Utena is a kid too. Akio is in general a WONDERFUL depiction of an abuser. The way he is charming and liked and rapes Utena, but Utena herself does not even understand what is happening. Like, the dude is literally introduced doing sexual activities with a student, but he acts so normal about it Utena immediately normalizes it. After all, Kanae is his fiancee, so it is normal for them to be intimate, right? Ugh. Another great thing is the deconstruction of "good victim" and "bad victim". Anthy and Touga start as the good victim and bad victim only for later on to be revealed they were both accomplices of Akio. They both spend time in the rose garden "grooming roses" (aka manipulating the other kids in the cycle). And yet, they are both shown empathy and both of them are saved. I also personally find heart-breaking the depiction of characters like Utena and Saionji who love Anthy and Touga deeply to the point they re-enter the cycle and put themselves in danger to protect their loved ones. There is something beautiful and heartbreaking about a vulnerable and scared kid being brave for another vulnerable and scared kid.
The order keeps on changing, so have them in no particular order.
These two queens. Utena and Anthy are both great because of the deconstruction they go through in the final arc of the anime. Utena starts as the badass prince and Anthy as the victimized poor princess. The final arc shows how much more complex they are.
Utena is not a badass hero, but a groomed victim, which is being manipulated by an adult and by the girl she clearly has feelings for. She is a kid, so she is superficial and naive and struggles to understand others. She sees the world through a simplistic lens. And yet, she never loses her drive nor the desire to help others and this leaves a huge impact on the people around her. The coronation of her arc being her realization she herself has been "using" Anthy to an extent to feel "good" and "noble" is great, as it is her still wanting to help Anthy, despite Anthy's betrayal.
Anthy is a victim, but she is not a helpless princess. She is a girl turned into a witch and forced to do horrible crimes. Everyone mistreats Anthy and Anthy lashes out at everyone. She manipulates all the other kids into Akio's trap, poisons people and plays the part of the princess even if she knows the only person she truly cares about will end up in her same nightmare. Finally, she stabs Utena who has been fighting for her the whole time in the back. And yet, the story tells us she does not deserve abuse. She does not deserve all the pain, she is a victim, she needs help. And at the same time she is her own person and she can save herself.
These two idiots. I have a HUGE soft spot for Saionji and Touga, as disastrous as they are. I love that they are introduced as these two big assholes only to be revealed as two kids, whose desire to be heroes and to help others has been hijacked and twisted by an abuser.
Touga is heartbreaking and another great representation of a bad victim. He is being groomed by Akio to become like him. At the very beginning of the story he is sure he is bound to become like Akio. So, he manipulates and pushes Saionji away. At the same time, he makes use of Nanami's feelings for him in his schemes. He lashes out against his loved ones so badly and... in the end his loved ones still love him deeply. Saionji and Nanami both understand what Touga has been going through to an extent and choose to stay by his side. I love their little trio at the end.
Saionji is great because he is genuinely unbearable when he tries to play "the part of the big bad man". And yet, once he drops the mask he is revealed as very sensitive, childish and sweet. He is able to read through Touga perfectly by the end and chooses to support him, even if it is dangerous. Their relationship warms my heart. Moreover, I love toxic masculine characters that have to integrate their feminine part.
NANAMI IS MY SPECIAL LITTLE GIRL! I genuinely adore her and I have had a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE SOFT SPOT for her since the very beginning (just ask @hamliet :P). She is just kid Regina George, how can I hate her? She is very similar to Cordelia in Buffy in how she is an alpha bitch, but the narrative turns her into a butt-monkey, so she is impossible to dislike.
Anyway, I love very childish characters that by the end become wiser than everyone else. Nanami checks. She starts as Touga's annoying little sister and ends the story as her own person. I love how the series explores her bond with Touga and how she is building her identity on his. I love how it is shown their bond is 100% platonic and how her obsession for her brother stemmed from childishness. I really see Nanami as the 3rd main character tbh (not counting Akio as a MC, but as a villain). She is the only character who completes her growth outside of Anthy and Utena, after all. Moreover, she receives more individual episodes than everyone else. Overall she is just very very complex and I adore characters that are flawed in a not sanitized way and get to face their ugly flaws and overcome them. Plus, let's be real... the girl HAS STYLE... ALL HER CLOTHES ARE 100%. Honestly, if I were to write an individual analysis, I think she is the character I would love to go and make a deep dive into.
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