poet(ry)

Hi. These guys are so transgender but I can’t prove it.

kris: textually they/them transfeminine nonbinary. seems dissatisfied with this state of affairs anyways and wears the same dysphoria sweater (handed down from their brother) every day. every male character paralleling kris (spamton, tenna) is miserable and every female character paralleling them (aqua, pink) is, while not uncomplicatedly, happy. I think they would be happier as an it/she girlthing kinda deal.

susie: I liked to read her as a trans girl before but in light of how thoroughly and deliberately chapter 5 characterizes kris and ralsei as tma, I don't think this is the case anymore. she is consistently shown as the most confident in her gender of the main characters, with literally only a singular moment of gender uncertainty in five chapters, compared to every other protagonist's double digits. most things I had previously seen as both trans- and Black-coding for susie work just as well as just Black-coding, so I can confidently conclude that susie is cis.

ralsei: textually a closeted transfem. not much more to be said tbh. currently uses they/them, but enthusiastically enjoys femininity. remains to be seen whether the they/them is transitional or here to stay. personally I imagine them as a she/they nonbinary trans woman, but ingame there isn't much indication as to what specific flavor of transfemininity they'll wind up with.

noelle: I personally never really understood transfem noelle as a headcanon. all reindeer have antlers, and aesthetics aside her relationship with kris makes it extremely obvious to me that she is tme. beyond that is where it gets interesting. her light world outfit is implied to be dictated by her mother, and in the dark world she is awkward in the very feminine nurse outfit from virovirokun's acts that kris and ralsei wear confidently. in weird route she is explicitly shown to be uncomfortable to a dissociative degree with the persona of "noelle", in a game where dissociation and gender dysphoria are closely linked. everyone she fixates on and/or looks up to (dess, kris, susie) is gnc, transgender, or possibly both in dess' case. finally, her room has trans colors. all this taken together, I think noelle is transmasc. I don't have a clear picture of what exactly a post-transition noelle would be, but the particulars of her relationship with kris make me suspect her ideal presentation is something like kris at present: they/them with androgynous leaning masculine clothing.

Based on my new interest in transmasc Noelle

19.09.2023 🪓 today's anthy!

Anthy's very cute when she actually emotes.

I like how she had spent some good seconds staring at the card.

Ah, so she was playing with Chuchu. That explains it, I suppose.

Male uniform, pale teal. Likely to be a background character. I think?

Huh.

The dress looks nice, I suppose?

Wait, Chuchu, don't eat this, you will get sick- (He made himself sick) (... i mean, ..)

And Touga is at it again. He really is obnoxious in that way, huh.

True true (and Utena is really committed to her 'has nothing to do with me')

There are layers to what makes Touga's current behavior so unpleasant. It is not just him imposing himself on Utena's boundaries or the obvious attempts at manipulating her into interacting with him. Or even just how he seems to keeps sneaking around borderline stalking.

It is also the explicit open dismissal of whoever Utena is (at least her favored self-presentation) in favor of her being a 'girl'. Like, he picks out specifically something based on the 'pretty girl'. Like an abstract class. The dress might look good on Utena. But it is not something current Utena is. And he doesn't care.

Is Anthy unwilling to go without Utena so that she won't be entirely without support due to her absence? Or would she feel obliged to go if Utena goes?

It can be just a turn of phrase.

Or maybe trauma. Or maybe she just gets overwhelmed in crowds (in places with much noise and other stimuli) like some people do.

Utena is well-meaning but like. With such rumours and such willingness of other students to physically attack her, is it really a good idea?

At least she apologized to Chuchu bc the little guy doesn't deserve to be dismissed like this.

She really doesn't want to go.

He even drew a little himself doing an air kiss.

It reaches the point of comedy but also I feel like a bull who is being provoked for audience's amusement.

Huh. Do they do an obligatory shadow-play presentation every episode? I am not complaining. Now they are doing the 'gossipy neighbouring women after grocery shopping' routine.

... is.. the fact the amount of dogs randomly changes between one and two supposed to mean anything..

Shameless? Are they talking about whatever the spiteful girl schoolmates are plotting?

By the way. This school looks kind of.. expensive? I am not an expert on this.. but I do wonder what is the average family background situation is for the students.

Is he waiting for anybody? Actually stargazing? Reminiscing about his past (which from what I heard was not exactly... erm. happy)

Well, they have the same eye-colour?

... "my little sister is always fawning over me". ... ok. I do not know enough about their situation yet.

... so she did put the dress on.

I half expected her to wear some suit. But maybe she didn't have any...

Did his purplish eyes just get bluer?

I like Nanami's little evil smirk of up to no good.

The normal Utena-simping. I mean. Whether pretty or dashing, if she still 'excels', it is not strange for her to be 'liked'?

Oh Nanami... you are so off mark on his current fixations...

... her dress on the other hand... it... feels... unique?

Though I suspect he is interested in Anthy due to the whole Rose Bride Power to Revolutionize business (while not impossible, it would be not exactly expected if there's someone in the 'interested in the power of revolution' secret club who isn't at least somewhat into it)

On the other hand, were you to come in a suit, you would have stolen away the female half of the attendees.

Aren't Nanami too quick to drag her away.

Actually it is curious that the episode preview has Anthy say that she thinks it is a trap (presumably to Utena) but in the actual episode it doesn't seem to happen. Do the previews contain things Anthy wished she could have said?

... I knew what to expect and somehow am still at loss.

Him and projecting whatever images of what 'Utena' should be.

Also is this what you have been telling all the other girls or what.

Though it is surprising how Utena seems to become more withdrawn rather than openly annoyed. You would think she might tell him off again.

A hanged man and his noose. Or something. "I am going to my metaphorical execution" sort of expression. "This is going to suck so much and I know it" kind of expression.

So she had purposefully separated her from a person she seemed to know and had led her into the limelight. Just to leave her here alone under everyone's gazes.

And she seems to be not doing well mentally in this situation.

That's... very calculated.

And it is clearly not the end of it.

what.

she isn't even the correct target. Nanami, did you even do your research.

and so there is something off about Nanami's and Touga's relationships and I wasn't hallucinating?

yeah, here it comes...

this is terrible.

Like, we should start a tally where Anthy is blamed for something done to her or for ending up in a situation that was explicitly set up so that she can be blamed.

...

oh.

Meanwhile Utena-

... Somehow I think Touga assumed that Utena suddenly being like this (freezing up, blushing) was her being 'shy' and a sign of him 'winning'.

So Utena did hope he might be this prince from her backstory or that he at least might have something to do with the prince, right.

Back to Anthy, the bleak part is that no one is helping. Except maybe Utena now.

Nanami does things like this all this time apparently. Touga is unsure though about her actual reasoning behind this.

... so she is wearing her uniform under the dress. okay. it sounds like a nightmare (too hot) but okay.

She quickly draws everyone's attention to herself, suddenly present as a 'prince'. Quickly finds Anthy something to cover up with (i half suspected she would use her own dress but I do see why this option was not that good) and suddenly the situation is completely different.

On one hand it is the sort of prince roleplay that Utena seems to want on some level. On the other hand it does work (like, Anthy is suddenly no longer 'the target', she is now being proposed for a dance by one of the most dashing girls of the school. the end performance overshadows whatever scene Nanami was setting up)

Also I am impressed by Utena's ability to instantly fold a rose.

... Chuchu seems to be going along.

Truly an almost perfect image.

Btw, if Chuchu IS representation of Anthy's emotions then it would imply that she is still overwhelmed bc he is just getting rotated.

Don't know, ask Touha who had been following her around for several days already.

.... so she tried to publically humiliate a girl by leaving her at least partially naked in front of a judgemental crowd. and it is... mischief. okay.

... does this guy. think before he opens his mouth. or does he just not care about the consequences.

or does he purposefully tell his sister that. like if he knows she might target other girls, why does he paint such an obvious target on Utena.

It really feels like they are putting more effort into animating her looking like that. Does Nanami not see that?