Adolescence of Utena: The ghosts.
I UNDERSTAAAAAAAAND. Everything, or close to everything, after the duel with Juri. I think I even get why the story was told this way!
ALRIGHT SO. Utena and Anthy are each being haunted by a ghost! The ghost of their dominant man, the overarcing influence on their life. Now physically gone, but still controlling their every action.
Utena's ghost is Touga. Miki can't see him, when the two men are spectating the Utena-Juri duel. But Shiori can. Anthy can. The girls can see the ghosts of male dominance. The guys CAN'T.* That's the nature of masculine privilege.
Anthy's ghost is Akio. Akio's supreme act of haunting is when he actually possesses Utena, in order to win the duel for Anthy. This parallels Touga, who haunted Utena earlier in the movie by implying that he had possessed - owned - Anthy. (Or at the least, desired to.)
So Akio possesses Utena. Beats Juri, because he is the ~one true prince~ and Juri's too entangled to beat that. (More on the Juri snarl later.) And THEN it comes out that hey, Akio was dead? Oh yah, been dead the whole time, since about two seconds into the movie chronologically speaking.
Roll SCANDALOUS TAPE: the backstory behind Akio and Anthy. We learn:
•Akio has been boning Anthy
•while he thought she was asleep.
•She submissively voices consent for this
•and that is what sends him over the edge. He knifes a hole in Anthy, straight through, like tearing wet paper in a book. And then plummets out of the tower and dies.
Akio poured two glasses of water at the start. One was drugged. The drugged one was empty at the end. For the whole post-coitus dialogue Akio is disoriented, muddled, panicked, frantic. I POSIT: Anthy drugged him. As possibly her first autonomous act.
Her brother had been raping her while she slept. And, with his {fourth-wall powers of authorship / supreme male dominance over the Academy world}, he had {written her character / set her moral standards} such that she was compliant with that. Whatever spark of humanity and rebellion she had left was what slipped the pills into his drinking water. And then as HIS last living act on this earth, Akio stabbed Anthy's soul out.
End SCANDALOUS TAPE. Return to Utena, who is searching for Anthy.
Instead, Utena finds Touga. Cue FLASHBACK ELEVATOR, and the backstory behind these two. We learn:
•Touga loves Utena, and always will, which is only slightly hindered because
•he has been dead all along, having jumped in a river to rescue... I'm still not sure who. Juri or Shiori? From Shiori's version, Touga rescued Juri. But then, from Shiori's version, she and Touga were supposed to go steady. WHICH MEANS either Touga and Utena broke up that day 'cause he was playing around with Shiori? Or Shiori's a calculating lying bitch who likes to self-insert into other people's stories. Probably a little of both. More on that when I rewatch the first half. Later.
ANYWAY. The pertinent bit is, Utena restores her memory and makes peace with her past. Touga floats away and Utena lets go. She's a real person now, and so she's neither pursuing her ex like a princess nor imitating him to be a prince.
Unhaunted, Utena climbs the steps to meet Anthy. Anthy, yet soulless and thoroughly haunted by Akio and his written script, tells Utena that she is now the ~one true prince~, and she has won Anthy forever. But an Utena freed from Touga is an Utena freed from the entire patriarchic ideology.
THIS IS WHY SHE TURNS INTO A CAR.
Because she is the vehicle for Anthy's freedom! She has the strength to get free and the vision to see something beyond the edge of the story. But she won't do it by herself; there's no motivation. She stagnates. She rusts.
Only Anthy has the drive to get them both out, together.
*Caveat: The ghosts CAN call each other. They're the secret mens' club at the top of things, with their little clubhouse meetings in terrifying white rooms and eye candy hanging off Touga's arm.
Extra note: Juri cannot see Akio while she is being Shiori's prince, mid-duel. But she CAN see Akio after the duel is over.
Possible future rambles.
•Why is it Touga and Akio are capable of haunting? The damage to Touga's soul.
•Touga's backstory, and the tangle that is Touga, Shiori, and Juri.
•The nature of a duel: a false revolution. Something that appears to change everything and yet changes very little, or nothing at all. A duel as a PLAY: the duelists are actors, and while Juri acted the prince she was, essentially, male.
•The Castle of Eternity, mother of all traps. Why Akio's death caused its appearance. Is that where the white rooms are? Its fundamentally paradoxical promise: it offers the power to make miracles happen, so long as they stay within that world. In other words? The power to rewrite the story, offered so long as you stay AS a character IN the story.
•Why Utena won't go on her own. The luck of the draw: HER dominant male figure was a good guy. And so she grew into a girl who liked the Academy, and fit in there. Anthy can drive them out because the patriarchy she knows is the horrible side, reserved for those women who were unlucky enough to draw a total shithead.
Fuck you, Akio. But at the same time, hey thanks. If some men weren't total shitheads, the women might never effectively fight back.
ALRIGHT SO. Utena and Anthy are each being haunted by a ghost! The ghost of their dominant man, the overarcing influence on their life. Now physically gone, but still controlling their every action.
Utena's ghost is Touga. Miki can't see him, when the two men are spectating the Utena-Juri duel. But Shiori can. Anthy can. The girls can see the ghosts of male dominance. The guys CAN'T.* That's the nature of masculine privilege.
Anthy's ghost is Akio. Akio's supreme act of haunting is when he actually possesses Utena, in order to win the duel for Anthy. This parallels Touga, who haunted Utena earlier in the movie by implying that he had possessed - owned - Anthy. (Or at the least, desired to.)
So Akio possesses Utena. Beats Juri, because he is the ~one true prince~ and Juri's too entangled to beat that. (More on the Juri snarl later.) And THEN it comes out that hey, Akio was dead? Oh yah, been dead the whole time, since about two seconds into the movie chronologically speaking.
Roll SCANDALOUS TAPE: the backstory behind Akio and Anthy. We learn:
•Akio has been boning Anthy
•while he thought she was asleep.
•She submissively voices consent for this
•and that is what sends him over the edge. He knifes a hole in Anthy, straight through, like tearing wet paper in a book. And then plummets out of the tower and dies.
Akio poured two glasses of water at the start. One was drugged. The drugged one was empty at the end. For the whole post-coitus dialogue Akio is disoriented, muddled, panicked, frantic. I POSIT: Anthy drugged him. As possibly her first autonomous act.
Her brother had been raping her while she slept. And, with his {fourth-wall powers of authorship / supreme male dominance over the Academy world}, he had {written her character / set her moral standards} such that she was compliant with that. Whatever spark of humanity and rebellion she had left was what slipped the pills into his drinking water. And then as HIS last living act on this earth, Akio stabbed Anthy's soul out.
End SCANDALOUS TAPE. Return to Utena, who is searching for Anthy.
Instead, Utena finds Touga. Cue FLASHBACK ELEVATOR, and the backstory behind these two. We learn:
•Touga loves Utena, and always will, which is only slightly hindered because
•he has been dead all along, having jumped in a river to rescue... I'm still not sure who. Juri or Shiori? From Shiori's version, Touga rescued Juri. But then, from Shiori's version, she and Touga were supposed to go steady. WHICH MEANS either Touga and Utena broke up that day 'cause he was playing around with Shiori? Or Shiori's a calculating lying bitch who likes to self-insert into other people's stories. Probably a little of both. More on that when I rewatch the first half. Later.
ANYWAY. The pertinent bit is, Utena restores her memory and makes peace with her past. Touga floats away and Utena lets go. She's a real person now, and so she's neither pursuing her ex like a princess nor imitating him to be a prince.
Unhaunted, Utena climbs the steps to meet Anthy. Anthy, yet soulless and thoroughly haunted by Akio and his written script, tells Utena that she is now the ~one true prince~, and she has won Anthy forever. But an Utena freed from Touga is an Utena freed from the entire patriarchic ideology.
THIS IS WHY SHE TURNS INTO A CAR.
Because she is the vehicle for Anthy's freedom! She has the strength to get free and the vision to see something beyond the edge of the story. But she won't do it by herself; there's no motivation. She stagnates. She rusts.
Only Anthy has the drive to get them both out, together.
*Caveat: The ghosts CAN call each other. They're the secret mens' club at the top of things, with their little clubhouse meetings in terrifying white rooms and eye candy hanging off Touga's arm.
Extra note: Juri cannot see Akio while she is being Shiori's prince, mid-duel. But she CAN see Akio after the duel is over.
Possible future rambles.
•Why is it Touga and Akio are capable of haunting? The damage to Touga's soul.
•Touga's backstory, and the tangle that is Touga, Shiori, and Juri.
•The nature of a duel: a false revolution. Something that appears to change everything and yet changes very little, or nothing at all. A duel as a PLAY: the duelists are actors, and while Juri acted the prince she was, essentially, male.
•The Castle of Eternity, mother of all traps. Why Akio's death caused its appearance. Is that where the white rooms are? Its fundamentally paradoxical promise: it offers the power to make miracles happen, so long as they stay within that world. In other words? The power to rewrite the story, offered so long as you stay AS a character IN the story.
•Why Utena won't go on her own. The luck of the draw: HER dominant male figure was a good guy. And so she grew into a girl who liked the Academy, and fit in there. Anthy can drive them out because the patriarchy she knows is the horrible side, reserved for those women who were unlucky enough to draw a total shithead.
Fuck you, Akio. But at the same time, hey thanks. If some men weren't total shitheads, the women might never effectively fight back.