Utena meta: Kozue and Touga
Since the moment she appeared, I've been very fond of Kozue. Contrariwise, it took me about two minutes into Touga's first appearance to decide he was a creep and hate him forever. As the series went by, my opinion of them didn't change: I found Kozue more and more awesome, funny, and interesting, and Touga more and more loathsome. (I am very much a Nanami-defender.)
A few days after I was done watching the series, I started trying to figure out a way to talk me into not hating Touga. His movie-revealed backstory is a must: there's a world of difference between a victim who became an abuser and the abuser-for-the-lulz that Touga seems to be in the series. But still, I wanted more; I wanted to find something about Touga, that was shown in the series itself, that would make me stop to want to stab him in the eyes.
I took Kozue's character and started comparing her with Touga. I loved one and hated the other, but they had similarities. For the sake of the argument, I refused to admit going in that their differences were enough to explain why I liked one and hated the other: one was a 13-year-old girl and one a 17-year-old boy, that one wasn't a Duelist and the other was the President of the Student Council, that one had objectively very little power except the one she took through manipulations, sex or violence, and the other has it.
For one thing, I hoped I wasn't so superficial; for another, while I was watching, I couldn't help hoping that Kozue would turn out to be a Duelist. I was convinced it wouldn't detract from my enjoyment of her character at all. So that wasn't it.
How alike are they, then? Well, they're both manipulative, seductive, and their sibling is entangled in their issues.
I think Kozue's sexuality is the bees' knees. In that respect she doesn't have much to envy to Touga or Akio. Maybe she doesn't give out the same alarm of "predator! Predator!" as them, but there's still her thing with Miki, so I decided not to let her off the hook so easy. Touga himself, after all, doesn't seem to be such a creep when he's not harassing Utena. It's maybe/probably/certainly how he seduces girls, but it's not actually shown, and he is only 17, so he's not an Akio-level predator either.
And as far as seduction goes, he's actually a remarkably straight-forward liar: he has absolutely no issues with promising a girlfriend on the phone that she's the one while he has another girl in his arms. And there's not one scene that shows an ex-girlfriend heartbroken (unlike the scene between Ruka and Shiori), not one scene that implies that girls aren't getting exactly what they want from him. The closest we have is Nanami telling lies to the girls who feel free to call up her brother at every hour of the day or the night.* It's not that different at all from Kozue telling her girl-friends, "I don't change boyfriends, I just add them." She doesn't have a complex about it, and there's no sign she routinely goes around breaking boys' hearts.
They're not manipulative the same way, but they both have that streak. Sex-and-power for Kozue running circles around Miki; sex-and-power for Touga, who also runs circles around Nanami.
So there are their issues with their siblings. The show presents these relationships very differently. For Kozue and Miki, the incestuous desire is more explicit on Kozue's part (though we can have a field day with Miki wanting Anthy to replace his sister, and then seeing Anthy in the Akio car) - she knows, she wants him, and she shoves her sexuality in his face every way she can. For Touga and Nanami, the show pretends that it's what Nanami wants until it admits and Nanami realizes that no, it's not.
The thing is, Kozue's desire for Miki is one of the main reasons why she screws with him - the other is that she wants him to realize she's grown up, they've changed, and fuck his perfect, less-than-true memories.
Touga's reason is - well, it certainly seems to be "for the lulz". If you're like me and were too busy hating Touga for screwing with Nanami by the end of episode 32, at least.
At the end of the episode, Touga explains to Akio why he didn't correct Nanami's assumption: "isn't it more romantic to be siblings not bound by blood?" Looking back, I think it should be taken at face value, never mind that it's part of a conversation between the two resident manipulative bastards.
Touga doesn't tell Nanami they're actually related by blood because he wants her. Touga takes Nanami in the Akio Car because he thinks she wants him. ("Isn't that what you want?" he asks, confused, after Nanami pushes him off.) When Touga strikes a pose in the shower and teases her with offers of naked showers and kisses, he's not "just kidding" because he's a cold bastard who enjoys tormenting her (though he is and he does), but because if she did - if she wasn't stopped by the idea that it's incest - he would. (Never mind that it would be sex under false pretences.)
Let's also consider for a moment the fact that Touga's gone from "teasing Nanami with the possibility of a kiss" in episode 10, where he retracts with a snicker, to "attempting to actually jump her bones" in the Akio Car. He got worse. I don't think it's coincidence that the SC member most closely involved with Akio gets worse, while others get better. (I'd be curious to know what Akio's been telling him, and what Touga knows of the Akio-and-Anthy situation.)
So actually: less "sadistic bastard", more "fucked up". Which is one sure-fire way to make me empathizes with a character. Nanami isn't the only one with a sibling-shaped damage in the Kiryuu family. Making Touga much less terrible a person in my eyes, and making me a lot more likely to feel sorry for him.
* Man, I'd never seen that parallel between Nanami/Touga and Anthy/Akio. It certainly puts a different spin on Touga being a playboy - one that fits perfectly well with his movie backstory and his getting in bed with Akio. For Touga, if you want to do something nice for people or to have power over them, you have sex with them, and apparently nowadays what remains of the prince's role is to keep girls sexually satisfied.
This entry was originally posted at http://runespoor.dreamwidth.org/130415.html. There are
comments there.
A few days after I was done watching the series, I started trying to figure out a way to talk me into not hating Touga. His movie-revealed backstory is a must: there's a world of difference between a victim who became an abuser and the abuser-for-the-lulz that Touga seems to be in the series. But still, I wanted more; I wanted to find something about Touga, that was shown in the series itself, that would make me stop to want to stab him in the eyes.
I took Kozue's character and started comparing her with Touga. I loved one and hated the other, but they had similarities. For the sake of the argument, I refused to admit going in that their differences were enough to explain why I liked one and hated the other: one was a 13-year-old girl and one a 17-year-old boy, that one wasn't a Duelist and the other was the President of the Student Council, that one had objectively very little power except the one she took through manipulations, sex or violence, and the other has it.
For one thing, I hoped I wasn't so superficial; for another, while I was watching, I couldn't help hoping that Kozue would turn out to be a Duelist. I was convinced it wouldn't detract from my enjoyment of her character at all. So that wasn't it.
How alike are they, then? Well, they're both manipulative, seductive, and their sibling is entangled in their issues.
I think Kozue's sexuality is the bees' knees. In that respect she doesn't have much to envy to Touga or Akio. Maybe she doesn't give out the same alarm of "predator! Predator!" as them, but there's still her thing with Miki, so I decided not to let her off the hook so easy. Touga himself, after all, doesn't seem to be such a creep when he's not harassing Utena. It's maybe/probably/certainly how he seduces girls, but it's not actually shown, and he is only 17, so he's not an Akio-level predator either.
And as far as seduction goes, he's actually a remarkably straight-forward liar: he has absolutely no issues with promising a girlfriend on the phone that she's the one while he has another girl in his arms. And there's not one scene that shows an ex-girlfriend heartbroken (unlike the scene between Ruka and Shiori), not one scene that implies that girls aren't getting exactly what they want from him. The closest we have is Nanami telling lies to the girls who feel free to call up her brother at every hour of the day or the night.* It's not that different at all from Kozue telling her girl-friends, "I don't change boyfriends, I just add them." She doesn't have a complex about it, and there's no sign she routinely goes around breaking boys' hearts.
They're not manipulative the same way, but they both have that streak. Sex-and-power for Kozue running circles around Miki; sex-and-power for Touga, who also runs circles around Nanami.
So there are their issues with their siblings. The show presents these relationships very differently. For Kozue and Miki, the incestuous desire is more explicit on Kozue's part (though we can have a field day with Miki wanting Anthy to replace his sister, and then seeing Anthy in the Akio car) - she knows, she wants him, and she shoves her sexuality in his face every way she can. For Touga and Nanami, the show pretends that it's what Nanami wants until it admits and Nanami realizes that no, it's not.
The thing is, Kozue's desire for Miki is one of the main reasons why she screws with him - the other is that she wants him to realize she's grown up, they've changed, and fuck his perfect, less-than-true memories.
Touga's reason is - well, it certainly seems to be "for the lulz". If you're like me and were too busy hating Touga for screwing with Nanami by the end of episode 32, at least.
At the end of the episode, Touga explains to Akio why he didn't correct Nanami's assumption: "isn't it more romantic to be siblings not bound by blood?" Looking back, I think it should be taken at face value, never mind that it's part of a conversation between the two resident manipulative bastards.
Touga doesn't tell Nanami they're actually related by blood because he wants her. Touga takes Nanami in the Akio Car because he thinks she wants him. ("Isn't that what you want?" he asks, confused, after Nanami pushes him off.) When Touga strikes a pose in the shower and teases her with offers of naked showers and kisses, he's not "just kidding" because he's a cold bastard who enjoys tormenting her (though he is and he does), but because if she did - if she wasn't stopped by the idea that it's incest - he would. (Never mind that it would be sex under false pretences.)
Let's also consider for a moment the fact that Touga's gone from "teasing Nanami with the possibility of a kiss" in episode 10, where he retracts with a snicker, to "attempting to actually jump her bones" in the Akio Car. He got worse. I don't think it's coincidence that the SC member most closely involved with Akio gets worse, while others get better. (I'd be curious to know what Akio's been telling him, and what Touga knows of the Akio-and-Anthy situation.)
So actually: less "sadistic bastard", more "fucked up". Which is one sure-fire way to make me empathizes with a character. Nanami isn't the only one with a sibling-shaped damage in the Kiryuu family. Making Touga much less terrible a person in my eyes, and making me a lot more likely to feel sorry for him.
* Man, I'd never seen that parallel between Nanami/Touga and Anthy/Akio. It certainly puts a different spin on Touga being a playboy - one that fits perfectly well with his movie backstory and his getting in bed with Akio. For Touga, if you want to do something nice for people or to have power over them, you have sex with them, and apparently nowadays what remains of the prince's role is to keep girls sexually satisfied.
This entry was originally posted at http://runespoor.dreamwidth.org/130415.html. There are
comments there.