Revolutionary Girl Utena? More Like Fence Fence Revolution!

[spectralbovine]

I was first recommended Revolutionary Girl Utena after watching Princess Tutu (obligatory PRINCESS TUTU IS THE BEST OMG) seven years ago, and I've been wanting to watch it ever since! While I wasn't able to watch it to follow along with Mark Watches Utena, I was put on a Worldcon panel about feminism and magical girls so now watching it became

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[kittycat22]

*token comment from kittycat2302/Rachel2302*

Yes, all of this was verrrrrry difficult to follow, and I agree- it took until at least halfway until I was really invested. And combine the repetitiveness with the ads on hulu and I probably would have given up if not for watching along with MW. Particularly in the clip show episodes. Heh.

But ultimately, I really liked it, too. Thoughts on the movie?

[spectralbovine]

What the fuck was any of that, like you had to have watched the show to even have the slightest clue what was going on. It was weird. I liked that they made Utena/Anthy explicit even though, again, it made little sense if you didn't already know their relationship from the show. The movie was like a compression of the basic themes shaped into a semblance of a narrative.

SHADOW GIRLS FOREVER though.

[kittycat22]

Ugh, seriously! I initially hated the movie; reading some of the commentary at MW helped me appreciate it. As did thinking of it as a sequel of sorts rather than basically an AU. So now I merely didn't like it vs hated it.

But Utena/Anthy kissing, and Utena was a car. So it had that going for it! Plus that beautiful dance scene.

[thetheatremouse]

Hmm. It's possible you had me after using the words "recommended", "after" and "Princess Tutu" in the same sentence.

[spectralbovine]

OH MY GOD THERE ARE SO MANY WEIRD SIMILARITIES AND MAPPED CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS.

[the_narration]

Over the years, I've made two attempts to watch this series. Once back in college with the roommate who got me into anime, and once by myself a few years ago. Both times my viewing ground to a halt at the same point: "Runaway Kangaroo!" Something about that just makes my brain go all divide-by-zero.

I still want to someday watch this all the way through, because it seems to be full of things that are relevant to my interests, but the wildly inconsistent tone in the early episodes makes it really hard to get into.

(My frustrations with the comedic shenanigans weren't helped by the fact that Utena herself didn't seem to care about the plot in those earlier episodes. There's a portal to another dimension or something in the middle of the school and a secret society of students wagering a human being on a swordfight like she was property and also pulling swords out of her chest, but no need to try to get answers, apparently, when there's the big dance to worry about. Not even just asking Anthy, "Hey, WTF is this shit?" It's hard to get

[spectralbovine]

Ha, I had those same issues with the early episodes, but I was glad I stuck it out. It was definitely odd how complacent Utena seemed to be with the fact that, you know, she was pulling a sword out of Anthy's chest.

[the_narration]

Between that and the extradimensional space with the upside-down castle, maybe she just figured that she was tripping balls the whole time? ;-P

I can certainly understand why she never told anybody about it. Imagine that conversation...

"...and then I went through a secret portal in the garden, and climbed an endless staircase to an upside-down castle in the sky, and there was a guy who pulled a sword out of a girl's cleavage, and then I dueled him for her hand in marriage!"
"...No more drugs for that girl. She has clearly already done all of them, and saved none for the rest of us."