there is glory for those who defy their fate.

i made this when i didn't want to post spoilers on my main. read the about/byf pls.

[tutumydear]

Series Remarks and The Path to Tutu special features from Princess Tutu Sentai Filmworks Complete Collection (2018) Part 3/3

[tutumydear]

Series Remarks and The Path to Tutu special features from Princess Tutu Sentai Filmworks Complete Collection (2018) Part 2/3

[tutumydear]

Series Remarks and The Path to Tutu special features from Princess Tutu Sentai Filmworks Complete Collection (2018) Part 1/3. The first image includes the static background used for every screen, so I’ve opted to just include the text box that changes for the rest

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 39: "Someday, Together, We'll Shine"

There are two meanings to the Japanese word utena. One is “the calyx of a flower.” That’s also the meaning of the title, of course. The thing that supports the beautiful petals; the one with the noble heart. And the other meaning of utena is “tall tower or pedestal.” We translated this into a visual: the tower at the center of Ohtori Academy, the one with the Chairman’s room on the top floor. And the dueling arena located deep in the woods is the same.

In the early stages of production, when the story wasn’t firmly established yet, this was one of the aspects I most wanted to visualize and produce for the screen.

A world where demons roam. In its center, a tower called the “Tower of Revolution.” Whosoever can remain victorious in his battles against the demons can reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution, and at the same time receive the power to revolutionize the world; the power that changes the rules of the world.

However, when he reaches the pinnacle, he learns the world’s govering laws.

He faces the ultimate choice: will he stay nobly, beautifully powerless? Or will he accept ugliness into himself and gain absolute power?

He desired both.

Or rather, perhaps he couldn’t choose either.

His mind in anguish, he divided himself in two. His “noble heart,” and the “adult with absolute power.”

And so.

With one last wish that the day would come when someone would awaken him, the “noble heart” that had lost its body, in other words the prince, fell into a deep sleep.

Early on in the series’s conception, I kicked around the idea of placing something like the above at the heart of the story. Later, after several changes, it became the tale as you know it, but without doubt, he did reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution.

It was a place where “eternity” dwelled.

And “eternity” turned out to mean perpetual sleep.

The prince (Akio) who became an adult while in perpetual sleep lost something. What he lost was “the power to create an enjoyable future.”

Revolution means gaining “the power to imagine the future.”

The prince chose to sleep on, and the princess chose to wake up. At the top of that tall tower, the princess bid farewell to the prince. No - she wasn’t the princess any longer. She quit being “a person (thing) ruled by someone.” The victory bells rang, but there was no “tower (rule)” beyond them now. She’d learned where freedom lay. She crossed the threshold of that “Door of Revolution” which had always been closed for her before, and began walking. The “girls’ revolution” lay in the girl’s future.

“Wait for me… Utena.”

The world (the stage) is free and wide.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 38: "End of the World"

There’s one thing I remained strongly conscious of since we were producing the opening sequence, and that was the final duel. When the prince awakened, the “dueling arena tower” would crumble. Right before the series began its broadcast run, we were producing a promotional TV spot, and so I was thinking up the narration for it.

“I’m going to be a prince!”

I had a premonition. I knew that line must have meaning.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 37: "The One Who Brings the World Revolution"

Evidently, some theorize that engagement rings can be traced all the way back to ancient Rome, in the days before Christ. At the time, of course, marriage wasn’t a product of love; it was a political affair in a society dominated by men. The concept of romantic love appeared on the historical stage later. Therefore, rings weren’t “proof of love” items; they only signified “proof of contract.”

During the Renaissance, military man Cesare Borgia was ablaze with the ambition to conquer Italy. One theory has it that the Borgia family assassinated its political enemies with a poison called cantarella to expand their territory of influence.

I’ve known the words “cantarella” for some time, but I didn’t start to think of it as romantic until I read Ms. Saito’s manga The Flower Crown Madonna. You see, Cesare has a beautiful younger sister named Lucrezia. In this story, Lucrezia entered politically expedient marriages with men from various lands, and her husbands died of mysterious illnesses. She poisoned them with cantarella. Lucrezia loved Cesare as a woman loves a man. For her brother’s dream of world conquest, she married men she didn’t care for, and then she killed them. Lucrezia gave both body and soul out of love for her brother. What a romantic story! That’s what I thought on first reading. I also thought, “I want to take a shot at grappling with her emotions.” I think I had Lucrezia in the back of my mind as I shaped Anthy’s personality.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 36: "And Thus Opens the Doorway of Night"

It was determined from the very initial production stages, back when the show was still thought of as a normal shoujo manga anime, that Akio Ohtori was the prince.

Who, then, was Touga?

I racked my brains over it. He was a “cool guy,” but he wasn’t the “man of her destiny (Akio Ohtori).” In which case, who was he?

Well, no, there was one thing I did know. He had ambition. That was the keyword.

I’m always an ally to girls.

Touga once said those words to the girl in the coffin. And since then, he’s been continually tested by his own words.

See, Touga is a cutely single-minded guy.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 35: "The Love That Blossomed in Wintertime"

Touga’s character changes personalities between the beginning (episodes 1-13) and the end (episodes 25-39). What changed him?

When he was young, he met a girl. She said things like “Everyone is alone” and “There’s no such thing as eternity.” A deep despair: he couldn’t save the girl. But the next day, there she was in the sunlight, with “something different in her eyes.”

Something had saved her.

He wanted to know the true nature of the “miraculous power” that had done it.

When he met her again, he tried to “rule” her heart. His thinking was that only “the joy of being ruled” could save people. He believed that was where the “power of miracles” dwelled.

However.

The girl rejected the “joy of being ruled.” She was a revolutionary girl. And starting that day, the “power of miracles” that he sought transformed into something else. That something was…

“Shh… Koi.”

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 34: "The Rose Crest"

Has the prince become a mechanism to allow princesses to exist?

Or is the existence of his princess the only thing holding up the sleeping prince’s noble heart?

The “Rose Bride” is born.

I’ve prepared three points of view.

The prince as a victim. Akio is what the ruined prince has come to in the end, the “End of the World.” The prince’s tragedy.

The Rose Bride is born: she saves the prince, and in exchange for keeping him all to herself, she bcomes the “witch,” and that is the tragedy.

Ream after ream of faxes come in to the prince’s mountain hideaway. I wonder if these sort of expressions feel a little dated. Would it be text message after text message now? Or flame after flame on the internet? Oh, but I guess you can just block texts from people if you don’t want them. No, no, a prince mustn’t do something like that. It must be rough being a prince in any age.

[jewlwpet]

I love how he says, “I’ve prepared three points of view,” describes two of them, and then changes the subject.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 33: "The Prince Who Runs Through the Night"

This is just between you and me, but when I was fourteen, I listened to late-night radio after my family fell asleep. I liked this one female DJ’s sexy voice.

However.

One night, radio waves from a UFO came between us!

"Multiple choice! Which of the following is eternal? One, a diamond. Two, a beautiful memory. Three, canned peaches."

(Hmm… I feel like I heard this on a TV commercial at some point…)

D-Diamonds are forever!

Suddenly, the radio switched back to the sexy woman’s voice.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, young man!”

Huh?!

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 32: "The Romance of the Dancing Girls"

As a child, I tried to run away from home several times. Usually it was for trivial reasons, like my parents throwing away a manga I loved or a plastic model. I wanted a place to belong. And I believed that place was “somewhere else.”

Everyone needs to hear someone say, “Nobody else will do. It has to be you,” sometime in their lives, even if it only happens once. Just once is enough. As long as you can feel sure those words were sincere, you can live through anything, no matter how painful.

She’s seeking those words, too.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 31: "Her Tragedy"

There was once a girl who said, “When I grow up, I’m going to marry Daddy.” I wonder who she actually ended up marrying.

Blood relationships are the only relationships we have where people want us exactly as we are. To a child, the daddy who affirms everything about her is her prince and the “world” itself. So the words, “When I grow up, I’m going to marry Daddy” mean the same thing as “I’m going to make the whole world mine.”

However.

In the process of becoming an adult, there comes a moment for each of us when we’re rejected by the “world.” The person we were so in love with dumps us. The school we wanted to go to so badly doesn’t let us in. The career we were trying for doesn’t pan out.

Everyone has a moment like that.

And that’s okay.

There’s no such thing as something which mustn’t be lost. Everyone has the freedom to love someone or something.

We are free. We mustn’t forget that.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 30: "The Barefoot Girl"

I decided to live true to myself.

“Living true to yourself” means “living as an alien.”

However.

Even the alien craft we call UFOs sometimes lose control and crash into things.

I’m not talking about the Shadow Girls here.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 29: "Azure Paler Than the Sky"

The boy who does nothing but transfer schools.

The boy who was supposed to be gone, came back.

He has always appeared at the same specific time. Frankly, I don’t like him. He’s always… he always prods mercilessly at the exact places I don’t want prodded.

One day, I’d noticed that I’d changed. I’d always hated myself so passionately, but somewhere along the line, that suffering had vanished. Was that his doing? Even if it was, though, I still hate him. And somewhere along the line, he’s left again. People say he changed schools.

At a hospital, I dropped by to visit a sick friend. I overheard the nurses talking. It sounded like one their patients had died. Apparently at a certain specific time, he always used to slip away from the hospital and go someplace. Where?

He told the nurses, “I go to visit someone dear to me.” And he left a request with him family: “If I die, please don’t tell anyone.”

…It couldn’t be. It couldn’t. I mean, he transferred schools. I’m sure I’m just overthinking this. I’ll be waiting for him, my dear him, to transfer back here.

I created an episode around that incident.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 28: "Whispers in the Dark"

Shiori’s character is the embodiment of Jury’s weak point. That weak point is “love.”

Breaking apart the other person.

That means controlling the other person’s “life,” bending it to your own imaginings in the real world.

It’s an ultimate form of “romance.”

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 27: "Nanami's Egg"

I wanted to use a song called “Blue Light Yokohama” in this episode, but I was told it was impossible because of rights issues. I still regret that. As to why I wanted that particular song, I think it’s probably because this episode reminds me of the “adult dramas” I saw on TV as a little kid. In other words, this is a story about “childhood dreams.” An “I want to be an adult” story.

Anthy’s sad expression in the last scene… Becoming an adult means learning countless sad truths.

……

For some things, it’s best not to think too deeply about them.

[louchan]

Ikuhara's Episode Commentary: 26: "Miki's Nest Box (The Sunlit Garden - Arranged)"

I read in a book once that wild animals have a mother-and-child ritual of “bite-parting.” Once the child has stopped breast-feeding, the mother suddenly bites, attacks, and chases the child out of her territory. Apparently, they do this instinctively to avoid inbreeding.

Now, let’s try taking “End of the World” as a metaphor for real society (though now this seems like one of those demonstrational programs on TV). A certain girl says she’s got a new brand-name handbag out of a one-night stand with “End of the World.” Here’s what she says:

When everything around you is impure, you’ll have to become impure as well.

The only way to get what you want is to lose your purity.

Why don’t they bite each other, right?

Why do they remain there?

Could that place that will never lose its purity hold “their own, personal eternity”?