Gonna reblog reply over on this blog.
I feel like the BRS works best on subsequent viewings. On a first viewing, there isn’t as much reason to care about the inner emotional lives of these characters yet, and we don’t quite yet realize the importance of the framework of the show itself,
Wakaba’s duel aside (she also breaks the pattern by having a two-part episode, something only given to [major] characters in the Akio arc), I agree with your assessment of the duels themselves -- shorter, more repetitive, less there to grab onto besides the somewhat obvious (as far as anything in Utena is obvious) symbolism of the items on the desks, etc. We get the character motivations in the elevator sequence, but we really don’t know or care about these characters (again, except for Wakaba) up until this point. They are background characters at best, and not even in the first arc (Shiori, Kanae) at worst. Even with the elevator sequences, for me at least, it can often be a moment of “okay, why should I care?” Who is this person, and why should I care about their emotional turmoil, since all of this was just dropped on me? It’s only after we see how both the BR Duelists and how the regular Duelists are changed by this (forgotten) experience in the final arcs that we can really understand or care about what happened in the BRS during those elevator sequences. At least, for me. :P
As for the structure and framework, it’s almost as if the show is trying to teach us to read it as a deconstruction, but that we can only understand that project upon reflection or rewatching. The BRS needed to be placed where it was. But when watching for the first time, it’s hard to understand why, or what that arc is doing there. I still feel like the BRS could have been from another show (and that show is Mawaru Penguindrum, for the record), especially when considering those last two episodes of the arc (also for the record, that first Mikage episode [22] is probably tied for my favorite in the whole series), but that’s the beauty of it. It takes the structure that has been set up and turns it on its head. But not everyone is going to respond to that, and I know I didn’t the first time I saw the series. I had to understand where the structure went from there in order to really appreciate the changes that happen during the BRS.
On the subject of Wakaba’s duel and her two episodes, I think that the reasons for her duel being so compelling is twofold: one is that we know her as a character and more space is given to her, so her motivations are far more compelling than the others, as well as Utena’s reaction to the duel. Two is that it works within the framework set up by the show but completely changes what we expect within there. Those episodes are really the pivot point of the series as a whole, I think (and they come exactly halfway through the series), and her duel is made so much more interesting than any of the others because it does both things that the BRS is trying to do, and does them exceedingly well -- it gives us incredible depth of character, and it turns the framework of the series totally upside-down in a way that we can really feel the impact of. (A duel where Utena outright refuses to pull a sword and has to use Wakaba’s sword, as well as the visual foreshadowing of Utena grabbing Wakaba’s hand in this duel/anthy grabbing Utena’s hand in the final episode...wow. The dueling theme also fits the model but is so much sadder and more intense than the other themes.)
I’ve softened my stance on the BRS in subsequent viewings. I’d rank the arcs as 3 > 4 > 2 > 1 these days, though I might flip BRS and the Apocalypse Saga.
As for the importance of the duels to the narrative structure, yes. Though I’m inclined to go even further with the cyclical structure on this, and say that while we get a relief of tension at the end, it’s never complete. It’s never satisfactory. Hell, Anthy even comments on it a few times in the BRS, most notably with Keiko (her famous ”you’ll keep lying to yourself for as long as it takes” line) and Shiori (”nah, Utena, you’re so naive as to think Shiori has changed? LOL don’t make me laugh”...okay not an exact quote but you know exactly what I mean). By the end of the series, so many of these smaller conflicts have built up that it’s now possible for the characters to move outside of them. It repeats, but there’s small changes each time that allow for the system to be undone (something something Judith Butler’s theory of performativity something).
And yes, Nanami is her own beast. Pun 100% intended. Her duel episodes follow the format somewhat, but there’s too much else going on with her and her filler episodes and her motivations to fit fully into this model.
So, I guess the tl;dr is: yes, RGU is great at using fight scenes to further other parts of the narrative rather than just having fights for the sake of fights, except in the BRS where these fights seem extraneous, though they do gain importance on subsequent viewings, even if the fights themselves are less important.
Actually, thinking about it (and I do have structures of shounen anime on the brain because of how much I’m itching to start a paper on The Jojos), the “we use violence to solve our problems or as a metaphor for us solving our problems in other ways” structure is very un-shoujo. Sure, shoujo anime (especially mahou shoujo) has fights, but it’s not really the same as how Utena uses fighting. It’s like it’s taking a shounen structure of “things will be better if we punch them enough” and applying it to more typically feminine concerns (interpersonal relationships) and making the violence actually pretty heavily veiled and in the realm of symbolism rather than violence itself (and of course the Freudian implications of deflowing with phallic objects). Then again, most of my experience with shoujo is more slice of life type stuff than monster of the week type magical girl shows, so I could be off base here.
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