Okay, so the thing that hurt me the most when I watched the final episode of Utena wasn’t Akio’s mocking speech or Anthy’s betrayal, or even Utena’s final moments. It was the fact that the sword broke.
And it broke so casually, and it elicited such a small reaction in Akio, that it was so obvious that all of that already happened. The duels and the cycle of abuse and betrayal happened a thousand times, for a thousand polished swords to be smashed against an unbreakable seal – and it didn’t matter. None of that left even a fleeting impression on Akio or Anthy, none of that amounted to anything more than a footnote in their impossible quest for restoring his power, and Utena wasn’t going to either. Up until Anthy leaves Akio barely acknowledges what happened in the arena. Why should he? By tomorrow he will have found a dozen more duelists to pit against each other.
Utena’s sacrifice would have been all in vain if Anthy herself hadn’t stood up against him: no external force could ever oppose them alone and win. The game was rigged to be unwinnable by any traditional (-ly masculine… even?) means.
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