When I wrote my criticism of Neon Genesis Evangelion, several readers commented that they would like to see Revolutionary Girl Utena written about in the same way. So then I watched Revolutionary Girl Utena. I was keeping Evangelion in mind as I watched it, but my impression was quite different.
-Mari Kotani
Kotani goes on to discuss the nostalgic shoujo art style of RGU, but by no means does she imply that this is the series's only difference from NGE. she never returns to the topic herself, but a look at her criticism of NGE might be instructive.
in it, Kotani argues that NGE portrays a "gender panic." Shinji is "feminized" even as he strives to be "phallocentric." the masculine order represented by Gendo and Nerv falls apart. Lillith takes center stage rather than Adam. thus, Kotani claims that in NGE, "The dramatic leak of the feminine jeopardizes and even melts the outline of the male body politics."
what I want to propose is that RGU does not follow this kind of dissolution of the male order. that's not to say that the series portrays no male order--that would be Akio and his tower. however, I don't think RGU starts from a basis of "male body politics" at all. in fact, RGU portrays a "female body politic."
this distinction is subtle but crucial. first of all, let's look at RGU as a shoujo. it's not just that it exists within a genre, but that it takes on an entirely feminine sensibility. every aspect of the storytelling is geared towards a female audience, what girls find entertaining and appealing. this includes Akio, villain though he is. Utena herself notes that he is talented at "making girls feel good." Akio is thus male order as perceived through the eyes of the female body politic--or male order which is only empowered by its relation to female desire.
here's an exchange from the Kotani interview that I've been thinking about for a long time:
Kotani: ...When female authors want to write about deviation, about jumping out of the system, the form that they choose surprisingly often is stories dealing with the bondage system.
As a concrete example, when you pick two male characters from an existing work (a manga, novel, TV drama, or phenomenon) and depict a love story between them, we call that "yaoi", and it is extremely common for yaoi-stories to take place in schools. Utena is set in a school too, right?
Ikuhara: The reason for that is extremely simple. For girls, places like schools are the only social communities that have any reality to them.
at first, Ikuhara's statement almost offended me, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. in patriarchal contexts, women are excluded from civil society. they live a marginal existence. they watch important events occur from the sidelines, if they get to watch at all. they concern themselves with the doings of their immediate community, kith and kin.
not only does RGU have a feminine audience in mind, but the world it portrays is a girls' world. a world of gossip and intrigue, of relationships forming and ending. throughout the show, the audience is privy to private conversations between school girls. faceless and nameless, these girls are nonetheless powerful: they take part in creating the social world around them.
and of course, the character who ultimately keeps the world running is Anthy. at the end of the day, I would argue that Ohtori is Anthy's world, both because she herself generates it, and because its logic is rooted in her psychology.
it is a mistake to believe that Ohtori is Akio's world, whatever his family name. Akio only has power because of Anthy. he is very concerned with maintaining that power, but he's only able to do so because one of the rules of Anthy's world is that she is subjugated to him.
RGU is a show about women's power and strength. Utena comes from outside Anthy's world and demonstrates that there's another way of being. but it's not that Anthy needed to become like Utena. it's not even clear that it was a good idea for Utena to try to become a prince, much less Anthy. the show follows a different trajectory, one concerned with uncovering the truth. and the truth is that Anthy was powerful all along.
I'm not even referring to her status as a witch. to expand on earlier statements, I am 100% convinced that every single "magical" thing that happens in the show is her doing (though not necessarily as a result of conscious effort on her part). Akio's projector only works if Anthy is there to run it for him, and I think there is plenty of canon evidence to support this.
however, Anthy's power as a witch comes at the cost of her sacrifice. that kind of power, a dark feminine power, is wrapped up in too many layers of harm and prejudice to be seen as a positive thing.
the real power of girls, as portrayed throughout the franchise, is their ability to subvert systems, to deviate and go free. Anthy had to crack the shell of her own world to do so. it wasn't easy, but it was within her power all along.
to return to my original point, I think that many fans confuse RGU as a story about male body politics. I see this in people's obsession with the idea that Akio is all-powerful and controls even the way the show itself is presented to viewers, which doesn't make much sense to me. this stance is outright disempowering when it comes with a pedestalization of the Rose Bride, of victim status.
Anthy, of course, is a victim, and that's why her world is so oppressive. but we see that in the film, even when there is no one to hold her back any longer, she continues to keep the duels going. RGU is not only a show about being constrained by outside forces, but also about how we learn to constrain ourselves, how we choose to stay in our coffins. I think that this is the most challenging and exciting aspect of RGU, which is why I spend so much time harping on it. using Kotani's language, perhaps RGU portrays a melting of the female body politics, and then a reformation of it into something new, something fluid and dynamic. there's no reason to stay in the old definitional molds--there's a whole world outside them, one which can never be pinned down or exhausted.
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