Othori Academy and Fascism: The parallels between the tactics used by the academy and the real life authoritarian regimes.
First and foremost, what is Fascism?
"Fascism is characterized by support for a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy."
Of course, Othori Academy does not represent a full country nor does it have some of the characteristics of a country under fascist regime.
But that does not change how we can draw paralles between Othori Academy and actual real life fascist regimes throughout history.
So let us see the similarities between Othori academy and fascist regimes. (Specifically Salazarism and Mussolini's fascism but other authoritarian regimes will be mentioned if indirectly.)
Throughout fascist regimes, something we see in common with almost (if not all) is the cult of the leader.
The cult of the leader is the idealization and the worship of the leader, who is treated as a symbol of heroism, someone almost god-like, they are a beyond respectable idol to their nation and someone worshiped by their regime.
We can see this throughout some Fascist Regimes such as Portugal's, Italy's and of course, Germany's:
In these pieces of propaganda we see as the leaders of these fascist regimes were idealized and worshipped, portrayed as saviors, symbols of the nation, someone worthy to look up too. All to make their oppressive ideals some more righteous.
While you could say that in Revolutionary Girl Utena there isn't exactly a leader that is worshiped we do have a character that is consistently idealized, seen as a savior and a symbol of the system and that is none other than Price Dios.
Throughout the series, Prince Dios is seen as a symbol of Princehood, almost like a god, after all he is almost treated like one, is he not?
Prince Dios is the ideal, the very embodiment of Princehood, one of the embodiments of the system that the academy holds, this can even be seen through his character design, which mostly consists of white, the white symbolizing purity, idealism, what the system pretends and promises to give, yet we see internally, in his cape, the bright red, representing the reality of the system.
This parallels well to the reality when it came to these real life leaders, while they were idealized, portrayed to be heroic, god-like, saviors.. in reality they were all horrible people, who oppressed their people and caused so many to suffer just to uphold their inhumane regime.
Promotion of violence/militarism.
One of the most defining traits in fascist regimes was the promotion of violence, or more specifically, militarism.
Fascist regimes didn't have any sort of issue promoting violence to get what they want, as most of them often used violent tactics to silence anyone who opposed their system.
Militarism was used as yet again another form of propaganda in fascist regimes and a way to keep the people under control, the military was used as a fake "family" a way for people to belong, to achieve a greater goal that was defending their Nation.
In the anime, we see as some of the duelists are hesitant to fight at first, that was until they are manipulated into doing so.
This is best represented with Miki.
Miki expresses his dislike for the duels early on, claiming they are ridiculous and how he refuses to participate in them. With that Touga comes in, he manipulates Miki, convincing him to participate in the duels by claiming that it is the only way to defend the things he posseses otherwise people will take them from him.
This can also parallel with the youth organizations that would groom the young boys of these regimes into idealizing and upholding their oppressive regimes. (Hitler Youth, Mocidade Portuguesa, etc)
Touga convinced him that the only way to get his "shiny thing" was by participating in the duels, the duels that would grant him the very thing he had been yearning for.. which bring us to our next point.
Yearning for the "greater times."
Some fascist regimes rejected change, instead yearning for the "greater times." Arguing that going back to these good times, these "faraway days of glory" is what was needed to bring peace and happiness to their country. This is especially seen in Salazarism.
Salazar, a Portuguese dictatorship, was well known for his rejection of change and how he tried to keep his country stuck in the past, prioritizing rurality and tradition over modernity and improvement for his people.
In Revolutionary Girl Utena, a big theme is the time and how the characters all seem to yearn for a simpler time in the past, something in their past they can no longer have, this attachment to the past is what keeps them stuck in the system.
Miki and his yearning to hear his sister's piano playing skills once more, Juri's yearning for Shiori, or more specifically the Shiori she knew in middle school, Utena's yearning to become and to meet the prince of her childhood, Nanami's yearning for the more simple and close relationship her and Touga shared as children and of course, Anthy's childhood love for Dios.
All of these attachments to the past kept the characters stuck which parallels with real life.
This promise of going back to the greater times, clinging onto tradition and the nostalgia kept the people stuck in these oppressive systems, as well as isolating them, much like how we see with our cast of characters.
Infrastructure was also a form of propaganda in the fascist regimes. Often these regimes and countries would modernize buildings, build new roads, etc to distract the population.
Hiding the horrors that they would commit to innocent people behind the walls of fancy new looking buildings and beautiful infrastructure.
Much like with Othori academy, an almost dream like school, tall beautiful buildings, fancy places, almost like a dream like palace, a façade for the horrible things that happened behind the curtains.
The role of women during fascist regimes isn't unkown, women were expected to the housewives and fully submissive to their husband.
Anthy as the "Rose Bride" represents the ideal female role model that a lot of fascist regimes also promoted (fully submissive to her husband, husband's property, expected to take her husband pain etc...)
The Rose Bride is the female ideal. She's the one who gives the duelist she's engaged in her power, she does whatever her duelist wants her to do and in the end, she is supposed to take the swords of hatred for the duelist, fully encapsulating the female ideal.
Even Anthy's outfit shows this, the Rose Bride dress, a long red gown, that can represent a princess dress, a bridal one as well as a symbol of her "embracing" oppression under the system.
Red is associated with the ugly side of the academy, the violent and oppressive system and the Rose Bride dress if full of it. You could say it's almost cruel irony how the main victim of the system is forced into wearing a dress that represents the worse side of that very system.
As you could tell this was a little more focused on Salazarim since I am Portuguese and I am a little more knowledgable on my country's fascist regime.
This was a little messy but I hope you all like it either ways, please excuse any spelling mistakes.
