Revolutionary Girl Utena-Explaining Shiori and Juri's Story
I’ve been a fan of RGU for 5 years. I’ve always thought that this relationship was the most cryptic out of the rest. It initially wasn’t very clear if Shiori really liked Juri or not (maybe used her or something). But recently, I had read that Ikuhara confirmed that the affection was mutual between the two. So that cleared things up-Shiori indeed liked Juri, so my suspicions were right. That Everything that happened between them was Juri’s fault all along, not Shiori’s, lol.
My analysis:
In the first flashback, we obviously see a very cold Juri who seemed like she wasn’t communicating with Shiori at all. I can assume that she was acting distant due to her unrequited love for Shiori (because when people are young, they’re stupid lol). Like she didn’t understand how to handle falling for a best friend so she didn’t know what to say, so she chose to ignore Shiori. So Shiori, on the other hand, felt abandoned by this. I can safely assume that, based on what happened between her and Ruka, she did the same thing back then-she was seeking affection from someone else to either get validation from Juri, or trying to move on from Juri and finding someone else to get along with. After all, her relationship with that boy did not last.
Juri stated that Shiori is “innocently cruel.” It’s almost like Juri was actually hoping for Shiori to notice her feelings instead of letting her know about it directly. So that’s Juri’s fault too. She did not communicate properly. Even in the 17th episode, Shiori comes back to apologize to her but she just walks away. She continues to avoid speaking to Shiori, which leaves Shiori sort of depressed and confused. This is why Shiori goes for Ruka, he was so convincing that she felt that he was really treating her way better than Juri was. She was “innocent” because she was so blinded by his charm to realize she was being used. But once Ruka betrayed her, she realized that she only clung onto him to find affection, not because she actually loved him. Like when Ruka tells her to give him a good reason to stay, she can’t answer him. She still prefers Juri over anyone else, but is distressed because she believes that Juri really did abandon her and this doesn’t know what to do about it (because Juri’s dumb and never spoke to her till ep 29 lol).
All this above^ is why she gets so upset at Juri in the door scene early in ep 29. She hates her for neglecting her, AND for the fact that Juri only decided to come talk to her in her most vulnerable state. The way she was yelling “do you feel good about yourself” sounds like an excuse. She did admit in ep 17 (in the elevator confession) that she’s never hated Juri, and that her initial statement (which was “I’ve always hated Juri”) was false. She’s also been aware of Juri’s feelings too it seems, so that’s what’s been twisting her mind. It’s like how she said herself in that scene, “Why won’t you admit how you feel?” She hates Juri for not doing so. It’s pretty clear to me that she wanted Juri to confess love. Like Shiori’s realization of Juri’s care at the end of ep 29 and Juri’s refusal to win the battle ultimately supports the fact that these two idiots are meant to be lol. The good thing is, it is implied that they FINALLY have a proper conversation in the room with the three chairs (Shiori’s chair points to Juri). If only Juri had spoken to Shiori much earlier, this whole drama wouldn’t have happened. Communication is key!
Extra: My other theory was that Shiori and Juri may have been in a romantic relationship in the past, but Juri drifted apart due to her expectations or confusion towards homosexuality. Because Shiori did say, “I’m the one who’s always been in her heart.” Sounds sort of possessive to me. But this theory is very unlikely.
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