Ikuhara's Episode Commentary:
39: "Someday, Together, We'll Shine"
There are two meanings to the Japanese word utena. One is āthe calyx of a flower.ā Thatās also the meaning of the title, of course. The thing that supports the beautiful petals; the one with the noble heart. And the other meaning of utena is ātall tower or pedestal.ā We translated this into a visual: the tower at the center of Ohtori Academy, the one with the Chairmanās room on the top floor. And the dueling arena located deep in the woods is the same.
In the early stages of production, when the story wasnāt firmly established yet, this was one of the aspects I most wanted to visualize and produce for the screen.
A world where demons roam. In its center, a tower called the āTower of Revolution.ā Whosoever can remain victorious in his battles against the demons can reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution, and at the same time receive the power to revolutionize the world; the power that changes the rules of the world.
However, when he reaches the pinnacle, he learns the worldās govering laws.
He faces the ultimate choice: will he stay nobly, beautifully powerless? Or will he accept ugliness into himself and gain absolute power?
Or rather, perhaps he couldnāt choose either.
His mind in anguish, he divided himself in two. His ānoble heart,ā and the āadult with absolute power.ā
With one last wish that the day would come when someone would awaken him, the ānoble heartā that had lost its body, in other words the prince, fell into a deep sleep.
Early on in the seriesās conception, I kicked around the idea of placing something like the above at the heart of the story. Later, after several changes, it became the tale as you know it, but without doubt, he did reach the pinnacle of the Tower of Revolution.
It was a place where āeternityā dwelled.
And āeternityā turned out to mean perpetual sleep.
The prince (Akio) who became an adult while in perpetual sleep lost something. What he lost was āthe power to create an enjoyable future.ā
Revolution means gaining āthe power to imagine the future.ā
The prince chose to sleep on, and the princess chose to wake up. At the top of that tall tower, the princess bid farewell to the prince. No - she wasnāt the princess any longer. She quit being āa person (thing) ruled by someone.ā The victory bells rang, but there was no ātower (rule)ā beyond them now. Sheād learned where freedom lay. She crossed the threshold of that āDoor of Revolutionā which had always been closed for her before, and began walking. The āgirlsā revolutionā lay in the girlās future.
āWait for meā¦ Utena.ā
The world (the stage) is free and wide.
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