#be-papas

[purplerider]

juri fanart because i adore her and missed her, going for her route in the RGU visual novel im currently reading

[biintheskywithdiamonds]

get that bag ig…. piece of shit groomer

[rowanrabe]

外の世界へ (To the outside world)

It’s the longest day of the year, here.

Anyway, I went to the mov~ies~

Given the number of times I watched the Utena movie in middle school I have the entire movie down frame-for-frame, beat-for-beat. And I never thought I would get to see it in theaters, let alone twenty-five-some-odd years later. I first saw it at A-Kon, an anime con that is last I checked still running in Dallas, on a bootleg VHS in a crowded hotel conference room. Standing room only. I was hiding in the back hoping nobody would notice how young I was and kick me out. Then it was finally released on DVD in the US and I spent most of seventh grade white-knuckling it through Certain Scenes while watching it on the small TV in my bedroom. I embodied the reason that you shouldn’t allow your kids to have a TV in their own room, but damned if I didn’t get to create my own soul that way, watching things that I never would have been allowed to watch.

Damn near ground my teeth to powder every time I watched it. Head on a swivel. Finger on the ‘off’ button.

Anyway. I am so grateful to GKids for doing this theatrical run. This is just a visually magnificent film and it deserves to be seen on a big screen. Fun to see how much of a non-presence movie-Akio is even on the big screen. Almost teared up when Rondo-Revolution started playing toward the last scene.

I was pretty accurate in clocking who was at the theater for this movie. I say this with only the fondest affection; I am immediately clockable as That Type.

I am thinking of the nobility Juri, Miki, Wakaba, and (God help me I still do not like him any more than I did at twelve) Saionji showed in the escape from the locust cars scene. Maybe they were not ready to go to the outside world yet, maybe they were not strong enough, but instead of trying to drag Anthy back down with them they gave her a hand up out of the bucket. I know they will make it out someday. As an adolescent you think you will be for sure the iconoclast, the one breaking out, but as an adult I have more sympathy for the ones who get left behind, who maybe do not have that much fire in the belly, or who need more time to work up the courage. I see in portrayals like this the adult-looking-back writing the script, or an adult-like willingness to cede center stage. I never understood why they did not just follow Anthy out, back then.

私は世界を変える。 (I swear to you I will change the world)

I have talked before about re-experiencing in adulthood something that was an awakening in adolescence, something that wove itself into the superstructure of the psyche. I miss the moral clarity of my youth, the confidence and certainty that what I was doing was right. Could an adult have broken out of Ohtori to the Outside World? Adolescents tend not to believe things are impossible and the adults who are left in Ohtori are not exactly aspirational figures.

Read the original post: https://rowanrabe.ink/%e5%a4%96%e3%81%ae%e4%b8%96%e7%95%8c%e3%81%b8-to-the-outside-world/

[kristancomics]

Shounen Ou | The Boy King

Fans of Utena must read this short story that ran in Newtype in the 90s by the Be-Papas group! It will give you that Ikuhara rush! I have found virtually zero discussion about this story online - guess it's kinda lost media? Shounen Ou feels incredibly fresh and ahead of the curve compared to so much of what is coming out today. It would make a fantastic 12-episode series.

P.s. someone pleaseeeee for the love of all that is good and needed, translate SCHELL BULLET!

[ladyofthemoon00]

My interpretation of the ending of Revolutionary Girl Utena.

So, I recently finished RGU, and I wanted to talk about the ending. Spoilers for episode 39 of RGU under the cut:

First of all, the Utena saving Anthy thing.

Utena freed Anthy from her coffin, and was the first person to truly see the real Anthy. Utena never truly saw the real Anthy until that moment.

Utena was never actually going to save her by being a prince, because the whole prince/princess thing was a broken system. And Anthy was so oppressed, supressed, and abused that she lost hope in being saved.

No one truly saw the real Anthy. No matter how good their intentions were, they only projected their own desires and ideals on her. Anthy didn't really have a will of her own. Utena was the first person to make Anthy feel "seen". Utena saw the real Anthy. The Anthy that was buried deep, deep down.

I think they revolutionized eachother's world. In a way, they saved eachother. Utena didn't revolutionize the entire world, but she definitely revolutionized Anthy's.

Now, Utena "grew up", and left Ohtori academy. The people at Ohtori academy never truly grow into adults. Utena realized that reality isn't a fairytale, and accepted her weaknesses. She casted away her childish ideals and delusions, and finally "grew up". There wasn't a point in playing into both gender roles, and she rejected the patriarchy. With that, she also saved Anthy from her endless suffering.

This is symbolized/represented by Anthy leaving Ohtori Academy, and wanting to find Utena. Utena gave her the strength to leave both Ohtori Academy, and Akio. Like Anthy said, Utena isn't truly gone. She simply vanished from Akio's world.

I truly do love the ending of the show. I'm not sure if there will ever be another anime like Utena.

Oh also, you can watch it both subbed and dubbed on Youtube. Nozomi Entertainment posted every episode there. The movie is also on Pluto TV for free.

[balrog-slayer66]

Char Aznable / Lalah Sune by Chiho Saitou

[nodutra19]

Rambling

Reading RGU analysis always makes me feel dumb as shit. I'm a heavy reader but outside some manga and videogames, I've pretty much neglected visual mediums, so watching RGU was a very strange experience. I love it, I just feel tiny in comparison to everyone else who seems to get it, unlike I.

Obviously, Ohtori Academy is a coffin, a trap, an arrest of development. From Sôji's fixation on Tokiko to Akio's obsession with becoming Dios, the rotten ideal in white, everyone has to disassemble what they've been taught. Juri has to let go of Shiori, and everyone has to let go of these stupid and harmful games and ideas. One thing I did struggle with understanding until now was how possible it was for Miki and Kozue, Nanami and Tôga to have healthy familial relationships after everything.

I realized I was thinking too rigidly, in spite of my planned no-contact with my own family. CLAMP once said "Family is other people too" (in xxxHolic). The main thread for all the characters in RGU is the fact they're holding onto something they need to let go of. After everything's that happened, the Kaoru and Kiryû siblings have unsalvagable bonds. That's how I see it anyway. They were already taught horrible things. It's just that on top of that, they've morphed their relationships into something incredibly foul and mephitic. A bit of separation anxiety isn't harmful in itself, but the four of them have festered it into one of the most twisted things I've ever seen. As Ikuhara said in episode 15's commentary, there's this idea that familial relationships are the deepest. "Blood is thicker than water."

The hell of it is, the original line is "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." Meaning that what matters more in this world is the bonds you choose. You don't choose where or with whom you are born. But you do choose who you associate with. Obviously there's a lot of complexity about the interactions between the individual and the collective, the individual and the structures about the individual, but ultimately a choice is a choice.

Family bonds are just as fragile as any other. They're just as fleeting, just as prone to deterioration. They're not eternal as we're taught, hence the revolving, spiraling incest throughout the show. We're taught family is forever, and so it's no wonder the Kaoru, Kiryû, and Himemiya siblings have the dynamics they do. They represent different forms of what this sort of thinking leads to. Especially Akio. After all, a Prince is a member of Royalty, no? And we all know what Royalties throughout our histories commit in order to be "pure." This thinking is what traps so many into cycles of familial abuse. If we were to treat family as we treat "outsiders" (because that's how we're taught to think of anyone outside the family), if our lenses were shaped to this analysis, if our retinas were shaped to recognize these true colors, I'd say most of us would never like our families from the jump. It's much the same way adults justify beating their children and yet if anyone even their age beat on them whenever they made a mistake, you bet your fucking ass they'd fight back. But if it's family, it's suddenly different, when really it isn't.

Hell, this is part of why we say "bro," "homie," "twin," "brother," "sister" to people we're extremely close with. Even I do that. Found family is a wonderful thing, but if "Family is other people too," then how does "found family" factor into things? If we're so rebellious against things such as the nuclear family structure, if we understand that family doesn't determine anything, then what use is found family? If we so despise these structures, why do we mimic it? Are we like Utena who say "I'm completely different from you, Saionji/Tôga/Juri/Miki/Sôji/Akio" when we're mimicking said structure? Is what we seek in these relationships undefinable in the lexicon we're given? If family is as fleeting and prone to death as any other bond, then what's the worth of referring to these non-familial bonds in terms of family? Maybe that's part of why this show has so many fucking orphans and/or absent parents.

I'm not saying you should stop feeling sisterly or brotherly to that one friend who just seems to get you. Really, I'd be a massive hypocrite if I did. But it's still something to chew on, I think. I can't provide any answers though.

I hope this has been insightful in some way. I feel late as hell to the party. One of these days I'mma go through all of Empty Movement.