sarazanmai is an answer to the message of revolutionary girl utena; reo and mabu are an analog to utena and anthy respectively. reo sees mabu being abused, and in his selfishness perceives it as a betrayal to their love. he’s mad that mabu cant side with him, and express his love, ignoring the cruel system they’re both a part of and god do i even need to mention the little pull heart out of chest vs pull sword out of chest symbolism or are we good. in general the end warns about the bleak sadness of disconnecting from the world and retreating to a place that does not exist, no matter how beautiful and freeing it may look. at the end of utena, utena and anthy simply leave the narrative, and while it is a happy ending, it is freeing, and they are together, its much like reo and mabu’s deaths, they are together and they have their love but love is important because of the world we’re connected to, our friends our family our enemies and our abusers. our joy and our suffering are all inherently linked. love means something because its love in spite of despair. and thats why they come back, seeing how the little gay teenagers who were moved by their story fought back to change the world, they returned to help. this is why i think sarazanmais finale fucking rules and its not rushed or anticlimactic at all, this is simply the close of a very long very revolutionary story. my brain is fucking huge and i dont take criticisms and also i cant be stopped.
