#ikuhara

[silvermoon424]

This is an interesting perspective but I have to say I strongly disagree, Word of God be damned. It’s true that, at the time of its creation, Sailor Moon was wildly different from traditional magical girl shows because of its heavy emphasis on combat and action. But that type of magical girl show later became the standard, to the point where few modern magical girl series fit the profile of pre-Sailor Moon magical girls.

I guess Ikuhara could be saying at the time of its creation Sailor Moon was more akin to a henshin hero show than a magical girl one, but tropes and definitions change over time and as of 2026 Sailor Moon is THE face and model of the magical girl genre.

[empty-movement]

Revolutionary Girl Utena premiered on Wednesday, April 2nd, 1997.

Through this, you may be able to imagine a happy future, or through this, you might be able to go on living happily. Or… These are the sorts of things I wish to portray. To put it nicely, this is why Utena is naive and foolish. She speaks of her Prince and the like, at her age. To our sensibilities, we think of that as stupid. I want to show that this sensibility of ours, that leads us to think of that as stupid, is itself absurd. - Kunihiko Ikuhara (1997 Video Interview)

To step into the unknown is the soul of creativity. To rebel against the mood of the times. And by rebelling, bring forth and create a new zeitgeist. Yet the very act of rebelling means we are walking in accord with the era. So for this, we first created a young girl character named Tenjou Utena. We entrusted her with showing the nature of humans to defy their own instincts and norms, because that brilliance is what we wanted to depict. Whether or not we succeeded in this endeavour remains to be seen. (…… This doesn’t really “explain” anything at all, does it?) Yoji Enokido, Script Notes for Episode 1

I'm going to be using a forum thread to help me gather up my different episode materials week to week as I can, and it'll be ground zero for collecting up all the meta I have as the show developed and aired. If you want to watch it weekly and comment along, you're absolutely welcome to!!!

[anisongoftheday]

please do the second opening to mawaru penguindrum! It's called "Boys, come back to me".

Mawaru Penguindrum Opening 2

Boys, come back to me by Etsuko Yakushimaru

[5-pp-man]

[horse-girl-anthy]

it's widely known that RGU gets referenced vacuously; I feel like the same is true of the works of David Lynch. not just his imagery, but also his style is imitated--without much success. Lynch was a singular director, a strange man who was able to bring dreamlike visions to life.

Ikuhara rarely references Lynch outright, but I think he's probably Lynch's only true successor; rather than copy him, he found his own way of doing things. certainly the difference in medium has something to do with it. Lynch's films are avant garde, Ikuhara's anime is kitsch; rather than dreams, his shows are more like self-aware illusions, revelling in their own artifice. but they're some of the only works which rival Lynch in terms of depicting the psychic plane.

I got thinking about this because I saw some examples of the Black Lodge being referenced in other pieces of media. but the point isn't that the Black Lodge has some iconic visuals. the point is that it is a representation of another world--a mysterious place where important but unfathomable events occur. Ikuhara hasn't created exactly the same kind of thing--I don't think he's as drawn to Entities as Lynch--but he has come up with equally iconic, equally compelling Worlds. and he also dwells on the relationship of these Worlds to "the real world"; Utena's final victory/defeat being contrasted with Wakaba wanting to do homework with her comes to mind.

[tseiri]

[andycasadonte]

“People find it hard to doubt those they’ve fallen in love with. They can’t imagine they’re being used”

Utena

From 2018

[princekaoru]

revolutionary girl utena (1997) episode 22: nemuro memorial hall episode director: hayato date