#kaoru miki

[themonstrousother]

She's so funny

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

sigh they're so cute and stupid. smdhhhhhh

[nungusposts]

Saw someone suggest intersex Miki and wait wait

[permetscore]

here's my one of my two cards from a since cancelled zine for an utena-themed deck. you can see my other card here.

all the art for this was incredible ! a shame production never got underway

here's a little blurb i wrote for using this card in a reading:

“If something is really important to you, seize it and protect it with your own hands.”

As Miki stands beneath the shining sun, the scales of justice present balance and impartiality. His scales are a pair of bird cages, for righteously protecting that which matters most. However, does caging protect? Or merely control? One bird has escaped out of reach, with the necktie flung over Miki’s eye obscuring the imbalance. To tip the scales and restore fairness, the other cage door must be opened.

[metaphoricallyacar]

In this scene from episode 4 of Utena, we hear Anthy playing The Sunlit Garden.

She has slipped away from Utena, Nanami, and Miki. The song is a clear play to remind Miki of what he has lost: Kozue, his shining thing.

Akio controls absolutely everything about Ohtori, including the relationship Anthy has with the duellists. He knew about Miki’s strained relationship with Kozue, and that the once played the piano together. It would make sense for him to provide Anthy with this information, and to order her to learn their song.

How long did Anthy work on The Sunlit Garden? How long did she spend perfecting each note?

Interestingly enough, the sheet music on the piano (as held by ChuChu), is blank.

There isn’t even a line of bass clef for accompaniment. There is only blank staff paper with treble clef penciled in. Treble clef is usually what holds the melody, and here it’s missing.

ChuChu tries to help Anthy perform The Sunlit Garden by holding up the sheet music, but regardless, there is nothing for her to play. Nothing real, at least. The act of Anthy playing the piano for Miki is an empty gesture.

Nonetheless, Anthy plays the song of his childhood. She has learned how to feign love, devotion, and so much more for Akio.

Learning a song that means everything to Miki, and nothing to her is simply another step in creating a more perfect Ohtori.

[bardace]

been thinking about rgu

[earthasacharactergallery]

01x15 landscape framed by kozue

happy birthday to the kaoru twins, miki & his cooler sister kozue

[awkwardtuatara]

Utena episodes 1-5 thoughts: tl;dr shaping up to be a very complicated and interesting show; there is Something going on with these symbol- and repetition-laden storylines; this idea of "revolution" is a farce, and no one sees Anthy as a person with her own thoughts.

fantastic opening! catchy song, love Utena and Anthy spinning in the roses. ending's not bad too

everything about Utena's introduction & her wanting to be a prince is iconic, the entire story is hyping her up.

Anthy definitely has her own preferences, and everything about the behaviour of those around her (& her own actions) makes them inscrutable and leaves behind only the Rose Bride

Utena tries to do a "Refusal of the Call" and then realizes that Saionji's still an asshole who would hurt Anthy. Saying that she only did it for Chu Chu is kind of messed up, but considering Anthy's earlier insistence that Chu Chu isn't a pet but her friend, that might actually be a good sign? that she actually accounts for it (versus Saionji just kicking it around.)

ohh the imagery of the castle, the stairs, the arena, everything is stunning. the backgrounds are so pretty

interesting too that Utena just slots directly into the role of the duelist? she smiles when she pulls out the sword from Anthy's chest, bending down gracefully as if in a dance, and knows the phrase to say right after. it's like she's been overtaken by the ritual.

FASCINATING thing for her to say... the most straightforward she's been about having her own personality? and it's with her back turned. loss of identity? not being able to distinguish between other people/how obviously others don't see her as a person

the spinning rose frame on characters (and sometimes objects/actions) HAS to mean something. As far as I can tell, it shows up in moments which align with the opening "fairytale" frame? Utena being heroic, Anthy in the dress. It's not always necessarily authentic or good, but whenever it shows up it draws a certain attention to characters as roles.

and on that note WHAT is going on with those shadow play girls??? what is with their increasingly esoteric parables about the events of the story?

man, both of the Kiryuus, Touga and Nanami, are kinda terrible, but they also bleed out of their stereotypes a little? So glad that we wound up with imo the most interesting option to Touga's playboy manipulation, that Utena's existing dreams led her to be interested, but ultimately she didn't sacrifice who she was for him. so far Nanami is a classic "mean girl"

is it just me or is it weird how quickly a lot of these people call each other by their given names? maybe influenced by the very westernized setting (western castle, western uniforms, western swordplay; western fairytale)

Okay, the first three episodes all had antagonists who pose problems and dehumanize Anthy in relatively straightforward ways. Saionji is abusive, Touga is manipulative and somewhat a womanizer, Nanami is mean. The two Sunlit Garden episodes very much delve into something meatier about how Miki, with fine intentions, holds up Anthy as a symbol of his idealized past, and objectifies her until he thinks her freedom means serving as his inspiration.

the "nice moment" music is diegetic! big fan of that

interesting to me that Anthy and Nanami are exact opposites: Anthy (probably) knows the actual context of the duels, but is powerless to act. Nanami schemes and acts powerful, but actually has no idea what's going on, and doesn't even know that.

the other two quadrants are Touga (knows what's going on, has control) and maybe Wakaba (doesn't know what's going on, doesn't have control but also isn't affected by it), with Utena in the centre (kind of knows about the duels but not why they happen, has some control but is also very led along and manipulated)

something strange about the twist about Anthy consistently outweirding Nanami's plots... the story twisting around her? somewhat uncharacteristic that Utena says not to keep them but she does anyway? and the repetition/script-like nature of their responses, especially Miki

I do love Anthy's little mannerisms (laughing at the flipbook, eyes following the metronome) when she's not being as actively scrutinized...

okay. the stopwatch Mickey previously used for the council meetings? In these episodes it seems to be used to... mark out story beats? expected sequences, or common tropes? When people arrive, when they complete actions, all being recorded. Doesn't seem like it's him actually/physically doing it, so maybe it's more a symbolic representation of preservation? There's a very rhythmic pulse to it, I'm kind of fascinated by it.

curious that this is the exact same sentiment that Utena holds about finding her prince? It's more than just nostalgia; their dueling song says "theatre" and "idealized reality", which I think hits on it. If Miki's idealized past never really existed, despite his conviction that he's lost some spark in his piano playing, who's to say that Utena's really did? Her only evidence is the rose seal. Entire storyline warning against living in the past at the cost of seeing the present objectively. At least Utena doesn't put up with his bullshit.

wow Kiryuu Touga is an asshole. Nanami, however, would be almost pitiable if she weren't still so mean

also all the music is truly a banger. the sunlit garden. the elevator music. zettai unmei mokushiroku. perfectly dramatic when it needs to be.

Okay, three duels in and it's definitely a Choice to repeat the lengthy arena-entering sequence for every duel? Something about highlighting how much of a ritual this is, the separation from the world of ostensibly-school to the physical transformation (of both the setting and the people) in the dueling arena, or a reminder of the cycle of people fighting for the Rose Bride, perhaps endlessly.

I think my main takeaways are twofold. 1. The idea that any of these people are going to achieve revolution and "smash the world's shell" by fighting a series of ritualized duels for the purpose of "winning" (i.e. possessing) a real human being who's been forced into the shape of a symbol is fundamentally kind of ridiculous, and that's probably the point.

2. Not a single person cares for Himemiya Anthy as a real person. Utena is the only one who even seems aware that she's a person and not an object, and even then that's partially out of her own principles/perception of herself as an honest, straightforward person. She still thinks she knows what's best for Anthy and though she wants to protect her, she's accepted at face value Anthy's facade(?) of passivity. Which is very interesting; though she's a good person, there's a lot she isn't aware of.