ok, three episodes in utena:
first, utena’s desire to be a prince is dependant on there being princesses. or, people in distress. (fsn vibes, anyone?)
two; well. utena was utterly manipulated that first episode wasn’t she. saionji didn’t post wakaba’s letter. before the match, anthy encourages utena, which she has no reason to do. not that it excuses saionji. he’s still hitting her for daring to be friendly with someone else. still. playing on utena wanting to ‘save’ someone isn’t it? (so yeah. what happens in this episode is akio going ‘ah yes. that ring i gave a few years ago is coming into the academy. go lure her in won’t you anthy? she’s easy to manipulate if she sees someone she thinks need saving’)
three: the party. ok, both girls ARE having fun dancing together. but also - utena is saving anthy from. a danger she exposed her to. anthy didn’t want to come - she came because utena ordered her to - or, in utena’s pov, because she insisted that she needed to have more friends. it’s an unintentional version of touya (and mitsuru) putting a girl in danger to rescue her and making himself look better.
ah yes, four: it’s very known that utena’s ‘boy uniform’ is not atcually. the standard uniform. You know what it mostly says a lot about the teacher going ‘you’re not a boy’ when utena say tahyt ‘that’s what all the boys are wearng’ EVEN IF IT ISN’T TRUE - because the teacher prefers to object to a girl wearing a boy uniform rather than the fact that. the uniform isn’t standard. Because, somehow, it’s a bigger transgression. (it’s. one of the very first scene. i think it tells a lot about the themes, no?)
