Discover Top Posts Tagged with #rgu rewatch

REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA 🌹 EP 37: THE ONE TO REVOLUTIONISE THE WORLD

#utena #revolutionary girl utena #kunihiko ikuhara #animeedit #oldanimeedit #anthy himemiya #utena tenjou #utena x anthy #shoujo kakumei utena #anime #sku #rgu #utenaedit #utenagifs #ellisgifs #rgu rewatch #:((((((((#queue

1x03 | The Night of the Ball

When Utena asks Anthy to stop calling her “Utena-sama” there’s a shot of Akio’s tower: almost exactly the same shot as when Anthy finally leaves Ohtori, walking away from Akio’s tower, asking “Utena” to wait for her—finally, they are just Anthy and Utena.

Utena’s distaste for Touga is so great. Anthy’s surprise at it is interesting too, esp when Utena defends her boundaries and pushes Touga away. Anthy hasn’t had that luxury; feels like she doesn’t have that choice in her own life. Also, Touga as a precursor to Akio is very clear; so much of the rest of the show is set up in these early episodes, with certain dynamics reappearing in different and more disturbing ways the further the show goes on. Touga tries to manipulate Utena just as Akio does, but Touga is much less successful than Akio ends up being. One could see it as repetitive, but I see it as a genius use of repetition, with Utena (and Anthy) having to go through these cycles over and over again before they’re able to break out of the world they are trapped in. (It’s both the cycles of abuse and the cycles of rebirth!)

Wakaba hearing rumors about Anthy doing something bad to a popular guy > Anthy getting slapped by Keiko and her band for “ruining Saionji” > it’s Anthy getting blamed for Saionji’s actions and failure, huh! And it’s a dynamic that appears again and again and again… It’s the heart of the series, the heart of the horror at the center of Ohtori. Very much about how girls and women are blamed when boys and men make mistakes. One thing I’m realizing on rewatch is that while this dynamic is part of the patriarchy, it’s one that can occur between anyone, regardless of gender, and in a way that I’d argue is deeply connected to what the show sees as truly “growing up” and what it means to be a real adult, but I’ll expand on that more as we get to later eps.

Interesting that Nanami almost has a Utena-esque entrance, in appearing after Keiko and co attack Anthy, asking if she’s alright, a seeming offer of friendship… which of course ends up not being something kind, but actually a trap for Nanami to humiliate Anthy. The Student Council sent a dress of Anthy to wear to the ball (and it’s a green, a color we’ve only seen associated w/ Saionji; a color that spells trouble) which Nanami uses to embarrass her. Utean is sent a dress as well, at Touga’s request—which mirrors Akio giving Utena a rose-crest ring to draw her to Ohtori and the duels, with Touga just trying to entice her to a party. And the dress that Utena wears in the penultimate ep after meeting Akio, “her prince,” is also pink, isn’t it? Touga really is the generic version to Akio’s name brand prince. Nanami’s dress is yellow with prominent purple bows/frills, drawing her connection to Anthy. And Nanami’s humiliation of Anthy—have a male waiter spray her w/ champagne that makes her dress disintegrate, leaving Anthy almost naked in front of the crowd—certainly has a sexualized symbolism; girls and women are tarnished and humiliated thru sex (or sexual assault, in this case).

#rgu rewatch