asks!
Are you sure about that?
Are you sure you’re sure?
(I imagine it’s probably concept art for a design they decided not to go with. Alas, bc as y’all probably know by now I love long hair, but oh well. I was so fucking psyched when her hair came back with the transformation, oh my god)
oh my god, headcanon accepted
...or, if we want to get really depressing up in here, they’re her mother’s clothes that were left to her when she died
oof. I’m not surprised that happened but genuinely surprised it was animated, given that unless I’m really missing something there was no blood at all in the series. Even full on impalement didn’t draw a drop.
Oh, neat, I didn’t know there was a manga version of the movie! And yeah, people have told me both sides of the story re: Saito’s work and statements, so I’m probably going to read the manga but not blog it? I might make a big text post with My Thoughts afterwards or something but no promises.
...hmm. The only one of these that I see is that Anthy’s bindi is more noticeable in the movie. I’ve been clicking back and forth between series and movie screencaps of the same characters, and the only difference I can really see is that Utena’s sometimes a little pinker in the series? But that much seems to depend a lot on lighting, and on the overall palette of the movie. All these characters came off definitely Japanese to me in the series, though admittedly that’s affected by them all having very Japanese names. I’m also curious about the lighter skin tone being “more stereotypically Indian” to you-- I’m curious where you’re from, anon! I’m from California in the US, and if I were to try to imagine a Stereotypical Indian Person I would imagine a skin tone closer to series!Anthy’s, probably.
I am not the be-all and end-all of this, and I’m genuinely bad at this kind of thing a lot of the time-- when I was a kid I thought Summer Glau was Chinese because she played River Tam-- so I’m by no means trying to tell you that you’re wrong. I’m just not seeing the same things you’re seeing, which is intriguing. I’m always open to listen and learn, and I’d love to hear more from you or anyone else who noticed things I might not have about character design changes like this.
...damn.
I’m never sure how canon you can count things that didn’t make their way into a story-- is it still canon if it’s a deleted scene? If it’s word of god? Gotta take it on a case-by-case basis, I think-- but I can see it. That’s... painful. I guess it explains how he learnt to be a manipulator, as sad as that is, and having badly needed a rescue of some kind can also feed into that desire to pose oneself as the rescuer. It’s genuinely pretty horrifying.
That makes me worry about Nanami a lot, too-- was she ever aware of what was going on? Touga looked about seven or so in that flashback scene, and Nanami’s only a few years younger, but she didn’t remember that they were adopted-- I don’t really have memories from before I was about five, so I guess that’s plausible, but it also seems like the kind of thing that might be blocked out? I always saw her as a sort of ‘unfavourite child’ while their parents doted on Touga, but this definitely contradicts that... hmm. A lot to think about.















