What about Miki? I always assumed Juri was the masculine woman while Miki was the feminine man, playing with the themes of gender. Your Juri post makes me think he's a lot deeper too.
great question. honestly there's so much to chew on with RGU that I can't give you a thorough answer without pondering over it a while. off the top of my head, Iād say that Miki is the most feminized of the male characters, absolutely (except for ChuChu lol). his femininity stems from being younger than all the other characters--and maybe because he is aĀ āfailed prince.ā his big loss is of his sunlit garden, and he believes he ruined it with his own hand. he failed to be strong, he failed to save his sister.Ā
nonetheless, Miki, like all young boys, is having to decide where he stands on patriarchy. even if he's on the bottom of the pile, he is still starting to see women as objects of desire; even if he immediately agrees when Utena says no one should be robbed of their personal freedom, his desire to possess his shining thing wins out in the end.Ā
Miki's foil is Kozue, though it could be argued that Touga is a foil of his, or at least an ideal he must struggle with.Ā people often talk about Miki having a virgin-whore complex about his sister, which I think is a bit of an oversimplification, but is certainly there in the text. rather than miracles, Miki and Kozue are both concerned with purity; they struggle with maturation and sexuality, secretly wishing to return to the comfort of the nest.Ā
I don't know if I see Kozue as representing Miki's shadow self the same way that the Shiori/Juri/Ruka triangle works. in my opinion, while the male characters in RGU are important, the work is primarily concerned with exploring the "innner self" of girls, with the boys operating more as catalysts for their stories.
I'm getting a bit off topic here, but projection is central in the story, and the distinction that I would draw between Juri and Miki is in the kind of projection they take part in. as far as I've thought it out, the boys in RGU engage in "projective objectification," while the girls areĀ āprojective identifiers.ā for example, Juri identifies her past self with Shiori; sheās projecting, but projecting herself. on the other hand, Miki projects an ideal on to Anthy, and this is something he wishes toĀ āhave.ā (this doesnāt necessarily mean the girls are nicer; Juri takes her bitterness out on anyone who reminds her of her past innocence.)
so what is the end point for projective objectifiers? Ikuhara discusses extensively in this interview how, in his view, it is extremely difficult for men to escape from the desire to possess and control. but, he says, he loves the idea of a manĀ ābecoming oneā with the object of his desire, or with desire itself. certainly in Kozueās eyes, Miki already is the shining thing that he is seeking after. by wanting the Other enough, does he become it? Miki is just as much of an androgynous character as everyone else in RGU.
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