Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2009-11-29 09:53 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2009-11-29 09:53 am
Whoops, I Appear To Have Icons.
So. Er. I've finished watching Revolutionary Girl Utena.
The ending did strange things to my heart. There was a minute or two of sheer heart-in-my-mouth horror when I thought it was just going to end with 'she died, she's forgotten, that's all', and I didn't know what I was going to do. I hadn't expected it at all, and I loved Utena so much.
I'm so glad it ended on a slightly more hopeful note than it could have.
(Slightly sad about the lack of onscreen Utena/Anthy canon confirmation, though. Well, it's entirely obvious that they love each other enormously, but it still hasn't quite been canonicised in the series.
I think what I am trying to say is 'why no kissing, Utena?')
The ending was generally a bit of a brick to the chest. A mistake I often make when watching anime is going into it with my knowledge of Western ending tropes quietly shaping my expectations. Of course she'll be the prince and save Anthy and they'll live happily ever after! Of course she'll - wait, what just happened?
(I loved that Utena's failure was set to swelling heroic music. It makes the subversion that much more shocking.
And I just rewatched that scene and sobbed helplessly. Did I say 'loved'? I meant 'hated'. (But also loved.))
On the positive side, I may now say 'A MILLION SWORDS OF HATE' whenever I intensely disapprove of something, but I'm not sure that makes up for the heartbreak.
And oh, the heartbreak. Oh, my heart. I don't know what to think. Utena, you are wonderful and beautiful and you have ripped my soul into tiny shreds. (I'm not even sure whether I'm referring to the character or the series. Either. Both.)
Thoughts not specifically related to the ending:
- I am so interested in Ohtori Academy and how it relates to the 'real' world. There are things - especially Mikage's storyline and the question of where Utena has gone - that give the impression that the academy is somehow outside reality, and that 'graduation' is something much more significant than simply leaving a school. Are the students somehow frozen in time? I don't know. My thoughts on the subject of Ohtori really aren't terribly coherent. But there's definitely something fishy about it.
- I am quite sad that the opening credits lied about the flying horses.
- My knowledge of Japanese is minimal, but I did manage to pick up on the fact that Utena uses the masculine boku to refer to herself, which I was rather charmed by. Also, I was a bit sad that the subtitles lost the distinction between Utena-sama and, when Anthy was no longer engaged to her, Tenjou-san; both suffixes were translated as 'Miss', when, if I understand it correctly, -sama is much more respectful (perhaps 'Mistress Utena' would have worked better?).
- During key moments in Revolutionary Girl Utena, or moments of suspense, a rotating rose symbol will sometimes appear in the corner of the screen, and I am so curious about its significance. One instance that particularly struck me was in episode thirty-seven, when Utena and Anthy were discussing where they would be in ten years' time. The camera panned across the room to show them at the table, then repeated the pan, with the rose (in this case red), to show the table empty, although we could still hear their conversation, then repeated the pan again without the rose to show them there. What was that? Was the rose-pan a glimpse of the future about which they were speculating? Whilst Utena expresses her hope that they'll still be drinking tea together in ten years, are we seeing the true future: the place the same, frozen in time, but the girls gone? Because that sort of breaks my heart.
- TV Tropes informs me that, in the manga, Utena is 'even straighter than [in the anime]'.
Ahem.
'Even straighter'?
I think Revolutionary Girl Utena is going to be one of those fandoms into which I don't feel quite intelligent enough to seriously enter. It is so clever and symbolic! I am intimidated and unobservant! But I love it, and I'm glad I watched, and I am so, so smitten with its main character. You are wonderful, Utena.
The ending did strange things to my heart. There was a minute or two of sheer heart-in-my-mouth horror when I thought it was just going to end with 'she died, she's forgotten, that's all', and I didn't know what I was going to do. I hadn't expected it at all, and I loved Utena so much.
I'm so glad it ended on a slightly more hopeful note than it could have.
(Slightly sad about the lack of onscreen Utena/Anthy canon confirmation, though. Well, it's entirely obvious that they love each other enormously, but it still hasn't quite been canonicised in the series.
I think what I am trying to say is 'why no kissing, Utena?')
The ending was generally a bit of a brick to the chest. A mistake I often make when watching anime is going into it with my knowledge of Western ending tropes quietly shaping my expectations. Of course she'll be the prince and save Anthy and they'll live happily ever after! Of course she'll - wait, what just happened?
(I loved that Utena's failure was set to swelling heroic music. It makes the subversion that much more shocking.
And I just rewatched that scene and sobbed helplessly. Did I say 'loved'? I meant 'hated'. (But also loved.))
On the positive side, I may now say 'A MILLION SWORDS OF HATE' whenever I intensely disapprove of something, but I'm not sure that makes up for the heartbreak.
And oh, the heartbreak. Oh, my heart. I don't know what to think. Utena, you are wonderful and beautiful and you have ripped my soul into tiny shreds. (I'm not even sure whether I'm referring to the character or the series. Either. Both.)
Thoughts not specifically related to the ending:
- I am so interested in Ohtori Academy and how it relates to the 'real' world. There are things - especially Mikage's storyline and the question of where Utena has gone - that give the impression that the academy is somehow outside reality, and that 'graduation' is something much more significant than simply leaving a school. Are the students somehow frozen in time? I don't know. My thoughts on the subject of Ohtori really aren't terribly coherent. But there's definitely something fishy about it.
- I am quite sad that the opening credits lied about the flying horses.
- My knowledge of Japanese is minimal, but I did manage to pick up on the fact that Utena uses the masculine boku to refer to herself, which I was rather charmed by. Also, I was a bit sad that the subtitles lost the distinction between Utena-sama and, when Anthy was no longer engaged to her, Tenjou-san; both suffixes were translated as 'Miss', when, if I understand it correctly, -sama is much more respectful (perhaps 'Mistress Utena' would have worked better?).
- During key moments in Revolutionary Girl Utena, or moments of suspense, a rotating rose symbol will sometimes appear in the corner of the screen, and I am so curious about its significance. One instance that particularly struck me was in episode thirty-seven, when Utena and Anthy were discussing where they would be in ten years' time. The camera panned across the room to show them at the table, then repeated the pan, with the rose (in this case red), to show the table empty, although we could still hear their conversation, then repeated the pan again without the rose to show them there. What was that? Was the rose-pan a glimpse of the future about which they were speculating? Whilst Utena expresses her hope that they'll still be drinking tea together in ten years, are we seeing the true future: the place the same, frozen in time, but the girls gone? Because that sort of breaks my heart.
- TV Tropes informs me that, in the manga, Utena is 'even straighter than [in the anime]'.
Ahem.
'Even straighter'?
I think Revolutionary Girl Utena is going to be one of those fandoms into which I don't feel quite intelligent enough to seriously enter. It is so clever and symbolic! I am intimidated and unobservant! But I love it, and I'm glad I watched, and I am so, so smitten with its main character. You are wonderful, Utena.