#cantarella scene

[mokushiyami]

I’ve seen so many people say that the cantarella scene is their favorite but other than their promise to have tea in 10 years, i kind of get that it’s a love confession but that’s it. As the resident blog i go to for questions about utena i guess i’ve trying to ask if you can give an analysis about that?

I’m getting rgu asks again and im so happy tbh. i love the Cantarella scene so much, but i can understand how it can be missed because honestly i did take me finishing the series and rewatching it to fully grasp it, so here it goes.

The cantarella scene is a love confession but it is not only that. It comes after everything is laid out in the open, utena knows about anthy and akio, anthy knows about akio and utena. Utena asks anthy what does she want to do in the future and she says she’ll be happy as long as she gets to grow roses, but we know roses are restrictive to her, utena still suggest she becomes a florist. Then anthy talks to utena about cantarella. It’s a nice nod to the borgias who are very closely associated with anthy and akio. Utena is happily eating cookies but when anthy finishes her story about cantarella and asks her how the cookies are, utena flinches, but still finishes the cookie. Anthy does not outright say the cookies are poised, but utena does so about the tea, and anthy happily drinks it, saying its delicious. They are not acknowledging they love each other, they’re acknowledging that even though they love each other, they hurt each other.

Anthy says this by hiding behind a story, akin to what actually happened, the hurt didn’t come from anthy doing something in front of utena, but from what was untold. Utena says it outright, anthy knew about her and akio all along and she doesnt need a story to convey the hurt. They continue to eat the cookies and drink the tea, knowing that the hurt will continue, but still deciding to partake in it because they care about each other more.

They have finally realized their feelings about each other, they always knew but i don’t think they knew what name to put to it until that point. Then we see them talking about their little tea date in 10 years. I will always say that ikuhara is a genius director. While they are discussing the tea date, they are outside of the frame and a red rose appears on the top of the screen. The camera pans back to the table and window and they are not there, even though you can hear them talking. It’s a realization that this, them acknowledging each other, is the start of their journey of getting out of ohtori. Red roses symbolize love, and it shows up when they are not in frame. There are a lot of scenes that show that their relationship was build outside of the frames, it’s the only real thing in ohtori, it has been there even when we could not see it. It’s a love so pure that the mere existence of it is unfathomable within the confines of the school.

And then ofc the next scene we get is utena stopping anthy from jumping which is a whole emotional roller coaster on its own but it just adds to the importance the cantarella scene has for the show and for the audience.

I hope this isn’t too long and explained some things. There are plenty of essays and video essays on this topic that explain everything even with more details and i would suggest looking some up. If you have any other questions just ask me.

[biruesque]

Miss Utena, don't you know how much I've always despised you?

Inspo

[lunarharp]

i wanted to put these four together chatting, cooking, dancing, and trust

[transmascutena]

unrelated to my utena pokemon au, but i tried to make an rgu themed pokemon team. roserade for roses, aegislash for the swords and dueling, gallade for the prince, cofagrigus for the coffin, zoroark for illusions, and togekiss as the bird that breaks free of the shell. i might try using it when i play through either shield or y (just without the gallade mega evolving obviously) soon

[igixri]

I think at some point during the 7 year gap kristoph tries to propose to phoenix and it’s so obviously a half-earnest power play where kristoph is like just for convenience’s sake, but of course I’d appeal to your romantic sensibilities, you wouldn’t have to worry about a thing (he is being HORRIFYINGLY close to genuine here) and phoenix is like oh I couldn’t accept, wouldn’t want to fuck up your clean reputation like that (he is at a low point in his life and almost considered it.) but they fuck about it afterwards anyways

[fellhellion]

i think there's an element of truth to reading anthy's suicide attempt as a means to save utena, to rid the world of the witch, but i also think it does anthy a disservice to claim this as the sole reason. because like. the entirety of ep 37 is about these two characters reaching a breaking point after talking around the pain between them, only addressing it through the veil of metaphor, and then finally going i can't bear this anymore. i can't bear this system, i can't bear this agony, i can't bear hurting you, i can't bear how much this hurts me anymore. i told myself i was a doll with no heart to be broken and yet here we are...

[muninnhuginn]

Got an ask about favourite moments in media and realising I have way too many. Am currently at the point where I need to start making brackets and running them against each other to decide the final results 😭

[spiribia]

they need to never make more rgu content except for the musical adaptations because I think the finale coffin scene would be truly unearthly and transcendental to witness on a stage with big visual effects and live chorus and also I genuinely think it would be funny to see the cantarella scene as an emotional musical number if they choose to go in that direction. Do I just love and experience bias toward the final arc yeah probably. Am I an ex theater kid also yeah . Sorry.

[wygolvillage]

additional hot take: the balcony scene is the best scene in all of rgu, nay, all of cinema and television and everything.

this ↓ is what Media as a whole is all about.

[dungeonsngeese]

something something about the tragic romance of having hurt and been hurt by someone so intimately that you are irrevocably intertwined and still choosing to love them in spite of it all

[electronicneutrino]

I am....honestly....This Close to redrawing the pulling out the sword scene from r e v olu tionary g i rl ute na but with fem sniper and spy purely due to the one fanfic

[biruesque]

a little something i made to customize my binder note

[bobzora]

i once saw someone compare the duels of stuco arc, blackrose arc, and apocalypse arc to thesis antithesis and synthesis respectively and i actually screamed in horror

[transmascutena]

episode 37 is my favorite episode easily i love it so much there's not a single scene that doesn't hit me like a truck

[arscorpii]

these aerial shots of the streets in the scene where anthy was about to jump off a building in episode 37 remind me of a network of blood capillaries gradually flowing with some foreign substance (the way the red lines were drawn certainly resembles some liquid substance). the camera panned towards anthy from the 1st to 4th picture, and the streets gradually turned from pure white to white with some red.

before the suicide scene, utena and anthy were enjoying tea and cookies at akio's place, and they were wearing their school uniforms. anthy indirectly hinted at "poisoning" the cookies. in response, utena directly stated that she had "poisoned" anthy's tea. both accepted the poison into their systems (bodies) without any hesitation or qualms. noticeably, in this scene, utena didn't wear the rose crest ring that she took off at the beginning of the episode. i'd like to think of the streets gradually turning from white to flowing with red liquid as the visualisation of the poison they consumed in this scene gradually circulating in the system (via blood vessels and capillaries); thus, these points represented utena and anthy's bond/relationship with each other up until before the suicide attempt (white) and after (flowing with red).

up to at least the moment utena found out about anthy and akio at the end of episode 36, utena and anthy hadn't been honest with each other, despite utena saying to anthy that she could come to her if anthy had any problems, and that they can help each other through anything (episode 25). from the point akio began making bold moves in grooming utena (episode 30 onwards), which led to sexual assaults and rape, utena had started to keep things out of anthy's knowledge/unable to tell certain things to anthy.

a prominent example of this would be the scene in episode 36 where anthy asked about utena's whereabouts the night utena went to the dueling arena with touga. other examples are in episodes 30 and 35. anthy, on the other hand, hadn't been honest with utena from the very beginning. from my understanding, from both sides, the dishonesty with each other came from the dire need to preserve the sanctity/purity of their bond (and the despairing inability to open up about respective sufferings). both utena and anthy didn't wish to taint their bond with their ugly stories of truths. the situation was more adverse for anthy because letting utena know the truth could derail all of akio's plans.

(note the network of streets) with regard to the series, colour theories were ever-present in every visual aspect. white was equated to purity and innocence; red was synonymous with violence and danger. i think these meanings suited the visuals of the post-suicide attempt scene, the purity of their bond was incrementally coloured with violent truths from one another. moreover, i also think the post-suicide attempt scene further reified the cantarella scene. in other words, the post-suicide attempt scene was the more literal take/depiction/iteration of the cantarella scene (if that makes sense), with the visuals of the white streets flowing with red as the connecting factor between the two scenes.

the final visual of the "poisoned streets" before anthy urged utena to leave the school. the poison was freely and fully flowing through every street. throughout the suicide scene, utena and anthy were both in their sleepwear. this may connote a more vulnerable and honest disposition without any facade, as well as a better understanding and more equal footing with one another, compared to when they were in school uniforms during the cantarella scene. utena was also wearing her ring here, which may highlight her choice to play the role of a prince for anthy's sake to the end.

in addition, i think the streets flowing with poison could also be seen as a network of empty/dried blood capillaries finally flowing with blood; akin to a dead body coming back to life. after a person dies, the first visible change would be pallor mortis (within 15 to 20 minutes), wherein the body begins to pale because blood stops moving through the capillaries. with regard to this information, the visuals may indicate a sign of rejuvenation of the bond between utena and anthy after opening up to one another. the bond between them became more human, alive (flowing with blood), as opposed to being hollow (dried out blood capillaries; like death). to me, i believe both interpretations could work simultaneously for the visuals of the streets.

[midnightfox450]

SA Mention //

The cantarella scene in Utena is so so so good and nearly every bit of it has been analyzed over the years (for good reason!). But can we take a moment to talk about how the music skips?

Right after Anthy suggests she poisoned Utena's cookies. The background music starts skipping. It's an obvious loop too, once you hear it, it's hard to unhear. The music doesn't pick back up until after Utena admits to poisoning the tea, AFTER the spinning red rose. It picks back up at "The tea is delicious".

At the most basic level, the skipping is just another method by which RGU creates emphasis.

But it just. It can't help but remind me of the most significant case of music skipping in the franchise. In Adolescence of Utena, right before E-Ko and F-Ko show the tape of Anthy's assault (another scene which has to do with something being put in Anthy's drink).

So then, the skipping could represent honesty. The brutal, uncomfortable bearing of the truth. Statements that ring in the ears and choices that maybe aren't the most delicate or harmless but had to convey the intended message somehow.

(If anyone else has watched seebeees' video essay on transfeminism in utena [which you should, it's really good], it reminds me of their point on the way Adolescence could be using static to represent Anthy's trauma. Records and CDs skip when something has dirtied them. Scratched them. Damaged them).

It could represent repetition obviously, but it could also represent the exact opposite. A breaking of the cycle, a momentary reprieve from the looping record that is Anthy and Utena's lives at Ohtori. When they confess their love for each other in that moment, in such an odd and uniquely utenanthy way, it catches the narrative off-guard. They are cracking the shell of their egg. Their love is forcing itself through the narrative.