#or even Akio and the car. it’s OFTEN being used as a vehicle (ha) for sex but that’s not all

[fellhellion]

Utena truly is a show best experienced imo by not stressing about trying to pin down any one piece of symbolism to a singular meaning. In fact, the show actively rebuffs that kind of approach.

[entamewitchlulu]

*cups hands again* Can you elaborate a little on the metaphors present in Utena? I'm very curious about them!!

Man ok anon this has been sitting in my inbox for a while and I must have gone to sleep before seeing it that one night and then i never sat down and answered.

tw here i'm gonna talk about akio's grooming and canon-relevant sexual abuse

There's like, a fuckton of metaphors in Utena. We could talk about roses, or the bird cage design of Anthy's garden, we could talk about rings and fairy tales and the framing of the story as a stage play with a Greek Chorus in the form of the Shadow Girls and everything. We could talk about stars and constellations and the references to Greek mythology in the subtle framing of Akio and Anthy = Zeus and Hera, we could talk about a bajillion things but you know what right ni wanna talk about cars.

yes, that's right cars.

There are so many cars in Utena. They don't start showing up proper until Akio appears, because his character is inextricably tied to them. But what do cars really mean in Utena? they're certainly not just regular vehicles to get you from point a to point b. Hell, they show up as a major set piece in the third arc's dueling fields. So if they're not supposed to be cars, what are they?

I think that answer is manyfold. One, perhaps very obvious answer, is that the car represents sexual drive and desire. It is, of course, Akio's tool of choice in manipulating the young people in the school to do his bidding. In one of the first scenes with the car, Akio is driving Touga someplace and teasingly asks him if he'd like to take the wheel. Given that it's pretty heavily implied that Akio and Touga are sleeping together, this is very much a reference to sex. The car is Akio's means of "driving" people to the ends he desires, which is in essence him using sex appeal to manipulate. His main grooming tactic is to take Utena on drives -- in the car, there's no one but the two of them, and it's not like anyone is going to be able to see or notice if anything is wrong and step in. It's isolating, and you can't exactly leave the situation when you're going 75 down the freeway.

You could also think of the car as not just a sexual representation but as a means of removing agency from other characters (which of course ties into Akio's serial sexual abuse of others). In a car, if you are the passenger you have no say on where you are going. You have to be able to trust the person driving to take you where you want to go, and if they don't, or if they drive recklessly, you're shit out of luck. You're not going to really be able to wrest control of the vehicle away from the driver without getting yourself into trouble. Akio taking his victims on those car rides is a means of removing their agency. They fall into his plans because he's taking them on the routes he decides, and they have little choice but to fall in. He is the driver, and they are the passengers. He is the puppet master and they are the puppets. You'll notice that the first time Akio takes advantage of Utena, it's by pushing her down inside the back seat of his car. Once again, the driver and the driven. It feeds into his desired persona as a manipulator.

The car could also be just, in general, "adulthood." In Akio's hands it's, of course, a dangerous tool, but getting in that car gives all of our young cast this glimpse of a world that they aren't usually privy too (as mentioned before, when Akio asks Touga if he'd like to take the wheel, Touga responds that he's underage). Since Utena as a whole is something of a surreal coming of age story, of learning more about yourself and growing up past the things in your childhood that holds you back, this makes sense. These young people get this glimpse of "adulthood", represented by something they aren't able to have in the form of driving a car. Driving a car is generally considered something of a milestone (though if I'm correct this is more of a Western milestone than a Japanese one, as I believe having a driver's license is less common seeing as public transport is better and streets are narrower in urban areas, so this point is probably my weakest so far). As a representation of sex, it's also an "adult" milestone in that regard, and both of these give the cast a glimpse of something "beyond" the dream like high school they live in into the future, and forces them to try and come up with solutions for the problems they're facing now in order to reach that.

But so far I've only talked about cars as being Akio's tool, mainly. And sex, adulthood, etc, none of these are inherently bad things. Even being a driver and a passenger isn't inherently a bad thing if you can trust the person who's driving. They're only dangerous in the wrong hands. Because cars aren't just tools of terrible things in Utena, and if we look at the movie, we can see that cars are also a metaphor for freedom and agency, as we watch Utena herself become a car. This has definitely been talked about by much more coherent people than me, but in essence, Utena transforming into the car that Anthy can use to drive to safety, free of the world she's trapped in, is a metaphor for Utena becoming the vehicle for Anthy to escape her abuse. Utena doesn't save her -- Anthy saves herself. Anthy drives the car to her escape, Utena just left her the tools to get there. Cars aren't just a symbol of terrible things -- they are ways of reclaiming freedom, agency, sexual power, and trust in others.

I think probably more than almost any other metaphor in the show, the image of cars is the one that shows just how much everything has two sides. Anything can be terrible if you use it the wrong way, but those same things can often be good used in the right way. It all has to do with the way you choose to wield the power you've been given.

[docholligay]

"Hmm someone remind me of this whole cars thread tomorrow if you would, I Have Thoughts" - Docholligay, Jet's Discord

Yes, thank you! 

So there was some crosstalk on Jetty’s Discord about cars in Utena (both the show and the movie) and what they might represent, and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring, so far as I’ve thought about it. 

Someone pointed out that within the movie, it’s a really obvious idea of vehicles to freedom and Utena as Anthy’s vehicle to freedom, and I do think that’s the straightforward answer, and I think you’d be hardpressed to argue with it. Not every symbol has to be difficult to understand in order to be valid--I think it’s just fine the way it is. And I say, as I always do, that I adore Ikuhara’s refusal to explain shit. More people should be like you, kudos. Symbolism and media is more fun when there’s no Word of God answer. Creativity can thrive more. 

ANYWAY, so I think the take as vehicles to freedom is good, but I also think, especially if we take into account the anime itself and the interplay with Touga and Akio and the car (a GREAT car) has a few other implications as well. 

Someone brought up that cars represent the time and wealth to care for them, and I don’t think that’s WRONG, exactly, but there’s a reason that cars are used here and not other markers of wealth and leisure time, like meticulous gardens, large wardrobes, huge collections of any kind, I mean, basically shit that has no use other than the aesthetic. 

Cars, like horses before them (and make no mistake, horses are still very very expensive to care for. Probably more than a classic car.) are a mark of POWER, and I think that’s a lot of what’s going on here, is power and control. Control comes into it especially when we consider that the entire final scene of Utena’s movie has the context of a race. Racing is about power and mastery, control and danger, and I think so much of what it’s doing with cars is about that. 

If we go back to the anime, we know that Akio has a car that, while not particularly fast, really*, but very much has the look of a muscle car, the visual symbol of what the anime is going for with this object of Akio’s. That, combined with the speed he’s driving at, shows the level of power under his control and that he can manage it even while the road is telling him it’s literally too fast. He is showing his mastery and control of the power underneath him. 

So then why does he often jump off the fucking thing onto the hood, Doc? Because he actually isn’t in control at all! Without Anthy, the entire world he’s the ‘master’ of crumbles. He jumps because he was never really the driver in the first place except by consent of the driven, and the way he abdicates that power so easily in jumping off is a signal of that long before we ever really learn it. Before I think even Akio learns it, though it should have been intensely obvious to him. 

This helps explain the presence of the car within the dueling arena, because with the idea that every girl can be a rose bride is the idea that power can be grasped by anyone, and power is what so many of the duelists are seeking, power over themselves, power over others, so much of what they seek can come down to the ideas of power and control. 

Cars as imagery of this extends back into the movie, too. Utena being a supercar-style, though not in an easy straight across way like Akio’s car, shows the immense amount of power underneath her, but also allows for she and Anthy to be a team in a way that I don’t think happened in the anime (Full disclosure though: I VASTLY prefer the anime’s ending in general). If you think of the great races, the car is part of the equation, but so is the driver, and the way they end up intertwined after breaking out of the Ohtori race shows them to truly be equals, both car and driver, at the very end of it all, and that was the only way it could ever leave. 

This is, I think, part of showing Shiori as a driverless car--she doesn’t have any kind of partnership, any kind of something that can really allow her to leave. Does that imply that you need another person to leave situations like Ohtori, and do you like that? I’m not sure! But it feels right to me in this moment, whether I like it or not, as an explanation. And then of course the group in the jeep, a car not yet ready for the show of power it will require to leave the track, but the kind of car that was built to provide aid and support in battle**. It’s a step for the car and the occupants, even if they can’t leave. 

I don’t really have a good way of ending this essay, as it’s more a collection of my thoughts on cars and Utena, but I hope you enjoyed it anyhow ahahah

*It’s a ‘57 Chevrolet Corvette, or the anime version of such, and while it would have been fast for the time it came out, it no longer would be even considered in those ranks. 

**This may be very basic trivia and if so I apologize, but Jeep is based on slang for the “General Purpose” vehicle that was built for the US military. It wasn’t a civilian car (and I still would prefer an unfancy military build, GOD I would love to get my hands on one, I’m ALWAYS looking at the military destash auctions.) for many many years until after its creation.