#utena and akio

[asofterutena]

(You think Mary knew?)

[transmascutena]

the idea of eternity in utena is so interesting. initially "there is no such thing as something eternal" is the thought that sends utena spiraling into suicidality, which is understandable, since the idea that everything will end someday is terrifying. especially to a child. especially to a child who just encountered one of the most traumatizing and violent "endings" possible, the deaths of her parents. but then she's shown that apparently something can be eternal. and that something is pain, which is even worse, but at least gives her something to live for. and then by the end of the show it's like. no, pain isn't eternal either. "there is no such thing as something eternal" is reframed as a positive. eternity is Not Good. eternity is everything staying the same forever, never changing for the better. it's the opposite of revolution. it's what akio wants, perpetuating the system that benefits him at the cost of everyone else forever and ever. and no matter what utena might have thought, it is not what she wants.

[kristybluebird]

A canary in the coal mine kind of day...

[andstuffsketches]

you've got blood on your hands and I know it's mine I just need more time

[strawberryjamsara]

Don’t ask why but being a prince is for boys and being impaled by thousands of swords embodying humanities hatred is for girls

[yurisorcerer]

most of Anilist's April Fool's Day edits are not funny but what they did to Akio's character page is pretty fucking great

[thegooblet]

thought too hard about dynamics of abuse in rgu and blacked out

[charmtale]

episode 23 ... episode 35

[saionjeans]

“utena should have realized that she’s basically participating in a sex trafficking ring” she does she thinks it’s bad and she does everything in her power to help anthy because she is aware that the system is wrong. “utena should have asked more questions about the duels” she does and anthy shuts her down every single time until she starts to feel like maybe she’s the weird one for finding it weird. “utena should have known that akio is end of the world” he’s literally just a guy who is nice to her, she is not privy to the same information that we are, and once it is revealed to her, she actually understands the situation pretty well. “utena is a dumb jock” utena is canonically good at math. “utena is naive” utena is a manipulated child.

[sepyana]

Shout outs to Wakaba for being the only brown eyed character frfr

[asofterutena]

(Beautiful, terrible freedom.)

[transmascutena]

i think about this interview with ikuhara and his commentary for the last episode every single day of my life

[anonymous-gambito]

The thing about the strangeness and surrealism surrounding Ohtori Academy is that the characters learn to see it as normal, just like a real person in a bad situation might not realize it because that's the whole world surrounding them. In the same way, the narrative might also at times lead the viewers to dismiss these strange and questionable things they're being shown, and so they might say things like "that's just how anime is" in the same way one might claim "that's just how the world is", so in conclusion that's why I feel the need to point out that Akio has a stupid fucking green ball on his hair

[igura]

the quickest way to get juri to act is to provoke her to anger

[allaboardthechuchutrain]

obsessed with how Utena uses both definitions of revolution: a change, a spark but also rotation, circular movement that repeats and repeats (a perpetual motion machine). change vs staying the same (not growing up)

thinking about how Akio is associated with rotation (the carousel, maybe even the Ferris wheel?) how when the road he drives on appears curved, circular

how he takes the students in his car on this road after they give up on the duels, not allowing them to escape/stop participating in the system, trapping them in this cycle

if the road is circular, it doesn't go anywhere. It eventually comes back to where it started (how the characters regress sometimes). It also means Akio isn't taking them anywhere, he's just tricking them (bc he's a manipulative piece of shit + shows how he's giving them a false sense/idea of adulthood since none of them actually graduate aka grow up)

thinking about how he claims that Utena didn't bring revolution while he's preparing for the next set of duels (he completed a revolution, now it's time to start over)

Yet while Akio tries trapping them in this eternal cycle, he fails. The ending (will get to that later) but also the students grow and develop. They are not the same people they were at the start of the show. You know who doesn't change though? Akio. On to the ending: I love the ending of Utena so much. The students are talking about growing up, about changing!! The student council, Tsuwabuki, Kozue, Shiori, Wakaba have all clearly changed. They are no longer partaking in the same behaviours they kept repeating throughout the show (all their relationships are noticeably healthier, no one is obsessing over anyone anymore, hanging out w/out animosity between them). Utena and Anthy escape and leave!!!!! Anthy is no longer trapped in the cycle of abuse Akio put her through. Anthy is no longer going to keep playing the role of the rose bride, Akio is free to continue playing prince (revolving), but she has to go now (revolution).

[aptericia]

The prince has both a corpse and a ghost, yet he was never even alive in the first place