REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA

The other day I finished the second season of Sailor Moon and for a change started watching the smashingly bizarre series Revolutionary Girl Utena, a gender-bending "magical girls" anime about a lass who was orphaned at an early age but comforted by a "prince" who gave her a ring and promised they'd meet again. She was so inspired by him, however, that she decided to become a prince herself! "But was that such a good idea?" 

Now Utena's attending the prep school Outori Academy, where she wears a male uniform, plays sports with the boys and generally acts the tomboy.  Check out the names:  her surname, Tenjou, means "the heavens," while Outori means "phoenix"--though there's a good chances that it's also a reference to Outori Ran, who achieved stardom playing male leads in the Tarakazuka theatre's famous all-female musical shows. (The Japanese love those multiple meanings!)

At the school there's this mostly male Student Council who fight secretive fencing duels, whose winner becomes "engaged" to the Rose Bride (dark-skinned student Anthy) which means she has to serve him and do whatever he wants.  But Utena wins a duel and the Rose Bride belongs to her--why yes, the show does have lesbian overtones!-- and she ends up in successive swordfights...

Verbal description only scratches the surface of this show's remarkable style.  Directed by the flamboyantly gay Kunihiko Ikuhara, who directed much of Sailor Moon--with several of that show's animators here--it has an incredibly imaginative look, from the late-Meiji time a century ago when Japan's elite was superficially westernized, with lots of rose imagery. (The music is also impressively eclectic.) I also like the shadow puppets who comment on the story midway through! My favorite character of all is Nanami, a bitchy little blonde usually making trouble with her three-girl posse.  

I saw the first part of this show on video almost twenty years ago, but haven't seen the last third. (I've also seen the feature movie, which I recall was rather confusing.) BTW, that photo is of Sailor Pluto, my new favorite sailor senshi whom I mentioned in the last post.