The Tale of Princess Kaguya recap

This movie is ... pure beauty...

Summary:

A girl born from a mystical bamboo tree... a bamboo cutter receives this forest spirit girl, as well as lots of gold and sacred-looking princess cloths from some glowing bamboo trees... the girl appeared to this man as a tiny beautiful princess, as shown in the cover... but then after he brought her home she transformed into a normal baby... except this baby grew extremely fast... she became friends with the local wood smith's children and played in the forest carefree, until her adopted parents decided it was time for her to move to a mansion in the capital and become a princess like how the dad first saw her as.

She doesn't like the strict boring life of a noble, and at her coming-of-age party where the dad introduced her to everyone behind a curtain (they weren't allowed to see her, but she could see all of them through her side of the curtain... some really weird tradition in that era I guess), she hears some other nobles making fun of her, wondering if she's even a real princess... She runs away back to the forest where she grew up, but the forest seems dead now compared to before. some stranger explains to her that it'll be winter soon... and that it won't be that lively again until spring. from then on she submits to her new strict lifestyle and becomes a proper princess.

Five noble rich men hear about her, and they all propose to her without having seen her face... they each describe a rare precious treasure they found that they compare her to. The girl then says she will make her decision only when they each bring her this "treasure" that they cherish so much...

Then I will be able to see in your heart... how you treasure me.

The dad commented that these treasures were just figures of speech, and they may not even exist... but she still is determined to see one of these treasures. The men all leave, some of them thinking this girl is now unattainable... but they want her even more now after hearing her voice and music... suddenly she takes her makeup off and becomes her normal self again, and asks to go out to see the spring sakura trees.

It's almost like... this girl who was born from the woods... hibernated as a noble princess through the dead

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works high session 2

Okay so... back after this long...

Episode 17

Kuzuki is telling Caster about his past and why he thinks of himself as not human... Rin and Shirou are about start executing their plan to get Saber back. Berserker, the 2nd ally servant they had available to help them, is gone now, and they are left with just Lancer on their side somehow... he's taking care of both Saber and Archer... the fake Assassin can't leave the temple so he's no problem.. (and the real Assassin is on Lancer's side anyway)..

Shirou can hold off Kuzuki, and Rin can take Caster down by sheer projectile spam... so Gil is now the biggest problem for them... but I suspect that Shirou will somehow be able to hold his own against Gil too by now... they want to defeat Caster to force Archer/Saber back to their side, and finally win the holy grail war... (see that's the real reason Lancer's master is letting him help them)

Caster: "Are all mages of this era so foolhardy? Now I understand why Archer deserted you."

Shirou: "Kuzuki can see that we have a plan up our sleeves, but he's letting Caster do things her way."

meanwhile, Lancer declares that he was forced to hold back against Archer last time...
Lancer: "working with that little lady, you probably would've been a match for Caster."
Archer: "I chose the option with the higher chance, however slight... Unfortunately, I am devoid of pride."
"If you have a hero's pride, cast it aside while you still can."
Lancer: "You've heard of my spear's special abilities, haven't you Archer?"
Archer: "Of course. It has a curse that reverses cause and effect. It's certainly fearsome, but unless you get close, it's nothing but a sharp stinger."
Lancer: "But spears can also be used like this..."
Gae Bolg, the spear whose curse kills with a single blow. When thrown, it is an anti-army Noble Phantasm. It strikes for the heart. Careful aim is crucial. In which case, taking the blow head on is the only way."

uh... not sure if that last part was translated right..
Archer projected Rho Aias to protect himself from the spear... but Lancer's spear is mightier than even the original Gungnir... looks like the spear somehow only hit Lancer's arm...

Archer then tells Lancer that he can feel Caster's watch gone away, suggesting that she's having some trouble right now... did he turn on Caster just now too?

Shirou is taking on Kuzuki.. but

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works high session 1

Watched the first 12 episodes like 6 months ago, but didn't start writing log posts for it until now. So far it's pretty much exactly the same story as the VN, except more animated. Some of the background and animation quality looks gorgeous. Now that I'm behind on the releases, I can watch the rest of this while high at my own pace.

This UBW series really is a great, faithful adaptation of the VN story... it has some new things added, but its storytelling style emulates the VN very well... While Fate/Zero was more like... Think of this in terms of Ryukishi07-style writing. Fate/Stay Night was the "question arc", and Fate/Zero was the "answer arc"... F/SN is designed to keep you in the dark about a lot of its plot details... mostly showing things from Shirou's perspective and teasing other perspectives once in a while... while F/Z was more about showing its story from multiple different perspectives, challenging the reader a lot less while still giving them a chance to figure the rest out on their own.


Episode 13

Archer is like the embodiment of Shirou taking his dad's old path (before he destroyed the holy grail)... the path of fighting to sacrificing a few to save the most people possible.
Archer ends up hating the human world after he becomes a heroic spirit...
"In the end, he continued to be betrayed by his ideal, even after death."

... omg this animation quality is phenomenal...

Archer: "Tohsaka Rin can believe in her own path right to the end."
Tohsaka asks him if he can...
Archer: "That question is meaningless. My "end" came and went long ago."

Rin plans to take on Caster herself. Her rule-breaker makes it too dangerous for Archer to fight her. She tells Archer to take care of Kuzuki..
Archer says that no mage is a match for Caster.. but Rin is confident she can take her down. She wants to save Saber and have Shirou rejoin the war.
meanwhile Shirou is already at Caster's hideout trying to save Saber.. not even fully healed from his wounds yet...

Rin: "If you didn't see his corpse, he's probably clinging to life somewhere."
Rin thinks Caster doesn't have a human shield now, and Kuzuki will be no match for Archer... so she'll be very easy to beat. Caster has more command spells left to get Saber to fight, and probably knows Shirou is there too...

Rin starts tossing tons of high powered gems at her... one of it gets passed her defenses to act as a distraction... wtf... Archer suddenly comes and knocks Rin down. He decides to ally with Caster?

"She's a woman who would tear apart her own younger brother to escape."
"Familiars that use dragon teeth as vessels are the hallmark of the King of Colchis's magecraft. His daughter, Princess Medea, was hailed as a witch without peer."
Archer asks Caster if she has enough spare mana to support another servant...
"The situation has changed. If Saber is under your control, isn't it only natural that I go over to the winning side?"

I sort of remember this from the VN I think? This was all part of Archer's plan to get back at his former self who cursed him with these ideals...

Rin loses Archer and is now helpless against the 3/4 of them.. Shirou then jumps in to save

Final thoughts/interpretation on Revolutionary Girl Utena's ending

The ending of this series has me so perplexed, and ever since seeing the movie's interpretation I've been even more confused... I've thought about it a lot more, and I think I've found a satisfactory answer that doesn't involve the movie's heavy implications towards everything just being a metaphor for Akio raping Anthy, cuz that's a cop-out answer lol

Anthy sealed Dios away by offering to take all of the pain that Dios was receiving from the world... "The Rose Bride takes the swords in place of the prince"... Dios became corrupted by no longer having any of the pain of being the world's prince, and instead he became "End of the World". He says he's no longer the prince that Anthy cared about, and yet, Anthy continues to take all the world's punishment in place of him... Since Anthy is continuing to suffer as a witch for Akio's sake, even though Akio no longer qualifies as her prince.. He feels that Anthy must enjoy being this way... that Anthy is letting him use her out of her own free will. So in that case, what is it that Akio could want?

Even though Anthy is the one who sealed away Dios and the power to revolutionize the world, it's clear that Akio and Anthy can not access this power on their own... They need a duelist who has reached duel of revolution. I theorized before that this restriction was Akio's or Anthy's doing.. maybe it's due to Anthy's subconcious effect on Dios's power, or maybe the "good" side of Dios placed this restriction on his power so that only a good and noble prince can use it... But anyway Akio and Anthy are able to show people a glimpse of eternity and manipulate them into dueling to make the Rose Gate appear. This is what Akio did with Utena when she was little.. he showed her "eternity", and that lead her to becoming a duelist.

Later in the series, Utena can no longer draw out the sword of Dios from Anthy, for reasons that are never explained... I think it's because Akio didn't want Utena to be the one to open the Rose Gate. He wanted to do it himself, using Utena's sword. He must have already tried and failed to open the Rose Gate using the sword of Dios, so he figured he needed another prince's sword. From then on, Anthy draws out the sword from Utena in all of her duels. In the final duel, it's Akio who draws out the sword from Utena, and doing this turns Utena into a princess... I guess that Akio taking Utena's sword boosted his own princely image, and made Utena take on the form of a princess (it doesn't need to have more meaning than that really)...

Revolutionary Girl Utena movie recap

The art design in this movie is gorgeous... it's like a masterpiece in visual storytelling. 

But... wow, this plot is so different. It's nothing at all like the show...
Whereas the show had a lot of subtle cryptic symbolism, this movie's symbolism is very blatant and over the top.

Recap:

The architecture of this school is all weird, like an Escher painting...

Utena has short hair, and wearing a more princely outfit... Juri, the fencing team captain, and student council member is referred to as the "prince" of the fencing team. Miki is described as a genius... Wakaba is showing Utena around the school, when suddenly she sees Touga up in a window and goes to see him. Apparently, they knew each other.

Touga says they made a promise to go to the planetarium together... Utena is surprised to see him here, and acts unfriendly toward him. She notices his ring, and assumes he's engaged.

This ring lead me to the academy. The mark of the rose.

Utena sees a white rose in the middle of a bunch of red roses, and it blooms very brightly just as she's looking at it... a ring pops out of it, with the mark of the rose, just like Touga has... suddenly, a giant staircase leading up to a platform in the sky... ontop of the platform is a rose garden... she meets Anthy there. Anthy looks a lot prettier in this.

Anthy introduces herself as the chairman's sister, and says that she is held captive by these roses... she sees the ring Utena is holding, and tries to take it from her... Saionji appears, asks Utena what she's doing with the Rose Bride... He explains how he owns the Rose Bride, and anyone who has the mark of the rose is a duelist, who is permitted to come to this square to duel for ownership of the Rose Bride..

Utena doesn't like how the Rose Bride is being treated, so she puts the ring on to duel him. She picks up a kendo stick to duel with. Anthy notices something about her... she jumps toward Utena to save her, kisses her, and then makes a sword appear from her chest for Utena to use. When Utena pulls it out, her hair grows long and she changes outfits. Anthy also changed to a different dress when she drew out the sword.

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 7 (finale)

This is the last "normal" episode before the final duel starts... the creepy side of the story clashes up with the normal slice of life school scenes.

Episode 37

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 6

This is where the plot really comes together, and all that weird symbolism from earlier on in the series begins to make some sort of sense... at this point I'm only watching the rest of this series during the peak of a high session. And I'm commenting a LOT more... like each episode I spend around an hour just writing about it.

Episode 34

Akio talks about how he discovered a comet, and named it, but didn't tell anybody... just the act of naming a comet makes it feel like you own it, but nobody owns the stars...

Good night, big brother.

Must you still torture me...

Utena gets a photo with Himemiya and Akio.. then they go to see a play together.

All life is like a play. You're either an actor or a spectator.

Nobody but them is watching the play...
The play is called "The Tale of the Rose". The actors are the silhoutte characters, including the "Extra extra extra!" person and the "do you know?" person.

This story takes place when all girls were princesses. The world still hadn't fallen to darkness back then. The reason for this was because there was a Rose Prince.

An old woman warns the prince:

A witch is plotting to steal the light and plunge the world into darkness.

...

Surely you know about it, the castle that floats in the sky. That is the witch's castle. The witch who lives there now... is planning to steal the light from this world!

The light is...

and then silhouettes of all the student council members come up:

That which is eternal.

That which shines.

The power of miracles.

The power to bring the world revolution.

Prince:

Then I will defeat this witch and save the light of this world!

He goes to the castle.. the witch turns out to be the same old woman that gave him the warning.

You fool! This was all a trap to seal you into this castle! It is you who is the light!

The witch reveals her true identity as the prince's little sister.

I'm just "the little sister".. I'm the only one you can't make a princess!

...

A girl who cannot become a princess is doomed to become a witch!

The witch still wanders our dark world even now. She searches for young, noble souls to sacrifice anew! She seeks to keep another from bringing light to the world, so that darkness will reign...

That was some deep stuff...

Episode 35

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 5

Episodes 28-29

A couple episodes that focus on Jury and her confusing relationship with Shiori.. and a new duelist who returns, he happens to be the captain of the fencing team that Jury was filling in for. He's Jury's rival with Shiori, but it's more confusing than that. He shows Jury the End of the World and convinces her to duel Utena...

Episode 30

Akio shows up while Utena is getting scolded by teachers about her uniform.. Akio's the school chairman, so they're all afraid of him and he takes Utena's side. Utena starts falling for Akio and thinking of him as the prince from her childhood... Wakaba is also still trying to hit on him, and she shows up when Akio shows Utena his car.

I've seen this car before, is it a popular model?

... Wakaba gets herself a date with Akio, and refuses Utena joining in and says

Three's a crowd when it comes to dates.

Later, Utena hurts her foot playing basketball, because she's distracted thinking about Akio. Then Akio shows up in his car again, and takes Utena to the hospital.. she says Himemiya should come along too, but Akio says

Three's a crowd when it comes to dates.

...when they get back, Akio kisses her..

Utena talks to Himemiya in bed about her confused love affair.. the next day, Akio's fiance and her mother show up. The mother is worried that Akio isn't spending enough time with her fiance.. then Akio hits on the mother..

Throughout this episode, 3 candles keep being shown, and they go out one by one, as Utena thinks about her conflict between loving her prince and falling for Akio who is already engaged..

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 4

These next few episodes I watched during the peak of an edibles high, and I commented a lot on them.

Episode 25

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 3

This plot just keeps getting more and more confusing... Now I'm starting to watch some of these episodes while high, and I'm also spending more and more time writing commentary as I'm watching it.

Episodes 15-21

These Black Rose people keep doing this similar ritual, where they taint a rose with the thorns of death, and then find somebody who has strong negative feelings towards one of the student council members. That person then confesses their feelings in this strange elevator, and a voice tells them "more, go deeper", and then the elevator drops and they get brainwashed with the Black Rose. They then go up to the student council member and pull a sword out of their chest, just like with the Rose Bride, and doing that gives them that member's powers, which they can then use to duel Utena.

Wakaba (Utena's friend, who was in love with Saionji), starts secretly keeping Saionji in her room. she's really happy, until the Black Rose guys get Saionji to help turn Wakaba into their next duelist. They get Saionji unexpelled, and Saionji leaves Wakaba. She gets the black rose and attacks Utena/Anthy. Utena doesn't want to fight her, but ends up taking Wakaba's sword and using it against her.

One of Nanami's servants, Keiko, is in love with Touga. He's the only reason she stays around Nanami all the time. Keiko takes the only chance she's got to share her umbrella with Touga... Nanami sees this, and she bans Keiko from her circle. Keiko goes into the weird elevator thing...

I understand. Your only option is to revolutionize the world. The path you must take has been prepared for you.

It isn't Nanami that she possesses, but Touga...

I'm really liking these silly silhouette scenes that happen whenever Utena gets a message in her locker. They seem to have nothing at all to do with anything. Utena has even started interacting with the silhouette people, saying something clever at the end of the scene...

Episode 22

Now that this Black Rose group has gone after Touga, Nanami suddenly cares about it and is forcing the student council to investigate.

Utena runs into Mikage Nemuro.. that guy with the pink hair who's always been there to direct the emotional person at the bottom of the elevator..

I've had my eye on you for a while now.

no kidding...

He invites Utena to his seminar. He then tells her the story of Professor Nemuro... He was a professor at this part of the school that is now Nemuro Memorial Hall... Him and his students burned to death in this place...

Later, Utena is exploring the Nemuro hall I think, and it looks like the same place where the Black Rose guys do their brainwashing... and Mikage is in an office as a mysterious guy (Akio I think?) hands him a letter...

We're only partners in business. I have no reason to obey your orders.

Was that a letter from the End of the World? is Akio the End of the World?

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 2

This plot is very... I guess abstract? I dunno it's hard to explain, something about it is really hard to summarize...

Episodes 8-14

Saionji tells Utena why he's competing with Touga to win the Rose Bride... Several years ago he and Touga found this girl (Utena) lying in a coffin, saying she just wanted to hide in there because that's where her parents were. He said that it was Touga who showed her something eternal, something that would get her out of her depression...

Himemiya: "Someday, I'd like to go to the castle floating in the sky. Something eternal dwells within it."

The council got a letter from the End of the World, saying that the castle was going to come down... Saionji took Himemiya and brought her to the platform, determined to get the eternal power... Utena went up there looking for her... Saionji was knocked out and Himemiya was inside a coffin surrounded by roses... a bunch of stuff started happening, but it stopped when Utena grabbed Himemiya and saved her from the thing she was in....

Then, Saionji attacked Utena, but Touga jumped in and took the hit, saying that he wanted to be Utena's prince. Another scene happens where Touga is talking to someone, and I think he said that he set up the letter to manipulate Saionji, and now Saionji is getting expelled...

Next, Touga somehow set it up so that his sister Nanami would be chosen as the next duelist. Nanami started getting jealous of Utena for talking to Touga, and she challenged her to a duel. Touga then gave Nanami a rose seal ring and made it official... Touga watched the duel, and after Nanami lost: "The data has been gathered. The power of Dios will be mine"

Touga keeps saying he's acting like how a prince should act. He is making Utena start to doubt whether she can really be a prince or not. He keeps calling Utena a "lonely princess", and is getting obsessed with her. Utena is also staring at him quiet a lot.

Later, Utena sees Touga in the rose garden again, talking with Himemiya.

Your job isn't to cook. All you need to do is stay here and tend the roses. This birdcage is your domain. And you are the lovely little bird who lives within it. I wish to make this cage my own. and I would never let you out of it... ever.

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 1

Started watching this today. I figure if it's good I'll probably watch some of it while high.

Episodes 1-7

1st episode is already kind of intriguing. Saionji, the green-haired guy, the student council vice president, is being a jerk to Utena's friend who likes him, so Utena challenges him to a duel.

The student council has this kind of mysterious aura about it, they talk about how they have to follow the will of "The End of the World", and that a new challenger will be joining them soon...

Utena's whole backstory is that a prince gave her a ring with a rose seal on it to cheer her up after her parents died, and the theme of roses occures a lot in this series... Everyone in the student council wears those rose seal rings... which means Utena turns out to be their new challenger.

Holy shit... the transition when she goes to fight a duel... There's this ominous gate decorated with roses, and she goes up a spiral staircase leading to a platform way up in the sky. And above that platform is an upsidedown castle that seems to be standing on a void of nothingness...

Himemiya, the black girl who Saionji was talking to, is apparently the "Rose Bride" who belongs to the champion duelist (who is currently Saionji)... She puts a rose on Utena's chest.

If the rose is knocked off your chest, you lose.

Saionji pulls a sword out of Anthy Himemiya's chest.

Grant me the power to bring the world revolution!

Sailor Moon Crystal high session 7

ACT 13 - Final Battle -Reincarnation-
WOOOOOW
amazing... I just watched this while high on edibles... i have no face and i must be amazed

After killing Mamoru and herself.. the Silver Crystal comes out of of them and regains its full power, expanding to surround their bodies... the 4 guardians are there, but can't do anything to stop Queen Metalia from absorbing the silver crystal and engulfing the earth in darkness... Meanwhile Luna and Artemis go to the moon to pray to Queen Serenity...

then some light emerges down onto the 4 guardians... they remember Usagi being friendly to them, and are now confident she is still alive inside the silver crystal... Queen Metalia appears before them... Venus reaches out for Usagi who is inside Metalia.. and the holy sword appears in her hand... They realize they can use their transformation powers to seal Metalia... knowing that giving up their pens means giving up their lives, they believe in the Princess's power to secure the future.

... Sailor Moon wakes up, realizing that Mamoru's locket blocked her suicide attempt..
That locket is like.. symbolic of the Roses that Tuxedo Mask always threw to save her just in time.
Metalia goes and terrorizes her, letting her hear the screams of the humans who have fallen to darkness.. and that she's the last one remaining.. The small part of the silver crystal that has yet to be contaminated is floating in front of her... finally she reaches out for the silver crystal, and uses it to free herself from Metalia's bonds and revive Mamoru.

As they're hugging, Metalia is just about to sweep in to grab the silver crystal.. and Mamoru grabs it just in time.
"I will not let you have the Princess or the Legendary Silver Crystal."
"Usako, use the Legendary Silver Crystal, and defeat Metalia!"

When Sailor Moon uses the Silver Crystal's full power, it shines brighter than it ever has before... but it's still not enough, Sailor Moon needs everyone's power...