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!