Warpio's Anime/Weed Log: 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.

That night, Anthy comes into Utena's room and comes onto her.. Utena gets mad and tells her to get out.. she talks to Touga the next day, and he won't tell her whether he has ever won a duel or not.

Later, Touga is with a purple haired girl. Shiori, and is on the phone with somebody who's telling him about how his sister is a witch who sealed away the rose prince. The angry mob came and stormed the castle...

The witch also had a secret. The rose prince was really the lord of the flies. My sister, the witch, used her magic to change him into a prince. So when my sister's magic faded, the prince returned to his true self.

Touga:

So that's why you set up this game to regain the lost magic.

Meanwhile, Miki is with his sister, who asks

What are you trying to gain?

We can't go back to the garden where we were together. But you'll always be precious to me.

She then holds a knife to Miki's neck and calls him a traitor...

Touga talks about how he was sold to prostitution by his father... Shiori tells him not to lose to Juri. Meanwhile a blanket is twisting up and going crazy... the blanket comes out of Shiori's back in the form of giant wings... wtf...

Now Miki and Juri are walking down a dark hallway towards End of the World. Shiori shows up, pretending to be worried for Juri. Juri says normal people aren't allowed to be here... Shiori tells Juri about Utena, who is dressing up like a boy in order to become a duelist because she likes Touga... Juri says she doesn't like that type of person, and wants to defeat her in the next duel.

At night, Utena goes to confront Anthy at the garden, and asks her if she's the reason Touga started acting weird... Utena starts crying and says she wanted to see the stars with him. she passes out, then Anthy hits a pipe with an axe, and suddenly the platform's ground is a planetarium... they dance among the roses and stars... The next day, Anthy takes Utena to the observatory at the top of a tower... they model and paint each other in the nude... Utena says she doesn't want them to keep secrets between each other.. She notices the weird paintings on the wall... asks if this one painting showing a figure surrounded by darkness, is her, Himemiya... Anthy then starts doing magical shit to show Utena why everyone wants the Rose Bride...

Cuts to the silhoutte radio girls, who are now in a TV show... Then it cuts to a scene with cow Nanami, Chuchu, and elephants... this would be so insanely random without context from the series... there's also the weird creature that Shiori drew on Touga's back earlier... The silhoutte girl said this was the wrong tape...

And now, for the real scandalatious videotape!

It's a tape showing Akio in his car with the woman he's engaged to... the one girl comments on Akio, and Akio replies to her...

Is this really a tape?

It then shows Akio with his sister... the real scandal starts...
Utena:

Himemiya... what is this?

Anthy:

This is the secret of the rose bride.

Suddenly, a duel between Utena and Juri out of nowhere...

Anthy:

See that? That... is the castle of eternity. I haven't been in there myself... but I hear you can have anything in there. Perhaps your wishes will come true there. That's what it means to win the rose bride.

Juri knocks Utena down... then suddenly Utena takes the form of Dios for a brief moment, before winning the duel... Anthy is shocked by this...
Then suddenly, everyone turns to see a grave being dug, and Akio's wife crying over Akio's body...

Kashira, Kashira, Kodoshi Kashira?

Akio died... but how did he die? Someone must have buried him.
...
wtf is going on?

Shiori: It's her doing. The reason for the rose bed, was to hide her brother's dead corpse. She has the tape to proove it.

While Utena is running around looking for Himemiya, it shows more of the tape... Akio looks like he's about to rape Anthy, then realizes she's awake, and asks if she's always been awake during these times...

Don't worry. You are my prince, dear brother. You can do what you like with me.

Akio starts going insane, looking for his car key.. then stabs his sister, and walks off the balcony before the tape cuts off.

Utena still looking for Anthy... she comes to a chair with a stop/dead end sign on it... Then another chair next to an open door, with an arrow sign pointing to it... A bunch of chairs all with signs pointing toward these 3 chairs holding an electric sign...

All engaged couples, please wait in the back.

Utena goes into a door, suddenly she's sitting on a chair in an elevator in front of Touga.
Touga:

Everything here is built entirely around the prince. Yet, there is no prince in the flesh. That's why this game is necessary, in order to fill that void. When she became the rose bride, the castle of eternity showed up. That's right, when she killed her brother, the prince.

Utena:

That's not true. There was never a live prince to begin with.

... Touga looks out the window, and sees the seen of when they were together... the castle was there in the background, except it was rightside up and on the ground.
Utena:

I'm starting to remember. About the time we separated. The time when you disappeared.

There was a girl who fell in the river from a boat. A boy jumped into the river to save the girl... and he drowned instead.
Why did I forget that until now?

Touga:

Utena, won't you come with me? I promise to be with you until the End of the World.

I see.. so Touga was that guy who drowned.
She kisses Touga as he fades away into the wall... The giant staircase appears before her. Anthy is up there...

I finally found him, Utena... My prince... You are now the prince of the academy. Any miracle and all eternity is yours... as long as you stay in this world...

Utena takes Anthy, and says they should leave to the outside world...
suddenly, a giant carwash appears and starts to suck up Utena... Anthy tries to grab her, but only gets her ring...
Utenamobile... what...
the tape shows up again...

My key... where is my key? A car without its key is stuck and goes to rust.

The ring Anthy is holding is now a car key...

Let's go, Utena... To the outside world.

Anthy puts the key in the ignition, and drives off... towards the End of the World.
The silhouette girls hosting a radio show, saying Utena/Anthy is in the lead... then the Shiorimobile pulls up to her... she tries to gain the lead, but Anthy pushes her over and makes her crash...

... what...

Anthy drives off an invasion of black cars in a tunnel, avoids some tanks with the help of the 3 student council members, who all want to see her succeed to getting to the outside... the radio girls tell her she's close to the exit to the outside world... the castle is in the distance... but that turns out to be a trap. A giant tank is holding a platform with an illusion of the castle on it.

Anthy drives underneath the tank, avoiding the maze of tires, and makes it through to the other side... Akio is standing there at the exit.