From episode 36, And So, The Doors of Night Open. The song is Guui, Guuwa, Guu-est / Allegory, Allegorier, Allegoriest. It looks kind of like the guys at the end are dead, but they're fine.
Imagine someone that has not watched the show clicking on the video and suddenly watching a girl spliting cars with a sword extracted from the chest against a red-haired guy, and a green-haired guy in a car going in circles vertically around the platform border. That's when you know a show is good.
Utena director Kunihiko Ikuhara: hey, can you write some really cool allegorical lyrics for the Touga III fight? Duelist songwriter J. A. Seazer: hmmm, Allegory, Allegorier, Allegoriest
"Son, were you having homoerotic sword duel jousts with motorcycles atop a really high tower that had cars racing all over it?" "It's just an allegory, dad!" "Sure, it's all metaphors and allegories until someone loses an eye. I can see the damn tire marks even! That's it, we're pulling you out and sending you somewhere they value the safety of students. From next week you're attending Otokojuku."
The interesting thing, when the subtitles say "Miss Tenjou" it sounds more like Touga calls her "Tenjou-kun". "-Kun" is usually a male form of address, isn't it? Thus referring to Utena's desire to become the prince that saves the princess.
Touga: Utena, stay away from the end of the word! You don’t know who you’re dealing with! Saionji: We’re still going to meet him later for a shirtless photo shoot right? Touga: Of course we’re having the topless photo.
"How many times have we duelled here?" "This is the third." "Strange. It feels like it's been dozens of times." This is what made me think these aren't real. These "duels" are internal emotional battles within oneself propelling through challenges in life to maturity.
The duels represent, in a way, the desires of the characters In this duel, when Touga tells Utena that he will protect her, he is pretending to be a prince for her. But Utena, who wants to be a prince herself, probably feels very conflicted towards it. And indeed, a few scenes later we have Utena telling Anthy the exact same thing.
@@marin0the0magus Touga conflicts with Utena, because he loves her and think the best way for her well-being is for him to protect her, while Utena herself is a capable, independent strong woman, she doesn't need his protection or at least she thinks she doesn't. In order to play the role as the protecter, aka Prince charming who protects the princess, Touga has to strip away Utena's independence and make her his woman("a princess"), by beating her in the duel, as Utena's own idea is completely the other way around. He has to deny her first to "protect" her, to play "the prince" as a man and a woman. (Well Utena somehow got that problem of mindest with Anthy, too, not like she's better....)
Retreading a billion and a half years of Utena analysis: cars are a (to a degree) symbolic of masculinity. Touga uses them effortlessly, while Utena first dodges and then slices them in two. Finally, Touga and Saionji charge aboard a motorcycle, a quicker, nimbler, more adaptable vehicle, but even then they're no match for Utena's strength of conviction (and faith in her own strength). (This is of course what blinds her and leaves her susceptible in the final battle.)
I personally think that cars are more a symbol of general adulthood, especially being a 'proper' adult that conforms blindly to rules. It's not that Touga can use them, but rather they don't focus on him, because his entire character arc was about trying to become the archetypical 'gentleman.' He knows how to pretend to be an adult due to Akio's influence. Utena doesn't care about social customs too much, she grew up defying expectations of people around her. She struggles with the cars because she still believes in her fairy-tale prince. Touga and Saionji end up taking the motorcycle because even though they try to behave like adults, they're still kids and motorcycles are usually associated with teenage rebellion. Even at the start of the duel if you look at *where* Saionji is seated in the car - it's the passenger's seat. He is being driven by the car in circles. I'm pretty sure that is the case with all brides of the duellists. I remember during Miki's duel Anthy actually sat in the driver's seat when Kozue was hitting on her (but her posture was very deliberately showing that she still wasn't actually driving, which is a clever foreshadowing of her role in the story). Another interesting bit is when Touga grabs Utena: he starts to channel is 'princely' persona and that's when all the cars turn to them, as if attracted to this fairy-tale-like charade. But Utena points out that they're at conflict. It seems like there was some attraction here and maybe in another life they would end up together, but their life experiences ended up putting them against each other (which were, ironically, orchestrated mostly by Akio). The car that ends up separating them has the shot focusing on the name Ohtori on the plate because Touga blinded himself to the idea of youthful revolution by following Akio's teachings of adulthood. Utena is able to tear through the cars because her promise to protect Anthy is genuine, coming from true compassion, although marred by princehood. sorry for the rant lmao It's been a while since I discussed Utena.
i see the cars as toxic passion. definitely related to masculinity/a masculine trait. The will to seize your love/desire burning so hot it becomes reckless. sportscars are a superficial commodity. society will tell people, (especially men, so this ties back into the masculinity idea), that they need to be alpha, conquer their dreams, get money, women, etc. but just like a red car, these are just superficial things to attain, and can actually damage your soul to pursue. akio gives the cars to the duelists while telling them to follow their dreams and seize their passion using whatever means necessary. but if you drive a hot red car too fast, as we see, you'll crash and die. you see touga and saionjin in the motorcycle and sidecar, and later after being defeated on a bicycle with the wheels blown out. A big theme of Utena is how the duelists are at the mercy of adults, and the structures of society that they are forced to conform to. they are kids, stunted by the laws/restrictions of the world of adults, not even legal age to actually drive a car. Akio is the adult, so he drives the car, unless he gives one of the kids the keys. Touga later being in the gimped pedal bike because he crashed his car and lost his passion. peddling hard, but staying in the same place. Saionjin obviously being in the sidecar because hes at the mercy of Touga's desires w/ his permanent role of always being second in command. In the movie Utena turns Anthy into a car (lol) and drives her. Anthy is Utena's vehicle, love/passion etc. But unlike the red sports car, her pink Anthy car is pure and makes the both of them stronger by driving it.
***** Nah I've just been really busy getting ready for school the past couple of days, so I haven't really had time to do much of anything, much less watch movies. I can't guarantee when exactly I'll get to it but I haven't forgotten, okay?
***** Been really busy with school sorry. Turns out I have heard of the film and will definitely read your fanfic within the next couple of days, okay?
***** Ah okay I see now. Yeah I just didn't remember the name but I finally looked it up and was like "Oh its THAT one". Also I LOVE Tara Strong too so that's just awesome. I'll let you know when I've read it, kay?
it's funny you mention that, bc for me it was an incredibly telling moment. Utena tries to flee from the danger that the cars pose, even is she's ultimately unable to do so, while touga stoically waits until one of them helps him get to the other side of the arena, even though they are, of course, dangerous to him as well. kinda like the system of ohtori in general
I just started to watch this after someone recommended it to me at Katsucon and I must say I am impressed by it! Great animation, good dialogue, nicely paced, and oh yeah, sword fights!
I think he also understands that he is not to break his own cycle quite yet, so he accepted staying in the Ootari sub-space called a “school” for another revolution until he is ready to break his own world egg and become a healthy adult/human being. I don’t recall if we see him in the car with juri and Miki in the movie, as they were preparing to escape the academy but weren’t quite ready as shown by them turning a different road then utena and anthy but still telling them “we’ll catch up with you later”. So who knows maybe in a few more revolution cycles saionji will be free as well. Note that we never see nanami in the movie most likely because she has fulfilled her own revolution by coming to terms with her relationship to touga, and by moving forwards from that. She’s completed the growth that held her back and is now free to leave the “school” and age on and develop. Just a theory tho
I'm glad I haven't watched this for nearly 4 years for the joy of watching out of context without remembering much. Feels like I'm kinda tripping balls as well.
I honestly would like to watch a modern rebuild of this anime. I wish Utena had more fans my age, 'cause I desperately need more fanfiction about these guys.
I was thinking something similar xd but to be honest -- and I know that it sounds like old grump -- I doubt it would be that good. I bet they will try to make it more "understandable" and "less confusing" to general audience and it will be mediocre crap like 80% creations these days.
@@tigerghost3844 I respect your opinion, but I myself believe that a bad adaptation cannot ruin the original. It seems to me that even if the rebuild turned out to be terrible, it would still draw attention to the original. And the attention is what it deserves.
@Kara Pain Smith that's a good argument. Well then, maybe also it's not good to be that kind of pessimist xd so, who knows, maybe we will see some new adaptation after all these years and it will surprise us ♡
Saionji driving the motorcycle from the sidecar doesn't make sense unless you remember that Touga is the real opponent of the fight and it looks way more cooler that way.
The music and the concept reminds me very much of the whole arthouse film influence of the 60s/70s which led to some very out there SF and Fantasy films like Barbarella and Zardoz and Brewster McCloud. Also reminds me of the later half of evangelion. Guess I gotta watch it.
The first time I saw this when I was a teen, I was spellbound by the character designs and music. Now I realise the fight choreography is completely nonsensical!
Yo I'll be real here. Even though I ship Anthy and Utena together, something about Touga and Utena makes me go 😳🥺. Idk what's up with it. I almost never ship heterosexual ships at all. But for some reason, the Touga and Utena ship is killing me!!
Just here to see what I have to look forward to in One Punch Man season 2 since J.C. Staff Studios is making it now. I have to say, I'm not really looking forward to it anymore.
and how is the quality of a show made by J.C. Staff Studios over 20 years ago indicative of how well they can make a show today? this show was seen as being well animated at the time and was named one of the most important anime of the 90s.
Not to mention Utena and One Punch Man are two completely different kinds of shows. If you're watching Utena for the action scenes, then you're kind of missing the point.
If you want to see the action scenes that J.C. Staff is capable of given a budget, watch Episode 1 of Aria of the Scarlet Ammo AA and any LRIG fistfight scene in selector infected WIXOSS.
