It’s magazine scans time. Please enjoy.
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##Closing Statements:
WARNING, OPEN SPOILERS IN THE CLOSING STATEMENTS!
Firstly, let me begin by thanking everyone who watched this show with me and anyone who may join in later who will watch this show with me in spirit. I really appreciate you sharing this show with me and I hope we consume other entertaining media together in the future.
Secondly I just want to wish Revolutionary Girl Utena a happy 20th Anniversary. You are a good show, RGU!
That out of the way, let’s begin proper:
Revolutionary Girl Utena holds a very special place in my heart, I’ve done enough oversharing in this thread already, I think, but I feel it is important to state that it has been 14 years since I watched or sought out this series. The last time I watched it was when I binge watched it with my late fiance in 2003. I was swept up in it and I loved it. But my late fiances’ tragic suicide caused me to avoid this show until now. It was still a bit painful for me to watch but I was happy to do so. Having shared this show now with friends I feel I can finally untangle it from its weighty connection to that tragic loss in my past and just enjoy it as it is. So, again, thank you all for going on this journey with me.
Now then, the article I linked. I’ve read over it thoroughly and all I can really say is that this was written before the writer had seen the whole series (since the whole series hadn’t yet been released in the United States when they wrote this article) and that they just spoil so much. But I really like this article. Though I’m going to throw down with this journalist over their claims that, “Absolute Destiny, Apocalypse” means nothing (and also forgive them because you don’t figure out what it means until the very end so how could the author have known?) When the Duelist’s destiny is to duel the End of The World (AKA the Apocalypse) and bring about world revolution (to the world of Ohtori, and to the worlds of the characters and, if I may be so bold, to the worlds of the viewers.) I’d be interested in hearing other takes.
Okay, let’s talk about Utena proper now.
What I think is going on:
The World of Ohtori Academy is an Alternate World that has been magically created by Akio and Anthy. However, it is still connected to, what I’m going to call the Outside World. I theorize that some people probably can travel between Ohtori and the Outside World freely, or semi-freely, since Kanae and Kanae’s mother both do so and Tokiko appears to do so as well.
But most of the students and minor characters seem to be unaware that they can leave or not interested in leaving. They appear to be swept up, as it were, in the simulation. Perhaps this is because there is definitely a door between the Outside World and Ohtori. (Ohtori is definitely sealed off from the Outside World to an extent.) The characters who move between worlds appear to be doing so because Akio allows it. They have, so to speak, graduated and Ohtori has no hold over them. So the minor cast is probably trapped to an extent by the power of Akio and Anthy. (Also it could be argued that the minor characters are all part of the simulation, all projections, few, if any, of them real.)
The entire main cast in Ohtori is [i]definitely[i] trapped there by their personal hang ups on people (or over events/traumatic pasts) and Akio himself who seems to enjoy toying with and manipulating the main cast through these vulnerabilities. Anthy herself appears to be the key to unlocking the door and opening up Ohtori to the Outside World. It is quite possible that is it primarily her magic (powered by her selfless sacrifice and eternal suffering) that is largely holding this whole thing together. (Chorps and his guest touch on this a bit in the Revolutionary Girl Utena episode of his Podcast so you really should give it a listen.) Akio is trapped and sealed away too, and he wants out. But he no longer has his noble spirit or his sword. And his impurity makes it so his sword cannot open the door. So he concocts this whole fucking scheme with duels and what have you to sculpt the perfect pure hearted prince that he lost to open the door and release him. Anthy goes along with the whole thing because she’s been (and continues to be) horribly abused by Akio (and other characters), because she genuinely loves and adores Akio, and because she’s punishing herself because she feels she deserves this torment. (There’s probably other reasons but those are the big ones.) So that’s pretty much what’s going on. Akio finds this largely earnest and pure-hearted girl and sets her up to go through his gauntlet of tragic puppets before fucking with her himself to try and dick the whole thing over. Why? Because I think he likes having this world and all these fun toys (because he’s The Worst and a piece of shit) and he doesn’t want anyone else to be able to get out, just him.
That Black Rose Arc though:
Yeah what is up with that. I think the big thing the Black Rose Arc is teaching us is what it is exactly that is trapping each major character in Ohtori. It develops the main characters and these more minor characters by establishing these, for lack of a better word, chains on them and also on their linked major character. Everyone is a mirror, a look into themselves and the character associated with them.
Now, you might be asking, who is Kanae the mirror to? Akio or Anthy? Both but mostly Anthy. Kanae complains that no matter what she does Anthy doesn’t like her in a reflection of Anthy in that no matter what she does she does not feel she can cleanse her sins. I feel Kanae’s anguish over her relationship with Anthy mirrors Anthy’s relationship with herself. Kanae has the things she cannot have, a loving, healthy, relationship with her brother and a good life. And just like how Anthy cannot love Kanae, I feel Anthy also cannot bring herself to love herself.
Kozue reflects Miki in that he really needs to stop wanting to fuck his sister. (Some jokes for the people actually reading this long ass ramble.)
Shiori reflects every fucking time I failed to win her over in Tokimeki Memorial and FUCK YOU SHIORI YOU’RE NOT EVEN WORTH IT!! Juri who really needs to let go and learn to try to love again.
::Pauses:: ::Looks pointedly at herself:: (I’m working on it!)
Wakaba reflects Saionji in that Saionji feels like he’s a small fry in comparison to Touga. Touga gets all the girls, he’s the Main Character, and Saionji is always second string to him. Saionji also has that unhealthy love obsession with Anthy which Wakaba mirrors by having the same for Saionji.
Keiko is all about appropriate love and justice and Nanami is such a contentious character for me. When everything comes apart she’s the one who tries to hold everything together and the one who, to an extent, tries to get Utena to realize shit ain’t right. But she’s also almost completely self absorbed and creepy obsessed with Touga and just such a Mean Girl.
Touga doesn’t get a mirror… yet. He kind of figures it out on his own later (with Saionji’s help) but doesn’t quite get it right. I do believe he eventually figures himself out.
Anyway, the Black Rose Arc also acts as a further test of Utena’s resolve and the strength of her bond/relationship with Anthy. The whole thing is overseen by Souji, who is dead and a ghost, and the Chida he is seeing is just a projection of Akio’s. With Anthy is playing double duty, being both Chida for Souji and Anthy for everyone else (which is why she’s so tired and fucking out of it all the time. Practically falling asleep on her feet at times. Poor girl.) This is why Chida looks how he looks and why Chida is revealed to look completely different when Utena ghost busts Souji.
Souji is a tragic spirit, trapped in Ohtori just as much as everyone else. However he can’t face the truth and wants more than anything for the simulation to continue. He acts as a foil, a counterweight, to Utena. Challenging and tempting her with the promise of always being able to play out her fantasy as the dashing, rescuing, prince But never truly delivering. (Credit to Chorps again, he or his guest mentions this “Mirror of Utena” aspect to Souji in his podcast.)
We also learn more about Ohtori in the Black Rose Arc. It’s here where Ohtori is finally established as definitely otherworldly and supernatural when Tokiko (or whoever) comes back and observes that time doesn’t pass in Ohtori (or, at least, passes very slowly) as Akio hasn’t aged at all.
So What Exactly Happened?
Souji pretty much sees the truth when Utena busts him. All Akio’s bullshit crumbles away in that moment of defeat. Akio was trying to get to the dueling arena and open the way to the castle, and thus the door, and just throwing bodies at it with Souji’s help. (Manipulating him through Tokiko and Chida.) Souji breaks into the dueling arena proper so now Akio’s bullshit can start in earnest but somewhere along the way True Chida either dies or starts seriously dying before Akio could trick Souji into making True Chida the Rose Bride for Reasons (which I don’t think Akio would have allowed anyway because Akio needs Anthy to be the Rose Bride and he was just using Souji.) Souji rages and burns the whole thing down, because if X dead people is enough to open the way to the arena perhaps ALL THE DEAD PEOPLE will open the whole way and allow him to save True Chida who may or may not already be dead because Souji is just obsessed at this point. (I personally think Chida died before the fire but regardless when Souji lights the place up he killis all the duelists, True Chida (if he’s not already dead) and himself in the inferno.) Souji is now trapped by guilt and obsession and Akio brings him back to facilitate his schemes but Utena busts Souji and then Akio “graduates” him, setting his spirit free, because Souji’s work here is done. (Souji is the one who calls him on the phone at the end.)
And that’s my explanation for the Black Rose Arc.
I already talked about what the Final Arc is in my write up but Utena succeeds, opens the door, and truly reaches Anthy (and all the other students as well) revolutionizing their worlds. And now it’s just up to them to make their own way out, with Anthy leading the way, because Akio has no power here any more, no further hold on them, and nobody is keeping them there any more. The door is open.
My fan theory is they all make their way out and leave Akio a sad man, alone in an empty world with no toys.
Thanks for reading my write up, for watching this show, and for everything. This officially ends the Let’s Watch Revolutionary Girl Utena thread. (Though I will be keeping it open for stragglers and continued discussion.)
It’s time to move on now and the poll shows I should start a new thread for my next adventure so I shall. Please look forward to that and I hope to see you all in the next thread my friends. 
