Okay, this thread was partly brought on by a seminar for my German literature class the other day where we discussed German expressionism, mainly through poetry. Basically, a lot of things that were mentioned really reminded me of Utena and in some way helped me to understand some points about the series I'd been a little confused on. Granted, that was not the point of the seminar... but still. I thought it'd be interested to have a thread discussing expressionism and an expressionist view of SKU.

I'm not terribly good at explaining things at the best of times, so to start off with I'll rely on good ol' wikipedia. The first link leads to a page all about expressionism, for those who aren't that familiar with it, and the second leads just to German expressionism, which is more about a film movement that anything else, but I think it gives an interesting view of some of the visuals of Utena, particularly the movie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_expressionism

The part of expressionism that linked back to Utena for me was this feeling held by the authors that they wanted to rebel against the morals of their parents. More specifically in 1920s Germany (and much of the western world,) this meant their strict, narrow views of sexuality, and of the roles of men and women. There was even an academic journal called "Der Bastard", which showed just how much they wanted to be distant from their parents, so much that they saw themselves as a generation without parents. It reminded me so much of the general lack of parents in Utena and Kozue's comment about her and Miki being "wild animals." And I forget the exact quote, but Tsuwabuki says something along the lines of wanting to be an adult so he can crush all other adults while in Mikage's elevator.

Expressionist took a lot of their ideals from Nietzsche, such as the infamous concept of the Übermensch, or "Superman," special being above us all who will destroy the world as it is and bring on a new revolution. (...Sound familiar? :3) Not to mention the idea that we alone are responcible for our own suffering and unhappiness, and then as a concequence we alone are capable of saving ourselves, which does seem to me at least to be drilled in pretty hard in the series, especially with regards to Anthy.

So... yeah! If anyone has anything they'd like to add and discuss, please go ahead! I'm sure there are many people on the forum who know way more about this than me. I've only done a bit on Expressionism and a little on Nietzsche, but that was back in my first year on Uni. So yes, please discuss away!