I agree.  Nice review, put together by someone who's obviously a fan of the show and has a lot of the same reasons I do for thinking the movie is a lesser work.  (In the past, JesuOtaku has put TV!Akio pretty high on her "Evilest Anime Villains of All Time" list.)  Great laugh lines, and a well-struck balance between analyzing the movie on one hand, and calling it out on its bullshit on the other hand.  I give this review 3.5 complaints about strangely colored hair out of 4. 

Reading the comments on this is sad. It's all the usual remarks and ignorance...

"WTF, this is so pretentious, it's just random crap that makes no sense at all!"

"I loved the Utena series, but this trainwreck is just an insult to it!"

"Uh, this was done by the same people who made "Lady Oscar", right...?"

The movie does make perfect sense, and it echoes perfectly all the message and meaning of the series. In fact, I personally find it a superior engine for getting that message across, due to the triumphant ending.

If there's anyone here who is intrigued by the movie but doesn't quite have a handle on it, I would be delighted if they would read my four analyses of the for major movie characters. Some people have apparently found them very enlightening:

Akio: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=1818
Utena: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=1835
Anthy: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=1872
Touga: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=1819

They're best read in this order.

Last edited by Aelanie (11-07-2011 01:44:38 PM)

I loved that review. It was all sorts of hilarious. I especially liked the rainbows and butterflies appearing when Akio did his "TOU!" jump, and of course, Oancitizen's reactions such as "OH GOD, OH GOD, THERE'S A HOLE IN HER!"

The only thing that sort of bothered me was when JesuOtaku explained the scene between Touga and Shiori as "she tries to persuade Touga to curse Utena for his current fate", which is incorrect since what Shiori asked Touga was to beat Juri, but he said he couldn't be cruel towards her.

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

I kinda avoided watching this one, since Jesuotaku was pretty downright mean and adamant about Shoujo Kakumei Utena not being a shoujo-ai and shaming the fans who see it that way for sullying the series by seeing romantic potential between Utena and Anthy, and that the latent homosexuality expressed in the movie is what made it a lesser work.  Because homosexuality is always EROTIC (because it is deviant!) and thus lesbianism would just insult the source material with its superficiality and raunchiness.   It got to the point where it really did feel like she had some latent homophobia to work through.  I just don't want to watch anything more of hers where she touts this holier-than-thou attitude about that particular aspect of the show like she did a few months ago.  Is this one free of that sheet?


Edit:  Just to clarify, I do like everything else about Jesuotaku and her show.  Her opinions are genius and her humor spot on, and her reviews very creative in their various formats.  She puts a lot of thought and effort into her reviews and perspective, and it shows.  Her belligerent behavior /off/ the reviews concerning shoujo-ai just pissed me off.

Yeah, I would say definitely steer clear of it. I clicked straight onto it because Oancitizen had done fairly good reviews of Shortbus and Angels in America (and really, TGWTG always needs some more queerness in its content), and I'd completely forgotten that JO had said that bullshit about the series. At the end I just kind of sighed and put my head in my hands. JO tries to make this weird point toward the end that the "message" of the movie is that men can never be good enough and that lesbian romance is pure and wonderful.

Which is... I mean, I know I shouldn't expect really strong textual analysis from a site like TGWTG, but it was just such a total cop-out from actually engaging with the film and thinking outside of the model of compulsory heterosexuality. There's plenty to critique in the film, and I don't think they failed to make any good point. But there was just an impenetrable wall of het privilege sitting between them and an interesting discussion of the movie.

Ah, that's very unfortunate. (Makes me glad I didn't actually watch the review.) I hope somebody sometime has pointed out to her that that was Ikuhara's intention all along...not that it would make a difference to people of that mindset.

Last edited by Aelanie (11-28-2011 02:19:01 PM)

Yeah, I was kinda hoping that as Jesuotaku grew up, went to a artsy college, and joined a site whose (reviewers) are for the most part pretty open minded (not the commenters, so much) that a lot of that would change.  Sadness.

Not to mention, does anyone remember in her "Top 20 favorite Anime" video(s) when she was talking about Kino's Journey.  "Now, I'm not a feminist or anything, because frankly I don't think most of what they bitch about are actual problems...."  Paraphrased, but she did use the terms "bitch" and "feminist."  I wanted to say something so badly, to write as nice and well reasoned response as I could have, one that would have stated my problems with what she said without being mean, causing drama or distracting too much from the fact that other than that, I did like the video -but couldn't.  Because no matter how I would have said it, especially in an online written format, I would just been "proving her right" by showing even the slightest displeasure at such a comment.  That's why this shit is considered a silencing tactic.  Women don't complain, they bitch.  Bitch, which means feminine, is the word we use to describe irrational complaining or complaining about things that don't matter.  I don't care much when people use the word in general, because I understand the issue is complex and so are people's uses of the word,  but in contexts like this it definitely does cause me to raise an eyebrow.

So, thanks for the gendered slur in reference to a women's rights movement.  Feminist or no (because identifying as one is a choice, and not all feminists are for equality, and because there is serious problems with gender, sexuality and race erasing in the movement itself) going out of your way to curse about people who are, for the most part, only trying to help by spreading the inaccurate stereotype that all feminists are over-sensitive whiners and dismissing many of the issues they care about without any further rationalization or follow up?  Come on.  That's fucking cheap for a girl who is as intelligent and analytical as her -and for one who (not necessarily wrongly) often tries to take a moral high road when it comes to anime that contain damaging or offensive messages, even if it's only to explore and not to condemn. 

/uh sorry for the random rant.  >.>


Edit:  Also, surest way NOT to get an STD?   There is no surest way.   You can always be monogamous with someone who hasn't, with someone who lies.  You can abstain from sex... that works if you are around people who respect your consent.  Also.  Don't kiss anyone you love or let them kiss your baby, since herpes can spread even when it isn't flaring up that way, and the whole baby kissing thing is why people are suspecting that more and more people are getting herpes at very young ages.

Last edited by OnlyInThisLight (11-29-2011 05:40:02 PM)

Aelanie wrote:

Reading the comments on this is sad. It's all the usual remarks and ignorance...

"WTF, this is so pretentious, it's just random crap that makes no sense at all!"

"I loved the Utena series, but this trainwreck is just an insult to it!"

"Uh, this was done by the same people who made "Lady Oscar", right...?"

The movie does make perfect sense, and it echoes perfectly all the message and meaning of the series. In fact, I personally find it a superior engine for getting that message across, due to the triumphant ending.

If there's anyone here who is intrigued by the movie but doesn't quite have a handle on it, I would be delighted if they would read my four analyses of the for major movie characters. Some people have apparently found them very enlightening:

Akio: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=1818
Utena: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=1835
Anthy: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=1872
Touga: http://forums.ohtori.nu/viewtopic.php?id=1819

They're best read in this order.

These are awesome. Thank you. Kinda gives me a lot more appreciation for the movie and makes me want to watch it again for like the 10th time.

I think you guys are being a bit too serious.
I mean, I had no idea that JesuOtaku has problems with homosexuality and think feminists bitch a lot.
But I don't really care, I mean that's her opinion. It's a funny review, and it mentions neither of the above things, so why not just enjoy it?

Eh. Admittedly I did a double take when she mentioned the female love is pure thing at the end, but aside from that I thought it was pretty good. Granted, for this series, it's kind of necessary to have an open mind about that sort of thing. But I'm with Louchan in that I think since it doesn't impact the review terribly much, we should just look at it for what it is, and what it is is pretty amusing. Disclaimer: I do not endorse homophobia or homophobic views.

Last edited by Orikan (12-04-2011 03:04:06 PM)

Louchan wrote:

I think you guys are being a bit too serious.
I mean, I had no idea that JesuOtaku has problems with homosexuality and think feminists bitch a lot.
But I don't really care, I mean that's her opinion. It's a funny review, and it mentions neither of the above things, so why not just enjoy it?

Actually, those opinions influenced the structure and content of her review, and gave it a whole bunch of weaknesses and coded-homophobic 'humour' that meant I wasn't having a good time watching it. So, uh, you know, it's nice that you don't care and all but I didn't find it funny and didn't enjoy it?

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

I kinda avoided watching this one, since Jesuotaku was pretty downright mean and adamant about Shoujo Kakumei Utena not being a shoujo-ai and shaming the fans who see it that way for sullying the series by seeing romantic potential between Utena and Anthy, and that the latent homosexuality expressed in the movie is what made it a lesser work.  Because homosexuality is always EROTIC (because it is deviant!) and thus lesbianism would just insult the source material with its superficiality and raunchiness.   It got to the point where it really did feel like she had some latent homophobia to work through.  I just don't want to watch anything more of hers where she touts this holier-than-thou attitude about that particular aspect of the show like she did a few months ago.  Is this one free of that sheet?

Wait. Where is this previous review? I can't seem to find it, and it sounds like it would change my opinion quite a bit.

I watched it and enjoyed it. I like JO's sense of humor, and I thought the choice of crossover was a good one. Definitely entertaining to watch, and it made me chuckle, so yeah, no complaints there.

Last edited by RadiantBeam (12-04-2011 04:55:05 PM)