My sister and I watched it and kept going "That's Utena, that's Utena, that's Utena..." There was also a bit, either in the opening credits or in the dream sequences with Serenity and Endymion, where their arms slip out of each others grasp. Very Utena. We weren't watching it on the computer otherwise I'd've taken a screenshot.

Last edited by MissMocha (07-08-2014 07:18:08 AM)

While I think that ending shot with Endymion and Serenity on the water looks like the dance scene from the Utena movie, I think it was more of a reference to the first ending from the original SM, Heart Moving.

The second ending, Princess Moon, is probably where the silhouette/shadows came from.

So, Ikuhara has been working on SM from day one, but he didn't have any real creative control until he become director at the start of the Crystal Tokyo half of R.

Yeah, I also thought of Princess Moon when I saw the Shadow People ( I wonder if that's where Ikuhara got it from?)- and I'd forgotten about the rose frames on the characters, definitely very utena-esque

purplepolecat wrote:

The blue-haired genius is invited to a seminar for high achievers, but the secret goal is brainwashing! YES THAT DOES SOUND FAMILIAR

I'm missing something. It's Ami's standard intro, but other than very broadly did it happen in SKU?

purplepolecat wrote:

The blue-haired genius is invited to a seminar for high achievers, but the secret goal is brainwashing! YES THAT DOES SOUND FAMILIAR

Which is extra hilarious considering Aya Hisakawa was voicing both of them back then.

Hi, new member here!

Popping in to say: Trufax, Sailor Moon Crystal inspired me to revisit Utena, and now I've got a childhood friend into it. We watched the first six episodes before she left for vacation, and afterward, we compared Takarazuka-style theatre to some of the Sailor Moon musicals, especially in regards to Ono Hikari and her brilliant portrayal of Prince Diamond/Demande/OMG THERE ARE TOO MANY SPELLINGS.

I love seeing these parallels and look forward to seeing what other parallels might be discerned in the coming episodes. I'll watch with Utena-vision from now on.

Theoretical Lesbian wrote:

[...] afterward, we compared Takarazuka-style theatre to some of the Sailor Moon musicals[...]

Well the revue has inspired like everything in anime-manga style:
1. all bishounen everywhere are inspired by the perfection of the male impersonators
2. strong androgynous females? ya got it
3. fairy tale prince saving/loving/etc the lady in distress? pretty much everything about the revue
4. evil characters who are too handsome to be mad at them (ahem Akio ahem) (just like the Der Tod from Elizabeth musical)
5. male femininity
6. Look at Touga! He is the play boy of play boys sleeps with everything in dress (or not ) but he is very gentle to everyone of his lovers and claims to be a feminist. Well damn he does remind me of certain male impersonations
7. Utena, was inspired from Oscar, who was inspired from Princess knight who was inspired from, what else, the revue

Osamu Tezuka who made Princess knight as his first shoujo manga, he was born and grew up in the town of Takarazuka, his mom was regular theatre goer and if I remember correctly she was friends with a member of the revue, Tezuka was theatre going with his mom. Princess knight was a girl, dressed and acted as a boy, for reasons.

The next step was Oscar, born a girl to a father of other six daughters with no heir to succeed him so he raised her as a boy. The Revue adopted the story after a fan suggested it, and because of  the whole matching philosophy behind the "girl dresses and acts as a boy" concept, Berubara became the biggest hit of the Revue of all times, and still sells like bananas even after 40 years of repeating the show. So it was basically a story returning to its roots.
(here the latest Oscar:)



Utena inspired by this concept was a girl dressed like a boy, and wanting to be a prince.

after Utena we have Ran from Hana no Kishi, she is a girl dressed like a boy, and the world doesn't know what lays under her fabulous 黒燕尾(black tailcoat which is the number one symbol of male impersonators) she is a bodyguard of a filthy rich girl and she is called the first knight. The Rich girl is the typical Noble, super kind and caring, super beautiful and charming, yet unreachable and perfect, similar to many others before her with the SM related example of Michiru. Which is also a Revue element for the female impersonators.

so pretty much everything shoujo has a reference to the revue here and there.

As for Sailor moon, Takeuchi sensei herself is a huge fan of the Revue, she based Mamoru (the manga one at least) on male impersonators (kuroenbi, tallhat, cane) he is smooth and kind and saves the lady in distress. Also if someone looks at the material collection books, Haruka, Michiru and Taiki were created as being member of the revue, especially Taiki was marked as 200% revue type, while Haruka got her low sexy voice, handsomeness, and charm, and Michiru the absolute perfection of every top female impersonator. Rumours have it that these two were based on a popular top combi at the time, since their hobbies of violinplaying, painting for Michiru, and fast cars for Haruka, were listed as hobbies of that top combination as well, but with just about everything concerning the revue, the connection was never confirmed and Takeuchi sensei never even made her character as part of the Revue in end (just the idea was stated in the material collection book)

The musicals now were totally inspired by the concept as there were male characters played by women, but also former members were part of the cast, fist Beryl for example. The current musicals are in entirety of female cast, Tux boy is a former Top Star, Beryl is also an OG male impersonator, and Zoicite also an OG "boy". The new one continues with the same Tux boy, and two more OG's joing in as Demando and Sapphire. Takeuchi sensei has her dream come true

Utena musicals back in the day were also all female casted AND 3 OGs played Utena, Saionji and Dios/Akio, actually them were the reason I found out about the Revue and became an instant fan

Last edited by Karuka (07-28-2014 12:36:46 AM)