Episode 36, Touga and Saionji walk towards Utena & Anthy framed with white roses with an obscured silhouette, rather like the time Utena first starts thinking of Touga as her prince.

I found watching Saionji in it to be very interesting. Especially because, for several scenes, he remains entirely quiet. Which is unusual for Saionji.( As a side note, I love his eloquence. He is always interesting to listen to and has such a particular way of speaking. He doesn't just say 'you can come to my room,' no, he says 'you are generally welcome in my domain'. )

In any case, during the scene where Touga challenges Utena to a duel, Saionji walks over to Anthy and flops down with his head on her lap. Otherwise they ignore each other. What's interesting to me is that Saionji, since returning from being expelled, displays zero interest in Anthy. Even after his trip to End of the World, he seems more crazed and going through the motions than actively pursuing Anthy. He tells Utena straight out during their duel that Anthy cares for no one and has no feelings, in sharp contrast to his usual 'Anthy and I are lovu lovuu'. He honestly does not seem to be fighting for Anthy at all and after the duel never approaches or speaks with her again.

And then this scene pops up. In some ways I thought it was rather like a 'fuck you' to Anthy on Saionji's part. "I know you're putting on the docile act and have to put up with me so I will infringe on your personal space, but you mean nothing to me anymore, so I will neither speak to you nor look you in the face.' Anthy gives him exactly the reaction he knows she will; she ignores him.



I CAN DO PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE TOO, ANTHY.

He then continues his silence, playing the perfect Rose Bride to Touga, his face is partially hidden in the car that circles the arena, he assists Touga without speaking or overtly interfering and he ignores Anthy.

Just a thought.

SO this was some nice episode analysis and then this happened:



I am not exaggerating when I say this series still gives me occasional chills.

Last edited by YamPuff (03-13-2015 01:56:46 AM)

turkicnomad wrote:

There's a file on my desktop labelled "utena dead duelists" with screenshots of all of the corpses before they are unceremoniously thrown into Hell. Let me tell you, the faces and hairstyles of all these young men mimic the living duelists uncannily. It's not okay. Shiori's surrogate corpse has a bird laying in the casket. There is also an unusual inconsistency in shoe placement. However, the twin's surrogates is the worst.

It did occur to me once that the guys in the coffins were probably all different but I never ended up actually pausing the frames to check it out. I was usually too busy puzzling over the stuff going on in the Black Rose Arc. But DAMN. This is way creepy and very not okay.

Utena: slower than a duck.

Jacrad wrote:

I believe the people shown in the coffin were added to the remastered edition released by RightStuf. I'm curious if they were taken from unused cels that were made for the show or if they were created completely new on the computer?

So they weren't in the original release? That's the version I first watched...hmmm. Really interesting. Besides being a neat/creepy little thing to notice, I wonder what it is meant to symbolize, or represent?

Okay, this wasn't from watching the show but after watching an Utena AMV for the umpteenth time I realized that the wall with all the pictures Utena stands in front of at Nemuro Memorial Hall in episode 23 has photos of real people.

Each time a character's shirt is open sex is implied. Open flies, cars, and beds may also be interpreted as symbols for sex. This show has way more sexual innuendos than I realized! And this was for kids?!

Two characters exist. Therefore, they have sex.

Unless part of the basis of their characterization is a lack of sex.

Atropos wrote:

Counterargument: Miki and Saionji, Miki and Juri, Miki and Nanami. Maybe there's just something about Miki?

He's one of the only characters Akio doesn't even try to put the moves on.
But Mikage kinda hits on him so I guess it evens out.

YamPuff wrote:

Atropos wrote:

Counterargument: Miki and Saionji, Miki and Juri, Miki and Nanami. Maybe there's just something about Miki?

He's one of the only characters Akio doesn't even try to put the moves on.

Good point, maybe Akio has a contagious strain of nymphomania, which Miki and Juri would never have caught because neither communicates with him like, at all. He's not even the prime mover in their car rides. But my point was that Miki would be the character whose characterization is a lack of sex. (Tsuwabuki as well, and to some extent, Saionji. He seems a lot more relaxed at the end of the show, though...not reassuring given who his likely options are by then.)

DorianGray345 wrote:

Gio, this is not good for my brain!

Neither is SKU, my friend. Neither is SKU.

Oh I agree! I'm sorry, I was being sarcastic before, hence the circular reasoning.

I don't think of the entire cast as a bunch of sex-crazed maniacs. And no, most of the characters either aren't having it, or aren't having it lots. I'm just self-aware enough that to hear me say it, everyone is constantly stumbling face first onto either Akio's or Touga's cock. It's kind of a headcanon fantasy version of the show to me.

Giovanna wrote:

Oh I agree! I'm sorry, I was being sarcastic before, hence the circular reasoning.

See, now I feel like an asshole. Sorry.

It's way too blurry to be like, "that's definitely on purpose!" but I noticed when looking at one of the collages from the artbooks (in which it looks a lot less blurry), that the shadow cast by the headlights of the cars that circle around Utena and Touga during their last duel looks a lot like the swords.  Pointy and with that sort of semi-wing-ish shape from episode 34.

Saw this on Facebook and it creeped me out, looks like the 100 boys Nemuro torched.