Wow. It appears Kunihiko Ikuhara did his homework.

...

Mikage as a ho. ROFL.

It's the visual comparsion that matters. In the Sistine Chapel roof, God is giving life to Adam. If you look the scene in the series symbolically, you could say that Utena is giving life to Anthy. At the very least I'm certain that Ikuhara wanted to give a similar visual sensation as Michelangelo did.

Oh wow. I think subconsciously, I at least noticed that, because I remember watching that part and getting that kind of feel of the moment. Wonderful comparision.

ShatteredMirror wrote:

Mikage as a whore is funny, but Utena as God and Anthy as Adam? Anthy struck me more as Eve throughout most of the series, and Lilith at the end.

I never really understood what qualified Anthy as an Eve/Lillith archetype, given the loose parallels: First woman, tempted/becomes indulgent, spurned/banned from paradise. I don't see her as that kind of figure because the central characters around her don't really fit, I mean you could have Akio as the tempter and Utena as the redeemer, but who plays Adam and where does Dios come in? How is she banned from paradise through indulgence? She denies society her brother and is punished for it by being impaled, a bit different a story. And unlike those unlucky ladies of biblical/talmudic lore, Anthy is saved in the end.

My view on Anthy is more New Testament/Buddhist (it seems like a strange mixture, but it isn't really) I always felt that Akio was the Satanic figure, Utena was a sort of Christ figure, and Anthy was more like Judas (Et tu Brute?) or one of the damned. Akio represents all temptation, even tempting Utena, a theme that can be related to Satan tempting Jesus in the desert or Buddha facing the monster that is the darker self or illusion. Utena becomes the vessel for change (her name does mean calyx or however you spell it) and is sacrificed in the end to redeem/save/lift the veil of illusion of all those around her, something Christ does, and also the Buddhist key to enlightenment as well. Anthy is under illusion, soiled, and a character that betrays the savior but is eventually redeemed by the mercy of that savior/the Christ figure. Though Judas did hang himself, one can estimate, according to the story, that he was saved, being that Jesus sacrificed himself in place of all our sins, something that Utena does that releases Anthy from all illusion and control. Recall as well that while Jesus was on the cross, he had a doubtful hour, in which he cried out, "Lord, why have you betrayed me?" I think this is very similar to Utena's doubt before she is killed, "I guess I couldn't be a prince after all." Both he and Utena have seemed to misunderstand for a moment the magnitude of their sacrifice, and what they have achieved.

Just as a footnote: I am not Catholic. That's an endless debate for another thread. I'm comparing it to Utena as one story/mythology to another.

brian wrote:

On a different thread someone posted the following link:
http://www.broomstick.org/utena/mikage.html

Has anyone ever noticed these?
http://www.ohtori.nu/gallery/maison/UtenaAnthy40.jpg

http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Global/ … gelo_1.jpg

OMG!!!!!!!! that kinda explains the extreme christian themes mixed with sexual uncertainty, love, it explains the show. Those last two images explain a lot. The show is genius!

I actually did notice that when I saw the pic in the gallery. It was an immediate connection for me.  I'm still unsure on who plays what roles (Utena = God, Anthy = Adam/Eve) since I don't remember most of the background of the story. Still, that's a very interesting concept to go into, and I was stunned when I first noticed the resemblance of the scene.

The Jesus/Judas/Satan analysis is great, too. I never thought of that...