This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)

#1 | Back to Top03-20-2012 05:12:56 PM

Overlord Morgus
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I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

Utena = Amuro Ray, young, spirited, "heroic" character who's kind of hazy on what exactly he/she is fighting for.

Akio Ohtori = Char Aznable, sometimes a schemer, sometimes a well-meaning extremist, sometimes a mentor figure, always universally admired, brilliant at everything except achieving his ultimate ends. A noble failure. Also, in Zeta Gundam, he wears some sunglasses and calls himself "Quattro Bajeena" and everyone's surprised when he reveals his true identity even though it's completely obvious, kind of like it's kind of retarded that Utena is surprised when Akio reveals himself to be the End of the World.

Anthy = Sayla Mass/Lalah Sune. Spiritual and gentle sexually exploited Indian woman, is exploited by the Akio/Char Aznable for her power. Starts the series looking for her lost Nii-San but ends up hating the monster he's become.

Keep in mind that I don't resent these resemblances in the least. Every scene with Lalah and Amuro in it makes me bawl...

Last edited by Overlord Morgus (03-20-2012 06:22:44 PM)

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#2 | Back to Top03-20-2012 05:42:01 PM

Atropos
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Re: I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

Utena isn't very similar to Amuro. Amuro is antisocial and has lots of pent-up issues that he can't face. Utena is personable and likes to talk about her issues...at least the ones she remembers.

Touga could also be A CHAR - his signature color is red, he's a dashing rival to the main character, and the manga depicts him as joining Utena's side after being defeated, suggestive of Amuro and Char allying during Zeta.

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#3 | Back to Top03-20-2012 05:43:31 PM

Overlord Morgus
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Re: I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

This is Shoujou, also, it takes place at Anime Boarding School, she can't be holed up in her room building robots. She can't sew, either, shoujou girls can't sew.

And now that I think of it, Nanami is a much better Sayla.

Last edited by Overlord Morgus (03-20-2012 05:47:16 PM)

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#4 | Back to Top03-21-2012 01:34:01 PM

Rotten Mooring
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Re: I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

You know, the fan of my heart really wants to compare SKU and the Gundam franchise, but the rest of me doesn't think it's gonna happen emot-frown. It's true, both series are largely about adolescence and coming in to one's own, but I can't think of much else they have in common thematically.

The larger problem I have with comparing the characters is much the same as Atropos already noted. Amuro is pulled into the conflict against his will and struggles to determine what, exactly, he is or should be fighting for for much of the series. SKU opens by launching Utena onto the screen and announcing her will to fight for the things she believes in (becoming a prince who saves princesses). Amuro had to be dragged to the fore while Utena jumped in raring to go!

Stemming from this is the way the two series present disparate ideas on what they (and by extension we) should fight for and views on fighting in general. Gundam, as a franchise, is well known for being anti-war, but the original Mobile Suit Gundam, with it's philosophies on New Types and understanding one another, could be said to take things even further by being anti-conflict. SKU, on the other hand, has got a lot more Row Row, Fight The Powah to it, praising Utena's strength and presenting an encouraging attitude about sticking to your guns and not backing down or taking an easier path when conflict arises. These basic differences leave us with two shows that are radically different because much of what they are and much of what they present stems from these differences.




Aaaaaaand I did not intend to begin babbling, but there you go... I suppose tea and a rainy day can have this affect on a Mooring emot-keke.

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#5 | Back to Top03-21-2012 07:20:45 PM

Overlord Morgus
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Re: I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

Another difference is that the protagonists in Gundam never really had a clear reason for joining combat, while Utena did. Lalah commented on how Amuro had no family to fight for and that it was unnatural for him to fight the way he did, Camille seemed to want nothing more than to prove his awesomeness and be praised by the AEUG, and Judau continued to fight against Axis Zeon even after he had attained his original goal of finding his sister. Utena, on the other hand, had a desire to become a prince so that she could protect Anthy that mutated into a desire to be a prince for its own sake but then turned into a desire to protect Anthy.

Nietzsche felt that having a strong belief system could at times function as a way of compensating for a weak sense of self, possibly serving as a crude substitute, which is definitely what we see with Gundam protagonists and possibly with Utena.

Last edited by Overlord Morgus (03-21-2012 07:50:21 PM)

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#6 | Back to Top04-29-2012 07:11:53 PM

Overlord Morgus
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Re: I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

The Seitokai maps onto the Zabi family. Touga is Gihren, Saionji is Dozle, Juri is Kycilia and Miki is Garma, at least for the Student Council Saga.

Souji is a good Paptimus Scirocco stand-in, a very crafty high-functioning autistic who's unbeatable by normal methods but is destroyed by a spiritual attack. Also, he's good at getting Utena's trusted companions to betray her, kind of like how he subverts Reccoa.

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#7 | Back to Top06-05-2012 12:09:53 AM

Android raptor
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From: North GA, USA
Registered: 08-11-2009
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Re: I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

Oh hey look someone made a thread just for me!

To be honest I think Akio is more Giren than anyone else. Calm, collected, brilliant, and utterly sociopathic in his manipulation of people. Char is more of a combination of Touga and Ruka IMHO, since he's not nearly as in touch with how terrible he is (ala Ruka's self-righteousness) and whatnot. I also think the way Giren uses his father is comparable to a combination of Akio's relationship with Anthy and the original Ohtori chairman.

,fhvilguilu would write some mighty tl;dr on this but I need sleep at the moment.   

Why haven't I written my essay on how Nemuro is basically Ghinius Sakhalin done right yet? emot-gonk

Last edited by Android raptor (06-05-2012 12:15:34 AM)

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#8 | Back to Top07-09-2012 12:27:00 PM

Overlord Morgus
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Re: I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

The Akio/Char analogy also works in that he's looked up to by everybody, and yet he never manages to defeat anybody who's any good. Even in the last duel, he seems to give Utena less trouble than most of the Student Council did in the second round of duels, and that's without Anthy giving Utena power.

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#9 | Back to Top10-09-2012 05:18:15 PM

Overlord Morgus
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Re: I see some parallels between this and Mobile Suit Gundam

My Gundam fanfic is going to have a Sparta-like society ruled over by a vat-grown 12 year old ubermensch. They're a collection of colonies orbiting Mars that was originally put there by the Earth Federation to research zero-gravity combat and stuff like that. Since then, they've diverged from the original mission quite a bit.

There are 4 castes in their society.

The first would be technocrats/philosophers/mandarins who design the living spaces, create social engineering policy, perform scientific experiments, and even draw up battle plans. While in Earth-bound societies, this would allow them to do things like accept bribes and stuff, these people are actually the most regulated people in Mars-Sparta. Cameras linked up to an AI are everywhere in the colony in which they reside, and they are almost never allowed to leave. There are about 2000 of them and they are basically prisoners of the ubermensch.

The second would be the genetically engineered soldier-citizens, the spartiates. These would be like the duelists from Utena. They even sleep in regeneration tanks to allow them to maintain optimal health and physical prowess, like the black coffins. Spartiates are taught to worship strength and mental ability and to be bold and, if necessary, self-sacrificing. A small percentage is sent to Earth to infiltrate militaries, corporations, and infrastructural bureaucracies. The ubermensch-child is the strongest and therefore is obeyed implicitly.

The third would be the free men, the perioikoi. Mars-Sparta owns a lot of corporations planetside for the sole purpose of manipulating Earth politics and funneling industrial capital towards the Martian colonies. The corporate heads act on orders from the technocrats, and the sleeper agents within their organizations ensure that these orders are carried out.

The fourth would be the prisoners/helots/slaves. Mars-Sparta runs a space prison that has maybe 15% of Humanity's prisoners, that is, over a million of them. They range from serial killers to religious and civil rights leaders to former prostitutes. The female/male ratio is consciously kept high at around 6:4 so that the possibility of and desire for revolt is minimized. Their environment is like the World of Tomorrow as Walt Disney envisioned it. The colony's "natural beauty" is far in excess of Earth's. Prisoners are given free access to Earth entertainments and are even encouraged to farm their own crops. And of course, maybe 1% of the helots are actually spartiate spies/assassins. Helots occasionally "disappear" into technocrat experiments. Overall, though, the people can't complain, as the prisoners generally are much more liberated socially than on Earth. No searching for jobs, no applications for every little resource expenditure, no laws aside from those banning rape and murder. There is not even enclosure of land.

Last edited by Overlord Morgus (10-11-2012 04:57:23 PM)

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