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 Top06-22-2009 11:34:25 PM

Siatiger
New Student
Registered: 04-03-2009
Posts: 8

what does miki's watch mean?

three Q for miki's watch

first, why he chech stop watch sometimes? just do without reason?

second, when he check the time, the numbers. is there another points or keywards?

third, why he send his stop watch to zchwabuki ?(sry,I don't konw his name exatly he is nanami's elder boy)

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#2 | Back to Top06-23-2009 10:25:56 AM

brian
Atlantean Singer
Registered: 10-22-2006
Posts: 589

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

It could be just a nervous tick. emot-rolleyes
It may symbolize his obsession, which is shared by others, for manipulating time -- either stopping it or accelerating it or reversing it.
More specifically I can't even guess.

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#3 | Back to Top06-23-2009 11:36:23 AM

Razara
Marionette Mistress
From: Wuzzy Happy Akio Town (What?)
Registered: 10-17-2006
Posts: 4694

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

He clicks his stop watch after an event that leads to the climax of the current events. For example, his watch has not stopped running during Utena's duel with Akio, because the true climax is when Anthy stabs Utena, and not the duel itself. He startles Nanami by clicking his stop watch in episode 8 as she watches her minions harass Anthy, because it's this ill behavior towards Anthy that was the cause of all of this. In other words, he keeps track of events leading to the revolution.

If you look at the numbers on his stop watch, a lot of the time, episode numbers with some relation to the plot show up. Anything above 39 is beyond the revolution.

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#4 | Back to Top06-23-2009 12:11:16 PM

spoon-san
Someday Shiner
Registered: 03-18-2009
Posts: 3423

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

I largely like Razara's ideas.  Still, though, I wonder if the stopwatch at all is just something Ikuhara thought 'looks cool.'  But at the very least, I am confident that the stopwatch helps give the viewer an understanding of Miki's character and purpose  as well as adding a certain sense of significance to certain scenes.

In the last duel, especially, I see the stopwatch running as heightening the sense of epicness relating to the end of the world with time running out and giving a sense of ultimacy and that now is the culmination of all things.  So I think the stopwatch manipulates scenes in various ways and keeps the viewer on a level of trying to intperpret things whether the stopwatch has any added significance or not.

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#5 | Back to Top06-23-2009 01:30:22 PM

End of the Tour
Ballgoer
From: The Nowhere Islands
Registered: 09-11-2008
Posts: 143

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

In the commentary on the very last episode, Ikuhara says something about the numbers being the timing of the last thing a character said, or the last dialog exchange, or something along those lines.  That doesn't answer any of the bigger questions, of course.


Sometimes life is about making difficult sandwiches.

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#6 | Back to Top06-23-2009 05:01:32 PM

Charuru
Ohtori Paramouri
Registered: 06-05-2009
Posts: 90

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

I thought this was a fairly worthwhile interpretation:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2804354/26/ … rture_Miki

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#7 | Back to Top06-23-2009 09:54:03 PM

BioKraze
Faceless Master
From: Yuma, Arizona (USA)
Registered: 11-26-2006
Posts: 8282

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

Everybody in SKU has their quirks and fascinations. Miki's most glaring one just happens to be the stopwatch. While it does come in handy for his role in the Student Council (if memory serves me right, he's the secretary and thus the minutes-taker for each session), it may also be a source of familiarity and peace to him. Everybody's got that one thing in their lives they can rely on, and for Miki, it can't be the piano (he's always saying that he can never get "Sunlit Garden" just right) and it can't be Kozue (because like all SKU characters, she's a dynamic being, not a static one). So the stopwatch it is.

As to why he's so obssessive-compulsive about timing anything other than a Seitokai meeting, and what the numbers truly mean, you'd have to ask Kunihiko "Ikuni" Ikuhara about that, and he's famous for not giving you a straight answer...or giving you the real answer behind some piece of symbolism in the series, but it's so simplistic and seemingly meaningless that you think he's just pulling your leg...

Until then, we debate symbolism until the very shores of the End of Time and beyond! emot-dance

(Also, Charuru? Good plug for that fic. I've read it and I highly recommend it to anybody who likes symbolism, crackfic and doesn't mind a good jab or two at Miki if he's their favourite character.)


Roses have thorns to stop those who would dare deny their right to live.
Razara's Postulate: For every lover of lesbians out there, there is an equal and opposite attraction to Dippin' Dots.

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#8 | Back to Top06-24-2009 06:02:01 PM

Tamago
God of Comedy
From: Minami Goushuu
Registered: 10-17-2006
Posts: 14280
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

Miki is a teenage boy and as such, he times how long he can keep his mind off of sex, for most part he cant stop thinking about sex for even two minutes.

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#9 | Back to Top06-25-2009 08:54:49 AM

sharnii
Pharaoh of Phanstuff
From: Melbourne Australia
Registered: 08-10-2008
Posts: 2416
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

brian: It may symbolize his obsession, which is shared by others, for manipulating time

I admit, I always figured it was this - that Miki wanted to stop time and be in the sunlit garden forever, as being representative of having a good relationship with his twin.

But...

I think Razara's explanation is epic win! etc-love

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#10 | Back to Top06-25-2009 02:42:19 PM

hollow_rose
Egghead
From: Ohio
Registered: 10-26-2008
Posts: 1074

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

I think its a nervous habit left over from his cram school days. In cram school, some of them, they time how long it takes someone to answer a question with a stopwatch.


20 threads dead so far.

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#11 | Back to Top06-26-2009 01:58:50 AM

Siatiger
New Student
Registered: 04-03-2009
Posts: 8

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

thanks for answers
but last Q no one answers....

is there any other think? or can't understnad what i mean.....

i wanna answer why the elder boy(nanami's) get the stopwatch from Miki at last sceen..

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#12 | Back to Top06-26-2009 02:29:06 AM

sharnii
Pharaoh of Phanstuff
From: Melbourne Australia
Registered: 08-10-2008
Posts: 2416
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

Answer for 3rd question
Tsuwabuki Mitsuru is the boy!

And he got the stopwatch because he's Miki's successor (in a way) - in the sense that time is very important to him since he desperately wants to grow up. Miki is tutoring him, and helping him move on in life (helping him grow up).

This is ironic (and shows the world revolution imnsho) because Miki was always the one who was stuck in the past...but now he is helping someone to move onto the future.

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#13 | Back to Top07-03-2009 10:04:39 PM

Setsuna
Tragedian
Registered: 02-25-2009
Posts: 1370

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

1. Like many prodigies, he is has a form of OCD.
2.This keeps his mind preoccupied, and helps him listen.
3. He is minute taker
4. There is a symbolic message somewhere...like Razaara and BioKraze stated. emot-smile
5. Maybe he just fucking feels like having a stopwatch! emot-mad

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#14 | Back to Top07-05-2009 08:42:02 PM

junior
New Student
Registered: 11-18-2006
Posts: 9
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

I think the stopwatch has to do with dramatic timing.  Its a playful reflection on the role of the director and the way the timing of a scene is put together.  Micky will click the watch in response to a dramatic line or a dramatic beat, which sometimes changes the flow of the dialogue.  Utena asks about the Nemuro memorial hall, then *click* Miki starts stating exposition about it and the scene is different.  At one point he does it at the end of a scene, *click* next scene!

A director or editor can play with time in different ways when putting a scene together.  A character might say at school "Let's go to the pool!" cut to a close up of a seagull, cut out to the characters at the pool- the time in between is left out because there is no reason you'd just want to watch the characters watching.  When there's a cut to the close up of the stop watch, it breaks up the scene and can be used for a transition in the same sense.  I think that Miki is timing the dramatic beats of the story.  He's actually a musical protegy, but I think dialogue in a story can have and tone and flow the same way that music can. 

In the episode where Nanami wants to make Miki dislike Anthy by putting pets all over, the scene "resets" to the next pet with the stopwatch close up shot, and the same gag repeats.  It's the sort of thing a director or editor or storyboarding or whomever would plan when laying out the scene, and the stopwatch is a playful joke relating to it.  In that case, Nanami having failed *click* a little later, characters studying and doing homework some more, and Nanami grabbing for another animal. 

When Miki is teaching Tswabuki, it's just because the characters are growing up and getting closer to graduation and moving on.  I don't think it relates to the "joke".

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#15 | Back to Top07-06-2009 09:20:37 PM

brian
Atlantean Singer
Registered: 10-22-2006
Posts: 589

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

Wow! You may well have peeked into Ikuhara's mind!

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#16 | Back to Top11-05-2009 10:03:37 PM

Cyrias
Tenjou Tilter
From: Exploring the psyche
Registered: 10-04-2009
Posts: 83

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

When Miki's stopwatch breaks... the Universe stops the flow of time and relativity? *The Twilight Zone* emot-rofl That's my best theory, or Miki's watch helps him calculate the countdown to Akio's End of the World Scenario.


In lumine tuo, videbimus amor ('In your light, we shall love') Slippy slippery mambo~ everyone at Ohtori is in some kind of spiritual land, created by Goddess Anthy and her brother Akio?!

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#17 | Back to Top09-08-2010 12:05:12 PM

Notebook Darling
Black Rosarian
From: The Netherlands
Registered: 12-21-2008
Posts: 372
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

OMGOMGOMGOMG:dance:emot-dance

I think his stopwatch is because he's secretary of the Student Council. I saw him clicking and then writing. Perhaps he uses the stopwatch to time the meetings? Because obviously there is no watch on the balcony.
Maybe he took this clicking into his everyday life?

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#18 | Back to Top09-09-2010 08:43:48 AM

Saio
Ballgoer
Registered: 06-11-2010
Posts: 156

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

I think he is just trying to be polite (as he understands it).
And he is trying that time of his speech and deeds will be not longer then for others.


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#19 | Back to Top09-09-2010 07:38:07 PM

Celaenoe
Miki Molester
From: Columbus, OH/Covington, KY
Registered: 09-09-2010
Posts: 32
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

When I first began watching Utena, someone told me that Miki is constantly timing conversations and actions of the people in his world. They had a theory that time did not flow properly, and Miki was on to this. Because we are watching this story through the eyes of the characters who experience, we don't realize it.
I am also of the mindset that Miki's watch identifies key moments. When shit goes down during the final duel, Miki is looking at his watch.
Of course this was a theory that they had. I haven't given it much thought till now. Thought I'd throw it out there.

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#20 | Back to Top09-13-2010 08:07:55 PM

CausalityStar
Caretaker
From: Idaho
Registered: 09-12-2010
Posts: 215

Re: what does miki's watch mean?

I think it was a gift from Ianto Jones and/or Jack Harkness. emot-smile

But realistically, maybe it somehow relates to the obsession of attaining eternity, although that seemed to be more what Saionji and Mikage were after. When I saw the first few episodes, I thought he was just timing how long it took him to write notes or do math problems, until I noticed he didn't always have a paper with him. It could be possible that he has an OCD fixation, similar to how Utena randomly does stretches and exercises sometimes, even when she's busy talking to people. Miki is also pretty smart, so maybe he figured out that time in Ohtori sometimes works differently than it does in the outside world. In the episode where Tokiko came back for a visit, she seemed to have aged whereas Mikage did not.

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#21 | Back to Top09-19-2010 08:23:47 PM

Yasha
Bitch Queen
From: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Registered: 10-15-2006
Posts: 6031
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

Crossposted from the Tasty Treats thread:

Yasha wrote:

gumi wrote:

Q – What does Miki measure with his stopwatch? (reader from Hokkaido)
Ikuhara – Let’s just say that it’s connected with the structure of the world.

Ikuhara gives various answers about the stopwatch. Many of them are true. The stopwatch is a symbol, though I don’t believe it’s as esoteric as timed lines. Your mods may have solved the mystery, but I need to go back and verify some things before we can comment. It will probably be an essay.

For a very, very quick summary of what we think about it, the watch is symbolic of the thing that Miki and Tsuwabuki have in common-- impatience to grow up and be an adult. I have to go back and note down what is going on when the stopwatch clicks, and find all of the references Ikuhara has made to it, but we think what we're going to find is that the stopwatch is Miki's way of controlling his impatience for things to happen-- instead of dwelling on how long it's taking for something to happen, he times it.


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#22 | Back to Top09-19-2010 08:55:38 PM

Clarice
Well hello, Clarice...
From: New Zealand
Registered: 10-16-2006
Posts: 3102
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

CausalityStar wrote:

I think it was a gift from Ianto Jones and/or Jack Harkness. emot-smile

Oh, god, now all I can hear is Górecki. ...not that this is a bad thing, considering how much I love the song, but I didn't much care for the way they used it in that episode...

Hmm, Miki's stopwatch. I like the way Ikuhara put it, actually, even though we all know he's got a tendency towards being A MASSIVE BASTARD. But with that said, I've always seen it as a form of control. What he's controlling, I've never really considered; Miki's never interested me much as a character. But I think Yasha's idea, of it having something to do with growing up, is interesting. Although I never really got that impression from Miki...that he wants to grow up, exactly. To me he's always represented something that's trying to stay between two worlds; he's a thirteen year old taking college classes, for crying out loud. He wants some of the benefits of the adult world, but in other ways he wants to cling to his shining thing and stay in the sunny garden of his "idyllic" childhood. In that way, the watch is his control switch; he lets time go on as far as he wants it to, and then he stops it dead where it suits him. Because anything more would be too much.

Last edited by Clarice (09-19-2010 08:56:14 PM)


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#23 | Back to Top09-19-2010 09:18:21 PM

Yasha
Bitch Queen
From: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Registered: 10-15-2006
Posts: 6031
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

Clarice wrote:

CausalityStar wrote:

I think it was a gift from Ianto Jones and/or Jack Harkness. emot-smile

Oh, god, now all I can hear is Górecki. ...not that this is a bad thing, considering how much I love the song, but I didn't much care for the way they used it in that episode...

Hmm, Miki's stopwatch. I like the way Ikuhara put it, actually, even though we all know he's got a tendency towards being A MASSIVE BASTARD. But with that said, I've always seen it as a form of control. What he's controlling, I've never really considered; Miki's never interested me much as a character. But I think Yasha's idea, of it having something to do with growing up, is interesting. Although I never really got that impression from Miki...that he wants to grow up, exactly. To me he's always represented something that's trying to stay between two worlds; he's a thirteen year old taking college classes, for crying out loud. He wants some of the benefits of the adult world, but in other ways he wants to cling to his shining thing and stay in the sunny garden of his "idyllic" childhood. In that way, the watch is his control switch; he lets time go on as far as he wants it to, and then he stops it dead where it suits him. Because anything more would be too much.

I was oversimplifying because I didn't want it to turn into an essay when I still have to verify half of the facts. It's not exactly 'growing up' that Miki wants so much as having the choice and the power not to grow up if he wants. But to have that choice and power, he has to grow up, or at least he feels that he does. He feels like he has to lose what he wants most in order to have the power to get it for himself, which is the source of his problems later on in the series. Both Tsuwabuki and Miki don't necessarily want to be adults so much as they want to have the power and privilege that adults have. In Miki's case, however, this can be affected by the events around him-- it can happen that he obtains power through the things that happen, power enough to give him what he wants without becoming an adult. He has a chance to obtain that power without having to lose the thing he's looking for.

The stopwatch is by nature a representation of passing time, something important to both Miki and Tsuwabuki, because as time passes, they grow closer to having what they want. In Miki's case, however, it also takes him further away from it. This is why it's not so much that it's timing him until he becomes an adult as it is timing his impatience for things to happen; the movement from childhood toward adulthood can't be stopped, but the time it takes until he has power can, since it's not a fixed progression (Spira Mirabilis, anyone? emot-keke). This is close to Tsuwabuki's desire to grow up (as I said, it's not so much that they want to be adults as that they want to have the power/privilege adults have), thus, at the end Miki teaches Tsuwabuki to use the thing that kept his own impatience under control for so long-- the stopwatch.

Bleah. I hope that made sense. It's still simplified but at least more accurate this time.


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#24 | Back to Top09-19-2010 09:24:19 PM

Clarice
Well hello, Clarice...
From: New Zealand
Registered: 10-16-2006
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

Nope, that made perfect sense....although I am looking forward to seeing the details at some point. school-deviletc-wankgirletc-saiowank


It takes forty-seven New Zealanders eight months to make just one batch of 42 Below Vodka. ...luckily, that leaves one of us free to be Prime Minister.

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#25 | Back to Top09-19-2010 09:29:08 PM

Yasha
Bitch Queen
From: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Registered: 10-15-2006
Posts: 6031
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Re: what does miki's watch mean?

I promise you, it will be more fleshed out and have things like, oh, I dunno, evidence (!) when I write it.

But it's gonna take a while. I have a few other things on my list ahead of it right now... and I'm making nice progress on them, for once.


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