Wow. Are we all invited to Shiori's party? Happy Birdday

Shiori party at my place! Everyone's invited!

Alright, time to get mushy... as stupid as it sounds to say an anime series changed your life, it did. Shoujo Kakumei Utena got me through, and it's altered the way I see the world. Especially Shiori. If it wasn't for her, I'd be more cynical than ever. She has shown me that having demons doesn't make you a villain. Not everyone can be pure and selfless all the time. I think it played a big part in the way I treat people. Some people may knock my obsession, and some people may think Shiori is a worthless character with no merit. But I wouldn't be standing (sitting) here today as the person you've grown to know, and maybe even love, without Shiori. She's as beautiful to me now as the day I saw her, and every time I pop in my DVDs, I fall more in love.

Happy birthday, Shiori!

And this will be celebrated in this post with fic!

...as soon as I get back from bashing my Zune into submission.

The first time I watched SKU it was my senior year college exam week (or the one right before it, where I have to do all the studying bits). I had this 75ish page honor's thesis I was supposed to have finished by the end of the week, and I'd barely started. I ended up watching SKU bit out of a panicked impending knowledge of failure/almost-but-not-quite-hyperventilating... Good times. (The honors thesis /did/ get finished, actually, although I'll never be quite sure how. Believe in miracles, etc.)

I think I know what you guys are talking about though, re:/ charachters and themes with parallels. Especially what frosty just said, about watching the show and realizing that other people had the same issues. That's certainly one of the reasons I came to like the show so much. Plus - the flexibility/interpretability of the show's style let's you read a lot into it as well, whoever you are and whatever your issues are. I think almost everyone can find a few things to relate too within it.

Announced!

I keep meaning to do that for character birthdays. By the way, this is the first time in four years we can get to actually celebrate Anthy's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Shiori!

Juri celebrates by spending the day in an asylum ("THERE ARE NO MIRACLES! SHIORI LIEEEEEDD!!")

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

27... wow.  That means most of the SKU cast is a year or two younger than me.  Somehow, that makes everything seem right.

Saionji's totally older than me by this rule, so it's not statutory rape!

Although it's kinda creepy to imagine how Shiori is at this age...

[nerdiness]

Actually, Shiori's 26 today.

Japanese children start 1st grade when they turn 6 just like we do. The only difference is that they do it in April instead of August/September. So, anyone who's not 6 by April 1st has to wait for next year.

[/nerdiness]

Ragnarok wrote:

I wonder how Shiori would feel to have a group of strangers on the internet wishing her a happy birthday. Would it help alleviate her feelings of inferiority or make her paranoid?

It wouldn't help. A person with low self-esteem won't gain it by having internets worship. Trust me on that.

But it'd totally make her walk around Ohtori all cockylike until Touga bangs her in the music room.

(Doesn't this dating by the release of the series land Akio in like...his 50s? Oh baby I don't mind. They make drugs for that these days. )

awwwwwww cool happy b-day to her and I wonder what her b-day party would be like?

Giovanna wrote:

Akio as Virgo...well I guess it's based on Dios' birth date, huh?

But if you think about it, Akio wasn't born as such, Anthy created him from Dios and if this event occured between October 23 - November 21 (Scorpio) then you could say that in a sense that Akio became a Scorpio.

Happy birthday, Shiori!  Wow, good thing I saw the announcement in time!

I'm a Gemini, which is nice because I like all three of those characters.  Miki and Kozue do a fair job showing off both sides of Gemini: intelligent and compassionate, but often a shallow social butterfly.  I don't remember reading the part that said Geminis are manipulative, unscrupulous power-grabbers, though.  I guess an astrologer who said that to his client would not have a job for very long.

Ikuhara evidently passed up the opportunity to make Nanami a Taurus (and hence a figurative as well as a literal cow) and to make Shiori a Capricorn (though to be fair, he couldn't have been expected to foresee the Shiori = goat comparison).  Utena feels to me less like a Capricorn and more like a Taurus.  As for Kanae in Aries, I can only think that was intended to be ironic.