Hinotori wrote:

So Utena's got pretty good rewatch value, and It's been around for a pretty long time. Back in the day I used to watch the entire series every couple months.

But looking through the discussion forum it'd dawned on me that I haven't watched Utena the whole way through since I lost my VHS copies in a fire. That fire was in January of '05.  I've got a week off starting tuesday and I'm pretty sure I'll waste it doing something stupid, so instead I'm going to waste it watching Utena and looking for new things. O:

Is there in particular you picked up watching a second, third, fourth time? Has it been a while since you've seen it? (in that case, why not play with me?) Did your opinion of the series or any of the characters change while watching it?


(Super secret bonus kind-of-unrelated question: If Utena was redone, would you watch it?)

I remember when Evangelion first debuted back in the day, and I would watch the VHS copies with a friend who had just moved from Japan. It had been a while but then I saw it again on Adult Swim and I was like YES!!, I was young at the time, 11 or so and I didn't really care much about the characters themselves and how I related to them, but now after buying the platinum edition I realize that the final episode is like...one that should be watched by anyone that feels as if they are alone in the world. It totally blew me away.

I would watch Utena if it was redone...I mean if someone had the *#$#)%# to make another version of Oh My Goddess, which is known as Ah My Goddess, they can do a sequel to Utena, or heck make it live action, that would be awesome.

Hinotori wrote:

Is there in particular you picked up watching a second, third, fourth time? Has it been a while since you've seen it? (in that case, why not play with me?) Did your opinion of the series or any of the characters change while watching it?


(Super secret bonus kind-of-unrelated question: If Utena was redone, would you watch it?)

I've been planning a rewatch for some time now, so if you wanna make a thread specific to it, I'd be in. I come by new stuff every time I watch. Even episodes 25 and 30, which I seriously know word for word and shot by shot. My love for the series only grows the more I watch it.

If it were redone, I would be All. Over. It. Leave the script alone. Leave the shots alone. Hell, leave the voice acting alone. Just for the love of god reanimate it. All the best shots in the series look like they were drawn by monkeys on speed.

Ragnarok wrote:

G&Ysnumber1fan wrote:

[T]hey can do a sequel to Utena, or heck make it live action, that would be awesome.

Please, please, please no! I'm hardly a big fan of Sailor Moon, but I can watch the original no problem. Whereas the live action version was just painful.

You know, I just don't understand why everyone has to rag on the Sailor Moon live action. It is AWESOME.
.....
Well...I guess it is true that the first ten episodes are difficult to get through...unless you are a hardcore fan...and the REALLY awesome parts don't really show up until the last half...still. I loves me some live action Sailor Moon. Ack.

</offtopic>

Anyway...oh god...it's been long enough since I last rewatched Utena that I'm actually having trouble remembering the things I was so proud of noticing during my last couple of rewatches...jeez. It's been more months than I care to think about. I'm definitely going to play along, especially since I have a four day weekend coming up...and, honestly, it's not like I have much else to do. (& I've been meaning to do a very thorough rewatch anyway--I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I really want to do an analysis on Miki's stopwatch.)

PS If they made an Utena live action, it couldn't be a TV series with silly shots and weird quality, like the Sailor Moon one. I can deal with that for Sailor Moon, (mostly because it was a remake of the classic season, which was never visual-quality driven anyway--although if they redid SuperS like that, I'd kill. [It's funny, no one but me seems to give a shit about SuperS...but I think that it is definitely the section of Sailor Moon where Kunihiko Ikuhara did the best work. Everyone falls all over the religious symbology of S but ignores the amazing surrealism of SuperS? UGH! Um. ANYWAY. {Sailor Moon is so distracting to my thought process.}]) but Utena...? No. It'd have to be a huge and beautiful production. I dunno. I don't think it could work, truthfully. It'd be difficult, to say the least.
But if they left most everything alone and just reanimated it, like Giovanna suggested? That would be MARVELOUS. The animation quality is the only thing in the entire series that isn't utter perfection.

I live action...utena?

ugh..talk about slash hell...(or would it be heaven?)

either way it'd be totaly horrid.

It'd be neat to make some sort of an animated sequal, though.
Another movie that takes palce after the series (as opposed to a completely new story line)
Anthy finds utena and the spirit of Dios awakens, recreating the world of Princes and Princesses.

That's all I can come up with right now XD
That'd be neat

I was hoping to start rewatching Utena this fall - it's been well over a year since I've watched the series - but as luck would have it I'll have added something like 10 new shows to my collection by the beginning of December, so I've had to delay that plan so I could work on killing the new backlog before going back to revisit shows I've already seen.

I have set things in motion for another movie rewatch, though.  I've taken the movie OST out of my iTunes playlist.  Why would I do something as crazy as that?  The longer I don't hear the music, the more impact it has the next time I watch the movie.  And it's all about being stunned by the movie each and every time I watch (and hear) it!

In my first rewatch I found myself appreciating Nanami a lot more at the beginning of the series. She's a very layered character and knowing what I know about her from having seen everything to the end I find her to be a lot more interesting at the beginning, whereas the first time I saw the series she struck me as a two-bit antagonist placed to make us feel sorry for Anthy (which she is, in a way, but she's more than that too).

I also found myself disliking Saionji for different reasons. He irritated the hell out of me the first time through as he would any guy who wants to think of himself as chivalrous, but as I watched it again his immaturity grated on me far worse than his cruelty. He really did think that Anthy loved him and I find that kind of pitiable. Also, his enormous ego rested on very shaky foundations and that hit a little too close to home for me.

ShatteredMirror wrote:

Also, his enormous ego rested on very shaky foundations and that hit a little too close to home for me.

Don't hate. Relate.

Given the fact I only own 2/3's of the DVD's, it makes it pretty bloody hard to rewatch Utena on a regular basis. Even as it is, I think I've seen the first two box sets over a dozen times, and the final set (god I love the friend who loaned them to me) about half a dozen times. For some reason, it was my most popular item to put in the DVD player while working at the video store. Imagine that.

Also to my annoyance, I only have the first two mangas. >>;;;; I've read the entire manga line, and the movie manga (!! Utena/Touga sex~! *glee*), but I don't own them. And to make matters worse? I have two different styles of manga. Vol. 2 is the original release, Vol. 1 the new release. So I have to collect both versions now. *headdesk*

After all that rant is said and done, I think I WOULD rewatch Utena IF BUT I COULD.

That clinches it. That last box set is mine as soon as I get the inevitable birthday money. Not that I wouldn't have gotten it anyway.... but....

And that may explain why the box set is $40 instead of the $100 it was last year. Hm. Or, they just want me to annoy my parents some more.

Last edited by Lady Chani (11-06-2006 02:40:58 PM)

Nessy wrote:

Ragnarok wrote:

G&Ysnumber1fan wrote:

[T]hey can do a sequel to Utena, or heck make it live action, that would be awesome.

Please, please, please no! I'm hardly a big fan of Sailor Moon, but I can watch the original no problem. Whereas the live action version was just painful.

You know, I just don't understand why everyone has to rag on the Sailor Moon live action. It is AWESOME.
.....
Well...I guess it is true that the first ten episodes are difficult to get through...unless you are a hardcore fan...and the REALLY awesome parts don't really show up until the last half...still. I loves me some live action Sailor Moon. Ack.

Sailor Moon Live Action is great!  ... TO MAKE FUN OF!    It's one of the best make-fun-of-me shows I've ever seen.  On the other hand, you're right that awesome parts start showing up in the last half... the half where Ikuhara takes over the direction

Oh, and on topic!  I'd love to see a live-action Utena.  It would either rock, in which case it would be a disservice to humanity not to make it, or suck in a Sailor Moon Live Action way, in which case making it would be technically a disservice to humanity.  The best kind of disservice to humanity.

And live-action adaptations CAN be very good indeed.  Everyone should watch the GTO live action.

Last edited by satyreyes (11-06-2006 02:47:08 PM)

Lady Chani wrote:

Given the fact I only own 2/3's of the DVD's, it makes it pretty bloody hard to rewatch Utena on a regular basis. Even as it is, I think I've seen the first two box sets over a dozen times, and the final set (god I love the friend who loaned them to me) about half a dozen times. For some reason, it was my most popular item to put in the DVD player while working at the video store. Imagine that.

Also to my annoyance, I only have the first two mangas. >>;;;; I've read the entire manga line, and the movie manga (!! Utena/Touga sex~! *glee*), but I don't own them. And to make matters worse? I have two different styles of manga. Vol. 2 is the original release, Vol. 1 the new release. So I have to collect both versions now. *headdesk*

After all that rant is said and done, I think I WOULD rewatch Utena IF BUT I COULD.

If you are having trouble watching, all 39 Utena episodes are on YouTube now which I think is accounting for the resurgence of fandom that seems to be happening. Just reading over the comments posted for the last episode reflected a lot of new viewers. (Thanks, duchello!!)

And Amazon.com carries the three box sets for $36 each. And, wow, I saw the Apocalypse Saga box set at Best Buy the other day which kinda surprised me.

Tamago wrote:

Dani wrote:

If you are having trouble watching, all 39 Utena episodes are on YouTube now which I think is accounting for the resurgence of fandom that seems to be happening. Just reading over the comments posted for the last episode reflected a lot of new viewers. (Thanks, duchello!!)

I agree with you totally, duchello certainly made my year posting the subtitled SKU series on Youtube,com.  I could not have reached the level of understanding with the show without it!

I first saw Utena on YouTube this summer. And after duchello uploaded the rest of it, I also make my friend watch it!

Anyway, I'd love to rewatch it again, but I don't have the time right now and I'm not sure when I'll be able to do so. I think it won't be before Christmas break. And I really really hope they won't take away my Christmas break...