There are times when I watch Utena - especially certain episodes - and cry like crazy, but I think it's more cathartic than depressing.  Things like that are necessary sometimes, I've found.

I stopped my rewatch of SKU last week at the end of the Black Rose Sage because I didn't want to deal with the depression I knew was ahead. A lot of episodes make me feel depressed because I can't help but take what's going on so seriously. More specifically, I get depressed when my favorite pairings are being toyed with, or when characters I like are doing the exact opposite of what I want them to do.

Seeing Shiori upset is depressing because I want to save her with all my heart, only she's fictional, and there's nothing I can do.

Aw my fellow fans who get depressed, huggles for you all.

I find Utena an EXTREMELY depressing series in every possible way - I guess that's part of the reason that I love it so, for I'm very into angst.

In fact the final 2 episodes are so depressing for me I still haven't managed to re-watch them in their entirety (instead I watch bits and pieces, and re-read the entirely brilliant scripts).

I know the ending is a happy one. But it makes me feel sad like nothing else can.

There are certainly moments in the show that make me sad but I've never really felt depressed. I think, if I were still in high school when I first watched the show I probably would have had additional depression fro the show. I beleive it's becuase of the subject matter of the show and the type of struggles and growth each character must go through.

I think what keeps me from being so very depressed about the show now is that I have a lot of hope. I don't like that bad things that happen to certain characters, but I ultinately have to beleive that every trial and tribulation is an event that helps those characters become better in themselves and reach their personal happy endings. And being a writer I know that happy endings are never really endings..endings are never really that permanant (in cases of death this can be highly debated). All endings are, even ones that are opened ended and leave you guessing is the closing of a chapater and the start of something new.

So like when I see Shiori, for instance and all that stuff with Ruka...I have to beleive that at the end of it, when all is said in done it helped her see herself in a different light so that she doesn't need a prince and can save herself. She can be her own prince. Maybe that's why she joined the fencing team.

So there you go.

I've never been depressed in the truest sense of the word. Yeah a lot of moments choke me up, but what's good about Utena is it's not all sunshine and roses.

When Akio has sex with Utena in the hotel room.

Anything to do with Akio, Kanae and the former's mother.

Disturrbiaaa.

Side-note: Although she's one of my favourite characters, spending a day with Utena trying to entertain me is also a rather depressing thought. I think it would involve a lot of sport, shouting and having to explain things to her more than once.

Last edited by Nickyhabac (03-06-2009 05:26:44 AM)

I get depressed watching certain episodes -- mainly Mikage ones, funnily enough -- but I think I'm one of those strange people who finds the ending more uplifting than depressing. It's the photograph, and the voice-over. I am one of the most cynical and pessimistic people I know, yet I can't take the ending as a downer. It makes me smile. It gives me hope. And...maybe that's why it has endured for me, this series. Because at face value, that's totally not the kind of person I am.

Clarice wrote:

I get depressed watching certain episodes -- mainly Mikage ones, funnily enough -- but I think I'm one of those strange people who finds the ending more uplifting than depressing. It's the photograph, and the voice-over. I am one of the most cynical and pessimistic people I know, yet I can't take the ending as a downer. It makes me smile. It gives me hope. And...maybe that's why it has endured for me, this series. Because at face value, that's totally not the kind of person I am.

I'm one of the few realists among my friends, most of whom are either Utena-like idealists or Akio-like cynicists, and yet I love the ending too. I suppose it's because realists are people who refuse to gloss over horrors. We see exactly how tragic the world can be, yet we don't flinch from it, nor do we let that knowlege break us down and completely destroy our sense of hope. And that's represented in RGU's ending. Anthy may have partially stayed in Ohtori due to a guilty complex or out of love for a poor shell of Dios, but the largest force keeping her enslaved was her fear and resentment of the outside world. After all, once Anthy leaves the Dueling game and steps outside of the protection of Ohtori's magic, at best, she'd be powerless and alone. At worst, who's to say that someone won't try to torture her again? So Anthy stays in Ohtori where she at least has an illusion of power from controlling her Duelist pawns. Being the Rose Bride who's regularly stabbed by a million swords is, of course, worse than being in the outside world, but Anthy's fear, anger, and pain prevented from her from realizing that. An irrational reaction, if a realistic one. However, Utena's sacrifice destroyed the worst of her fear and resentment so Anthy could become mobile again. Now Anthy, despite centuries as a glorified witch/victim who both saw and orchestrated the worst of human nature, is prepared to re-enter the real world despite knowing how bad it can be, because she understands that she can still survive.

You know I was really surprised when I saw this thread.
Not that I was surprised that some people find it depressing but more the realization that I didn't.
I've definitely had animes depress me before, amusingly enough the one that did it the worst had like a crazy happy ending and was a romantic harem comedy (lol Please Teacher!) but the theme of running away from hardship in life was too hard for me to process at the time (I've actually never gone back and re-watched it, even though I still like it) so it made me very depressed.
However Utena was never that way for me.
I actually viewed it more as a life story (the viewers looking glass comming into effect) and found it very empowering.
Utena is very much my ideal, though I identify much more stringly with Juri.
The relationship between Utena and Anthy, with all of its lies, deciet and pain, was just so beautiful that in the end they reached out honesly and reached each other, if only for a brief moment, and that it left it open for this new adventure of discovery to find one another again.
Kinda left in me the lesson and overall feeling that is best described in the last line, "One day we'll shine together." That one day they'll be together again. This relates diectly to a relationship I was in at the time I was first exposed to Utena and it kinda gives me hope that one day we'll be together again. Maybe not the same way, in the near future or even in this life, but one day, we'll shine together.

I suppose it also helped that I was CRAZY infatuated with Akio (still am! ) and thought all of his manipulation was just so damn sexy (I have often wished I was that good at f-ing up peoples lives, but not really LOL).
I also don't have a strong attachment to characters like Mikage/Ruka, who seem to be a root to a lot of the angst too.
I hate Ruka and am kinda apathetic towards Mikage, I actually think his predicament is more (dear god I'm gonna get crucified by Mikage lovers) amusing in that he got toyed with and used so throughly by Akio. I felt bad, but not really.

Anyway, consensus: Not depressed but understands.

Aika

well i know one thing. On myspace music they have some really good sources for utena music. The piano entitled 'Pessism' is so fucking sad i feel like killing myself. Beautiful. But Evilly sad.

and the anything after the Back Rose saga depresses the crap out of me.
probably episode 37, 38, and around the ending Akio Arc really depress me.

Frosty wrote:

Amen! Speaking of killing oneself, I showed the entire series to a friend of mine a few months back.... and we said, "Wouldn't you hang yourself if this were back in the fansub days and you had to wait between the one before the last....." YES!!!

We ordered the series in chunks.  It was the only way to survive.

sharnii wrote:

Mostly it's good just to discuss Utena endlessly (since I endlessly want to), and indulge black humor to the utmost.

Agree~ one can never get tired of talking about the show~
and you reminded me, where will you continue with chapter 6 of What’s Up in Ohtori

Getting back to the show, it's not really that depressing. It can't compare with the daily tragedies reported by newspaper and TV news.