For me, Akio is a very mystical figure. He may manipulate people in the real world (although of course, the degree to which Ohtori is "real" is debatable), but his goals are phantasmal and esoteric. He's after a mysterious, undefined power to revolutionize the world. To me that doesn't equate to real world authority. He has...maybe not what I'd call "greater", but perhaps "more fundamental" ambitions than temporal human power.

Akio could've opened the door if he'd just treated it like any other door and pried it open with his hands, as Utena has shown. I honestly don't think he wanted to revolutionize the world, he just wanted to have sex with high-class teenagers. The Rose Duel was there to keep Anthy convinced that he wanted revolution.

zevrem wrote:

Akio could've opened the door if he'd just treated it like any other door and pried it open with his hands, as Utena has shown. I honestly don't think he wanted to revolutionize the world, he just wanted to have sex with high-class teenagers. The Rose Duel was there to keep Anthy convinced that he wanted revolution.

But prying open the door and freeing Anthy will not serve Akio's selfish purpose of regaining Dios-hood: unlocking the door via a soul sword while keeping Anthy the Rosebride - according to the siblings' dialogue in Ep38 and 39 - would. 

Utena and Akio differ greatly in what they want to bring about through the Duel.  I think the kind of "revolution" Utena brought about is meaningful to Anthy while meaningless to Akio - who cares nothing about kids' minds being liberated, but simply the regaining of his full magical power.

And, it is highly likely that having the Swords of Hate run amok and rush away the "Revolutionary" is a sign of a revolution done in a "flawed" manner.

Consider the following scenario:

There's an adult (Akio) who wants to eat exotic food (regain power).  He decides to slow cook a live-frog (Anthy) by placing it in a pot, then turning on the stove (Rose Gates) and try slow-heating it (manipulation) - this is so the creature will slowly get cooked without being alerted into jumping away to escape. 

A child (Utena) used to look forward to eating the exotic meal (wanna meet prince).  But, upon realizing the cruel truth behing the frog dish, pities the live-frog and fights the adult to free it, to the point of inadvertently spreading out the gas stove's flames (Swords of Hate) and starting a fire.

The fire burns down the whole kitchen (Swords of Hate destroy Castle and Arena).   The child suffers serious burns and gets sent to the hospital (Utena gone-ed after duel).  The frog leaps away in the chaos (Anthy being freed).  The adult - supposing he's one who cares nothing for the child - tries to make the frog dish again (restart Rose Code), but the frog is now beyond his reach (Akio losing Anthy).   

This is my breaking down of the SKU ending.  Hope it makes sense to you.

P.S. I don't think Anthy wants "revolution" either: she just wants the Dios she loved - full power and glory and all - to come back into existence, and cares nothing about the rest.

Last edited by gorgeousshutin (05-05-2013 04:12:45 PM)

Aelanie wrote:

As far as why Utena could open the door when Akio could not, here's a little mini-essay I wrote on the subject.

Very well put, Aelanie.

Being in charge of a higher position is probably too much responsibility for him.  At Ohtori, he can have the highest position and yet he still doesn't have much responsibility at all. How many times do we see him doing something an actual school chairman would do?  It seems like all he does is hang out in his observatory, send letters to the duelists, plot ways to manipulate them, and of course have a lot of sex with the student body. I'm sure he got his fill of responsibility back when he was Dios and felt like he needed to save everyone.  As the chairman of Ohtori, he can have a position of power without having to do anything, really. He is responsible for the duel game, but he's entertained by it too and does it by choice, so it doesn't really count.

Last edited by HonorableShadow (05-06-2013 02:46:28 AM)

True, I don't see Akio as being particularly hardworking or industrious especially for anything that involved serving anybody else.  Though I can strangely see him working in the same type of industry as Mad Men in that he likes to make people see what they want to see and sell them that illusion while he profits.

If we want to use the moral and/or point of SKU - and not just in-series-given facts – to analyze the why of Akio’s Chairman role, then I think Ikuhara himself has since stated it plainly in an early interview:
http://ohtori.nu/creators/a_ikuhara1.html

Ikuhara:  You know that a great many students commit suicide.
Ikuhara:  I think they're unable to imagine a happy future.
Ikuhara:  To put it more bluntly, they look at their mothers and fathers, who should be
Ikuhara:  motivating them for their future, and they can't imagine they will grow up to be happy.
Ikuhara:  The grownups they communicate with are their parents, their teachers and the like.
Ikuhara:  But looking at them, they can never be convinced that their future will be happy.
Ikuhara:  I don't think that's because of their parents, but because of their lack of imagination.
Ikuhara:  That may apply to me, too, though. I'm not so sure if I can portray this very well toward the audience, but...
Ikuhara:  Through this, you may be able to imagine a happy future,
Ikuhara:  or through this, you might be able to go on living happily. Or...
Ikuhara:  These are the sorts of things I wish to portray.
Ikuhara:  To put it nicely, this is why Utena is naive and foolish. She speaks of her Prince and the like, at her age.
Ikuhara:  To our sensibilities, we think of that as stupid.
Ikuhara:  I want to show that this sensibility of ours,
Ikuhara:  that leads us to think of that as stupid, is itself absurd.

Akio the “Ends of the World” represents the harshly cynical forces of society, specifically, the adults and adult world situations that kept children – who know they’ll become adults one day – from being able to imagine a happy future.

The reason SKU’s story have Akio as a corrupt Academy Acting Chairman (instead of a political world leader) is because the Chairman Role puts him in direct contact to the teen/tween cast – young characters his hopelessness-inducing role is intended to “drive into despair”, literally. 

Plus, the Chairman Role also allow for Akio to entrap a number of representative adult-figures in the story – the selfish mother (Mrs. Ohtori), the selfish father (Mr. Kaoru), the corrupt-able professional (Nemuro), the “betraying” lover/love interest (Tokiko), the desire-trapped unfulfilled (Nemuro’s secretary), the shallow society conformist (Guidance Councillor, Vice Principal), etc, etc – all of whom also serve to disillusion the young main cast, and show them how “hopeless” their future lives as adults will be.

SKU is intended to be about the importance of optimism in children: Utena the “fool” who speaks of her Prince at her age is intended to show audiences the value in optimism; even if said optimism unsupported by facts, it will help a person to move forward and possibly past seemingly insurmountable odds placed in their way by adult society as the Japanese knows it.

Akio is intended as the summation of those insurmountable odds: he is the powerfully limiting part of Adult Society that scares all the young people into feeling hopeless/helpless; his being the “truth” behind the “prince-myth” Utena idealizes puts the two opposing forces - cynicism and optimism – through a power struggled that is the entire show.   

Had SKU came out as Super-Politician Kakumei Utena, Akio will no doubt be designed as a Prime Minister against Utena’s Polical  Party member; had it been Salarywoman Kakumei Utena, Akio will be the CEO of the company Utena works in; as it is, SKU is S for Shoujo, so Akio can only be something that is at once powerful and relevant to a schoolgirl heroine – the "charming" Acting Chairman.

Riddle of Epicurus wrote:

gorgeousshutin wrote:

Had SKU came out as Super-Politician Kakumei Utena, Akio will no doubt be designed as a Prime Minister against Utena’s Polical  Party member

I... I really wanna see that now. Ms. Tenjou Goes To Washington!

Hmm . . . if it’s Washington, Utena will likely be the idealistic liberal feminist politician, the SCs will all be Cabinet Members, Akio will be the “Vice” President bonking Hillary . . . I mean, the First Lady, while being engaged to the President’s daughter, with Anthy being the spy / intern doing the dirty work to destroy her brother’s opponents.   Oh, and you know the whole Duel . . . I mean, White House will eventually be flamed to the ground by those Million Media Vultures thriving on Human Ignorance.

Last edited by gorgeousshutin (05-11-2013 08:53:57 AM)