Well I'm going to be in Japan when the next installment drops so y'all f-ed, you're just going to have to wait.

I'm going to guess the next one is Miki? Like, they're clearly establishing a theme here, and I wonder if the last one will be Anthy's. Totally agreed on Miki, while I was working I kept cracking jokes about how he's totally just some beta orbiter, but really, no. It's totally adorable and 100% definitely true that he goes to cheer for his friend like Every Single Time. I'm not at all surprised those two remain close while Touga and Saionji drifted apart for a while BECAUSE THEY DON'T NEED EACH OTHER. (they do)

Honestly, I'm actually pretty impressed with how she managed to not make what any one person wanted, but not do something so flagrantly offensive that there are pitchforks. That said, I definitely felt more in this installment the whole awareness Saito has that her target audience is now a bunch of women in their 30s. The overarching message of rediscovering your drive as the years wear you down is super strong in this one, it totally felt like YOU TOO CAN GET RIGHT BACK UP AND BE A PRINCE! A+!

I'm also really impressed at how she is mashing the several iterations together to have a more or less coherent whole. I don't love every choice she makes but still. (Honestly, Akio being an artist was literally just the excuse to put Touga and Saionji in the art world and I'm fine with his involvement here being literally just the means to that end, because Saito has never written him well.)

Ruka having been the one to die in the river is great, actually. When I wrote a giftfic involving him a couple months ago, Yasha basically was like 'write Touga without fangs.' Which...is pretty spot on. I also thought it was interesting that the woman that ISN'T Ruka at the end still bears some resemblance to him, just like the original dude that Shiori sniped in the series backstory with the tiny brown forelock instead of the chemical spill huge blue forelock. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME PERSON????

Saito's role-reversal for Juri and Shiori was really neat. Looks like even as a princess in the spotlight, she still has that cruel side to her. Meanwhile Ruka has the must smug look on his face every time he shows up, hah.

Last edited by Seen (02-07-2018 05:23:08 AM)

anthy_himemiya wrote:

It's kind of funny how many different continuities there are for Utena now. Off the top of my head, there's:

The original manga
The anime
The movie
The movie manga
The musicals

Also the light novels and the videogame, although, correct me if I'm wrong, I was under the impression they followed the manga and the anime's continuity respectively (I'm not that familiar with them, so I'm not 100% sure)

The video game takes place in the middle of the anime. The novels are their own thing.

To me though I really only count the manga, anime, movie and this new manga, because each one is very different and creates a thematic sequence/escalation. The movie manga, the musical, etc. are more just telling the same story in another medium. While they do have minor differences, pretty much every single media franchise gets various adaptations (especially in Japan), and these miscellaneous ones fit more into that category than the meaningfully different "main" works.

Or in other words, while Utena does have a lot of continuities, I think people wouldn't think much of the minor ones if the main ones didn't already make a point of themselves.

Last edited by Arale (02-07-2018 04:59:33 PM)

Did it? I kinda disagree. I found the way this chapter jumps around time to be very disorienting (not a complaint), while in the previous chapter's case, the shifts in reality were very clear (due to a stricter divide between reality and fantasy). Although I will say that this one's themes and the intended arcs of the characters are much clearer, and also doesn't have that unexplained disaster allusion.