Or it could be just a kangaroo.

*runs like phuck*



The first season in much better during the rewatch I must admit. Although I have to agree...huge planets looming outside the window didn't phase me at all, but Utena ripping off her dress and turning the sheet into a dress makes me giggle in disbelief. What a strange series this is.

This may be an odd thing to say but, I wish Utena had lost more than one duel.

Arki wrote:

Oh, the first three episodes are so deceiving! Before I started watching SKU, I read a lot of reviews which wrote about SKU's complexity and symbolism overload... Once I started watching I was wondering did all of it just fly over my head. Where's all that has been promised to me? So I've watched the first three episodes at least 30 times before advancing to the rest of the first arc.

This is why every time I've evangelized the series to someone, I've said, "Don't judge by the first episodes.  Watch through episode 7 before you make a decision to stop or go forward.  If episode 7 doesn't drag you in, nothing will."

Maarika wrote:

Hehe, I got a whole different impression on that.
SKU seems quite feministic to me. The crossdressing thing, for example, is full of irony. They take the concept, dress Utena like a boy and in the end throw it all away in the end to show that even that isn't right. The way Utena dresses is symbolic, I agree that people can be strong and noble even if they wear a dress, but when you make things more symbolic then Utena wouldn't have left the same impression on others if she had been wearing her regular school uniform (or even a dress). ;D

I got a different impression from that aspect too. I think that SKU showed feminism or weakness= dress and strength=not dresses because that's a typical stereotype that's shared across many cultures. Then once the audience recognizes this reference, the series turns. Utena fought Touga in a girl's uniform after all, and briefly fought Akio in her rosebride dress. In the end, her clothes aren't symbolic of anything but her own self. Even Anthy defies the dress stereotype. She's wearing a dress when she takes her life and future into her own hands by telling Akio she's done with the game, and that she's leaving.

Ugh. I know what you mean about Noir. If it weren't for Yuki Kajiura and some good recommendation I might have given up on it.


SKU didn't really grab me until Juri's first duel, when Utena's sword gets her rose and later when she opens her locket and Shiori's inside. That was a big wtf moment. But it was really love for Miki that kept me going for so long in the first place.

hyacinth_black wrote:

There's really only one thing I hate about SKU and that just so happens to be how damn much they throw around how one feels for Touga and Saionji.

You start off feeling neutral about Touga, then he steals Anthy and you start to hate him, then he starts sulking like an emo piece of feces so you start being sick of him, then he comes back and it's all like WTFSEXYYYY??? and then you love him, and then he's a BASTARD to Nanami and you hate him, and then he does that whole cute thing with falling in love with Utena and by then you're just too confused to feel anything anymore.

That's one of the things I love about the chracters, actually. They're so layered and flawed but sympathetic at the same time. It makes them very real. While I have my favourite characters, even the characters that are not my favourites still fascinate me so very much.

Oh, and I agree about waiting a few episodes to give a series a chance. For SKU, I kept watching even when the first arc seemed kind of dull, because I heard so many good recommendations for the series and I wanted to find out what would happen. Plus, the wackyness had me curious. I was very pleasantly surprised.

I've just realized I can't give a series (unless it's still on-going and freakishly long, like Bleach or Naruto) a good judgement without seeing a good hanfull of episodes, or better yet, finishing it. My sister has gotten me to watch Blood +, and I'm on episode 19 out of 50.. something. At first I wasn't too interested, but I kept watching, and I'm glad I did, because it's getting interesting.

But, on the topic of things you dislike about the series.. everyone, pick your favourite character, and try to think of something that they did/was done to them that you dislike the most? That might be interesting.

For me, well.. Probably right after Utena walked in on Anthy and Akio. Her reaction confused me, and then right after she asked Akio out on a date? It seemed like she was trying to prove something to herself, I don't know. I probably need to rewatch that part and think about it some more.

Last edited by SleepDebtFairy (03-22-2007 11:45:13 AM)

But, on the topic of things you dislike about the series.. everyone, pick your favourite character, and try to think of something that they did/was done to them that you dislike the most? That might be interesting.

Okay then!
Anthy: ...No, I can't think of anything. I love everything about her.

Heh, that's exactly why I picked something for Utena, and not Anthy. Which is funny, because Anthy's done so many bad things, but she's too fascinating to change. Although, I didn't like how she told Utena she couldn't be a prince because she was a girl. I figured she was trying to disable Utena from protecting her, because she thought Utena would die trying to save Anthy, and Anthy didn't want to be saved/thought she deserved it/etc. But I'm not sure where the girl --> can't be a prince thing came from. Perhaps it was a way to discourage Utena.

..just like what Dios said, too.

I could have lived without the "walk upstairs to the duelling arena" segment in most of the episodes.  I  mean, come on..  It's not that it's not a catchy song or a cool segment.  I just feel it wastes time in an episode.  Kind of like in Digimon, where we have to watch all of the digimon digivolve in each episode.  Cool the first few times, but then you just start ffwding through it.

I always (usually) watch the stair climbing too. But there's something about Utena's face, during part of it, that makes her look... muppet-ish.

HonorableShadow wrote:

I just feel it wastes time in an episode.

Sadly, that is exactly why they do it.

The whole repitition thing made me wonder what age group it was orrigionally aimed for, normally repitition means it was meant for a younger group at first

What I dislike most about SKU is the English dub especially when they pronounce the characters names totally wrong, for instance Kozue should be pronounced Koh-Zay not Clothes-Away(not exactly like that but very close to sounding like that) like they say in the dub.

Its bad enought when I hear the dub Utena sound like Jessie from Pokemon (and half expecting a Team rocket speech) but now I have to deal with Mikage having Yugi-yami's voice in the dub and waiting for him to start blabbering on about the 'heart of the cards'.

Tamago wrote:

What I dislike most about SKU is the English dub especially when they pronounce the characters names totally wrong, for instance Kozue should be pronounced Koh-Zay not Clothes-Away(not exactly like that but very close to sounding like that) like they say in the dub.

Its bad enought when I hear the dub Utena sound like Jessie from Pokemon (and half expecting a Team rocket speech) but now I have to deal with Mikage having Yugi-yami's voice in the dub and waiting for him to start blabbering on about the 'heart of the cards'.

Is it weird that in the original dub never saw Jury as Sailormoon? (Because they have the same actress xD)

Epi_lepsia wrote:

I would like to hear the english dub....

No. No, you don't.