SleepDebtFairy wrote:

On another note - did anyone notice how Anthy's eyes widened when Utena took off her clothing? I made so many prince/penis jokes at that part. She was just like "O.O", but I guess it's symbolic. Nudity - true self being revealed)

I always figured it was her "WELL DAMN I'D HIT THAT" look.

In any case, it didn't really bother me in the movie because, well.. I guess I'm one of those fans that doesn't mind some more romantic hintings for Utena/Anthy, so I definitely enjoyed it.

I really like you, you know? But I'd hardly call the things in the movie "hintings".

But, yeah. Like I said in another thread, the movie is like a dessert to me, while the series is the main meal. Dessert as in it's sweet and delicious and nummy but not as good for you and doesn't have nearly as much substance, but it's still nice and fun to have sometimes.

That's the same for me. Continuing with that analogy, it doesn't take nearly as long to finish as the main dish, thus I can have it in insane amounts and still enjoy it every time.

What about SKU, the Broadway play?

We already have the musical, and NOTHING CAN TOP THAT.

That would be very nice... I should rewatch the commentary and see if I can tell what he is saying.

Yasha wrote:

That would be very nice... I should rewatch the commentary and see if I can tell what he is saying.

if your computer can display hiragana and katakana, the answer may reside in Ikuhara's personal online blog.

i cant read very many characters, so i have no idea lol

that may be, but as you get through to later parts of the episode and into the next, he is clearly refering to the movie as the first movie.

but as i had mentioned, i am ultimatly left to the discretion of who ever translated the commentary.

Heh, I always thought that the whole over-nudity of the movie was supposed to show how much they're trying to push themselves to be 'older', without cares or desire to hide themselves.  The nudity didn't make me really even blink for that reason, it was an overly stylized work, what with the moving buildings and all, and the movie had a focus on 'growing up' and 'breaking away,' and part of both of those is showing yourself to another person.

Buuut anyway, a movie would be awsome, expecially one set after Utena and Anthy leave; it'd be a fun little prodject for the artists on here to do sketches of what they think the charecters/new setting would look like.

SleepDebtFairy wrote:

Good point.. Hmm, I think that was her true self too, since it showed her bearing all of the swords, which is what Anthy truly goes through. It's also the first time you see her like that, minus the flashbacks.

And, I agree. The last episodes get so much interpretation on their own.

Hmm, then again, it could have still been the Rose Bride we saw. Basically she didn't have to take the swords but she wasn't able to understand that until later on. And yet she was aware of it. I can't really decide what to make of it...

I guess this would be a good thing to discuss in a new thread, but I'll wait until Gio finishes capping all the episodes 'cause I only have a few low-quality screenshots myself.

SleepDebtFairy wrote:

I was thinking something like that, and also that Utena's "true self" surprised her.

Poor Utena. Huh, she was making some awfully suggestive panting sounds, too.

Haha! I forgot about that! While the movie!Utena didn't strike me as pure/innocent as series!Utena, she was acting like a total virgin in that scene "Omg, I'm being stared at!".

brian wrote:

Anthy is a bit like a matryoshka doll. I would guess that the innermost one is the hopeless child in the coffin, but inside her is the Anthy able to walk out. But if I am not mistaken a matryoshka doll is the sum total of all the parts.

The mysterious Anthy is a composite of disparate pieces just like the rest of us.

Ohh, I like that analogy! A matryoshka doll has numerous other dolls inside and every other one is a bit small to fit in. But the point is that you can only see the outer one unless you open it. Which can be brought in as allegory of how people are layered and in order to see the esssence of the person you have to get rid of all the masks/layers.

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

Any reimagined SKU movie would have to be preceded by an 8 minute Chuchu vs Saionji short.

The existing movie is my favorite anime film, period, so I can't say that I'd change it at all... but as for a hypothetical movie that I can make however I want?  Hmm...  Maybe something Boogiepop Phantom-style set in the TV SKUniverse, where we see the events at Ohtori non-linearly from different characters' perspectives.  Wakaba, Nanami, Shiori, Miki... all of the second and third tier characters that we don't see as much of in the TV series.  I could go for that.  Animated in the traditional 2D cel way, of course.

Actually, how about a string of Chuchu vs Saionji shorts, a la The Road Runner & Wile E Coyote or Tom & Jerry?

for the Chu Chu vs. Saionji shorts and for Boogiepop Phantom.  I don't think I'd get behind a movie adaptation of the series no matter what the style, though... that story just can't be told in ninety minutes.

YamPuff wrote:

I don't like the idea of a live action but I'm always like that with anime.

But I think anime movies covering the backgrounds of all the characters would be awesome, a sort of pre series movie special. All their childhoods, everything that happened before they went into Ohtori, or even the start of the Student Council and some of those duels before Utena showed up. In the ep before Miki shows up, in the 'next episode segment' Utena says that Miki has 'only fought one duel'. Intriguing. school-sherlock

I'd forgotten about the preview at the end of episode 3.  The line about Miki having fought a duel doesn't seem to make much sense -- even if he has, how the heck would criminally uncurious Utena know about it when even we don't? -- so I went back and listened to it.  Utena is speaking very quickly at exactly the wrong place, and I think the translator got it wrong.  They thought she said "yuitsu kettou ni hantai shita hito mitai nan da," which could mean "I understand he's only dueled once," but I think she's actually saying the subtly different "yuitsu kettou ni hantai shiteru hito mitai nan da," which should mean "I understand this is only the first time he's dueling."  If it's the latter, the preview makes a lot more sense.

Making anime into live-action films can be a very bad idea, but it can also be a very good idea.  The GTO live action series was astonishing -- the best live TV I've seen from Japan, though I'll be the first to admit my sampling is not very large.  I preferred it to the anime, in spite of liking the anime pretty well.  They cast it exactly right, though, and any live-action Utena adaptation would have to be just as well cast.

If we want to make a live-action movie oriented on the series characters, though, there's only one way to do it: set it after the series.  The use of a live cast instead of anime then becomes symbolic: the fairy-tale is over.  You could set the movie at Ohtori immediately post-series, or you could follow individual cast members to the business world or college.  Given Akio's relative irrelevance after Anthy leaves, I'd choose the second option.  The multi-POV Boogiepop style might work well in this case.  Someone should start a thread about what these characters would do after graduation

You know, I should like to see them make the Black Rose Arc into a movie. Just BlackRose. That would be awesome.

See, I saw the movie yesterday and the bit when Utena finds out about what happened to Touga in Mikage's elevator made me think Mikage was going to be in the movie. So I was disappointed to learn he wasn't. So I think he should be!

I wished other characters were in the movie, too. But alas. So short.

Decrescent Daytripper wrote:

YamPuff wrote:

The nude art posing scenes? That's fanservice in my eyes. Besides, nudity can be defined as fanservice. At least that's what wikipedia tells me. I didn't see that any of them were needed, nudity certainly was not needed in the anime series to get the point across, and that lack of nudity made it a classy series. I felt the movie was degraded by it.

Think about how much weaker that dialogue, the whole subtext, of stripping down and bearing oneself would be, without the nudity, the stilted breating, general discomfort, and um, magicky moving-to-cover jacket.  And then, of course, Anthy strips right down and bears her hole.  That movie's all about pushing the subtext, the visceral aspect, as far as it can reasonably go.

Portrait scene: necessary and aesthetically fulfilling.  Bathtub scene: necessary and aesthetically fulfilling.  Naked motoring: necessary and aesthetically fulfilling.  And the zipper goes: unnecessary and aesthetically fulfilling.

Now, Chuchu, the Nanamicow, and the the umbilicalpenisshiorimonster, that was fanservice.

That's a lovely way to put it. In general, SKU is all about the nudity, "fanservice", and sexuality. A movie with that much fanservice might have bothered me for another series, but not SKU. Especially in the drawing scene, because nudity is a very strong symbol there. Utena and Anthy are both revealing their "true selves" to each other - just like how Anthy was naked in her coffin at the end of the series.