Hey, that theory would solve the fact that in the manga, Utena's aunt, Yurika, looks really much like Mikage... and even smiles in the same , creepy way...

Which would make Utena an immaculate conception?

Now, that I'm thinking of it... Mikage might be a male, fallen counterpart of Utena... something like...how would Utena end if she was male, and if she fell for Akio's tricks.
Mikage and Utena have not only physical appearance in common, but their purpose to duel is very similar. They both fight for something which turns out to be an illusion created and supported by Akio, for his own needs. They both have Anthy (although Mikage sees her as Mamiya). Even he admits during his duel that in the end, he and Utena are the same. These words kind of support the theory, that in Nemuro's timeline HE had the opportunity to become the Victor, if only he hadn't fall for Akio's plan...

Wow that would be an hell of a family reunion if true...nice idea about the adoption angle. Does Utena talk about who raised her at all?

i've always wondered about this myself, but never actually sat down to think about it. compelling arguments you have there, and the way that Ikuhara works, just like raven said, i wouldn't at all be surprised.

Nanami's Rose Groom wrote:

Now, that I'm thinking of it... Mikage might be a male, fallen counterpart of Utena... something like...how would Utena end if she was male, and if she fell for Akio's tricks.

That's how I always felt- he was bizzaro-Utena to me. I mean, I knew that him having an Indian side-kick was no coincidence (although I never thought it'd be Anthy in disguise ) but I always felt Mikage was a part of Utena's potential as a person.
Even though Mikage compares Utena to Tokiko, they're the similar ones. Utena at that point isn't obsessed with Anthy, but she is obsessed with Dios which later makes her rethink her life, much as Mikage rethought his.

I do like the theory about him being her dad and Tokiko her mother, but I don't think it was what Ikuko was going for.

I think the visual similarity between Mikage and Utena is meant to accentuate the fact they are dual representations of fixation. As the former noted, both are deeply tied to a specific memory that they refuse to depart from. Only the former is a perversion of the latter; Mikage ruthlessly manipulates and cruelly harms whoever he can to retain his fantasy, while Utena deludes herself into playing the heroine. Where Mikage is cold and intellective, Utena is passionate and lead by her loyalty towards others. They are exact opposites and yet they both have that commonality; a past that engulfs the entirety of their purposes, and the ensuing servitude to Akio. I always believed that the Chairman recognized this parallel and used it to test his little victor.

Damn. Now I want to write a rather naughty fanfic about his views towards both.

As for Mikage being Utena's father...nah. I don't think so. Simply because I couldn't imagine Nemuro fathering a child, or his darker self to create one that he wouldn't use from birth for his own purposes. It is said explicitly that the former was a "dry" man who was incapable of making real connections - until Tokiko and Mamiya, of course. Mikage wouldn't father a child unless it was part of an experiment, and then I highly doubt he'd refrain from mentioning that connection when he was attempting to sway Utena to his view.

I also disagree with you, satyreyes. I think Nemuro was very attracted to Tokiko. She was the first one to make him feel, and it was viewing her liaison with Akio that drove him to mass murder. Additionally, he confessed attraction to Utena, who he repeatedly confused with Tokiko. Mikage belonged to Mamiya, thanks to Anthy's manipulations. Nemuro wholly desired Tokiko.

Hm... I just don't see that Utena having a part of Dios in her soul to be the case here.

In my opinion, Utena's bravery and nobility, which drew on Dios' power, does not necessarily need to be directly associated to Dios.
True, at some points in the duels, Utena did reminded Anthy of Dios, but if that really is the case, why don't Akio and Anthy just pull out whatever's in Utena that is actually a part of Dios? You can't really take away someone's bravery and nobility... Then again, I think the manga did something in that nature.

I could see how the theory might work with the whole Mikage being Utena's father work, though.

But, one thing might debunk that idea. Why doesn't Mikage see himself in Utena, but Tokiko instead?

Last edited by Hiraku (05-25-2009 07:23:26 AM)

It is an interesting idea that Mikage could, somehow, be a possible father for Utena; however, I have to go with what Katzenklavier said about Nemuro being a dry man who was, indeed, a walking computer...until he met Tokiko and Mamiya. It is a funny and interesting idea to run with, but I see Mikage more as a fallen past part of Utena, almost like a shadow or ghost of how Utena would have been if she lived in Nemuro's days, or how she would have been if she had fallen into Akio's traps forever.
The fact that Utena's Aunt Yurika and Mikage look a lot alike was something I did not see before. O_O! Good observation.

I doubt that Mikage was Utena's father. As we see in the episode about his past, he was incapable of love because he didn't understand what it was back then. He was sexually defunct xD He only realized that the feeling was love when he saw Akio and Tokiko together, and burned the building as a result (because he didn't know how to react properly to it). I think he has similarities to Utena (the pink hair, longings, etc) to serve as both a foil AND somewhat of a parallel to Utena. Mikage was incapable of human emotions yet had a naive longing for something just like Utena does, case in point her wanting to become a prince. In my opinion Mikage was not sure of what to do with his feelings since he had poor human communication, so all he could think of was burning down a building or something logical that would end up hurting people to experiment on what he had done wrong. He wanted to look for his mistakes in the fault for others and saw love as rocket science rather than something you could just talk about (sort of like the man in Coldplay's "The Scientist"). Thus he got stuck in that loop, but ended up not being able to get out. So he failed in bringing Revolution because he didn't really have the same willpower that Utena did, and wound up dragging his potential deeper down rather than bring a change. He always tries to bring out the worst out of people he tests out. I know for sure he didn't want to deliberately hurt anybody because he did spare Wakaba's male friend from being one of his subjects. He was picking out the worst of confused students he could find because he saw himself in them. They were simply studies he was conducting for catharsis.
However, Utena is the total opposite. She doesn't know how to give up when struggling for friendship and whatever she fights for. She fights for her wants with valor and gets her way almost all the time due to her genuine display of loyalty. To simply put it, Utena is a truly noble person, while Mikage is not and sort of artificial.

Also people seem to think that Mikage is in love with Mamiya. I disagree. He was in love with Tokiko throughout, even as his "Mikage" persona. To me he was trying to make up for his mistakes by leaning onto Mamiya. He did in his mind pin his blame on him for the burning incident after all. Also it was only out of love for Tokiko. He saw Tokiki in Utena because he was deeply interested in both of them. But the thing he failed to distinguish was the fact that what he felt for Tokiko was pure romantic love, but his interest in Utena was more of something like, "she is the most interesting subject I've seen-maybe I could test her power".

pesimistamente wrote:

well I wrote this analysis about the symbolism of Nemuro's episodes. The biggest clues about Nemuro being Utena's father is 1. the character design, 2. symbolism with cats and the shadow girls, 3. timeline (Nemuro's storyline being 15 years before Utena's), 4. some other random facts such as ambidiextry in both characters.

If this theory was indeed truth and Nemuro was Utena's father (while Mikage bieng the shadow of Utena's father), then Utena's father would be a 15 year old in the asperger spectrum, abused and manipulated by an adult, while having a sincere love for Mamiya: the younger sibling of the adult who abused him. IT ALMOST SEEMS LIKE WE ARE MEANT TO DRAW PARALELISMS RIGHT?.

It's indeed a tragic theory.

No, to me, Mikage is not her father. He is only meant to be a parallel AND a foil to Utena. They are physically analogous people, and only had the same longing to be trapped in their illusion. In their final battle, Mikage shouts something like, "When I first met you, I knew! You also met someone important to you in the past, didn't you?! And that person changed your life, didn't they? You stand here because of that illusion!" Also, Mikage and Tokiko never really had anything going on. He was in love with her, but he never told her how he felt because he didn't understand what the feeling was. So that's why he's still stuck in his illusion. He used to be some kind of emotionless logic robot until something like that confused him. He's only using Utena to challenge himself. Like I said earlier, he was testing out those Black Rose duelists to kind of conduct an experiment on how you drag the worst of confessions out of people. He tried to think too logically so he ended up being stuck in a loop, in his illusion until Utena kind of set him free (he finally left the school after Utena made him realize that he can't pin his blame on everyone else-he had pinned the burning on Mamiya in the past).

His being very similar to Utena is done intentionally to show how the two are yet so different on the inside. Utena has a positive mindset despite being trapped in her illusion. She says she plays prince but we can see how genuinely she treats her friends with much loyalty. Utena is someone who's truly noble, while Mikage was trying to figure out how to fix everything by manipulating the misery of others. It seems to me he was trying to run a new set of duels, but ended up failing because like the Student Council members, his illusion was love and greed. That's the similarity they share when it comes to losing to Utena.

The reason why he calls Utena Tokiko is due to the fact that he really wanted to see whether he could come to fight his memories. He was kind of using Utena as a form of catharsis/anger output to see whether he could break free?

Last edited by ShiningSanctum1 (05-11-2016 09:34:40 PM)

I agree with pessimistamente. It's kind of obvious that Nemuro is related to Utena. Same pink hair, the timeline, and a similar personality. They both are trapped in their fantasies. Like father, like daughter. Conveniently, Nemuro and Tokiko's meeting took 15 years ago, which is enough for Tokiko to have conceived Utena (Utena is 14, 9 months=pop comes out the baby). Also is it me or does Tokiko look oddly a lot, and I mean a LOT like Utena. They share the same hairline and face.






Episode 22 Notes: Also the teacup that shows up at times imply that Nemuro and Tokiko shared an intimate relationship. Also note that Akio drops the ring into the teacup at some point, and a lady resembling Tokiko walks away with a big pink bag.

Note that Ikuhara and Hideaki Anno, the creator of Evangelion, were great friends. Shinji's mom looks a lot like Tokiko and Gendo nearly has the same robotic personality that Nemuro does. So there's also that obvious parallel.

Also when OLDER Tokiko comes to Akio, she mentions something about a plant bearing fruit.

Last edited by DefineMask (05-16-2016 01:13:24 PM)