It's interesting that you say that, because I thought SKU got a fair amount of graphics sets and analysis posts on Tumblr (at least going by the #revolutionary girl utena tag). Naturally, it's not going to have the extreme amount of activity that the Attack on Titan or Free! fandoms get, but it's not like it's totally silent, either.

It depends on who you follow, I think. I followed a lot of the Mawaru Penguindrum crowd back when it was still airing, and as a pleasant side effect, I always get a ton of Utena on my dashboard from them too. Most are Ikuhara fans. You should check the Utena tag and follow some of those people.

Last edited by HonorableShadow (07-27-2013 05:33:20 PM)

Atropos wrote:

It's always fun to see what newcomers think of the show.

As for what's on Tumblr, I'm more concerned by the people who feel the need to twist SKU to fit their own worldview and opinions. I mean, yeah, death of the author, but even that has to be based on textual evidence.

You just illustrated why I'm the opposite. Truthfully, I avoid reading/listening to "I just learned about/watched this thing called Utena" stuff like the plague, because it's like reliving some of the worst parts of anime fandom history. They make the same mistakes, they come to the same wrong conclusions, they pass the same shallow judgements, they buy into the same old misinformation - and then recirculate it, which is how it stays in circulation to begin with. It's still considered as fashionable and glib as ever to say "this show is so crazy, I don't understand it at all lolz!"

I know I'm being unfair to some of them who will actually be drawn into thinking seriously about the franchise and interested in learning the production lore behind it, but my patience for the smug, self-satisfied, willful ignorance of the vast majority ran out long ago.

Last edited by Aelanie (07-28-2013 01:15:02 PM)

Atropos wrote:

As for what's on Tumblr, I'm more concerned by the people who feel the need to twist SKU to fit their own worldview and opinions. I mean, yeah, death of the author, but even that has to be based on textual evidence.

Tumblr is really terrible for that, and for the all-too-common mentality that there is Only One Correct Interpretation Of Everything(tm). It feels to me like a certain number of users on that site want the entire fandom to be one great big hivemind that has identical opinions on every part of SKU, and likes and dislikes all the same characters for all the same reasons, and I just... among so many other things, I can't imagine a more boring fandom if that really came to pass. =/

Yasha wrote:

I'm just glad and grateful that people are still talking about it at all. It is coming up on twenty years old already.

On the plus side, there's always this.

The tag is pretty active on tumblr, because it's the perfect community for it. After EM I think most of the Utena fandom is on tumblr. You'll get a lot more thoughtful commentary on SKU there than on most general anime forums The only thing that can bother me at times is the holier than thou type attitude that shows up from time to time when disagreements happen. For a Grey and Grey Morality show, there are some who seem to have very black and white views on it. That's all I'll say

Liveblogs are great, except when the only thing somebody has to say is "Gosh, Anthy sure gets slapped around a lot" but I like to hear new interpretations, and mostly I love to watch the confusion and horror Man, pass the popcorn once they hit the Apocalypse Saga

Atropos wrote:

It's always fun to see what newcomers think of the show.

As for what's on Tumblr, I'm more concerned by the people who feel the need to twist SKU to fit their own worldview and opinions. I mean, yeah, death of the author, but even that has to be based on textual evidence.

I think Utena is MEANT to be interpreted - it's intentionally ambiguous so that you can draw meaning from a lot of different perspectives. And that's what I love about it.

And about 'fitting their own worldview and opinions', I think that the things we notice and draw out of Utena reflect ourselves. So in a way, subjective interpretations of Utena are far more interesting and important than any single 'objective' and 'correct' view

whyknot wrote:

And about 'fitting their own worldview and opinions', I think that the things we notice and draw out of Utena reflect ourselves. So in a way, subjective interpretations of Utena are far more interesting and important than any single 'objective' and 'correct' view

Oh, of course - but if you're drawing your interpretation from what you want to see rather than what's depicted, then you've severed all ties with the original work. It's like if I said that 1977's 'Star Wars'* was about the Iraq War, or that 'Don Quixote' was a commentary on Nietzsche.

*Anyone heard of it? Great film. Too bad they never made any sequels.

I remember getting in an argument with someone on 4chan (yes, I know, 4chan) about all the meta analysis that fans of Utena often get into. As far as this guy was concerned, there was absolutely nothing about Utena that needed analysing because it was just a pretty anime with a simplistic plot. Obviously, chances are good that he was just trolling me, but at the time all I wanted to go was reach though the monitor and shake the fuck out of him while telling him to learn to read, for fuck's sake.