Hmm, well I've always wondered...if Akio and Mrs. Ohtori have been having a fling for, let's say, MANY years and Akio doesn't age, he might have started the affair when Mrs. Ohtori was quite young. Maybe even before Kanae was born. Anthy's apple voodoo thing might have been going on Kanae's whole life. She's been a pawn from the beginning. No wonder Anthy gives her no respect. Why does she try so hard to win Anthy over though? Is it because she sees Anthy as the only person truly close to Akio?

A Day Without Me wrote:

Poor girl gets a much better chance in the movie - Akio dies, after all, giving her more of an opportunity at life.

There's a wonderful fanfic idea in that. *gets attacked by plotbunny*

Last edited by Frau Eva (12-30-2006 11:43:04 AM)

A Day Without Me wrote:

Although, wouldn't Mrs. Ohtori also not age also?

There is nothing indicating that Mrs. Ohtori would be anything but a normal human being, although Alan Harnum did make her a bit more in Jaquemart. As far as we know, she ages as much as anybody else. While Akio likes to give an impression that he is a newcomer to the Academy, he has clearly been there for a very long time, propably longer than Mrs. Ohtori, herself. Presumably his ability to manipulate people's memories and charm them as he pleases gave him the keys to his current position as the Acting Chairman. The fact that he took that position apparently only a short while before Utena came to the school implies that he had taken a new step in his plan, recently. Though for all we know, it may be a part of long circle of role-changes for him.

Anyway, like I said, Kanae gets a raw deal - her fiance cheats on her with anyone and everyone, including her own mother and his own sister

Sister-in-law, not real sister, thankfully.

She really doesn't seem remarkable in any way, whatsoever. I'm fairly sure that she was put into this thankless role was solely because Akio wanted to have the position of the Acting Chairman, there and then. Groomed for life to be a background character and plot-device. Yeah, life hasn't been exactly fair for her. No wonder she had all those frustrations that manifested in her Black Rose-persona. A pity that even then she didn't realize the source of those frustrations was her own fiance.

Frau Eva wrote:

A Day Without Me wrote:

Poor girl gets a much better chance in the movie - Akio dies, after all, giving her more of an opportunity at life.

There's a wonderful fanfic idea in that. *gets attacked by plotbunny*

Please write that fanfiction. I'll love you forever if you do.


Kanae is a character that I've loved from the very beginning. However, there isn't much more to her than being Akio's fiance, the reason why Utena's attraction to Akio is wrong.

She's an Ohtori, and so she is undoubtedly from a rich and well-respected family. Children from most rich families turn out spoiled, putting themselves in high regard because of this. Nanami is, perhaps, and example of this. On the other hand, Kanae seems quiet, polite, and not particularly spoiled.

I think that it could be that Kanae didn't receive a lot of attention from her parents when she was younger. Being the chairman of the academy, her father was probably always busy with work, and her mother doesn't seem as though she gave her daughter much thought. Even her own mother knowingly let her daughter become a pawn in Akio's game. She probably only saw her parents on occasion, only when they felt that they needed to, or when she finally gave in and asked for attention.

Assuming that she was ignored by her parents during her childhood, then perhaps what Kanae had hoped for when she found out that she was to be engaged to Akio was that he would give her the attention that she had always desired. He was not, however, what she had hoped for. Though she would probably like to have hoped that Akio really cared for her, we see her suggest that the reason why he got adopted into their family was just so that he could get at the facilities available to them if she did, because her thoughts have probably crossed the possibility that he's only marrying her because of that.

She points out that Akio had spent previous night at the chairman's residence, because she wanted him to be spending nights with herself, rather than at his work. Akio is, perhaps, exhibiting the same behavior as her father. She undoubtedly sees him, in some ways, as her father. Just as her father was the chairman, Akio is the acting chairman, replacing her father. Just as her father ignored her for his work, Akio is ignoring her for his work as well.

Anthy is what causes her to duel. We can assume that she is an only child, and so the idea of having a sister-in-law must have sounded wonderful to her at first. Anthy is also far from what she expected in a sister. How the two of them could have interacted depends on how you imagine it. They probably spent time together when Akio was around. Anthy generally does whatever her older brother tells her without a second thought, yet she won't even call Kanae, "Onee-chan," whereas Akio is her, "Onii-sama."

Refusing to call her, "Onee-chan," is Anthy's own form of manipulating Kanae. She probably doesn't understand why it is that Anthy won't recognize her as a sister, making her wonder if there if something wrong with herself that would cause Anthy to dislike her. Refusing to recognize her as a family member has a greater affect than any ordinary person that dislikes her would have, because he leads her to wonder if her parents don't want to recognize her as family as well.

Like most of the Black Rose duelists, Kanae sees Anthy as the thing that keeps her from attaining what she desires. Like her father before her, who ignored her for work and such, Akio neglects seeing her so that he can see his sister. Once again, Kanae is being cast off to the side for more important things, just as she has her whole life. She believes that Anthy is the reason that Akio won't see her, just as she believes that Anthy is the cause of her fathers illness, which prevents her from seeing him at all.

Though she eventually complains to Akio for neglecting to see her, making it seem as though perhaps she really does speak up for herself, and therefor wouldn't stand for letting her parents forget about her, it seems as though she did wait quite a while before she approached him about it.


Overall, Kanae is a girl who seeks to gain the attention that she's always wanted, only to have it once again taken away from her by something of greater importance. (I'm sorry for rambling again.)

Oh my... I'm not one to usually say this but YOU WIN TEH INTERNET! That put's Kanae in a whole new light for me, and it does explain a lot about her status in the series. I salute you good sir, well said! Nore evidence to support this is Ikuhara's comment about "The open shirt, is to symbolize the man becoming one with his car." He also said he named his cars, giving them female names, so it seems that this theory does hold some water underneath it. Not to mention how tender Akio is with it. If you think about it that way he truly does care for Kanae... as a car anyway.

Last edited by Xu Yuan (12-31-2006 01:09:11 AM)

Clarice wrote:

Kanae as a princess

Blast and damn you! We have had just about the same thought. Just now I was writing new content for the Mrs.Ohtori shrine and brushed on Kanae being a princess and her mother being an ex-princess that grew up and went all fallen and naughty. (Actually just now I was cooking eggs in purgatory but you know what I mean.)

I definitely agree that Kanae is something of the stereotypical princess. Odd that, considering that, she means nothing at all in the context of the series. No one cares about her, and she doesn't matter, and yet when Dios was around, the world revolved around what her kind wanted. But then, that makes sense; princesses were never valuable in and of themselves, they were always the means one used to obtain the hand of a prince to bring to the throne.

Which...well now that I think of it, Dios is the archetype and fantasy of the prince, and Akio appears to live the life of an actual historical prince. Wealth, luxury, and strategic marriage to a well-chosen last name belonging to a princess.

I've always found it telling as to how little she matters to anyone important that she duels, and is the first of the BRS duelists. She's effectively Mikage's guinea pig, and Akio doesn't seem to give a rat's ass. But then, I suspect if Kanae dropped dead the next day, Akio certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Giovanna wrote:

Clarice wrote:

Kanae as a princess

Blast and damn you! We have had just about the same thought. Just now I was writing new content for the Mrs.Ohtori shrine and brushed on Kanae being a princess and her mother being an ex-princess that grew up and went all fallen and naughty. (Actually just now I was cooking eggs in purgatory but you know what I mean.)

I definitely agree that Kanae is something of the stereotypical princess. Odd that, considering that, she means nothing at all in the context of the series. No one cares about her, and she doesn't matter, and yet when Dios was around, the world revolved around what her kind wanted. But then, that makes sense; princesses were never valuable in and of themselves, they were always the means one used to obtain the hand of a prince to bring to the throne.

I think the idea got stuck in my head, actually, because I have been reading far too much about Henry VIII's wives as of late (and being morbid by lurking about the area where two of them were beheaded until the Beefeaters got perturbed and said: "Are you lost?" ). The first, Katherine of Aragon, was pretty well-known for always looking the other way while her husband screwed every likely lady in his court and being "a constant princess." Although Kanae is by no means as strong-willed and sensible as Katherine, I think of her as being raised for a similar thing. Although I doubt Kanae knows her fiance is shagging her mother and half the school behind her back, if she DID...would it make any difference? Probably not. For all we know, Kanae doesn't really want to marry Akio anyway. She implies in the elevator that she is pleased with the match, but even before she screeches about Anthy being an alien I think Kanae was just making the best of a situation she always knew she was going to be placed into. In the good ol' days women were used as bartering tools, and princesses weren't exempt from this -- in fact, they were some of the best and the hardest currency there was. Kanae's value is in her name and in her blood, which is why as a person, she's pretty much shafted. (...and not in a good way. )

Giovanna wrote:

Which...well now that I think of it, Dios is the archetype and fantasy of the prince, and Akio appears to live the life of an actual historical prince. Wealth, luxury, and strategic marriage to a well-chosen last name belonging to a princess.

I've always found it telling as to how little she matters to anyone important that she duels, and is the first of the BRS duelists. She's effectively Mikage's guinea pig, and Akio doesn't seem to give a rat's ass. But then, I suspect if Kanae dropped dead the next day, Akio certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

I don't think he would, either. You could argue that from the viewpoint of "so who would be chairman then?" but I figure Akio would find a way. This whole marriage seems incidental to the time period anyway as Akio has been at Ohtori for god knows how long anyway, and besides...he's acting chairman. Power and influence without the responsibility. Kind of like being a prince, as compared to being the king.

Clarice wrote:

You could argue that from the viewpoint of "so who would be chairman then?" but I figure Akio would find a way.

Well I tend to assume if the legal bond is broken by death his position would remain as it is just because he's already there. Furthermore, I suspect Mrs.Ohtori would play her hand on Akio's behalf to keep him where she can occasionally jump him.

I'm really loving the Ohtori/Kiryuu old money/nouveau riche thing. I wanna write at gross length about this.

The Kiryuus are especially fitting since technically, Touga and Nanami are very nouveau; they were adopted into that family, and Touga at least remembers whatever came before that.

I definitely agree that Kanae was making the best of the situation, I don't think she's in love with Akio. For Akio's part, I can't help but suspect this was deliberate. It is curious to me that she seems to place her hatred on Anthy when the worthy target is the one with his tongue in her mouth the first time we meet him.

A Day Without Me wrote:

Anthy definitely helps her make this association, too, given her refusal to call Kanae "onee-chan" and thereby accept her as family.

Anthy does kinda go out of her way to nag at Kanae...one gets the impression she especially doesn't like her. (Odd, I don't think either of the siblings like her much.) I can't imagine what Anthy would have against Kanae, huh?

Well, I imagine I would want to get along with Anthy if I was in Kanae's place. There's no getting away from Anthy if you're going to be with Akio after all.

And I can definitely imagine that she's not that thrilled about the marriage, which is bad enough without having a sister-in-law that hates you.

The apple-scene is also the creepiest scene in the show, IMHO.