This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
So what we've got here is a list of just about all the Utena analysis threads of the SKU subforum! It does not include fanfics, even though many fanfics do double as character analysis. IRG forum rules encourage you to necro a topic, no matter how old, if it strikes your fancy; just make sure you look through a thread before jumping in! As Gio's gallery page used to say, pick your poison!
If you're here for symbolism, see also lazypirates' excellent index of the general symbolism thread!
A note to our lurkers! We love you! But because of some sites that leech ohtori.nu's bandwidth without giving us actual traffic, we've turned all the links into Chu Chus except for registered users. Please make an account and log in to view this catalogue and other links on IRG! Don't worry, you don't have to post anything if you don't want to -- but you can always drop by the introductions thread if you want to say hi
Utena
How did her parents die?
Utena's reaction to her own femininity
Utena as a Holy Fool, and her relationship with Anthy
Utena's violent streak; attacking Mikage
Why her evident ambidexterity?
Actually, why does she even know how to use a sword?
How much does she know about End of the World?
The lead-up to her tryst with Akio
(Can anyone really be that oblivious?)
Her pain and her soul sword in the final episode
Did Utena become a prince? What's a prince? More here.
Assuming Utena survived the apocalypse, would she have become a boy?
What would Utena be like if she became Akio?
A few thoughts on the final episode (Spoilers)
Anthy
Her sacrifice, her love, her redemption
Her pain, her rescue
Who is she at bottom?
Her attitude towards and relationship with Akio (more here)
Does she want to be the Rose Bride?
Her magic, if any; why she keeps it under wraps
Why is she so important, anyway?
Her attitude towards Touga before his duels
Her suicide attempt, if that's what it was
Her feelings as she stabs Utena
Does she have dissociative identity disorder?
Does she not need her glasses, or what?
Is Anthy a prince? What's a prince? More here.
Is Anthy the villain of the show?
Is Anthy to blame for her own situation? Does she get off easy?
Anthy as an abused girl, and her liberation
Anthy as a pre-Christian Irish hag
Utena's role in Anthy leaving Ohtori
Does Anthy's name allude to Greek myth?
Is Anthy a puella aeterna? How grown-up is she, anyway?
Free of Ohtori, exactly how badass will Anthy be?
Yellow and Youth in Revolutionary Girl Utena - Video Essay
Chu Chu
Chu Chu: monkey, mouse, or monkouse? More here.
Chu Chu: princess, catalyst, or just a cute animal?
Chu Chu: he eats to take her mind off things
Chu Chu: what the fuck.
A few thoughts on the final episode (Spoilers)
Akio
General Akio discussion and analysis
What kind of car does he drive?
Why does he wear gold armbands?
He takes his fiancee's surname; is that shameful in Japanese society?
Why a school chairman instead of the President-for-Life of Japan?
Is he a witch? May we burn him?
Is he Ikuhara's self-insert?
Does Akio hate princesses the way Satan hates God?
What does it mean that he's a Virgo?
Does he ever seduce people just for fun?
Is there anyone he can't seduce?
Why exactly does he want to open the Rose Gate?
Does he actually want to become Dios? More here.
Why all the stargazing?
How self-centered is the Morning Star thing?
Is he a sociopath? Does he have feelings?
Okay, how about a psychopath?
Is he essentially out to break social boundaries?
Why his fear at the end?
Why's his tower so barren of furniture?
Touga
General Touga discussion and analysis
Was he raped as a child?
Youji Enokido says he was raped as a child, and death of the author
Does he ever get angry?
Why doesn't he put his foot down over Nanami's crush on him?
Why doesn't he ever get with Utena?
Is he in love with her?
Hold everything, guys, the remaster has extra frames of him stroking Akio's car!
Does he find redemption?
Could he be Akio II? Does he want to be?
Saionji
General Saionji discussion and analysis
Why he wants eternity
How come no one calls him by his given name?
Saionji as revealed through Wakaba: fight, flight, relaxation
Juri
How good a duelist is she?
Why does she lend Utena her sword?
Why all the water imagery?
Her story of the boy who drowned
She is a shallow, underdeveloped, and poorly written character. Agree/disagree?
Miki
Firstly, for reals, what's up with his stopwatch? More here.
Is he sleeping with Kozue or what?
Is he ever going to sleep with anyone?
Is he going to turn into the guy from "Lolita" down the road?
Or is he going to turn into a self-righteous, sister-raping asshole?
Why Utena doesn't let him win
Could he have had a relationship with Utena?
What would he do if he had a photo of Akio's sexploits?
His insight into Touga's deceased cat
He wants to live with Akio: plot hole or no?
Nanami
General Nanami discussion and analysis
Sexually manipulative? Sexually repressed? Both?
Why Akio pursues her
Nanami's egg. WTF?
What if she actually were a lesbian?
Yellow and Youth in Revolutionary Girl Utena - Video Essay
Mikage/Nemuro
General Mikage/Nemuro discussion and analysis
Nemuro's motivations for pyromania
The color of Nemuro's glasses
What does Nemuro mean by finding eternity?
Did Nemuro's research create Ohtori Academy?
Mikage's motivations and self-image
Mikage's name, hair color, outfit, and Shadow Self
When did he start liking Mamiya "in that way?"
Mikage : Utena :: Vader : Luke. Discuss
The harm Mikage does, and how
The pictures on Mikage's wall
Analyzing Mikage's duel song...
...and the word anthropoperipherism
Tokiko
Her narrative role: a pawn, or something more?
Tokiko as viewer proxy
Kanae
General Kanae discussion and analysis
Does she love Akio?
Why doesn't she pull a sword out of anyone?
Kozue
Life in Miki's shadow
Was she sexually abused as a child?
How does her sexuality influence her relationship with Miki?
Shiori
General Shiori discussion and analysis
Is she really so bad? and other Shiori discussion and analysis
Shiori is just like us! and other Shiori discussion and analysis
Is she in wuv with Juri?
Why does Shiori inflame fans on both sides?
Tatsuya
Respect vs. misogyny in his character
Wakaba
Would Wakaba still want to be "special" if she knew about the duels?
The Onion Princess: Is Wakaba a second-rate substitute for other characters?
What can we take away from Wakaba's Very Own Episode?
Is she secretly the evil mastermind of SKU?
Keiko
How Nanami holds her back
How much are she, Aiko, and Yuuko to blame for their own relationships with Nanami?
Does she have a future with Touga?
Ruka
Is he the Brown-Haired Boy? If so, then what?
What did Ruka know, and when did he know it?
Tsuchiya Ruka: Antigay crusader?
Selfishness vs. selflessness in his character
So did he die or what? More here.
Various questions about him
Various other questions about him
The Shadow Girls
General SPG discussion and analysis
Analyzing their individual plays. More here.
Can everyone see them, or just a select few characters?
Are they stand-ins for Akio, Anthy, and Utena?
Could they be failed princesses?
Dios, and the show's backstory
The origin of Dios
What is the power of Dios?
Is he a death god?
Dios's transition to Akio from a political angle
Why can't Dios be Anthy's prince?
Why does Anthy seal Dios away?
(And just how long ago was that, anyway?)
Where is Dios now?
And does Utena liberate him?
Is Dios a symbol of the rise and fall of empire?
Or is he an allegory to fascism?
Superlatives
Best Duelist
Biggest Bastard
Best Future Parents
Most Perceptive
Best Relationship Advisor
Character parallels, comparisons, and contrasts
Utena and Juri: duel cinematography
Utena and Dios: self-sacrifice and the lack thereof
Utena and Mikage: do they both sort their baggage?
Anthy and Nanami: incest
Anthy and Shiori: cruelty
Akio and Touga: emotional distance
Mikage and Akio: they sit in the same chair
Touga and Kozue: gender roles and feminism
Saionji and Shiori: bitterness and bitchiness
Shiori and Kozue: do they get a revolution?
Utena, Anthy, and Akio: which is the heir of Dios?
Yellow and Youth in Revolutionary Girl Utena - Video Essay
Other interpersonal relationships
What kind of relationship does Utena have with Anthy?
Are they doing it, or what?
And is Utena's relationship with Anthy healthy?
Wow, Saionji's relationship with Touga is really unhealthy
In fact, why are they even friends?
Is Saionji a bastard because Touga won't sleep with him?
What kind of exchange diary does Anthy keep with Saionji?
How does Utena buy for one second that Touga is her prince?
Why does Touga lie to Nanami about family, and what part does Akio play?
Tsuwabuki's relationship with Nanami, and whether we'd ship that
How does Nanami get Wakaba's coffee maker? (Yes, this is a thing)
Akio and Touga, sitting in a tree
Anthy and Kanae, wishing each other would die in a fire
Are Juri and Miki friends? Why do we see them that way?
Besides the melodrama, what is the relationship between Juri and Shiori?
Do Shiori and Ruka have a sordid past together?
Incest, incest, and incest, with a side helping of incest
When did Akio and Anthy start getting it on?
How many times do Akio and Utena get it on?
And why does Utena frequently mention Anthy while getting it on with Akio?
Is anyone really dueling Utena qua Utena?
Is anyone really seeing Anthy qua Anthy?
How the other duelists would treat Anthy if they won...
...and who they would fight, in what order, to keep her
Pairings that won't work now, but might someday
Tsundere and yandere: something to do with passive-aggression
Communication among the duelists
Shouldn't the duelists all just mend their relationships and be happy?
The narrative
A postulated timeline
Ohtori Academy's beginnings
Whom is Ohtori a shelter for?
What's the point of the duels?
Why Akio sets up the duels the way he does
Who rescues Utena from the coffin: Dios or Akio or what?
Why did Akio choose Utena as victor?
What were the duels like before Utena joined them?
A rewatch diary of in-game analysis
Episode 9 and foreshadowing of the finale
What do the duelists see at the end of the world? More here.
How does the timeline of episode 37 work?
Um, half the show happened in Akio's planetarium? Really? More here and here.
What the fuck happens in the final episode? Continued here. More here.
Does Utena die at the end? More here.
Did the swords destroy Utena, or only her fairytale self?
Why does Anthy linger at Ohtori after the duel called Revolution?
What does Akio do when it's all over?
What does Anthy do when it's all over?
The Sword of Dios and other soul swords
Why does the Sword of Dios disappear in Saionji's duel? More here.
Soul swords: Connected to the heart or the soul, and how?
Why does Touga's soul sword change from arc to arc?
Why can't Akio just get his power back by wielding the Sword of Dios?
Some summary questions on the Sword of Dios
Apocalypse and revolution
What is the apocalypse?
What is the revolution of the world?
The power to revolutionize the what now?
Could the power to bring the world revolution be exactly as advertised?
Is Utena's revolution a Kabbalic revolution?
Thematic and symbolic philosophical parallels
Character and cosmology: Platonic parallels
Fairy tale motifs: Grimmian parallels
Women's revolution: Feminist parallels
Women at work: Postwar feminist parallels
Eternity: Existential parallels
Juri's first duel: Freudian parallels
The last two episodes: Freudian parallels
Archetypes and complexes: Jungian parallels
"Myths to live by:" Campbellian parallels
The illusory Dios: Nietzschean parallels
Anthy and oppression: Marxist parallels
Butterflies and sheets in the movie: Westonian parallels
Rebellion and revolution: Expressionistic parallels
Right makes might: Idealistic parallels
Other symbolism
General symbolism analysis thread -- indexed here
Body language in SKU (a forum classic)
One more time: what is a prince?
And aren't princes a lot more selfish than they're painted?
Sex. More here.
Phalluses. Yonis.
Fashion analysis!
Utena's black uniform
A million swords of hate? Oh, thank goodness!
Metaphors behind the Akio car. More here and here.
Yins and yangs
Rose and hair colors
The color red
Is the black rose mystical?
How about all those spinning roses and pointy fingers, guys? Guys?
Dancing in the show and the movie
The cats in Nemuro's flashback
The SKU Symbolism Game
The symbolism of the cast's (and the forum's) names
...And specifically, the symbolism of the plants in the cast's names
Mutating statuary in "Her Tragedy"
Transformation and transcendence in the ending
The Birth of Man ripoff shot
Morning Star quilting pattern in dojo tiling
Yellow and Youth in Revolutionary Girl Utena - Video Essay
Ohtori Academy, time, and memory
Where is Ohtori?
Where is Ohtori, and what are the landmarks we occasionally see in the background?
What's the nature of "the outside world?"
The cyclicity of time at Ohtori
More on time at Ohtori
The subjectivity of Anthy's and Akio's age
Characters' roles in previous cycles
Do the Black Rose duelists forget everything?
100 dead Black Rose boys in the basement, 100 dead Black Rose boys...
Do the students at Ohtori age?
Is Ohtori more like normal high school than we give it credit for?
Where are all the settings inside and relative to Ohtori?
What exactly makes it a phoenix academy?
What's the relationship between Ohtori and the rest of the world?
Do people who leave Ohtori remember it?
Is Ohtori the afterlife?
Making sense of memory in "The Castle Said to Hold Eternity"
Music, OP, and EDs
Why are there flying horsies in the OP?
How the score is used to reinforce emotion
Zettai Unmei Mokushiroku: what the hell?
Wordplay in mokushi kushimo shimoku...
Pyrrhic victory: a duel chorus corrected!
Dona Dona: a Holocaust song
Cinematography and symbolism in Virtual Star Hasseigaku
Missing Link quotes Chuong Tzu
Is the whole soundtrack written from Anthy's perspective?
PROBLEMATIC: Race, class, culture, and gender
Are Akio and Anthy Indian? If so, why? More here.
Or are they Iranian?
The light-skinned girl saves the dark-skinned girl. Problem?
Is it fair to say most of these characters are filthy rich?
How come the rank and file at Ohtori seems less rich than the Student Council?
Akio's "princehood" as an expression of social class
The historical and cultural context in which SKU was written
How does a Western cultural context affect our interpretation of SKU?
Japanese schoolgirls and their "Class S" relationships
Gender, gender roles, and gender dysphoria in the show and movie
Would we react differently to the characters if their genders were swapped?
Homosexuality and genderqueerness in the cast
Rape vs. agency in the characters of Utena and Anthy
How come all the adult males are total shitheads?
And why does the fandom squee over them in spite of their being total shitheads?
How come pretty much everyone is especially shitty to women?
What Is SKU?
In which we sum up the show in one line
In which we try to sum up the show in lots of lines. More here.
What genre is SKU, anyway?
Is it a magical girl show?
Or is it a psychological horror show?
What other anime are like SKU? Are there any other anime like SKU?
SKU: A quest or a pilgrimage?
Is SKU a contest between hierarchy and mutual aid?
Is SKU a critique of patriarchal religion?
Is SKU an examination of the theory that great people shape history?
The movie
Movie analysis, aka let's all hate on movie!Akio
(Can we even compare movie!Akio to TV!Akio?)
Comparing the TV!characters to the movie!characters
An FAQ on movie!Akio
An FAQ on movie!Utena
And one on movie!Touga
And one more on movie!Anthy
Why does Saionji kiss Anthy before the first duel?
Who's in the boat?
What narrative reason is there for Touga's triggery scene?
Utena to Touga: "There never really was a prince"
What is Kozue? Does she actually exist?
Miki and what he does to Kozue (other than that)
Cars are not just cars
What the hell is Shiori doing there?
What the hell is dead!Touga doing there?
What the hell is cow!Nanami doing there?
What happens after the end?
Is the outside world real, and if so, why is it so desolate?
Can the movie be reconciled with the anime? More here.
If so, is it a retelling or a sequel or what?
Maybe it's a sequel where Utena is the Supreme Being?
Or was it all just a really trippy dream?
The manga
Contrasting the manga with the anime
Comparing the final duels of manga-Utena and TV-Utena
The role of kisses in the manga and in the series
The video game
Let's Play! (mostly not analysis but you should read it anyway because it's awesome)
Let's Play, Round 2!
Let's Play, Round 3!
Let's Play Special Edition: Anthy Ending
What does it mean for Chigusa to be an evil queen?
Who plays the ukulele?
The stage plays
Did you know there was a second one? Zombies were involved.
A summary and review of the second stage play
Match the Utena characters with...
...songs! More here and here; songs for the show overall here.
...live action movie actors! More here, here, here, and here.
...English-language voice actors!
...their Myers-Briggs personality types! More here.
...their D&D alignments!
...Freudian and Jungian concepts and archetypes!
...classical elements!
...their Sims personalities!
...their drunksonas!
...their post-Utena lives!
...their future jobs!
...their slasher movie deaths!
...animals!
...the Seven Deadly Sins!
...anti-motivational posters!
...Tarot cards!
...zodiac signs! More here.
...Enneagram personality types!
...Chinese Vassals!
...Halloween costumes!
...poems!
Hey, SKU is a lot like...
...Beowulf!
...Shakespeare's Twelfth Night!
...Hermann Hesse's Demian!
...Waiting for Godot! And also Demian!
...Robert Louis Stevenson's "Windy Nights!"
...Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall!"
...The Stand! Or maybe Dark Tower!
...The Truman Show!
...the film Innocence!
...Fight Club!
...the Matrix trilogy!
...the movie Diva!
...Buffy Season 2!
...Extreme Championship Wrestling!
...Scott Pilgrim vs. The World!
...Every other anime ever!
...Sukeban Deka!
...Narutaru!
...Perfect Blue!
...the Evangelion reboot!
...Sailor Moon!
...Mobile Suit Gundam!
...Kyo Kara Maoh!
...Candy Candy!
...Pokemon!
...or at least this one clip from Pokemon!
...Tenshi ni Narumon!
...this one scene in Zero no Tsukaima!
...the visual kei song "Sekai no Hate!"
...Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette!
...a Richard Doyle drawing!
...Castlevania: Symphony of the Night!
...Final Fantasy X!
...the process of growing up! } You've got to love a show that can be
...the stages of schizophrenia! } about both these things at once.
...various fairy tales!
...various real-world religions!
...and Christianity in particular!
...the demonology of the D&D Outer Planes! (Yes, really.)
Fandom
Personal canon: our readings of subtext
What makes us unusual among fandoms
Which characters we identify with and why
Which characters others identify us with and why
Our reaction to the cast as characters and as people
As above, but if we went to Ohtori
Our picks for creepiest moments in SKU -- and what makes them creepy
How Akio would seduce us
Our speculations about counterfactuals
To what extent is our analysis just out of left field?
Miscellaneous
Utena Q&A for symbolism, analysis, plot, etc. More here, here, here, and here.
Bite-sized analysis
General comparison/contrast of Utena media
Did Chiho Saito ruin everything?
Script changes in the English dub
Who is the main character of SKU? More here.
The (un?)reliability of the "narrator"
There is a lot of dramatic irony in this show, guys
And check out all these allusions!
Blurbs about character psychology
The vice principal of Ohtori Academy has more screentime than you think
SKU in alternate settings
SKU on a boat
SKU in a nursery school (this was almost a thing)
Open coffins in the remastered Black Rose Saga
Why so violent, good monsieurs?
And why is everyone so complacent about it?
As kids, how would characters other than Utena have reacted to hearing Anthy's story?
What did Utena say to Anthy in Miki's old sunlit garden?
Is SKU's cast really made up of the biggest jerks of all time?
The nature of being special
The broadcast order of episodes 6 and 8 were switched! What can it mean?
Comparing SKU to Mawaru Penguindrum
The characters' families
Where are their parents? More here.
And that's all for now! If I missed your favorite thread, or you start a thread you want me to add, shoot me a PM and I'll deal with it.
Up to date through September 30, 2013.
Last edited by satyreyes (10-01-2013 02:17:34 PM)
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Satyr, thank you SO MUCH! [luffles] I'm going to go back through the Mikage stuff because I'm not I remember some of those. And I'm always up for necro'ing the dead guy.
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Clarice wrote:
Satyr, thank you SO MUCH! [luffles]
You bet! It was fun, actually. I got to comb through our collective history, including lots of threads I'd forgotten, and not a few I'd never seen in the first place
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Clarice wrote:
Satyr, thank you SO MUCH! [luffles] I'm going to go back through the Mikage stuff because I'm not I remember some of those. And I'm always up for necro'ing the dead guy.
Satyr, dozens of poptarts for you!
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Dude, you should totally put in the IFD thread titles like these ones:
Utena Cast and Alcohol
How good is ___ in bed? AKA Love me long time Thread!
oooohhhhhh I know I know!! *gets to typing*
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I haven't posted here in forever and I read on-and-off, so coming off of another reviewing of the series THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS POST.
What flavor poptarts do you like best?
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Holy cow, azuresquirrel, is that you?!? I don't think I've seen you around here since the month the forum started up! Welcome back
And um, when I was in college my go-to snack food was s'more Pop-Tarts, untoasted. My friends all made fun of me, but I showed them all by turning a Pop-Tarts box into a ballot box for an anime club officer election.
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Yes! It is I! I've been reading the forums but my life is usually too busy for me to post. Maybe after my thesis is finished! (I can't believe I am remembered!)
God, I would spend days living on untoasted brown sugar poptarts during production weeks for plays. Not the healthiest diet in the world.
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Updated the list! Goodness on Akio, Anthy, Touga, and Kozue, as well as the relationship between Touga and Saionji, plus a couple other miscellaneous new discussions.
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That's what every Utena fan needs! Thanks for the hard work!
May I suggest some things? It would be good ,if the symbolisms were organized by episode. The same with the duel songs.
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rose of pain wrote:
That's what every Utena fan needs! Thanks for the hard work!
May I suggest some things? It would be good ,if the symbolisms were organized by episode. The same with the duel songs.
Most of them aren't tied to any specific episode, so I don't think they need to be reorganized, but you're right that it would be helpful if the ones that do correspond to just one episode were tagged as such. I'll take care of it, but not right now
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So... Could anyone tell me the meaning of the key's car in the movie when akio goes crazy lookin' for it?
Thx
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Gebara wrote:
So... Could anyone tell me the meaning of the key's car in the movie when akio goes crazy lookin' for it?
Thx
Ha ha, the symbolism of the key is a topic we don't have a thread for yet! I suggest you start one!
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satyreyes wrote:
Gebara wrote:
So... Could anyone tell me the meaning of the key's car in the movie when akio goes crazy lookin' for it?
ThxHa ha, the symbolism of the key is a topic we don't have a thread for yet! I suggest you start one!
I promiss that I will!
But after 5 years :S
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Could anyone tell me the meaning of the key's car in the movie when akio goes crazy lookin' for it?
Last edited by Aelanie (04-02-2009 09:47:20 PM)
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There are also ones for:
Movie Touga (planning to update this one)
and
Movie Utena
I'm working on one for Movie Anthy too.
Last edited by Aelanie (04-02-2009 10:11:05 PM)
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Update complete! The catalogue should now include all the new analysis threads from the last few months. Quick aside: a pretty large number of the new threads were "duplicates," meaning they were on the same topic as an existing thread; whether Ruka died, for example, or the Myers-Briggs types of the cast. It's no big deal if you accidentally make a duplicate thread, but at least check to see if there's an obvious existing thread you can necro instead. That's what the catalogue is here for!
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The Movie Anthy FAQ by Aelanie is done now!
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I saw! I'll be sure not to miss it when I do my next update. It's easier to wait for a couple months' worth of new threads to accumulate and then add them all at once; this makes sense anyway, since you don't have to look very hard to find a thread that's still on the first page or two.
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Do we have an "Influences on Utena" thread? I've tried the search, looked here, and either I'm just totally blind to it or... Why don't we have one?
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Decrescent Daytripper wrote:
Do we have an "Influences on Utena" thread? I've tried the search, looked here, and either I'm just totally blind to it or... Why don't we have one?
Hmm! Maybe we do, but I can't think of it. That's almost more of a category of threads than a single thread. I badly need to update this catalogue; maybe I'll split out a section for that when I do.
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would it be okay to necro the 'What does Nemuro mean by Finding Eternity' thread? I'd like to read Clarice's essay but the link don't work no more
Last edited by Makubi (11-08-2011 12:44:07 PM)
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