This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)

#1 | Back to Top04-28-2016 02:57:57 AM

ShiningSanctum1
Touga Topper
Registered: 11-23-2012
Posts: 57

Characters' hair colors

If you've noticed the main leads' and council members' hair colors, they represent the colors of the rainbow, which are always in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo blue, purple, and pink. So the order in character format would be: Touga>Juri>Nanami>Saionji>Miki>Ruka>Anthy>Utena I feel like this was intentional. What do you guys think? I could come up with a few guesses as to why this is so:

1.) Hierarchy-Rank of authority and respect (and possibly level of knowledge?): This could make sense since Touga is technically the one who stands above them all. Next Juri understands there never could be miracles-on top of that, she seems to garner much respect from staff members and peers. Her emotions place her below Touga, who in turn is more controlled. Next is Nanami-catty and knows how to be in charge-but her naivete places her below Juri. Next is Saionji, the dunderhead who doesn't know he is being used. But since Miki is too young to fully understand what's going on, and Ruka was not after the power at all (he wanted to be Juri's prince more so than attaining the power for himself), they are placed below him. Plus he, Touga, and Juri are all greedy and eager to win the Rose Bride to prove their claims. Anthy is pretty much a dog to these guys, yet she is placed higher than Utena is since she is manipulative while Utena is pure and easy to taint in every form. And Akio's hair is white to show that he's cosmic and somewhat highly regarded=clouds in the heavens? Or so naive that he never realized what he was doing was wrong (strayed from his previously righteous path). Perhaps he's the lowest of them all since he gave himself up easily and was muddied by the pleasures of "adult" life, without getting to have learned from his mistakes or really given room to grow up like everyone else.

2.) Give them importance over the other students who attend (to show that they are seen as "special" and as those with ambition and not just some common faces)

3.) Closer to reality: Touga and Juri are closest to reality. Touga sure knows a lot about manipulation for power and the wrong ways of being an adult in order to attain success and acceptance, while Juri is totally aware that there can never be miracles. Nanami is also aware of manipulation, like knowing why her friends are loyal to her yet building master-slave relationships with them regardless to realize her devious plans. Ruka, Anthy and Utena were to naive since they wanted to accomplish something that they weren't really capable of


Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present.

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#2 | Back to Top04-28-2016 06:28:48 AM

pesimistamente
Anthy Assailer
From: Barcelona [former epi]
Registered: 01-12-2016
Posts: 70

Re: Characters' hair colors

(they also match the chakra colours and their meanings, I have to go now but I'll come back with this)

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#3 | Back to Top05-17-2016 06:56:12 PM

CarolineWellwater
Mikage Mistruster
Registered: 10-18-2015
Posts: 67

Re: Characters' hair colors

(( Well ShiningSanctum1,

I'm going to try to come at this from a completely oblique angle... as I haven't typed anything here in forever, and finally have a few minutes, when I'm not studying, to actually try to type something... instead of just reading stuff from my phone. 

Mind you my ability with light, physics, and astronomy sorts of stuff is going to be haphazard... at best.  Anyway, instead of looking at colors from a pigment perspective, I'm going to try to look at colors from a "light" perspective.  So... here goes.

Alright, coming at the question from a light perspective, wavelength size-wise, I think Red has the longest wavelength, with blue being the smallest.  But... blue light wavelengths are considered "High Frequency" whereas red is considered "Low Frequency"... meaning, if memory serves, blue has more energy than red.  To use an astronomy illustration, Blue Stars are super-hot, and offer a ton of energy as they conduct fusion and fission... while Red Stars are "cool and dim" by comparison. 

Now... this seems to be very much at odds with how the characters are displayed in the series.  The "Red" themed characters do tend to be more active, which goes against the "low-energy frequency" that red is supposed to be.  And the blue-characters tend to be more passive, which also goes against the high-power frequency that blue light is supposed to have.  Though there is the exception of Ruka.  He could also be seen as super-powered blue. (Almost "White" or Ultraviolet" you could equate.) And this could equate to a blue-star burning twice as hot and fast, and then collapsing in on itself.  Which... he kinda does, for the handful of episodes he is in.  Now, further confounding this issue is that you do have a white-star, in Akio's current fiance (who acts more like a white-dwarf, instead of a White Super Nova)... and two "purple" stars (Shiori and Anthy), which could be equated to ultra-violet (which oddly comes off as "black", unless you have the proper equipment to really view it... but the "black" could denote a lot of things, including black holes and absence of anything.  Shiori definitely seems to be... absent of something.)  Equally as curious, the yellow and green characters do seem to have traits of both (being both active and passive depending on the story arc, as if they seemingly have "middle" range energies and powers.  Even more oddly, the only green star I can think of is Betelgeuse (which I think is actually red or brown, as I'm pretty sure there aren't any true-green stars), which is an "armpit"... and Sanonji is treated in a smelly sort of manner at times.)  Though... with all the "minor" cast basically having brown hair the idea of hair-color reflecting light-color wavelengths does fit too.  As brown-light can be seen as a weaker, dimmer, slower form of red light.  And Brown stars aren't terribly known for their power or illumination abilities.  And most are dwarf stars.

Anyway, as an aside, colors are very dichotomous in meanings as a whole.  Red can mean a number of things from passion, to fire, to aggression, to chaos, to love.  For me, at least, I usually associate Black more with "Power" and "Leadership"... oddly, because of the idea of very formal outings being "Black-Tie Events", and all the high, upper-crust socialites go to those events.

So... I'm not sure if that actually answered your question or not.  But your question made me think of it. ))

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#4 | Back to Top05-18-2016 07:06:01 AM

DefineMask
Saionji Slapper
Registered: 05-14-2016
Posts: 26

Re: Characters' hair colors

I can't believe y'all are still wondering what the colors represent after having seen Episode 13 lol. That episode literally shows you what the colors represent! Just read the words on their coffins. They are in French so I will translate them:

Saionji has two:
Amiete-Friendship
Choix-choice

Miki:
Raison-reason

Juri:
Amour-love

Nanami:
Adoration

Touga also has two:
Conviction
Self

These are what all they are searching for. They got lost while discovering themselves-this is why these words are embedded on the coffins. They've been concealing these feelings and let their insecurities get the best of them. Simple answer lol.

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#5 | Back to Top05-18-2016 04:24:30 PM

pesimistamente
Anthy Assailer
From: Barcelona [former epi]
Registered: 01-12-2016
Posts: 70

Re: Characters' hair colors

ooops, completely forgot about this thread. This is what I meant with the chakras:

http://www.socialtahelka.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/chakras1.jpg

You can look more if you do some research. Colors vary a little bit from one sources to others (sometimes they include Ruka's exact hair color too lol) but it's pretty interesting, right? emot-biggrin

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#6 | Back to Top05-18-2016 04:25:32 PM

pesimistamente
Anthy Assailer
From: Barcelona [former epi]
Registered: 01-12-2016
Posts: 70

Re: Characters' hair colors

it also kind of reminds me to certain stairs and certain duel arena and certain floating castle in the sky. But that's just me.

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