Ragnarok wrote:

(FMA) Scar!

Yeah, I'm definitely thinking of the wrong Scar.

Romanticide wrote:

Ok this is not anime neither manga but I always recomend Fables published by DC vertigo.
It'd about fairytales living in the modern new york. All the characters are awesome and the stories are really adictive. Also the Prince Charming is in fact a bastard but charismatic womanizer who married and divorced Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.

I've read this! It's sincerely awesome. Much love for the big bad wolf

Haha, everyone says how gorgeous the art is in Utena, but probably half the reason I was so attracted to the series is because I found the artwork slightly unsettling. I'm not going to say I disliked it, but I didn't really like it.... o.o


EDIT: What was here was me saying that a new series, Red Garden, has moments that remind me slightly of Utena, but I just finished the second episode and I'm pretty sure they were all coincidental.

Last edited by Hinotori (10-29-2006 03:31:50 AM)

Ragnarok wrote:

Giovanna wrote:

Ragnarok wrote:

(FMA) Scar!

Yeah, I'm definitely thinking of the wrong Scar.

Akio + Scar = Tsume

I always loved how the rest of the wolves wore normal clothes but Tsume was dressed like it was Friday night and he was going to the local gay bondage club.

skewed_tartan wrote:

I always loved how the rest of the wolves wore normal clothes but Tsume was dressed like it was Friday night and he was going to the local gay bondage club.

To be fair I don't think Tsume could remove those pants after he put them on. One night of experimentation and he has to deal with it for the rest of his life!

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

Alarm wrote:

Sailor Moon~

Well... Sailor Moon S had become my favorite season of that show well before I found Utena, so...

Hehe~ then you already know the goods! Hrmm...I'm trying to think of more enigmatic series like Utena but... I'm coming up short.

Shamanic Princess

A young girl with magical powers, Tiara, is sent to Earth from the Guardian World There, she must retrieve the Throne of Yorudo, which was been stolen by a man named Kagetsu. What really surprises Tiara is the fact that her best friend, Lena, is helping out Kagetsu.


OMG, you should watch Alien 9 - that is a kinda disturbing anime about girls... has major symbolism and um - very interesting and different.


Alien 9

In the 6th grade class of the 9th middle school, the class forces Yuri Otani to an undesirable post. She is made part of the Anti-Alien Team. She has to wear a symbiotic alien on her own head in order to fight the aliens that arrive in spaceships from other worlds. While her own alien will protect her, she is scared of it and the enemy. Life isn`t easy in the 6th grade.


(descriptions and pics taken from: http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=main )


I know the descriptions are a little.... unconvincing, but really, give them a try - you'll see what I mean by enigmatic.

Last edited by Alarm (10-29-2006 10:10:54 PM)

I agree about Shamanic Princess. It's got a bit of surreal, a bit of obtuse, and a whole lot of pretty people. Should be right up your alley if you liked SKU. It's a short OAV series, though, so it doesn't contain nearly as much character development as SKU does.
And I was also about to recommend some bits of Sailor Moon where Ikuhara's style shines through. The latter parts of the SuperS season are a good example, especially the last episode. Some of the themes and ideas from Utena are present, but not nearly as developed. The rest of the season is mostly shameless filler that can simply be skipped, though.

I've also heard a lot of positive things about a series called Princess Tutu. Silly title, but reviews and summaries I've read definitely make it sound pretty Utena-ish. Most likely worth checking out, I guess.

Last edited by Toasty (10-30-2006 12:36:10 AM)

My wife and I sat and watched the episode intro for the first episode of Maria-sama ga Miteru -- we haven't downloaded the rest of the episode yet, nor have we had the time to watch -- but when I turned it off, she turned to me and said, "I saw three references to Utena and one to lesbianism in that minute-and-a-half."  I had to ask about the lesbianism reference: apparently in parts of Africa (and possibly other areas of the world where French was a colonial language), "petite soeur" is the term a woman uses for a woman lover. 

Ah, the joys of being married to an anthropologist.

I found Haibane Renmei to be one of the most profoundly transformative stories I've ever watched.  Like Utena, it hit some of my really deep-set buttons.  Other than Utena, it's the only anime that makes me cry consistently.  I spent the day after watching one episode in particular in a daze of, "OMG *that's* what that means!" and spent an entire therapy session talking about the symbolism and meaning as it applied to my own life.  I finished watching the series and felt like someone had just taken a roto-rooter to my sinuses and the ventricles of my brain.  It was pretty much amazing, yeah.

Ivy-chan wrote:

I recently read a manga called 'After School Nightmare', and it has some Utena-like qualities. Or, well, it has a boy-girl transexual, (I think), who wants to be a boy. Also, people disappearing when they 'graduate', a huge psychological dreamscape battle that's supposedly the class you must pass to graduate, and high school issues.

http://www.gocomi.com/series/nightmare/

I will certainly be looking for this series when it turns up at the manga store I frequent as I have not come across any manga that features intersexed individuals before now.  The nearest I usually find are cross-dressing manga like:

Hana Kimi

W Juliet

Kill Me Kiss Me

I can't say that there are any anime I like that bear any RESEMBLANCE to Utena, in my opinion.  It's not gender ambiguity, cross dressing, or yaoi/yuri pairings that I like in Utena.  I DO like the sword-fighting... ;)  It's mostly the story, the meaning.  It's brilliant, and I haven't seen another anime that comes close.  There are some things that I found entertaining and enjoyable, but very few that were both entertaining and meaningful. :/

I like the Sailormoon manga (and the anime too, though I think the story comes across better in the manga).
I like the Rurouni Kenshin OVAs.  Great ambiance.  Hate the TV series.
I like Now and Then, Here and There.  Depressing, but very good.
I like Haibane Renmei.  Lots of un-answered questions for me in that one, but it's good.

Berserk upset me greatly.
I liked Escaflowne, though I felt the end was a cop-out.
I advise anyone who liked Howl's Moving Castle to read the book--it's good and the story is tighter.
I dug Witch Hunter Robin, particuarly the end, which gave me a Vampire Princess Miyu vibe. <3 Amon.
Hellsing, Trigun, and Cowboy Bebop are all good for a watch.

I liked Evangelion, of course, but I tend to avoid it due to its over-popularity.  FLCL is amusing, but doesn't totally inspire me.  Too random.
I keep meaning to watch Lain again...I found it rather pretentious when I first saw it--not bad, no, just...pretentious.
I thought Wolf's Rain had potential, but I already know how it ends, so I haven't managed to take the time to watch it through yet.

Most recently I loved Stand Alone Complex.  Sexy Kusanagi gets my vote anytime (stupid sucky movie). 
Old favs are Key the Metal Idol (geist!) and Blue Seed (very fun).

I haven't seen a lot of the stuff that is being/has been released or fansubbed recently. 

I want to see Scrapped Princess, because I hear good things.  There are a few others on a list at home that I'm interested in...  But I'm an evil person and I only buy HKs, so what I see is often dependent on stock.

Hinotori wrote:

Really? It's a pretty common plot device in a lot of yaoi. Guy dresses as girl (for whatever reason), man meets girl/guy, becomes attracted to her, finds out she's a he, decides not to care.

I must admit I haven't read many yaoi as most of the yaoi on sale are covered in plastic wrap and except for Negima (Which was also covered in plastic wrap thou I cant really see any reason for it) I tend to avoid buying manga that I dont have a chance to at least read a bit beforehand.

Or the men know the entire time and play ignorant because she's cute or they don't get girls much.

Thats what happens in Hana Kimi

Annnd there are a couple manga about genuinely intersexed people on Lililicious, and some of them are pretty unbad. Claudine (I think) Is about a female-male TS in france, but it's typical Riyoko Ikeda type stuff (WHERE HAVE WE HEARD THAT NAME BEFORE?), and the other one's about male to female, but it's only been scanlated a few chapters and the name escapes me.

I guess they haven't released those books down here yet where I live.  I just have to hope they will turn up soon and that I have enough money.

This may sound strange; it doesn't fit with SKU unless you stretch the knight plot a bit, but I LOVE Hellsing Ultimate. It's gory and exciting and good. yay.
<edit>
I forgot to mention that I love escaflowne. I like both the series and the movie, but the movie is more action based, and I enjoyed it a little more than the series. It's a really good fantasty title for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Last edited by belladonna (11-22-2006 05:25:53 PM)