Juri.  I don't like otherwise confident, serious people projecting cowardice to the point of A.) madness, B.) futility, and C.) blind stupidity.  I find her random side geeky interests a boring shtick.  That wouldn't make her my least favorite character, except for the fact that she shows potential for being cool in the last four episodes, which contrasts with the cool/hardcore she's supposed to be throughout the series.

jmie5 wrote:

I feel bad for saying that Shiori is definitely my least favorite character; someone once eloquently posted why she's valuable, a long time ago, but I just, she rubs me the wrong way.  I'm still wondering why I can appreciate Touga and not her.

There was actually an entire thread once discussing why we forgive some characters their flaws and not others, mostly concerning double standards with gender.  I can't remember where it is, but I believe it was called "The Prince and the Whore."  It focused more on Touga and Kozue, but it was also very insightful on a broader scale.

Actually, I've been meaning to start a discussion thread of my own, where we swap the genders of each character and determine if that would change our perception of them.  Like, what if Ruka had been a girl?

Last edited by OnlyInThisLight (09-17-2011 09:01:32 PM)

My least favorite character (outside of the undevolved minor characters such as the BHB) is Saionji. I simply cannot relate to him.

iluvmichaeljackson wrote:

Wakaba. She's too um, well, annoying. Honestly speaking, I think I can tolerate/relate to Chu-Chu more than I can to Wakaba.

She's too much of a stereotypical teenage girl. I find it very hard to believe that anyone in real life is like that. :/

I have to politely disagree with your statement on Wakaba's personality. If anyone in the series is a typical teenage girl, it's either Nanami or Keiko. Wakaba's not petty, nor does she have superficial emotions. And Wakaba also has one of the most interesting Black Rose duels.

But I am a Wakaba fan who likes civilized debate. Feel free to disregard my comments

Miki. I wish the guy had balls. Akio too. He's just too full of himself and his abilities, and his extreme cowardice makes me want to full out slug him.

Last edited by Prince_of_Stars (04-25-2010 09:08:27 PM)

My least favourite character in the series has got to be Shiori, hands down.
Her inferiority complex just annoys me, especially how she hides it by tormenting people and being downright manipulative. Granted that Juri is throwing herself down a vortex of insanity and mental torture by still associating herself with Shiori by still caring and wanting to protect her, it makes me want to shout at the TV/Computer when Juri still loves such a horrid character. Don't get me wrong, I love Juri, but how could anyone appreciate Shiori? I know (and respect) there are other people who like her, but, for me, she was the main character in the series that rubbed me the wrong way no matter ho sweet she acted. She is even more annoying in the movie.

My least favorite is Touga. He pretty much adds nothing to the show and turns Utena into a total idiot when he's not even worth it. He doesn't seem to have much depth and he isn't as extreme as the other characters. He's more of a subtle dick with a lil kindness in all his douchiness.

If I have to pick a character I dislike in Utena, it would have to be Miki's sleezy piano teacher, I'm glad that Kozue pushed him down the stairs.

Tamago wrote:

If I have to pick a character I dislike in Utena, it would have to be Miki's sleezy piano teacher, I'm glad that Kozue pushed him down the stairs.

Word.
Also the sleazy vice principal with the thing for girls in short skirts.

Well, its not like I really hate any of the characters, but I do have some problems with a few.

Ruka - what the fuck is he doing in this series? He's in and out in under two episodes. And he doesn't even have a distinctive personality. He's just Touga, except maybe a bit less of a douche.

Saionji - hilarious when played for laughs, but just stupid if you try and take him seriously. He's just so over the top and brutish that its often impossible to think of him as having any depth.

Juri - all she does is kick utena's ass, have a deep voice, and angst over being a lesbian. I'm sorry, but she's the one character whose problems simply don't make any sense. Touga wants power, saionji wants love, but juri has problems because she didn't get the memo that everyone is bi in this series.

Wow, I hadn't thought about it that way. When watching the series, I tended to focus so much on utena and anthy so much that I guess I neglected some of the other characters. There's so much symbolism and so much going on its hard to take it all in, you know?

I'm due for a rewatch but based on what I remember . . .

Nanami - Annoying, not funny, kills a kitten.

Shiori - THAT VOICE, smug as fuck.

Kozue - Like Shiori, her smugness gets irritating.

Juri - . . . I'm not sure, I guess I just hate how everyone thinks she's Little Miss Perfect when she's basically just a really cold twisted person whose only redeeming qualities are superficial things like her fencing abilities and her . . . hotness (even though she has the same ridiculous figure as every other girl in the show)?

Oops I apparently hate almost all the female characters in the show . . . honestly every character is very flawed and pretty unlikeable in a lot of ways. But of course those flaws make the show.

Ruggahissy wrote:

My opinion of the characters is always changing. I used to like Touga and majorly dislike Siaonji but with time my opinion of Saionji has improved while my opinion of Touga has gone down. I used to think Miki was just such a cutey but now I find him just a 'lil creepy (but he's still a cutey). My least favorite is propably Touga, but he's such a hilarious dick that I can't stay mad at him too long.

Are you me?

Because that's pretty much how I feel about said characters.  I hate what Touga does in the series, and I hate what certain rose-colored glasses fans make him out to be more, but damn if he isn't fun to watch and analyze just as much as the other characters.  So in weird way, I prefer his bastard-series self over his plot device princely movie self. 

And the first time I watched the series, no lie, I was terrified of Saionji.  I actually got a little queasy with nerves every time I saw him on screen or around Anthy, because dear god the bad shit is about to happen vibes were fierce. 

I first brushed off Miki as a cutieface who wasn't shallow by any means, but whose analytical weight was more or less carried by his sister.   I've since learned this isn't true, but at the cost of Miki's cuteness.  Now I can't help but hone in on that tiny, hard-to-place, quiet bit of selfishness and malice of his every time I see a shot of him in the series or even in the Let's Play thread showcasing how adorable he is.



I'd like to think that SKU had a particularly strong effect on me because I fell for its every trap when I first watched it, because I didn't quite 'get' it.   I assumed it was a friendly little mildy exploitative ambiguous lesbian romp, that Anthy was so meek it was tiring, and that Shiori was da devil.  I misread every character, I never saw a single plot twist coming, and I learned a whole helluva lot as a result.

Last edited by OnlyInThisLight (06-03-2010 03:11:15 AM)

Neva Caruso wrote:

Heh.  Viewers are perfectly within their rights to find Ruka irritating, or his actions objectionable (because a lot of them are objectionable), or think that his story line was rushed.  I think he's an interesting character, since he tries and fails to be Juri's "prince" in the same way that Utena eventually succeeds in becoming Anthy's, but I certainly see why a lot of other viewers don't like him, and it's a lot harder to defend him as an important character than it is to defend, say, Juri as one.

I would not, however, call him a Gary Stu, simply because his story is so self-contained.  If he'd appeared on the scene with his sex appeal and manipulation and mad fencing skillz and uncanny insights into the way that Ohtori works (okay, that last part is mostly fanon), and then stayed, we'd all call no way.  The question of what qualifies a canon character as a Sue/Stu is DEFINITELY a separate (and very subjective) debate, but I think that said canon character has to completely usurp the narrative in order to be one.  And Ruka doesn't.  He has an important impact on one supporting character's arc, and it was the kind of impact that none of the other canon characters could have had, because (except for Shiori herself) none of them had a close relationship with her.  (And the long-term effects of his machinations are never spelled out, other than a couple of hints at the end of the last episode; we're left to freely interpret them for ourselves.)

I'll allow that his sudden appearance was jarring.  A couple of flashbacks in previous episodes would have made it less so.

The Gary Stu comment was based on my first impression of him.  Like I said earlier, he entered the show with surprising ease and very little buildup, which is something that a lot of Sues and Stus do.  Even though I know how his mini-arc turned out, the initial dislike still lingers on.  Still, I admit that calling him a Gary Stu is too harsh, and you raise a very good point about how self-contained his story was.  Despite his clumsy entrance, he didn't really have an impact on Ohtori beyond Juri and Shiori, while an actual Sue/Stu would have done a lot more during their stay.  As for the aforementioned fangirls ...now that I think about it, the fangirl masses have swooned over every major duelist except for Nanami.  Squee over Ruka isn't really out of place in retrospect.

Also, since you're a Ruka fan, I have a question: I haven't read Ruka's arc in the manga, but everything I've heard about it makes his appearance sound more natural than it was in the anime.  Do you know anything about the differences between the two?

Last edited by Nebula (06-03-2010 01:39:09 PM)