Very cool!!! It's always fun to try on a new pair of trousers with this show.

I especially like where you place Juri; it seems to fit well with her in the sense of her wavering back and forth as to where she wants to land. The idea of a revolution excites her, but at the same time would cost her dearly contrasted to what benefits the system has for her now. She can legitimately ask 'would I be better off?' because she's comfortable enough to see that it could be worse. As opposed to your proletariat; Anthy has no where to go, really, but up.

I have to admit a near total ignorance when it comes to Marx. My exposure usually involves someone angrily talking about 'the man' holding them down and fooling everyone into thinking they'll get to be like him if they remain good little cogs on the wheel. Certainly sounds familiar to me. What does it say, though, that the bourgeois in SKU actively sells the Revolution? Controlled burn, perhaps?

Actually reminds me a great deal of Snowpiercer, if you've ever heard of it. Very good movie and definitely draws from Marx where it's applicable here.

Time for Part 2! Satyreyes, some of your questions are addressed below and more will be answered shortly...

In this edition, we'll look at two major plotlines from SKU through the lens of Marxism.



The Dueling Game: Class Struggle
Marx perceived history as an ongoing class struggle. In every generation, the ruling classes have worked to devise new ways of corraling and controling the masses. Akio's dueling games over the centuries are a natural simile. He periodically gathers the most talented of young people, tempts them with the power of revolution and leads them to compete in a tournament whose true purpose is to reinforce his ordained way of things.

Despite their recited insistence to break the world's shell, the Student Council spend the bulk of the series offering no challenge to the circumstances they inhabit. Their signet rings, the dueling arena, the Rose Bride, and all other accoutrements of the contest are provided to them by the "Ends of the World." When Utena appears with a ring of her own, even her perceived threat to their social standing is not enough to make them disregard the rules of the game, and they accept her as a duelist.

All of these characteristics apply to the class struggle as Marx understood it. Rule Number 1: even as the factions of bourgeois and petit-bourgeois enter pitched battle, the subservient status of the proletariat shall never be in question. The arch-capitalists set the stage, make the rules and sit beyond the boundaries of the battlefield, inviolate. No contender's victory is ever permanent - the duels are never intended to end. And we ultimately learn that the skill and strength of duelists means nothing - each duel's result is decided by Akio to provide for his narrative.

Utena wishes to end the dueling game, but she concludes that in order to do so she has to win the duels, affirming a Marxist outlook on class struggle. Marx believed that the class hierarchy would only end through a violent uprising, and while Utena tries to dissuade the Student Council members from the duels, it becomes apparent to her that the only way to end the duels is to defeat the other participants.

It's interesting to note that Saionji is the character who does the most to challenge the dueling institution - first by breaking the rules in anger, and after his return by questioning it more pointedly than anyone but Utena. But his story also draws attention to the insidious self-reinforcing nature of Ohtori's hierarchy. Following his initial transgression, Saionji is cast out of the capitalist class but he buys his way back in by betraying Wakaba -- who can be seen to represent an individual proletarian, in contrast to Anthy's collective representation. In the real world you could argue that lower echelons of bourgeoisie are the most likely to initiate social changes, and also likely to resume exploitative relationships after the dust clears. Even as Saionji challenged the dueling game following his initial losses, his return affirmed his social status and role as an exploiter, and after his restoration he dueled once more. Once a bougeoisie, always a bourgeoisie, perhaps.



The Black Rose Saga: Reaction
The Student Council saga embodies a fairly straightforward conflict between social classes. Once it's over, a mysterious enemy twists the minds of supporting cast members and leads them into duels with Utena. Mikage represents what Marx called reactionary socialists. Typically led by bourgeois thinkers, reactionaries wish to undo cultural changes while keeping the class hierarchy intact. In Marx's day, they often pined for the loss of the feudal aristocracy; during recent years, they've spearheaded fascism and other nationalist movements, and lately brought up the idea of "making America great again." Marx noted their nostalgia and detachment from reality.

So what makes up Mikage? The roots of his behavior lie in fantasies and distorted perceptions. He originally occupied a privileged, insulated position he didn't question. He came into contact with a high-ranking member of the ruling class -- Akio -- and two people who he imagined as his surrogate family and desired to help. He then experienced a primal violation by the ruling figure when he saw Akio and Tokiko kissing. This drove him down a destructive path, where out of mixed feelings of duty toward Mamiya and vengefulness toward Akio, he killed a hundred young men. Or at least thought he did.

Crossing this Rubicon changed him from a passive observer to an agent of change as he understands it. Unlike the Student Council members, he wants to really and truly end the class struggle, but he's fighting for a phantom. The reactionary is thus presented as the dark mirror of the revolutionary; he claims to want the best for the proletariat, but his proletariat is an impostor standing in for someone who died a long time ago. And the sexually coercive undertones present between Mikage and Mamiya highlight that Mikage's motivations may be even less noble than they appear. The scene of Mikage sucking blood from Mamiya conveys the same idea more bluntly, as do the means of his challenge -- the manipulation of people just above proletarian status into attacking Utena and threatening Anthy's life.

So why does Mikage want to kill the Rose Bride? If there's one reactionary thinker who can best shed light on Mikage's view of Anthy, it would probably be J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien mourned the decline of bucolic Southern English farm life, which never quite existed in the way he envisioned, and his orcs have been likened to the burgeoning industrial workers whose culture he found distasteful. Mikage shares the disdain for a living, breathing proletariat in favor of a fantasy working class. This outlook reduces him to a tool of Akio, who uses him to move the dueling game forward and reaffirm Anthy's negative self-image.

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Coming next: the Apocalypse arc!