So I've been continuing my tumultuous love affair with Pathologic- I know I'll never play it, but I've spent enough time with it to have beaten it several times over if I had- and I just noticed how the characters keep raving on about how eternal and miraculous and shiny and what-have-you the Polyhedron is.  Hrm.

Yeah, there was a short discussion about that in the videogames thread.

Although... I rarely play videogames.  So no, I haven't played it.  But I've seen most of the possible content, sometimes more than once.

I'm trying to make the connection between it and Utena and Rule of Rose, and... nope, still not clicking to the degree I'd like it to.  Would you care to outline the thematic similarities, as you see them?

Although, whenever "coming of age" is listed, I always mentally cross it off.  That's, like, one of the seven major conflicts or something.  Unless it's explored in a similar way, I really don't see the mere presence of a coming of age narrative as a thematic link to Utena.

Here's a good write up of the relationship between Hana no Kishi, SKU, and The Song of the Wind and Trees that's quite nice and whose approach/conclusions/tastes I disagree with almost completely.

I think it's quite on when  pinning SKU as elegiac and an "Orpheus story," but can't groove on "I want an Utena who is bloody and weak and desperate" at all. But, it gives a good sense of influence and reaction against, between the three.

Something I like about Hana no Kishi is that, while yes, it's rife with lifts from Utena and other things, the characters that look like kids  are kids. The "Touga" may try to pose like  Touga, to  tower sexily over everyone, but  his way of doing it is stupid kid bravado like "I can chug a whole two liter of  Coke just watch me!" It's not are peat of Utena, but plays off the same structures and themes in a different fashion, with different ethics or social expectations. So, too, Song of the Wind and Trees.

FabulousMax wrote:

Has anyone ever read Tokyo Babylon, one of CLAMP's earlier manga? It's really hard to talk about the similarities without spoiling the manga (and it's one of those stories that you to need to go in without spoilers), but I got a lot of Utena and Akio vibes from the two main characters. It's one of my favorite stories, and I feel like quite a few Utena fans would enjoy it too.

SKU would've been really painful if Utena had pulled the same move to buy Anthy some time to get free of her brother. (Or, um, if Anthy did it for Akio, since they are siblings.)

CLAMP and some members of BePapas seem to have certain older anime talent in their inspirational cache, beginning with Mr. Haunting Symbolism Style is Substance, himself, Rintaro.

Not so much the similarity between franchises (although, a group of dysfunctional people dueling for a mysterious, wish-granting artifact, a red-clad magical girl and a girl-knight/prince, the strange powers of sex, self sacrificing hero with a traumatic childhood with rolemodels who's pedestals end up broken, hmmm...), but much more the similarity, or the similar feel at least, that I found in two characters, namely Fate/Stay Night's and Fate/Zero's Kotomine Kirei and SKU's Akio.

Both are characters who have evil in their nature, and despite struggling to overcome it by blindly adhering to lofty ideals and severe self-punishment, end up failing, leaving them no other choice than enjoying their twisted nature to the fullest. Just as the idealistic heroes of both stories are inherently good and morally sound and as such cannot comprehend evil, their opposites cannot comprehend good, try as they might. And both Akio and Kotomine are quick to point out the holes and flaws in the protagonist's ideals and manipulate them, and also quick to point out that the hero and villain are not so different after all. Also they are both freakishly tall and have badass baritones. And they both evoke a similar, strange feeling of sympathy in me.

Also, if Akio is interpreted as an Antihero rather than a villain by nature, a better parallel would be (SPOILERS if you haven't read or watched F/S N)
[Archer/Emiya Shiro himself. They both start of as idealistic, self sacrificing youths who place little value in their own lives and desperately try to save everyone, only to have their ideals crushed. They become bitter and mock the protagonists, while at the same time seeing their youthful selves in them (literally and figuratively), even though Archer is more snark knight and jerkass than villain. Then there's the slight visual similarity (hair, red outfits, the field/storm of swords and sword symbolism in general), and their seeming detachment from the concept of time.]

I'm enjoying F/SN immensely, and I tend to compare things I enjoy with SKU a lot, so...