guardian_rose wrote:

I know the manga was made before the anime, so it wasn't like they knew to put all those things in there but...still!

First off, I just wanted to share with anyone who doesnt listen to commentary... (i usually dont, but i got curious )
Ikuhara and Chiho Saito are on the commentary track in the last disc of the US dvd release. in it, they discuss the production of the entire series. you learn such great facts like: the series and manga were made at the same time and the final episode aired on christmas day in japan. (plus much more)

what makes this so relevent is that character development occured in meetings and were produced at the same time... personally i have never heard of such procedures in a production before

oh... and just to stay on topic: I hate most of the first 13 episodes. #13 isnt so bad though. the fillers make me want to take a drill to my temple. especially if im tourturing myself with the english voices.

Yep, at the same time. It's interesting how they came to so many differences.

The first arc isn't as interesting to me as the rest, either. D: To me they were just to get to know the cast and get me warmed up for the rest of the series. But oh, the second arc, and especially the last one.

Well, there's nothing I especially hate about SKU except for the series' animation, so I'll go with things I dislike. Please keep in mind that I haven't read the manga in a long time, so I may be a bit off on some things.

- Movie Akio. Too much of a boyish fop when I expected scheming hotness. Not my thing.

- Manga Akio. No plaid pants plz. Just no. Fashion sense, dammit. Also, the doomy overlord impression I got is something I've seen a million times already.

- Both Movie and Manga Saionji. Please, oh please, don't just freak out for no reason. It's not good.

- Both Movie and Manga Touga. Nice guys are so boring. Movie Touga redeemed himself a little by being dead and well animated, but Manga Touga just never got better. I like my guys to be assholes; that explains why I don't have (or want) a boyfriend. No one's a big enough jerk to satisfy.

- Shiori. Too many of these girls in my high school. I'm not a fan, and probably never will be, although I'm not what you could call a hater.

- Shiori's voice. I seriously think this is half the reason I dislike the character.

- Nanami never having a plot work out. Dammit! I wanted to see her win!

- Any time any character shows indecision for more than two seconds. AUGH MAKE A DECISION. I deal with indecisive people in real life, I don't need it in the show!

- Keiko's feeling that Touga is somehow above her/unreachable. AUGH GET OVER IT. He'll sleep with anything, already, just shove your hand down his pants and tell him you want him naked. I bet he'd go along with it. Also, he'd find it interesting enough to pay more attention to her. Problem solved.

- Any obliviousness except Utena. Come on, pay attention!

- Some of the voice acting seems overly dramatic in places... yeah, okay, I'm stretching, but I wanted to have something to say for this stuff. I find it depressingly geeky how much I love this series sometimes.

http://www.ohtori.nu/gallery/revelation … ap0512.jpg
http://www.ohtori.nu/gallery/moviedvd/Cap224.jpg
OH GOD MY FACE!??!?!

there are several others I can think of off the top of my head, but cannot find shots at the moment.

I hate the way its OBVIOUS they trace other action sequences (like Wakaba and Mikage's feet moving the same with Utena's and the like)

Why don't we have a silly Touga episode?

Why was Miki so useless in the movie?

Why did they ignore anatomy and proportion (even more so than anime does to begin with)?

Oh, another thing I don't like: Touga. He's a sexy, scheming bastard. That's nice. But what's his reason for being one? His character could seriously use some development.

YamPuff wrote:

More things I dislike:
The second ending theme. Ew. I sat through it once and never again. Bad song, nothing special about what they're showing, nothing really symbolic about it (I think), just Anthy and Utena hugging their prince.

Uh, isn't that the first ED? And it is symbolic. I've been thinking about writing a short analysis about it, but I doubt it'll be up to everyone's standards.

Last edited by Hina the Prince (03-15-2007 07:31:06 AM)

Yasha wrote:

- Shiori's voice. I seriously think this is half the reason I dislike the character.

yes, she makes my ears bleed.

I also dislike the relation between character and his/her age. Is just... i mean, Kozue is NOT 13.

Hiraku wrote:

And, I felt that the ending scene ties back to the last two episodes of the series, too.

I think that way, too. But I feel that the lyrics are mostly self-explanatory.

While I agree that some of the Nanami episodes are ridiculous and overdone, I think that they just highlight how completely f*cked up Nanami actually is.  I mean, a scheming, horrible, viciously typical teenage bitch is one thing.  Someone who is all that and who also killed a kitten when she was a small child because attention from her big brother meant so much to her (and she apparently had no corrective forces in her life)?  Seriously, seriously f*cked up.  When did the manipulation by Touga really start?  Was he manipulating her even then?  Or was it a major family dysfunction?

Also, the egg episode?  One of the most brilliant pieces about uninformed and confused teenage girls experiencing menarche I've ever seen.

Nanami didn't mean to kill the kitten. I find it sad that people think so badly of her because it.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a133/RzMule/Mmyes.jpg
Oh my God, what is wrong with his face in this picture?!

Yasha wrote:

- Manga Akio. No plaid pants plz. Just no. Fashion sense, dammit.

The first time I read the manga,  I held the picture of Akio wearing those pants up for my sister to see, and said, "Look! Now we can finally play chess on Akio's pants!" (They remind me of a chess board, ignoring the fact that I never play chess, and that once someone took my king with a pawn.)

SleepDebtFairy wrote:

I thought Shiori's voice was so cute and sweet that it was creepy in her vicious moments. Seemed fitting or her character.

I thought that she sounded cute, too. It's amazing how she can sound so fucking adorable even while she's saying something like, "What the hell are you doing?!" As far as bad voices go, we should just be very thankful that there wasn't anyone with a loud Osakan accent. (That's ruined entire animes for me.)


Though I'm not completely against the Nanami filler episodes, I would have liked to see a filler episode about someone other than her. Seeing more of the characters from the student council would have been nice, and goodness knows that I would love to see more from the lesser characters. (I never wrote a "Catbell" parody off of the Cowbell episode... Really.)

Hina the Prince wrote:

Link please.

I never published it. I wrote it a while ago, when I wanted to take a break from writing serious stories to write something random for a change. It's more of a cross between the SKU filler episodes and animes that are cute for the sake of cute, which is why it's probably for the best that I never did.

Having Shiori chase that symbolic bird and play with yarn, (as a human,) was kind of fun, though.

Last edited by Razara (03-15-2007 07:48:30 PM)

Hina the Prince wrote:

Uh, isn't that the first ED? And it is symbolic. I've been thinking about writing a short analysis about it, but I doubt it'll be up to everyone's standards.

I think the one thing that really hit me about that first ending song was the empty-eyed, shoulder-hugging Anthy. It almost precisely mirrors the scene with Anthy just on the edge of running Utena through with the sword.

Hina the Prince wrote:

Oh, another thing I don't like: Touga. He's a sexy, scheming bastard. That's nice. But what's his reason for being one? His character could seriously use some development.

It's developed, but it's developed through other characters. I'm trying to work myself around to posting a thread, but I'm far too exhausted tonight. Maybe Sunday.

Ivy-chan wrote:

Hina the Prince wrote:

Uh, isn't that the first ED? And it is symbolic. I've been thinking about writing a short analysis about it, but I doubt it'll be up to everyone's standards.

I think the one thing that really hit me about that first ending song was the empty-eyed, shoulder-hugging Anthy. It almost precisely mirrors the scene with Anthy just on the edge of running Utena through with the sword.

Anthy's hug scene was also aired at the time when Utena asks her to come to her if she ever needs anything.