Xu Yuan wrote:

Wakaba is a major character, as well Keiko appears gagain when her dreams are fulfilled and at the end of Episode 39, if what you say is true then after Mikage died the illusion of life should have been gone and they all should have simultaneously died.

Not if Akio still had a reason for them to be around.

Honestly, I don't believe that the BRDs were actually dead.  I think they should have been dead, though -- certainly Kanae might as well have been dead, given her later scant seconds on the screen.

Yes, in my humble opinion.
See Utena and Mikage: When they leaved the Ohtori Academy no one remembered about Utena or Mikage, because they went away themselfves. As for Ruka: Miki, Nanami, Juri and the others remember Ruka, because he died, he didn't leave the Academy(As absurd hypothesis, if Ruka didn't die he continued to stay in the Academy).







And the Shadow Girls say that Ruka is dead, who don't trust the Shadow Girls?

Ruka may be dead... but the Mutant Forelock still lives!

Xu Yuan wrote:

Actually I suggest people read the ruka essay, which explains why he may nt have died and how important he was to Akio himself. It's called "On Ruka" Shiori fan's beware...

Yeah, I've read that - I'm addicted to the essay section - but even after reading it, I'm fairly convinced he died. I know the SPG's are rarely straightforward, but I think they were in this case.

Right after the duel, Juri is in the chair room again, and she's looking at Ruka's chair. It is then that she says "Everything will be alright, huh?" This would seem to indicate that Ruka is not alright, despite his assurances that everything would be alright. I think the next scene with the chairs very close to the end of the episode furthers the argument that Ruka has, in fact, expired, since there are only two chairs in the scene although previously there were three. And the emphasis of threes prior to that scene (three windows, then three chairs, then three windows again, then three hospital beds) before cutting it down to twos (two chairs) also indicates this. My guess is that when Juri is sitting in the chair looking at Ruka's chair and repeating his line it is because Ruka is back in the hospital and has gotten worse.

Also, to reiterate an oft-made point, Ruka is remembered by other students - Nanami even makes a snide remark regarding his attendance record! - which, if he had merely left, would not have been the case.

Also, I think the background music at the end of the episode is a tip-off, really - its sad-sounding music, and I doubt they'd use it if Ruka was merely farting around in the real world. It starts playing when Juri is visiting the fencer in the hospital, too, and urging her on focusing on getting better and not worrying about the upcoming competition. I think this is significant because Ruka left the hospital and did not focus on getting better.

Man, I just hardcore re-watched the final half of that episode. If anyone wants, I can post the screencaps of the three windows, three chairs, three windows, and three hospital beds if you don't recall that specific of a detail - never noticed it before myself!

Ok, here we go:

So first we have the three windows, immediately after the duel has completely ended:



And then Juri repeating Ruka's line while looking at his chair:



Then the camera moves back to actually include the other chairs in the shot:



The scene then ends, and the next scene immediately starts with this, three windows:



And then we have the scene where Nanami and Miki are talking, and the fencer gets injured. Next we have Juri visiting the girl in the hospital, in a room with three beds, only one of which is occupied:



(as an aside, her visiting the girl in the hospital seems to support the parallel to Ruka, since why would the girl be in a hospital bed and staying there if she has merely injured her ankle?)

Juri next exits to the hall, the SPG's do their thing, and Juri walks off-screen as the scene ends. Immediately, we get this shot:



And then the next thing that happens is Juri walking along, and then Shiori popping out to walk behind her. Episode ends.

Last edited by A Day Without Me (12-11-2006 06:20:08 PM)

On a side note, am I the only one who wishes that Ruka had in fact been the nameless boy? I think in terms of the story it would've worked incredibly well, and made things even more interesting when Ruka actually shows up.

Razara wrote:

When Juri's locket is shattered, the three of them gasp, including Shiori from her chair. In the next scene, we see Juri sitting in her chair as she says, "It will be alright, huh?" Now Shiori's chair is facing her own... I really do wonder why the broken locket caused her to face Juri's direction...

After Juri hears what the shadow girls have to say, the three chairs are shown once again. The episode ends with Shiori's chairs facing Juri's, which faces the direction of Ruka's chair, which is no longer there... I was very upset the first time I realized what this meant.

I find this fascinating! And I do think you are onto something.  What do you think it means?  That Juri doesn't love Shiori romantically anymore?  That she loves, or at least admires, Ruka?  That Ruka is gone for good, whether he's dead or not?

O_O

It might not be related to the character's affection, though the idea of looking away from one another does frequently come up. In the picture inside of Juri's locket, for example, Shiori is looking away from Juri and towards that boy. Just before the duel, we see that Juri is looking at Shiori, and Shiori is looking elsewhere. In the final scene, Shiori is looking away from Juri until she turns around and runs after her.

As for it not going along well with the final scene, in a way, it does. Though Shiori is now looking in Juri's direction, Juri is looking down an empty road. She's not looking at Shiori, but Shiori is looking at her, just as we see with the chairs.

I always figured that this means that Juri does care about Ruka, as much as I hate to admit it. I actually don't dislike Ruka, and my feelings for him are rather neutral. However, the first time I noticed this symbolism, I threw something at the TV screen. This was mostly due to my annoyance over the fact that after Shiori finally looks in Juri's direction, Juri looks away. However, there's nothing that says her chair can't face Shiori's direction again, and it doesn't necessarily mean that she doesn't love her.

It's hard to say whether the absence of Ruka's chair means that he is dead, or that he has simply left the academy.