1) Not long enough.
2) Ikuhara never utilized the armor we saw in the opening. I really want to see a jousting tournament at Ohtori!
3) Touga doesn't have much of a backstory, unlike the other Duelists.
4) The English dub.
5) Series-Utena is not as cool and realistic as LN-Utena.
6) We never see Utena and Anthy reunite in most continuities.
7) The anime should have incorporated the game's story, even if D-ko is a non-sequitur; it would provide foreshadowing for the Utena-Akio relationship and the Black Rose Arc.
8) Nanami murdering that kitten. I will never forgive her.

DorianGray345 wrote:

4) The English dub.

THIS.

My more specific complaint about this, is casting Rachael Lillis as Utena. I quite like her as a character actor or voicing adults, but as a teen character she just rings false. Compare her work as two characters in the same show: in Pokemon, she's terrific as Jesse but I never liked her as Misty. Is this just me? I don't think this is just me.

They also cast Lisa Ortiz as Shiori, which is great for Shiori, but she shows up in what, three episodes? That's poor utilization of resources.

Yes, I know Lisa Ortiz is older than Rachel Lillis. It's only by a few years, and I think Ortiz is just a better actor.

DorianGray345 wrote:

2) Ikuhara never utilized the armor we saw in the opening. I really want to see a jousting tournament at Ohtori!

yaaaaaaaaaaaas

I was really looking forward to seeing Anthy on a horse in that armor! I thought maybe it'd be a final episode thing, but it never happened... what a tease.

4) The English dub.

When rewatching the series, I accidentally clicked on the dub of "The Sunlit Garden (Prelude)" instead of Nozomient's subbed one. I watched it out of curiosity. All it took was two lines for me to click back and try to scrub those voices from my memory. Why does Miki sound like a bored college freshman after a night of binge drinking? "I got to protect Himemiya's music. Or not. I don't really care; I'm in this strictly for the money."

Chrome Homura wrote:

Well, for all we know it's possible he could have actually beaten whatever illness it was that afflicted him if he'd just stayed in bed. We just kind of assume his "knowing how sick he was" means he was going to die soon no matter what, but is that really the case? What if there was actually a chance he could have actually recovered in due time, and he threw it away for Juri's sake?

That is actually my headcanon on Ruka.

Call me crazy, but I think a plotbunny just spawned in my head. A narrative worthy of a drabble, at least...

Ooh, me wanna see

Nocturnalux wrote:

gorgeousshutin wrote:

Chrome Homura wrote:

Well, for all we know it's possible he could have actually beaten whatever illness it was that afflicted him if he'd just stayed in bed. We just kind of assume his "knowing how sick he was" means he was going to die soon no matter what, but is that really the case? What if there was actually a chance he could have actually recovered in due time, and he threw it away for Juri's sake?

That is actually my headcanon on Ruka.

Wouldn't that make him a complete idiot, though? Maybe I'm too selfish to see the wonders of such selfless sacrifice but if it was a condition that could be cured then I can't see why he did not wait until it was so and then help Juri in whatever way he saw fit. Not to mention that if he did so he could have helped her out in the long run instead of the hit-and-run approach.

As far as I see it the Shadow Girls more than implied that Ruka's condition was indeed fatal and that he acted as he did precisely because he was running out of time. It's the only way of making any sense of his actions.

Or, it could've been a case where the hospital's treatments could've prolonged Ruka's life, but not the quality of it (think late stage cancer patient undergoing chemo).  Maybe it's a case where neither he nor the doctors could say for certain if he could recover completely, but that the longer he stay with the life-prolonging treatment - one with perhaps debilitating side effects  - the less of a chance his body would be able to handle Duels at Ohtori.  So, instead of living on bedridden hoping for a miracle, Ruka decides to cease treatment and get back to Ohtori to help Juri -knowing this will shorten his life - while he still can.  That's still a sacrifice scenario, and one that doesn't contradict the Shadow Girl Play.

Nocturnalux wrote:

That would make sense, yes, I'd count such a scenario as 'fatal disease'.

And I'm sure it's been mentioned before but those yaoi hands really freak me out on occasion.

So much of Utena is about borderline situations (Utena and the Kaorus being borderline children, Akio and Kanae being bordline adults, etc), thus why I got this "bad-but-might-live-longer-with-treatment" scenario as my Ruka health headcanon.

P.S. "Yaoi hands?"

gorgeousshutin wrote:

Nocturnalux wrote:

That would make sense, yes, I'd count such a scenario as 'fatal disease'.

And I'm sure it's been mentioned before but those yaoi hands really freak me out on occasion.

So much of Utena is about borderline situations (Utena and the Kaorus being borderline children, Akio and Kanae being bordline adults, etc), thus why I got this "bad-but-might-live-longer-with-treatment" scenario as my Ruka health headcanon.

P.S. "Yaoi hands?"

If it's 'live longer but would still die' then I can buy it, if it's 'could be cured and resume normal life' then I have serious doubts.

'Yaoi hands', when male characters' hands are absurdly huge in comparison to their own body. Even stranger when in compariosn to other people:

Last edited by Nocturnalux (04-30-2015 03:57:15 PM)

hahahahahhaha what the frick touga