Satyr has already expressed most of my thoughts on this subject but I'd like to add something more regarding this:

staplerman wrote:

Maybe he just doesn't click with people. His backstory is laid out pretty plainly, unlike Touga or Saionji's, which require more detective work/analysis. More people appear to empathize with Kozue than him in their respective situations, whereas the Juri/Shiori thing's controversial. The implied incest disgusts some people (you can see people denying it and insisting their relationship was totally kosher. probably as kosher as that milkshake they drink, let's be real). He's too nice and (seemingly) innocent to really get anyone's attention (and how can you compete with male characters like Touga and Akio?), but the issues he does have clearly rub some the wrong way (he's cold to his sister/places women on a pedestal/not honest about his true motives). Combined with a seeming lack of importance in the plot, perhaps it shouldn't be a wonder at all that he gets the least amount of attention.

Miki does have his fangirls in universe and while it may surprise you, a lot of girls go through a phase when they are younger when they are much drawn to the feminine looking kind of boy as opposed to the oozing sexuality self-assertive male. Especially in early adolescence such boys are seen as non-threatening and easier to connect to so girls are very drawn to them.

Miki also introduces a theme that becomes pivotal later on and that is unrealiable power of memory and the perspective of the other. Miki's version of the harmony and wonderful innocence of the sunlight garden proved to be very slanted once you see it from Kozue's point of view. Just like Utena's version of her gallant past with the wandering prince turns out to be something very different from what she remembered. And of course Mikage turns out to be the ultimate example of how betraying one's remembrance can be.

It's interesting that while Miki is identified with childish motifs but it is precisely his clinging to a childhood that never even existed that shows that he is more of a grownup than he lets show. Tsuwabuki and Utena cannot wait to grow up because they are both rather childish themselves while Miki seems to retreat into a golden past precisely because he knows all too well the pitfalls of adulthood. Children are not known to consider childhood as a precious time, that tends to be the attitude of adults.

Arguably Miki's distaste for sex, or what could be deemed his 'repressed' side, springs from this as well. Again a comparison with Utena and Tsuwabuki is in order but Miki's interaction with Mikage is perhaps the most revealing. While Miki's turning down Mikage's invitation to join his seminar seems to result from his humility, the scene is framed in such a manner as to resemble a seduction of sorts and that's how Miki takes it. Miki had more reasons to go along with Mikage than Nanami who jumps to the opportunity of joining the seminar but Miki is much more aware that there is danger lurking while Nanami is not.

And this also connects to an important point in the series: the dangers of aiming for purity at all costs.

Nocturnalux wrote:

It's interesting that while Miki is identified with childish motifs but it is precisely his clinging to a childhood that never even existed that shows that he is more of a grownup than he lets show. Tsuwabuki and Utena cannot wait to grow up because they are both rather childish themselves while Miki seems to retreat into a golden past precisely because he knows all too well the pitfalls of adulthood. Children are not known to consider childhood as a precious time, that tends to be the attitude of adults.

When I was 9 years old, while my family and I were driving back from an excursion to a science museum, I remember looking at the back of my dad's head as he drove, and I realized that when I grew up, I wouldn't be able to relax idyllically in the back seat anymore and would have to become the driver. When I got home I just buried my face in the couch cushion and wallowed in depression.

When I was 7 and in 2nd grade, I was given real graded homework for the first time. It was math homework, but it wasn't just math homework, it was math homework where the problems are in sections of a picture you have to color in, and you colored in the sections based on the solution of the problems in the section. So if the answer's 5, you color in blue, and if it's 4, you color in green, etc. I think maybe the guy who thought this up thought it would be fun, but the reality is it made the whole project take 5 times longer than it should have. For a while, this was nothing more than simmering resentment, until one day, I visited a neighbor/classmate's house and saw her mother store some of her graded homework in the garage alongside a pile of the rest of her graded homework. I realized that that was to be the rest of my life, that it was to consist of nothing but an ever-growing pile of sheets of paper with my name on them. This simmering resentment turned in a flash into a spark of horror, and then into dull acceptance.

For a while, I hovered between thinking that these intuitions meant that I was a misfit who couldn't "fit in" and thinking that these intuitions were in fact preternaturally wise. I thank you for directing my opinion toward the latter.

staplerman wrote:

Akio was not always as popular as he was now, and Saionji is not really popular outside these forums. I think these sort of trends are fascinating.

:cough: That's totally weird. I can't imagine what could account for their improved press.

As far as the workings of the SC, I gotta admit, Saionji's probably the least vital. He doesn't have any real duties that are apparent. In the same way the VP of just about anything doesn't have real power except to replace the President. Which would have been...interesting. Had he not gotten himself kicked out of school, the Black Rose Saga would have had a been of a different color to it, eh?

As far as the larger storyline, Miki does seem less important than some of the other characters. I'd argue because Miki (and Juri, actually) both have story arcs that can be pretty cleanly severed from the larger one. Touga obviously is central to the larger narrative, but his story is pretty well tied into Saionji's. That said, the narrative works the way it does by having all these different figures reflect different aspects of people, of Utena, and of the challenge of trying to realize dreams. Miki and Juri contribute to that, but I think they kind of do in a vacuum, compared to the other two. Nothing Miki does in a duel or otherwise really hugely changes what Utena does or doesn't do, or does or doesn't think. Saionji, in contrast, is a frequent catalyst for events in the story; his initial role alone earns him some points there, since his opposite-of-Utena outlook on life motivates her to intervene in a setting she otherwise would never have found herself in.

The movie is actually a very good illustration of this. Boiled down to their barest components, Miki and Juri are totally apart from Utena's story, their narratives separate and not really necessary for Utena's aside from providing a duel. Saionji, though his presence is less spread across the movie, ends up having more screen time because really, he's the best way to draw Utena into that first duel.

Saionji's also more central to the story because of his obsession with Anthy. Miki shares an interest there, true, and it's probably the thing that ties him most to the larger story. Juri, however, has no associations with any of the major characters of that same importance. So you could also argue she's less important because of it--they even had to bring in an entirely new character to give her something to do.

(I kid. Sort of.)