Is it just me or is the character animation in the series pretty lazy half the time? It seems to me the animators just expected you to know the characters based on hair colors and uniforms, and they added face lines as afterthoughts.

The fact that when Anthy stabs Utena, it looks like she just slid the sword under her arm, like they do in high school plays when someone is stabbed.  I get that they don't want graphic violence, but the first time I watched it I was like "what just happened?" until Anthy shoved the sword in further.  Maybe I'm just slow. XD It didn't look like Anthy stabbed her though.

Also, this doesn't really piss me off, but makes me laugh. (It pisses me off that I laugh at a serious scene!)  When Utena tells Anthy "don't we have a date to drink tea and laugh in 10 years?" it just strikes me as funny. She's scheduling laughter.  They're going to meet up in 10 years and laugh dammit, whether anything is funny or not..because Utena said so!

Last edited by HonorableShadow (07-31-2010 12:23:57 PM)

1.  The movie.  To this day, I still have trouble explaining to people who ask me just what the heck that movie was all about, and it bothers me like no tomorrow.  From Utena and Anthy's big dance scene/the slow shower of roses (and I know I shouldn't be worried about the laws of physics with this series) to the elevation of Touga, to the complete bastardization of Saionji, Utena's short hair, it just gets to me.  And maybe I could forgive a lot of the insanity, if I didn't like Saionji so much and could recognize some semblance of him, not this foaming-at-the-mouth creature who's essentially my favorite character broken down to nothing but "Raaaawrrr rose bride power/GREENHAIR!" Oh, I know Saionji is flawed, but there's a core about him, and underlying sweetness (you know, covered by the slapping and insanity and delusion,) and I know other characters were altered, but don't tell me my Saionji is nothing but a vengeful bastard and Touga (though somewhat unrelated to my being pissed) is a perfect martyr.  It also didn't help that when i went to Otakon this year that I had to beg one of my new friends to give Utena a second chance because the movie was the first thing she saw and said, "To hell with this, this is just too weird."

2.  One particular instance of Touga being a crappy brother - No one in Utena is innocent, but the end of the first duel between Utena and Nanami has always bothered me.  At first, I felt relief for Nanami, a hug from her older brother, an admission of, "You don't have to fight anymore," and maybe some piece of mind for a girl with some serious issues (and though I know she killed a kitten, I think it really hit her at that moment - or, at least, if I had been the killer, even as a very young and spiteful kid, I don't think I could have forgiven myself or something like that.)  So, Nanami finally gets some piece, some validation, some love, and of course it's all a show from her big brother, just so he can look good. 

V_HappyLurker wrote:

This may have been said before, but the one thing that actually peeves me about SKU is all the slapping. Seriously, does Ohotori have a Slapping: 101 class or something? I've been rewatching the series and practically every other episode has at least one serious bitch slap being delivered, usually to Anthy. Girl's gotta have cheeks of steel by now from all the slaps to the face she's gotten...

I think there's a youtube video amv that includes every single slap in the series.

All that video did is convince me that Saionji and Nanami need to get into a relationship. Man that'd be some amazing sex. And explosive fights. But those two things go hand in hand right? Or hand upside your face. Either way.

Hmm, I agree that the long metaphoric car race scene wasn't very great. I mean we've already had the car metaphor as the adult world in the Akio Arc, it didn't seem like it was really necessary to be expanded on.

The one thing though that the movie did right was make Utena and Anthy's friendship/romance more believable. Anthy for the 3/4ths of the TV Series was void of any real personality, which made the romance subtext a little less believable...

HonorableShadow wrote:

The fact that when Anthy stabs Utena, it looks like she just slid the sword under her arm, like they do in high school plays when someone is stabbed.  I get that they don't want graphic violence, but the first time I watched it I was like "what just happened?" until Anthy shoved the sword in further.  Maybe I'm just slow. XD It didn't look like Anthy stabbed her though.

I found that to be odd as well... That combined with the face Anthy makes when she has been stabbed so many times that she is covered in swords and more swords are coming but they become trapped in the mess, seemingly without ever touching her (she initially looked bored to me, which made me consider both that it may also an illusion and also how many times that this has probably already happened to her, which disturbed me quite a lot) really threw me off... This is the shot I mean... http://ohtori.nu/galerie/v/series/episo … 6.jpg.html

I always figured that the lack of blood was a hint that the entire thing was a hoax or delusion. Even my first time watching the show (particularly the episode where Utena fights Touga for the second time) I was thinking... 'They've got to be tripping balls. How did her clothes get so cut up without her actually getting hurt? Her loss must have just been done to make things feel more real to her psychologically.'

My least favourite thing in the whole show is probably just the issues with the TV show animation like everyone else said...

I loved the movie but it won't make much sense to anyone who hasn't seen the TV show. They did try their best with it but there are too many scenes which are there "just because"... One scene in particular which really stood out to me was the one where Miki and Kozue were in the bath... It totally threw me off when I saw it, and (if I remember correctly) you never see Kozue again, so it doesn't really need to be there... That said, I really do like Kozue and wish that she had a bigger role. She could have been an even better villain than Shiori... But then Miki would have had to fight Utena instead of Juri...

I also don't like Touga as a love interest. He's gross. lol

On another note, I'm probably the only person in the whole world who actually likes the school uniforms. lol

i love this series but
holy hell is it dated
and not always in an adorable way

1. the music. it sucks.
the vocals are grating, and even the instrumental music tends to be loud, annoying, and just... too much 8|

2. the recycled footage.
oh fuckkk i do not need to watch her climbing these stairs for the 30th time oh fuckkkk stop ittt

3. the goddamn montage episodes.
I REMEMBER THIS PERFECTLY FINE THANK YOU
NO YOU DO NOT NEED TO REMIND ME
SERIOUSLY CUT IT OUT

4. the abrupt mood changes.
i'm often impressed by how easily rgu swings from serious to lighthearted without missing a beat.
and then... then there are the other times.
no, show, you cannot have a deep, angsty episode and build it up for explanation in the next, then give me more wacky hijinks with nanami & co.
that shit ain't cute

5. touga.
i swear every time he comes on screen a voice in my head starts screaming "CREEPER ALERT CREEPER ALERT" over and over again
why would anyone want to get with him? idgi

and plenty more complaints besides~

Whoops! posted something in the wrong topic! Thats what you get for using multiple tabs....

The things I hate are colours of the uniforms, just use black like any normal high school! Also Mitsuuru... Fine if you wanna wear shorts - don't wear stockings!

Also, to be honest, I was happy with Juri for throwing away the locket, but after all that happened, why would you put it back on? You had the strength to throw it away the first time, and you faced the consequences of someone realising what was in there - that Shiori would find out(and Ruka). She got off lucky in the end, but why would you put it back on? And at the end of the series, where she mentions getting a new locket, I felt annoyed again, even if she was joking. So, the locket annoys me.... to be honest, Juri annoys me when she gets on that whole subject, i think she's far cooler when she's on the council, hanging out with Miki and being awesome in general.

Last edited by Randamonian (11-21-2010 02:46:07 PM)

Me too! The opening was a little misleading for me. I totally got different impressions of the other duelists because of that. i thought Miki was a bit fiercer and Juri was a bit more jovial and feminine, as well as Touga actually being supa! challenging - like the toughest duelist in the show. I also thought the castle would break down earlier and an actual prince to be awakened. Hm

Vesko wrote:

This scene
http://www.ohtori.nu/galerie/v/series/e … 4.jpg.html
http://www.ohtori.nu/galerie/v/series/e … 5.jpg.html

I thought Juri is going to kiss Utena, but insted she went mad. Just imagine, Juri kissing shocked Utena, and then geting her slowely undressed: "s sempai, what.. what are you doing?!"  /\/\

Oh yeah, and people slaping Anthy whenever they whant it, and Anthy being so inert about it.

I totally agree with you. We all wanted Juri/Utena sexy-times and were very disappointed when it didn't happen. People slapping Anthy does bother me, but I wouldn't say she's totally inert about it. She's just passive-aggressive and gets back at people who are cruel to her in a more subtle way instead of hitting them back.

I guess I'll also say that they could use less stock footage as well as less derp-face moments. It would be nice for more creativity when it came to the duels because the moves all start to look the same after a while. I also hate that no one bleeds when they get stabbed. Seriously when Saionji stabs Touga, all we see is the back of his shirt being torn up. Like so:



We should see blood since Touga's clothes are white. Of course, it would be interesting if Touga wasn't injured at all and just faking it. I wouldn't put it past him, considering that he was already acting more injured than he really was, as seen here:



Touga's arm was not injured! Another example comes from when Utena is stabbed. You could make a case that we wouldn't see the blood because of her black uniform, but when she's able to stand up and go save Anthy, there should have been a puddle of blood on the floor where she just was.

As for Touga, I really can't find any redeeming qualities about him. With Saionji we get to see some of the reasons for his cruelty, which makes him more sympathetic. With Touga, that's not really the case. It also bothered me that we never know if Touga bothers to tell Nanami that while they were adopted, the are in fact biological siblings. And of course, we never see Touga making up to Nanami and Saionji for all the cruel things he did to them.

Louchan wrote:

6. Juri throwing away her locket in episode 17. It's just a small nitpick, but I feel that it breaking in episode 29 would have had a much bigger impact if it would have stayed clear that it was something that she definitely could never get rid of by herself. But no, she just... threw it away without much of any problem. Huh.

Doesn't she completely lose it with joy when she gets it back though?  People can get pissed and throw things away in a fit of rage, but her reaction when she got it back made it seem more important than if she had just held onto it the whole time.  Also my response to Random's complaint.

On topic, why is Nanami the only main/student council member who seems to understand that Anthy is evil?  I guess you could make the argument that Juri suspects something, but come on kids.  You can do better than that.

Indeed.  I just watched Episode 17 again to cover my ass, and it turns out I might as well have been wearing a hospital gown.  I think I revised it that way in my head because I always expect that to be her reaction.

That said, it's obviously very important to her.  I almost empathize with the fact that it's something she really despises about herself more.  It's really hard to get over a person, but when they're forced from your life, you have to, and it's quite painful.  That seems to be what the entire locket saga embodies, considering the events of Juri's second duel with Utena.

Last edited by KaleMarsh (08-11-2011 05:39:58 PM)