The confusion. It's so bittersweet, like drinking honeyed tea

The Utena tag on tumblr has liveblogging posts from time to time and it's the most amusing stuff. Currently, a tumblr user was on episode 10 and was blogging about how psychotic Nanami is. Clearly all the other characters are bastions of reasonable conduct.

Lurv wrote:
(Also, I laughed when that guy compared Saionji to Ringo.)

Thus, the following fic-worthy line came to my mind:
Saionji (to Touga):  Let us share the fruit of fate!!!!!

I hope you know I was up until 2am reading that thread.

The highlight for me was waiting to see how long it took for him to go

What.

Atropos wrote:

Read it here: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?588 … ena-Thread.
Is it weird that I find reading about other people watching shows so enjoyable?

God, reading this is like falling in love with SKU all over again.  I couldn't stop reading until the end of the Student Council Saga.  What an eloquent, insightful, and emotive writer.  Thank you so much for passing this link along.

I have been reading through these with the same amount of amused enthusiam that comes from watching someone watch Utena for the first time. I lol every time a hilariously off track theory is presented and every time there's a What. The best part of this show is thinking back to when you were a n00b and laughing at how wrong you were, or not laughing (Anthy is a whole different character on Rewatch O.O) This is part of the reason why Utena is so easy to stay interested in years after you watch it (combined with the fact that there's no such thing as overanalyzing in SKU) The jigsaw puzzle never ceases to amaze

For those of you keeping up, the thread is up to Episode 29 now.

That RPG.net thread is certainly one of the more enjoyable SKU liveblogs I've seen. I like how they discuss the little references the show makes, like Akio namedropping Ganymede.

On the other hand, I tend to find the liveblogs on Tumblr kind of irritating. There's some insightful posts on there to be sure, but many others fall way too much into pointless capslocking and shallow character bashing for my liking (which, in my case, isn't exactly helped by the fact that half my favourite characters are the ones who always get hated on...).

gorgeousshutin wrote:

Ako idea of revolution is alluded to being one where he gain ultimate control over everyone and the world . . .

My best understanding of Akio suggests that as far as he's concerned, he already has ultimate control over everyone and the world.  He is pleased as Punch to be the absolute master of Ohtori Academy and has no particular ambitions beyond it.  If there's evidence to the contrary in the text, I haven't noticed it.  His power plays that we see are all focused on consolidating his control within Ohtori: strengthening his hold on the special people and trying to keep Anthy docile.

. . . so to him Utena's helping-a-few-individuals revolution does indeed amount to nothing in his eyes; Akio is not confused over what he wants - it's a power-seeking, others-sacrificing "revolution" the Ends of the World wanted all along.

I agree that Akio isn't confused over what he wants.   But what he wants is just what he (thinks he) already has: absolute control.  And since he already has what he wants, he isn't trying to bring revolution at all.  The dueling game is an elaborate sham designed to keep the perpetual motion machine of Ohtori Academy rolling, and Anthy won't call Akio on his bullshit so long as he at least pretends that he's trying to regain the power of Dios and make everything like it was before.  But ironically, Akio is approximately the only main character who isn't stuck in the past.

Akio isn't stupid, and his power is extensive within the Academy.  But outside its walls, he has no such control, or else Anthy's departure would be no threat to him.  In the end, he is the pretend tyrant of a third-rate garden that anyone can leave at any time.  His subjects are enslaved not by him but by their own pasts.  If Utena's revolution consists of freeing these few people from their pasts, then her revolution is indeed very dangerous to Akio!

Anyway, we are straying off topic   Probably this belongs in a different thread.  I continue to love the rewatch, though I wish the spectators could leave the Juri/Shiori nuclear war to one side.    Also, I was uncomfortable when someone quoted an old IRG post of mine about "kiseki wo shinjite."  I tried to make it clear in that post that I am no translator, and now I am being cited as authority.     Possibly the lesson is that if I don't know what I'm talking about I should keep my mouth shut rather than try to be the one-eyed man in the land of the blind.

Last edited by satyreyes (08-27-2012 11:44:53 AM)

I'm not arguing about it here, and I'm not interested enough to start a new thread, though if you start one then I'll come visit.

Atropos wrote:

Is it weird that I find reading about other people watching shows so enjoyable?

An entertaining audience is often the mark of a great program. I don't really want to watch Buffy or Evil Come, Evil Go again without either people immediately present who I can gauge through and enjoy their reactions or folks accessible to talk about it. Some things are just better exploded and filtered through the variety of their audience.

"If you're going to have your couple be two girls, why not just have them be two girls?" from the link, though, grates on me. Utena is a lot of things, but she is, um, a girl. Heteronormativity is weird in anime fans.

Last edited by Decrescent Daytripper (09-03-2012 05:17:23 AM)

Lurv wrote:

Decrescent Daytripper wrote:

"If you're going to have your couple be two girls, why not just have them be two girls?" from the link, though, grates on me. Utena is a lot of things, but she is, um, a girl. Heteronormativity is weird in anime fans.

Well, Utena does take on a masculine role, so the relationship is still reminiscent of a typical m/f relationship.

It never really is to the isolation of what it actually is, though, yeah? Utena is accused of dressing as a boy or being boyish, but she's not wearing what any actual guy in the series is, she never insists on being treated as a boy, and her main dynamic with Anthy involves her appearing more outgoing, more worldly, and more knowing... and our growing realization that she isn't any of those things. Even when it comes to being a Prince, as Utena sees that role, she never says she wants to be a guy, she never attempts to obfuscate her sex or gender, and at least during Saionji's surprise that she's female, in the movie, she takes umbrage at his ignorance. Utena's outgoing and likes to keep things simple, but the thing that makes her seem the most masculine to in-show people is that she's not identical to the rest of the girls and that she's better at many things than most of the boys. Better than boys =/= boy, though.

The poster over there does chill a bit with the second-ep commentary, with Utena's "because I like to" answer to her shorts (the most masculine of attire).