i think about this all the time, though i think it's less like a limbo for just anyone, and more like an afterlife wherein everyone is connected through the different problems and struggles they never were able to work out during life.

...like, i sort of believe that all of the "background" characters belonged to the group of villagers who ultimately ended up killing anthy, and that though everyone on the campus may not have met during their lives, their problems and respective unfinished businesses are so closely linked, that there in that afterlife, they were all drawn together somehow.

Mock Puppet wrote:

WMG @ TvTropes wrote:

Everyone at Ohtori is dead.
Their souls are stuck in a spiritual purgatory, created by two gods with distinct multiple personality disorders. Note, the campus itself resembles a funeral plot. Also, in the flashback, Utena's parents' funeral in her memories had a third, unusually small, coffin. Her "hiding" in it? It was hers. This is further supported by The Movie, where at least one major character with whom Utena interacts is in fact dead and has been for years.

.....I never looked at TvTropes before. Now I am hooked.

And yeah I guess this interpretation is more generally accepted than I thought it was. Usually I prefer seeing Utena as a metaphor for growing up but I can also very definitely see the limbo concept as well, esp. if you factor in the movie with Touga being dead. One of the reasons I like the series so much is there can be multiple interpretations, and none of them are necessarily the absolute "right" interpretation.

hollow_rose wrote:

.....I never looked at TvTropes before. Now I am hooked.

TvTropes has that effect on people.

Sometimes I think Ohtori is either Hell or an earthly place that Akio sculpted to his wishes. Mind you it's only Hell if characters, i.e., the Student Council Members, make it that way and they can't escape unless they let go of their selfishness.