Wheres my meal?

It's a good thing this has meals included, for you, Gio, have whet my appetite.
Good god, now I have to watch SKU -again- and look for all the subtle physical cues... oh well!

This interests me greatly because people to me are puzzles that need to be solved, and this kind of thing helps me with steps of those puzzles. I'll be back.

Oh oh, how about Anthy! I can't think of a specific scene at the moment though, but whatever it is, I bet it'll be very interesting.

I think I'm getting smarter with each post you post, because body language isn't something I get to listen/read about often. Your efforts are very much apreciated and I am so interested in hearing more. Teach us, sensei.

Tell me more! More more more! Analysis is sexy. Wow. I could be considered a bt odd huh? Oh yes. Where's my meal!!!!! I want fish. And vegetables. And ice cream. And the utena charcters, mini and on a plate. Now.

(I know I'm demanding but thats me. DEAL WITH IT.)

Last edited by Starfire (01-08-2007 02:22:48 PM)

It's already been said by everyone - at the risk of beating a dead horse though, I really think it's neat you've taken the time to draw out pictures and explain them like this, both here and on the Akio bit of the site. A lot of stuff pops up that I noticed when I was watching the series, but only in a really cursory not thinking it through way. I didn't really "notice" it. It's very cool how the artists/directors took the time to think out all of these details so well, and it's very cool that you've taken the time to explain so much stuff that's so easy to miss/missunderstand.

Thanks much.

I have a sneaking suspision that Akio only deals with Kanae as little as possible because she is in love with him.  When you think about the sort of man Akio is, I doubt he can handle the idea of someone in love with him who is supposed to be in love with him (ie Kanae is his fiancee) as opposed to someone who is either just infactuated with him or if the love is immoral in some way. (ie sexual relations with his sister)

I would comment more, but I'm feeling ill due to an inner-ear infection.

Ivy-chan wrote:

Looking at that photograph, I must ask what they are standing in front of: it seems that the scenery changes midway through the picture. It could be a wall, but it's the same color as the sky, so that red steeple looks like it's coming off of Akio's shoulder. 

I was srsly srsly so so tempted to mention that and I'm glad someone did. Why did they decide it was necessary to pose the three in front of a seemingly meaningless red pointy phallic object? Another amusing thing to note though it's easier to see in the other shot of the photograph is that Akio and Kanae are front and center and Anthy's off by a bit, like her presence was an afterthought or she was not originally meant to be there in the picture.

I uploaded a batch of images to photobucket, I'll figure out which I feel like discussing tomorrow. I'm glad you guys are enjoying this. Body language is a passion of mine, and if any of you learn something new here, that's fantastic. This is all stuff that applies first and foremost to real life and how real people move. That I can apply it to SKU...well believe it or not, Akio's sex appeal isn't the only thing drawing me to the series. (Shocking, I know.) I'm actually enjoying this about capping the episodes; I've never gone through them so thoroughly and dwelled over each and every shot. (Except in the case of Akio, for his essay.) It's really just renewing my love for this series when I realize how rich and full of depth these characters are. That I remember sensing a strongly introspective, depressive characteristic to Kozue, but now looking again, I can see exactly where I got that. (Her eyes are often downcast and lowered, not sexually, but dismissively. She detached herself from her surroundings to contemplate cold things in the privacy of her thoughts. I'll go over this in detail in this thread eventually, I suspect. I want to hit Miki's Akio Arc duel first.)

A Day Without Me wrote:

Analyses! Of some of my favorite characters (Kanae, Miki, Mikage)! Woo-hoo!

I'm only two episodes into the BRS and Mikage is the character Giovanna forgot. I have no excuse for this, I'm afraid, and hope to make amends. I made the mistake of trying to combine Mikage and Nemuro's body language into one reasonable whole, when in fact this was a gross error and I should burn in hell (Nemuro Hall!) for it. I saw the Nemuro episodes before I saw the rest of the BRS, which kinda screwed with my view of the character, but seeing Mikage from a fresher standpoint, I'm completely floored by how openly sexual he is. I mean, I always knew this about his character but just wow. I will be coming back to him.

For now though, let's play with Juri! I will be getting to Anthy in the next couple days or so.


Juri:  Why are you always dressed like a boy?

When Juri asks Utena this question, we get that gesture out of her. A sudden fascination with her nails. A display of casual disinterest in what's going on. Juri asks Utena a rather personal question. She's looking at her own person, at her hand, in a distracted, vaguely fidgeting gesture. This is as if to say 'Not that I care, I mean I'm just asking for the sake of conversation, don't read into my interest too much.' Just simply looking away when she asks was not enough for her, she had to look at her own body; a subtle suggestion that her nails are at least as fascinating to her as the question she's posed. This is a gesture that often betrays the person making it. They're trying to show they think they're more important than whatever silly other thing is going on, but in Juri's case, she's betraying that she places importance on the question as it relates directly to her, because out of countless displays of disinterest, she chose the one that most involves her.

Why is she making an effort to appear disinterested in the question she's asked? It's not surprising she'd be somehow uncomfortable with a question that so openly refers to gender identity or sexual orientation...but is her discomfort from familiarity? (Has she been teased for being 'butch' before?) Or is it awareness that it's a sexual question to her, maybe even almost a proposition, though she understands Utena won't hear it that way? It's an honest question one could easily ask out of curiosity, but Juri could have asked that question earlier in the episode. She waits until they're alone in a reasonably intimate setting, because it's not just an innocent curiosity to Juri. She expects an answer she assumes Utena wouldn't be willing to give in less private circumstances, but would Juri have been even imagining this prince story Utena tells? Wouldn't another answer have made a lot more sense to her?

You could even draw significance from the hand she chose to look at. First and foremost, it's the one closest to Utena, which makes the gesture more visible to her. It also raises Juri's arm into a position to cover her torso; a concealing mechanism to mask her intentions. If you really want to split hairs, you could also note it's her left hand, the hand with the ring, and a sudden fascination with it could be thought to betray that Juri is relating her signet and all that represents to her to the question. She knows there's a connection, if not for Utena, at least for herself.

This is the best analysis ever! I never knew how much there was to read into! Please don't stop!

(Still no meal. My stomach might eat you Giovanna. Hey, then I might absorb some dudey SKU knowledge! Cool! Now...all I have to do is find you and eat you. How does next friday sound?)

I don't think she gave Utena the sword as an apology for her behavior leading up to and during the Duel. I'm sure that entered into her decision at some point, but I think the major motivation there was Juri's displeasure at Touga's rather obnoxious smug bastardism and the downright low methods he used to secure his victory. She does seem to understand his methods, (she points out in the council meeting directly after Utena's defeat that she doesn't believe he won by pure skill because he 'seems to prefer plots',) and actually seems somewhat tolerant of them to some extent, predicting his course of action and being able to see what he's plotting. However, it  also seems she doesn't approve of them, neither in the case of Touga using Nanami in the duels, or with him manipulating Utena.  She calls Touga on his use of manipulation and schemes and seems casual about it, but she definitely shows disapproval on both counts:

Touga:  It was her own fault that Nanami lost the Duel.
Touga:  Whether it was someone's plot or not,
Touga:  joining into it was her own responsibility.
Juri:  How cold.

And then we have this:



Her expression is definitely set to 'annoyed'.

I think she gave Utena the sword both as a gesture of support and also to help even the odds between Touga and Utena. (Something tells me she would have attempted to fight Touga with a bokken.) More: 'go and knock the smile off his face for me' rather than 'I'm awful sorry for hitting you'.