This discussion ties in with an essay that’s been kicking around in my head for a while; I’ve been thinking about gathering and comparing the four different flavours (ooh la la) of Akio. And I’ve come to a conclusion that doesn’t seem to tally with anyone else’s opinion.

I think that Ikihara was deliberately making a point when it comes to movie vs. series Akio.

On the surface it’s a simple dynamic; when one has limited scope, time and budget for a movie, one must pick one’s focus. If Akio was given a larger movie part the relationships would change drastically. It would no longer be abut Utena and Anthy, it’d be a triangle between Utena/Anthy/Akio, and that would very likely make the movie a very different beast to what it actually is. The series is about Utena and Anthy; the movie is about Anthy and Utena. Examining Anthy’s relationship to Akio in detail would very likely derail the whole movie. So, for simplicity’s sake, Akio had to go. But there’s more than that.

What is series Akio?

He’s a bastard. He’s fully-fledged predator, playing psychosexual games with vulnerable and emotionally fragile teenagers. He’s arguably immature, he’s very good at seeming, and he manipulates and abuses his sister emotionally, physically and mentally (although there is a certain element of mutual abuse that I won’t get into here). The thing that distracts from the fact that he’s a moral and mental cesspit is that he does it all with style. Even people who’ll say openly that they hate the man will often do so with a note of admiration in their voice.

Like a puppetmaster, he uses his charm, his looks, his utter lack of conscience and his uncanny judge of human character to manipulate the strings so that just about anyone does anything for him. He destroys and warps relationships for fun and profit. He abuses women and takes great pleasure in doing so; take Kanae, for instance, that single shot of her after the Black Rose duel, of her utterly vacant expression as he feeds her. That shot of the apple skewered with forks; don’t tell me that’s not a metaphor for torture. I doubt that it’s a coincidence that her complete mental breakdown is brought about after her duel, when he has no further use for her. And I rather think that he was enjoying the act of tearing her to pieces.

The fixation on his sister is another one; remember his astonishing jealousy of Anthy and Utena’s relationship. While it’s debatable whether or not Akio loves Anthy, he certainly regards her as his. Even though it’s in his own best interest to keep the relationship between the two close, he can’t help himself when he sets out to sew the seeds of discord. He can’t help himself there. Akio is without a doubt a bastard, but he’s a magnificent bastard. With his car, looks, utter charm and the uncanny ability to pull the strings, and his style- as I said, even the most vocal of his critics can’t help but admire him. Sort of like, “Damn! It’s despicable, but it’s still awesome in a warped way. I kinda sorta wish I was like that at times.”

And while I suspect that a fair percentage of what happened in both the movie and the series comes down to Ikihara saying, “If I’ll do this it’ll really confuse ‘em! Hahaha!” I really do think that in the movie he was making a very pointed commentary on both Akio and his willing/unwilling fans.

Movie Akio: it starts off with Akio’s charmed life. Servants, a manor house, a sweet-faced fiancé, a sexy car and a little gymnastics in tight pants to give the fangirls (and boys) some package. Everything’s there to make him appealing. All the shadowgirls fawn and the fangirls lean forward eagerly. And then- the servants disappear, so does Kanae. He does his gymnastics over the hood of a rather hideous taxi and suddenly looks, well, rather absurd. Without the trappings, he's just a vaguely charming lad with appalling dress sense. So he and Anthy retire to his studio and it’s immediately obvious, even before the roofie in the wine, that something is seriously wrong with the picture. All of the pictures, in fact, because they’re all of Anthy and Anthy alone. Akio has a fixation on her, and it’s not a healthy one, given the way she’s posed in many of the paintings.

So this is what it comes down to: take away Akio’s amazing ability to manipulate, to charm, to pull the strings either directly or indirectly, you have someone with an amazingly shallow personality, with a seriously warped and incestuous relationship with his sister that doubtless involves a shitload of emotional manipulation on his part. A man that’s incredibly charming on the surface but under that; what’s under that? A vague misogyny, sexual deviancy and likely a thinly veiled and unjustifiable superiority complex against the world.

Movie Akio is Series Akio with the stings cut and the gloss removed. I think, very much, that Ikuhara was making the point that Akio in any incarnation is not nearly as awesome as he appears to be.

Some intriguing ideas, crystalwren, I'll have to think about them. Different interpretations are always great for expanding my ever-expanding view of SKU's delicious characters. Nice analysis.

Slightly off-topic, welcome to IRG!

crystalwren wrote:

take Kanae, for instance, that single shot of her after the Black Rose duel, of her utterly vacant expression as he feeds her. That shot of the apple skewered with forks; don’t tell me that’s not a metaphor for torture. I doubt that it’s a coincidence that her complete mental breakdown is brought about after her duel, when he has no further use for her. And I rather think that he was enjoying the act of tearing her to pieces.

Actually I agree almost entirely with your post. The one quibble is the apple scene. I think you are on the right track but he cannot have left Kanae in too obviously a bad shape otherwise other people, possibly even her mother, might get upset.

satyreyes wrote:

There's no evidence that Movie!Akio was ever a self-sacrificing Dios.

That's another main difference. In the series you can see the characters as metaphors and archetypes and angels and spiritual forces. In the movie and movie manga it is obvious that Utena and Anthy, for example, are just a pair of emotionally disturbed teenagers wrestling with memories. It's much more claustophobic and limiting and less fun but also more focused.

Last edited by brian (04-22-2009 11:23:53 AM)

(Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to everyone; I'm easily distracted.)

satyreyes, you are completely right when you point out that there's more to it than movie!Akio being merely a less charismatic version of series!Akio. My argument as it stands is fairly simplistic; it doesn't take into account that there they are very different characters in of themselves. I shall have to think more about it.

brian wrote:

Actually I agree almost entirely with your post. The one quibble is the apple scene. I think you are on the right track but he cannot have left Kanae in too obviously a bad shape otherwise other people, possibly even her mother, might get upset.

I disagree; it's pretty obvious that Akio well and truly has his claws embedded in the family. He's screwing Kanae's mother and has taken over the leadership of the family business. Kanae's father is ill. Akio and Anthy may or may not have something to do with this (Canterella, anyone?) but whatever's behind it, they are quick to take advantage. While my overwhelming feeling is that there has been something similar to Ohtori for a very long time before the series, a place to draw in the Intended and the Engaged into the duels, long enough for the ritual to be glossed to a smooth and shinning finish, there needs to be a structure in place for it to connect to the real world. While it's tempting to think of Ohtori as something very like Purgatory, the roles dynamic and changing but the history inconstant, each student getting the chance to play a different character (Utena as Shori, Shori as Juri, Juri as Touga...) it does exist in the real world, just slightly...separate. Akio and Anthy need a base. It may be that there has been a version of Ohtori going back to the time Dios fell. It may be that Anthy and Akio are floating parasites, attaching themselves or moving as the need strikes them. But whatever the background, they need something to base the dream that is Ohtori Academy. They need the land and the buildings, the students and the teachers. They need the reality. And in order to keep the dream going, they need to control the reality, utterly.

So, through methods unknown, Akio has wormed his way into the family. The mother is risking her position, status, and marriage in having an affair with him, and while it's very difficult to draw a definite conclusion from the very small glimpse we have of her, she doesn't appear to be particularly worried about handing her daughter off to a man she knows to be at best, a manipulative, faithless bastard. She also doesn't appear to be particularly worried about screwing the man her daughter will marry, a man the daughter loves or believes she loves. Even if Mrs Ohtori does love her daughter and is merely suffering the effects of lust upon the brain, Akio has her husband charmed enough to believe that a nineteen (?) year old is suitable person to take over the chairmanship of a whopping great business concern; he has a blackmail list on Mrs Ohtori as long as his arm; Kanae does not appear to be loved by her family. The husband is an invalid, Mrs Ohtori is rendered helpless, and Akio delights in smashing the helpless and naive.

brian wrote:

In the movie and movie manga it is obvious that Utena and Anthy, for example, are just a pair of emotionally disturbed teenagers wrestling with memories. It's much more claustophobic and limiting and less fun but also more focused.

This is true; it's tempting to think of the movie as tacking part earlier in the whole mythology, before Anthy and Akio became trapped in their coffins by time and resignation. The movie and the movie manga don't convey the same sense of agelessness- although Utena does ask Anthy in the movie manga whether she wants to keep doing the same thing she’s been doing for centuries-  that both the series and the series manga do. It’s worth noting that the series manga essentially states that Anthy, Akio and Dios are some form of Gods. In the movieverse Anthy is not resigned, she is hopeful even though it is her hope and desire for a form of perfect, unattainable love that ultimately traps her.  In the movie manga it says that her power to love was so strong that she was called a witch, and that her need to be loved and in love was what made the dueller’s field rise into the sky. In the series, it’s the desire for Revolution that drives the duels, although what that Revolution actually means is always debatable.

I think that the movie is the triple-distilled rendering of the themes that were present in the series, and lacking the bitter cynicism. It’s what might have happened if Anthy had been shown the way to freedom much, much earlier. In the series, Akio is built on Anthy. Emotionally, mentally, practically. Without her he’s so much less. This begs the question, what was series Akio before she built him? Was he truly a Dios that became corrupted? Or did he start human, only to be affected by the illusions she had of him? In the movieverse, what would have happened if he’d said, “I can do anything I like? SHIBBY!”

crystalwren is now my pesonal lord and savior.

Er...thanks?

Last edited by crystalwren (05-14-2009 06:20:49 AM)

Enea, I love this! So much.

And, movie-Akio is still the best Akio.


Toh!

Enea wrote:

I will make an essay on this one day, I want to do this so badly.

I would love to see this essay! When you write it, let me know!