So I never expected to see so many Utena similarities in this show. Anyone want to count them? (SPOILERS FOR KLK EPISODES UP TO 18)

The Main Character:
An ambitious, tomboyish girl who wears a dark-colored uniform that immediately distinguishes her from the student body at her fancy high school. She has come to this school in search of a person she encountered after her parents died. Both Utena and Ryuuko desire a reunion with this person, but of course for different reasons. She carries an item left to her by this person and has the ability to transform her clothes into a dueling uniform and wield powers hitherto reserved for the school's elite.

Her Best Friend:
Mako is Wakaba, 'nuff said. She even helps Ryuuko regain the resolve to put her special uniform back on and keep fighting.

Setting:
A massive, surreal high school that includes moving structures with a color scheme dominated by white and red. You can't tell me the concept artists didn't have Adolescence Mokushiroku on loop while they were working. The school is portrayed as the "pinnacle of the world" and students seem to spend very little time attending classes. And there's a huge tower that serves as a home base for...

The Initial Antagonists:
A 4-member student council who are distinguished from the student body by their fancy white uniforms. Three male, one female, including a green-haired kendoka and a blue-haired intellectual. They challenge the main character to a series of ritualized duels, under the command of...

The Main Character's Opposite Number:
Satsuki almost seems like a reverse Anthy. At the beginning she appears all-powerful. She rules the school and controls the student council openly, not covertly, and she challenges the main character to best her in battle, not to be her friend. But as the series goes on her perceived power is eroded and she is reduced to a broken state by...

The Main Antagonist:
An older-than-school-age person who's related by blood to the "other protagonist" and has involved them in a dubiously consensual incestuous relationship. They also control the school, have a connection to the main character's past and will almost certainly end up facing her in the climactic battle.

Let's see, what else... despite the opposite trajectories of Anthy and Satsuki's characters, both their arcs bring them to a closer relationship with the main character, and it's revealed that they have a forgotten connection to the protagonist as well.

KLK has been derided for the clownishly sexualized battle uniforms, and they can be pretty cringe-inducing, but you could also read some feminist subtext into KLK. In fact, you could say that it's a story about feminism. The characters are all struggling under the burden of the idea that "clothes make the (wo)man". All the powerful characters in the story are female, but the most powerful is a woman who's given her humanity to the Life Fibers, serving an oppressive system in exchange for personal power. The other significant characters are all dancing on strings she pulls, wittingly or no, and a major plot point concerns the recovery of the scissor blade, the one item capable of cutting those strings.

In the context of a struggle against an oppressive system, Satsuki could be seen as a "pragmatic" revolutionary. She wants to work within the system to pull it down and has a strong enough will to almost succeed, but forgets that "you can't use the master's tools to destroy the master's house." The nudists are kind of like radicals who have departed so far from the norm that they cannot effect any meaningful change, which is why Satsuki has no problem crushing them despite their shared enemies. Ryuuko fights against the system for personal reasons, not philosophical ones, which may explain her success where Satsuki fails.

And I was just thinking... where does Nui fit into this picture? She's a super-exaggerated caricature of conventional femininity, but she's also unbelievably strong. Maybe her strength represents the strength of convention. When the status quo is in place, with Satsuki reigning over the school, no one can beat her. Other characters remark on her "futsuu na kakkou" - "normal appearance" and are shocked that she can fight without a special uniform, but it's actually her "normality" that gives her her strength. Her job as head designer or whatever of the clothing company reinforces her role as a person who defines what's normal and conventional. When Satsuki declares her revolution and the status quo changes, Nui is off-balance and no longer able to effortlessly beat the Student Council. And once Ryuuko is better able to synchronize with her uniform she really gives Nui trouble, indicating that her power is less effective against people who know themselves well enough to defy convention.

So you could see KLK, like SKU, as a story about a struggle for authentic identity. But we have yet to see how KLK's conflict will be resolved. One big difference is that the conflict presented in SKU is really entirely an internal conflict, whereas KLK's conflict has a lot of external elements. However intense the drama between Utena, Anthy and Akio became, we never saw it impact day-to-day life at Ohtori in any way, whereas KLK likes social metaphors that destroy acres of scenery.

Anyway, your thoughts?