Cool material! Just to be clear, everyone, barafubuki translated this - the post is originally in Japanese. It's awesome to have any window into the Japanese fandom, and their thoughts & theories.


I can't say I'm very convinced by the essay, though. The names are a thing - maybe "Mikage" was a shout out to the Utena project that Saitou was involved in at the same time. But although the Mikages may both be "both swayed by their feelings for their lovers from the past, and they both share an awakening experience pertaining to their lingering affections," I don't see enough similarities between the stories to be able to directly compare the endings. For starters, Belladonna's Mikage knows exactly what he's doing the whole time, while the Utena anime's Mikage is defined by being delusional or in denial about his history.

Secondly, I think the premise "And because Saitou often seems to reference Utena in her other works..." needs support. Otherwise the conclusion that "it is very likely that The 13th Month of Belladonna was the inspiration for the original climax of the Black Rose Arc" falls flat. Does Saitou "often" reference Utena in her Utena-concurrent and post-Utena works? Because if so, that's news to me, and I need examples.

Finally, what about the fact that Saitou did indeed write her own version of Mikage's story? Admittedly, it was published the next year in the Spring of 1998, and the author's contention is that Saitou was responding to the Black Rose story that that just recently been produced, but if I was going to look anywhere for Saitou's spin on Mikage Souji's story, that'd be the obvious place to look. Are there any stronger similarities between "Belladonna of the 13th Month" and the manga Black Rose chapter? I don't own a copy of the manga to check.

It's an interesting connection, though.  I would absolutely love to see the Saitou story translated, if only to better judge any correlations for myself.

What are the rest of y'all's thoughts?

Dallbun wrote:

Finally, what about the fact that Saitou did indeed write her own version of Mikage's story? Admittedly, it was published the next year in the Spring of 1998, and the author's contention is that Saitou was responding to the Black Rose story that that just recently been produced, but if I was going to look anywhere for Saitou's spin on Mikage Souji's story, that'd be the obvious place to look. Are there any stronger similarities between "Belladonna of the 13th Month" and the manga Black Rose chapter? I don't own a copy of the manga to check.

The manga Black Rose chapter is really short, so it doesn't go into Nemuro, Tokiko or anything. Summary off the top of my head - Mikage challenges Utena to a duel under the Memorial Hall, and during the fight Utena and Anthy notice that he keeps talking to somebody behind some curtains. That is, of course, Mamiya, but unlike in the show, there's no appearance of Mamiya, Mikage's just talking to nothing. When he realizes this, he freaks out and then the building starts to collapse, it kills Mikage and frees him from his "hourglass being stopped".

It's a good chapter, but super simple compared to the show.

bara--thank you so much for this awesomesauce! It's fascinating to get a window into the analysis done by Japanese fans of SKU. The two communities have pretty much no overlap, and I often wonder what interpretations in Japan look like, especially given obvious differences in perspective, right down to the popularity of characters. It's especially fascinating to see analysis by people who have the creators' entire libraries with which to draw from, and a broader context for material created before and since.

barafubuki wrote:

From my understanding, there has never been an English version published of this short story, but I've been thinking about translating the manga and releasing it on here. Provided, there is enough interest in the material.

I would absolutely be interested, and provided the material would be happy to do image editing for the raws and such.

It sounds broadly to me like while I don't necessarily agree with the essay's essential theory, that there are broad strokes of similarity in the style of story they're telling. (I would be very curious to see if the material reflects symbolism or imagery that appears later in the show.) The way she describes Mikage's popularity is curiously telling in a cultural sense, an emphasis placed on a middle aged man being absolutely unable to recover from a youthful obsession of his past, unable to grow into the more cynical perspective about women his peers outside of Ohtori will have.

I almost wonder if this story ultimately is represented not by Mikage's arc, but rather an idea reflected much later--the use of belladonna as a conversational plot point between Utena and Anthy. Ideas like mistaken identity and 'immunity based on exposure' sort of things have a lot of symbolic resonance there as well. Might be something to also explore.

Dallbun wrote:

Does Saitou "often" reference Utena in her Utena-concurrent and post-Utena works? Because if so, that's news to me, and I need examples.

I would need to do a lot of digging through my mountains of shit, and can't speak to post-Utena, but I do recall a lot of connections being made loosely between themes and symbols she uses often that appear later in SKU. A big one that I've probably got the most evidence to prove is the almost fetishizing of dark skinned characters. She uses them frequently as the 'exotic' love interest in a triangle, and uses it as short-hand to suggest a character whose thoughts and perspective aren't supposed to be accessible easily to the reader. Given how infrequently I've seen dark skinned characters in anime, Akio and Anthy likely come directly from this perhaps dubious tradition in her work. As I said, I'd have to see if I still have the comparison images, but way back in the day I also remember someone providing pretty good evidence to suggest 'Prince Lick' sort of imagery came from her, though it ultimately ends up elsewhere in the show--Akio's licking and biting off a flower petal later. Both of these ultimately only show a visual connection though, and I can't say much about deeper comparisons since Saito's work outside of SKU hasn't really been available to us. I even have one and I don't even know WTF it is, haha.

barafubuki wrote:

I happened upon 4 and 5 plus the movie adaptation a few months ago at a used book store for a very good price. I've decided not to read any of the books I own until I acquire the rest, but the online selection is a bit too expensive for my budget.

:koff: If there's a demand for this stuff with everyone, I can make it happen.

Thank you for sharing!

I was shocked to see that Utena straight up kills Mikage in the manga. It doesn't really carry over into the rest of the story, given the nature of it being a one-shot. But it does make me wonder what it would be like if that happened in the anime, and Utena has to deal with the guilt of having killed someone.

Thank you for sharing this!  I am trying to get a complete collection of English translations of Saito's works.  There are so many good points in conversation!

So something I have been mulling over; Is there a repository of translated works by Saito?  There are a few of her stories I have not been able to either find out right, or have only partially translated. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction in advance!

Back to the subject matter at hand:  I don't think It really counts as Utena killing Mikage in the manga.  She wakes him up, which breaks his Dorian Grey style hour glass. It was a return to reality, which broke his mental construct in which he had been living.  In truth he was dead long before Utena came along.  She just gave him the opportunity to be free of his construct. It's Mikage's choice to stay in the build, as Utena clearly tries to convince him to leave with Anthy and her.