Revolutionary Girl Utena (Review)
Monday, 04 May 2009 19:12 | Written by 
I don’t usually watch older anime, because I can’t stand the reduced quality of the animation and art from what is available to me in modernity, but Utena is different – Utena belongs in the hall of anime fame. It is a must watch from now, indefinitely into the future. It is a superb and brilliant anime in my opinion, easily one of my favourites of all time.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is a mind-fuck, psychological, drama, romantic comedy which takes place in a mysterious dream world. The protagonist, Utena’s family were killed in a car collision, and a mistake in the arrangements for the funeral have her parent's coffins, as well as a small child’s coffin set up inside the church, making Utena (still a little girl) feel that she should have died as well, and that she has nothing to live for. The ideal prince, the standard by which princeness is to be judged brings her from the coffin, and tells her that she is noble, brave, and strong. Her kisses her eyes, and gives her a ring with a rose emblem on it.
Instead of falling in love with the prince, and wanting to be rescued and protected, she takes his words to heart, and decides to use her nobility, bravery, and strength to emulate him, and strive to be the best prince that she can be, and to save and protect maidens in distress.
As a freshmen at a strange high school with an upside down castle floating above it, Utena finds the opportunity to play the role she feels that she was born to play, and save a damsel in distress; Anthy. The ring that the prince gave her those years ago makes her eligible for competing in a duelist competition, the winner of which becomes engaged to Anthy, the rose bride, and gains the power of Dios, the power to revolutionize the world.
Each duelist has their own selfish ambitions and reasons for wanting the power of Dios, but Utena is able to align with Dios, the ideal prince because she desires nothing, but the well being of Anthy, and to remove her from this competition, which treats her like an object to be obtained.
I can’t stress how much I loved Revolutionary Girl Utena. It was beautiful, funny, inspiring, lovely, and quite entertaining. Utena, a girl, being the closest to the ideal prince I found to be just great.
Yuri: 8
Style: 9
Art: 6
Characters: 8
Story: 9
Premise: 10
Overall: 8.5
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Not necessarily, Twitchy. She's more along the lines of bi-curious.
She's shown significant interest in some male characters throughout the anime, though she's still an independent girl who can fend for herself.
Though yes, she seems to have plenty of romance interest in Anthy as time moves on.
Plus, there's a lesbian support character in the series (Support meaning supporting cast, or a character that holds at least some importance in the series without being totally discarded as a side-character.). See Juri... And whose picture is in her locket.
By the way: At the anime (SPOILER ALERT) Utena's no-where to be found. (Though, she's NOT dead. "I hear a student was injured, and is in the hospital to recover. Presumably, this is where Anthy was heading in the ending: To go check up on Utena at the hospital.)
Heh, as an older chick, I remember watching this when it first came out in the States. My girlfriend at the time was a hard core Sailor Moon fan, and when she saw the "By the director of Sailor Moon" tag on the first volume of the VHS (told you I was old) she had to have it. We watched it together, and really could see ourselves in different characters (she claimed to see a bit of Juri in me), I promptly ordered the boxed set later that day.
Needless to say, it was amazing then, and still is today.
Last Updated (Wednesday, 10 March 2010 04:48)
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