The setting of Ohtori is definitely deliberately jarring and kind of discordant, and it def plays into themes. I think you can get past the first arc, which is the most...wacky, I guess, it's smoother sailing, although this aspect never entirely goes away Spoiler: Not spoilers per say but def some musings on thematic stuff The wierd, kind of anacronistic setting and the surrealness and vagueness are all part of making Ohtori a fairy tale. Same with the repition- fairy tales repeat themselves all the time (and plus they had a budget of approximately five). Edit: Plus magical girl shows, Utena's other big aesthetic influence, repeat themselves too, especially magical girl shows of the time.
I just finished episode 6 and what the fuck did I just watch. The horse was realistic compared to the mic out of nowhere and the boxing kangaroo. "It's meant to be symbolic stop thinking about it" I cry as my brain almost self destructs trying to figure out the logic and sequence of events. (I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna power through it! I must watch all of Utena!)
Onto episode 7! I feel like I need a counter for "how many times Anthy is slapped" but that would be too depressing. D:
Spoiler: actually spoilers! Plus there's all that stuff with illusions and self-delusion affecting the reality of Ohtori that we see first in the Black Rose arc with Mikage/Nemuro and then much later with the Spoiler: moar spoilers planetarium projector.
Not reading the spoilers, but I think after the chaos of episode 8, my brain finally decided to just roll with it. the surfing elephants were pretty great, not gonna lie. But that is neutralized by the fact that the episode made me feel any kind of positive emotion towards Saionji for like 5 minutes. No anime, I have made up my mind that I hate this character for life, don't show me the chibi drawings in his diary. Don't show me how mushy he is, because I know he's a wife beating asshole. >:(
Spoiler: Spoiler holy shit I never noticed that, that's fucking perfect. Nobody wants to listen to Saionji ever because he's such a douche your first instinct is to go "WELL FUCK YOU I BELIEVE IT'S REAL" but when he's not busy being a raging teenage dickweasel he can be surprisingly insightful
Saionji and Nanami are two thirds of my top three #teamproblematicfave Edit: and Kozue is tied for number four so yeeaaaah
Spoiler: all the spoilers Spoiler: no really, all of them Also, episode nine, with Anthy in a rose-motif coffin, Utena grabbing for her hand, the floating castle coming crashing down, a sword steered by hate aimed at Utena's back...
Creepy sister is a kitten murderer. I am not ok with this. Since Saionji is now at least vaguely sorta maybe a tiny bit sympathetic somewhere in his soul, Nanami "I'm just going to fucking murder this kitten because my brother likes it and I'm not the center of his universe and I am creepy like that." can be my new least favorite.
I took a break to clean my room and stuff but now I am in the middle of episode 11 and while I've seen him act like a skeevy asshole before, I just know somewhere deep in my soul that Touga is going to become literally the worst and he is going to do something even more terrible than he has already and he's gonna make his creepy sister look like a saint by comparison. He's escalating his creepy predatory vibes with each episode. D:
Welp. Episode 12 was uncomfortably rape-y. Time to watch things get inevitably worse! :'D edit: episode 13 was literally the best clip episode I've ever seen, and the only one I didn't get bored halfway through/skipped all together edit 2: EPISODE 14 THOUGH edit 3: I am on episode 18 and I am still making that face at least once an episode. This anime went from 0 to 100 real quick. edit 4: this includes episode 19 if only because WHY WOULD SHE PICK SAIONJI
FINAL UPDATE FROM THE UTENA ZONE (I have finished watching the anime) Watching all of Utena in 2 days was a mistake No really I feel like I'll have to watch it 5 more times just to understand the symbolism and stuff good thing I can read other, smarter people's analysis without spoiling myself! Ohtori academy needs sex ed. Poor Nanami. actually you know what scratch that Ohtori academy needs therapists. A lot of them. Juri is the lesbian queen of my soul. I've decided to direct all my hatred directly at Akio and not the children even if the children are assholes sometimes. The thing that struck me with Akio? When he showed Utena those clips of them going "see, you're just as bad as me because you didn't care that I had a fiance". No fuckboy, she's a 13 year old girl. She's literally a child. YOU are the adult in this scenario. YOU are the one who controlled the situation. Utena did nothing wrong. And even if we magically pretend for 1 second that she was actually an adult and actually capable of consent and wasn't being groomed by a sexual predator, being a homewrecker isn't even on the same level as sexually abusing your little sister. What the FUCK. I was gonna call him something silly like "you sack of moldy potatoes" but that would be an insult to moldy potatoes! I can't come up with a good insult for him because that would be an insult to whatever I'm trying to compare him to! Where do I sign to join"team strangle Akio with his own testicles"
Hey wow congrats on making it through. In 2 days no less! Annnnd just in case you want more viewing material, there is a movie, called 'The Adolscence of Utena" which just goes completely fucking bonkers wrt to surrealism. But it also just... does away with any subtlety wrt Anthy/Utena which si really refreshing? Also a bit more (confusing? Because what is continuity?) elaboration on character backstories.
Yeah the movie is. Interesting. Very, verrrry pretty because it actually had a budget, but yeah, hardcore on the surreal. A lot of people see it as being kind of a sequel to the show, I prefer to see it as an alternate universe, but there are a couple things in there that have been confirmed canon that are very important character things.
Yeah, I loved the movie even though it was so fucking surreal because of the atmosphere of no, we are definitely having Anthy/Utena now.
haha yeah I saw there was a movie that was a retelling and I was like "well, nothing new to see here, moving along." until I read a post that casually mentioned Touga's backstory and I was like "wait when did that happen?" so I will probably watch it now when I can find it. I was interested in the manga until I read that in the manga Shiori doesn't exist, Juri loved Touga, and the author of the manga doesn't like Anthy/Utena. Yeah I would rather not deal with heteronormativity in my Utena, thanks.
