Revolutionary Girl Utena S1E8: "The Great Curry High Trip" (continued)

Shadow puppets do their skit. Nanami is off, along with all three of her minions. Apparently it takes four people to buy a bottle of curry powder. Then again, this is explosive soul-warping curry powder, so the process of acquiring it may be a little more involved. How are they supposed to have gotten the last jar, again?

Touga sees them off from the airport. Or from the school's private airfield, that's probably what this is, it's not any weirder than anything else in the damned place.

As the bitch squad leave on their international shopping trip, Anthy and Utena continue living their boarding school lives as best they can in each other's bodies. Curiously, the person in Anthy's body is now answering to "Utena," and the person in Utena's body to "Anthy." They seem to have decided they feel better with names that match their personalities rather than their conscious memories. Or maybe they've exchanged memories now too? IDK.

Hmm. Another possibility that occurs to me is that while in the hospital, Anthy and Utena either discovered a secret extra power of the Sword of Dios, or encountered some other supernatural agency, and secretly decided to do the body switch. Some kind of trick to bait out their secret enemy, or to see how the student council will react to their Rose Bride being spiritually compromised?

...

Also, regardless of how this happened and whether or not it was intentional on someone's part, which body can currently produce the Sword of Dios from its chest? If it's Anthy's body that still contains the sword, then that implies things about her nature as a physical being. If it's Utena's that contains it now, then that implies other things about Anthy's nature as a nonphysical being.

I wonder if the episode will go there? I hope so. This seems like a perfect opportunity to drop some hints and establish some magical rules that can be leaned on later.

...

As they wander the grounds together, Anthy (I'm just going to call them by their personalities at this point) watching in fascination as Utena does impressive athletic feats using her body, they wonder how Nanami and Co are doing in their search for the magic superweapon curry powder. Cut to India, where

...you know what, I'm not even going to ask.

Back to the Anthy and Utena. Utena really misses her body and wants it back. Anthy, for her part, not only doesn't much care whose body she's in, but also doesn't seem to understand why anyone else would be so bothered by it. Hmm. Well, this definitely isn't something they planned together, then. I'll also take this as minor evidence for Anthy's mind/soul rather than her body being the thing that makes her the Rose Bride and able to contain the Sword, if she doesn't see this as a major shakeup.

Utena says that there's another problem too, though. Saiyonji, the abusive douchebro student council VP who'd been engaged to Anthy at the start of he series, has been active again. Specifically, he's been harassing Utena (who he doesn't realize isn't actually Anthy) for days now. Just as she uncomfortably starts to tell Anthy the details, Saiyonji illustrates her point by choosing that moment to show up and be annoying once again.

He demands that "Anthy" come with him at once, grabbing Utena by the wrist and pulling her after him. The real Anthy asks Utena if she wants her to come along with them, but before she can answer Saiyonji just dismissively asks her what color her Bugatti is and drags Utena off. Anthy's body is, unfortunately, quite a bit smaller and weaker than Utena's, and even the addition of Utena's muscle memories doesn't let it shake the big guy off.

I thought Touga had already laid down the law on him for doing this shit after the last time he failed to reclaim Anthy by the End-Of-The-World-approved ritual manner? I guess he might just have gotten crazy obsessed enough to not care at this point.

In Utena's body, Anthy just stands back demurely and waves goodbye to Utena for now. Smiling politely as her rescuer is dragged away by the same abuser who she repeatedly rescued her from. It's not like she knows how to do anything else.

Meanwhile, in India, Nanami and her friends are reenacting a scene from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Well, the friends are. Nanami herself is in the front seat talking up the venomous animal truck driver who's transporting them. Her situation doesn't stay better than theirs for long though, because another herd of elephants suddenly attacks and sends the truck tumbling off the road and downhill.

Utenaverse India is a survival horror game, apparently. Alright. Next time we see them I'll bet they're going to be hunted by J. Geil and Hol Horse or something.

When we return to Japan (or whatever kinda-sorta Japan analogue their school is supposed to be in), Saiyonji has dragged Utena into a gym storeroom and is cackling about how much he's been looking forward to this day. Uh oh. Hopefully this is going to be a fakeout and he's actually talking about some esoteric ritual thing instead of the more obvious meaning. Utena had also just been wondering "what Anthy and Saiyonji always get up to in here," which suggests that the two of them have been continuing to see each other despite the events of the first two episodes for some time. Hmm. The way Utena muses about it also makes it seem like Anthy hasn't seemed that reluctant to do this, despite everything.

I feel like there's something missing here. Not sure what, but something. Anthy doesn't seem to like Saiyonji, and Utena doesn't like Saiyonji being around her again, but despite her alleged loyalty to her current master she's still been seeing him?

Hmm. I guess Utena's unwillingness to actually COMMAND Anthy to do anything just leaves her open to other people's instructions as if she were "unattached."

...what I'm wondering now is if Anthy actually has the potential to learn to NOT be like this. Like, is this actually normal, healthy behavior, for whatever sort of entity she is? How human is she, or how human would she be if she'd been socialized differently?

Well, however she works, it definitely ISN'T how Saiyonji thinks she works.

Seriously what is this guy's deal? Does he still think she actually loved him for any reason besides the rules of the ritual? Why does he think that?

Well, I can think of a reason. If he's been continually getting Anthy alone away from Utena and badgering her to tell him what he wants to hear, I can see how he might have been able to cling on to his fantasy. She's been enabling this either because she's too much of a doormat to NOT do what she thinks someone else wants her to do when there isn't a rule to explicitly prevent it, or because she's just been afraid of what he might do if she stopped.

He announces that it's finally time for them to make their love physical. Oh dear. Well, it's exactly what it sounded like, then. On the bright side, if this is "finally" time, then that means that it hasn't happened at any point before now. And, with Utena in Anthy's body, and them in the sports room, this is actually a perfect opportunity. There was a good amount of luck involved in Utena's initial victory over him, sure, and she's weaker than unusual in Anthy's body, but still: if she bites his dick off and THEN quickly goes for the rapiers before he can snap himself out of the pain and blood loss induced shock, she can make short work of him. Also, it would be hilarious.

Sayoinji unbuttons his shirt, and then pulls out a secret notebook that he'd been carrying on him. He explains that Anthy seems to have forgotten their promise to each other, so he's taking out their message diary that they've been passing back and forth to show where exactly they put it in writing that today would be the day.

Heh, okay Saiyonji. Enjoy the rest of your very short, very dickless existence.

Jump ahead some time to Utena back in the nuptial dorm, staring at the diary and trying to make a decision. It's unclear if anyone has been raped and/or had their dick bitten off. She seems to have inferred, from what was written in the book at least, that Anthy is at least kinda sorta okay with how her relationship with Saiyonji has gone in recent weeks, so she isn't sure what - if anything - she should do now.

Meanwhile, Nanami and Co get attacked by elephants while scaling a cliff.

In case you were wondering what was going on with them. I wasn't, but someone might have been, and now that person will have been informed.

Back to Utena. She's particularly bemused by one line written by Saiyonji, saying that even though he knows they must abide by the laws of the Rose Bride for now, he's been practicing his swordsmanship every spare minute that he has. He WILL win her back, he promises, and then they can be happy together like they were before the pilot. He seems to sincerely think that they were happy together, and that Anthy wants him back.

Utena seems to be somewhat swayed by this apparent sincerity. Which, well, she's young. Also, I'll take her charity as a sign that he didn't try to rape her in the end, and consequently that he hasn't lost any bits. She thinks she might ought to hand the diary over to Anthy and have her write something back to him in it, but she doesn't want to let Anthy know that she's learned about her and Saiyonji in case she's weird about it, and she also isn't sure she wants to actively encourage Anthy's relationship with Vice President Redpill even if she won't tell her not to continue it either.

As she's agonizing over this, Anthony comes in and reacts with almost eerie nonchalance to Utena holding up her secret message diary. She knew that Utena wouldn't mind something like this, so Anthy doesn't mind her learning about it.

I have to hand it for the animators on the work they managed to do with this rigid, sameface-y art style in this scene. In some frames, the smile Anthy is wearing on Utena's face just looks like Utena smiling. In others, there's a distinctly doll-like element to it that ISN'T normally there. It's subtle, but it's an effort that manages to make itself (just barely) seen, and it carries a lot of weight. Slightly creepy weight.

Utena says that she's not going to write in someone else's lovers' diary. Anthy says that that notebook is for a correspondence between Saiyonji and Anthy, and right now Utena is Anthy, so go right ahead.

Man, Utena's own reaction to that (the expression on Anthy's body's face in the above screenshot) really says it all, doesn't it? Utena's initial suspicions have basically been confirmed. No, Anthy doesn't give a single shit about Saiyonji or what he thinks he has/had with her. By extension, there's no way of telling if Anthy gives a shit about Utena either. She can mimic love and attachment well enough to fool Saiyonji, after all, so whose to say any friendship or camaraderie she seems to have with Utena isn't equally fake? She didn't do anything to help her when Saiyonji started dragging her off for (potentially) sexual or at least physical assault (we don't know if he has any history of sexual assault as such, but he definitely has hit Anthy before). Was that placid smile on her face just a way for her to hide the anxiety and fear she felt for her friend who she didn't know how to help in this situation, or genuine apathy?

...

As Kill Six Billion Demons has been exploring, sufficiently advanced acquiescence is indistinguishable from psychopathy.

...

Utena insists that it's wrong for her to intrude on their privacy like that; even if Anthy is okay with it, Utena isn't comfortable doing that to Saiyonji despite what a terrible person he is. Anthy asks if she's sure she isn't comfortable with Saiyonji's privacy being violated, and when Utena replies in the affirmative Anthy throws the notebook in the trash with a cheerful smile. There, now that whole potential line of attack has been sealed off.

Anthy looks like she might be relieved to be rid of this continuing link with Saiyonji, now that Utena's given her an excuse to break it. But, once again, it's impossible to tell how genuine any emotional expressions are from someone who's this good at faking them.

Utena says that she might be starting to see things from Saiyonji's perspective, just a little bit. To understand his actions, even if she doesn't forgive him for them. She gives Anthy a wary look. Anthy does this:

Totally normal.

Meanwhile, Nanami and Co reenact yet another Indiana Jones scene with the addition of hostile elephants.

The joke is getting old. This happens a lot when Nanami and animals are both involved, I've noticed.

Flashforward to evening. Anthy is asleep. Utena has fished the diary out of the garbage and is trying to decide what to do with it. She pities Saiyonji enough at this point that she feels like he deserves some kind of closure, but she doesn't know how to go about giving it to him. She leafs through the book to get a sense of his and Anthy's relationship in more particulars, and her sympathy quickly evaporates when she gets to some messages from him about herself.

I'm slightly amused that he went out of his way to make Utena so ugly she's not even recognizable as herself, but still made her custom uniform look badass and include all its cool details. I bet he's just pissed off he didn't think to get one like that on his own.

Well, anyway. Utena has done a 180 now, and simply wants to hurt him. She produces some writing implements and starts...something.

Damn, Utena, this isn't like you. Like I said earlier, normally when Utena has a problem with someone she'll let them know directly, and if she wants to hurt them she'll do it through direct infusion of kinetic energy. I think this whole Rose Bride situation is starting to get to her.

The next morning, after another Nanami clip beating a dead elephant, we find Saiyonji waiting in the greenhouse with a dopey smile on his face, waiting for the person who he thinks is Anthy. Also, I just now noticed that Anthy's greenhouse is literally a bird cage.

Caged bird symbolism. Domestic femininity. Etc. That was my first thought.

HOWEVER.

Just out of curiosity, I googled "birds associated with roses" to see if maybe the show is implying a stealth animal motif for Anthy with this. And, um.

So yeah, I legitimately did not know about that mythical association.

I wasn't necessarily expecting this line of symbolism to turn up anything significant or relevant to the story. I was just open to the possibility. Now though, I'm 100% sure that this is deliberate. There's no way in hell it could not be, in a show like this one, with it already being heavily implied if not outright stated that Anthy is some kind of supernatural being.

Death-rebirth cycle? Fire? Fiery death and regeneration as Omega-Anthy that will burn down the entire school by happening to be near it? Wouldn't be surprised.

So. Anyway.

Saiyonji is waiting in the greenhouse, and is surprised when the next person who enters isn't Anthy, but Touga. While any student can enter the greenhouse, Touga says, it's very unlike Saiyonji to have suddenly taken up an interest in gardening. He's told him once, he's told him a thousand times, leave Anthy the fuck alone until such a time as Saiyonji can win her back in a duel. Saiyonji protests that no, really, they love each other, this isn't about the castle or the sword or whatever, this is their lives and their future together. Ooof, dang.

Touga, who knows about them current situation, just smiles knowingly, and waits.

A person who looks like Anthy arrives, smiling giddily and eagerly calling out to Saiyonji as she runs into the greenhouse, notebook clutched in her hands. She had so much she had to write to him, it took her all morning to get it all jotted down. Some really deep feelings she has that she'd never worked up the nerve to tell him until now.

Utena...well, I'm not sure how harshly I can judge her, really. This guy did kinda terrorize them for the first several episodes. If nothing else has gotten rid of him, well...this might do it, but it also might compel him to burn the nuptial dorm down with them in it. So yeah, not Utena's proudest moment.

Saiyonji takes the book eagerly, looking giddy, a virtually childlike expression on his usually intimidating face. Utena giggles demurely. Touga watches with barely disguised amusement, and something bordering on awe for how well Utena is selling it. Hahaha oh my god Touga is such an asshole on every conceivable level you just have to love him. Suddenly, they get a message from the student council; Nanami and her friends just got back, and they have the spice!

Everyone besides Saiyonji, who doesn't know what this spice business is about, quickly leaves the greenhouse to go meet Nanami. Left alone, Saiyonji opens the diary and...for some reason, there are no subtitles for this.

"You just lost the game?" "You are now consciously breathing?" "i fuked ur mom?" "You needed worthy opponents?" "Hastur, Hastur, Hastur?" Could be anything.

We have a shot of Saiyonji standing statue-still, the light and colours muted, as he remains alone, stunned, in the greenhouse. The book slowly dropping out of his unmoving hand.

He can't believe it. He lost the game. He'll have to purposefully draw each breath until something distracts him. His fiance was cheating on him with his own mother. He needed worthy opponents. He is now part of the King In Yellow.

Cut to the school forecourt, where Nanami and Co step out of a limo to the eagerly waiting student government, Anthy, and Utena. Touga comments that she looks like her few days in India have really toughened her up. She beams at how proud of her her incest brother is, and holds up a container that looks like it should have an imprisoned genie in it instead of spices.

She runs forward to hug her brother and give him the curry, when suddenly a horrible little demon appears and tosses the peel from the banana it had been eating aside, and she steps on it. The lamplike container she was holding sure looks like metal, but apparently that's just a prank or something and it's actually ceramic. She falls, it breaks, the powder...doesn't explode like I thought it would.

Yeah, I legitimately thought there was going to be another curry explosion, this one switching Nanami and Touga's bodies. But nope, the powder just spills out onto the pavement amid the broken pottery sherds. And then, with the distant trumpeting of elephants, a mighty wind blows by out of what had been a perfectly still morning and blows it all away.

With a deathly expression, Nanami whispers that this was the last dose in India, and thus probably in the entire world. Producing more of it takes two hundred years.

-______-

HOW DID THEY GET THAT ORIGINAL DOSE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

HOW MUCH DID HER FRIENDS FUCKING SPEND ON THIS?

The...

Thi...

There are still five minutes in this episode.

It feels like I've just binged an entire season, and there's still almost a quarter left to the episode.

Okay then. I'll try and see if I can make this just a two parter and not a three parter.

We get another interlude with the shadow puppets. One of them explains that this is just karma coming back to bite evildoers, like they said before. The other one asks how the hell that even makes sense, considering who actually suffers because of this. The first puppet does not seem to have an answer for this.

I'm with puppet #2, personally.

That evening, most of those in the know are sitting morosely around a dinner table together. Anthy has cooked everyone a nice curry vegetable dish, but nobody is touching it yet. After all, Anthy is the only one not disturbed by the notion of her and Utena having to spend the rest of their lives in each other's bodies.

Then, suddenly, two of Nanami's bitches who hadn't been present come running in, holding an identical genie-lamp to the one Nanami broke. They just found this, unopened, in the cooking classroom. Apparently, Anthy and Utena never actually opened it; the prank was a failure, and they'd been using normal school-providing spices.

The explosion and its spiritual consequences were purely coincidence. The actual cause of the explosion and ensuing existential nightmare was, they deduce, Anthy's cooking.

Okay, technically it could have also been Utena's, but she's not the one whose already known to have magic powers, so.

Even Anthy looks a little disconcerted by this revelation, unless she's faking this too. Did she not know her cooking could do that? Maybe she didn't. Miki tells her how amazing it is that she's invented such powerful magic, she's the best. Oh my god just throw out the cursed curry and eat Miki, seriously.

Anyway, DID Anthy know she could do that? Had she never taken Home Eco before? Maybe it's specifically curry that does this, rather than other foo...oh fuck they all have bowls of curry that she made in front of them right now. They all heard this conversation, so nobody is going to dare touch their bowls after this, but...Nanami is going to slip on another banana peel and fall facefirst into a bowl, isn't she?

Maybe. Before that happens though, Saiyonji lets himself into the dining room, notebook in hand. He demands, grim of face and grimmer of voice, to know what the meaning of this message was. When he sees Anthy and Utena exchange panicked and/or confused looks, he infers - kinda sorta correctly - that Utena must have forced Anthy to do this. He understands the rules that bind her to the will of her current betrothed, and therefore won't hold it against her provided that she makes it up to him by writing her REAL innermost feelings for him now.

Back to square one, it looks like.

Or...actually, no, it's not back to square one. In fact, it's time for progress. Not for him, though. Not for their relationship, such as it is. Just for Anthy. Either she's finally had enough and been pushed beyond her limits, or she's revealing a side of her personality that we haven't gotten to see before. She, still in Utena's body, offers Saiyonji a bowl of curry as an attempt at a peace offering.

0___0

Everyone else is too shocked to react in time as Saiyonji grumbles, but accepts, somehow managing to ignore the fucked up little demon rat-beast that's eating out of his bowl as he dips his own spoon in.

Well, we learned one thing at least: Anthy DOES have a will of her own. She prefers some masters to others, even if she'll never admit it if asked. She does not like being abused, even if the abuser is her betrothed.

Now, actually ACTING on these feelings? That might be something she learned from Utena. Utena's spent the last half-dozen episodes trying to get Anthy to stand up for herself. Maybe this is her finally doing that, in her own passive-aggressive supernatural way.

...

Looks like the first shadow puppet was right; she just wasn't talking about Nanami that time.~

...

Cut to some time later, when everyone injured in the blast has recovered. Anthy and Utena are back in their own bodies; being caught in another of Anthy's curry bomb explosions seems to have reversed the effect of the first. However, they're now trying to figure out what to do about...

oh

oh god

no no no no no no

my...eyes...i can see the music and hear forever...

the window the window

So.

What the actual fuck did I just watch?

That didn't just feel like an entire season packed into one episode. It felt like an entire season of a different show.

I guess I'm lucky in at least one way. It being a two-parter means that I have a little more time to try and figure out how I'm supposed to ANALYZE this absolute psychedelic hell.