Revolutionary Girl Utena S1E1: “The Rose Bride” (part one)

Well, it's time for a look at another cultural landmark anime series! Revolutionary Girl Utena is a 1996 creation of Chiho Saito, Kunihiko Ikuhara (of "Sailor Moon" fame. Yeah, he's an important guy in Japanese pop cultural history), and several other members of the Be-Papas mangaka cooperative. The anime adaptation followed the manga's initial publication within a year by the related J.C. Staff studio.

The premise of the story, as best as I can infer from what I've heard, is "What if Sailor Moon was gay?" Now, you might be confused by that description, because Sailor Moon is already kinda sorta not exactly heterosexual to begin with. Again, just based on what I've been able to infer from what I've heard, it's sort of like how the Culture has been described as "like Star Trek, but in space." Revolutionary Girl Utena is also the originator (or at least popularizer) of that charming conjunction of swords, lesbianism, and ostentatious rose blossom motifs that's been a growing thing in Japanese and eventually western animation in the decades since. And, that's about all that I know about this series.

So, let's watch some queer flower megukas!


No teaser, and the intro - while dated - is pretty decent. The song is a bop, even if it's stylistically pretty similar to a lot of similar OP's that came later and thus I'm probably unable to judge it in the context of its time. The art style...well, it's also dated, in the "jagged, angular faces and and marionette torsos" sort of way, but not to a worse extent than most other anime from its time. In terms of imagery, well...it's about what I expected.

I appreciate that short-hair-girl is dark skinned. That's preciously rare in anime of this time period in particular. Also, there's one bit where the two of them are riding white pegasi passed a fool-sized sky castle in full arms and armor toward an unseen enemy, so that's pretty badass.

Good, overall. Not a standout intro, but a solid one.

Next we open with a fairy tale, told in a slideshow of heavily stylized still images. A princess is orphaned at a tender age, and begins falling to despair. Prince Charming arrives, and cheers her up, coaching her to find inner strength and so on and so forth. He's also kind of creepy, considering that she's a child and he's a young adult, in a "grooming" sort of way. Especially when he gives her a ring and tells her that she'll find him again someday.

If grooming her really was his intent, though, it kind of backfired. She's inspired by and enamored of the prince, and decides that the proper way to "find him again" is to disregard the ring for now and work on becoming a prince herself.

Title drop. If this is going in a trans-inclusive direction, then that makes it even more remarkable for the nineties.

We then open on a young woman in...let's see if you can guess. The choices are a) an affluent suburban house or condo bedroom, b) a sinister illuminati-esque lab or council chamber, or c) a high school.

C. It's C.

I don't know if it's just the art style not agreeing with me, or if those uniforms are actually meant to be hideous.

Nervous brunette Wakaba has been waiting outside for her boyfriend, whose failure to meet her might cause her to be late for her first morning of the schoolyear. At the mention of her boyfriend, Wakaba's friends laugh and say that they saw "her" leave home much earlier, and that she's probably already inside by now. Wakaba growls, and angrily exclaims that she's going to kill "her."

Is someone getting misgendered here, including by his girlfriend in a fit of annoyed anger? Or is the situation weirder and more complicated than that?

Next, some aerial shots of...okay, is this supposed to be their school? Anime high schools tend to be extravagant, palatial affairs, but this one is like...well, I'll let the visuals speak for themselves.

So, that magic sky castle they were riding pegasi through in the OP was actually just their damned school. Which is apparently a multipurpose...backup Vatican? No idea. I'm provisionally blaming the Einzberns, though.

Inside the commons...or sanctuary...or Roman senate floor...whatever the hell the main interior space of this complex is, another student with bright pink hair and a decidedly better looking outfit is stopped by an angry teacher. Said teacher is dismayed to see that Utena is dressing and presenting like this AGAIN, for the second schoolyear in a row. Utena knows their shit, though, and produces the school rulebook on the spot.

Defeated, the teacher JoJoposes with a riding crop she just conjured out of the ether in silence. As one does. Utena trots on off to wherever they need to go. The teacher is not looking forward to another year of the abject humiliation of a non gender conforming student existing in her classes. Rough life, huh?

Jump ahead to Utena kicking ridiculous amounts of ass on the basketball court, being fawned over by their teammates, and being offered a place on the school team by one of their defeated male opponents. They laugh his offer off, reminding him that as a girl she couldn't possibly be eligible. And, when he keeps pushing, starts getting weirdly kiddy-misandristic in the "boys have cooties and smell yucky" sort of way. When he confusedly asks her why the hell she dresses like a boy in that case, she says this:

Basketball guy probably figures he's doded a bullet with her refusal, after that answer.

Hmm. She does think of herself as female-ish, then? Or was she just messing with his mind? Not sure. I think I'll switch to female pronouns for now, until we get more clarification on how Utena actually sees herself.

Utena moves out into one of the village-sized courtyards, and is hit by the smell of roses. Which seems to be unexpected. I guess they just added rose bushes to this garden area over the summer or something. The smell reminds her, as rose scent always does, of how she came by her life's goal, as well as the ring she still wears on her finger.

That story was literal? Huh. Odd. Is Utena an actual princess, then? Like, a member of the imperial family or some shit?

The rose scent leads her to a ridiculously ornate greenhouse, where the dark-skinned girl from the OP is tending to the flowers. Utena seems to have a crush on her, which I'm not sure how existing love interest Wakaba would feel about.

As Utena dreamily watches the girl water the flowers, someone else arrives. I thought it was another girl, at first, but no, just a very, VERY animu prettyboy. He and Rosey start having an argument that gets heated and seemingly personal. Utena infers that this is a lovers' quarrel, and one that they should probably keep a bit more private.

Then, prettyboy slaps Rosie across the face, and grabs her wrist to prevent her from running away.

Utena realizes that this is it. This is a maiden who needs a prince to rescue her. She freezes up, not knowing what she should do now that she's suddenly thrust into the moment. Fortunately, the burden is removed from her shoulders with the arrival of a second, aesthetically similar, animu prettyboy who intervenes on Rosie's behalf.

As she breathes a sigh of relief (and probably, I suspect, a little bit of shame at how she froze up instead of leaping out the second story window and tackling the guy like Batman), Wakaba jumps on her from behind like a shoujo ambush predator and asks her where the hell she's been.

Anyway, green haired jerk is apparently Saionji, the student body vice president. Red haired chad, meanwhile, is Kiryuu, the student body president. The girl, Himemiya, is just a weirdo with few-to-no friends who spends her free time with the flowers. I wonder if "weirdo" is covering up some racial biases; Himemiya is the only noticeably dark-skinned character so far, though it's not clear what ethnicity she's actually supposed to be (I mean, it's anime. It's not clear what ANYONE's ethnicity is supposed to be). She's also, naturally, going to be sharing some classes with Utena and Wakaba this term, and is a minor student council member herself despite the limited social life.

Also, Wakaba is informing Utena of all of these things, the latter apparently not having known any of this about any of these people (besides Kiryuu being SBA president) until being told. Utena isn't supposed to be new to this place, though, nor has she come across as socially oblivious or apathetic. Wonder why Wakaba knows so much more about their classmates?

Anyway, Wakaba seems to have a crush of her own on Saiyonji the girlfriend-slapper. She didn't see that happen, but I get the impression she'd try to rationalize it if she did. Her and Utena tease each other about this, and then they move on, Utena seemingly trying to forget about the unpleasantness she just witnessed.

Cut to the student council having an outdoor meeting, in which the others grill Saiyonji for his mistreatment of the Rose Bride who was entrusted to him. The student council members, marked by the Rose Seal, are trusted to do much better than this. Has Saiyonji forgotten his responsibilities?

Saiyonji shrugs them off, and insists smugly that he and the Rose Bride are a happy couple, isn't that right Himemiya? Himemiya just meekly says that she is loyal to "Master Saiyonji" and has no desire to leave him, while looking totally miserable. As he walks her away from them, Saiyonji looks back over his shoulders and tells them that if they're so concerned about the rules of the Rose Seal, then they should each just challenge Saiyonji to a duel for the Bride. That's how it's supposed to be done, right? President Kiryuu warns him that a new duelist will be arriving soon, but Saiyonji just laughs fiendishly and says he'll deal with any and all challengers just fine before dragging Himemiya away. Mid-episode title card.

So, this school's student council is an occult secret society charged with the care of an undercover goddess. Surprisingly mundane, for an anime high school.

Cut back to Utena and Wakaba, the latter of whom is squeeing over the former's rose ring. Which she also never noticed before, I guess? I'd assume Utena only got it over the last summer, but it's been established that she's been aspiring to princehood for longer than that, and if she started that at the same time she got the ring then...yeah, dunno how her girlfriend could have not noticed it until now.

Utena tells Wakaba that she was too young to remember exactly who gave it to her; just that it was someone princely who smelled of roses, and that they told her she could use it to find them again. The emblem on it is also nearly identical to their school crest, which may be coincidence, destiny, or something Utena saw as an omen and chose to pursue. Apparently, Wakaba also had royalty-related flights of fancy as a child, though she never got any rings out of them. Her mother, for instance, would tell her that she was a long lost princess of the ancient Onion Kingdom, on account of her large forehead.

Okay, this isn't even pretending to be our Earth, then. The Japanese sounding names are just aesthetics. This is probably a made up country on a made up continent with a made up history.

...

Remember my musings on high school writing and faux high school writing, with KnK and Chainsaw Man?

Well, Utena is reminding me really strongly of my own high school writing, that I personally wrote, while in high school.

...

The girls head back indoors, presumably for their next class, when they see a giggling crowd gathered around the noticeboard. Pushing their way through, they see that someone has tacked a handwritten letter up on the board, where one of the boys is reading it aloud. Turns out it's a love letter for vice president Saiyonji. So, it's probably from Wakaba.

Utena rushes into the middle of the crowd, tears the note away, and berates them all for their behavior.

Nothing lower than what they're doing? Not even child sex slavery, or ethnic cleansing? Wow, those are some fucked up morals, Utena. :p

She then follows Wakaba outside, where she's sobbing under a tree. Yeah, the note was from her alright. Utena comforts her, but also decides that a pattern has presented itself now, and it's time to start princing it up.