Revolutionary Girl Utena S1E2: "For Whom the Rose Smiles"

More Utena! Our heroine just found out she's done the literal monomyth thing and had a marriage to the goddess in the wake of her journey into the netherworld. Let's see how she feels about her life's recent Campbellian twist!


Utena is walking home from school along the crazy mountain skybridge its situated on. And yeah, until now I assumed that the "male uniform" Utena wears just belonged to a different grade or status than that of the male students we saw, but we see her amid a crowd of her peers now and no.

I get that they need to visually distinguish her from the extras, but come on. At least have her wear pants like the boys are, if you're going to call attention to her outfit allegedly being a "male uniform." As it is, aside from the basic style of the coat it looks almost totally unrelated.

She's hailed by some of her basketball teammates, who she cheerily greets and waves back at before moving on her way. From the shots that follow though, I think admiration for her basketball prowess is only a small part of why they're so eager to get her attention.

They remind me of Gaston's cheerleaders from Beauty and the Beast, just with better taste.

Some shots of their palatial school buildings and grounds, a title card, and then...oh wait, no, this is the next morning already. So, we skipped Utena's conversation with Anthy, then? Hopefully we'll see it in flashback. I was also curious to see if these characters' families and home lives exist onscreen; so far, the show has been giving me the impression that they might not.

Utena goes to her homeroom, where she sees Wakaba morosely reading a book and avoiding conversation with their classmates. After yesterday's betrayal and public humiliation, I can't really blame her. Seeing Utena cheers her up, though. Considerably.

Is there a single female who can so much as look at Utena without wanting to jump her bones?

Utena tells Wakaba that she's starting to get a little uncomfortable with the whole "you're my true love" stuff. Yeah, their feelings didn't quite seem mutual, looking back over the previous episode, which is why I wasn't sure for a while that these two actually were. Well, I think Utena's going to have enough relationship drama on her plate anyway at this point, since she married a magic superweapon that other parties will probably be challenging her for.

Cut to the student council having a meeting, with President Kiryuu leading them through their ritual mantra. A chick will die without being born if it lacks the strength to crack its own eggshell. Humanity is the chick. The world is the egg. Smash the shell! Bring the revolution! Hail the End of the World! Good to know that these guys are taking their work as high school representatives with due seriousness. Anyway, they've all received a new letter from End Of The World informing them of Saiyonji's defeat and the hand of the Rose Bride being taken by newcomer Utena. They're not sure how they should be dealing with this development, as a challenger has never come from outside the council before. Or, perhaps, people with rings have always been found and made members of the council before that could happen? Maybe? Not sure. They argue over what to do, but nobody proposes anything concrete.

Notably absent from the conference is Saiyonji. I guess losing one of those duels means you're off the team, or something? Or maybe they just fired him as soon as they could after receiving the news, as they're definitely glad to be rid of him. It's just Kiryuu and these two girls. Wonder if one of them will be promoted to VP, now? Or if they'll bring in someone new, who may or may not be Utena? Not sure how this works.

Their conversation also delivers some rather clumsy exposition (of the "as you all now" kind) about the plot. End Of The World is an entity or organization (they refer to it as "they," which could be either a gender neutral singular or a plural pronoun) that gives them frequent instructions by mail. They do not have any way of contacting End Of The World, the communication is strictly one way. End Of The World gave them their rings, and led them to open the sealed forest and discover the Phantom Castle in the sky above it. Breaking the eggshell and releasing (trans)humanity from its gestation will involve using the Sword of Dios to enter the flying castle. Why they haven't done it yet, and why they're fighting (or not fighting) these duels for it, is so far unexplained. I suspect it has to do with ensuring a worthy candidate or something, but the timetable and criteria for worthiness - if End Of The World has even made them known to the council yet - aren't explained here.

Okay, so there's a quest chain thing going on with the ring unlocking the forest, the forest unlocking the sword, and the sword unlocking the Phantom Castle. Just, there's also these combat rituals and probably other stuff that comes between each step.

It seems likely that End Of The World is either the Rose Prince operating under multiple aliases, or a rival of theirs with a conflicting vision for transhumanity.

As a final note, Kiryuu is still kinda weirdly lecherous and/or paternalistic in the way he talks about Utena. Still waiting until he does more before I launch into any further analysis of him, but so far he's ticking more or less the boxes I expected.

Back to Utena and Wakaba. This is a boarding school after all, it turns out, and they're being annoyed at how they got assigned separate rooms despite being best friends.

Where did they all sleep the night before this, then? Maybe they're all from nearby? In that case though, why even bother boarding? Maybe the students all have to dig holes to sleep in on the first night of the schoolyear until they're assigned rooms or something.

Anyway, Utena seems to be gradually getting annoyed by Wakaba's endless chatter, and she already said she feels like Wakaba is a little too into her, so Utena might secretly be glad about this. What she's less glad about is that the dorm she's been assigned to hasn't been used in ten years, and neither of them know anyone else who's being assigned to it.

And the student council decides the housing, they said. This is some sort of screening or initiation process then, I think.

They part ways at the entrance to Utena's building. It looks nice, but it's apparently long abandoned, and there are rumors among the students that it's haunted. Rumors that I'd take a lot more seriously after yesterday's events than I would have previously, were I in Utena's place. The building interior looks nice too, but then Utena opens the door of her assigned room to find a collapsing ceiling, rotted beds, a floor layered in dust and rotting plaster, and the world's cutest rat infestation.

Yeah, this is a test for Utena.

She slides to the floor, daunted at what she apparently is going to have to deal with, and then closes it again. And spends a few minutes before opening it again. Or...okay, maybe she was just imagining that last bit...

Either Anthy teleported in here and magically fixed everything up in seconds, or Utena is supposed to have left and come back some hours or days later, or the destroyed room and cute rats were just her imagination and she hasn't opened the door yet. Probably that last one.

Utena is happy that it's not what she'd been picturing, but also very much surprised to see Anthy in here. Isn't this room supposed to be a single? I'd normally wonder what the hell Utena was smoking for her to think this gigantic room with a bunkbed in it is meant for a single occupant, but given that the school's main building actually destabilizes the planetary orbit with its own gravitational pull this might be a reasonable expectation. Anthy reminds her that by the law of the Rose Seal, Anthy is now hers. And thus, they must cohabitate. Anthy even came here early to get it all clean and sparkly before her husband's arrival.

Utena, who had been trying to forget that that weirdness ever happened, isn't sure what to say about this. I'll take that to mean that she just turned around and walked the other way when Anthy approached her again at the end of the pilot, and no more words were exchanged.

Well, there's plenty of time to exchange words now. And a lot more impetus to, now that it seems there will be no easy way of getting rid of this for Utena.

Utena asks Anthy what all of this stuff with the sword and the flying upside down dream castle is about. Anthy replies that she has no idea.

Well, that's not what I expected to here.

Utena, understandably, asks why the hell Anthy is even going along with all this bullshit, then. Anthy thinks for a moment, and then asks Utena why she dresses like a boy all the time. Utena says that it's because she wants to, and Anthy tells her that she's answered her own question. Yeah yeah, restriction of all acceptable human behaviors into discrete gender roles forces you to choose between bad outcomes, much radfem, very gender abolitionism. What I hope Utena will ask next is what the hell Anthy even is. Is she an actual student? Is she human? Was she ever NOT the Rose Bride?

Unfortunately, she's distracted from asking any more probing questions by the introduction of Anthy's pet...thing? I thought it was the rat that Utena saw/imagined before, but no, this is definitely not the same species, genus, or even order.

Technically, Anthy introduces it as her "friend" rather than her "pet." I'm just going to call it her "abomination."

I wish they had stuck with the previous rodent design, though. That (imaginary?) rat looked actually cute. This thing overshoots the mark and goes wayyyy off the deep end into ugly and creepy. Anyway, it's name is Chu-Chu, and Anthy claims that it's an equal friend and companion rather than a pet. Utena is successfully distracted by the alleged cuteness as it warms up to her faster than it does to most people, but thankfully not for long, and we eventually get a little more clarification. Though not of the stuff I was wondering about Anthy, unfortunately.

So, ownership of a ring marks you as a "duelist." Duelists fight for the Rose Bride's hand to ensure that the best possible warrior is the one who gets to do the thing with the castle. Presumably, that means that Saiyonji beat the other student council members in single combat, and the other council members might be fighting Utena now to ensure she can keep her candidacy. There might also be new challengers at some point, depending on how many more student council members are expected to get rings by the deadline. Whenever the deadline is. IS there even a deadline? I guess there must be, but it's not alluded to.

Anyway, Utena says that this is dumb and she's not fighting any more duels. The student council is going to have to give her a better explanation and justification for all this weirdness before they can expect her to participate in it. I think that's the right call, Utena; Kiryuu really owes you a comprehensive explanation along with that marital dorm suite.

Cut to Saiyonji, who is grimly meditating at a war shrine and then even more grimly practicing his swordsmanship. I assume that's just a normal sword he's using now, with the Sword of Dios now being Utena's. He's approached by Kiryuu, and nearly stabs the intruder on reflex.

He's still SBA vice president, then. He just chose not to come to that last meeting due to butthurt or whatever.

Kiryuu asks him if he's planning to rematch against Utena, and he replies that he very much is. Kiryuu tells him that this is really not necessary, Anthy is engaged to Utena now, that's it. Okay, so it's "engaged," not "married" yet. I suspect that the wedding date is predetermined, and they have until then to fight for the candidacy, with the marriage being the event that lets Anthy's now-husband into the castle so they can do the thing. Saiyonji isn't accepting that, though. Anthy is his, end of story. It even says so in his exchange diary, so it can't not be true.

Do the rules allow for rematches? I guess so, or Kiryuu wouldn't be bothering with this conversation.

Cut back to the loveshack, evening. There's a veritable feast laid out on one of the dorm dining room tables, but no one except Utena, Anthy, and Anthy's abomination to eat it. Did the school prepare all that just for two people and a nightmare-hamster? Or, did Anthy cook it all? Not sure. Anyway, Utena sits down in the unnervingly empty communal dining room, only for Chu-Chu to come running and excitedly try to get her attention. Including waving a fork around like a weapon. Utena gets the message, and goes after the devil-shrew to see what needs fighting.

Outside on the doorstep, Saiyonji is being a salty ex.

I'm not sure why this is so hard for him to understand. He was engaged to Anthy because he beat the previous candidate(s). Now someone else beat him. What, did he think that he and Anthy had some kind of special connection that goes above and beyond that? What a moron.

Anthy tries to gently talk him down. It doesn't work, and he starts slut shaming her for following the same rules that led her to him in the first place, culminating in another pimp slap that drives her to the ground. Utena arrives at the scene just then, and gets up in Saiyonji's business. He tells her that she only won because he wasn't taking her seriously, and that he came here to demand a rematch.

Also, Chu-Chu charges at his foot, and he steps on it, flattening it into a Loony Toons-esque living pancake that...well, it looks a hell of a lot more disturbing than Loony Toons ever made it appear.

...

Sailor Moon had a cat. It was a sentient alien cat, sure, but appearance wise it was just a cat. It looked like a cat. That was fine. That worked.

This...just no.

...

The girls ignore the hell-monkey's abuse (probably because the human mind is just not up to the alternative), and Utena tells Saiyonji to get lost, she's not playing this stupid game with him or anyone else. Then he says that if the student council disapproves of someone, they get expelled; if she doesn't want to be kicked out of this school, she'd better agree to the rematch.

Okay, no, sorry, this just doesn't work.

Saiyonji is the vice president. There's someone above him. What he's doing here isn't just an abuse of power, but an abuse of power that defies the wishes of someone with more power than him. Like, would the rest of the council just let him do this? Really?

Also, if he's willing to go that far, why not just go one step further and tell Utena that he'll expel her unless she agrees to the rematch and lets him win? I guess that his pride might not allow him to make a demand like that, but what if the fight starts turning against him and he gets desperate? Why even have these rules at all, then?

Even as a social allegory or whatever, this makes no sense.

Utena reluctantly agrees, and Saiyonji leaves. Utena tells Anthy that she's planning to let him win, because fuck that noise. It seems very much out of character for Utena to just let Anthy go back to her abuser though, so I'm thinking that Utena either a) doesn't know that this duel can actually reverse the Rose Bride transition, b) is correct in her belief that this duel cannot reverse the transition, and Saiyonji is just insane and delusional and forcing her to fight him for literally no prize at all, or c) she has a trick up her sleeve.

I suspect it's C. Maybe something to the effect of "okay, she's your fiance again, but I'm still going to kick your ass the next time I see you hit her, and she's still going to spend as much time with me and as little with you as she wants regardless of marital status." That would be a good subversion.

Also, I just now noticed that Anthy has what looks like a bindi on her forehead. She's Indian, then? Or, if she's not actually human, has taken on the form of an Indian girl? That fits her skin tone.

So, the following evening. The shadow puppets do their Greek chorus thing again, only now they're cowboy themed for some reason.

We also catch just a glimpse of the puppetmaster's hand. Hmm. Wonder who that might be?

Afgter the puppets, Utena returns to the forest and opens the gates again. Same over-the-top fight song as before as she enters and ascends. Either the spirits who sing that song are really eager for opportunities, or it's just a recording that plays whenever someone opens the door. While Utena climbs the insanity staircase, we see Anthy in her Rose Bride getup casting some kind of spell, and Utena's outfit gets more princely without her seeming to notice it. She's got, like, pauldrons and shit now. Also, she's walking angrily, which results for as intimidating a figure as you can expect of a pink haired anime teenager.

So, she reaches the summit, where Anthy and Saiyonji are again waiting for her. Anthy puts the flowers on their shirts. This time, of course, it's Saiyonji who had to bring a sword of his own (although it's a metal one, unlike the wooden training stick Utena ignorantly brought last time), and Utena who is handed the Sword of Dios after Anthy extricates it from herself.

Or...no, actually. Anthy begins the process, but Utena is the one who actually has to reach inside of her and pull the sword out while reciting the ritual words. Which she does confidently enough that Anthy must have been giving her a lot of coaching.

The duel begins, accomponied by a fight theme that I swear sounds like it came from a contemporary console game. Vocals soon accompany it, and the lyrics consist of...Earth's geological eras, listed in order. Okay. Sure. Why not. Saiyonji explains, during the opening strokes, that the Sword of Milos is incredibly powerful, but as Utena learned the other day its powers don't do much for the wielder in a one-on-one nonlethal duel. Their contest is purely one of skill, and this time he's not holding back whatsoever.

And yeah, the guy definitely knows his way around a sword. Also, before Utena even gets a good option to throw the match, he knocks her down and prepares to land what looks like he means to be a killing blow. So much for nonlethal, I guess.

Well. Apparently, abusing the rules DOES have consequences, at least on the mystical side of things. The ghostly silhouette of the Rose Prince descends from the flying castle overhead and - while the singing turns to marine zootaxonomy - possesses Utena.

Possessed!Utena gets back to their feet in a burst of super speed, and parries Saiyonji's attack hard enough to sunder his blade. She snaps out of it a moment later, but Saiyonji seems to have recognized what he just saw as the "power of Dios." His face falls, as if his world has been destroyed around him. He looks on the brink of tears. Cut ahead to Utena and Anthy back in their dorm. Saiyonji doesn't seem like he'll be challenging Utena's claim again after this.

As they sit down to dinner (and cream cake dessert. Which...maybe Anthy prepared? I don't know), Anthy asks Utena when she'd been planning to throw the battle. I'm kind of disappointed that she didn't get to, myself, since I wanted to see what her plan was, but Anthy's question is also a legitimate one.

Utena replies that she got pissed off at Saiyanji for stepping on Anthy's abomination, and that she didn't intend to let him have anything close to a victory after that. Oh. Okay. I guess it's lucky for her that the spirit of the Rose Prince (Dios? End Of The World?) disagrees with me about that thing being a crime against the visual medium. End episode.


Moreso than the pilot, this one felt like it left off in the middle. As such, there's not much I can say until I've seen what comes next. Not much change in the status quo. Not much more information learned (a little, but not much).

I really would have wanted to see Utena's plans for post-jobbing heroism. There's potential to explore the challenging of social norms there, and of what makes for effective and comprehensive revolution. But, I guess we're going somewhere else with this thread.

So yeah, not much else to say just yet.