Revolutionary Girl Utena S1E3: “On The Night Of The Ball”

Ball, you say? I suspect Utena's going to be introduced to the rest of the student council at the event in question, and that things aren't going to go all that well at least in the longrun.

After the OP (which remains a bop. Just felt like that deserves repeated mention), the episode starts with a slightly more detailed reprise of the pilot's fairy tale opening. The "princess" is depicted as a bit older, and a bit more recognizably Utena, in this version. And, after her decision to become a prince, the narrator asks if perhaps that wasn't actually the best idea. Dun dun DUN.


Back to the present. Utena wakes up from a dream of her first meeting with the Rose Prince and looks at her ring. It's the only evidence that she has of ever having actually met them. Until the recent WTFery, she'd been unsure if it ever really did happen at all, if perhaps she'd gotten the ring from somewhere else and dreamed up a false memory.

She's shortly joined by Anthy, who was up even earlier doing housework as part of her tradwife shtick. Utena keeps a smile on, but is visibly uncomfortable with this. They move on to breakfast, once again in that big empty dorm dining room. Utena tells her that it's kind of creeping her out, having meal after meal in this giant empty hall full of unused tables. Anthy disagrees, saying that it's nice and serene this way. Utena asks her if she has any friends, or ever gets lonely. Of course not, Anthy replies, she has her fucked up nightmare monkey to provide all the company she's ever needed. Utena is getting more obviously frustrated by the minute. Finally, as they're on their way to class being hailed by Utena's crowd of admirers, Anthy leans further into her tradwife companion role and Utena tells her to just knock it off.

Utena tells her that aside from her heroic aspirations, she really just wants to be a normal person doing normal high school things. Which does not include being engaged due to some crazy occult ritual. And which does, surprisingly, include dating boys.

Utena has any interest at all in those? Huh. Wouldn't have guessed. Maybe she's just trying to shut Anthy down out of built-up irritation.

Before the argument can go further, President Kiryuu approaches them. He asks if Utena is the new Rose Husband he's been hearing about, she reluctantly answers in the affirmative, and then he starts being really creepy toward Utena. In a hair-fondling, personal-space-invading, Joe Biden kind of way. Anthy looks mortified, and jealous. Utena quickly brushes him off in much the way I'd expect from her, though.

He responds by smugly telling her that they don't have to act like complete strangers, given the special bond that they already share. He shows her his ring, and Utena's jaw drops. Even though she's already seen another one like it on Saiyonji's finger and been told by both him and Anthy that all the student council members have one. She enters a stunned reverie and wonders if Kiryuu could have possibly been the Rose Prince who gave her her own ring as he seems to be implying.

Okay, no, sorry, this is bullshit.

I'm not bothered by the fact that Kiryuu would have to be a hell of a lot older in order to have given her the ring when she was almost too young to remember. This is a literal show that works on material causality rather than symbolism, after all, so that kind of material inconsistency could make sense within the framework of the story. But her being amazed to see another ring just two days after seeing Sayoinji's, and with the events of the last two episodes being heavily alluded to and built off of in this one, is just a flat no. The writers had a chance to play this card BEFORE her duel with Sayoinji. They could have done it then. They didn't. The opportunity is gone. Missed. Vanished. No take backsies, unless Utena gets amnesia somehow.

Maybe if this was an episodic show I could accept it, but for a continuous narrative that seems to be hinging itself on character growth and evolving relationships...just no. Not even in a literal, not-allegorical, rational fiction piece like this one.

Cut to the student council pledging their allegiance to the grand master planet eaters and praying for the imminent sodomization of the Earth Mother, or whatever their deal is. Then, they start talking about their current situation. Saiyonji is still missing from their scheduled meetings. In fact, he dealt with that second defeat even worse than I expected him to.

Lol what a little bitch.

The other councilors ask Kiryuu what he thinks about this newcomer Utena girl. She doesn't seem to have ever gotten a letter from End Of The World, and they can only guess as to the origins of her ring. What might her agenda be, if she has one at all? Notably, they seem to have written off Saiyonji entirely. I suspect he won't be VP for much longer. Are they planning to bring Utena onboard so they can promote someone else up the ladder?

Through the conversation, Kiryuu acts like he either knows more than he's letting on. Maybe he does, maybe he's just pretending to.

Later that day, Utena is leaning over her habitual window when Wakaba charges out of nowhere and nearly kills both of them.

After Utena saves both of them (barely) from Wakaba launching them out a second story window and asks her what the hell is even wrong with her, Wakaba notices who Utena was watching through that window. Apparently, she was looking down at Kiryuu and a swarm of female admirers.

Wakaba, who seems to have encyclopedic knowledge of school gossip, tells Utena that she'd better not let herself develop a crush on Kiryuu if that's why she was watching. Aside from being student council president, Wakaba explains with a wry smile, he's apparently a huge lady's man who leaves a string of broken hearts after himself. Utena muses to herself that that's kind of hard to reconcile with the Rose Prince.

Hmm. On one hand, the Rose Prince did come across as a little creepy in that story/memory, though that may have just been down to bad localization. If it wasn't just localization issues, then his creepiness was similar to Kiryuu's flavor.

On the other hand, Utena has absolutely no reason to think that Kiryuu is him now that she knows that there are multiple rings and that every student council member has one, this is all bullshit, etc.

The conversation then turns to their accommodations for this school year. When Utena tells Wakaba that she's being quartered with Anthy, Wakaba warns her to be very careful around her. Utena asks why that might be, since as far as she knew everyone just thought of Anthy as harmlessly weird. Wakaba tells her that Anthy completely destroyed the life of a very popular, well liked boy, and someone that malicious cannot be trusted. Oh right, Wakaba has a crush on Saiyonji. Apparently she isn't the only one, as we cut immediately to Anthy being cornered, scolded, and physically assaulted by a group of other girls for driving Saiyonji into depression.

We quickly see-OW FUCK MY HEAD OUCH WHY

Fff...

O...okay. Sorry. An anvil just fell on my head and it took me a minute to pry it out of my skull. There's a stickynote stuck to the anvil that says "the double standard applied to male and female heartbreakers and philanderers is a tool of patriarchy, serving to cement the position of powerful men while keeping women under control." Ow.

Anyway, Anthy is rescued from Team Internalized Misogyny by an imposing blonde cheerleader type who sends them scampering with just a look and a handful of words. This is Nanami, social power broker, unofficial sub-council authority figure, and only person who can actually make those uniforms look good.

Well, sort of. The shoulders still look ridiculous. But otherwise, yeah, she rocks it.

With the handmaidens of patriarchy banished for the time being, Nanami tells Anthy that she can see why all the boys like her so much (huh?) and informs her that she's been nominated as a candidate for "Dance Queen" at the coming ball. I guess that's like Prom Queen, but not restricted to seniors. Okay. How long has Anthy been at this school, anyway? Has she always been here? Is she human or not? Still unclear.

Anyway, she tells Anthy that she simply must come to the dance to not disappoint all the people who nominated her, especially the boys. Also, Nanami claims that she's wanted to be Anthy's friend for a long time, and this would be a perfect opportunity to start being that. Because that makes sense and doesn't sound suspicious as all hell. She then gives Anthy a charming smile that should make you want to lock the doors, and shutter the windows, and keep a loaded gun.

Jump ahead to that evening, with Utena coming home to the dorm to find Anthy playing cards with her evil rat thing. She repeats her question from this morning, more firmly this time: does Anthy have any friends that didn't hatch out of egg sacks in Hell? Anthy starts trying to dodge the question, and is saved by the bell when the door rings. There's a package for them. A box containing an extravagant green dress that the dance committee would like Anthy to wear when she comes to the ball.

Strange. The deliveryman said that he had a package for both of them. He spoke both of their names.

Oh, huh, my answer comes a minute later. The guy also has a second passage, for Utena. This one was sent by President Kiryuu. Oh no. It's either going to be some stripper ninja outfit, or a pink frilly ultra-femme floofy dress. One or the other.

Utena cautiously opens the package. It's the other, rather than one.

Utena declares that she's not accepting the invitation if this is how he's going to be. She needs an invitation? Okay, maybe it is a senior prom, then, just with a few more things folded into it. When Utena says she doesn't want to go, Anthy declares that she won't go either in that case, even over Utena's objections. Besides, Anthy assures her, she's agoraphobic and would have hated it anyway. Her Rose Husband not going gives her an excuse to skip out herself.

Not sure I believe you there, Anthy, but okay.

Utena decides that Anthy really needs to start developing more of a social life, so she agrees to go to the dance just so that Anthy will come with her. I suspect that this is not going to really help her with that, Utena, but I guess it's a nice thought.

Cut to the shadow puppets being weirdly lecherous and judgey about the upcoming ball. Also, they have shadow puppet dogs with them now. Sure, whatever. Then, the night of the ball. Music. Meandering. Disney royal ball aesthetic. Outside the dance hall, Kiryuu stands on a balcony, looking pensively out at the night landscape. He's approached from behind by Nanami, who it turns out is his girlfriend-

um.

Okay, their relationship is more multifaceted than I thought.

They come back inside, and spot Utena and Anthy entering as well, both of them wearing the dresses that the Lannister siblings sent to them. Utena gets a very positive reception from her adoring public at how she looks in a dress, but she always gets a very positive reception from them no matter what she does so I'm not sure if the dress actually makes a difference.

Kiryuu glares at Anthy with obvious envy. Nanami innocently says that he and the other councilors have been talking about Anthy a lot lately, so she figured she'd invite her. He keeps glaring at Anthy. Nanami smiles fiendishly.

I guess she was afraid of her brother dumping her for Utena at the ball, so she made sure the Rose Bride would be present? Although...how much about the situation does Nanami even know? She'd have to know about the whole Rose Bride thing in order to realize that Utena and Anthy are anything more than just roommates, but if she knows about it then she should also know that the RB thing is a ceremonial, ephemeral marriage that can change anytime with a fencing match and doesn't really mean much in terms of romantic commitment, so...eh? Maybe she has a different motivation that I'm just not seeing yet.

Nanami swoops over and takes Anthy off to the prom queen contestant area. I guess they keep them in a cage or something until the voting ceremony. Utena is happy to see how Anthy and Nanami interact, and thinks Anthy might be starting to make some normal friends after all. However, no sooner have they left her line of sight than Kiryuu swoops in and starts being all creepy and handsy at Utena again. She tries to shake him off without making a scene, but he's just too persistent; she's either going to have to give him a dance, come up with something clever, or escalate to to the point of scene-making.

Meanwhile, Nanami brings Anthy into the middle of the dance floor and then abandons her in the center of a thick crowd. It turns out she wasn't lying about the agoraphobia to make Utena feel better, before. And it seems like Nanami knows all about it. As Anthy panics and starts shutting down, Nanami regroups with the three bully girls who she protected Anthy from earlier.

Turns out that that whole incident was staged. The four of them planned it out. And, the dress that Nanami sent her has some horrible trap built into it.

Nanami grins cruelly, and looks forward to the social destruction of the girl who stole her brother away from her.

Erm...wait, is Anthy the real target of this plot, or is she just going to be used as bait for Utena? If the former, I suspect that Nanami might have totally misunderstood her brother's recent behavior. Granted, he and Anthy were likely "married" for a brief period at some point last school year, before Saiyonji ended up taking the role and keeping it for a while. That, combined with his obsession with Anthy's current husband, might have given Nanami the wrong idea.

In any case, another lackey of Nanami's walks up behind the paralyzed Anthy and unstops a champaign bottle so that it sprays all over her. And, apparently, the dress Nanami sent her is water soluble.

Well, it sure is lucky for Nanami that it didn't rain tonight. Or, like. Mist heavily. And that Anthy or Utena didn't happen to splash it while doing the dishes or something. And that Anthy's devil hamster didn't pee on it. Look, my point is that it's pretty likely that a small amount of water could have gotten onto the dress at some point between Anthy receiving it and her stepping onto the ballroom floor.

The dress being alcohol soluble would make more sense. And, like. If Nanami somehow has access to something as WTF batshit insane as "water-soluble prom dresses," then pushing it just a step further into alcohol-solubility isn't going to lose any more audience members.

Seriously, Nanami. Just drop a bucket of pig blood on her. Can't go wrong with the classics.

Over on the bannister, Utena keeps fending off Kiryuu as aggressively as decorum allows until they hear Anthy's scream. They both look down at the scene, to see the crowd pulled away around Anthy, who is crouched on the ground and covering herself as best she can where the dress has melted away. Kiryuu notices his sister smirking from the sidelines, and immediately suspects that she might be behind this. Utena, meanwhile, springs into action, tearing off the dress to reveal the tactical anti-patriarchy suit she was hiding under it all along.

She leaps off the bannister, crushes a table under her feet with no regard for the normies sitting around it, and steals their tablecloth to improvise an extra overcloak for Anthy. Who she then invites to dance with her. Turning her partial nudity into an attack on the ball event itself rather than one on Anthy.

Fuck da police.

Speaking of violence against society as a whole, it turns out that Anthy brought her abomination to the ball with her. As they start dancing, it sets off the record player, resuming the music for them to dance to.

Off to the side, Nanami watches angrily, trying to figure out how her plan could have gone so awry. Her brother approaches her, and calmly asks her to please be more restrained with her pranks in the future. She feigns innocence, but it's pretty clear that she has no reason to. Her brother not only isn't going to be fooled, but also isn't going to let her face actual consequences for her behavior even if she were to confess. She asks him who the girl who swooped in and turned Anthy's humiliation around is, and Kiryuu makes it clear in his answer that it is Utena, rather than Anthy, who he's become fixated on.

Yup, Nanami attacked the wrong target. Total waste of her time and effort even before the plan was foiled. Her eyes go wide and her jaw drops as she realizes what a total idiot she is. Meanwhile, Anthy and Utena keep dancing. End episode.


You might think I'm insane for making this comparison, but Revolutionary Girl Utena reminds me of The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand.

I'm not drawing a moral equivalence here, but an anatomical one. The Fountainhead is a mouthpiece for a loathsome, regressive ideology. Revolutionary Girl Utena is a mouthpiece for an ideology I subscribe to pretty much 100%. But regardless of how good or bad a cause they were each created as propaganda for, they're both the same kind of bad propaganda. The message isn't interwoven with the story or demonstrated by the characters' actions, it IS the story and it wears all the characters as hand-puppets. Nobody reacts to their surroundings in a relatable way. There's no development of the characters AS characters, just changes in their situations as they act out different bits of gender-abolitionist feminist discourse. You can't relate to these people, because they're not even trying to BE people, and the world they inhabit has no consistent rules you can use to contextualize them.

Which is kind of a shame, because like...Utena in particular has the style and trappings of a pretty great protagonist. Queer teenaged tomboy with heroic aspirations, a mysterious past, and the ability to balance a happy-go-lucky background personality with steely badassery? Sign me the hell up for this girl's story!

This might be a matter of personal taste. Obviously, this style of propaganda IS effective and compelling for some people. There are a million ancap lunatics out there who really, honestly love The Fountainhead and think that it works as a story as well as an ideological mouthpiece, and going by its popularity there's probably a million left-lib feminists who feel the same way about Utena. For me though, the story (unless it's a very short, punchy work) needs to work AS A STORY before I can really appreciate the message. Even if it's a message I agree with. Hell, ESPECIALLY if it's a message I agree with, because that makes me really wish it presented itself with better tact.

Though, really, Utena is likely much more famous for its aesthetics than its story. And I'll give it that. It did pioneer a whole subgenre of imagery and a unique type of atmosphere that's influenced Japanese and western animation alike. So, there is that.