watching Revolutionary Girl Utena: 3

In which we discover that being queer is pretty much entirely normal for these characters, and take a trip through the interior world of Mean Popular Girl.

Episode 5.

Hmm. Opening theme: “In the sunlit garden we both joined hands”. And 4/5 focus on the blue haired musician's obsession with playing a piano piece called “The Sunlit Garden” with Anthy or a girl who looked just like her when he was young.

So many full-length shots that show off the characters' amazing legs. They're all half legs.

Full frame shot of Chu-Chu staring at the camera. Tilts his head, says “Chuuuu… Chu?”. WITH CREEPY MUSIC OVER IT. This pet is so damn full of Wrongness. I expect him to reveal a hideous secret before the show ends. I think the one giant earring is really part of the creepiness.

What the hell happened to Anthy to beat this whole “I am the Rose Bride and engaged to whoever wins me in a duel” thing into her head so firmly. Glad to see Blue Hair Musician picking up on how weird his is after Utena comments on it.

Oh hell yeah red haired Creepy Prince just leched on blue haired musician. Also wondering what is up with the rotating white flowers I occasionally see floating over otherwise normal scenes. There was one in the scene where the spirit of Creepy Redhead Prince joined with Utena before a duel, too. Guess I should check in a sub and see if this is dub censoring, or if it's supposed to be there. This one was around 10:28 in ep 5. And was actually grey or possibly steel blue, not white. The flowers also appear in sets of four at the corners of lingering gazes at main characters… Is this a sign that an Important Thing is happening? Will some understanding come together if I put all of these scenes together after watching the whole series? (Asking Google about it just ended up bringing me to the TVTropes page about RGU.)

Oh wow blue haired musician just flashed back to creepy redhead prince telling him important plot points. And instead of showing what was actually there they had Redhead lounging around all seductively in bed. YES. This show is SO QUEER.

6.

I like how Mean Popular Girl carries an aura of Exaggerated Romance Comics Effects around her internal monologues and high-stress moments.

THERE IS A HORSE RUNNING THROUGH THE HIGH SCHOOL. “Runaway horse! A horse has broken out!”, say the anonymous male voices. And HORSE. Which fades, leaving behind some chickens. And a mysterious man who rescues Mean Popular. Or a lie she's started telling to get attention?

Well that was a cryptic shadow puppet interlude. Talking about camping? And badly made food? I think something may have been lost in translation, unless it was foreshadowing for the second half of the episode.

And now Mean Popular is dating a little boy. Who is becoming her slave.

“Love can take many forms. For instance, the love Anthy and I share is… HIDDEN love.” *long, uncomfortable pause, with no motion, and no reaction from Utena and Blue Hair Musician* “HIDDEN love.” “Yeah sure nice skirt, dude.” LOL. This show is actively mocking itself sometimes.

And then Mean Popular makes her underage BF beat up a trio of boring nerds who worship her from afar. Their triparte scream of attack is amazingly, beautifully lame. Hilariously so, even.

Oh geeze little boy was ALSO inspired to Rescue Damsels In Distress by Creepy Redhead Prince.

(All these people have names of course but I am terrible at names.)

Oh my god this episode was just insane. Total tone shift halfway through into broad comedy. KANGAROO. I had to pause it to laugh when the kangaroo came out. Even though the little boy turned out to be really a creeper. Is there anyone in this show who is not really really creepy besides Utena? Who I'm sure will reveal her own resovoirs of Just Plain Wrong before it's all over.

I still don't see what the hell the shadow puppets were talking about though. Maybe it'll make sense later. I don't expect it to.