in which I shout WHAT THE FUCK ANTHY at the screen three or four times
Okay so last time on Utena, the entire Black Rose arc unhappened, and it turned out that Evil Boy Utena was just a figment of Anthy’s imaginaion, and that Evil Boy Anthy was Anthy. Which kinda collapses into “Anthy just spent an entire season trying to kill Utena”. This is a pretty fucked-up relationship.
24: The Secret Nanami Diary.
Mean Popular and her shadow. Who she just actually said “thank you” to.
Okay so back when Mean Popular was attacked by a horse back in season 1, her shadow ended up with her diary.
Oh, no, his diary fell out, and is being read by everyone Utena and Anthy… with Mean Popular Nanami nearby.
We see him snooping as Nanami rescues Anthy from mean girls. And then we see him seeing how Nanami made bed things happen… he documents a lot of her tricks in the first season. Which she of course denies.
There is one shot in the Nanami And Elephants recapitulation that suggests that he was in the episode from the beginning: there is a blinking arrow following him as he runs through a road, before a truck full of Nanami and friends drives in from off screen, to be smashed by an elephant. I want to go back and check if he was there from the beginning.
As I go and look it turns out that a diary figured in that episode, as well!
Technical note: they did this by tacking a half a second of the boy running onto the beginning of the existing scene; he was not in the original episode.
Utena, Anthy, and Mean Popular are never seen in full except in flashbacks; they’re mostly shadows on the curtain of the boy’s hospital bed as he recovers from savng Nanami from the horse.
She tries to distract them.
Then we start getting into his fantasies about ways to get Nanami to love him and he finally comes out, in a bedsheet. And tries to stop them from reading his diary. But they continue.
And then Nanami throws herself out of a window, so he watches over her in the hospital; she swipes his diary and has her minion girls drag him off while she reads ahead to Nanami Strategy #24…
Cue the Shadow Girls, who seem to be completely nonsensical? Oh no, they’re riffing on how terrible Nanami is now revealed to be. Mostly. It’s pretty silly.
No duel, despite all of the previous season training us that this is where the duels happen – the shadow girls turn into a spaceship and fly up off the window. Which was seen by the Three Comedy Relief Guys. Which feels weird – I don’t think anyone’s ever seen the Shadow Girls before?
Next Episode: WHY ARE ANTHY AND UTENA MOVING IN WITH ANTHY’S BIG BROTHER AAAGH
25: Their Eternal Apocalypse
Long ago, the old purple-haired Chairman of the Student Council was driving Red Hair Chairman down the road at night in a kick-ass car.
Intro.
Anthy’s big brother is here in his observatory. And Utena and Anthy have moved in with him. This cannot end well, can it.
Utena’s shadow is hot for Anthy’s big brother. ALSO BIG BRO IS FUCKING CREEPY AND WEIRD ABOUT HER GIGGLING.
And then: Student Council. Green Hair is back on the team. There is a discussin where it’s revealed that the arena has a new feature: a gondola which will carry them to a new type of duel. A lot of this has a baseball game going on around it, which I think is a metaphor for the conflict between Green, Blue, and Mean Popular for control of the Council? Maybe?
It ends with the quiet Orange one leaning back and wondering “who is End Of World anyway”. Cut, of course, to Anthy’s big brother’s observatory. We learnt last episode that he was running the Black Rose Boys as End Of Word; guess that’s still true too.
Is he macking on Utena? He tells us that he’s named after the Japanese name of Venus. Which is also known as Lucifer. Which he goes on about:
“The morning star is known as Lucifer.” Cut to Anthy near the star projector, glasses gleaming opaquely.
“Lucifer was once an angel, yet chose to be the king of Hell.” Cut to Anthy again. Closer. Glasses opaqely gleaming.
“When you look up at the star from this world, it is always at the side of the sun.” Cut to Utena.
“A star which can never shine unless the sun sets.” Anthy, closer, med shot now, glasses still opaque.
Anthy’s just here to tell Utena dinner’s ready. She’s not jealous of Utena maybe starting a thing with her brother. At all. Totally.
Cut to: Utena and Anthy’s lavish bedroom. Their silhouettes are sitting back to back on a bed’s shadow; they fall back, crossing each other. Utena’s shadow matches the next to last shot in the intro, where she’s just lost Anthy’s grasp and fallen back; the next intro shot will be of her alone in one rotating rose, with the other one empty of Anthy. And here we are looking down at them, on two crazy beds designed to let them lie facing in opposite directions, with their heads eye-to-eye, the way they lounge around the rose garden in the middle of the intro.
Utena and Anthy talk about Anthy’s big brother. He seems familiar to Utena. And… Utena feels weirdly familiar to Anthy, too.
As Utena and Anthy vow to help each other, we have a shot of Anthy cuddling into the Prince’s arms from the end credits.
“Miss Utena? The truth is that I…”
“Yes?”
“…Never mind.”
Obviously we’re supposed to fill that gap in with “I love you”. But I don’t think we’ll feel like that’s what should go in that space by the end of this show. Anthy is a profoundly fucked up woman who can bend reality.
Cut: Red Hair Councilman and Green Hair Councilman are having a spat. And end up back to back in silhouette, talking at each other. And now he’s introducing him to the End Of World guy from the beginning of the ep, with the car.
Break for commercial, and we’re back on the road, in the same shot we opened with. Driving. With Anthy’s brother, from End Of World. Red Hair wants to help initiate Green Hair into EOW.
Red Hair now tells us that Anthy’s big brother was Utena’s prince. Economy of character, always good. And creepier.
And then Big Brother says he’s gonna reveal the End of the World fo Green Hair. Which involves putting the car into fifth gear, and doing a flip over the windshield to sit on the hood while it speeds down the road. Hell of an initiation stunt.
And now: Green Hair is interested in duelling for the Rose Bride again. He tells us the gondola in the arena will carry the Rose Bride and her betrothed up to the castle above the arena, Where Eternity Dwells at the End Of The World.
He steals Anthy. Didn’t he do this before? Declare her His without bothering with the duel? Not sure.
Shadow time. The alien spacecraft from last episode crashes into the shadow of a tower. And they’re back on the same wall they were on in the first season. Which given that S2 “never happened” means they’re in the same place they always were except for their one appearance on the window by the lockers last episode.
“Did you know? Did you know?”
“It’s so nostalgiac to say those words again!” Because the old S1 ritual is back.
New art for the Ultimate Destiny Apocalypse song. But we know it’s still Going To The Arena. New mix, too. It’s downright sexual: Anthy vanishes, leaving her school uniform to fall to the floor of the elevator. Then she reappears, nude, in front of Utena; her red arena dress appears a moment later. A rose bush grows in her school uniform as she caresses Utena’s naked body, the fight costume appearing in the wake of her hands. Will she do this to someone else if they possess the Rose Bride?
And Green Hair drove into the arena in Utena’s brother’s car.
The fight is suffused with metaphorical cars driving about and playing at being Stonehenge. The Sword of Dios fades from Utena’s hands, leaving her defenseless; Anthy stares silently with her glasses gleaming. Until she remembers Utena vowing to be the kind of friends who always help each other out; she grabs Utena and pulls a new sword out of Utena’s heart, then promptly faints into U’s arms. The spirit prince comes down from the castle and merges with Utena for the deciding blow.
Red Hair and Anthy’s brother, who were watching from afar, flirt with each other and fall back with their shirts open in the same poses as Anthy and Utena did when they pledged to Help Each Other Out. They are clearly going to fuck as soon as the camera leaves them.
Back at the observatory, Anthy’s big brother mutters “The Sword of Dios did not appear” to himself. Twice. Anthy’s glasses gleam. He tells her to come to him, then says it again more harshly and grabs her when she doesn’t comply immediately. Yeah he’s fucking her and it’s not good for anyone involved.
And Utena’s in bed alone, wonderng where Anthy is: in bed, her glasses off, with… a silhouette full of stars. Metaphor or…?
New end credits. Just a rose background with inset shots from the show: piecing together the driving scenes and some of the car bits from the duel. Very strange lyrics that have clearly lost a lot in translation; I get a sense of it being about looking out at the Solar System and the stars beyond and only seeing it as soulless machinery going on its predestined path. Which feels like it’s related to Anthy’s big brother given that he lives in a planetarium.
It sounds more like a duel song than a end credits song, to be honest.
Next Episode: Blue Hair’s sister is weird.
26: Mikki’s Nest Box: The Sunlit Garden
Once again, we open on the road, with Red Hair and Anthy’s brother plotting. Is this a new ritual? Big bro decides he’ll use Blue Hair as his pawn to attack Utena tis episode.
Aaand.. Blue Hair’s sister is indulging in some ill-advised building-climbing. Because she leaped out of a window to save a nest of baby birds. She’s a bit crazy apparently.
She also clearly does not like their parents.
Utena and Anthy fill us in on Blue Hair and his sister’s backstory a little.
Big Brother cruelly interrogates Anthy as to her feelings for Utena. He is not pleased about them, despite being polite to Utena.
Ritual becomes: Utena and Anthy’s silhouettes falling back; a bedtime conversation, where they hold hands.
Student council.
Now they sit far away from each other in a sea of chairs. And have a letter from End Of The World advising them to fight Utena. Blue Hair is reluctant to take orders from grown-ups any more; we go close in on his hand with a stopwatch dropping. That feels important; him timing things has been a constant theme.
Blue Hair is talking on the phone to his father. His sister doesn’t want to come see Father get married to a new woman, and he’s the one who’s telling this to Dad. We only see Dad from behind; standing behind him is… Anthy? In her Arena costume. What the fuck Anthy? Are you marrying Blue Hair’s dad? What the fuck.
Blue hair plays piano; his sister listens outside as he plays. Mean Popular hassles her. She is waiting for an older man, who we only see in silhouette. I think it’s Anthy’s big brother? Goddamn what is with these people
And here’s Red Hair flirting with Blue Hair and trying to convince him to join the duels again. And here’s Anthy’s brother driving him off to the End of the World… with Blue Hair’s sister, this time. Who’s on a date with Big Bro. She tells him Big Bro will help him get what he wants: Utena,.
His sister leans back flirtatiously and tells him he needs to become impure to grow up. And then — discontinuity — a single blue rose in the corner, not turning — Blue Hair’s driving the car, with only Anthy in the passenger seat — she leans back in the exact same flirtatious pose and giggles and — discontinuity — he’s back as a passenger with his sister and Anthy’s big brother — and he gets shown the End Of The World. Ritual.
Is this going to be another season of Anthy trying to kill Utena? Is this season going to be unhappened at its end as well? What the hell is Anthy doing trying to kill Utena while appearing to fall in love with her?
Anthy is the worst princess ever. She is like some kind of princess parasite.
Blue Hair and his sister put up a birdhouse for the ones she rescued. Which is symbolically connected to Divorced Parent issues. And then Blue Hair gives Utena the most polite, sweet duelling challenge she’s ever had. Anthy’s brother’s care shows up, as it did when Green Hair challenged last episode. New symbol, clearly.
Did You Know: crashes in on the spaceship again. A gambler bets everything on one last spin of the roulette wheel, and loses.
Utimate Destiny Apocalypse (gondola mix).
Blue Hair Twins Teamup. Anthy pulls the Rose Of Nobility from Utena’s heart; Blue Hair’s sister plls one from his heart. TOTALLY NOT INCESTUOUS
The brother gets the sword. And the cars drive around. Sister is in the passenger seat. And then Anthy’s in the back seat with her//in the front seat with Blue Hairs sister pushing her down to fuck her// and here comes the Spirit of Deos and Utena gets the winning blow.
They’re speeding up the pace. This is only the second time this Ritual has appeared and they’re already twisting it around. You know this show is full of Ritual by now and we don’t have to beat them into your head like we did in the beginning.
Back in school. At the Blue Hairs’ birdhouse. Sister is angry at Brother. She call shim a coward.
New end credits. Utena’s silhouette riding up the elevator to fight. Anthy shows up in a series of stills. They have sensuous half naked kisses. Same new end song about the mechanical solar system. Is this the new normal?
This end sequence feels like it’s saying that Anthy wants to see Utena as her Prince. And if there’s one thing this show has taught us by now, it’s that your Prince is never actually good for you.
I doubt Prince Utena will be any different.
Next Episode: Nanami’s Oviposition.
And that’s it for this DVD.
…you know, now the infamous “what the fuck why do they turn into cars” bit I’ve heard is in the movie feels like it makes a lot of sense after these two episodes. Glad I didn’t assume the movie is a condensed version that I can enjoy in and of itself and watch it first.
Season 1: Utena wanders into the Duels for the Rose Bride by accident. Each member of the Student Council fights her, and loses.
Season 2: Anthy creates a reality in which her imaginary Anti-Utena and Anthy’s drag king persona corrupt the friends of the Student Council and make them try to defeat Utena with swords pulled out of Student Council chests. It’s unhappened when Utena goes undefeated through all of them.
Season 3: Anthy//and her big brother//sometimes as her big brother// gets the Student Council to fight Utena again? Why? What’s really going on behind that impassive face, unquestioning obedience, and occasional shy smile?
quite like the theory that Utena is the ego, Anthy the superego and Akio the id. Helped me make more sense of the power battles and this third arc, imho
I can see that making sense. Personally I’m trying to work on the assumption that each character is a separate entity with their own reality (until shown otherwise), and construct a theory of What Is Going On that doesn’t come down to “its all a psychodrama inside of Anthy’s head as she lies in a coma for some reason”. The show tells its story with increasing amounts of metaphor and allusion as it goes on, but I’m making the (possible unwise) assumption that there is a base level of reality to the magic-filled world in the show.
I mean, when I was in a triad relationship, there were pretty clear tendencies for who was the ego, superego, and id there, but we all had our own personhood and history.