Utena

[salinea]

Finished my re-watch of Revolutionary Girl Utena.
It's still a wonderful anime and one of my favourite, and I've still got way too many people on my flist who haven't watched it. Come on people, Feminism! Surrealism! Deconstructed fairy tales! Lesbian subtext and text! Gay subtext and text! Sex! Incest! Genderfuck! Mindfuck! Symbolism! Psychology!


I was watching the official French subs for the first time, and I can't say I was overly impressed with them. I know the series well enough by now to spot a few stuff that were mistranslated. I think the one that struck me the most is that episode in Season 3 where Kozue says she has a date with Papa Long Legs referring to Akio, with all the juicy subtext that contains, and which got translated to Kozue having a date with a "mosquito" LOL Akio only sucks people's blood metaphorically XD

Also because I like saying that Utena was to magical shoujo what Evangelion was to mecha.

10 Things Utena and EVA have in common:

1. They both deconstruct their own respective subgenre.
2. Were made in the nineties.
3. Characters have neurosis, mostly due to things in their past.
4. Not only do they fight partly because of those neurosis, but those neurosis are in a way what empower them to fight.
5. Symbolism, in particular symbolism related to sex and psychology is extremely present.
6. There's a blue haired boy who shows up for only one/two episode and nevertheless leaves a deep impression on the cast and fandom.
7. Audience is left fairly free to interpret the ending as they see fit. In fact in many ways most of the story work more with a metaphorical explanation than with a logical one.
8. One of the overall metaphor is about teens growing up.
9. Fourteen year old teens FTW
10. SHINY CREEPY GLASSES OF DOOM§

Also I may be in the process of making an all-Tori Amos FST for Utena. Please, someone discourage me of the idea which is obviously beyond silly.


And I meant to review Otogi Zoushi but right now my eyes freaking hurt, and they've been hurting on and off since this morning I think I'll them away from my computer screen for now x_x

Comments

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you are so right about those. XD

There's a blue haired boy who shows up for only one/two episode and nevertheless leaves a deep impression on the cast and fandom.

I can't remember all of Eva, but... who? Kaworu had... white hair. And I can't remember how many episodes he was in.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I remembered Kaworu as blue haired! I guess I'll have to strike it down :( (and he was in one)

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

... Wow. thought he was in more than one. XD Really? Well, he was.. gray haired. Apparently XDD http://images.google.com/images?client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:es-ES:official&hl=en&q=kaworu+nagisa&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

But yeah, it does look more blue than white.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it's just one, but it's been more than ten years since I watched the series, so...

It's pretty fun to see how hair colours in anime can be an actual colour yet percieved/remembered as another. (Tropes Wiki has a page about it: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HairColorDissonance).

It's light grey with blue highlight, I guess :)

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

And yet while I have probably rewatched Utena more times than is healthy for both eyes and sanity, I think someone would have to pay me to watch EVA again. XD Different strokes, etc.

Also I may be in the process of making an all-Tori Amos FST for Utena.

Someone else will have to talk you out of it, since I wholeheartedly support this idea. Tori is sort of a perfect fit for the series, isn't she? I mean, "Past the Mission" alone...

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

LOL they have widely different aesthetics and appeals yeah :) but I liked EVA. I've kinda be wanting to rewatch it recently, but I'm a bit afraid of being bored at times too.

Okay, then just tell me that around 30 songs is too much. It just gets wearisome.

Past the Mission is one of those I have trouble with, on the one hand it works great in terms of theme, on the other hand, the sound doesn't work quite and I don't know what to make of it in the overall structure of the FST.

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

Fair point. *g* I might have had a better response to EVA if I hadn't seen at the wrong age, and knowing about every spoiler and creator/production-related breakdown didn't help. Utena at least had a sense of mystery left to it.

Hmm, "Past the Mission" did always feel more like an Utena-movie song to me instead of an anime one, so leaving it off wouldn't exactly be a wrong choice. (I would say stick it on the end as a bonus track or whatever, but if you've got thirty songs lined up already then a little cutting is probably okay. XD I'm still eager to what you come up with, in any case.)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I'd hate to see something like EVA spoiled yeah. I was actually pretty spoiled for Utena (Saw most of it first with a friend who was something of a chatterbox :D) but I fell in love with it anyway.

Well... I'm done to 25 songs, including Past The Mission. I still don't like the intro, but the rest of it fits so right *siiiighs* Not like I have an alternative for that. Guess I'll post it someday soon.

[daydreamweaver.livejournal.com]

Second second second!

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

sesjkefshfjksehfjke okay but I need to cut it to the small size of twenty songs.

[rebbe]

FSTs are awesome.

/encourages you (:

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Evil you!

[rebbe]

(:

[indigestible.livejournal.com]

I was definitely under the impression that Tori Amos had written her entire discography with the hope that someone would do that, so . . .

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

you people are going to deserve what you'll get!

[sakanagi.livejournal.com]

Make that FST! Sorry, you wanted to be discouraged? *coughs* I didn't hear you.

which got translated to Kozue having a date with a "mosquito"

*is dead from laughter*

Your descriptions of the series bring a metaphorical tear to my eye. Yes indeed, Utena has all that and more. ♥

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Hahaha. Yeah that wasn't very successful as far as discouraging me go.

♥ ♥ ♥

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

Utena yay! :D Yes, it did have all those things. *nods* It's an all-time favourite of mine and I agree that more people should watch it.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I didn't know you knew Utena! Yeah, it is very very awesome. It's one of the those series I can keep watching so many times and try to analyse again and again!

[matitablu.livejournal.com]

Well, I always called Utena a "child of EVA", so I'm sold on this :-D Besides, weren't Ikuhara and Anno, like, friends? Or coming from the same school of thought. I definitely see a pattern there, although I like Utena better - I think it had its goal clearer. Many fans felt "cheated" by EVA (I didn't, but that's not the point) because it started off as a more challenging, yet somewhat traditional mecha anime, and then deraged into surrealism only later in the series. Utena is OPENLY mindfucking you since the first episode and I appreciated that :-D Plus its pretty pretty design influenced me greatly. I know it might not be apparent given the way I draw, but I know it's there.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Besides, weren't Ikuhara and Anno, like, friends?
Are they? I didn't know!

I agree, I like Utena much better, and find it overall better structured and clearer. But not having watched EVA in a very long time, I'm not sure I could compare them properly either.

I know at least someone who liked S1 of Utena but got destabilised but the increasing surrealism of S2 though...

Plus its pretty pretty design influenced me greatly. I know it might not be apparent given the way I draw, but I know it's there.
That's interesting! I'm curious to know how

[cloud-wolf.livejournal.com]

*finds description of Utena interesting*

*checks anime6.org to see if it has Utena*

*sighs when she sees it does*

I'm really only going to be watching cartoons and series in the holidays, I think. XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

That's what anime_downloads is made for.

[cloud-wolf.livejournal.com]

I am a noob in the ways of watching anime. Thank you.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Always happy to help. Don't hesitate to as if you've got any question.

[cloud-wolf.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :D

Now I wish I could extract myself from the computer. I've already seen four episodes and I really should get to studying. XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, Utena's like crack (and crackful too).

[cloud-wolf.livejournal.com]

And pretty, it's so pretty. Okay, 10 more minutes and then I'll really stop.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

*snickers*

I'll look forward your impressions.

[savepureness.livejournal.com]

I very well know the feeling. I was working on a very much delayed fic yesterday, and had schoolwork aplenty, but I was still obsessively watching it. XD

[savepureness.livejournal.com]

...this thing of 13-14 year old teens creeped the hell out of me, when I was thinking, but what if I were to write fic, and then I realized, wait a second, Kozue is sleeping around like there's no tomorrow and she's in middle school! >.>

Ah well. I have one more episode to watch, and I have to say it was heaven and hell for me. I'll have a review written as soon as time will allow me -- possibly today, but more probably next week -- with pictures and everything; all in all, I think the classic occurred again, i.e. I liked secondary characters more than the leads. LOL. I mostly have a thing for the whole dynamics of Jury/Shiori/Ruka.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the fact they're 13 or 14 is pretty disturbing at times when you consider how much sex they have. I'm probably not the most disturbed by that, but I think most fic writers sort of... age them mentally a bit or disregard because Utena has such a surreal atmosphere. It's easier with Saionji, Touga, Juri & co who are somewhat older (16 or 17, I think? Actually I don't really know).

The last episode is the best! Enjoy and don't get spoiled in between!

i.e. I liked secondary characters more than the leads. LOL. I mostly have a thing for the whole dynamics of Jury/Shiori/Ruka.
Hahaha, me too. I'm a bit meh about Utena, my favourite characters are Anthy (not really a secondary character though), Kozue, Saionji, Ruka & Mikage. The whole Juri/Shiori/Ruka triangle is definitely a thing of beauty ^^