Utena essays

The year is 1999, two years after the completion of Revolutionary Girl Utena ’s television broadcast. The majority of the original creative team (with a few notable exceptions), have come together to create a feature film that is both a semi-encapsulation of and yet wildly different from the original story.

It replaces the death of Utena’s parents and the visitation of the Prince as Utena’s new motivation, serving as the trigger for the second (emotional) death of Utena’s prince. More than that, it becomes a means of trapping her into believing in the concept of princesses and princes even after she’d come to the very door of revolution.

Ah yes, the romance between Anthy and Utena. The one that fans (and Chiho Sato herself) spent so many years digging their heels in against before finally acquiescing (incidentally, Sato’s latter day stance is “please think of [Utena and Anthy] like a married couple”).

It’s foreshadowing, in part, for what happens to Utena – her name fades from the halls of Ohtori, but the memory of her actions linger on and influence (perhaps not even on a conscious level) the lives of others. Like many other elements from series to film, that story serves a purpose that’s similar on the surface and divergent in execution.