Revolutionary Girl Utena: the Watchening

Or: In which I try not to compare everything to Rose of Versailles, and totally fail.

My Revolutionary Girl Utena watching continues with episodes 2 and 3, in which Utena defends Anthy from Saionji (again) and then defends Anthy from bullying by a female classmate, and sister of the Student Council President, Kiryuu.

These episodes introduced some pretty standard tropes – the dance party, the jealous girl, the weird-ass rodent-looking companion, the predatory playboy, the tomboy in a dress, etc. Well, maybe the weird rat thing isn’t so standard. As before, a lot of storytelling elements struck me – more than the actual story itself. I don’t think that’s too surprising, since I already know the basic premise, and the plot hasn’t really developed beyond vague references to a supernatural power bestowed on the chosen one.

• We are all familiar with the use of a narrator in anime, and other media. The narrator is sometimes one of the characters, or a disembodied voice. It can be reliable or not. Sometimes there are multiple narrators. Revolutionary Girl Utena uses a small girl’s voice to introduce the reason behind Utena’s prince complex, in a stylized animation separate from the actual episode. But during the episodes themselves, there appear two silhouettes who use sing-song rhymes to warn the “brave hero” and clue in the audience as to what might happen next. It’s an interesting way of breaking the fourth wall, and continues my theory that a lot of these eccentric elements are reminiscent of theatre techniques.

The shadows are also one of the many elements in Revolutionary Girl Utena that remind me of Rose of Versailles. In Rose of Versailles, a poor man appeared playing an accordion, and provided the outside view of Versailles. He told the audience what was going on outside the palace through his songs, and offered a pitiful look at life as a French citizen during Marie Antoinette’s reign.

• I was surprised at Utena’s tiny transformation sequence before she fought Saionji. Although Revolutionary Girl Utena has many, many shoujo elements, I didn’t expect anything like a magical girl sequence. It’s very subtle, but Utena’s uniform does change as the Rose Bride does her chanting. It struck me as different from the few magical girl transformation sequences I’ve seen, though. The way it was animated, it looked as if Anthy is the one making changes to Utena’s uniform – not some mystical, unseen but very sparkly force. I like this aspect of it, as it makes the Rose Bride an integral part to the process as opposed to a passive spectator. Even though she is mostly passive during the fights, Anthy seems to preside over the proceedings. She embodies the rules of the game, and engenders respect because of her position – even though Saionji doesn’t seem to respect her outside of the arena at all.

• Anthy’s social phobia struck me as one very real issue in an otherwise fantastical story. There are many other attempts to ground the story in reality, whether it’s Utena’s hangers-on or Wakaba’s doomed crush on Saionji. But these things fade into the background because there are far more interesting things going on – there’s a floating upside-down castle, for Pete’s sake! But Anthy’s fear of crowds seemed genuine to me, perhaps because it fits with her personality or perhaps because it struck a chord with me personally.

• The dance party itself was a lot of fun, and not just for Utena’s table-hopping! Even though the audience totally knew that Anthy’s new spiffy dress was clearly a setup, it was interesting to watch it happen. I was impressed by Utena’s handy table-cloth dress-making skills, but also her ability to take off her own poofy dress and change into her boy’s uniform in between scenes. Must come in handy, that.

Once again, this part of the episode reminded me of Rose of Versailles – I know, I’ve got to stop with the comparisons! Utena leapt in to save Anthy from embarrassment and stole the show by dancing with her in a shower of flowers and a handy spotlight. In much the same way, Oscar stole the show by dancing all night with Marie Antoinette – thus saving her the embarrassment of dancing the night away with Fersen and spawning gossip. Both Utena and Oscar wear their men’s uniform and assume the male role to dance with their partners. The fluidity of Oscar and Utena’s gender allow them to assume whichever role they wish, or to occupy a middle ground. Both Oscar and Utena use this to their advantage to help their dance partners. Both scenes are also highly stylized: Oscar and Marie get sparkles, while Utena and Anthy get rose petals.

(Incidentally, this is one of my all-time favorite scenes in Rose of Versailles. Oscar shows up willing to dance, which she never has before. Marie Antoinette asks, “will she dance with men or women?” Oscar’s reply? “However you’d like it, Your Majesty.” I love this, just love it.)