utena 1: the bridening

[a_flyleaf]

…It dawns on me one unfortunate thing about liveblogging on Dreamwidth is that I have to like, Manually save/upload/copy images, if I include any (and given that the visuals are so significant, I very well might be). Maybe I will just use video timetamps and links, for the sake of not stopping for like five minutes every time I want to stick a little screenshot in.

Anyway!

• I am immediately hit in the face with the 90s,
• I see those spinning fetal positions/rebirth poses, RGU. Subtle 👀
• height difference real
• don’t have much to say on the rest of the intro except that it is very anime, much symbolism
• “[The princess vowed to become a prince.] But was that really such a good idea?” ← I have no commentary but this whole thing just feels vaguely ominous. It actually doesn’t on its own but knowing everything else I do about the show and its Content and symbolism and whatnot, it does seem ominous.
• So the episodes are numbered as “duels”.…
• “She’s late...” anthy: -shows up running with bread in her mouth-,
• “Boyfriend? She ditched you.” love some gender fuckery first thing in the morning
• also the proportions of these faces/bodies are killing me a little i’m not Anime™ enough for this
• Considering like 75% of my brain is mired in psychoanalysis, that tower sure is. A Tower

• “ok sir here is my plan for the school grounds” “this is a dick” “yes what about it sir”
• “Utena Tenjou” I’ve been getting the names mixed up this whole time, fuck
• lay off sunglasses she’s the Main Character she is legally obligated to look different
• is that a boy’s uniform though?? Or well, it is a boy’s uniform, but not the uniform; everyone else is in green and white.
• when someone says “act natural”:

• hell yeah utena stick it to the gender roles
• petals alll over this basketball scene
• “You can use my towel!” is that a Normal Person Thing people say or am I overthinking it. anyway utena congrats on your day 1 lesbian harem,
• what with all this talk of Utena being like and/or compared to a guy, how wild is The Utena Gendercourse
• I’m curious about how diegetically I’m supposed to take this prince/ss talk, too. Dude sounded completely baffled
• Anthy being introduced the rose garden feels extremely thematically pertinent to the parallel area in Steven Universe but I am not on enough layers of meta to dissect that
• first Notable Dude and within seconds of his first appearance he is a blatant asswipe, amazing!
• red dude (red/green, classic color contrast) introduced in a more heroic light, at least for now… 👀
• hello friend character this was awful timing
• Saionji green and Touga red. considering I had the main characters’ names mixed up for ages I do not expect to remember this
• this music is extremely cheery and I don’t know what to make of it
• “Someone as cool as Saionji would never fall for a girl like that!” dan ur backwards priorities
• “You’ll always be my true love, Utena!” #StraightPeopleSentences
• blue and orange over in the student council sound similar enough I was confused about the speakers for a bit there, but that might be me being faceblind-but-for-voice
• good!! call his ass out!!!
• “The student council exists by the will of End of the World.” okay when I unpause I might get this whole idea blown straight out of the water, but between the ambiguous rooftop(??) setup and now This, I definitely feel like I shouldn’t take the “student council” dynamic at face value. Probably more important that they’re in Positions of Authority, especially since we’ve established Utena routinely makes a fool of at least one teacher.
• “he” Ohhh, End of the World is a person 👀
• is blue okay
• Big :( at “I will do whatever Master Saionji tells me to do”
• Huh, wonder why the little commercial break padders(?? I feel like there’s a Name for those outro/intro segments but it escapes me) are included? It could be a trivial thing but it makes me wonder if that’ll change or otherwise be significant later.
• the Onion Kingdom/forehead jab sdgjhsdgjdhgsdjfs
• But huh, friend gal is treating the princess thing like a fairytale too. Guessing we’re not supposed to take that intro backstory at face value (far as anything in RGU can be taken at face value), and yet Utena sticks with that terminology…
• Oh huge oof at this whole letter billboard thing. Knowing friend (Wakaba?) has a Thing for Saionji also makes me Deeply Concerned for her safety going forward :,D
• at the scene switch: Is that some kind of samurai gear? My cultural ignorance is showing, yes.
• not even gonna comment about the end of the staff i’m just Not. no wonder psychoanalysis has a field day with this show
• the Extremely 90s sound effects at the duel challenge
• Love the barred look of whatever room they’re in here >:Oc
• oooo those gossipping shadows, bet that’ll be recurring
• The.. reverse-water-drop thing? Hello??
• that is some cool fuckin imagery at the entrance, and also Freud is a smug bastard in his grave
• oh my god a song
• Huh, I feel like I’ve seen this spiraling not-really-staircase before? No clue where but the imagery’s cool as hell. The seemingly endless nature of it + the lyrics give me some kind of eternity vibe…
  • also lol this is not a forest in any sense of the word
• God, who designs this scenery?? That is such a cool-ass platform at the top, wonder what it’s inspired by.
• >song has a bunch of lyrics about darkness >“Think of [the floating castle] as a trick of the light.”
• We’re getting a lot of exposition from a dude whose first impression is Do Not Trust, so that’s interesting
• It is sooo not a coincidence that Anthy and this flashback-“prince” seem to be the only dark-skinned characters in the whole cast. No clue what that means but it is Something. (There was also someone in the intro, but I haven’t cross-referenced enough to rule out whether he’s The Prince; tentatively betting he is?)
• I have no commentary on the setup except Neat and also -scrolls back up real quick to get the name- Saionji continues to be an ass
• Ohhhh hm, it’s That Pose but with this dude. That sure feels thematically-relevant!
• another song sdgjhdgsjdf no one told me utena was a musical,
• Anthy brids-eye-view in that dress looking like Basically A Circle also looks symbolically-relevant somehow
• “That trick sword… is it real?!” at the same time as “I am an actor, eternally metaphorical.” Fuckign
• I think the show wants you to know it is deeply symbolic idk it’s just a theory
• I have no idea who’s voicing the flashback bits or the prince’s voice but it sounds very young. kid!Utena?
• -anime running at each other really fast while yelling-
• Get fucked Saionji
• Anthy’s smiling good for her
• “Oh yeah, Baby” k thanks red don’t trust you either

• ^utena.jpg
• “From this day forward, I belong to you” H. Hewwo?
• oh this whole system is Very fucked. they put that line over the romantic piano music
• -headbangs to the outro music-
• excuse me the fuck is that little monkey-mouse at the very end of the preview
• I don’t really have any commentary on the end credit lyrics but It’s Neat

so.

is a. is anthy okay

← first impressions | intermission / episode 2 →