Utena Reaction Post

So I finished Revolutionary Girl Utena last night.  And the movie.  And I just.  Can't.  Process.  So here is my short reaction blurb.  But mostly just an excuse for some terrible gifs.

First Story Arc (Episodes 1-13), apparently called Student Council Saga:  Oh, this is fine. Meet all the characters.  Dueling with swords, lots of roses everywhere.  Anthy gets slapped a lot.  Lesbian undertones.  Gender role reversal yay.

Second Story Arc (Episodes 14-24), Black Rose Saga:  Alright, getting a little bit weirder. Mikage is super creepy.  Some weird elevator shit + heavy symbolism.  Everyone has special backstory problems.  And the ending is just what. No.

On Ikuhara, this is normal.  Ikuhara: not even once.

Third Story Arc (Episodes 25-33), supposedly the Akio Ohtori Saga, but I'm going to go ahead and rename it the FUCK THAT CAR saga:  Akio is a GIANT CREEPER and apparently has metaphorical sex with EVERYONE.  Suddenly the level of gayness in this show is increased by 1000%.  Cars everywhere, sexual metaphors everywhere.

Akio's awful car sequence

DAMN YOU AND YOUR GAY SYMBOLISM IKUHARA

Fourth Story Arc (Episodes 34-39), End of World Saga aka ARGHBLRALSDKGALDJ:A:  At least that damn car is gone.  Surprisingly, the ending was (fairly) upbeat, although I suppose we will never know what happened with Utena.

 And then the movie.  The Adolescence of Utena is supposed to clear up some of the more obscure thematic messages in the show, by retelling the show in a way that makes no actual fucking sense.  I'm pretty sure it was just Ikuhara showing us how much he likes cars and lesbians.  And what better than lesbians that turn into cars!

Lesbian boob grab

Lesbian car!

And if that wasn't fucked up enough, Ikuhara's commentary makes it 1000X better (or worse, depending).  On the scene where a brother and sister (who had already shown incestuous tendencies in the show) are naked in a bathtub together, Ikuhara comments:

"This scene is, well... This is a claw foot bathtub. The Manga artist, Chiho Saito actually has a claw foot bathtub. We used that as the model. It looks a lot like Ms. Saito's bath at her home."

IKUHARAAAAAA STOP TROLLING EVERYONE

This show has been called the Evangelion of shoujo.  I'm gonna agree with that.  Then I'm gonna go lay down in a corner in the fetal position.

Yeah I'm just gonna-

Not gonna lie, kind of hoping the new Penguinbear thing we keep hearing about is going to be like the Adolescence of Utena for Mawaru Penguindrum.

~Kathryn