Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Shoujo Kakumei Utena:  A

Revolutionary Girl Utena is something of a famous anime, if you grew up on anime from the late 90s and early 2000s, because you couldn't get it all legally, the license was bought and then sat on, so the only way to watch the series was on bootlegs, which circulated around my high school during my junior and senior years, so I've got a long history with this show.

I was not expecting to give it an A this watch-through.  I was thinking "eh, I think it'll only make B+ this time," and "I bet it won't hold up against its younger brother Star Driver."  But, to my modest frustration, it does, and I end my watching going "Well dammit, I guess I'm giving it an A."

Utena is a lot of things, as a show, but the number one thing that it is is open to interpretation.  More than almost any other show I've ever seen, everyone who sees Utena walks away with a different idea of what happened and what meant what.  I only watch the series every five years or so, and I've come up with different interpretations each time.  And each time, those interpretations have involved me so much that I can't put the series down, especially toward the end.

Utena may also be the single most twisted show toward its characters I am aware of; there are shows that are dirtier, bleaker, more depressing, have a higher body count and a greater degree of active sadism, but I can think of no other anime series that is so personally and deliberately hurtful to its characters.  It's one of the things I love.

My criticisms of Utena mostly come in the early series, and a few stick throughout.  Utena is fairly heavy on clip shows and filler, and while these are both done in ways which are entertaining, in a series that is so heavily built on mystery and symbolism, you get episodes where you just go 'gaaah, give me some goddamn plot!'  Secondly, Utena feels like it leaves too much to the imagination, I've often said in describing the series that the series is definitely 30% symbolism and 30% absurdity, but I have no idea where the other 40% falls on that scale.  There is no way to create a theory to correlate with everything that occurs, and the series does not bother explaining itself.  Finally, and this is a minor thing, Utena doesn't reverse telegraph its secrets.  Watching the series when you know what's going on doesn't cause you to go 'Hey, there's the abusive relationship that I know about that but haven't seen much of.'  Utena doesn't tip its hand, so you only learn secrets as they are revealed.  It's a minor thing, but I like the other way.

All that said, Utena is a fantastic story about friendship, lust, growing up, idealism, wishes, truth, hatred, dependence and defiance of self, of society and of rejection.  Don't let its stylized art and shoujo nature fool you, this is a story that has plenty to offer the grown-up audience... if you have the patience to unravel it.