Revolutionary Girl Utena: The Movie
May. 10th, 2014 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroMy verdict: It’s a reimagining / alternate universe, not any sort of linkable continuation. But see below.
I can see where the confusion arises. It’s a Grant Morrison-style reboot, where you need to have seen everything that came before to understand who the characters are and what connections are being assumed, but that also starts from the beginning and changes things all willy-nilly. Seriously, the only reason that any of the funny moments are funny is if you’d watched the original series, the only reason you care about any member of the supporting cast is if you know what their personalities were built up as in what came before.
Anyways, though, this abandoned a lot of the idea of character growth and really any personal interactions beyond “Utena and Anthy are destined to be together.” Touga—despite getting new but ultimately pointless backstory—comes down to just being a ghost from Utena’s past. Shiori is the closest thing the movie has to a proper antagonist, but she gets no real motivations and crashes before the climax. Akio is thrown out a window following a scene that, again, makes NO SENSE if you don’t know the series. Neither Utena nor Anthy is the same person that we saw in the series—Utena is angrier and more serious, Anthy is far more active and obviously directing the action.
But what’s more, the way that Utena’s history and the nature of the Rose Bride and the Rose Prince are presented is incompatible with the backstory presented in the series. The movie seems to imply that Touga was the Prince who inspired Utena, and Akio was Anthy’s Prince only because she temporarily transformed him—his “true” nature was Akio, not Dios, all along. So all that Anthy is doing here is turning Utena into her new Dios, to rescue her from the Ohtori prison. (Which, as a theme, incidentally, is made much, much more explicit.)
The one way that I can see it working as a continuation is if Anthy, after she leaves series-Ohtori to find Utena, uses her powers to draw Utena to her by creating a new Ohtori, so they can “try again” with their relationship. Once there, she has to let Utena rescue her, so she sets up events and personalities to be streamlined into only what “needs” to happen so their Barbie doll bodies can end up intertwined.
Oh, and one totally random thing: In the English dub, every VA in both the series and the movie who says "Himemiya" pronounces it differently. There's probably a master's thesis in dissecting that.
Overall: Even if 39 episodes was too long for everything they wanted to do, 87 minutes is far too short. They had to assume too much while still trying to change too much. Also, by this point, all of the WTF is starting to feel forced.
But I’m up for discussion if anyone wants.
I can see where the confusion arises. It’s a Grant Morrison-style reboot, where you need to have seen everything that came before to understand who the characters are and what connections are being assumed, but that also starts from the beginning and changes things all willy-nilly. Seriously, the only reason that any of the funny moments are funny is if you’d watched the original series, the only reason you care about any member of the supporting cast is if you know what their personalities were built up as in what came before.
Anyways, though, this abandoned a lot of the idea of character growth and really any personal interactions beyond “Utena and Anthy are destined to be together.” Touga—despite getting new but ultimately pointless backstory—comes down to just being a ghost from Utena’s past. Shiori is the closest thing the movie has to a proper antagonist, but she gets no real motivations and crashes before the climax. Akio is thrown out a window following a scene that, again, makes NO SENSE if you don’t know the series. Neither Utena nor Anthy is the same person that we saw in the series—Utena is angrier and more serious, Anthy is far more active and obviously directing the action.
But what’s more, the way that Utena’s history and the nature of the Rose Bride and the Rose Prince are presented is incompatible with the backstory presented in the series. The movie seems to imply that Touga was the Prince who inspired Utena, and Akio was Anthy’s Prince only because she temporarily transformed him—his “true” nature was Akio, not Dios, all along. So all that Anthy is doing here is turning Utena into her new Dios, to rescue her from the Ohtori prison. (Which, as a theme, incidentally, is made much, much more explicit.)
The one way that I can see it working as a continuation is if Anthy, after she leaves series-Ohtori to find Utena, uses her powers to draw Utena to her by creating a new Ohtori, so they can “try again” with their relationship. Once there, she has to let Utena rescue her, so she sets up events and personalities to be streamlined into only what “needs” to happen so their Barbie doll bodies can end up intertwined.
Oh, and one totally random thing: In the English dub, every VA in both the series and the movie who says "Himemiya" pronounces it differently. There's probably a master's thesis in dissecting that.
Overall: Even if 39 episodes was too long for everything they wanted to do, 87 minutes is far too short. They had to assume too much while still trying to change too much. Also, by this point, all of the WTF is starting to feel forced.
But I’m up for discussion if anyone wants.
