Them After Finishing The Second Arc: So Theres A Ghost (Mikage), A Genie (Anthy), And A Vampire (Akio)?

Them after finishing the second arc: So there’s a ghost (Mikage), a genie (Anthy), and a vampire (Akio)?

Me: I mean…you’re not entirely wrong?

Making @oneanxiousace watch Utena for the first time.

Them after just finishing the first arc: Is Anthy a genie?

Me: No.

Them: Then why doesn’t she leave? Can she not leave?

Me: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A pessimist sees a dark tunnel.

An optimist sees a light at the end of the tunnel.

A realist sees a freight train.

The train driver sees three fucking idiots standing on the train tracks.

-@badjokesbyjeff

I feel that, for me, the most confusing scene in Revolutionary Girl Utena (which is really saying something) is the scene where Touga burns Saionji and Anthy’s exchange diary. For the life of me, I do not understand why he does this.

To start, as a side note, it’s interesting that in the sub version of episode 10 Touga says he’ll “take care of it” while in the dub version he says “I’ll keep it safe for you” which may be a mistranslation and take care of it meant to get rid of it, but I don’t speak Japanese so I’m not going to get into that.

So assuming that Saionji meant to keep it safe for him, why does Touga do this?

How I see it, there are three possible people Touga could be doing this for: Utena, Anthy, and Saionji. Utena is Touga’s “perfect girl” who he wants to control and manipulate. But she also cares deeply for Anthy. Is it possible Touga does this to “free” Anthy from Saionji in order to gain favor with Utena? Frankly, I don’t think so. For one, Utena doesn’t see him do this and the whole point is that Touga wants Utena to focus on him so he can control her and Anthy. So this doesn’t make much sense. Plus, at this point in the series is just after Touga saves Utena from Saionji. She sees him (more or less) as a chivalrous prince, or at least this is the point where he is seen as most princely in her eyes. After episode 12 that goes downhill fairly quickly.

Second, Anthy. The exchange diary does belong to Anthy and Saionji, and he wants to control the Rose Bride as much as the rest of the student council. Could this be meant to gain favor with her so she’ll be more likely to support him? Again, doubtful. Touga doesn’t see Anthy as a person. He sees her as an object to be owned, not to mention that considering how he treats her, saying that “birds should stay in their cages” she knows what he’s really like. He has made no effort to hide who he really is from her. Later on it could be argued he does this to gain favor with Akio, Anthy’s brother, but considering Akio hasn’t even been introduced at this point that doesn’t line up either.

So that leaves Saionji. To me, everything Saionji does clearly reads as Saionji being in love with Touga but being unable to compare to him. In a weird way, he’s a mirror of Shiori, but that’s a post for another day. Saionji is also the one who most clearly knows exactly what kind of person Touga is. He is under no misunderstanding that Touga is a prince or any bing, he knows how manipulative and cruel Touga can be. They’ve known each other for a long time. The exchange diary is clearly important to Saionji, not because he actually cares for Anthy, but because it’s proof that for a time he had the Rose Bride. He had something Touga didn’t. Did Touga want to destroy the evidence of the one thing that Saionji had that he didn’t (considering this is before Touga beats Utena)? That doesn’t really line up either. Touga is manipulative. He holds onto cards until he can use them.

That leaves the following question. When Touga is being logical and manipulative, he is very careful with every variable to make sure things turn out the way he wants. So was burning the exchange diary a logical choice, or was it an emotional choice?

This leaves my person dilemma. For the life of me, I do not see how this could have been a logical choice to manipulate someone. But if it was an emotional choice, why? Specifically towards the end, it seems like Touga may have feelings for Saionji when he’s being more honest with the people around him, and after Utena beats him he doesn’t seem to be trying to manipulate Saionji.

So is it possible he was jealous of Anthy’s relationship with Saionji? That is the best conclusion I can come up with but that still doesn’t sit right. Given where it comes in the timeline, Touga is still being an incredibly manipulative bastard. He isn’t leading with emotion until much later on.

Idk. Maybe I’m overthinking this. Sorry for the incredibly rambling post but I’m curious if anyone else has thoughts on this moment in the series.

Being aromantic can involve love

Being aromantic can be loveless

Being aromantic can question love

Being aromantic can give less of a fuck about love

Being aromantic can be heavily in love

Being aromantic can want love but physically hate it

Being aromantic can be angry at love

Being aromantic can be stressful because of love

Being aromantic can be indifferent to love

Being aromantic can be above love

Being aromantic can be not understanding love

Being aromantic is a spectrum

There should be a word for the feeling of comfort from hearing a language from when you were a child but that you don’t understand any of.

This morning while talking with @oneanxiousace I forgot the word “husband” and said “male wife” so now there are no husbands or spouses only wives, nb wives, and male wives.