Revolutionary Girl Utena: Episode 38 FULL LENGTH Reaction!
Added 2025-03-23 13:00:07 +0000 UTC*END OF THE WORLD HEADPHONE WARNINGS*
Utena and Anthy are now up against Akio in one final show down! There's some...interesting...revelations and my theories are going to be put to the test this week and most DEFINITELY next week!
Sing it with me: "It's the end of the world as we know it..." but do we feel fine?!
LINK TO REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/TTZuzgN8LWA6y5ZpTYojFp
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Hahaha! Holodecks be damned is so funny! And yeah, Akio saying that about the prince and the romance angle - it’s a lot of gaslighting on his part to hide the fact that he’s mainly a jerk. I was happy that there was FINALLY communication for Anthy and Utena! I’m glad Utena has kept up trying to fight for Anthy! That was great! I will agree with you, though, after all the teasing and build up…for THIS to be what we get so far after so long? I was a little disappointed as well. Okay, YES, with PMMM, I really wanted to see Anthy embrace her witch state sort of like that series does. Especially because of the comparison you point out. And agree about the stakes and intensity, as well. And YES, I still like this series a lot and towards the start and middle there were some INCREDIBLE character moments and really fascinating world-building and discussions there, but it seems to “stall” to me at this point? At least in comparison to PMMM, but if folks haven’t seen PMMM they wouldn’t know, which is why a reactor can sometimes get more biased when they’ve seen things they liked done similar but “more effectively.” It’s all our opinions, though, right? And with Kyubey vs. Akio maybe, too. And honestly, Sailor Moon is a series I ADORE and has some great moments as well. I feel very horse-baited, though, hahaha!! I was promised flying horses and armor and them jousting (against Akio?) so at this point, I was like, “SHOW!” Hahaha, maybe it’s “metaphorical” though? We’ll see – I have WILDLY different takes for the next two weeks, if that helps! And I still have the manga to read, so I’ll be curious to know your thoughts these next few weeks as well! Thank you so much for the comment and kind words!
Romaniablack
2025-03-26 13:37:28 +0000 UTCHAHAHAHA – A Scooby Doo villain - HanaBarbara wishes! XD Yeah, I just didn’t care for the “everything’s an illusion” angle with us now having to imagine what’s “really” happening instead of the metaphor - I guess when the characters were “driving in the car,” they were just running in circles around the projector room? That is HILARIOUS when I think about it, honestly. But I’m not sure that’s supposed to be the intent. If it’s not all an illusion, it’s not…the best explained, in my opinion. I can’t say anything for the movie, yet, but yeah – Anthy and Utena in this just lost a ship for me - I’m glad that they want to “try again” in 10 years, and maybe that’ll give each of them time to reflect, grow, and become the right people to date one another, but here, Akio’s messed up Anthy so much with her psychologically, she needs to do a lot of healing before she’s ready for Utena, to me. So yeah, the perception I was given from the start did mislead me, but I agree with you that when we find out Anthy was misleading Mikage, that was DEFINITELY when I was like, “wait…what are you doing, Anthy?” 😛 I definitely agree that it seems he became an asshole over time. I can totally see the naive/nostalgia he’s chasing - it reminds me a LOT of Miki’s arc. But yeah, relying on someone to restore yourself….it’s definitely a negative theme that I’m glad the show focuses on. I mean, there’s a LOT that anyone can derive from this show, which is a great thing about it. Thanks for the comment! Three weeks to go!
Romaniablack
2025-03-26 13:29:36 +0000 UTCWell, having watched the movie, it does complicate things. I definitely agree that if I’d just watched the series, as I was contextualizing in this intro, I don’t see Anthy and Utena as a couple I would “ship” - I don’t quite view them as mother and daughter, per say, but I can see the old vs. new women (in feminist contexts), so I get that description. But then in the MOVIE…well…then, that context doesn’t really…work at all, hahahaha!! But that’s a discussion for a few weeks from now! 😛 But I do know that the project Ikuhara worked on BEFORE this had a very explicit wlw couple, so I don’t consider the “time” this was created as an excuse for them not being able to have moments of chemistry - it doesn’t have to be a kiss - there was SO MUCH they could do throughout this second half to build on that, and just narratively decided not to. And that’s fine, it’s just my observations. Thanks for the comment!
Romaniablack
2025-03-26 11:49:51 +0000 UTCThat sucks that the studio told him he couldn't do that. :( But yeah...the next two weeks were a roller coaster for me.
Romaniablack
2025-03-26 11:46:44 +0000 UTCI would respectfully disagree with this a little about the "Mainstream" part because Ikuhara had JUST came from Sailor Moon, which prominently features VERY not-heterosexual couples out in the open, and other series like Banana Fish were popular manga that featured likewise...so I can't consider it an "excuse" per say, to me.
Romaniablack
2025-03-26 11:46:09 +0000 UTCIkuhara was forbade from showing them kissing so did it right offscreen in every ED2. Everyone should cool their jets until the show and movie have been watched.
Paulfunyun
2025-03-23 23:13:19 +0000 UTCEpisode 38 and now we see the REAL projector technology of the future! Spaceship Earth has got nothing on Akio's Planetarium! Eat your heart out Walt Disney! And holodecks be damned! Interesting to learn the Japanese meaning of Prince, Ōji-sama, has a romantic connotation - so our Prince cannot save (or romance) his own sister - ok, then can someone PLEASE tell that to Akio - he's done royally fucked up the rules there, and he knows it too! Seeing this episode start with the duel sequence was pretty hype! Shame it was kinda a tease! But hey, it ONLY took 38 episodes for Anthy and Utena to finally communicate with each other, haha! The reason I held out hope for the entire show with the two of them is there's dozens of times the show has teased their possible relationship I felt. Beginning with season 1, Utena wanting Anthy to not be someone's bride against her will, and even though at times we're gaslit to wonder whether it's just Utena's desires for Anthy to be happy manifesting in Anthy, the show constantly shows us how little the rest of the would be "princes" respect Anthy. Some even go so far as to physically abuse her, and that's not to mention the SA in there as well. So, seeing Utena actually want Anthy to be happy and fight to try and give her that at first gets it all going, and then they even move in together and stare into each other's eyes each night at bedtime and have a bond - a bond that is at least a bit healthier than others. And lastly that OP hints it heavily too! But I guess in the end, at least so far as episode 38, the actual relationship steps which occur are all but lacking, which is a little disappointing. Soooo, PMMM comparisons to this aren't going to be too favorable, for me, I think! When you compare the witches in both series - the term here feels like it has no meaning. In PMMM they are scary, deadly, and powerful. Here, the term seems to be used for an enslaved girl, with little to no power, and even if that's not true - that's just how it feels to me. Also, I feel that coming up on the penultimate episode and final episode of PMMM - the stakes, sense of world building, character building and progression were significantly better developed and more intense than in RGU - almost to the point I don't think my daughter even cares what happens in RGU. Not to say I think the same or RGU is bad - there's been truly wonderful episodes, but it just doesn't feel as well thought out as PMMM. There's nothing I could relate to discovering in this series which would compare to learning how wishes work in PMMM and then learning again the darker side to them, and why Kyubey grants them and their role. Skip this paragraph if you don't care to know very basic director info on the two series - but some quick researching shows PMMM's creator Gen Urobuchi, has created a bunch of horror series including Psycho-Pass, while RGU's lead director Kunihiko Ikuhara has, among other things, worked on parts of the TV anime adaptation of Sailor Moon. We shall see whether or not my thoughts on the two shows are premature! And maybe there's still hope for Utena + Anthy in the final hour! But hearing PMMM brought up a couple times spurred them out a bit! Finally, the final duel, but no flying horses yet! What gives! I will take at least 2 points off if they don't show up next week! Haha! I hope we have resolution with Nanami and some resolution with Chu Chu too! I enjoyed your reaction and discussion along with hearing your thoughts progress this week, looking forward to finally seeing how it all goes down next week!
L Freya
2025-03-23 22:36:01 +0000 UTCI agree completely and I hate that it was sold to her this way. I think the show actually takes great pains to explain that Anthy and Utena's feelings for each other aren't sexual. Obviously that has more to do with the censorship of the time than the intentions of the author necessarily, but this was before it was acceptable for the main character of a mainstream anime to be gay.
Lynden
2025-03-23 21:35:00 +0000 UTCIn this episode Akio is revealed to be a Scooby Doo villain using mirrors and projectors to try to scare people off his property. I don't find it very believable either. You can't have a character get into a metaphorical car and hit a metaphorical wall and die, it doesn't make sense. I like that it took Anthy literally stabbing her in the back for you to say "maybe these two aren't good for each other?" I was kind of frustrated watching your reactions when you talked about them loving each other. Until the scene where Anthy tries to jump I don't think the two ever had an honest open conversation with each other. I pretty much stopped shipping them at the end of the Mikage arc when Anthy revealed how duplicitous she is. I think the people shipping this as a romance altered your perception of their relationship. Aiko contradicts himself a lot during this episode, but I get the impression that he used to be a nice princely type person when he was young and just grew up to be an asshole. It's hard to say how nice he ever was, but he definitely got worse over time. The "prince" is like his personal longing for his own youth and maybe what a kind/naive person he once was. He's looking for a princess to try to restore himself to that past purity and greatness, which many people pick up and run with when talking about gender politics in the show.
Lynden
2025-03-23 18:42:06 +0000 UTCFor me utena and anth are more like a daughter and a mother than a couple, symbols of new age women and old age women. We love each other，hate each other, hurt each other, help each other. The daughter wants to help her mother out of the past but lacks the strength to do so, and the mother loves her daughter but feels like a learned helplessness, repeatedly stuck in a quagmire.
washo
2025-03-23 14:09:04 +0000 UTCactually, I'm more surprised that people recently advertise this anime as a romance, and that so many people have bought into the hype and watched it and found it underwhelming or even disappointing. Because of this preconception it's also hard for me to suggest in my comments that they're not a potential couple. Maybe it's because the audience for yuri anime has grown in the last decade, but at least when I watched this anime around 2010 there was no consensus that it was a yuri anime, and of course it could be due to regional cultural differences.
washo
2025-03-23 13:58:15 +0000 UTC
