If “Revolutionary Girl Utena” were a novel of the Hyakkiyagyō series…
Akio stands at the exit of the tunnel through which Utena and Anthy try to run away from the castle in the movie "The Adolescence of Utena".
I just want to do a quick post on a fanciful thought I suddenly had.
If Revolutionary Girl Utena were a novel of the Hyakkiyagyō series, I think the whole concept of “the prince” would probably be considered a youkai that is like a tsukimono (ie. a “spiritual thing that attaches itself to an individual”), which only someone like Chūzenji Akihiko can “let fall” [落とし] or exorcise.
Utena has always struck me as a story in which only one half is told (though I do not necessarily mean this in a negative way):
- It tells of adolescent development below the neck (ie. the emotional and the physical/sexual), but not so much above the neck (ie. the intellect). You see the teenage characters agonizing a lot over what goes on the below the neck, but you never see them reading a book and get hit over the head by a whole new world of ideas.
- Likewise, only the “female” side of the story is told – or at least feminist sentiments are echoed, although even then I am not sure I have enough information to draw any decisive conclusion, except that the scene in the movie where Utena and Anthy run away from the castle reminds me of a quote about atheists I once read. An atheist (I am just paraphrasing) is someone who walks away from church, but he walks away from church with his eyes fixed on the church and with his back facing towards where he is going. In other words, he cannot see where he is going. Atheism can only define itself against Christianity, whereas Christianity does not have to define itself against anything. I suppose feminism (at least as it appears in Utena) is also like that – you can walk away from “the prince,” but you walk away with your eyes fixed on the prince and with your back towards where you are going. If anything, I think it is the “male” side of the Utena story that is begging to be told – it is the male characters who are the active initiators in the story, whereas the female characters tend to be passively playing along or “acted upon.” As it is, I feel that I know about the key male characters (Akio, Touga etc) a lot less than I know about the key female characters.
In any case, the recent manga release of Ikuhara Kunihiko’s latest project Nokemono to Hanayome makes me think of Utena, which I saw as a teenager nearly ten years ago. Both stories seem to have a tinge of gerontophobia. Naturally, my perception of the Utena story has changed with time and in me having become a full-fledged adult. Among other things, I read the Kyōgoku Natsuhiko’s Hyakkiyagyō series last summer (which shook me up a great deal), and Utena now seems to me like the typical first half of a Hyakkiyagyō novel. In Utena, you can see that a number of people in the story seem to be “possessed” by a demonic concept/youkai. You can see there are a lot of mythological motifs floating around and skeletons hidden in various closets. You can see that the characters seem to have created a bizarre situation in which their individual actions seem completely incomprehensible. Well – the second half is typically where Chūzenji comes along to connect various loose threads and solve all those puzzles.
How would Chūzenji unmask all the little games with the Rose Bride, the End of the World, the Power to Revolutionize the World and “to believe in Miracles” etc etc that Akio gets up to and Touga assists on? Of course I am aware Utena is a metaphorical story not to be read literally, but I can only wonder at the “showdown” scene between those three…
Like I said earlier, one of the situations in which youkai is perceived to have been created is when:
One or more individuals view a set of facts in some twisted or forbidden way, through which the participants encounter some brief, fleeting, and taboo condition whereby they experience something like happiness, which had been lost to them.
If they could carry on with those little games at Ohtori Academy forever, who is to say that there is not a kind of happiness in that?
Again, this is just a fanciful thought not to taken seriously, but I am open to hear any thoughts (fanciful or otherwise) that you may have after reading this. The comment section is all yours.
Thanks for the post. Really help me get a bearing to look at Melody of Oblivion again, actually.
I will read and comment once I finish watching Utena. I’m afraid of spoilers!
Whoa, you two react so fast to this post.
Omo:
Maybe I should check out Melody of Oblivion too. (I have never seen it.)
Would you like to share with us how the post gives you a bearing to look at Melody of Oblivion again?
animekritik:
If it is any help – I don’t think I put in any damaging spoiler in the post itself (or I would have given a spoiler warning). It was mostly just general opinion than plot-specific.
Just out of curiosity, there are three questions I want to ask:
1) What do you think about the character Touga?
2) What do you think about the belief in miracles?
3) What do you think is the power to revolutionize the world?
Doesn’t have to be restricted in the context of the story – can be your own ideas.
Wabisabi: Feeds are great.
Anyways, Melody of Oblivion is a story about a young man and the strange enemies and trials he encounters on his travels. It just occurred to me that every “non-human” enemy in the show could be described as possessed by a youkai, or something like that. It was not clear this was the case by simply watching the show.
Another relevant point is that the story of Melody of Oblivion is told from the perspective of a boy.
One more thing I should add is that Melody of Oblivion is similar to Utena in its visual style, and in some of the themes. The problem is it is not a shoujo-style story and it doesn’t play the satire card with nearly as much humor behind it. People who might have gotten the recommendation to watch it might find it repulsive, lol, if they were expecting a shoujo-style narrative.
Etienne:
What complicated questions you ask!
Give me some time to think about that and I will post under this thread.
omo:
I see, I see. That sounds interesting.
The more I think about “Utena”, the more I am convinced that the idea of “the prince” would probably by identified as a kind of youkai by Chūzenji. The whole idea might have started off as a blessing, but it became a kind of demonic possession that is akin to a curse.
In Utena everyone inside the Academy has repulsed some feelings and traumas and by doing so, they have stuck to the past, have clung onto fallacies. In the end this fallacy controls their life and actions like a ghost. Isn’t a youkai or an ayakashi something similar? Perhaps the difference with such spirits is that in Utena you don’t see an ‘infection’, a physical symptom that changes quite a lot the appearance of the characters like in Mononoke (this is my reference since I haven’t watched or read Hyakkiyagyo). I’m not sure with which term could these ‘ghosts’ that haunt people in Ohtori be identified…youkai, ayakashi or even mushi perhaps?
In my opinion these people may feel a kind of happiness but not Happiness. By this I mean that if you don’t confront your traumas and search the real reason behind your sorrow, you’ll attain only a fleeting satisfaction. It’s like a night-stand. You’ll receive a certain level of satisfaction that night, but you won’t be able to fill the void inside you. If you don’t try to see what’s going wrong with you, you’ll keep trying to feel the void with a series of night stands, but this won’t ever get you to feel really happy. Happiness, a healthy one, comes with a stable relationship where you let the other part be him/herself, taking and not only giving. People have the need to feel deeply connected with other human beings and thus fulfil their need for safety and affection.
About Utena talking only at a below-the-neck level: that was a good point, I hadn’t noticed. Ok perhaps you don’t see anyone expressing intellectualism, but isn’t there a little in the idealism of Utena or Miki’s? Or maybe the absence of obvious intellectual development has to do with the fact that the heroes are in their coffins, they are adolescents that go through a difficult period of their life and they have the one foot in the grave of the past and the other to the future.
P.S.:For anyone who’s interested in delving deeper in SKU, Empty Movement is a wonderful site with a brilliant forum, the Rose Garden.
Interesting idea
I have read the Utena Manga series about three years ago and watched the movie last year. The latter I found almost perfect for about 2/3 of the movie, but then, I was only puzzled. (I just don’t see what that pink car-metaphor is supposed to be for.) Especially the ending was… just strange.
Through the manga wasn’t so much more less confusing.
But I agree, the female perpestive is pretty clear, while the male side is pretty, say, “misty”? I never got, of instance just what exactly the prince was supposed to be. He symbolizes the might to change the world I got from the manga, but appeareantly he is supposed to be a character, once, too, who then somehow vanished? Even if his only role was to be the “power” why does it have to be a male character?
… I suppose Utena is just one of those series, one can brood over forever and not get a proper answer…
ayame:
In the Hyakkiyagyō series, a youkai typically begins as a psychological original sin, from which follows a set of circumstances that came about through a combination of accident and intention, as a result of which a shared demonic fantasy is held by all who come into contact with that set of circumstances, until Chuzenji comes along to awake them.
If “Utena” were a novel of that series (which is what the post is about), the psychological original sin probably stems from Akio (though we never know for sure), and the set of circumstances would be that he happens to be surrounded by teenagers who happen to have a lot of issues with repressed past/desire, and out of those circumstances a shared demonic fantasy (the whole package with The End of the World etc etc) is born.
Shina Luna:
I agree. That is why I am under the impression that only one half of the story is told.
Wabisabi:
Oh ok, now I got it
If I may answer to Shina Luna:
When you ride a car, what you do is drive. “Drive” is a word used for our inner desires and mostly for sex. So you can understand that that is an innuendo. Also Utena is meant here to get a passive role, since she can’t move as a human being. She becomes the vehicle of freedom of Anthy. Ikuhara-sensei mentions that at that point there’s an inversion of the concept of Sleeping Beauty (the one sleeping is the ‘prince’ hence Utena).
Take a look at the Rose Garden forum. It will solve you different viewpoints.
Etienne:
I have not forgotten about your three questions.
> 1) What do you think about the character Touga?
He has a lot of free time.
> 2) What do you think about the belief in miracles?
Define “miracles”.
> 3) What do you think is the power to revolutionize the world?
I wonder if it may be the intellect/knowledge. After all, like I said in the post, individual development above the head seems to be just the thing that is missing in the story. Even if you do see someone like Mikage doing some sort of research in the story (even though we do not even know what exactly he researches on), it seems to be some sort of Glass Bead Game that has little space to exist outside academia – and let me stress the “game” part.
I am referring to the sort of intellect that analyzes and tackles issues in the real world, the sort of intellect that generates and shapes ideas. Emotions and instincts in themselves achieve every little in the way of revolution. It is the intellect/ideas that revolutionize the world.
If you have that sort of intellect, you will probably find that you no longer have time for rose bride duels.
From my limited exposure to the Hyakkiyagyō series, I would have to say that Utena would fit quite well with what I’ve read. The youkai, would be different for every person though–as shown in the Black Rose Arc. It was during that arc that the similarity really starts to show in my opinion; seeing as Mikage uses people’s dark thoughts to turn them into something dark themselves. It is also only after this arc that the darkness inherent in Utena starts to come to the fore.
As for Etienne’s questions:
1) What do you think about the character, Touga?
Personally, I dislike him. However, since the main character also dislikes him, this is perhaps the logical conclusion.
2) What do you think about the belief in miracles?
The belief seems to give the Duelists hope, and yet it is in my opinion a naive sort of hope that they have been given. This is not to say that miracles are impossible, but the Duelists seem to see miracles as the only way that they can change the world–which to me is quite naive.
3) What do you think is the power to revolutionize the world?
I believe that it is quite simple: the realization that one already has the power to revolutionize the world that they live in. Utena had that power from the beginning, and she believed in that power until the very end, even if she did not realize it. Akio did not, and thus he never “gained” that power.
“y run away from the castle reminds me of a quote about atheists I once read. An atheist (I am just paraphrasing) is someone who walks away from church, but he walks away from church with his eyes fixed on the church and with his back facing towards where he is going. In other words, he cannot see where he is going. Atheism can only define itself against Christianity, whereas Christianity does not have to define itself against anything.”
Of course, that argument is a fallacy: atheism defines herself as not believing in a god or gods (it is, indeed, irrelevant wether or not christianity exists, for atheism has nothing to do with it), whereas the Christianity defines itself against every other religion.
In other words: Christianity is walking backwards, head spinning around trying to face every other religion.